218 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



abutters and requiring them to pay for it. It is an inter- 

 esting fact that the principal business portion of the town 

 of Amherst, as \v(>ll as most of the colleo-c buildinsfs, are 

 situated upon land which was originally included within the 

 limits of one of these broad highways. The encroachments 

 of settlers upon this public domain were constant and 

 persistent, creating great bitterness of feeling between 

 individuals, and involving in some cases deep lines of 

 estrangement through entire communities. The Morton- 

 Dickinson controversy, to which I have already referred, 

 was a striking illustration of this early warfare . 



Definition of a Higitway. 

 Every way used by the public and upon which all the 

 public have a right to travel is a highway. This includes 

 carriage roads, bridges, equestrian paths, foot ways, and in 

 its broadest sense comprehends even ferries and navigable 

 rivers. A public square is a highway ; so is a road closed 

 at one end by private land or buildings. A city street and 

 a country road are alike highways. The foot path, which 

 we find on the country road alongside of, and close to, the 

 beaten carriage way, is a highway. The sidewalk of a 

 street, whether it be in the country or the city, is as much 

 a part of the highway as the part travelled by teams. State 

 roads do not differ in their legal character from local roads. 

 The difference is only as to the source from which the 

 money comes to build and maintain them, and to pay the 

 damages for injuries sustained by travellers owing to defects 

 in the highway. 



How Highways are created. 

 Highwa3's may be created b}^ prescription ; that is, by a 

 use for travel on the part of the public for so long a time 

 that the law assumes that there was an ancient grant or 

 deed, or by a formal act of laying out on the part of the 

 county commissioners or selectmen or of the State Highway 

 Commission. They may be relocated and their boundaries 

 may be fixed anew by the same authorities ; and this rule 



