THE AUTONOMY OF A PRECINCT. 1 83 



had to be borne.* It was hard to go four or five miles to 

 church, for not every one could afford a horse to ride. 

 There is a sweet legend of brotherly kindness and poverty 

 that comes down to us from those early days. 



One man who owned a horse shared with his poorer 

 neighbor by the old-fashioned method of " riding and 

 tieing." 



The first man, and his wife or daughter upon the pillion 

 behind him, rode along the crooked old way towards 

 Hingham about half the distance; then dismounting, 

 they tied their steed to a tree at the roadside and walked 

 on towards the meeting-house. Meanwhile the second 

 couple, wearied by their long walk, reached the horse and, 

 mounting him, rested upon his back while the animal 

 finished the journey to the church. 



Thus the four came together for their weekly refresh- 

 ment to the house of God. 



In those days a meeting-house was more than a place of 

 worship ; it was a house of meeting for isolated and lonely 

 farmers, where all the comforts of meeting, soul to soul, 

 might be enjoyed. 



Talking about fellow citizens, about crops, about cattle, 

 about all the immediate concerns of theLr toilsome days, 

 was refreshing to men and women of all grades. 



In those days, when no newspapers retailed the world's 

 affairs to the remotest denizens of its woods, when every 

 incident of human life had to have a personal purveyor to 

 make it known, then a meeting-house where men and 



*The following are some of the men who were assessed to build the Hingham 

 meeting-house, 1681, and who became Cohasset settlers : — 



ASSESSMENT. 

 £ S. d. 



Israel Nichols 2 15 



Daniel Lincoln 2 15 



Joseph Bates i 



Mordecai Lincoln i 4 



John Farrar 2 14 7 



Ibrook Tower I 10 



John Jacob 12 17 11 



