".•;.A^ HIGHWAY SHALL BE THERE, AND A JVAV." 2I3 



was traveled by men and by cattle long before carts could 

 travel it. 



Nevertheless, Fisher's plan had reserved a broad strip 

 bordering the ocean for a future highway. But that strip 

 had grass on it in many places good for pasture, and some 

 of it got enclosed by private fencing. 



Accordingly, a committee was appointed in 171 7- 18 

 " to view the way that leads from Straits Pond, which runs 

 by Israel Nichols to the Beach Islands, and see that there 

 be no encroachment upon it, and report what quantity 

 there is in said highway, and what the worth of it may be 

 to sell and what it may be worth a year to let." 



It is enough to make one catch his breath to think how 

 narrowly that highway escaped being sold, in which case 

 the famous Jerusalem Road would never have existed 

 with its beauty and profit to the town. The committee 

 reported the quantity of it to be about thirty acres, worth 

 one hundred and fifty pounds ; but if rented, worth about 

 six pounds a year. The town voted to let it out for a 

 pasture for five years. Seven years after this, in 1725, 

 a committee was appointed "to lay out a way near Jaza- 

 niah Nichols for the town's use." This Jazaniah Nichols 

 lived near the marsh corner (Walnut Angle), the point 

 where Atlantic Avenue now connects with Jerusalem 

 Road. The committee in laying out the road three rods 

 wide had to occupy a part of Peck's Meadow, and paid for 

 it at the rate of thirty pounds per acre. Not more than 

 a dozen families lived at that time the full length of 

 Jerusalem Road, and their cartway towards Hingham 

 or towards Cohasset was a wretched one at best. 



The changes which have been necessary from the first 

 until the present smooth highway would be tedious to 

 relate. At the Steep Rocks near Little Harbor there 

 always was a difficulty, for private land had to be crossed 

 from Bow Street over to the Ridges. At the year 1737 

 the difficulty was seriously undertaken ; but it is now 



