Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/269

 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN HOPKINTON.

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��Our inhabitants begin to be aware, that one hundred years since, a smatter- ing of Greek and Latin was a passport to honor and wealth, the learned pro- fession then being scantily filled, which has led many parents and more young persons, at a time, when our professor- ships were over-flowing, to identify a collegiate education with ease, honor and wealth, and agricultural pursuits, with a life of meanness, of toil, and of no profit. Hence the rush of young men to colleges, academies, the yard stick, speculations, and even idleness, to avoid the low groveling pursuit of farming, as if agriculture did not require learning, and will not produce wealth and happiness preeminently over every other profession. The recent import- ation of bread stuff from Europe has, with its disgrace and pecuniary loss, produced one good effect. It has ex- cited the attention of legislatures and scientific men to the "Art of all Arts :" It has convinced many that with a mod- erate share of industry, and the present enormous prices of the products of our northern region, they can become

��independent and happy, far, very far, beyond the care-worn speculator, the blasted hopes of those who depend on their diplomas, or even him who is a slave to his millions.

The character of our inhabitants is, in some respects, dissimilar to that of many other country towns, uniting the warm sensibilities of the heart, with the more profound researches of the under- standing ; enterprising, perhaps in the extreme ; depending, however, more on individual effort, than on combined exertion ; hospitable yet economical ; aspiring, yet restrained within the bounds of propriety ; independent in principle, even to a fault, if fault it can be ; patriotic, only in accordance with their own perceptions of right ■ equally regardless of all dictums, unless clearly announced to their comprehension ; patient and persevering, when cheered on by hope, yet possibly restless, when that " anchor to the soul " is " deferred." Lancaster, "with all thy faults, I love thee still."

August 4th, 1839.

��MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN HOPKINTON— No. 3.

��BY C. C. LORD.

��FUNEREAL.

��Few customs in this town have changed more since the original settle- ment than those relating to the dispos- al of the dead. As soon as civilized society was established here, a spot was selected for a burial place. The first graveyard was on the top of Put- ney's Hill, being the lot now celebrated both on account of its antiquity and. the elevated prospect afforded in the vicinity. This lot appears to have

��been at first selected by common con- sent, but, on the incorporation of the town, the subject of its legal ownership came up for public consideration. In 1 766, the year after the incorporation, the subject of the ownership of the burial lot was set at rest by the follow- ing declaration inscribed in the record of the legal proceedings of the annual town meeting of that year : "The half acre of Land, which is voted to be pro- cured for a Burying Plac on the top

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