Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/539

THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE. 435 gation. The old house, which had served the people for nearly seventy years, was a plain, wooden building, about forty by sixty feet on the ground, two stories high, with a barn roof without steeple or chimney. It stood on the same lot as the present house, but farther to the west. It faced the west, as does the present house, and was entered through a small porch, one story high. The house had four windows on each of the north and south sides. The picture on an- other page represents the old meeting-house, as described by Deacon Allin Bicknell, who attended the church services of the old meeting-house while Rev. Solomon Townsend was the minister, and who was twenty years old when the house was torn down. Most of the frame and boarding of the old house were used in the construction of the present house, and as the second house was built out of material from the first, it is certain that some portion of the present meeting- house were used before 1717. The artist has introduced the drummer with his drum, calling the people to church, and in the foreground stands a pair of stocks, for the punishment of Sabbath day as well as week day offenders. There was a central aisle in the house with a row of six pews on each side, and two side aisles with a row of square pews along the north and south walls and on the east end, excepting the space occupied by the pulpit. The pulpit desk was reached by passing through a door and ascending six stairs to the minister's seat and platform, over which hung the sounding board, suspended from the ceiling by a chain. There were two rows of seats in the gallery, and a long pew in front of the pulpit, called the " Goat's Pew," where the tything man could place naughty boys under the eye of the minister. The only supply of heat in cold weather was the foot stove, one or more in each pew, brought from home in the carriage or sleigh, and supplied with fuel and coal for the hour's service. The meeting began at eleven a. m., and closed at twelve