Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/573

BURIAL PLACES. 465 of George Washington. The tomb of Grant on the Hudson, far away from the scenes of his birth, the great events and acts of his life, and the place of his death, will be visited for ages as the spot to learn heroism and awaken a truer patriot- ism. The whole of the great hero's life seems to stand over his grave, as an unchiselled monument of heroic stature, to remind us of his life-work for his country. The country's loving gratitude and the world's reverence will increase with the years, as that mausoleum shall be visited. Mt. Auburn, at Cambridge, will stand as the memorial of the great poet Longfellow, the statesmanship of Sumner, and the scientific research of Agassiz, while Sleepy Hollow, at Concord, will forever be the Mecca of the worshippers of Hawthorne Tho- reau, Alcott, and Emerson. A worthy remembrance and love will lead to a loving and reverential care, and the soul must be dead to human sentiment and loyalty to family, ancestry, or race, which is not interested in perpetuating the memories of those, of whose lives we are the warp and woof. It was a custom quite common in early New England, and not yet entirely gone, for families to set apart a small lot on their own farms, as family burial places. Several of these existed in Barrington, among them being those of the Pecks, the Chaffees, the Allins, the Bicknells, the Browns, the Smiths, the Watsons, and others. The intermarriage of families, led others of different names, but with common in- terests, to unite in a common burial ground, and this courtesy of burial was extended to neighbors and others in family lots. Mr. Matthew Allin of Barrington, in a letter to Mr. Thomas Medbury of Rehoboth, writes : "As for your request to be buried in my land, I grant you with all freedom, so no more at present, but I remain your friend until death." As the first permanent settlers of Barrington made their homes on New Meadow Neck, in the neighborhood of the Baptist Church, it would be most natural to select a public burial place in the neighborhood. This was done, and the burial ground on the sunny knoll at the head of Hundred 30