long, steep hill,--so long and so steep in some cases, especially in one
Connecticut parish, that church attendants could not ride down on horseback
from the pinnacled meeting-house, but were forced to scramble down, leading
their horses, and mount from a horse-block at the foot of the hill. The
second Roxbury church was set on a high hill, and the story is fairly
pathetic of the aged and feeble John Eliot, the glory of New England
Puritanism, that once, as he toiled patiently up the long ascent to his
dearly loved meeting, he said to the person on whose supporting arm he
leaned (in the Puritan fashion of teaching a lesson from any event and
surrounding): "This is very like the way to heaven; 'tis uphill. The Lord
by His grace fetch us up."

The location on a hilltop was chosen and favored for various reasons. The
meeting-house was at first a watch-house, from which to keep vigilant
lookout for any possible approach of hostile or sneaking Indians; it was
also a landmark, whose high bell-turret, or steeple, though pointing to
heaven, was likewise a guide on earth, for, thus stationed on a high
elevation, it could be seen for miles around by travellers journeying
through the woods, or in the narrow, tree-obscured bridle-paths which were
then almost the only roads. In seaside towns it could be a mark for for
sailors at sea; such was the Truro meeting-house. Then, too, our Puritan
ancestors dearly loved a "sightly location," and were willing to climb
uphill cheerfully, even through bleak New England winters, for the sake of
having a meeting-house which showed off well, and was a proper source of
envy to the neighboring villages and the country around. The studiously
remote and painfully inaccessible locations chosen for the site of many
fine, roomy churches must astonish any observing traveller on the byroads
of New England. Too often, alas! these churches are deserted, falling down,
unopened from year to year, destitute alike of minister and congregation.
Sometimes, too, on high hilltops, or on lonesome roads leading through a