ORANGE CONG. CHURCH
parallel to this occurs in the history of Waterbury ; for we read that in 1694 the town by vote "agreed to use or improve the money that now is or hereafter shall be due for wild horses that are sold in the town, for the helping build the meeting house." In the earliest times, as we have seen, the people were summoned to public worship by the beat of a drum. When the luxuries of peace began to multiply, the drum was superseded by a bell. In New Haven this change took place as early as 1682. The earliest accounts also represent the men going to meeting "armed to the teeth," and of course going on foot ; but as the fear vanished of attacks from a savage enemy, this practice passed away, and the incongruous spectacle of a house of worship adorned with instruments of death disappeared. Then came the period of more widely extended settlements, when the population was scattered and the parish was broad, and many of the people could no longer go to meeting on foot. It is hard for us to realize the fact, but it is matter of history nevertheless, that there were no wheeled vehicles in New England until the middle of the eighteenth century, and very few until after the Revolutionary war, "The bridegroom," says Hollister, in his "History of Connecticut," "who went to a neighboring town to be united with a help meet for him, whether he was a gentleman or yeoman rode on horseback, and carried her home on a pillion behind him." And this was the style universally in which the forefathers went to meeting. After 1760 an occasional carriage or chaise began to appear on the roads of New England ; but even into the nineteenth century the fashion of riding to meeting on a pillion continued in force. In the olden days everybody believed in going to meeting. But in the judgment of the lawmakers this did not render it unnecessary to legislate on the matter, and a penalty of three pounds was fixed for every instance of voluntary neglect of public worship on the Lord's day and on days of fasting and thanksgiving appointed by the civil authority. This fine seems to have been subsequently reduced to ten shillings, and was repeal-