The development of the town during the second half of the seventeenth century was closely related to the making and use of bricks.
There are several practical reasons why bricks became important to the colony.
Although the forests could initially supply sufficient timber, the process of lumbering was very difficult, because of the lack of roads. Later, when the timber on the peninsula had been depleted, wood had to be brought from some distance. Building stone was also in short supply.
However, as clay was plentiful, it was inevitable that the colonists would turn to brick making. In addition to this practical reason for using brick as the principal construction material, there was also an ideological reason.
Brick represented durability and permanence. A private company in London instructed the colonists to build hospitals and new residences out of brick. In 1662, a town act provided for the construction of thirty-two brick buildings and prohibited the use of wood as a construction material. Had this law ever been successfully enforced, the town would have been a model city. Instead, the residents failed to comply fully with the law and by 1699 the town had collapsed into a big pile of rubble with only three or four habitable houses.
It can be inferred from the passage that the town was established on _______________.
a remote plain
a wooded peninsula with clay soil
a barren peninsula near other towns
a rocky peninsula with little forestation