^• . -^ ^^^ - "^ ■^-0^ r .<&'' ^^ o f" a ^O \^ jV\ r-. %^^ H ^J ,.M mi'' =3,« ^ THE iciiire 0f Uit^init. BY AI.ONZO LEWIS. " The rocks, which rose perpendicularly, and to a considerable height, were not content to form a solid wall, to resist the en- croachments of the tide, and the lashing- of the waves, but ap- peared to have stepped out of their places, and to have advanced upon the beach, and into the very ,vatcrs, in all imaginable fornix and sizes." — Moredux. LYNN: THOS. HERBERT AND COMPANY. 1855. r.r. "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year ISr^G, by ALONZO LEWIS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Mass P E I X T E D BY P. L. & H. S. cox, Repoktkr Office, No, 13 Exchauge Street, Ljnn. PICTURE OF NAHANT. In no part of the world can so pleasant and so delightful a watering place be found as Na- hant. Its bold projection, almost three miles into the ocean, leaving it nearly surrounded by water — the healthy and invigorating atmosphere with which it is constantly visited — its conve- nient isolation from the noise and heat and bus- tle of the adjacent cities — the numerous beaches and coves around its shores, interspersed and varied by craggy and precipitous cliffs, compris- ing the greatest diversity of primitive and igne- ous formation any where to be found within so small a compass, affording a most interesting study for the geologist — its wild and singular caverns and grottoes, into which the tide dashes and regurgitates — and the illimitable prospect of ocean, forest, mountain, city and rural scen- ery, render it an object of interest to all, and 4 PICTURE or NAHAXT. especially to the curious, the scientific and the romantic. Nahant is a peninsula on the south side of Lynn, projecting into the ocean, between the cities of Salem and Boston. It consists of two islands, connected together by a beach half a mile in length, and united to the city of Lynn by another beach, nearly two miles in length ; its exact length is nine thousand three hundred feet. Nahant is the original Indian name of the place, from the word Nahanteu, signifmg two united, or twins — a name peculiarly appropriate. Great Nahant is two miles in length, and about half a mile in breadth, containing five hundred acres ; and is six and one quarter miles in cir- cumference. It is surrounded by steep, craggy cliffs, rising from twenty to sixty feet above the tide, w^ith a considerable depth of water below. The rocks jorcsent a great variety of color — white, green, blue, red, purple, and gray — and in some places very black and shining, having the appearance of iron. The cliffs are pierced by many deep fissures, caverns, and grottoes ; and between these are numerous coves, and beaches of fine, shining, silvery sand, crowned by PICTURE or XAHAXT. O ridges of various colored pebbles, interspersed with sea-shells. Above the cliffs, the promon- tory swells into mounds from sixty to ninety feet in height. There are many remarkable cliffs and caves around Nahant, which are very interesting to the lovers of natural curiosities. Nahant furnishes many and most excellent places for sea-bathing. The numerous beaches all around its shores, consisting of smooth, hard, clean sand, gently sloping out into deep water, render it perfectly safe to indulge in the invigor- ating luxury of surf bathing ; and the little rock* surrounded coves and pools, interspersed among the clifis, afford abundant opportunities for those v/ho prefer to enjoy a more quiet lavation. The proper time for riding on the beaches is at low water. They then present a smooth, hard, and nearly level surface, over which it is great pleasure to pass. The Long Beach was formerly much harder, having been beaten almost to marble hardness by the tides of centuries ; but the great storms of 1851 disturbed the sand, which is gradually sinking into its former con- sistency. On a cloudy day, when the beach is smooth and wet, the reflection of the clouds and 6 PICTURli OP JfAHAXX. the images of the horses and carriages, inverted, maybe seen belov/, presenting a singularly beau- tiful and enchanting illusion. ^ The SwalloAvs' Cave is a passage beneath a high cliff, on the southeastern part of ^s^ahant. The entrance is eight feet high and ten wide.' Inside it is fourteen feet wide, and nearly twenty feet in height. Towards the centre it becomes narrower, and, at the distance of seventy-two feet, opens into the sea. It may be entered about half tide, and passing through, you may 'ascend to the height above, without returning through the cave. At high tide the water rushes through with great fury. The swallows formerly inhabited this cave in great numbers, and built their nests on the irregularities of the rocks above ; but the multitude of visitors has fright- ened them away. Southward from the Swallows' Cave is Pea Island, an irregular rock, about twenty rods broad. It has some soil on it, on which the sea pea grows. It is united to the Swallows' Cliff by a little isthmus, or beach of sand, thirteen rods long. Eastward from Pea Island are two long, low, PICTUUE OF Is'AHAXX. 7 black ledges, Ij'ing in the water, and covered at high tides, called the Shag Rocks. Several ves- sels have been wrecked on them. Eastward from Swallows' Cave is Pulpit Rock, a vast block about thirty feet in height, and near- ly twenty feet square, standing boldly out in the tide. On the top is an opening, forming a seat ; but from the steepness of the rock on all sides, it is difficult of access. The upper portion of the rock has a striking resemblance to a pile of great books. This rock is so peculiarly unique in its situation and character, that if drawings were made of it from three sides, they would scarcely be supposed to represent the same object. The Natural Bridge is near Pulpit Rock. It is a portion of the cliff forming an arch across a deep gorge, from which you look down upon the rocks and tide twenty feet below. Passing from the Swallows' Cave along the rocks, near the edge of the water, to the western side of the same cliff, you come to Irene's Grotto, a tall arch, singularly grotesque and beautiful, leading to a large room in the rock. This is one of the greatest curiosities on Nahant, and was formerly much more so, until sacrilegious 8 PICTUKE O'F NAHANT. hands broke down part of the roof above, to ob- tain stone for building. Near East Point is a great gorge, overhung by a precipice on either side, called the Cauldron Cliff; in which, especially during great storms, the water boils with tremendous force and fury. On the right of this, descending another way, is the Roaring Cavern ; having an aperture beneath the rock, through which you hear the roaring of Cauldron Cliff. On the northeastern side of Nahant, at the ex- tremity of Cedar Point, is Castle Rock, an im- mense pile, bearing a strong resemblance to the ruins of an old castle. The battlements and buttresses are strongly outlined ; and the square openings in the sides, especially when thrown into deep shadow, appear like doors, windows, and embrasures. Indeed the whole of Nahant has the appearance of a strongly fortified place. Northwest from Castle Rock is the Spouting Horn. It is a winding fissure in the lower pro- jecting bed of the cliff, in the form of a horn, passing into a deep cavern under the rock. The water is driven through a tunnel, formed by two walls of rock, about one hundred feet, and is then PICTURE OF XAHAXT. forced into the cavern, from which it is spouted, with great violence, in foam and spray. In a great easterly storm, at half flood, when the tide is coming in with all its power, the water is driven into this opening with a force that seems to jar the foundation of the solid rock ; and each wave makes a sound like subterranean thunder. The cliff rises abruptly forty feet above, but there is a good descent to the mouth of the tunnel. AVestward from the Spouting Horn is a large black ledge, called the Iron Mine, from its great resemblance to that mineral. It embraces a sin- gular cavity, called the Dashing Rock. At the northwestern extremity of Xahant, is John's Peril, a vast fissure in the cliff, forty feet perpendicular. It receives its name from the fol- lowing anecdote : — John Breed, one of the early inhabitants of Nahant, one day attempted to drive his team between a rock on the hill and this cliff. The passage being narrow, and finding his team in great peril, he hastily unfastened his oxen ; and the cart, falling down the precipice, was dashed in pieces on the rocks below. In the southern part of Nahant is a little lake of fresh water, containing about eight acres, 10 PICTUEE OF XAHAXT. called Bear Pond. The .high cliff beside it is called Bailey's Hill. The western portion of Nahant is called Bass Neck. Directly in front of Nahant, at the distance of three-fourths of a mile on the east, is Egg Hock. It rises abruptly from the sea, eighty-six feet in height. Its shape is oval, being forty-five rods in length, and t'vclve in breadth, containing about three acres. Near the summit is half an acre of excellent soil, covered with rank grass. The gulls lay their egg:-i here in abundance, whence the rock derives its name. The approach to this rock is dangerous except in calm weather, and there is but one good landing place, which is on the western side. Its shape and color are highly picturesque. Viewed from the north, it has the semblance of a couchant lion, lying out in front of the city, to protect it from the ap- proach of a foreign enemy — meet emblem of the spirit which slumbers on our shores ! South of Nahant is a dangerous rock, covered at high tide, called Sunk Kock. On the western side, at the entrance of the harbor, is a cluster of rocks, called the Lobster Rocks. 12 PICTURE OF NAHAKT. slopes to tlie harbor, and on the eastern side to the ocean. The ocean side is most beautiful, as here the tide flows out about thirty-three rods, leaving a smooth, polished surface of compact sand, so hard that the horse's hoof scarcely makes a print, and the Avheel passes without sound. It frequently retains sufficient lustre, af- ter the tide has left it, to give it the appearance of a mirror ; and on a cloudy day, the traveller may see the perfect image of his horse reflected beneath, with the clouds below, and can easily imagine himself to be passing, like a spirit, through a world of shadows — a brightly mir- rored emblem of his real existence I It is difficult — perhaps impossible — to convey to the mind of a reader who has never witnessed the prospect, an idea of the beauty and sublim- ity of this beach, and of the absolute magnifi- cence of the surrounding scenery. A floor of sand, two miles in length, and more than nine hundred feet in breadth at low tide, bounded on two sides by the water and the sky, and present- ing a surface so extensive that two millions of people might stand upon it, is certainly a view which the universe cannot parallel. This beach „., •^:rniQMi]i ' \l il:;l!Uli,li iilipi"' iii''''iiiih mm f! iffliliffi "i"" I: llJIil,,,,,!, ,„„ |l!l!ii! IJiPilil:. . Jill: « m ^fi f li'ti|l!l'llll|i|llill||iypi PICTUEE OF NAHAXT. is i-s composed of moveable particles of sand, so small that two thousand of them would not make a grain as large as the head of a pin ; yet these moveable atoms have v\^ithstood the whole im- mense power of the Atlantic ocean for centuries, perhaps from the creation I The unequal refraction of the atmosphere fre- quently occasions peculiar and curious appear- ances on the water. Sometimes the sun, when it rises through a dense atmosphere, appears elongated in its vertical diameter. Presently it appears double, the two parts being connected together by a neck. At length two suns are dis- tinctly seen ; the refracted sun aj^pearing wholly above the water, before the true sun has risen. It was undoubtedly this effect of the mirage which occasioned the story of the Phantom Ship at New Haven, and the Flying Dutchman. On a pleasant Sunday afternoon, in the summer of 1843, I saw several vessels sailing off Nahant, reflected in the manner represented in the accom- panying cut. The atmosphere was dense, yet transparent, and there were several strata of thin vapory clouds lightly suspended over the water, on which the vessels were brightly mirrored. ^^ PICTTTEE OF ^'AHA^*3'. The refracted images were as clearly portrayed as the real vessels beneath ; and a drawing can but imperfectly represent the exceeding beauty of the mirage. In a sketch of Nahant, it would be great in- justice to omit an honorable notice of Frederic Tudor, Esq., who has expended great care, and an amount beyond computation, in improving and beautifying the place. He has opened and built long roads and avenues at his own expense ; constructed sidewalks ; set out many thousand of shade, ornamental, and fruit trees ; and con- verted a barren hill into one of the most beauti- ful and fertile gardens. A line of coaches runs almost hourly, during the summer season, from the central railroad station at Lynn; where may be found private carnages, with careful drivers, ready at all times to render access to Nahant convenient and pleas- I HISTORICAL SKETCH. The first positive knowledge we have of Xa- hant is furnished us by Captain John Smith, who made a survey of the coast, in an open boat, in 1614. Proceeding westward from Salem, he says — " The next I can remember by name are the Mattahunts, two pleasant isles of groves, gardens, and cornfields," a league in the maine. The isles of Mattahunts, are on the west side of this bay, where arc many isles and some rocks, that appear a great height above the water, like the Pieramides of Egypt.*' By the Mattahunts, he probably meant the Nahants, which he named the "FuUerton Islands.'' His delineation of them on the map, though very small, is very correct. In 1622, the Council in England granted "Na- haunte " to Captain Robert Gorges, who came over the next year and settled at Winnisimmet. The claim was afterward granted to John Old- 16 PICTTJUE OfF NAHANT. ham, but as no possession was taken by settle- ment, it Vv'as, in 1620, declared to be invalid. At the time of the first settlement of Lynn in 1629, the Indians had possession of Nahant. The Sagamore, or chief, was Poquannum, who was called Black Will by the first white settlers at Lynn. In 1630 he sold Nahant to Thomas Dexter, a Lynn farmer, for a suit of clothes. He had two children — Ahawayet, a daughter, who married Wenepoykin, the Lynn Sagamore — and Queakussen, who was called by the whites, Cap- tain Tom. In 1633, Poquannum v>^as killed at Richmond's Isle, near Portland, by some white men, in revenge for the death of one Walter B agnail, of which he seems to have been entirely innocent. In 1629, the people of Lynn and Salem used Nahant as a pasture for their cattle, which were tended there, during the- summer, by Robert Dixey. For many years Nahant was used as a sheep pasture. W^illiam Wood, who was here at the first settlement, says, "It is used for to put young cattle in, and weather Goates, and Swine, to secure them from the Woolves ; a few posts and rayles from the low water markes to PICTURE OF KAHAXT. 17 the shore, keepcs out the Woolves, and keepes in the cattle." In the year 1634, on training day, Capt. Na- thaniel Turner, Avho commanded the trained band at Lynn, was directed, by Col. John Humfrey, to go with his company to Nahant to hunt the wolves, by which it was then infested. This was doubtless regarded as a very pleasant amuse- ment for training day. On the eleventh of January, 163o, "It was also voted, by the freemen of the towne, that these men underwritten, shall have liberty to plante and build at Nahant, and shall possess each man land for the said purpose, and proceed- ing in the trade of fishing ; Mr. Humfreys, Dan- iel How, Mr. Ballard, Joseph Redknap, Timothy Tomlins, Richard Vfalkcr, Henry Feakes, Thos. Talmage, Francis Dent.'' On the eighteenth of the same month, "It is ordered by the freemen of the towne, that all such persons as are assign- ed any land at Nahant, to further the trade of making fish, that if they doe not proceed accord- ingly to forward the said trade, but cither doe grow remiss, or else doe give it quite over, that then all such lotts shall be forfeited again to the towne, to dispose of as shall be thought fitte." 18 PICTURE or KAHANT. In 1652, Wenepoykin, the Lynn Sagamore, mortgaged Nahant to Nicholas Davidson, of Charlestown, for twenty pounds sterling. At a town meeting of the inhabitants of Lynn, held February 24, 1657, "It was voted, that Nahant should be laid out in planting lotts, and every householder should have equal in the divid- ing of it, noe man more than another, and every person to clear his lott of wood in six years, and he or they that doe not clear their lotts of the wood shall pay fifty shillings for the towne'suse. Alsoe every householder is to have his and their lotts for seven years, and it is to be laid down for a pasture for the towne, and in the seventh, every one that hath improved his lott by plant- ing, shall then, that is in the seventh year, sow their lott with English corne, (wheat,) and in every acre of land as they improve, they shall, with their English corne, sow one bushel of English hay seed, and soe proportionable to all the land that is improved, a bushel of hay seed to one acre of land, and it is to be remembered that noe person is to raise any kind of building at all." On the passing of this order, Mr. Thoma-s PICTURE OF NAMA^T. 19 Dexter, who claimed from the old Nahant Saga- more, prosecuted the town of Lynn ; but the court decided in favor of the defendants. On the thirteenth of June, 16C8, Robert Page, of Boston, was prosecuted, " for settinge saille from Nahant, in his boate, being Loadcn with wood, thereby Profaining the Lord's Daye."' In 1G73 we find Robert Coates residing at Xahant as a fisherman and shepherd, by permis- sion of the town. He removed in 1G82, after which there was no inhabitant on Xahant until 1690. In that year, James Mills built a small cottage, about six rods southeast from Whitney's Hotel, where he resided twenty-six years. A bay near the pond, having been the favorite bath- ing place of his daughter Dorothy, still bears the name of Dorothy's cove. In 1698, James Mills killed five foxes on Nahant. These ani- mals appear to have been very numerous. Be- tween the years 1698 and 1722, four hundred and twenty-eight foxes were killed in Lynn and Nahant. In 1688, Edvs-ard Randolph, Secretary of State, petitioned the Governor of Massachusetts, Sir Edmund Andros, to grant him Nahant; reprc- 20 PICTUHE OF KAHAXT. senting it as an unoccupied place, and a sort of waif which no one claimed. The inhabitants of Lynn defended their right, which was settled by the dejDOsition of Andros on the 19th of April, 1689. On that memorable day the people made" a great patriotic American movement. They rose in arms, deposed Governor Andros, put him in prison, seized the fort, and established a council of protection. The Lynn com^Dany marched to Boston, headed by Mr. Shepard, the minister ! In 1698, the town ordered that no person should cut more than seven trees on Nahant, under a penalty of forty shillings for each tree exceeding that number. On the sixth of March, 1704, the town, " be- ing informed that several persons had cut down several trees or bushes in Nahants, whereby there is like to be no shade for the creatures," voted that no person should cut any tree or bush there under a penalty of ten shillings. In the year 1706, a new division of lands was made at Nahant, under which the present pro- prietors claim. In the great snow, in 1717, many deer came PICXriiE OF XAHANT. 21 from the woods for food, and were killed by guns. Some, being chased by wolves, fled to Nahant, and, leaping into the sea, were drowned. The summer of 1749 was exceedingly hot and dry. The grasshoppers were so numerous at Nahant that the people walked together, vvith bushes in their hands, and drove them by thou- sands into the sea. As late as the year 1803 there were but three houses on Nahant. The first Avas built by Sam- uel Breed, where Whitney's Hotel how stands. The second was built by Jabez Breed, who sold it to Richard Hood, and it is now occupied by his descendant, Mr. Benjamin Hood. The third house was built by Jeremy Gray, uncle of the celebrated William Gray, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, now occupied by Mr. Caleb Johnson. In 1803, these three houses were oc- cupied by members of the Society of Friends, who kept no hotels, but accommodated a few boarders, and occasionally made a fish chowder, for parties who visited Nahant from Boston and other places. In 1800, a house was built on Bass Neck, by Capt. Joseph Johnson, which was burned in 23 picTimE or nahaxt. 1803. It was afterwards rebuilt, and is now occupied by Wendell Phillips, Esq. On the twentieth of September, 1808, the lightning struck a flock of sheep at Nahant, and killed eighteen of them. On the thirtieth of July, 1829, the lightning struck a barn, belong- ing to Mr. Stephen Codman, and killed a car- penter named William Hogan. As Nahant projects several miles into the sea, and is embattled by steep and rough crags, it is very dangerous in a storm, and many vessels have been wrecked upon it. In 1631, a vessel owned by Mr. John Glover was lost here. In 1657, a vessel owned by Mr. Thomas Wiggin, of Portsmouth, went ashore on Long Beach. A schooner was wrecked on Nahant in 1740. In the year 1757, two merchant ships from London, valued at one hundred thousand pounds, were wrecked on Long Beach. In 1766 an English brig from Hull was stranded on Pond Beach. A sloop went' ashore on Nahant in 1769. On the ninth of December, 1795, the Scottish brig Peggy was wrecked on Long Beach, and eleven men 'were drowned. A schooner went on this beach in 1827; and in 1828 another was wrecked on PICTX'E-E or NAHANT. 23 the Lobster Rocks. On the fifth of March, 1829, a schooner, loaded with coffee, was broken to pieces on the Shag Rocks, and no trace Avas found of any of the crew. The brig Shamrock, of Boston, with a cargo of sugar and molasses, was wrecked on Long Beach, on the seventeenth of December, 1836; and on the seventeenth of March, 1843, the schooner Thomas, of Belfast, was wrecked on the same beach, and five men were drov\'ned, four of whom were masters of vessels. On the fifth of August, 1847, the Water Witch, a yacht, owned by Phineas Drew, was wrecked on Canoe Beach. On the tenth of No- vember, 1848, the schooner Major Ringold was wrecked on Canoe Beach. On the twenty-eighth of March, 1849, the schooner James Hervey, Captain Smith, was wrecked on Long Beach. On the sixth of August, a boat containing four persons, was upset off Nahant, and Mark G. Phillips, of Swampscott, was drowned. On the twentieth of November, the brig Exile, Captain Stroud, was wrecked on Long Beach. The schooner Hornet, of Swampscott, went ashore on Long Beach in the same storm. On the twenty- first of February, 18-53, the schooner Eliza, 24 piCTrRE or nahant. loaded with iron, went ashore on Canoe Beach. On the third of December, 1854, two new houses, helonging to the Phillips family, at Bass Neck, Vv'ere blovrn dovrn. In 1817, a singular marine animal, called the Sea Serpent, is said to have made its appearance in the waters of Gloucester harbor. In 1819, it is said, it was seen off Nahant, and persons have since testified to its reappearance. It has been variously represented to have been from fifty to seventy feet in length, as large as a barrel, and sometimes with its head elevated from six to ten feet above the water. Its existence is consid- ered to be well established. Nahant has for many years been a place of agreeable recreation, but it was not until about the year 1817 that gentlemen began to tliink of fixing their summer residence here. In that year, Hon. Thomas H. Perkins built his stone cottage on the hill near the S230uting Horn. The beautiful rustic residence of Frederick Tu- dor, Esq., was built in 1825; and Mr. Joseph G. Joy's Log Cabin was constructed in 1841. About thirty other cottages have been erected here by gentlemen from Boston and Salem, who PICTUEE OF NIHA-N'T. 25 reside in them for three or four months, during the warm season, and then close them until an- other year. The Tuscan Chapel was erected in 1832. On the twentieth of August, 1844, Dr. James Clark and four others, Avent to Egg Rock to dig for money. They were detained on the rock all night, and were probably the first white men who ever slept upon it. In 1847 subscriptions, to the amount of about thirteen hundred dollars, were obtained, chiefly from gentlemen residing at Nahant, for the pur- j)ose of building a road over Long Beach. In the same year, the first house at Little Xahant was built to accommodate the workmen. The town of Lynn afterward contributed one thousand dol- lars to complete the work. The subscriptions were obtained, and the road built, by Alonzo Lewis. A post office was established here in August, 1847, and Welcome W. Johnson was appointed postmaster. On the seventeenth of March, 1851, a great rain storm commenced ; and on the sixteenth of April, another of far greater violence. Tliis 26 PICTUHE OF NAHA.XT. was probably the greatest storm for two centu- ries. Seven successive tides swept over the Long Beach for its entire length, totally destroying the breakwater, and greatly damaging the road. The old breakwater consisted of a plank box or trough, filled with sand. The new breakv/ater was built with cedars, seaweed and sand, from a plan by Alonzo Lev\ds. It not only prevents the waves from passing over, but the tops of the cedars, by checking the force of the wind, stop the sand as it blows about, and the ridge of the beach has been raised several feet by that means. In this storm Minot's ledge lighthouse fell. The nevv' schoolhouse was built this year, and dedicated on the sixteenth of September. The new village church was dedicated on the twenty-fifth of September. In 1853 jSTahant was incorporated as a sepa- rate town, on the twenty-ninth of March. Wash- ington H. Johnson was chosen Town Clerk, and Dexter Stetson, W. H. Johnson, and Artemas Murdock, Selectmen. The Nahant Hotel was built of stone in 1820. The first keeper of the house was Mr. James Masee, who died about a vear afterwards, and PICTUBE or NAHAXT. 27 was succeeded by Milton Durand, who remained four years. To him succeeded Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Cox, and Mr. Spooncr. The house was then kept many years, in excellent order by Mr. Rich- ard Holman. To him succeeded Phineas Drew, who remained fourteen years. A large wing had been previously added. In 1853 the old house was purchased by a company of Lynn gentlemen, who immediately commenced to rebuild and en- large it. While the workmen were raising the wing, it was blown down by a sudden gale. The new house was completed and opened on the tenth of June, 1854, by Messrs. Paran Ste- vens and his son, James E. Stevens, The "Nahant House," which includes the old stone building, is two hundred and eighty-four feet in length, eighty feet in breadth, and five sto- ries in height, and furnishes liberal accommoda- tions for six hundred persons. It is fitted with all modern hotel improvements, provided with bathing apartments for hot and cold, salt and fresh water baths, lighted with gas, warmed by steam, and is so located that every window com- mands an unobstructed ocean view. This im- mense establishment is furnished throughout in 28 PICTUEE OF NAHAXT. a style which will compare favorably with the best first class houses in the Atlantic cities, and is open for the entartainment of guests from the middle of June till October ; during which sea- son, a nev/ steamboat — the Nelly Baker, Captain Rouell — makes four trips a day between Nahant and Boston ; and coaches, connecting at Lynn with cars for Boston or the east, leave the house nearly every hour. Telegraph communication is also established with all parts of the universe. The total investment in this enterprise, including stable accommodations for two hundred horses, is over 8200,000. A band of music is employed to give concerts every afternoon and evening on the hotel grounds. BoAvling saloons, a shooting gallery, and a beautiful billiard hall, built of stone, in the model of a Grecian temple, afford ample indoor amusements ; while yachts and fish- ing boats, with experienced masters, are provided for fishing parties and pleasure excursions. Car- riages and saddle horses, for riding on the beach- es, together with facilities for surf bathing, an- gling from the rocks, and studying the truly wonderful formations which appear among the cliifs, ofter a variety of romantic attractions, of $'JtA':i^L, '.J tin PICTURE OF XAHANT. 29 which the visitor never can become weary, and must ever remember with delight. The Yili-^g° Hotel was built by Mr. William Breed, and in 1817 purchased by Mr. Jesse Rice, Avho kept it twenty-nine years, v/hen it was con- veyed to Mr. Albert Whitney, the present gen- tlemanly and accommodating keeper. Two pub- lic houses, on the temperance principle, are kept by Jesse Rice, Esq., and Mr. Edmund B. John- son, and there are many private boarding houses, for the accommodation of those who wish greater seclusion. From Nahant you have a fine vlev\- of the city of Boston, with its elevated dome and its slender spires ; the numerous green islands scattered through the harbor ; Bunker Hill, with its ele- vated monument of granite ; the towns of Sau- gus, Lynn and Marblchead, with their neat white houses and hills of porphyry ; Baker's Is- land with its twin light houses ; and the vast expanse of ocean, from wliich you inhale the healthy sea-breeze. At Nahant, in the summer season, may be found statesmen, poets, philosophers, and au- thors 3 gentlemen of wealth and leisure, and 30 PICTUKE or XAHANT. ladies of taste and refinement ; witli occasionally noblemen, and persons of distinction from Eu- rope ; who assemble here to exchange civilities, form agreeable acquaintances and permanent friendships; and to enjoy one of the finest pieces of natural scenery which the universe affords. The temperature of Nahant, being moderated by sea-breezes, so as to be cooler in summer and milder in winter, than the main land, is regarded as being highly conducive to health. It is de- lightful in summer to ramble round this roman- tic peninsula, and to examine at leisure its in- teresting curiosities — to hear the waves rippling the colored pebbles of the beaches, and see them gliding over the projecting ledges in fanciful cas- cades — to behold the plovers and sand-pipers running along the beaches, the seal slumbering upon the outer rocks, the white gulls soaring overhead, the porpoises pursuing their rude gam- bols along the shore, and the curlew, the loon, the black duck, and the coot — the brant, with his drappled neck, and the oldwife, with her strange, wild, vocal melody, swimming graceful- ly in the coves, and rising and sinking Avith the swell of the tide. The moonlight evenings here riClURE OF KAHANT. 31 are exceedingly lovely ; and the phosphoric ra- diance of the billows, on favorable nights, mak- ing the waters look like a sea of fire, exhibits a scene of wonderful beauty. But, however delightful Xahant may appear in summer, it is surpassed by the grandeur and sublimity of a winter storm. When the strong east wind has swept over the Atlantic for seve- ral days, and the billows, wrought up to fury, are foaming along like living mountains — break- ing upon the precipitous cliffs, — dashing into the rough gorges, — thundering in the subterranean caverns of rocks, and throwing the white foam and spray, like vast columns of smoke, hundreds of feet in the air, above the tallest cliffs, — an ap- pearance is presented which the wildest imagin- ation cannot surpass. Then the ocean — checked in its headlong career by a simple bar of sand — as if mad with its detention, roars like protracted thunder ; and the wild sea-birds, borne along by the furious waters, are dashed to death against the cliffs ! Standing at such an hour upon the rocks, I have seen the waves bend bars of iron, an inch in diameter, double — float rocks of gra- nite, sixteen feet in length, as if they were tim- 32 PICTURE OF NAHAXT. bers of wood, — and the wind, seizing the white gull in its irresistible embrace, bear her, shriek- ing, many miles into the Lynn woods ! In sum- mer, a day at Nahant is delightful — but a storm in winter is glorious ! Naliant is lovely ! away we go O'er the polished beach when the tide is low } And we mark the gleam of our horse's feet, Deep mirrored, as in a crystal street I We flit along^ o'er the shining sand, Far out in the tide, away from land ; And we seem in the middle air to go, With the sky above, and the sky below ! The white gull floats in the bright blue air, Her scream is loud as we pass her there ; And the small birds run, with motion fleet, On the line where the sand and billows meet. The thin Avave is striped with the long sea sedge, The star-fish comes to the Avater's edge ; And the green sea-plants and pearly shells Float up to our feet Avhen the billow swells. 3477^61 i;K>t-19 ) # (^ BY ALONZO I_,E'WIS. ) ) k i '' The rocks, which rose nerpciidicnhtrly, and to a considenihlc j '™ height, were not content to form a solid wall, to resist the en- ^ croachments of the tide, and the hi(-hing of the waves, hut ap ^' peared to have stepped out of their places, and to have advanced u upon the heacli, and into the very wateri*, in uU imaginable fornis ^ ^ and sizes." — MouEniN. ^ L Y X N : ^ THOS. HERBERT AND COMPANY. ^ 1855. ^ T. HERBERT & CO., ) MrnKmUMM & STJvTMIItS, L Blank Book Manufacturers, ( AXD DEALEKS IN ^ American, French & English Paper Hangings, i FANCY GOODS, ETC., ^ opfosmtk; (n;\'i:Mi vh ukvot, r.v\\. L SAGAMORE COTTAGE, BEACH STREET, LYNN. ^ OI-\riIj E! 3Xr Or I IVriES :E3 3Ft. -^ ',%! ^•- ^^^'^' : A' ,*i^ \ \.-^^ FEB 7 8 UBRABV OF CONGRESS 014 079 318 8