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The North
Shore of
Massachusetts

AmericanSummerResorts

The North Shore. By Robert
Grant.
With Illustrations by W. T. Smed-
ley. Newport. By W. C. Brownell.
With Illustrations by W. S. Van-
derbilt Allen.
Bar Harbor. By F. Marion Craw
ford.
With Illustrations by C. S. Rein-
hart. Lenox. By George A. Hibbard.
With Illustrations by W. S. Van-
derbilt Allen.
*.£* Each i2mo. Cloth. Price, 75 cents

The Pleasure of Handling the Tiller

AMERICAN SUMMER RESORTS

THE NORTH SHORE OF
MASSACHUSE TTS
bi-
RO BERT GRANT

ILLUSTRATED BY
W. T. S MED LET

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW, YORK MDCCCXCVl

Copyright 28Q4, i8q6, by
CHARLES SCRTBNER'S SONS

7

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page
The pleasure of handling the tiller Frontispiece
Cape Ann ...... j
Looking toivard Swampscott from the Cliff's at
Nahant ....
The Cliffs at Nahant . . . . n
Looking toward Boston from Nahant . . ij
The Beverly Shore .... in
On the Piazza of the Eastern Yacht Club . 23
A Yacht Race at Marblehead . 27
Pavilion at Masconomo
Residences on the Point at Manchester-by-the-
Sea ....
Entrance to the Grounds of the Essex County
Club . . ...
The Hounds — Myopia Hunt Club . • -/?
Magnolia, from Norman's Woe Point . 47
At Manchester-by-the-Sea . . 5 1
Avenue of Pines, near Manchester-by-the-
Sea ... 55
The Reef of Norman's Woe . 59

31
3539

f^gfr^fB^g.

THE NORTH SHORE ,
"T^O those who live in Boston and its
* vicinity the North Shore of Massa
chusetts, or The North Shore, as it is al
ways called, has come to have an identity as
a summer-resort quite as distinct as that of
Bar Harbor, Newport, or Lenox. Even
New Yorkers, enlightened as to its advan
tages by those who go down to the sea in
yachts, have learned to think of it respect
fully as a very pretty place to which Bos-
tonians who wish to keep cool, and yet be
able to see the gilded dome of the State-
house through a telescope, hie themselves
from June to October. One would sup
pose that its accessibility, its coolness,
its freedom from either democratic or
plutocratic crowds, and the unique com
bination of the seaside and the country

Shore

The which it affords would have attracted be
fore this the people from large cities who
wish to be comfortable without being de
voured by mosquitoes, to be cheerful
without having to be riotous, to get
enough to eat without being obliged to
fight for it, and to sit on their piazzas
without exposure to kodaks, picnickers,
or surf flirtation. And yet the comfort-
seeking public still passes it by in favor of
abandoned farms, sylvan camps, islands on
the coast of Maine, and the various other
refuges from the life of the average sum
mer watering-place. Perhaps the reason
is to be found in the argument that it is
too near Boston, which is a polite way of
expressing reluctance to invade the sacred
precincts of the most critical society in
America for fear of not pleasing. If such
be the case, this attitude of caution acts as
a two-edged sword, for if there is any plea
to be urged against the attractiveness of
the North Shore it is that the society is so
exclusively Bostonese.
The families from a distance are almost

Hi 9

to be numbered on the fingers of one hand, CaPe
and you meet in your walks and drives
and social intercourse the self-same people
with whom you have dined and slummed,
or whom you have seen at the Symphony
Concerts all winter. If it is meet that
man should not live alone, it is almost
equally desirable that he should for a
month or two in every year lose sight of
all his family, excepting his very nearest
and dearest, and his entire customary social
acquaintance. But this is a privilege which
only those who are not tied by business
exigencies to the apron-strings of their
native city are able to enjoy with any de
gree of regularity.
By the North Shore is meant the north
ern coast of Massachusetts Bay, from Na
hant and Swampscott on the southwest
to Gloucester and Cape Ann on the
northeast. Cape Ann is the end of every
thing except the Atlantic Ocean, and
civilization properly ceases before you
come to Gloucester, the famous fishing-
town of this portion of the world, which
5

The lies thirty-one miles from Boston in a tol-
s°h2e erably direct line by rail. Along the bor
ders of this rocky coast, which abounds in
marvellous curves and indentations, includ
ing several fine harbors, stands a succes
sion of villas, of various types of archi
tecture, and for the most part at sufficient
intervals from one another to insure
privacy, for a distance of fifteen miles.
Swampscott, Phillips Beach, Marblehead
Neck, Beverly, Pride's Crossing, Beverly
Farms, West Manchester, and Manches
ter, are among the names by which, for
the sake of municipal or railway conve
nience, one strip of shore is distinguished
from the next ; but except for the purposes
of taxation the aggregation of villas may be
said to be part and parcel of no town, and
to be a community unto themselves.
In the same category should also be
included Nahant, a watering-place far older
than any of these, a rocky promontory
stretching out into the sea, nearly at right
angles with the coast from Lynn, to which
it is joined by a narrow line of sand beach,
6

H ¦-

Looking Toivard
Stvamp-
scott
from the Cliffs
at Nahant

three miles long, traversed by a single road. Ahout
The late Thomas Gold Appleton fastened
upon Nahant the epithet of " Cold Roast
Boston." It has for several generations
been a favorite summer-resort for old
Boston families, and its popularity has
never waned among those who by descent
or purchase have acquired an interest in
its limited territory. For invigorating
coolness of atmosphere, boldness and pic-
turesqueness of rock effects, and the com
plete illusion of being at sea which one
experiences on many a piazza, Nahant has
attractions at least equal to those of the
rest of The North Shore. There is in
deed a mild rivalry between its cottagers
and those of the Beverly coast, whose
favorite taunt that Nahant possesses only
one drive can never be refuted, and only
counterbalanced by the claim that those
who sleep at Nahant can enjoy a delicious
sail to the city by steamboat, instead of
being obliged to undergo a heated, dusty,
railway journey. The rapid and luxurious
evolution of summer life along the North
9

The
North
Shore

Shore has had a marked effect upon the
appearance of Nahant, and to some extent
upon the manner of life there. Twenty-
five years ago Nahant was the aristocratic
watering-place of Boston ; but there were
few if any trim lawns to be found upon its
territory, and there were no trees except
an occasional clump of weather-beaten
balm of Gileads. White weed, dandelions,
and butter-cups, the red honeysuckle, and
common prickly roses ran delightful riot
in front of every piazza, and the not infre
quent cry of " Cows on the place," was
a pleasant slogan to the rising genera
tion. To-day all these primitive beauties
have disappeared beneath the harrow of
the landscape gardener, and given place'
to cultivated verdure, aesthetic-looking
bushes, and a very respectable number of
trees, so that it is no longer possible for
the Beverlyites to declare, as formerly,
that there is not a reputable piece of fo
liage on the peninsula. Moreover, a very
successful club or casino, organized within

3flF 1

Nahant

the last five years, acts as a central magnet Tl"
to draw the cottagers from their piazzas
and to promote social circulation. And Nahant
still along the water's edge, especially on
the eastern side, stands a splendid array of
cliffs which no one has ever attempted to
improve, and which are more impressive
in their ruggedness and bold beauty than
any on the North Shore. There are,
indeed, none on the coast, excepting per
haps at Bar Harbor, which surpass them
in grandeur. Here is the well-known
Pulpit Rock, so named from its shape, to
the top of which, in the days of the old
hotel — burned more than thirty years ago,
and never rebuilt — an adventurous damsel
climbed, only to discover that she had to
be lowered by ropes.
Tradition tells us that Nahant was ori
ginally traded by an Indian for a suit of
clothes ; and it is probable that the simple
savage felt that he got quite as good a
bargain as William Blackstone did when
he parted with Boston. Where in the
world is there such a delightful dormitory
'3

The as Nahant, distant by either sea or land
Sh only an hour from the city, where the
tired business man may refresh his brow
and lungs and eyes, and his children may
breathe ozone day in day out, and learn
to swim like ducks in the coldest of cold
waters ?
The North Shore proper, which begins
at Swampscott and extends beyond West
Manchester, represents, unlike Nahant,
the growth of the last twenty years. It is
a fringe of aristocracy skirting the coast of
the noble County of Essex, whose towns
of Salem, Beverly, Marblehead, and Glou
cester have, in the past, been such intelli
gent and honest factors in the welfare of
the State and nation. But the once well-
known Ocean Street, Lynn, should not be
passed over in any itinerary of this shore.
This short, straight avenue, on the ocean
confines of the shoe town of Lynn, was,
twenty-five years ago, divided into perhaps
a dozen and a half beautiful estates, of
from one to three acres in extent, ranged
side by side in precise stateliness. The

Looking Toivard
Boston
from Nahant

villas were elaborate for that time, and the Nahant
places were tended far more carefully than
those of Nahant, and made in most in
stances to display beautiful lawns and fine
trees and flowers. They fronted on the
avenue, and backed directly on the full
expanse of the portion of Massachusetts
Bay which lies under the lee of Nahant,
and they were owned by Boston people of
wealth and social prominence. Under the
combined influence of the tide of fashion,
which was moving farther along the coast,
and the increased demand for summer
residences, which suggested to real-estate
speculators the possibilities of subdivision,
these fine estates began to drop into the
market about twenty years ago, and have
since been cut up into smaller building
lots and traversed by connecting streets.
The old villas have been pulled down,
and in one or two cases have been super
seded by much more elaborate structures,
the homes chiefly of the wealthy manufac
turers of Lynn. But the greater portion
of the new cottages are of the every-day
17

-The Queen Anne pattern, and, though they
c, ' command the same beautiful ocean outlook
Shore as formerly, they are too much commanded
by the windows of their next-door neigh
bors. In short, Ocean Street has become
more like its next-door neighbor, Swamp
scott, a community of small estates on the
edge of the sea, grouped closely together
with an eye only to keeping cool and to
looking seaward in summer. Ocean
Street, however, as has been stated, has
been appropriated chiefly by the rich shoe
makers of Lynn, who live there the year
round, whereas Swampscott's single shore
road, which runs out of Ocean Street, has
for years and years been the camping-
ground of people from Boston and its
vicinity, who have been content to allow
its fishing-village aspect to remain unal
tered except in a very few instances. Here
are two large hotels, and a host of board
ing-houses, and a sand beach, and a rail
road station within easy driving distance
to accommodate the business men who
wish to live at the sea-side with as little

wRSm

The

Beverly
Shore

Shore

trouble and expense as possible, and at the The
same time to be close to town. This 0[v"y
simplicity of architectural and social effects
is true, particularly of the village proper.
Beyond it the shore, which stretches to
Marblehead, has become occupied by more
elaborate cottages, some conspicuously
ugly and others of very tasteful design.
Many fine water-views are obtained from
these, notably from the beautiful Gal-
loupe's Point, which is shut out from the
dust of the high road and other sugges
tions of urban proximity. In brief, it may
be stated that the last twenty years have
seen the erection, along the hitherto un
occupied shore from Swampscott to Mar
blehead, of colonies of cottages inviting
the proprietorship of the increasing class
of well-to-do people who desire to live
comfortably in summer, interspersed with
an occasional hotel of ample dimensions,
the prices of which terrify the democratic
beachcomber whose ambition is bounded
by a fishing-pole, clams, and pink lemon
ade.

The In an indenture of the coast formed by
J""" the harbors of Marblehead and Salem,
Snore J
and on a smaller harbor of its own, is
situated the ancient village, but modern
shoe town, of Beverly, from which the
picturesque strip of shore which stretches
thence to Cape Ann takes its name. For
almost a generation there has been a
nucleus of beautiful estates on the shore,
beyond the street limits of the town, where
the same class of people who went sum
mer after summer to Nahant lived in
peaceful enjoyment of broad acres of
woods, marsh, and beach, undisturbed by
thrifty cogitations as to their market price.
The houses, like the original houses at
Nahant, were square, comfortable-looking,
dull-colored edifices, surrounded by broad
piazzas protected by sloping roofs unen
livened by the modern shingle stain, and
the landscape wore a rougher appearance
than at present. To the northeast, as far
as the eye could see, lay a marvellous
coast, with here a curving beach and there
a wooded point, and here again a superb

On the
Via%%a
of the
Eastern Yacht
Club

reach of cliffs, each and all provided with
a background of undulating fields and rich
dark foliage. All this edge of ocean, with its
wealth of country behind, was practically un
occupied, and large tracts of it could be pur
chased at what now seem pitiful figures from
the fishermen farmers who held it in fee.
To the south-southwest, across the wa
ter, the Beverly cottagers looked at the
queer old town of Marblehead without a
suspicion that there was a handsome for
tune staring them in the face in the shape
of the spit of land which forms the outer
bulwark of the harbor, where to-day the
white-winged yachts almost outnumber the
white-winged gulls. Twenty years ago
and less, Marblehead Neck, as it is called,
was in the general estimation a bleak head
land which no one cared to build upon.
Now it fairly bristles with small habita
tions, which have sprung up in such close
proximity to one another, and on such
primitive lines, architecturally speaking, as
almost to suggest a camp-meeting settle
ment. *5

The
Beverly
Shore

Si-

ore

The A little apart from these stands the
club-house of the Eastern Yacht Club, the
meeting-place on shore of the yachting
brotherhood, whither, at the time of the
sojourn of the New York or Eastern
squadrons, comes all the fashionable Shore
to dine and dance and visit the racing
machines and the graceful floating bou
doirs which fairly crowd the tranquil waters
of the snug harbor below. Outside this
same harbor, where the pleasure yachts of
two friendly countries contend for silver
cups in eager emulation, the Chesapeake
and the Shannon fired broadsides at each
other in the same summer weather not far
from a hundred years ago.
It is at and beyond Beverly, however,
that the true grandeur of the North Shore
begins. Marblehead Neck is bold and
reaches out to sea, and the old town of
Marblehead, which lies directly across the
narrow harbor, provides, by its quaint
streets and its legend of Skipper Ireson
with the hard heart, abundant material for
the edification of those who take an after-
26

A Yacht
Race at Marblehead

vtfw„

noon drive in that direction. But the true r/'«
glory of the North Shore, that uniquely s'™ry
picturesque and ever-varying combination
of sea-side and country which distinguishes
it from the rest of this shore and from other
shores, begins at Beverly. It sounds like
a paradox to state that you may there look
out from rugged cliffs over a summer sea
and inhale its salt fragrance, and yet by a
turn of your heel find yourself face to face
with a landscape of rustic meadows and
stately woods. Yet such is exactly the
case. The dweller in this paradise scents
on his piazza the mingled aroma of brine
and pine, of storm-tossed sea-weed and
new-mown hay ; and, moreover, in this in
stance man has joined hands with nature to
preserve the beauties of the scene, in that
he has refused to subdivide his lands.
A succession of magnificent estates fol
lows the shore, but almost invariably the
houses stand in the midst of several acres,
and are frequently sheltered by woods or
surrounded by a more or less cultivated
park. This gives an elegance to the land-
29

Tl" scape which serves to heighten the effect of
forc the splendid scenery, and these conditions
have been maintained in the rapid develop
ment of the shore which has taken place
during the last ten or fifteen years.
The sudden increased demand for sea
side residences, and the rapid and extraor
dinary trebling and quadrupling of values
consequent thereon, which has been a part
of the recent history of the entire New
England coast, has been more remarkable
in the case of the Beverly shore than in
that of any other resort except Bar Har
bor. Large tracts of wooded lands along
the sea's edge, and strikingly beautiful
points which had been suffered to remain
unoccupied for generations save by local
farmers, have changed ownership at fancy
prices and been made the sites for villas of
the most improved modern architecture.
From Beverly you come to Pride's
Crossing and Beverly Farms, beyond
which lies West Manchester, Manchester
and the Masconomo House — the one hotel
of that immediate shore — and Magnolia;
3o

Pavilion
at » The
Masco- nomo''''

and everywhere the same class of habita- T,'e
tion is to be seen, more elaborate and lux- „""" y
Shore
urious, perhaps, the farther you proceed.
The eager purchaser has occupied every
available piece of shore, and in many cases
has bought it from poetic but far-sighted
individuals who anticipated the demand. It
sometimes happens in this wicked world,
though perhaps too infrequently, that the
practised acumen of the real-estate specu
lator is put to the blush by the more dis
cerning wisdom of the seer.
Unlike Newport, Lenox, and Bar Har
bor, the North Shore is first of all a dormi
tory. The busy men of affairs, who spend
the summer at Beverly Farms or Man
chester, go to Boston every day and return
home in the early afternoon, content to sit
on the piazzas enjoying the breezes from
the ocean, or to drive or ride. Until with
in the last few years the evening meal was
a high tea, at which the rising generation
could entertain their contemporaries with
out compelling paterfamilias to do more
than brush his hair, or depriving him of
33

The
NorthShore

his evening paper. Many people on the
Beverly shore now have late dinner; con
sequently there is more formality and cir
cumstance, and he who would fain lie in a
hammock and listen to the trembling of
the sea may have to choose between green
mint, curacoa, and benedictine, and try
to forget that he is to take the early train
in the morning. But, after all, the en
tertaining of this kind is not expensive.
Paterfamilias is a long-suffering biped, but
his good nature is apt to give way after
missing once or twice the a.m. train, which
he had hoped would be later than he; and
even the most energetic spirits in the
family — naturally the unmarried daughters
who need do nothing all day but breathe
ozone — prefer to spend the evenings in
their hammocks. A ball or evening re
ception such as we know at Lenox or Bar
Harbor, or even the hotel hop, which is
common enough at the hotels along the
Swampscott-Marblehead coast and at the
Masconomo, is unheard of on the Beverly
shore. Occasionally small parties drive
34

The

through the woods to Chebacco Lake to
sup on broiled chickens, thin fried pota- '™ry
toes and champagne, to dance a gay waltz
or polka or two, and drive home by moon
light; but apart from occasional dinner
parties, this is the limit of the social gayety.
A few of the younger matrons complain,
as a consequence, that the Shore is dull
and needs awakening; but the sentiment
of the busy men, that rest after a warm
summer's day in town is the best form of
recreation, appeals to most wives and
daughters, who indeed on their own ac
count are delighted to make the most of
the out-of-door life, to look after their
lawns and shrubbery, to drive and walk,
to go yachting if there is a yacht in the
family, and in general to break away from
the social diversions of life in town. There
is some calling, and women invite other
women from Nahant and elsewhere to stay
with them in order to give them women
luncheons — sometimes rather elaborate
luncheons — where the conversation may
be about art and literature, or may be

The
NorthShore

about yachts and hunting, according to
the aspirations of the hostess.
Three afternoons a week, during July,
August, and September, there is the op
portunity, of which many avail themselves,
to see the members of the Myopia Hunt
Club play polo on the club grounds at
Wenham, four or five miles inland to the
north from Beverly. This is a favorite meet
ing-ground. To reach it you enjoy a de
lightful drive, and while there you are
afforded a panorama of the toilettes and
equipages of the Shore while watching the
antics of the players. During the summer
of 1893 the Essex County Club, a casino
situated a little inland from Manchester,
was completed. This has proved a con
venient uniting point for those who craved
greater social activity, though, owing to the
fact that its patrons are scattered along ten
miles of shore, it is occasionally empty.
A cynic might be disposed to suggest that
the success of the Club at Nahant was the
controlling reason why it was built; but
the sudden popularity of the game of golf
38

Entrance
to the
Grounds
of the
Essex County
Club

% &

is a new and convincing argument in favor The
of its existence. c.T"ry
Shore
The New England gentleman of fifty
years ago, if he could see the way we live
now, would open his eyes at the import
ance which the horse and his accoutre
ments have acquired in the eye of the
present generation, and undoubtedly would
come to the conclusion, on the whole, that
our ancestors were bigoted in their associa
tion of a semblance of sin with a free use
of the quadruped in question. Certainly
the gay vehicles, bright harnesses, and
sleek, stylish animals which are to be
encountered nowadays along the country
roads of the strict old county of Essex, are
a vast improvement, from an aesthetic point
of view, over the sombre chaises and inele
gant nags by means of which our fore-fathers
endangered their chances of salvation.
The charms of out-door life on the
North Shore have fostered a taste for rid
ing and driving which has proved, alike
in a hygienic and a liberalizing sense, of
great benefit to both the sexes. Riding, at
41

The which most young ladies and many men
ff in the North used to shy, has become, in
several sections of the country, and con
spicuously on the Beverly shore, a favorite
form of exercise and recreation. Under
the conduct of the Myopia Hunt Club,
fox-hunts after the English pattern engage
the enthusiastic attention of a considerable
number of young and middle-aged people
during the early autumn months. The
beautiful inland country about Wenham,
Hamilton, and Topsfield has become a
race-course for this hunting element, many
of whom do not hesitate to risk life and
limb in their almost hysterical enjoyment
of the transplanted ancient sport. The
Hunt Club has a modest club-house at
Hamilton, where a pack of hounds are
kept, and in the course of the last five
years a colony of horse-loving spirits has
absorbed and settled upon the most at
tractive of the surrounding farms, some
of which possess an old-fashioned pictu-
resqueness which suggests brass andirons
and gilly-flowers. 4^

The
Hounds —
Myopia
Hunt Club

«3

, \

s*r*

-

These hunting men and women have The
succeeded in maintaining friendly relations y°f,a
with the Essex County yeomanry, over ciub
whose corn-fields they dash in pursuit of a
real or imaginary reynard, and who were
inclined at first to resent this new in
vasion of red-coats as undemocratic im
pertinence and a legal trespass. But
well-mannered tact, especially if it go
hand-and-glove with liberal indemnity, will
mollify the wounded pride even of a New
England farmer. By degrees the hard
headed countrymen, who sniffed at fox
hunting as mere Anglomania, have become
genuinely, though grimly, enthralled by
the pomp and excitement of the show, and
take almost as much interest in following
the fortunes of the riders as though they
themselves were booted and spurred and
swathed in pink. To cement mutual good
feeling a ball is given every autumn,
at which the wives and daughters of the
country-side dance with the master of
the hounds and his splendid company,
who valiantly, if vainly, endeavor to cut
45

The
North
Shore

pigeon-wings in emulation of the country
swains. If the temper of the Beverly-Manches
ter shore is equine, no less is it nautical.
The telescopes on every piazza command
the entrance to Marblehead Harbor, and
the womenkind unable to distinguish a
cutter from a stone sloop or fishing
schooner are in the minority. On fine
sailing days a bevy of yachts, of every cut
and length, is to be seen on the broad
sweep of the horizon, and often so close to
land that you would seem to be able to
toss the traditional biscuit aboard until you
made the attempt. And yet the number
of vessels owned by the actual owners of
the Shore is not so large as might be ex
pected. Not everybody by anv means
keeps a yacht, and only an intermittent
chain of moorings follows the coast. Now
and again some cottager of means buys a
steam-yacht for a season or two, in which
he runs to town when he is not pressed
for time, and invites his friends to make
the return trip with him at the close of the
+6

business day. Others keep a comfortable The
full-fledged schooner, with a trusty sailing- s'^'ry
master, at their doors as a family conven
ience, to be enjoyed whenever the spirit
moves and the elements invite conjointly —
which sometimes is not for days at a time,
such are the caprices of women and chil
dren, the contrariety of weather, and the
business obligations of man.
There is, too, a moderate number of
small craft — catboats and sloops — in which
yachtsmen of sixteen and some of maturer
years, who deem the pleasure of handling
the tiller superior to that of following the
dictates of a sailing-master, tempt the deep.
But whether it is that the coast is an ex
posed one, so that yachts cannot lie there
safely in a southeaster, or that the responsi
bilities of maintaining a white-winged racer
seem to the average business man analo
gous to those of maintaining a white ele
phant, there is rather a dearth of yachts
actually owned along the Beverly shore, in
spite of the fact that in the racing season
the coast is fairly gay with them. There are
4 9

The
NorthShore

few more beautiful spectacles than the
series of races annually conducted under
the auspices of the Eastern Yacht Club,
when the grand flotilla of visiting New
York yachts, in all their high-priced ma
jesty and gracefulness, join the united
craft of the New England coast, and
spread their wings under a deep blue sky
before a rattling breeze. Only second to
this display is the captivating spectacle of
Marblehead Harbor viewed from the
piazza of the Eastern Yacht Club, when
the yachts, great and little, lie packed to
gether at night, their wings folded and
their sides and rigging aglow with electric
lights and lanterns which make them seem
like huge fireflies afloat on the dark waters
of the basin. Hither to Marblehead Neck
come crowds from Boston and the sur
rounding towns to see the Mayflower, the
Volunteer, and the huge steam-yachts in
which some of the conspicuously rich men
of Gotham take their summer outings.
A casual observer might suppose that
the only live issues on the North Shore
5 c

At Man-
| chester-by- t he -Sea

were horses and yachts. The wave of the Tl"
discovery that there are many ways of fore
amusing one's self profitably and harm
lessly in our vale of tears, the very idea of
which was an abomination to those who
laid the foundations of the Republic, has
not spared this delightful region in its
sweep across the country. But surface
indications are apt to be deceitful, and it
may truthfully be said, that even in the
way of surface indications, the life along
the North Shore has but few of the purely
volatile features which distinguish many of
the doings at Newport, for instance. And
just as at Newport and Bar Harbor, there
are hundreds of delightful people who live
apart from the fashionable rout, because it
bores them to jump and change feet all the
year round, so this class along the North
Shore is even larger, partly because of the
more conservative spirit of the population,
and partly for the reason already referred
to, that the cottagers are chiefly active
business or professional men who go to
Boston every day. 5 3

The
NorthShore

The North Shore is essentially a Para
dise for men of comfortable means, who
do- not wish to be separated from their
wives and children in summer, and who
wish at the same time to give their families
a thorough change of scene and atmosphere.
Neither his interest in horses nor yachts,
nor the desire to be socially rampant, in
duces the well-to-do Bostonian to settle
along the North Shore. He thinks rather
of the comparative ease with which he can
exchange the parboiled pavements and the
scent of tepid water-melon for the delicious
breeze from the sea which greets him on
his own piazza, where he can sit through
the afternoon on along cushioned chair and
watch the yachts sail by, waxing proud in
his belief that he is able to distinguish one
from another. He thinks of the delightful
and numerous drives in everv direction, and
of the safe beaches and shaded groves in
the enjoyment of which the hue of health
will be deepened in the faces of his chil
dren and of his wife and grown-up daugh
ters, provided they do not wear veils.
54

Avenue of Pines,
near Man
chester-by- the-Sea

He thinks, in short, that he will be de- The
lightfully comfortable ; that his household s°^'
can be kept amiable by out-of-door amuse
ments, while he enjoys the rest which
middle-aged human nature ought to enjoy
in the sweltering season, and that if he
chances to feel frisky, he can drive over
to dine at the Marblehead Club-House,
or feast his eyes on the pink-coated pag
eantry of an aniseseed hunt. And, not to
leave the finer sensibilities out in the
cold — you may be sure he bears them
quietly in mind, this Bostonian cottager —
there are unsurpassed and rarely paralleled
effects of sky and water, and winds and
woods, and sunset and moon-glory, con
tinuously appealing to his love of nature
with endless variety.
The ocean on the north shore of Massa
chusetts Bay possesses a wider range of
expression than on the other side, where
it begins to woo the sands of Cape Cod and
to yield to the milder moods of the Gulf
Stream. It is a veritable lion here, and
the rugged, rock-bound coast seems to be
57

The a necessary bulwark to stay the fury of the
s^re' elements. The very temperature of the
water, and the fresh, bracing vigor of the
winds, suggest a strength and majesty
which is sometimes trying to human con
stitutions which lack vitality. But though
a lion when roused, this northern sea has
a nobleness of disposition which makes you
forget its cruelty on the very morrow after
it has strewn the beach with salvage, and
dashed in gorgeous spray well-nigh up to
your chamber window. Then there is a
depth of blue in the sky and water, and
a life-giving, life-stirring warmth in the sun
which fills the soul with gladness ; and
when at nightfall the breeze dies away,
and the pink and saffron clouds paint
themselves upon the peaceful deep and the
silent landscape, what a joy it is to sit and
watch the twilight fade into night, the stars
appear, and the light-house beacons come
out like other stars along the horizon.
How still, refreshing, and soothing is the
night ! You only just catch the refrain
of the automatic buoy-whistle guarding
58

The Reef
of Nor -
man' s
Woe

the Graves, appropriately known as the
Melancholy Bull, telling, from across the
Bay, that the storm has been ; and once
and again a cool, salty puff announces the
advent of the night-breeze. Now rides
the moon, and far away across her glitter
ing wake glides some coaster like a phan
tom ship. Can this be the ocean which
yesterday seemed so cold and cruel and
revengeful, as you listened to the roar of
the wind upon the roof? Even the " Reef
of Norman's Woe," that poetic sorrow of
the coast, the Mecca of the tourist who
visits Gloucester, has lost its treacherous
leer, and suggests for a moment to the
ever-hopeful soul that nature has become
the slave of man. Such days, such nights
are the frequent recurring boon of the
dweller by the North Shore.
Those who regard the continued indi
vidual ownership of large tracts of land,
or even of an acreage sufficient to keep
one's neighbor at a respectful distance, as
inconsistent with true democratic develop
ment, will be likely to look askance at the
61

The
NorthShore

The beautiful estates along the North Shore.
s°rore It may be that in a few generations we
shall all live cheek by jowl with one an
other in houses built and painted after a
stereotyped model, with exactly the same
number of square feet of land in our front-
yards, and under limitations as to the
number of flowers we may grow in our
pitiful little gardens, for fear of seeming to
outstrip the luxury of those who are too
indolent to grow any. Such a period
may become necessary in the process of
giving all men an opportunity to enjoy
equally the fruits of the earth and the full
ness thereof. But whatever the dim fu
ture may bring to pass in this regard by
dint of positive law or ethical argument,
there is no doubt that, at present, the
beautiful seaside estates which have been
cut out of the coast-line from farthest
Maine to the limits of the shore of Buz
zard's Bay, during the last twenty years,
are among the most precious of human
possession, and that the class of people
seeking for them is increasing in direct
62

ratio to the growth of refined civilization The
1 North
over the country. Shore
More and more do we realize that a
residence at a summer watering place hotel
is apt to leave soul, mind and body jaded,
and that to bang about in the hot weather
at fashionable beaches and promiscuous
springs may amuse for a fortnight, but sug
gests by the close of a season the atmos
phere of the corps de ballet or a circus.
We are learning as a nation to rest in
summer, instead of to gad, and those who
have been the fortunate pioneers in the
movement are indeed to be envied, for
though the sands of the sea are said to be
unnumbered, the coast of New England
has its limitations. Beati possidentes !

63

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