VILLA-CROWNED NAHANT. 215 less overgrown fortunes. The highways that are laid out upon this curious peninsula are excellent, the arching elms in most charming manner rising gracefully over them. Many pretty landscapes are displayed from the higher grounds, and there are views across the sea in almost every direction. Several old-time houses are still found among the lawn-environed villas, relics of the earlier days, before modern fashion had seized upon Nahant. All around the ocean side are huge buttresses of rock, where the waves long since washed out all the sand and soil, although there have been left many pretty coves among the rugged projections of the cliffs. The dark-blue water sparkles under the brisk wind, which raises profuse spray and "white-caps." Seen across the sea, far away to the southwest and hazy at the horizon, is the distant city of Boston, having the prominent gilded State-House dome rising at the top of the broad, flat cone the city makes. As we go about Nahant, watching the waves beating upon the rocks and dashing into the little intervening coves, and winding with the pleasant road among the villas, there constantly stands up the little white-towered church as the central landmark. Returning to the mainland over the long, narrow isthmus, the broadly-extended Massachusetts shore in front is seen to be fringed with villages, their white wooden houses dotted along the edge of the water and spreading almost the whole way from Boston, past Winthrop, being all in full view, and finally developing into the larger town of Lynn immediately before us, with its towers and spires and the conspicuous city hall, having a long background of hills. Then the fringe of villages spreads off to the eastward, into Swampscott and Marblehead, while far beyond there loom up the granite hills among which the famous fishing-port of Gloucester nestles, the view finally ending in the distant rocky headland of Cape Ann. XXX. THE GRANITE BUTTRESS OF CAPE ANN. FROM Lynn our eastward journey is renewed along the picturesque northern coast through the frequent fishingsettlements that are undergoing a modern evolution into seaside summer resorts. Cottages border the little bays, where the fishing-boats are drawn up on the sand-beaches, and villas are hung upon the hillsides rising high at the back. Around the many swamps and marshes here abounding crags protrude, for we have entered another Boston summer suburb-Swampscott-as fashionable as Nahant and as populous. In all directions the rocks raise their jagged and battered, furrowed sides, and cottages are set on top or nestle among them. Some of these summerhouses are of large size and built in very strange styles, for their designers like nothing better than to get up odd kinds of architecture. Some of the more startling houses are perched high on the rocks, with stairways leading up to them. There are huge hotels out near the water-side, and Swampscott merges into Clifton, with the ocean washing in front; and as we move farther along more and more rocks appear, and the whole surface seems to have been formerly covered by the boulders that have been gathered to construct the stone fences, and it is still covered with myriads of smaller rounded and water-worn stones. As we go among these rocks, with a field or two disclosing a doleful attempt at farming, the distant Marblehead steeples appear in front rising from that ancient and most curious town. QUAINT OLD MARBLEHEAD. An uneven backbone of granite, covering about six square miles, is thrust out into the Atlantic Ocean in the direction of Cape Ann, and is hedged about with rocky QUAINT OLD MARBLEHEAD. 217 islets. On the one side this granite peninsula forms the harbor of Salem, while on the other side a miniature haven is made by a craggy appendage to the south-eastward that is attached to the main peninsula by a ligature of sand and shingle. The quaint old town of Marblehead occupies the greater part of the surface, while the appendage, now the yachtsmen's headquarters, is known as Marblehead Neck. Formerly this place was a great resort of sailors and fishermen. The crooked, narrow streets in the older portion run in all directions over the rocks, lined by frame houses, their uneven sides generally being without footwalks, and the buildings are crowded together in an inconvenient manner. This once pre-eminently nautical town was formerly the second port in Massachusetts, but its marine interests have almost passed away, and it has since, like so many other Massachusetts communities, gone largely into shoemaking, the big shoe-factories being scattered through it. Among the many wooden buildings rocks appear in all directions, and have certainly gained the mastery. When the preacher, George Whitefield, visited Marblehead, he gazed in astonishment upon the superabundant rocks, and asked in surprise, "Pray, where do they bury their dead?" The English Channel Islands furnished many of the original settlers, and their peculiarities of dialect still prevail among their descendants. The old-time houses, coming down from the colonial days, and the nautical flavor of almost everything, even though shoemaking is now permanent among this seafaring people, recall the time in the last century when the seaport of Marblehead was almost a rival of Boston. The superannuated little Fort Sewall, that once protected the port, is out on the headland, and its position commands the harbors upon either side. Built upon the projecting crag, with the water washing it upon both sides, the surface has been sodded over, and, although the walls are decaying, the precious old fort is preserved as a memento of the past. From it there is a charming out look at the rocks and promontories, the little bays between, and far out over the sea. There is Lowell Island, with its summer hotel; and the more distant view is along the extended north shore, with its modern summer resorts expanding and overshadowing the older fishing-towns at Beverly, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and, finally, the New England fishermen's great port of Gloucester and the ponderous rocks of Cape Ann. Though it may have ceased to be a defensive work, this ancient fort is now a picturesque ruin, and a contribution-box hangs on its gate for aid in its restoration. There are red-roofed villas, some of unique and attractive construction, perched on the rocks all about this quaint yet charming town that has had so much to do in educating the American sailor. THE ANCIENT PORT OF SALEM. There stretches westward of the Marblehead peninsula into the mainland another noted haven of the olden timeSalem harbor, which divides into two arms, known as North and South Rivers, having between them the town, mainly built upon a peninsula about two miles long. Passing around the rocky edge of an intervening bay, we enter the ancient city of the witches by going through one of those typical New England streets of which so many have been seen upon this tour, with its long rows of stately overarching elms making a grand aisle of interlaced branches far above. Bordering this attractive street are pleasant homes standing in spacious grounds, while on the waterside their smooth green lawns stretch down to the harbor's edge. This was the Indian domain of "Naumkeag," a name that has been preserved in many titles here, and is said to mean the "Eel Land." This was the mother-colony on Massachusetts Bay, the first house having been built in 1626. Old John Endicott got a grant from the Plymouth settlers for the colony, and came out and founded the town two years afterward, naming it "Salem, from the peace THE ANCIENT PORT OF SALEM. 219 which they had and hoped in it." Despite this original peacefulness, however, the pious Salem colonists soon developed warlike tendencies. The settlement had not long existed when they scourged and cut off the ears and banished Philip Ratcliffe for "blasphemy against the First Church." In the infancy of the colony a trade report showed annual imports of one hundred and ten thousand dollars in arms and cannon and ninety thousand dollars in furniture, building materials, and everything else. The "First Church," formed in 1629, is said to have been the earliest church organization in the United States, and it still exists and flourishes. In that year the early history records that there were ten houses in the town besides the governor's house, "which was garnished with great ordnance;" adding, "thus we doubt not that God will be with us, and if God be with us, who can be against us?" It was from Salem in 1630 that John Winthrop migrated to found Boston. In former times this remarkable old town was the leading New England port for foreign trade, but its glory has departed, this trade now being attracted by the superior inducements of the more energetic Boston merchants. Salem in 1785 sent out the first American vessel that doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and during a half century afterward it held almost a monopoly of the China and East Indies trade with the United States, having at one time fifty-four large ships thus engaged. Salem ships also went to the southern seas, to Japan and Africa, so that seventy or eighty years ago it was in the first rank of American ports, its harbor being commodious, with deep water, and convenient. The town is yet wealthy, but it stands almost still while other towns around it grow. Passing a green old age in quiet restfulness, its venerable merchants and sea-captains live in the comfortable mansions surrounding its attractive common enclosed by rows of the stately elms that also line the chief streets. These make the aris |