ance.

ing his very nearest and dearest, and his entire customary social acquaintBut 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 degree of regularity.

By the North Shore is meant the northern coast of Massachusetts Bay, from Nahant and Swampscott on the southwest to Gloucester and Cape Ann on the northeast. Cape Ann is the end of everything except the Atlantic Ocean, and civilization properly ceases before you come to Gloucester, the famous fishing-town of this portion of the world, which lies thirty-one miles from Boston in a tolerably direct line by rail. Along the borders of this rocky coast, which abounds in marvellous curves and indentations, including several fine harbors, stands a succession of villas, of various types of architecture, 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 Manchester, are among the names by which, for the sake of municipal or railway convenience, 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 wateringplace 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, three miles long, traversed by a single road. 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 picturesqueness of rock effects, and the complete 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 indeed 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 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 buttercups, the red honeysuckle, and common prickly roses ran delightful riot in front of every piazza, and the not infrequent cry of "Cows on the place, Cows on the place," was a pleasant slogan to the rising generation. To-day all these primitive beauties have disappeared beneath the harrow of the landscape gardener, and given place to cultivated verdure, æsthetic-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 foliage on the peninsula. Moreover, a very successful club or casino, organized within the last five years, acts as a central magnet to draw the cottagers from their piazzas and to promote social circulation. And 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 perhaps 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 hotelburned 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 originally 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 as Nahant, distant by either sea or land 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 bevond 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 Gloucester have, in the past, been such intelligent and honest factors in the welfare of the State and nation. But the once wellknown 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 villas were elaborate for that time, and the places were tended far more carefully than those of Nahant, and made in most instances 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 Massachu