The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-07-31
SUMNER RESORTS.
NAHANT, MASS.


NAHANT, July "a, 1858.
The mere mention Of Nahant am certain, will
recall to many minds the gay and festive scenes gone
by, that once upon time, and that time IL not very
long ago, were wont to make OF II one OF the most
popular summer resorts In the Union. How you and
! and many others can well remember, and that
without any great stretch of memory, how in those
good times gone by, when fellow had worked like
slave IN the city nine months out of the twelve I'M
naturally allotted to the year months of labor he
packed up all his duds In such fearful hurry as to
forget every special thing he wanted to take with
him. bounced on to Nahant and did not think him.
SELF free rom all city evils until he had registered
himself guest Of the grand old hotel burned to the
ground some time ago. Ali Nahant was the place
then. But what am 1 talking abouti Just as
though no person lived at the place any morel
True the ring OF the olden time Is here more for
the metal that gave the sound ia now cracked
and old and broken; but Nahant. for all
that ID still resort Of fashion, Of wealth ana retire
ment, and nobody can gainsay that, be he never 80
nrm believer In the 'palmier days" of years
already flown. AS yet no goodly pile has arisen
from the ashes Of the good one gone to make all
hearts merry; but what Of iti There are as many
people here now as there ever were and they are
Just as full OF fun and enjoyment their predeces
sors were and there's only one difference between
them, and THAI is the latter lived In hotel the for
mer live In cottages
THE COTTAGES.
Talking OF cottages puts me in mind that since the
disappearance OF the big hotel q wonderful change
for the better has come over the dreams not only
but the actual existence Of this lovely place. Go
where you may all over this broad land of ours and
peep into every summer resort you can find In and
OUT OF the way ana you VIII not see single that
can surpass Nahant for Its natural beauty enhanced
as II mas been by the artful hand OF man. and Of
woman TOO FOR aught ! can tell to the contrary.
From the moment You put your ty-tired foot on the
wharf at the steamboat landing until you have taken
horse and ridden all about the roads everything APP
pears In form or attractiveness. DO you pass
badly named Calfs walk you are sure to
TOO TOOK u, at d the Hood cottage where the trees
little cot behind Them and where the well gravelled
walks and the little wicket gate standing half
supposing you do go In another direction and
gal,op up the hill, the Tudor mansion, with its
and flower gardens that freight the air with their
sweet fragrance, or perchance the house that Jack
didn't build, but Jessie Fremont once lived ill., will
stare you out OF countenance; and the further you
go on the cosest cottages In the world are certain
to spring up on the roadside In thick and beau
teOus profuson. Nor can your horse stumble over
the slightest pebble did he travel through all the
roads OF Nahant twenty times over for there's not
q pebble In the way big enough to cause conva-
lescent mouse to make deviating crawl, which can
account for In only one way and that Is that Nahant
has no street contractor. The fact OF the matter is
III.
superior. The Boston solid men-"Beekman street
folks, as they are called here, just as New Yorker
understand this and have 'located', here I'm cOnsid
cradle numbers, nearly all OF them having their
own cottages and living In truly comfortable style,
as becomes gentlemen OF MEANS In the country,
when the heat In the cities has frightened the
mercury into hiding itself among the nlneties. The
cottages are all surrounded by GROUNDS tastefuly
laid out, and everything about them denotes that the
owners men who know the true value OF solid en-
joyment. Besides those who reside In the cottages
hnp ~
fact that there is no accommodation for them.
There is but one hotel here that hold any number
over thirty and less than fifty, and that is the Whit
ney; but 1t Is not kept in style that Is inviting to
many who would wish to remain all summer. The
"Eood Cottage" OF which Pttman-last season the
man OF the occasion at the Stetson House, Long
Branch-is proprietor Is more OF fashionable resort
for dinner parties from Boston than q hotel proper;
30 1t can't count. BY the way, there Is man here
who may yet be the means OF again drawing the
stream Of res0rters into its old channel for he In
tends to have erected in time for next season hotel
that will accommodate five hundred persons and
five hundred people can't be slowed away in regal
s sy ~ very a So LOOK out
other watering places when the time comes.
which is used by the batherss here extends from
Nahant TO the city OF Lynn which has been manu-
featuring soles the past many year and yet returns
10 the census population OF but thirty thousand
souls. 1t is three miles and half long, has a very
frm sandy surface, and there Ia the suspicion OF
am % aDout IT, no matter now high the sea
DO you know found by 'assistng'' at the bathing
the other day that many Young ladies who come
here purp0sey to enjoy the seaside don't 20 In the
water at all The ordeal may be a very hard one
but Is very time hOn0red one, that you have to un.
dress before you step In the water for you have to
dor your taor's best efforts and crawl into suit
that would set all the dogs In creation barking at
you did you venture once In IL on the highways
Well, when you get into one OF these DISCUSSES you
cannot certainly retain any OF your civilized outfit,
80 suppose that Is what ais some Of the young
ladies' for I've heard that dressmakers have a knack
nowadays OF making people look as though nature
had done all she could for them, and that in
bathing-there, I've got that old cramp In my hand
again. over Thousand persons battle Off the beach
daily and had the time and you the space could
give you many an incident OF the daily enjoyment
that might prove OF interest to both old and young
THE DRIVES
from Nahant along the beach and through the city
OF Lynn TO Swampscot are very fine. IL must not
be thought that when say drive through city Is
q very fine thing that the streets OF Lynn are paved
and that you logge along over them as you do in
New York. Not at ALL Lynn strikes q stranger
as being very large village, prettiy laid out
and, as every vol conducted village should have
has good macadamZed roads, and the houses are
all az least near the seashOre, OF the regular New
England cottage pattern-white gables and green
shades You can drive about the place for miles
and needn't draw on your imagination In the least
to think you are In the country, for you really
once you get into Lynn. In many places the roads
wind about In quiet hooks, where only ut great In
tervas do you come across cottage, while all along
the route there thick shrubbery and tall pines that
afford very grateful shade warm summer day.
Besides drive to Swampscott naturally brings one
into the very midst OF Boston ton out Of town for the
season, with oil its splendid turnOuts Any evening
during the summer the roads are brilliant In their
shows OF equipages and pretty girls In them az the
New York Park Is on saturday afternoons and II
fellow feels Ill humored enough to compare notes
during his drive think that your Manhattan beau
ties would not be very well satisfied at the result
provided one Is not preudiced, and men never are,
you know.