The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1878-07-31

there for day or two or week, especially in
the camp meeting season. Three hundred
thousand railroad tickets were sold for Ocean
Grove and Asbury Park last Summer. Dur
ing the heat of July and August Ocean Grove
becomes village of tents as well as Of cot
tages and hotels. Rooms may be had with
or without board, or tents may be hired and
housekeeping practised on small scale. In
deed, the problem, of living may here be solv-
and at comparatively slight expense. The
narrow and translucent lake separating the
two towns, which would else be one, is lined
on both sides with cottages the lawns in front
of which slope gently to the waters edge
At the foot of almost every lawn skiff is
moored. Nearly five hundred of these grace
full little crafts are owned along the lake, and
rowing is a favorite amusement with ladies as
well as with the young men. On bright af-
ternoons, or in moonlt evenings, when the
lights of the bordering cottages are reflected
in the water, the painted boats and their gay
ly dressed occupants compose with the scene
around them quite an enchanting spectacle.
A delicately moulded pleasure steamer called
! the Rusland plies to and fro between the up
per parts of the villages and the bathing hous-
es at the surf.
OCEAN BEACH.
A mile or two below lies Ocean Beach, a
village for the most part prudenty built some
distance back from tho beach, close by which,
however, a number of hotels and boarding
| Io4
been erected for Summer visitors The land
adjoining the beach is so low that the Winter
tempests occasionally urge the breakers up
across the road and make deposits of sand in
the front door yards. Last Winter one or two
bathing sheds were washed off their founda-
tions and it seems wonderful that greater
damage is not done there every year. The
principal retreats are the Columbia, Carleton
Cottage the Surf House, tue Delaware House,
the Colorado Hotel and the Neptune.
SEA PLAIN AND SPRING LAKE.
Farther on is Sea Plain, similarly situated,
and still farther the drive leads through love-
ly scenery of groves and farms and over a
bridge that spans Shark River to Spring Lake,
ten miles from Long Branch. About five hun
dred acres of dry subsoil land, very fertile
and advantageously situated hero, are owned
by the "Sprng Lake Improvement Com
pany." Nearly in the centre of the tract is
the natural body of fresh water which bears
the name. Its undulating and deeply indent-
cd shores are in many places thlckly shaded,
and abound with pleasant hooks and bits of
inviting greensward. Here is sail boating,
and in the lake, which is scarcely separated
from the sea by sandbaf, are said to be fish
in plenty. The Monmouth House, standing
between the lake and the surf has rooms for
five hundred guests and is constructed with
all the modern conveniences, including a
steam elevator and II steam heating apparat-
us. The House, also a large hotel is built
near the railroad depot, a few hundred yards
away. Numerous fine cottages dot the vicin-
ity. The wide avenues and the liberal scale
of all the improvements make Spring Lake
Beach an exceptionally attractive spot
SEA GRIT
A mile below, at Sea Girt, stands the Beach
House, a fiist-class hotel, whose site is the
finest on this part of the coast. Sea Girt, a
siiihpo comprising "OouV OiSuo hNhuiOu tOAOpy
has been laid out like Spring Lake, under the
supervision of a land improvement company,
of which men like ex-Gov. Joel Parker, Jas.
p. Scott, James Hunter and John G. Lucas
are directors. 1t has a front on the Atlantic
of over two miles. On its southern boundary
are the Manasquan River apd the little viii
lage of Squan. On the north side is Sea Girt
Inlet, one of the most beautiful of the pum-
erous estuaries which indent this part of the
coast The Manasquan, extending inland
some eight miles, is from mile to mile and
half wide, with high, wooded banks and has
usual depth of six or eight feet on the bar,
so that coasting craft and pleasure yachts can
readily pass to and from the ocean. A por-
ton of the Sea Girt estate was for many
years the favorite residence of tito late Com
modore Robert +. Stockton, and the whole OF
it is now under high cultivation. yielding
large crops. The entire front is timbered
with a heavy growth Of oak, pine and cedar.
Nearly twenty miles of streets and avenues
have been surveyed, several miles of which
have already been constructed in an honest
manner and twenty acres of the finest part Of
the property close to the shore have been con-
verted into park. The place is ifty-six
miles from New York by the new branch Of
the Central Railroad, which here terminates
1t is nearer Philadelphia than Cape May or
Long Branch and nearer Trenton and other
large interior cities of New Jersey than any
other seaside resort 1t is, therefore, i'm
mensely popular with Philadelphiaus and New