Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-03
RUSTICATING DOWN EAST.
SUMMER FASHIONS IN OUT-OF.
THE-WAY PLACES.

Betweeu Hand Sewed and Machine
Sewed-Loiterings Along the AIassa-
chusetts COast-The Beach People
Dead Nahant-FrOm swampscOtt to
Portland.
CorrssDoHdeHce Of the Morning Eslos.
SwAMPsCoTT, MASS, Aug. New
Workers who have only been to Boston
know but little about the sister city, or in
what respect it has the advantage over
their own more pOpulOus town. Boston
is certainly smaller and more provincial
in its tone, but it is also more hOme-like,
more neighborly, and it has lovely out
lying villages in every direction where
the tired man Of business can make a
lovely summer, or all-the-year-round
home, without the expenditure Of more
time than it takes to get to the upper end
of New York even by the Elevated"
SwampscOtt is q case in point. 1t is half
an hour from Boston by rail, yet it is lit
orally by the sea. The back Of the cot
tages upon its principal street rest upon
the waters edge; the swish Of the water
makes music by which the babies are
lulled TO sleep; the fishermen's boats lie
upon the sands; the fishermen's houses
scape; yet the modern hOrse-car passes
your door, and will take you in five min
utes to the Lynn depot, and twenty-five
minutes thereafter the cars will land you
almost at your Office door in Boston-if
that Is where your office is.
Nor are you limited to SWampscOtt in
your choice Of a locality upon the North
Shore. From Boston to Gloucester, about
thirty miles, is one continuous village.
And this is only IN one direction. The
lines outward extend in numerous others
like the fingers of a hand, and are even
more thickly dotted with beautiful SUI
burban neighborhOods and communities
built up by the growing populations and
the railroad system; but all more or less
related to and dependent upon Boston as
the heart of the organic structure.
The beauty Of SwampscOtt is its near
ness TO Boston and its position upon the
edge Of the sea, with its own beach at its
back doors; Lynn, Chelsea and Nahant
beaches all in sight and within easy
walking distance, and beautiful, fertile
country Of orchards and farms and cool
old woods living on the other side, and
within a stones throw of the beach
Queen Anne cottages and seaside villas.
The variety furnishes a fresh drive every
dav for a month, and the contrast of the
waving fields Of grain and thrifty apple
trees with the grandeur OF the ocean
views is a neyer-ending surprise to per-
sons who have seen the sea only at COney
Island or Long Branch, and who think of
q shore as a strip of sand with perhaps a
shed-hke hotel upon it. SwampscOtt has
a population Of its own, but it IS Of course
greatly increased during the summer
months by its Boston contingent and by
the winter residents of other cities, some
even from New York and Washington
IN
the neighbOring town Of flynn, the cOntlg-
uoUs village Of Chelsea, or upon the Is
land of Nahant,
DEAD NAHANT.
But, no: it would not be safe to say that
a New Yorker had ever obtained per-
mauent fOothOld upon the sacred territory
Of Little not to say Great Nahant. IL
is exclusive property. 1t belongs to Bos-
toms bluest of blue blood. 1t IS famous
for its exclusiveness, its fine asphaltum
sidewalks, its light taxes and its eXces-
sive dullness. Its rock bound shores are
approached by a wide strip of made
ground leading out of Lynn, at the begin
ming of which is a sort Of old COney Island
Of shed and hotel, from which at night
CLEAN a row of electric lights which SHINE
as beacOns at SwampscOtt, and all along
the shore for fish dinners or suppers at
fifty cents per head, dancing and run
thrown in. This is the last sign of life
after leaving Lynn. Crossing the
long strip of made road washed on one
side by the waters of the ocean as they
break on one of the most beautiful beaches
in the world, and on the other by the har-
Dor Of Lynn, now undergoing needed pU-
rifiCatiOn by the assistance Of three
dredging machines, we approach what
seems TO be a dead town, it is so absO-
IUtely quiet and destitute Of all apparent
life. There were picturesque villas, with
Norman towers and gateways, there are
Swiss cottages and red, old English ga
bles, there are yine-wreathed arches and
ffribbOn'' borders which must have been
grown at enormous cost, for the wind at
Nahant is the dreaded enemy of plant
life. But in all the lovely frames and
hooks and settings there was not a
living face, and in all the highways
and byways not living form, save a
nursemaid with her charge and a solitary
man cutting top off a hedge with math-
ematical precisiOn-but all apparently as
dumb as Nahant itself. If this is the fate
Of eXclusiveness-tO be left solitary and
a'One-then one may well pray against
eXclusiyeness and recognize the cOnsOla-
ton which some one has mentioned as
arising from being kept at a distance by
some people, and that is that they are at
an equal distance. There are lawn tennis
grounds and there is tradition that a
party Of young people were once seen
playing that cheerful game in front Of one
OF the Nahant chateaus, but it has never
been substantiated, and few believe that
it could have occurred in this generation.
Twenty-Five years ago, when the present
owners and occupants of Nahant were
young, it was gay and thriving and par
ticularlv fashionable watering place. But
it determined upon charmed life, would
not have a hOtel-One was started twice,
and twice burned down-and resolved to
70 h. Lot n1O
severely, until it has lost all attraction,
at least for an outsider, and has less ap-
pearance Of life on its streets than that
wonderful city Of the dead -Pere-la-
Cbaise.
THE BEACH PEOPLE.
Ocean street in Lynn joins SwampscOtt
by an invisible line, only perceptible on
the bills of the Tax Collectors. Lynn is
A CITY and has city junketings to pay for,
consequently the taxes are high. swamp
scott is governed by its selectmen, and its
tax rate is only about half. Ocean street
faces Lynn beach, and upon this street
and the waters front, live the most dis
tinguished, or at least many Of the most
distinguished of the summer residents
and town people. Here is the cottage Of
L. 3. Aldrich and his family, only a part
Of which now resides in IL. Mr.. and Mrs.
AIdrich being absent in Europe. Here
Mrs. Frances HOdgsOn Burnett spends her
summers. and Mrs. Jean Davenport Lam
der. who owns here a valuable estate,
upon which there are three seaside resi-
deuces, but who, like Mrs. Burnett, makes
Washington her winter home. Prescott,
the historian, lived here near Mrs. Lam
der's cottage, and there is shown the
trunk of a cherry tree, round which he
continually walked while composing his
history, but his house has been enlarged
into a private family hotel, called the Red
Rock House, though the main part re-
mains as when he occupied it.
The view from the terrace Of any Of the
beach cottages is enchanting, and reminds
one OF the spectacle upon the Lake of
Tburm in Switzerland, leaving out the
mountains, but taxing in the circular ex-
pause of water, which is much finer, and
the amphitheatrical effect of the Cliff villas
and cottages which line the shore.
Maria Mitchell is one Of the summer
residents Of Lynn, and her strong charac- /
teristic face and figure, crowned with |
white hair, make a striking picture any /
where. Miss Mitchell interests heIseh 4
n the "WOman's Union" work, as she does