Ancient Landmarks. 165 



Beyond the marsli the road rises rapidly, and winds along over 

 abrupt rocky hills, well wooded, and having fine private estates 

 on each hand. A pretty meadow on the west side, at the foot of 

 a steep descent, has been known from earliest times as Peck's 

 Meadow; "The Steppen Stones " used to be, in old days, the 

 only thoroughfare across the water here. The road still winds 

 on, reaching, before long, Pleasant Beach, and the east end of 

 Cohasset Rocks ; and here it bends abruptly westward and rises, 

 turning on to the crest of the cliff above these celebrated rocks, 

 along which it runs for their entire length, from Pleasant Beach 

 to Greenhill Beach. 



As wild a stretch of iron-bound shore as could be wished for 

 are these cliffs. Woe to the ship that, escaping the awful ledges 

 to the eastward, drives on here before a northeast gale. The 

 Jerusalem Road along their upper edge, but a few years since 

 was a rough, picturesque way, bordered by stunted cedars " blown 

 into " a peculiar shape of growth aivay from the storm winds, so 

 to speak, that prevail from the north and northeast. Within the 

 past twenty years wealth and fashion have taken possession of 

 the lands on these hills, and the elegant villas of summer resi- 

 dents are to be seen on every hand, while the roadway has been 

 smoothed and " improved," fancy fences or elaborate stone-walls 

 built, and the storm-shapen cedars cut down or trimmed into 

 artificial forms, thus in a measure destroying the picturesque 

 character of the surroundings. 



The town of Cohasset should never have permitted the sea side 

 of this road to be owned by private individuals, but should have 

 kept it as a public ocean park, accessible to the people. 



Near the point where the road takes up its course to the west, 

 there is, not far above the level of the breakers, and down among 

 the rocks, a little basin of clear, cool water which bubbles out 

 from the precipitous, weather-beaten ledges, known as Cold 

 Spring. 



Following the road along, a superb view presents itself. To 

 the east are Minot's Light and The Ledges. Beyond them, and 

 losing itself at the horizon, is the broad Atlantic. Here, in front, 

 to the northward, is the blue expanse of Massachusetts Bay, the 

 north shore in the dim distance hanging upon the verge of vision 

 like a cloud ; to the northwest, the great stretch of sands known 

 as Nantasket Long Beach, Point Allerton at its extreme end, and 

 Boston Light beyond on the Outer Brewster. 



After descending a hill we come to the Black-Rock House, on 

 a slight rise, close beside the sea, whose waves drench it with 

 spray in great gales. 



The picture spread out before one along this road in wintry 

 storms is magnificent, presenting as it does the wild grandeur of 

 the conflict between the seas, driven before the gale, and the stub- 

 born granite lines of these mighty ledges. 



Just off Greenhill Beach, which is at the eud of Cohasset 



