132 



&l)c laxmtfs iltontijlj) Visitor. 



fifty pounds of anthracite coal, it may be kept in 

 operation some twelve hours, furnishing drinka- 

 ble fresh water, at the rale of seven gallons an 

 hour. It is unnecessary to endeavor to point out 

 the advantages that must result from this appa- 

 ratus, especially on long voyages with a numer- 

 ous ship's company. It will also prevent the 

 necessity of making a harbor to procure water, 

 which is often done on a voyage to places be- 

 yond the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn, and 

 which is ever attended with vexatious delay and 

 considerable expense." 



&l)c Visitor. 



CONCOUD, N. H., SEPTEMBER 30, 1849. 



New Hampshire Scenery aud New Hampshire 

 t Fruits. 



The most pleasant, enlivening, exhilirating 

 spots and locations in New Hampshire are found 

 upon our highlands and eminences which have 

 been especially avoided by improved modern 

 roads and rarely can be approached by railroads. 

 These hills, as the most inviting for pure produc- 

 tion, were many of them first of the settlements: 

 the meeting house, or house of religious worship, 

 was always erected upon a hill, if one coidd be 

 found convenient, and over this hill, before car- 

 riages became of use for personal travelling, the 

 main road of the town took its course. So much 

 better did the first inhabitants consider the hills, 

 that they often went out of the way to make the 

 roads over them. As travellers we see much 

 less of the villages upon the hills than formerly. 

 Of the many pleasant hills of New Hampshire, 

 few will better command admiration than the 

 site of the old parish church in the east village 

 of ancient Londonderry — the spot where for 

 many years in succession was IHd the celebra- 

 ted " Derry Fair," which annually attracted the 

 attention and attendance of the inhabitants far 

 and near. It is now about twenty years since 

 we visited that village — it is more than forty 

 years since the air-line turnpike from Concord 

 to Andover bridge at the site of the new town of 

 Lawrence carried the travel away from the vil- 

 lage on the hill ; and it is now nearly twenty 

 years since the air-line turnpike has been avoid- 

 ed in its turn as a place of general travel by the 

 construction and use ofalree public road further 

 westward. Yet the Derry village upon the hill — 

 its ancient possessors passed away — still remains 

 not less beautiful and inviting than in former 

 days. 



With the business of hasty railroad speed one 

 day of the past month the editor of the Visitor 

 made an hour's visit at the east village of Derry. 

 In the air of a clear autumnal day, he was sur- 

 prised to see how near from this eminence was 

 drawn to the vision the prominent bills forty aud 

 fifty miles distant westward between the Merri- 

 mack and Connecticut rivers. Among the most 

 striking beauties of the surrounding scenery in 

 a view from these hills is the nearness to which 

 they bring the high grounds and mountains at a 

 greater distance : these in falling down to the 

 valleys seem to recede as we come nearer to 

 them. Prominent in several directions at high 

 elevations appear the twin Unconoonucks and 

 Jo English not far from them standing almost 

 isolated as we enter upon New Hampshire: fur- 

 ther south, as if nearly all alone, rises the broad 

 based Wachusett — at a space midway hetween 

 that and the more magnificent Monaduock is 

 descried from many points the sugar-loaf We- 

 tatick, over which is the dividing line between 

 Massachusetts and New Hampshire, blanching 



northwardly in the ridge of mountains separating 

 the Contoocook from the Sonhegan and Piscata- 

 quog valleys, where no railroad can find its 

 way but with a more expensive motive power 

 than to travel the way round the whole valley 

 distance. 



Thus much for the distant prospect: the Derry 

 east village — the scene of the D Try fairs where 

 the " map of busy life, its fluctuations and its 

 vast concerns," was often displayed — was the en- 

 chanting spot from which we viewed the moun- 

 tains and hills at a distance. If the village can- 

 not draw what is most convenient to it, no op- 

 portunity is omitted to bring everything as near 

 as possible. It is too elevated for the railroad, 

 but the Manchester and Lawrence railroad to be 

 completed in a few months conies within two 

 miles of the great meeting house upon the hill. 

 Still nearer soon may come a proposed railroad 

 from north-east to south-west which will cut off 

 a considerable distance on the way from Maine 

 to the city of New York through Nashua and 

 Worcester. 



Driving to the village, we had no spare time, 

 to go hack in one hour and a half eleven miles 

 to Manchester and take the Boston cars precise- 

 ly at twelve o'clock. Our"auld acquaintance" 

 upon the hill with their hopeful families born 

 and grown up since "fiist we were acquaint" 

 urged the stay : the favorite lady insisted that the 

 dozen chattering canaries tuned all their throats 

 and sounded ua a welcome at the moment of our 

 arrival. We could not stop, because our visit 

 was only an unexpected incident of the journey. 

 The farms all about Deny are as good as the 

 best in the Slate — the most of them owned and 

 cultivated by <;ood livers, enjoying such comforts 

 as the wealthy men of the cities fail to secure 

 wilh the greatest expenditures. One of the city 

 merchants, having made his fortune while young, 

 hrought back his wife to the spot of her nativity 

 more than twenty years ago. Here he has had 

 an opportunity to cultivate an exceedingly good 

 taste in the improvement of the soil. The great 

 farm on which was the mansion erected half a 

 century ago aud occupied by the lateJohn Prentice 

 (a long lime representative and speaker of the 

 New Hampshire House) and afterwords pos- 

 sessed by the late Gen. E. H. Derby, a gentleman 

 of great generosity and public spirit— once own- 

 ed by Alauson Tucker, Esq., was more than be 

 cared to occupy as a farmer: he restricted his 

 ground to fewer acres nearer the village, where he 

 erected a beautiful country villa and in easy af- 

 fluence has reared his family, looking well to his 

 household, and careful of the little events which, 

 not less than the larger transactions, contribute 

 to the comforts and even the luxuries of living. 



Without opportunity of calling on Mr. Tucker, 

 we hardly had time to look on his grounds which 

 have grown into an abundant production under 

 a fine horticultural taste. In the quiet village 

 where the excellent uniform morals of the peo- 

 ple have long made every thing safe without 

 lock and key, and where cherries, plums, peach- 

 es and melons are as sure of repose in the open 

 garden and field as when gathered into locked 

 up apartments, Mr. Tucker's garden of fine fruits 

 is situated. We just looked over the hedge to 

 see what has not been common in New Hamp- 

 shire, fine rareripe peach trees bending under 

 the rich burden of their red-cheeked fruits. On 

 the point of leaving before having seen one of 

 Mr. Tucker's family, a message from over the 

 way came to us, that we must stop long enough 



for him to send a box into the vehicle which was 

 to carry us back to Manchester: the unexpected 

 requirement was obeyed. A few minutes, with 

 no little anxiety to leave in season for return, 

 brought us the box wilh at least a full peck of 

 fruit of the very best flavor of any peaches that 

 had been tasted during the present summer. 

 They came home with us safely: and the treat 

 was a highly acceptable one, not alone to out- 

 own household, hut to some of our neighbors. 



We have gone roundabout to pass a tribute to 

 that fine portion of New Hampshire selected 

 more than a hundred years ago by a very intelli- 

 gent Scotch-Irish colony which has spread over 

 the country scholars, divines and statesmen of 

 eminence, as well as to compliment the individ- 

 ual who was in haste to notice our entrance to 

 the ancient village after a long absence. Old Derry 

 has for several years distinguished itself for its 

 early advances in horticulture: for more than 

 twenty years, and some of them years when this 

 fruit was exceedingly rare in New England, fine 

 peaches have been produced in that town. The 

 garden and nursery of one man (Mr. Wilson, we 

 believe) attracted the attention of the country 

 about. Since that time it has been found that 

 the climate of those granite hills is not uncon- 

 genial to the fruits. Last week at the Quincy 

 .Market in Boston among the finest fruit of New 

 England — decidedly larger, fairer and of better 

 flavor than the New Jersey and Delaware peach- 

 es—were peaches raised in Chester, N. II., on 

 the hills contiguous to Derry. The attention 

 which has been paid during the last twenty years 

 to the rearing and cultivation of apple orchards 

 is already returned in profits to the proprietors 

 such as have not been usual from any other cul- 

 tivated grounds in the interior of our Slate. 



Agriculture in Massachusetts. 



The last week in September presented us the 

 hasty opportunity of attending Agricultural Fairs 

 in two Massachusetts Counties near the seaboard. 

 The first Norfolk County Society gave its annual 

 exhibition at Dedham on Wednesday the 26th, 

 and the Society of old Essex was at the ancient 

 town of Salem on Thursday the 27th of Sep- 

 tember. Each exhibition, it is said, drew to 

 both places the people in larger numbers than 

 had ever before met in either town on a similar 

 occasion. The week previous the always grand 

 agricultural celebration at Worcester brought to- 

 gether with the elite of farmers and manufactur- 

 ers of that great county, besides the massive 

 population of Worcester city itself novv num- 

 bering nearly twenty thousand, numerous spec- 

 tators from other counties and other Slates. 

 The Worcester and Nashua railroad made a 

 ready ride to the celebration out and back the 

 same day the occasion of carrying citizens of 

 New Hampshire lo the Worcester cattle show. 



The shows of the three great counties of Mas- 

 sachusetts exhibited that increasing attention lo 

 the improvement and cultivation of the earth 

 which is due to it as the procuring cause of the 

 sustenance and wealth of mankind. Not being 

 present at Worcester, we can speak of it only 

 from information from others. Ex-Gov. Lincoln 

 has been the president of the Worcester Society 

 for nearly thirty years: any body else, while he 

 retains his accustomed activity and interest in 

 all the improvements connected with a prosper- 

 ous community, would hardly seem to be in 

 place on that ground. With one consent he is 

 there the head of the noble society which has 

 done much for the increase of earth's produc- 



