23 



must ever be a blessed necessity. But with this we have a 

 liberal allowance of the best land — laud originally fertile, and 

 enriched by skillful toil. In what part of this vast country 

 can you find more of real thrift and of substantial comfort, 

 than exists to-day among the farmers, and mechanics — and 

 traders of Essex county ? 



What though no mountain with beetling crag and flashing 

 water-fall rise from our midst iu dazzling, or in cloudy sub- 

 limity ? These humbler heights — these gentle swells, that 

 wave with grass and corn, are they not better for us on the 

 whole ? Do you begin to wilt beneath the summer's heat, 

 and to sigh for some more bracing air ? Just take the early 

 train — and the too ardent sun, whose opening eye saw you 

 standing at the sea side, may shed his last mild beam upon 

 you at the foot of the Green Mountains — or of the White. 



Let it not be supposed that we confess to any deficiency of 

 charm in the landscapes of Essex. On the contrary, it is a 

 scene almost everywhere characterized by a varied and de- 

 lightful amenity. From more than one of its moderate em- 

 inences the eye may take in almost the whole picture. There 

 are two or three such points of observation, hardly a mile 

 from my own door. 



There, bounding, on the west, our field of vision, rise the 

 hills of Andover — some of them sacred and classical — all of 

 them beautiful; while just behind them stands this busy 

 city — wondrous growth and monument of enterprise. 



Then we follow north-eastwardly to its mouth, the course of 

 the industrious Merrimac — invisible itself — but clearly marked 

 by its lofty and fertile declivities, as it sweeps by agricultural 

 Methuen — shoe-making Haverhill — chaise-building Ames- 

 bury — and flannel-weaving Salisbury, on one side, — and by 

 the pleasant farms of Bradford, Groveland, and West New- 

 bury, on the other. 



In immediate proximity, the eye now rests on woody Mid- 

 dleton and Boxford — bustling Georgetown — Dodge-producing 

 Hamilton — swampy Wenham, with lake of icy, European 



