g4 



fame* — active, wealthy, leather-scented Danrers — and central, 

 hill-girt, quiet Topsfield. 



Now let the visual ray trace as with luminous radius, the 

 curved outline of our sea-coast : — from old Newbury (which 

 of course includes its Port) through ancient Rowley and Ips- 

 wich — through Chebacco — lost, but venerated name! — by 

 Squam, Sandy Bay, Pigeon Cove and the Harbor — where 

 Queen Anne's craggy promontory juts out into the sea — 

 through villa-bordered Manchester — bean-loving Beverly — 

 witch-haunted Salem ; — over that populous, piscatory ledge, 

 formerly and still I suppose known to its hardy occupants 

 by the name of " Mobblehead " — to rocky, marshy, many- 

 stitching, many-pegging Lynn, redeemed from monotony by 

 picturesque and delightful Nahant. 



In this survey, the eye has swept full half-circle round — 

 over more than fifty miles of coast : — a coast of creeks and 

 coves and harbors and headlands — of pleasant sea-beaches 

 and rugged sea-cliffs — and better still, a coast dotted all 

 along with populous and prosperous towns. 



Citizens of Essex — men of its interior — sigh not idly for 

 remote, and to you, it may be, inaccessible displays of what 

 is beautiful and grand in the natural world, — when an hour's 

 ride will place any of you face to face with one of the fairest, 

 most glorious creations of the Infinite Hand — face to face with 

 old Ocean himself — capricious, indeed, but ever beautiful, 

 ever grand, whether he kisses the shore with soft whispers 

 of affection — or lashes and shakes it in his loud yet impo- 

 tent rage. 



No one familiar with the Seasons of Thomson, can have 

 forgotten his description of the prospect from Richmond Hill. 

 For me — a boy — it had an unwearying charm — and often as 

 I dwelt in imagination on the poet's picture, the wish and 

 the hope arose that I might, one day, look on the original. 

 The portraitures of Fancy, though aided by the liveliest de- 

 scription, do indeed often lead to disappointment when the 

 *See Appeudis.. 



