THE FARM OF THE FIRST MINISTER. 35 



into his heart. of hearts, as he sits in silence and listens to the 

 gentle breathing of the winds through their lofty arches. A 

 still, small voice, inaudible in the noisy rush of business, is 

 heard with distinctness there. As said Mr. Bryant more than 

 fifty years ago : — 



" The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 

 To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, 

 And spread the roof above them, — ere he framed 

 The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 

 The sound of anthems ; in the darkling wood, 

 Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down 

 And offered to the Mightiest, solemn thanks 

 And supplication." 



UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES. 



Such are among the ordinary resources of the First Minister's 

 Farm. It contains, however, certain others of a more specula- 

 tive character, and undeveloped as yet, of which no mention 

 has hitherto been made. 



1. It has within its bounds the whole or parts of three fish 

 ponds of an aggregate area of some twenty acres, upon which 

 important fisheries might be established by men of enterprise, 

 as they were two centuries and a half ago at Strawberry Bank, 

 by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason. 



Under the friendly encouragement of our fish commissioners, 

 choicest varieties of aquatic food might be successfully raised 

 for the ubiquitous small boy and the confident sportsman, fresh 

 from the city on his summer vacation, whose large outlay for 

 tackle is generally out of all proportion to the value of his 

 catches. 



2. It is also possible that the fur trade might be revived 

 within its bounds, and flourish at the capital city of New Hamp- 

 shire, as it formerly did when Concord was the headquarters of 

 the ancient Penacooks. It is true that the fox and the bear, the 

 beaver and the mink, have departed long ago, but their old 

 companions, the wood-chucks and the skunks and the muskrats 

 still remain, to burrow in the fields and ditches of the present 

 proprietor and sorely tempt him at times to use stronger lan- 

 guage than is decorous or pious. 



