38 



Thursday, Aug-ust 16, 18G0. 



Field Meeting at Ipswich. — This, the fifth this season, 

 happened to fall on the 226th anniversary of tlic incorpora- 

 tion of this sterling old town. A company of flattering 

 magnitude arrived by the early train, and various explora- 

 tions were speedily planned and put in forwardness. " Town 

 Hill," probably the highest land in the place, received a large 

 share of attention ; another party found their way to Ipswich 

 Beach ; and yet others visited Castle Neck, where stands the 

 lighthouse, and where is also located the farm and boarding- 

 house of Capt. Humphrey Lakeman, a well known and wor- 

 thy citizen of old Ipswich. He has always been prominent 

 in public aifairs, and equally given to hospitality and kind 

 offices, till more than seventy years have ripened upon him 

 in the midst of his good works. In this region the sand has 

 played such antics as continually remind one of the wilds of 

 Nubia, and the buried temple of Abou-Simbel. Whole 

 apple trees of liberal size have been buried under the accu- 

 mulating hillocks of shining white sand, till only the lesser, 

 top boughs remain exposed ; these however, still bear plenty 

 of fruit. Ipswich has, uiitil Avithin a few years, enjoyed the 

 honor of being the location of the Probate Office for this 

 County, but that has now departed for a new position in 

 Salem. The buildings devoted to this aiid the other Courts 

 yet stand, but have suflered some alteration. The other 

 County Institutions, the Jail, the House of Correction, and 

 the Insane Asylum are still in active service ; but much of 

 the early consequence of the town is now lost. Very much 

 remains to prove its antiquity ; venerable dwellings, the time 

 honored tavern, the academy, incorporated in 1828, the 

 staunch old bridge built in 176-1. The place, in f^ict, is all 

 full of the antique, so far as any of New England can be. 

 Two Englishmen were kindly received here in 1611. Three 

 years later, Capt. John Smith, the famous, praised "Agawam" 



