289 



t3f the crickets, and the grasshopper, and then by the yellow 

 spikes of the earlier golden-rods, telling iis, too trvily, that 

 autumn was stealing upon the retreating footsteps of summer 

 time. 



As the party approached the Village, a large portion of it 

 paused at the pleasant farm-house of John Danforth, 

 Esq., who is the Town Clerk of Lynnfield, and who with 

 other mcmljcrs of his i'iinily were unwearied in their 

 endeavors to refresh our weary pedestrians with excellent 

 milk and cold water. Mr. D. exhibited to our antiquarian 

 amateurs the records of the Town, also the Church Records, 

 which go back to " Nov. ye 29, Anno Christi 1732." Some 

 jjleasing account of these matters crm be seen in some ex- 

 tracts published in the Salem Gazette for Jidy 30, 1858, to 

 's^'hich the curious reader is referred. So much for the bulk 

 of the excursion party in their walk ; as to others divers ob- 

 jects of interest beguiled them away.. Armed with hammer 

 and chisel, the serpentine ledges were scrutinized by the 

 mineralogist ; provided with tin vasculum the distant swamps 

 and woods were searched lor plants by the botanist and 

 florist ; and still others, few in number, but bent in careful 

 research arriving by an earlier train spent some time the in 

 examination of a small pond near the mills of Mr. Hawkes, 

 whose paternal acres are located near by, having been in the 

 family posession for about two centuries, a rare instance of 

 fixedness and content combined with their accompaniment, 

 thrift. This little pool Avas filled Avith many interesting- 

 species, of plants, molluscs, the larvae of insects and reptiles, 

 so that the exploring party found ample employment for 

 their hands, the report of which will be found in their ap- 

 proj^riate place. 



Lynnfield, as generally know^n to pleasure-loving folks, is 

 <3onnectedwith the idea of an Hotel, and its noble pond, and 

 and charming to the thought by the beauty of its surround- 

 ings, as well as by the hospitality of several well known cit- 



ESSEX INST. PROCEED. VOL. ii. 37. 



