74 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 181. 



tonic for his mental and moral nature that it is hardly pro- 

 fane to characterize it as a means of grace. It has been 

 objected that a devotion to the study of natural things is 

 liable to become such an absorbing passion as to leave 

 the mind unbalanced, but, in reality, the attitude toward 

 Nature here suggested is the normal and wholesome 

 one ; it is the opposite mood, the indifference to Nature 

 and the insensibility to her kindly influences, which is 

 morbid. 



New England Parks. 



MORTON PARK, PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS. 



"THE wish to preserve pleasure-grounds, not only in the neigh- 

 -*■ borhood of the larger cities, but also in the smaller and 

 less-rapidly growing towns, is one of the interesting signs of the 

 times in New England, and it is a taste that may well be cul- 

 tivated. The Lynn Woods, bordering upon a chain of ponds, 

 and the beautiful Forest Park in Springfield, are charming in- 

 stances of what Massachusetts is doing outside of her chief 

 city, while the neigborhood of Boston rejoices in many resorts 

 where the toil-worn citizen may find rest and comfort in the 

 shade and refreshment of the woods. 



It is appropriate that in Plymouth, which saw the first dawn 

 of New England civilization, such an enterprise should have 

 been undertaken by the citizens and carried to a successful 

 conclusion, so far as organizing upon a substantial and per- 

 manent basis goes, while it is still a rural town, scarcely in 

 need of a breathing-space other than is afforded by its own 

 spacious garden-spots and the broad harbor it overlooks, 

 though in securing such a resort it has added another attrac- 

 tion to its already charming quaintness. 



The houses of the old town lie huddled together around the 

 Rock, after the fashion of English villages, being planted di- 

 rectly on the street, and climbing the hill, which rises steeply 

 from the bay. The top of the hill is crowned by a most 

 sociable burying ground, which seems to serve as a thorough- 

 fare from one part of Plymouth to another. This sleeping- 

 place of its departed inhabitants is neither mournful nor de- 

 serted. Along its convenient walks the pedestrian hurries to 

 his home, carrying bundles under his arm ; children play be- 

 neath the shadow of the Lindens that overhang the graves of the 

 Pilgrim Fathers, and one may watch a troup of merry girls 

 wandering about the grounds, examining the epitaphs upon the 

 venerable tomb-stones as he sits upon the benches and looks 

 out upon the smiling bay. No dweller in Plymouth ever calls 

 this cemetery anything but "The Hill," which robs it still more 

 of all funereal terror, and to a stranger it is a cheerful spot, 

 from which he may view the sea and look down upon the 

 roofs and towers of the town at his feet. 



Descending the hill, old-fashioned gardens full of flowers 

 are to be seen behind the houses, and at its base you come to 

 that time-honored institution, the town brook, which, in some 

 wide reaches, certainly deserves to be dignified by a more 

 imposing title. 



Up this historic brook the Pilgrims sailed, to deposit their 

 belongings at a more convenient landing-place than the Rock 

 on which they first set foot, and the traveler of to-day, follow- 

 ing its course for a mile or so toward its source, finds himself 

 upon the shores of a lake, apparently so wide and long that 

 the first discoverer deemed it an arm of the bay, and, with a 

 certain grim humor at his expense, the forefathers called it 

 Billington Sea, which name it bears to this day. Lying for a 

 mile along this pond of over three hundred acres in extent, 

 and completely encircling a smaller sheet of water called Little 

 Pond (our ancestors certainly were matter-of-fact in their 

 names), there lies a tract of woodland which is now the 

 Park. 



For many years the late Dr. Le Baron Russell had kept 

 about fifty acres of this land open for the use of the public, 

 but some six years ago the only access to the water was by 

 grassy cart-paths through the Oaks and Pines, which brushed 

 the passer-by with their low-sweeping limbs ; that approach 

 is now rendered easy and agreeable by well-graded wind- 

 ing roads that lead in all directions through the forest and 

 along the lovely lakes, with openings cut at intervals that 

 give pleasing views of the sparkling water and its farther 

 shores. 



This improvement is due largely to the personal exer- 

 tions of one man who, to a strong affection for the woods, 

 added a fine public spirit for the town, of which his Pilgrim 

 ancestor, whose name he bears, Nathaniel Morton, was a 

 founder. 



Encountering obstacles at first, as he who seeks to benefit 

 a community invariably does, Mr. Morton finally succeeded 

 in persuading other citizens of Plymouth to unite with him in 

 inducing the town to acquire, partly by purchase and partly 

 by the acceptance of gifts of land, the property of 150 acres, 

 which, in consideration of his efforts, the townspeople have 

 decided to call Morton Park. 



This park still keeps its wild woodland aspect, and it has 

 been the aim of the commissioners to preserve its forest 

 character by making the driveways narrow and permiting the 

 natural shrubs to grow closely along their edges, and to 

 clamber at will through the openings made by the removal of 

 dead or unnecessary timber. 



There are few very ancient trees in these woods, most of 

 the Oaks and Maples being coppice-growth from the roots of 

 trees felled some seventy years ago. Such growth, in sandy 

 soil, is not likely to assume large proportions, but it forms 

 the best of shelters for seedlings, which are everywhere spring- 

 ing up among the close-set stems of the parent forest. Where 

 Beeches appear they are encouraged to grow broad and stal- 

 wart by making openings for them, gradually removing such 

 trees as interrupt their spread, and letting in air and light by 

 clearing away around them. 



In a part of the wood there is a swamp, where are numbers 

 of stately old Red Cedars, and through the wild tangle of 

 shrubs and trees that are engendered by the moist peaty soil 

 a corduroy road is in process of construction, so that one can 

 now walk on planks into the very heart of the forest. 



Along the border of the smaller pond are groves of tall 

 Pitch Pines, and between their columnar trunks the water 

 gleams in the distance. White Pines also are found in various 

 places, but the Oak seems to predominate, though there is a 

 good sprinkling of Maple and some planted Canoe Birches and 

 other trees. 



On one side of Little Pond rises a hill, wooded to the sum- 

 mit, and playfully called The Mountain, which serves to 

 diversify the generally level character of the grounds, to which, 

 however, the varied views of the two lakes afford endless op- 

 portunities for charming effect when the hand of man shall 

 have modified the wild into the picturesque. 



The advantage of such a resort is fully appreciated by the 

 townspeople, who frequent the park in great numbers, bring- 

 ing their boats with them on wheels, or anchoring the smaller 

 ones along the shores of the ponds. Very few restrictions are 

 imposed ; the visitor is allowed to gather at will great bunches 

 of the fragrant wild Azalea, which grows here in profusion, or 

 to fill his carriage with the blossoms of the flowering shrubs 

 that load the air with perfume ; but the small wild animals and 

 birds are carefully protected in these their native haunts, and 

 no one is permitted to molest or destroy them, so that the 

 wood is full of the sound of their happy voices. 



There is a delight in knowing that the enjoyment of this 

 woodland seclusion has become a permanent possession for 

 the dwellers in Plymouth. This provision for the future is a 

 sign of maturity in a nation. In youth, a country, like an indi- 

 vidual, is careless and prodigal, apt to waste substance rather 

 than to acquire it ; but as advancing years add wisdom and 

 forethought to municipalities as well as man, there comes the 

 wish to secure for the coming generation some of the fast- 

 vanishing youthful pleasures ttiat they remember. The woods 

 in which a man has played when a child he rejoices to retain 

 for the enjoyment of his grandchildren, and to this worthy 

 sentiment we owe the preservation, from the demands of pure 

 utilitarianism, of much that will make the life of future gen- 

 erations rich and beautiful. Could the Pilgrims in their cen- 

 tury but have foreseen the joy with which their descendants 

 of to-day would have beheld some surviving monarch of the 

 forests they so ruthlessly destroyed, they might have treasured 

 and protected a few old trees which would now be the glory 

 of the Plymouth Park; but when every trunk might form a 

 shelter for an Indian enemy, small wonder that our anxious 

 sires made haste to clear the region round about them, and 

 left to their descendants the task of raising up again that which 

 it cost them so much labor to destroy. 



That the old town of Plymouth should manifest this enthu- 

 siasm in so good a cause is a sign that it is still in the van of 

 civilization. Morton Park, with its area of 500 acres of land 

 and water, is an honor to any community, and will yearly be- 

 come a more valuable possession. Delightful as its wildness 

 and freedom are at present, perfectly as it retains the forest- 

 charm, the growth of new trees, the training of old ones, the 

 gradual opening of other outlooks upon the water, in short, 

 the touch of the intelligent hand will but add to its beauty, and 

 endear it the more to the people. 



Hingham, Mass. M. C. RobbillS. 



