Lake House
1907
August 9
  Brilliantly clear with W. to S.W. wind. Just pleasantly cool.
  I sailed, in my canoe, over to Upton this afternoon to
note down on the spot the following description of the Lake House
and its surroundings and the memories and associations which the sight
of this over familiar place suggested or revived.
  The Lake House was built by Simeon F. Frost about 1859.
It was kept as a public hostelry for more than thirty years
first by Mr. Frost (1859-1866) next by William Godwin and Alva West (1866-1868)
then by Horatio R. Godwin (1859-1866) and finally by Charles E. Ryerson (1876-188_)
  It stands on a grassy, boulder-strewn knoll about seventy yards
from where Cambridge River, after applying the force of its waters
to the wheels of the ancient mill built by Enoch Abbott about 1825,
descends a short rapid then winds sluggishly through
broad marshes before emptying into the lake. The house is
now unoccupied and somewhat neglected. Its clapboarded walls,
once painted which, are fast turning gray and a few of its
windows have broken panes. Otherwise it has changed but
little since Horatio Godwin kept it although it was after his departure,
I believe, that the covered piazza, originally confined to the
front (ie east) side of the house was extended across its southern
and, perhaps by Ryerson. Godwin was a good and very
popular host. In his day the lake swarmed with waterfowl
and trout and the table was bountifully supplied with them
and with Wild Pigeons, Partridges and other game obtained in
the neighboring forest. At the height of the shooting and
fishing seasons the house literally overflowed with
guests, chiefly sportsmen and fishermen who came and went
across the lake and by way of the stage road to Bethel,
then travelled daily by a well appointed Concord coach drawn
below the notch by four and above it by six, spirited horses,