PARK AND CEMETERY. 
266 
Ion, similar in this respect to what Coney 
Island used to be, it is now become a 
respectable and delightful resort with 
line buildings for administrative pur- 
poses ; a hotel and restaurant and splen- 
did bathing pavilions. Nantasket beach 
is situated sixteen miles southeast of the 
State House, and one of the most agree- 
able features of this resort is the sail to 
reach it from the city through Boston 
Harbor, where one sees shipping of all 
kinds and past the numerous islands 
v.-hich dot the bay. The ride on the trol- 
ley cars through Quincy, Weymouth and 
Hingham, with their quaint, old fash- 
ioned houses, old orchards and evidences 
everywhere of ease and comfort, is al- 
most as interesting as the harbor trip. 
•Besides these reservations already de- 
scribed there are others, all interesting 
in their way as, for example, Beaver 
Brook, containing fifty-eight acres, and 
famous for its grove of twenty-five 
white oaks (called the Waverly Oaks) 
one thousand years of age. Agassiz 
said, “that no trees on the western con- 
tinent have attained greater age than 
these.” “Handyside Pond" and “The 
Cascade” are among the picturesque 
places to see here. Beaver Brook has 
been called “Clematis Brook,” but the 
commissioners have returned to the old 
name which Lowell commemorated by 
“Sweet Beaver,” the name of one of his 
poems. Stony Brook Woods consists of 
four hundred and sixty acres, and is 
connected with the Blue Hills Reserva- 
SUMMER SCENE AT REVERE BEACH 
Boston Metropolitan Park System 
tion by means of the Neponset River 
Parkway. Hemlock Gorge on the 
Charles River is a very romantic park, 
with “Echo Bridge" and “The Grove” 
as especially interesting spots to visit. 
These Metropolitan Parks, together 
with the Municipal Parks of Boston and 
its neighboring cities, are all to be con- 
nected by parkways. Of the twenty - 
four miles of parkway owned by the 
Metropolitan Parks District, over six- 
teen miles are already constructed, and 
together w:th the reservations and parks 
above mentioned, form one of the finest 
park systems of the world, and it is 
claimed tint it is one of the best gov- 
erned. The Metropolitan Parks District 
has an area of 10,0.5.t acres, consisting of 
fourteen reservations and ten parkways. 
These are managed by seven superin- 
tendents who have under them sergeants 
and a force of police and laborers. Up 
to the present time something in the 
neighborhood of $]:> OOO.OOO have liecn 
expended on the Boston Metropolitan 
Parks System, and it will require some 
millions more to perfect and maintain 
it. The most expensive reservations 
have been those of Charles River and 
Revere Beach, and this does not include 
the great work on the Charles Riser 
Dam. 
PLANS FOR NEW PARKS AT BROCKTON, MASS. 
George E. Keith, of Brockton, Mass., 
has offered that city a tract of 35 acres 
for a public park north of the Country 
Club’s golf links, on condition that the 
city shall expend $5,000 annually for three 
years to put the property into shape for 
park purposes, and for five years after 
1910 shall expend at least $1,000 annual- 
ly to improve it. The value of the tract 
is estimated at from $15,000 to $20,000. 
Its situation and general layout are re- 
garded as excellent for park purposes. 
There are natural provisions for level 
fields and groves, with touches of rugged 
landscape. A plan of the tract is illus- 
trated herewith. 
The park commissioners of Brockton 
have also had plans prepared by land- 
scape architects Pray, Hubbard and 
White, of Boston for a park at Salis- 
bury Lake to obliterate an unsightly 
pond. The plan in general includes a 
ballfield, sand heaps, playgrounds and 
apparatus for the little folks, winding 
paths running from the Center and Cres- 
cent street ends, toward the terminal of 
Robinson’s court, where there is a higli area, and which has a natural grove of 
peninsula, jutting out into the pond trees and other natural attractions. 
PLAN FOR KEITH PARK, BROCKTON, MASS, 
