_as the guest of the Curtises, ‘‘ 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 55 
North Shore’s Relation to Famous Litterateurs 
(Continued from Page 9.) 
one of his desks in the Beverly Farms library, which was 
presented to that institution. 
Agnes Surriage, the immortal romantic character 
cf Marblehead, likewise gave material to Holmes for his 
poem entitled, ‘‘Agnes.”’ 
Dr. Holmes frequently visited. Mrs. S. Phelps- 
Wart at her East Gloucester summer home. He would 
drive down the shore from Beverly Farms to spend a 
few hour§ with this distinguished woman writer. 
Mrs. Ward, in her ‘‘Chapters from a Life,’’ writes 
interestingly of how she showed Dr. Holmes the big 
gully at Paradise Point, East Gloucester, where her 
famous cottage stood, which gave rise to her book, 
‘Old Maids’ Paradise.’’ From its windows much of the 
local color of ‘‘Jack, the Fisherman” was obtained. 
It was very rough walking and Mrs. Ward was 
prone to help the venerable author along the way, but 
be was most decisive in his refusal to be considered 
unable to walk safely. He, therefore, clambered over 
the jagged boulders ‘‘without protest or assistance.”’ 
In Mrs. Ward’s Gloucester home, these two bril- 
liant litterateurs have had many religious and theologi- 
cal discussions. ‘‘His advancing years did not weaken 
his argumentative abilities in the least,’’ she says. 
The last time he eame to see her in Gloucester 
was a year and a half before he died. 
‘“™he Old Maids’ Paradise’’ had been removed to 
the East Gloucester hills, off Grapevine Cove Road, 
where it is now located. Mrs. Ward eagerly pointed out 
the changes in the landscape to ‘‘The American Mon- 
taigne.’’ But said Mrs. Ward, “‘he could not see be- 
yond the bright marsh colors in the autumn light just 
outside our gate. The horizon of the sea, I am sure, was 
quite beyord his fading eyes.” 
Long. cllow found restful pleasure and relaxation 
on the North Shore, also. We find him in August 1863 
“and July 1867 at Nahant. Again quoting from Mrs. 
Field’s volume, an. extract from her diary: ‘‘A delight- 
ful day with Longfellow at Nahant, July 1867— 
Passed the day at Nahant. As Longfellow sat on the 
piazza wrapped in his blue cloth cloak, he struck me 
for the first time as wearing a venerable aspect. Before 
dinner he gathered wild roses to adorn the table, and 
even gave a careful touch, himself, to the arrangement 
of wines and fruits.’’ 
Longfellow’s visits to Manchester-by-the-Sea were 
whose truly romantie and 
lovely place had left a pleasant picture in his mind,”’ 
says Mrs. Field. In 1879, Longfellow was the guest of 
Mr. and Mrs. Field at Manchester. The day’s enter- 
tainment included a drive to Gloucester, which that day 
was ‘‘wrapped in a warm sea fog.’’ Ilis enjoyment of 
the North Shore’s woodland drive between that town 
and her sister city was ‘‘delightful to watch,’’ writes 
Mrs. Field. The woods then must have been even more 
beautiful and primeval than now. He wrote afterward 
from Portland of the city’s bustle: ‘‘I contrast it all 
with last Sunday’s silence at Manchester-by-the-Sea, 
and remember my delightful visit there.’’ 
Norman’s Woe at Magnolia is immortalized by 
Longfellow’s ‘‘Wreck of the Iesperus, ’ the faets of 
which are said to have appeared in either an issue of 
the Boston Advertiser or Boston Transcript in Décember 
39 
Mrs. Ward in her ‘‘Chapters from a Life’’ states 
that she entertained Longfellow once at her summer 
home, at Hast Gloucester. She had the ‘‘ especial pleas- 
ure of pointing out to him the reef of Norman’s Woe— 
famous as the scene of ‘‘The Wreck of the Hesperus.”’ 
Mrs. Ward adds, ‘‘which he had singularly enough 
never seen.’’ 
The historic Devereaux mansion at Devereaux, 
Marblehead, now the Devereaux Country elub, is cele- 
brated as the place where Longfellow spent some of his 
summers. Ie wrote “‘The Fire of Driftwood’’ and 
other poems there. 
The charms of the North Shore have 
mitted to other members of the Longfellow family 
eirele. Mr. and Mrs. Ernest W. Longfellow of New 
York, have a summer home at Coolidge’s Point, Man- 
been trans- 
chester. Miss Alice Longfellow is likewise an annual 
devotee of the same resort. Richard H. Dana, who 
married a daughter of the poet Longfellow, domiciles 
his family gach season at Dana’s Beach, Manchester. 
Richard H. Dana Sr., the poet, is chronicled as 
Manchester’s ‘‘earliest summer resident.’’ In 1845, be- 
ing deeply impressed with the romantic beauty of the 
region about ‘‘Grave’s Beach,’’ he purchased some 
thirty acres. He built a substantial mansion overlook- 
ing the sea, which was surrounded with a luxuriant for- 
est growth. Among the many distinguished men that 
Pana entertained there was Charles Sumner, who pro- 
n-unced that section of Manchester ‘‘finer in point of 
lecation and scenery than the famous Biarritz, the sum- 
mer resort of Napoleon IIT.’’ 
To Richard H. Dana Sr. also the North Shore owes 
ifs literary prestige as an entertainer of Wm. Cullen 
bryant, ‘“The Nestor of American Poetry,’’ and Ralph 
Waldo Emerson, ‘‘The Poet Philosopher.’’ 
Along in the 40’s Mr. Dana Sr. was an enthusiast 
over Pigeon Cove, Rockport. So enthusiastic was he 
over the charms and rugged scenery of that section of 
the ‘‘Shore’’ that he brought Bryant and Emerson there 
foi a visit. Emerson spent a week at the Cove. On his 
return, he wrote his familar and famous poem, ‘‘Sea- 
shore.’’ The poem embodied the deep impressions this 
section of the ‘‘Shore’’ in its summer resort infaney had 
on America’s most distinguished essayist. 
The late Sara Orne Jewett, another literary protege 
of Whittier, used to summer at Pigeon Cove. It was 
Whittier, who first discovered her literary abilities. He 
was said to have been as ‘‘fond of her as a daughter’’ 
and greatly appreciated her literary efforts. Whittier’s 
‘‘predisposition to think well of the work of others 
gave him the happy opportunity in more than one in- 
stance of bringing authors of real talent before the 
public, who might otherwise have waited long for gen- 
eral reeognition,’’ states Mrs. Field in ‘‘ Authors and 
Friends.” “This appreciation of his contemporaries was 
a strong feature of his character. His sympathies with 
the difficulties of a literary life particularly for women, 
was very keen. There seemed to be few women writers 
cf his time who have failed to receive from his pen some 
tuken of reecognition.”’ 
Wm. Dean Howells, editor of Harper’s Magazine, 
vho in 1865 was a member of the Dante Club Redivious 
ct Boston, with Longfellow, Lowell and their contem- 
poraries, made the North Shore his summer home for 
three seasons. Years ago he spent several weeks at 
Mest Gloucester at the then unmodernized Beacheroft. 
Ife has summered at Magnolia. In 1900 he was the oe- 
eupant of ‘‘The Pines,’’ the former Bennett estate, at 
Annisquam. It is now the property of Mrs. Adele 
Lingard of Boston, On the occasion of Longfellow’s 
