8 NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 
She struck where the white and fleecy waves 
Looked soft as carded wool, 
But the cruel rocks, they gored her side 
Like the horns of an angry bull. 
K *K K K ok * K * *k 
Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, 
In the midnight and the snow! 
Christ save us all from a death like this, 
On the reef of Norman’s Woe! 
In Longfellow’s diary he speaks of writing the ballad. 
He had finished his work at night and sat by the fire 
s:roking until twelve o’clock. Then it came into his mind 
to write the poem, whicn he did. Then he says he went 
to bed but could not sleep. “New thoughts were running 
in my mind, and I got up to add them to the ballad. It 
was three by the clock. I then went to bed and fell asleep. 
I feel pleased with the ballad. It hardly cost me an 
effort. It did not come into my mind by lines, but by 
stanzas.” 
In the Shore Land, not far from the reef is the chasm, 
known as Rafe’s chasm. This, perhaps, is visited more 
thoroughly every day by curious summer folk than the 
reef. Of this the history of Gloucester (Babson’s) says: 
“Tt is not only from a scenic or utilitarian point of view 
that the rocks of Cape Ann possess an interest: they af- 
ford a few natural curiosities, that amply repay the trouble 
and fatigue of a visit to their several localities. One of 
these, Rafe’s Crack, which is said to have derived its 
rame from a man named Ralph, who once resided in its 
vicinity, is a remarkable fissure in a ledge on the seacoast 
between Norman’s Woe and*Kettle Cove. Its length 
forms a right angle with the shore, from which it extends 
more than two hundred feet. Its width is irregular; but 
the greatest is about ten 
feet. The depth from the 
highest part of the rock, 
forming one of its sides to 
low-water mark, is com- 
puted at sixty feet. The 
ledge is one of the most re- 
markable on the Cape; be- 
ing compact, of great size, 
and presenting, ocean-ward, 
an aspect of singular bold- 
ness and grandeur. The 
view of the spot, and the 
hollow, thundering noise of 
the sea, as it dashes back 
from the rocks at the upper 
end of the chasm, cause 
every visitor to feel the 
presence of a sublime and 
majestic influence.” 
About thiry acres of 
land front the water in the 
section of Norman’s Woe 
and Rafe’s Chasm. This 
Jand is a paradise for the 
Magnolia colonists who find 
its wooded roads and paths, 
its giant rocks dropped here 
and there, its terrifying and 
mysterious chasm and rocky 
shore ever a source of pleas- 
ure and enchantment. In 
just such places are the 
“wild roses of Cape Ann” 
found in every cranny of 
ne r 
One of the delightful 
ote ill 
woodland paths running. through 
the property 
Aug. 25, 1916. 
the rocks. Lucy Larcom, the sweet singer of the North 
Shore has said of these: 
A rose is sweet, no matter where it grows: 
ee ee ee ee ee a ce 
But our wild roses, flavored by the sea, 
And colored by the salt winds and much sun 
To healthiest intensity of bloom— 
We think the world has none more beautiful. 
Near this land is where “the white magnolia blossoms 
star the twilight of the pines.” Unsurpassed is the view 
oceanward, stretching from Eastern Point across Glou- 
cester harbor far to the south, where the blue hills of 
Milton are seen on good days. On sailing days a great 
panorama of moving. pictures is seen, when the bevy of 
yachts, of every size and design, is seen passing between 
Gloucester and Marblehead. Nowhere else along the 
North Shore can a more ideal view of these white-winged 
racers be seen. ; 
It is said that as civilization becomes more and more 
refined there is a tendency to be exclusive and want to 
build one’s habitation far enough from his neighbor to 
gain this exclusiveness. The seashore estates and inland 
tracts of land surrounding many North Shore homes are 
‘vidences of this. Robert Grant, in his book on the North 
Shore says: “More and more do we realize that a fesi- 
dence at a summer watering place hotel is apt to leave 
soul, mind and body jaded, and that to bang about in the 
hot weather at fashionable beaches and promiscuous 
springs may amuse for a fortnight, but suggests by the 
close of a season the atmosphere of the corps de ballet or 
a circus. -We are learning as a nation to rest in summer, 
instead of to gad, and those who have been the fortunate 
pioneers in the movement are indeed to be envied, for 
though the sands of the sea are said to be unnumbered, 
the coast of New England has its limitations. Beati 
possidentes !” 
But here are thirty 
acres of shore land, the 
largest and most desirable 
tract left between Glouces- 
ter and Magnolia, that is 
for sale! This beautiful 
tract of land so fitted for a 
large and exclusive estate 
or for smaller ones, with a 
view not equalled anywhere 
in this section, and so simi- 
ar in many ways to an 
English sea-shore, belongs 
to Mr. J. Warren Merrill of 
Smith’s Point, Manchester, 
and his two sisters. Mr. 
Merrill’s father, J. W. Mer- 
rill, bought it over forty 
years ago. He was one of 
the early summer residents 
in this: section, and owned 
considerable - property on 
Smith’s Point. The old 
stage road between Man- 
chester and Gloucester ran 
through the property, and a 
part yet remains. An old 
stone wall is seen near the 
road, which Mr. Merrill re- 
members hearing his father 
say was built by slave labor. 
One of the principal roads 
between Gloucester and 
Magnolia runs by this land. 
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