USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 6
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 6
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 6
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 6
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 6
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
Lynn, as it now exists, is much smaller than it was before the towns of Saugus, Lynnfield, Reading, and South Reading were separated from it. It is now, [1844,] bounded on the west by Saugus, on the northwest by Lynnfield, on the north and east by Danvers and Salem. The old county road passes through the northern part, the Salem Turnpike through the centre, and the rail road from Portland to Boston through the southern part. The distance to Salem, on the northeast, is five miles ; to Boston, on the southwest, nine miles. It contains 9360 acres, or fourteen square miles; and the boundary line meas- ures thirty-four miles. It presents a bold and rocky shore, consisting of craggy and precipitous cliffs, interspersed with numerous bays, coves, and beaches, which furnish a pleasing and picturesque variety. Above these rise little verdant mounds and lofty, barren rocks, and high hills, clothed with woods of evergreen. The first settlers found the town, including Nahant, chiefly covered by forests of aged trees, which had never been disturbed but by the storms of centuries. On the tops of an- cient oaks, which grew upon the cliffs, the eagles built their nests ; the wild-cat and the bear rested in their branches; and the fox and the wolf prowled beneath. The squirrel made his home undisturbed in the nut-tree; the wood-pigeon murmured his sweet notes in the glen; and the beaver constructed his dam across the wild brook. The ponds and streams were filled with fish; and the harbor was covered by sea-fowl, which laid their eggs on the cliffs and on the sands of the beach.
The Indian name of the town was Saugus; and by that name it was known for eight years. The root of this word signifies great, or extended; and it was probably applied to the Long Beach. Wood, in his early map of New England, places the word "Sagus " on Sagamore Hill. The river on the west was called by the Indians Abousett - the word Saugus being applied to it by the white men. It was called the river at Saugus, and the river of Saugus, and finally the Saugus river; the original
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
name " Abousett " being lost until I had the pleasure of restor- ing it. This river has its source in Reading Pond, about ten miles from the sea. For the first half of its course, it is only sufficient for a mill stream, but becomes broader towards its mouth, where it is more than a quarter of a mile wide. It is crossed by four bridges - that at the Iron Works being about 60 feet in length, that on the old Boston road about 200, that on the Turnpike 480, and that on the Eastern Rail Road 1550. It is very crooked in its course, flowing three miles in the dis- tance of one. In several places, after making a circuitous route of half a mile, it returns to within a few rods of the place whence it deviated. The harbor, into which it flows, is spacious, but shoal, and does not easily admit large vessels.
NAHANT, [which was incorporated as a separate town in 1853,] is the original name of the peninsula on the south of Lynn, which has become so celebrated. [For some account of the early visits to Nahant, see pages 27-30.] This is probably the Indian term Nahanteau, a dual word signifying two united, or twins. This name is peculiarly appropriate, and is an instance of the felicity of Indian appellations; for the two islands, like the Siamese twins, are not only connected together by the short beach, but both are chained to the main land by the long beach. [I have found it elsewhere stated that Nahant, in the Indian language, signified "lover's walk."] When the early settlers spoke of the larger promontory, they called it Nahant; but more commonly after the manner of the Indians, who talked of both together, they called them "the Nahants."
Great Nahant is two miles in length, and about half a mile in breadth, containing five hundred acres, and is six and one quar- ter miles in circumference. It is surrounded by steep, craggy cliffs, rising from twenty to sixty feet above the tide, with a considerable depth of water below. The rocks present a great variety of color - white, green, blue, red, purple, and gray - and in some places very black and shining, having the appear- ance of iron. The cliffs are pierced by many deep fissures, caverns and grottos ; and between these are numerous coves, and beaches of fine, shining, silvery sand, crowned by ridges of various colored pebbles, interspersed with sea-shells. Above the cliffs, the promontory swells into mounds from sixty to ninety
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TOPOGRAPHY AND PHENOMENA. - (NAHANT.)
feet in height. There are many remarkable cliffs and caves around Nahant, which are very interesting to the lovers of natural curiosities.
The Swallows' Cave is a passage beneath a high cliff, on the southeastern part of Nahant. The entrance is eight feet high and ten wide. Inside, it is fourteen feet wide, and nearly twen- ty feet in height. Toward the centre it becomes narrower, and at the distance of seventy-two feet, opens into the sea. It may be entered about half tide, and passing through, you may ascend to the height above, without returning through the cave. At high tide the water rushes through with great fury. The swal- lows formerly inhabited this cave in great numbers, and built their nests on the irregularities of the rock above; but the multitude of visitors have frightened them mostly away.
In delineating this delightful cavern, many a vision of early romance rises lovelily before me,
And presses forward to be in my song, But must not now.
It is not allowable for a serious historian to indulge in discur- sions of fancy, else might I record many a legend of love and . constancy, which has been transmitted down from the olden time, in connection with this rude and romantic scenery. Here came the Indian maid, in all her artlessness of beauty, to lave her limbs in the enamored water. Here came Wenuchus and Yawata, and other daughters of the forest, to indulge the gush- ings of their love, which they had learned, not in the pages of Burns or Byron, but in God's beautiful book of the unsophisti- cated human heart. Here, too, the cliffs now washed by the pure waves, and dried by many a summer sun, have been pur- pled by the blood of human slaughter; and perhaps this very cavern has sheltered some Indian mother or daughter from the tomahawk of the remorseless foe of her nation. Here also, in later times, have lovers pledged their warm and fond affections- happy if the succeeding realities of life have not frustrated the vision of happiness here formed.
Southward from the Swallows' Cave is Pea Island, an irregu. lar rock, about twenty rods broad. It has some soil on it, on which the sea pea grows. It is united to the Swallows' Cliff by a little isthmus, or beach of sand, thirteen rods long.
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
Eastward from Pea Island are two long, low, black ledges, lying in the water and covered at high tides, called the Shag Rocks. Several vessels have been wrecked on them.
Passing from the Swallows' Cave along the rocks, near the edge of the water, to the western side of the same cliff, you - come to Irene's Grotto - a tall arch, singularly grotesque and beautiful, leading to a large room in the rock. This is one of the greatest curiosities on Nahant, and was formerly much more so until sacrilegious hands broke down part of the roof above, to obtain stone for building.
Eastward from Swallows' Cave is Pulpit Rock - a vast block, about thirty feet in height, and nearly twenty feet square, stand- ing boldly out in the tide. On the top is an opening, forming a seat ; but from the steepness of the rock on all sides, it is diffi- cult of access. The upper portion of the rock has a striking resemblance to a pile of great books. This rock is so peculiarly unique in its situation and character, that if drawings were made of it from three sides, they would scarcely be supposed to rep- resent the same object.
The Natural Bridge is near Pulpit Rock. It is a portion of the cliff forming an arch across a deep gorge, from which you look down upon the rocks and tide, twenty feet below.
Near East Point is a great gorge, overhung by a precipice on either side, called the Cauldron Cliff; in which, especially during great storms, the water boils with tremendous force and fury. On the right of this, descending another way, is the Roaring Cavern ; having an aperture beneath the rock, through which you hear the roaring of the Cauldron Cliff.
On the northeastern side of Nahant, at the extremity of Cedar Point, is Castle Rock, an immense pile, bearing a strong resem- blance to the ruins of an old castle. The battlements and but- tresses are strongly outlined; and the square openings in the sides, especially when thrown into deep shadow, appear like doors, windows, and embrasures. Indeed the whole of Nahant has the appearance of a strongly fortified place.
Northwest from Castle Rock is the Spouting Horn. It is a winding fissure in the lower projecting bed of the cliff, in the form of a horn, passing into a deep cavern under the rock. The water is driven through a tunnel, formed by two walls of rock,
WIS DELE
PULPIT ROCK. (Page 60.)
CASTLE ROCK. (Page 60.)
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TOPOGRAPHY AND PHENOMENA. - (NAHANT.)
about one hundred feet, and is then forced into the cavern, from which it is spouted, with great violence, in foam and spray. In a great easterly storm, at half flood, when the tide is coming in with all its power, the water is driven into this opening with a force that seems to jar the foundations of the solid rock; and each wave makes a sound like subterranean thunder. The cliff rises abruptly forty feet above, but there is a good descent to the mouth of the tunnel.
Westward from the Spouting Horn is a large black ledge, called the Iron Mine, from its great resemblance to that mineral. It embraces a singular cavity, called the Dashing Rock.
At the northwestern extremity of Nahant, is John's Peril, a vast fissure in the cliff, forty feet perpendicular. It received its name from the following anecdote : John Breed, one of the early inhabitants of Nahant, one day attempted to drive his team be- tween a rock on the hill and this cliff. The passage being narrow, and finding his team in great peril, he hastily unfast- ened his oxen; and the cart, falling down the precipice, was dashed in pieces on the rocks below.
Directly in front of Nahant, at the distance of three-fourths of a mile, on the east, is Egg Rock, [which is an extension of the ledge on the eastern side of Nahant.] It rises abruptly from the sea, eighty-six feet in height. Its shape is oval, being · forty-five rods in length, and twelve in breadth, containing about three acres. Near the summit is half an acre of excellent soil covered with rank grass. The gulls lay their eggs here in abundance, whence the rock derives its name. The approach to this rock is dangerous, except in calm weather, and there is but one good landing place, which is on the western side. Its shape and colors are highly picturesque. Viewed from the north it has the semblance of a couchant lion, lying out in front of the town, to protect it from the approach of a foreign enemy- meet emblem of the spirit which slumbers on our shores. [Egg Rock was ceded to the United States in 1856, and a light house was immediately after erected upon it. The light was shown for the first time on the night of 15 Sept. 1857. It would certainly have been more convenient, and perhaps quite as use ful, on the point of Nahant; but its appearance would not have been so picturesque. The cost of the building was $3,700. F
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
Mr. Lewis exerted himself with a good deal of zeal and pertin- acity to secure the establishment of this light house.]
South of Nahant is a dangerous rock, covered at high tide, called Sunk Rock. On the western side, at the entrance of the harbor, is a cluster of rocks called the Lobster Rocks.
Nahant has always been a place of interest to the lovers of natural scenery, and has long been visited in the summer season by parties of pleasure, who, when there were no hotels, cooked their chowders on the rocks. Few of the numerous visitors at Nahant have any idea of the place in its primitive simplicity, when its advantages were known and appreciated by a limited number of the inhabitants of the metropolis and neighboring towns .; Accommodations for visitors were then circumscribed, and food was not very abundant. A chicken, knocked down by a fishing-pole in the morning, and cooked at dinner, served to increase the usual meal of fish, and was regarded as one of the luxuries of the place. But notwithstanding the inconveniences to which visitors were subjected, several families from Boston passed the whole summer in the close quarters of the village. Hon. James T. Austin, Hon. William Sullivan, Hon. William Minot, Charles Bradbury, Esq., Rufus Amory, Esq., and Marshall Prince, were amo .g those who carly and annually visited the rock-bound peninsula with their families. At this time, Nahant did not boast of a house from Bass Beach round by East Point to Bass Rock. The whole of the space now dotted by luxurious cot- tages and cultivated soil, was a barren waste, covered by short, brown grass, tenanted by grasshoppers and snakes. The strag- gler to East Point, Pulpit Rock, and Swallows' Cave, found his path impeded by stone walls - while the rest of the island, excepting the road through the village, was a terra incognita to all, save the old islanders and a few constant visitors. Subse- quently, Rouillard opened a house in the village, which accom- modated the numbers who were beginning to appreciate the beauties of the place. At this time, no artificial rules of society marred the comfort of the visitors. There was no dressing for dinners-no ceremonious calls. No belles brought a ward- robe, made up in the latest fashion of the day; and no beaux confined and cramped their limbs with tight coats, strapped pants, and high-heeled boots. Visitors shook off the restraints
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TOPOGRAPHY AND PHENOMENA - (NAHANT.)
of society, and assimilated themselves in some degree to the rugged character of the scenery around them. Parties were frequently made, and whole days passed by them in the Swal- lows' Cave and on the adjacent rocks - the ladies with their sewing and books, while the men amused themselves in shooting or fishing, and the children in picking up pebbles and shells on the beaches. One of the first improvements made at Nahant, was a bathing-house at the southern extremity of Bass Beach, built under the direction of James Magee, Esq., whose name became associated with most of the early improvements. ' Since the citizens of Boston took Nahant into their patronage, its improvement has been rapid, and it now presents the appear- - ance of a romantic town, sparkling in the ocean waves.
Among the benefactors of Nahant, no one is deserving of higher commendation than Frederic Tudor, Esq., who has built one of the most beautiful rustic cottages in the country, and has expended many thousand dollars to improve and beautify the place, by constructing side-walks, and planting several thou- sands of fruit and ornamental trees, both on his own grounds, and in the public walks. He has converted a barren hill into a garden, which has produced some of the richest and most deli- cious fruits and vegetables that have been presented at the horticultural exhibitions.
[In 1860, Mr. Tudor commenced those improvements in the vicinity of North Spring, or Cold Spring, as it has been indis- criminately called, which have already added much to its natural attractions. For generation after generation this locality has been a favorite place of resort. The little stream which gave rise to the name has never ceased to leap joyously from its paternal fountain somewhere in the bowels of the rocky hill, and unmurmuringly trickle on to add its mite to the waters of the craving ocean-just as joyously when it fell on the rough bed of rock that nature made ready for it as it now does upon the marble bed, which the hand of art prepared. And may it not, after these many ages of small but ceaseless contribution, modestly claim to have performed some service in the filling up of the great sea ? Here, upon the rough rocks, the parties of old were accustomed to cook their chowders, made of fish caught from the abundance that sported at their very feet -
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
the drift-wood at hand being sufficient for the fires, and the sparkling spring supplying all demands of thirst. Under the shade of the few old forest trees that still remained upon the upland, the happy visitors partook of their repast, and contem- plated the glorious scene spread out to view. But art has come in and shaken hands with nature. And the Maolis (Siloam) Grounds have conveniences, in the unique erections and well- ordered appointments, to meet the wants of a genteeler age.
[The most striking of the works of art, in this vicinity, is the Rock Temple. It is reared upon an elevated ledge, a little southeast of the old North Spring road, and a few rods above the ever-dashing waves. Its circumference is about a hundred and twenty feet, and it consists of eight irregular columns of strati- fied rock, resting upon bases formed of ponderous concrete stones, some of several tons weight, supporting an octagonal roof of heavy timber, covered with bark and other material in keeping with the rugged appearance of the columns, which are, including their bases, from twelve to fifteen feet in height, varying according to the inequalities of the surface on which they rest. Sundry mythological denizens of the deep, glisten in gilded honor upon the gables and challenge the study of the curious. This attractive edifice was reared in 1861.
[The contemplations of visitors who seat themselves in the Rock Temple, must vary according to their peculiarities of mind, habits of thought, and education. To some, visions of classic days will arise - days when philosophy and poetry were taught amid the inspiring scenes of nature - when the grove, the hill- top and the sounding shore were schools-and, perhaps, lost in contemplation, they will glance around for the appearance of the robed sage appointed there to minister. To others, weird visions may be suggested - visions of old Druidical days, when through the open temple of rock the wild winds moaned as if in solemn unison with the wail of the disturbed spirits who lingered there - and they, too, lost in contemplation, may glance around for the shaven priest and bound victim.
[But all who come hither with unstraying thoughts may enjoy one of the most captivating scenes that nature ever provided for the eye of man. In the quiet sleeping of the ocean, beneath a cloudless sky - her swelling bosom traversed by white sails,
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TOPOGRAPHY AND PHENOMENA - (NAHANT.)
scudding in all directions, with the dark trains of steamers fading away on the horizon, and the sunlight gilding her dan- cing ripples - he beholds a picture of rare beauty, the effect of which is vastly heightened by the inland background. The hills, the woods, the rocks, the habitations, the towering church spires, the sandy ridge, the distant shore, all lend their charms. And here the visitor may also sit and witness the stern gran- deur of the ocean storm-sit tremblingly a-watch, while the eternal rocks themselves seem to recoil from the assaulting billows - when by the midnight lightning's gleam the power- less ship, perchance, may be discerned dashing furiously onward to her doom among the jagged cliffs. And may it not be, too, that during years to come this temple will be resorted to by lovers on their moonlight strolls. Here may they sit and whis- per their sweet dreams, with hopes as bright and souls as placid, as the beams that rock upon the wave. And may their happy dreams prove verities.]
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RUPIPER-DEL
JOAN ANDRE W
ROCK TEMPLE, (MAOLIS GROUNDS,) NAHANT. ' F*
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
Little Nahant, is one hundred and forty rods long, and seventy broad, containing forty acres. It is a hill, consisting of two . graceful elevations, rising eighty feet above the sea, and defend- ed by great battlements of rock, from twenty to sixty feet in height. On the southern side are two deep gorges, called the Great and Little Furnace. Between these is Mary's Grotto, a spacious room, twenty-four feet square, and twenty in height, opening into the sea. It was formerly completely roofed by a great arched rock; but some of those persons who have no veneration for the sublime works of Nature, have broken down a large portion of it. On the north side of Little Nahant is a fissure called the Wolf's Cave.
[Interesting erratic rocks have been observed at Little Na- hant - on the western side, a boulder of fine pudding stone, twenty-six feet in circumference; a granite boulder, thirty-six feet in circumference ; a brecciated boulder, thirty-six feet in circumference, half buried in sand; - on the southern side, a granite boulder, thirty-four feet in circumference ; a split boul- der, irregular, forty-six feet in circumference ; an irregular brec- ciated boulder, forty-nine feet in circumference, weighing about a hundred and sixty tons ;- on the summit, near East Point, a split boulder, forty-six feet in circumference.]
Little Nahant is connected to Great Nahant by Nahant Beach, which is somewhat more than half a mile in length, of great smoothness and beauty.
Lynn Beach, which connects the Nahants to the main land, is two miles in length on the eastern side, and two and a half miles on the western. It is an isthmus, or causeway, of fine, shining, gray sand, forming a curve, and rising so high in the centre as generally to prevent the tide from passing over. On the western side it slopes to the harbor, and on the eastern side to the ocean. The ocean side is most beautiful, as here the tide flows out about thirty-three rods, leaving a smooth, polished surface of compact sand, so hard that the horse's hoof scarcely makes a print, and the wheel passes without sound. It fre- quently retains sufficient lustre after the tide has left it, to give it the appearance of a mirror ; and on a cloudy day the traveler may see the perfect image of his horse reflected beneath, with the clouds below, and can easily imagine himself to be passing,
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TOPOGRAPHY AND PHENOMENA.
like a spirit, through a world of shadows - a brightly mirrored emblem of his real existence !
It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to convey to the mind of a reader who has never witnessed the prospect, an idea of the beauty and sublimity of this beach, and of the absolute magnifi- cence of the surrounding scenery. A floor of sand, two miles in length, and more than nine hundred feet in breadth, at low tide, bounded on two sides by the water and the sky, and pre- senting a surface so extensive that two millions of people might stand upon it, is certainly a view which the universe cannot parallel. This beach is composed of movable particles of sand, ' so small that two thousand of them would not make a grain as large as the head of a pin; yet these movable atoms have with- stood the whole immense power of the Atlantic ocean for cen- turies, perhaps from the creation !
There are five beaches on the shores of Lynn, [including Swampscot,] and sixteen around Nahant. The names of these, beginning at the east, are Phillips' - Whale - Swampscot- Humfrey's - Lynn - Nahant - Stoney - Bass - Canoe - Ba- thing-Pea Island-Joseph's-Curlew -- Crystal-Dorothy's- Pond-Lewis's -Coral -Reed-Johnson's -and Black Rock beaches. These together have an extent of nine miles, and most of them are smooth and beautiful. Great quantities of kelp and rock weed are thrown upon these beaches 'by storms, which are gathered by the farmers for the enrichment of their lands.
SWAMPSCOT is the original Indian name of the fishing village at the eastern part of the town. [It was incorporated as a separate town, 21 May, 1852.] This is a place of great natural beauty, bearing a strong resemblance to the Bay of Naples. On the west of Swampscot is a pleasant rock, called Black Will's Cliff, from an Indian sagamore who resided there. On the east is a low and very dangerous ledge of rocks extending into the sea, called Dread Ledge. The cliffs, coves, and beaches at Swampscot are admirably picturesque, and vie with those of Nahant in romantic beauty.
There are numerous building sites of surpassing loveliness, not only at Nahant and Swampscot, but throughout Lynn; and when a better taste in architecture shall prevail, and the town
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
becomes as highly ornamented by art as it has been by nature, it will perhaps be surpassed by no town in the Union. I have long endeavored to introduce a style of architecture which shall be in harmony with the wild and natural beauty of the scenery - a style in which the cottages shall appear to grow out of the rocks and to be born of the woods. In some instances I have succeeded, but most people have been too busy in other occupa- tions to study a cultivated and harmonizing taste. When a style of rural refinement shall prevail - when the hills and cliffs shall be adorned with buildings in accordance with the scenery around -and when men, instead of cutting down every tree and shrub, shall re-clothe nature with the drapery of her appro- priate foliage, Lynn will appear much more lovely and interest- ing than at present. [But Mr. Lewis himself lived to see the day of better taste arrive. The style of architecture has won- derfully improved within the last twenty years. And could all the elegant residences that are now scattered in every direc- tion, be gathered into one quarter, they would form an array which could be equalled by few places out of the leading cities. · Our romantic hills are beginning to be adorned by structures becoming in style and challenging the admiration of the traveler. Some of the most beautiful gardens in New England are like- wise here to be found. Our newly-erected manufactories are on a far more extensive and durable scale than the old. And our streets and other public places have been greatly beautified by the planting of numerous ornamental trees. In short, it may be fairly claimed that the external progress of Lynn has Lept pace with her moral and intellectual advancement.]
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