Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/162

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��Publisher's Depai'tment.

��ronage. This bluff is a famous place for flying kites. Tlie breeze seems always good, paper, string, and inge- nuity plenty, and the boys are bound to have a royal time.

The company which assembles at Boar's Head year after year is of the most eminently respectable class, — lawyers and judges, merchants, man- ufacturers, bankers, college profess- ors, school-teachers, editors, foreign ministers, brokers, clergymen, officers in the servnce of the government, with their wives and families, health-seek- ers and pleasure-seekers, — all sure of having a delisfhtful vacation at this resort ; for it is a quiet, home-like, pleasant seaside place, where families, and ladies unattended, are sure of a good time and of receiving the utmost courtesy.

The beauties of the place are not confined to the lawn, and the ocean view, and the company : there are many more. The hotel is six-sided, and a broad veranda extends around five sides, affording a shady retreat at all times, a promenade of several hundred feet, and a delightful oppor- tunity for an open-air reception. Here the ladies assemble with their dainty work and indulge in harmless gossip ; iiere the gentlemen over their cigars discuss ethics and statescraft ; and here the children romp and play. The office is a favorite meeting-place in the evening, and when, as occa- sionally happens in the most favored locality, a rainy day keeps the guests witliin doors. Here the gentlemen are privileged to enjoy their cigars, and are occasionally joined by their lady friends for a quiet game of whist.

The iiarlor is a large apartment, lighted on three sides, and affording

��ample room for four sets in the co- tillon, and a jolly space and ample scope for a country dance. During the season music is provided, fur- nished by professionals ; but gen- erally among the guests are amateur musicians of rare gifts of voice or •execution, who entrance their friends and all who listen, either gathered in groups about the parlor or assembled on the veranda outside.

The dining-room is amply large for the accommodation of the guests of the hotel and all transient company. From two sides the view is tow^ards the ocean. The landlord sets an extra good table. One does not realize what codfish and haddock and mackerel and lobsters and clams taste like, in their best condition, until he has eaten them when the}', the deni- zens of the deep, have been taken from their native element before he, the seeker after good things, has arisen from his couch. Of course the table is supplied with all the deli- cacies of the season, and in every respect is that of a first-class hotel ; but the fish and lobsters and clams are specially noticeable. Mr. Dumas keeps in his own employ a fisherman, whose first duty is to supply Mr. Dumas's table.

For those fond of the sport, there are furnished billiard-tables and bowl- ing-alleys. Connected with the hotel is a livery-.stable ; and Hampton and the neighboring towns afford the most deliglitful and romantic drives, over well kept roads, by places of historic interest, and amid charming scenery. A batliing-house on the beach north of the hotel, and six hundred feet distant, gives an opportunity to those who choose to do so to enjoy

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