Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/73

 Asqtiam Lake and its Environs.

��69

��to go again, for he will return as Per- sepone from Pluto's kingdom and the daik shades of Orcus sought ever year by year the flowery meads and sylvan streams of Enna — the haunts of Iier virgin youth. Go where he will, he will return to this place as the Mecca of beauty, the holy taber- nacle of lake and hill and cloud.

Asquam, familiarly abbreviated to Squam lake, is not so well known as the Wiunipesaukee, its larger and statelier sister, but it is not less woithy of a wide fame and the im- mortality of verse. In fact, it is con- sidered by good judges the most pict- uresque of all the lakes in this region. Its islands are numerous, set gem- like in th-e midst of its purple waves, and glittering with summer green. It lies in the midst of a beautifully fer- tile valley, surrounded bv emerald wooded hills, and overlooked on the north by the towering stony peaks of Whiteface, Passaconaway, and Cho- corua.

All along its shores are picturesque points and coves, and long wooded peninsulas interpose their verdure, cutting off the water vistas up and down. The scenery resembles that of Wiunipesaukee, but is more strik- ing. The mountains are nearer and grander. Sloping meadows, luxuri- ously fertile, are interspersed with cornfields, patches of yellow grain, and masses of woodland. Artists have often sought to render. this scenery in all its perfection ; but the Divine artist is not easy to copy when He works on a broad scale. One sees effects here in a single week which for their audacity and splendor the most courageous colorist would not dare attempt. Only a Turner or

��a Claude Lorraine could do them any manner of justice.

"Come up and see S(piam, and spend a few days with me," wrote ray old friend, Col. Cheney, the first of August. "Come up, and it will go hard if I do not show you some places which for beauty are unmatched in New Hampshire." 80 I went, and, like the queen of Sheba, I found that the half had not been told me. The whole countr}' is a paradise. For a combination of lake and mountain view there are several scenes around Squam which, are not surpassed the world over.

Ashland is forty miles from Con- cord as the crow flies. It is on the line of the Boston, Concord & Mon- treal Railroad, and every day the long incoming and outgoing trains deposit loads of tourists, who have come to visit the town and the beautiful lake lying at the gateway of the mountains. The village is a busv manufacturing place. There are several large paper- mills, a hosiery manufactory, woollen- mill, strawboard-mill, lumber and grist-mills, glove and mitten manu- factories, besides several other small mechanical shops. There are also two church edifices, ten or a dozen stores of all kinds, a good hotel, — the Squam Lake House, managed by the popular landlord, Charles H. Daniels, — an ex- cellent high school, conducted by Prof. D. C. Durgin, and more than a hundred dwelling-houses. The scenery around Ashland is delightful, affording views wild, romantic, and beautiful. More than Plymouth it is the Conway of the western side of the water-shed, and is destined at no dis- tant day to be a great summer resort.

Ashland is a part of what was once

�� �