Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/77

 Asquam Lake and its Environs.

��73

��woods one frequently finds tlie pict- uresque sugtir-canip, with its little board house, and out-door lire-place where the huge kettles are swung. The elms on the intervale are very tine, forming with these c^larlnil)g river meadows such foreground bits as ar- tists love.

The great attraction hereabouts, however, is the lake, "'mountain gir- dled Sqnara," called by Starr King "the most beautiful of all the small sheets of water in New England." We will now have done with Ashland and its picturesque environs, and turn our attention to the lake itself, the important feature of this section.

It is early morning when we betake ourselves to the steamboat landing at Little Squam bridge. It is a two- mile ride from Ashland village, through a pleasant country. The course of Squara river is not along our route, but the lover of the beau- tiful who would follow it three miles to its source in the lake will be amply repaid. We follow, a portion of the way, the old College road, laid out by Gov. John Wentworth, in 1769, from Wolfeborough to Hanover. It skirted Little Squam, crossed Great Squam bridge, passed over Shepard hill, and thence into Centre Harbor, continuing on through Moultonbor- ough and Tuftonborough. We passed the old house where were held some of the earliest town-meetings of Hol- derness. The house was owned by Samuel Shepard, Esq., the first town- clerk of Holderness, and who was annually elected to that office forty- seven years, going out March 10, 1818.

The pretty little steamer lies at the dock like a real thing of life, dream-

��ing, — but where is the lake? There is only a i)ond, perhaps two miles long and three fourths of a mile wide, all siiut in by green hills. But we will go on board the little steamer Chelms- ford, Capt. George F. Cummings, and await developments. The whis- tle blows, the engine begins to turn, and we are off. Down at the north- east is a beautiful little eminence, crowned by a large and elegant hotel. That is Shepard hill. Farther to the north rise the sharp outlines of Chocorua. We steam on with that for our polar star. Over at the left, on the old College road, stands the ancient mansion occupied for many years by Rev. Robert Fowle, the Episcopal minister of Holderness, and close at hand is the graveyard where he lies at rest. Born in 1766, he came to this then frontier town at the age of twenty-one, and for nearly sixty years continued over this pas- torate. He was the. son of Robert Fowle, nephew of Daniel Fowle, the first printer in New Hampshire. He was a man of vigorous understanding, and was influential in the state, both in civil and religious affairs.

At Great Squam bridge is the little hamlet of East Holderness. There are a post-office and a store and sev- eral dwellings. Along this ridge of land began the first settlement in Holderness, one hundred and twenty- five years ago. It has done growing this many a year. The dreamy, an- tique look reminds one of Centre Har- bor, which is not so far away. Here we made the acquaintance of a char- acter in his way : we refer to George L. Shepard, Esq. He is an old man of seventy years, but still erect, and showing his sturdy Scotch-Irish an-

�� �