Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/290

 262 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

��A SKETCH OF BRISTOL.

��THERE are many sections of New Hampshire, of easy access to the pnblic; whose natural attractions are of the highest order, requiring only a proper degree of effort on the part of citizens and others interested, to bring the same into general popularity as a resort of summer pleasure seekers, boarders and tourists, and which are, as yet, comparatively unknown in this regard. Among these is that region of which the town of Bristol forms the. central point. Sufifi- cientlv elevated to insure the requisites of pure air and water \ with the most perfect variety of scenery, embodying hill, valley, lake, river, forest and moun- tain, and excellent highways, extending in every direction, affording the most charming drives, with Newfound lake, one of the clearest, purest and most picturesque bodies of water in New England, nestling in the midst, its shores varying from white sandy beach to precipitous, rocky bluff, and old Cardigan, rising in solitary majesty, but ten miles away, it is almost a matter of wonder that Bristol and its environs have not already become an objective point for hundreds and even thousands of those who go out from the busy ci'.ies and towns to seek recreation and pleasure among the beauties of nature in the sum- mer time. Only thirty miles from Concord, and with direct railway communi- cation, it requires but a moderate degree of energy and enterprise to turn the tide of summer travel extensively in this direction, and give Bristol the rank it justly deserves as a boarding and pleasure resort. Some have already become familiar with the charms of this enchanting region, and come with their friends to while away the summer hours upon the lake shore or amid the hills. But there is room for a vast increase in their numbers, without crowding, and that such increase will be effected ere many years go by is scarcely to be doubted. Indeed every year adds to the average number of jjeople from abroad, who make their summer home in the Granite State. With th; continuance of this increase new resorts must be secured and their capacities developed ; and what has already come to be a considerable will yet become a leading source of income to the people of New Haippshire.

The town of Bristol was formed from portions of Bridgewater and New Ches- ter (now Hill), and was chartered by the legislature in June, 1819. New Ches- ter, which formerly included Bridgewater (the latter being incorporated in 1788) was granted by the Masonian proprietors August 27, 1759, to John Tolford, Matthew Thornton, and forty-eight others, mostly residents of the town of Chester ; but no settlement was made until several years later. Bristol is a small town — one of the smallest in the state, territorially considered — embrac- ing, altogether, only about nine thousand acres ; yet, on account of its many nUural advantages and the fair degree of improvement which has been made of the same, it occupies a position of considerable importance. Although the surface is rough, the soil is of more than average fertility, and good crops of hay and of nearly all the cereal products, are generally secured. Wheat is raised in considerable (juantities, and fruit in abundance, in this and the sur- rounding towns, as is shown by the fact that, during the past fall aiid winter, not less than three thousand barrels of apples were shipped for market at the Bris- tol station. The manufacturing interest, however, is the chief source of pros- p,M-ity, and upon its further development, the town must largely depend for its future growth and progress.

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