Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/393

Rh from it a picture of loveliness is spread out before the beholder,—a picture of quiet beauty that cannot be surpassed. The glorious "Crystal hills," the various forms and shapes of four hundred lesser peaks, mirror-like lakes, and, lovelier far than anything else, forty miles of the Connecticut valley, dotted with farms and villages and clustering woods, while its own waters as they flow so placidly and silently along, and other streams coming down from the surrounding mountains to join their waters with his in their majestic course to the sea, seem like silver threads in an embroidery of emerald. To the Mt. Prospect House it is only one hour's drive over a good carriage-road from the Lancaster House, and those who love nature in her quiet and still beautiful forms and moods should not fail to see it from that point. Sunset or sunrise viewed from the summit of the mountain is gorgeous and glorious, or sombre and spectral, as the variously tinted clouds and mists may take shapes and hues.

The Lancaster House is one of the best hotels in the state, whether taken as a place of public entertainment, or as a resort for the pleasure-seeker, or of rest and refreshment for the weary traveller. It was built by the Messrs. Lindsey on the site of the "Old" Lancaster House, which was burned in 1879, and opened to the public Nov. 29, 1882.

Mr. John Lindsey, who is associated with his son, Ned A. Lindsey, in the management of the Lancaster House, has been intimately connected with the travelling public and the interests of Lancaster for a good many years, having purchased the Coös Hotel, then the leading hotel of Coös county, in 1849; built the first Lancaster House in 1857, and managed it for several years; was proprietor of the Eagle Hotel in Concord from 1862 to 1866; built the extension of the B. C. & U. Railroad from Whitefield to Northumberland during the years 1869, 1870, and 1871; for five years, from 1878 to 1878, was proprietor of the famous Fabyan House; has conducted the Ocean House at Old Orchard Beach, and the Preble House, Portland, Maine, and for a while a hotel in Georgia. His reputation as a landlord is of the highest. The Lancaster House is fitted most admirably for the comfort of guests, being heated by steam and lighted by gas, and from the neatness and thoroughness of its furnishing, its roominess and airiness, is all that can be desired. It embellishes the village, everywhere surrounded with objects of beauty.

Taking Lancaster as the shire town of the county, and as the centre of trade, of education, of wealth, and of population for a large, section of country, with her enterprise, talent, and social advantages, she is highly favored; but the glory of the town is in her scenery, encompassed about by the mountains, and the valley is a charmed spot. Starr King said,—"The drives about Lancaster for interest and beauty cannot be surpassed, and "grand combinations, too, of the river and its meadows with the Francouia range and the vast White Mountain wall are to be had in short drives." In whatever direction one may go he is delighted with some now burst of beauty, some lovely form of tree and feature of landscape.