Twenty-five miles south of Cohasset is the historic town of Plymouth, and right in front of it is a harbor made by a long neck of land, parallel with the shore, and known as the Cow-Yard, in which the Mayflower came to anchor with her precious cargo of forefathers, on a bleak December day in 1620. Mr. Samuel Adams Drake has written:
“Plymouth is the American Mecca. It does not contain the tomb of the prophet, but the rock of the forefathers, their traditions and their graves. The first impressions of a stranger are disappointing, for the oldest town in New England looks as fresh as if built within the century. There is not much that is suggestive of the old life to be seen there. Except the hills, the heaven, and the sea, there is nothing antique; save a few carefully cherished relics, nothing that has survived the day of the Pilgrims.” And another writer of recent times declares “it would be difficult to name any other place in America with such a profoundly interesting historical event as that which has made the name of Plymouth Rock forever famous in the annals of devotion and freedom. Upwards of fifty thousand persons come here every summer, making reverent pilgrimages to the cradle of American civilization. For these, and for all who love the antique and historic, Plymouth has well-nigh unrivaled attractions. Here is the renowned rock, down by the water-side, overarched by a stately granite canopy, in whose top are the bones of several of the Pilgrims. Up in the village rises the massive structure of Pilgrim Hall, consecrated to relics and memorials of the first colonists. Near this shrine is the court-house, with rare records and documents of the seventeenth century. On a noble hill rises the Pilgrim National Monument, a vast pile of carved granite crowned by a very impressive statue of Faith, forty feet high, and the largest stone figure in the world.
NEGRO-HEAD CLIFFS, NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
“Burial Hill is one of the most interesting localities in New England. On every side are the tombs and monuments of the founders of the State and their descendants. Above these sacred graves the pleased eye wanders over an exquisite panorama of sea and shore, lonely islands, far-reaching promontories, and distant blue hills, out across the blue sea to where the sandy strand of Cape Cod bounds the view, low down on the horizon. On this bleak summit stood the fortified log-church and watch-tower, the former bearing six three-pound cannon on its flat roof, and the latter occupied by vigilant sentinels.”
It is about forty miles from Plymouth to Newport, Rhode Island, one of the ultra-fashionable summer seaside resorts, and thither our artist repaired to take views of that vicinity. Newport is not only famous for its fine bathing beach, elegant villas, and its harbor specially adapted for yacht-racing; there is much more to recommend the city to visitors than these means of recreation and pleasant vanities. Commercially, Newport is a metropolis of looms; historically, it is a city of great consequence; and scenically, a place of extraordinary interest. The Old Tower at Newport has been for centuries an object of curious inquiry and patient investigation. For many years the opinion obtained generally that it was a relic of the Norsemen’s discovery and occupation of the country, five hundred years before the time of Columbus, and that in some way the building was connected with Druidic worship. The Druids of England and France performed their religious ceremonies under oak trees and always in the open air, but this fact did not affect the belief current for so long a time that the Stone Tower was the remains of either an edifice or a monument erected by the Druids. When this opinion finally changed to the more reasonable though equally false one that the tower was the relic of a fort built by Norsemen sea-kings about the year 985, historians appeared to be satisfied and inquiry ceased for a long while. Finally, investigation of the Runic inscriptions on the Dighton Rock, in Massachusetts, revived curiosity in the tower, and the result of the last investigation is the opinion that it is the ruins of a wind-mill that was built some time in the seventeenth century. The truth, however, may as well be told, that notwithstanding what historians say to the contrary, no one knows, or is likely ever to know, when, by whom, or for what purpose the so-called tower was built. It is a question about which there can be nothing but speculation.
SOLDIERS’ MONUMENT ON EAST ROCK, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.
Newport is located on a peninsula on the east shore of Narragansett Bay, which is a splendid harbor, having an anchorage of thirty feet in low water. The scenery about the place, too, is very fine, and is brought into advantageous view by a charming drive-way that extends along the beach and entirely around the city. A part of the sea-shore line is very rocky and precipitous, and the assaults of terrific breakers for many ages have worn these cliffs into wonderful shapes. Purgatory Chasm is, perhaps, the most remarkable example of wave force in this vicinity, though the agency of water has, no doubt, been reinforced by some other natural power, such as glacier, earthquake or volcano. Near-by are Hanging Rocks, where Berkeley is said to have composed his Minute Philosophy; and less than three hundred yards distant is Spouting Cave, where the surf dashes into a grotto and thence through a hole in the roof to a height at times of fifty feet, affording a beautiful spectacle. Other points of interest along the cliffs are individualized by such names as Eastman’s, Green’s End, Lime Rock, Negro-Head Cliffs, the Flints, the Dumplings, Cockle-Shell Ledge, etc. After a brief circuit of Newport’s attractions, our artist departed for Western Connecticut and thence to Albany, there to take boat down the Hudson for New York City. The route lay through New Haven, where a short stop was made to take a picture of East Rock and the Soldiers’ Monument thereon. East Rock is a bluff 360 feet high, on the north side of the city, to which a beautiful carriage-road leads, and from its summit a wide extent of charming landscape is presented, taking in a part of the Connecticut Valley towards the west, Yale College on the east, and spanning Long Island Sound on the south, so that when the weather is clear the low banks of Long Island may be distinguished.
