piseogee, is doubtless the most beautiful of all the small sheets of water in New England; and it has been pronounced by one gentleman, no less careful in his words than cultivated in his taste, more charmingly embosomed in the landscape than any lake of equal size he had ever seen in Europe or America.

The whole Sandwich range is in view behind the lower hills that guard the lake. The most striking picture is gained about five miles from Centre Harbor, from the top of a hill on the road, where, as we look over the broadest portion of the lake, and across several parallel pars of narrow islands, the whole form of gallant Chocorua, with his

steel-hooded head, fills the background to the northward, towering, without any intervening obstruction, twelve or fifteen miles away. We give an illustration of this view. But we can call attention in words only to a dark and massive mountain that stands also in the land scape, wearing a hue as of beaten metals and adamant. From whatever point it is observed near Centre Harbor, it is distinguished by its darker color from the main Sandwich range, back of which it looms. And from Squam Lake it shows scattered points, and short, jagged lines of glittering lights, (probably bare points of quartz,) which make its darkness sparkle as though it were sheathed in a coat of mail.

There are charming reliefs of forest-path in the road, which, though uneven, is of quite civilized smoothness. And it opens at last upon a splendid surprise in the rich meadows of Holderness and Plymouth, that are studded or overlooked by tasteful country residences, and adorned with clusters and avenues of grand old elms. Holderness, which lies opposite Plymouth on the eastern bank of the Pemigewasset, was founded by a company of English emigrants ardently devoted to the creed and worship of the Church of England, and with glowing anticipations of the future for the colony. The founders hoped and believed that they were laying the basis of the great city of New England, the rival of Puritan Boston, and destined to throw it in the shade. The head-quarters of heresy, they allowed, would have some commercial advantages, on account of its nearness to the ocean and its excellent harbor; but, in population, refinement, dignity, and wealth, they supposed that Holderness was to be the chief city of the New England colonies. What a strange answer to their dream, that even the pretension with which the settlement was made is not noticed by history, and has scarcely wandered from the proprietors' records into any tradition!

Plymouth is one of the villages to which a day or two, at least, should be devoted on the way to the mountains. Many visitors will be glad to learn that the old building remains here in which Danie

Webster made his first argument before a court. It is now used as a wheelwright's shop. The statesman wrote his name in large letters with red chalk, a short time before his death, upon a wall of the room which vibrated to his first legal effort; but the autograph, the most valuable one probably to be found in New England, has since been covered by a daub from a paint brush. In scenery, Plymouth is remarkable for the beauty of its meadows, through which the Pemigewasset winds, and for the grace of its elm-trees. Even the hurrying and careless visitor will have his attention arrested here and there

by a faultless one, standing out alone over its private area of shadow seemingly an ever-gushing fountain of graceful verdure.

There are several moderate hills in the village from which delight

ful views of the river amply repay the small trouble it requires to gain them. And Prospect Mountain, or North Hill, which is its true name, commands a panorama so extensive and charming that an ascent of it should be accounted one of the great privileges of this route to the mountains. The surveyors tell us that it stands higher over the village than Red Hill over Centre Harbor; yet there is a very good wagon road to the summit. The landscape, if less lovely in one or two respects than that from Red Hill, has more variety, and includes more pastoral beauty. The whole extent of Winnipiseogee in its broadest part is visible, and the arms and creeks, which stretch out from its body like claws and antennæ, seem to be separate water gems scattered upon the landscape. The view of it, however, as a whole, is not nearly so fine as from Red Hill, where the carvings and adorning of its curiously scalloped shores are seen. Directly beneath us are the two Squam lakes. And the track of the Pemigewasset, here and there receiving a tributary stream through beautifully guarded passes on the west, may be followed along widening meadows, from the distant slopes that give birth to it, to the broader and lordly current below, where it joins its cold tide with the warmer stream that flows from Winnipiseogee, and takes the name of Merrimack.

I felt the cool breath of the North,
Between me and the sun,

O'er deep, still lake, and ridgy earth,

I saw the cloud-shades run.

Before me, stretched for glistening miles,

Lay mountain-girdled Squam;

Like green-winged birds, the leafy isles
Upon its bosom swam.

And, glimmering through the sun-haze warm,
Far as the eye could roam,

Dark billows of an earthquake storm
Beflecked with clouds like foam,
Their vales in misty shadow deep,
Their rugged peaks in shine,

I saw the mountain ranges sweep
The horizon's northern line.

It is indeed a grand view of Lafayette and Mount Cannon which Prospect Hill affords. And some portions of each of the ten counties of New Hampshire are within the range of our vision there. It is a question if the dome of Mount Washington itself is not visible on the north. Several of the noblest isolated mountains of the state show themselves to the best advantage,—the dark mass of Moosehillock heaving like a whale just beginning to dive, the amber colored sides of the desolate Cardigan, the blue declivities of the true Kiarsarge sloping off on the south in Merrimack county, and far below, the pale shapes which tell us where

Green-tufted, oak-shaded, by Amoskeag's fall
The twin Uncanoonucs rise stately and tall.

There are many persons who cannot make excursions that require horseback riding. The view from Mount Prospect should be especially noticed for their benefit, since it can be thoroughly enjoyed at the cost of no more exertion than a wagon ride, and an absence of four hours from the hotel.

Who that has driven on a clear day from Plymouth to Franconia can ever forget the ride? Our most vivid impressions of its beauty are derived from a ride over it in the early summer, a year or two since. "The gold and the crystal cannot equal it; and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold." It was a perfect day of June.

And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days;

Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,

And over it softly her warm ear lays: