I heard Canon Farrar preach and lecture. He is not remarkable, it seems to me, except for his moral and spiritual earnestness, but that is remarkable, as men go. I liked his lecture, for it will help to foster a good feeling between us two brother nations of the English race. England and America ought to feel themselves one....
When the summer came, Miss Larcom always looked forward with pleasure to her mountain-homes, of which she had a number, in New Hampshire and Maine. The hills gave her rest; and the beauty of the views, with the grand distances, suggesting freedom and the thought of being above the common level, gave her inspiration for her work. Each year she tried to visit the various points she loved--Ossipee Park, The Notch, Bethlehem, Moosilauke, Bethel, Centre Harbor, and Berlin Falls. Bethel fascinated her with its sight of the Androscoggin and its majestic elms, and the view of Mt. Moriah and some of the Presidential Range,--Madison, Adams, and Washington. At Mr. John Russell’s Riverside Cottage she was always welcome; and back of the house, on the crest of the mountain, was a little glen, shaded by evergreens, in which she used to sit and read, called “Miss Larcom’s Retreat.” Sitting on the low bench, in this nook, she wrote the poem “On the Ledge:”--
“Here is shelter and outlook, deep rest and wide room; The pine woods behind, breathing balm out of gloom; Before, the great hills over vast levels lean,-- A glory of purple, a splendor of green. As a new earth and heaven, ye are mine once again, Ye beautiful meadows and mountains of Maine.”
She always enjoyed Ossipee Park, with its wonderful brook, “set in the freshness of perfect green,” and watched it widen into pools and leap into cascades. She wrote of it, “Ah! this is the sort of retreat for friends who like to meet or separate within the sound of a voice which surely wins them together again side by side.”
Bethlehem, besides giving her freedom from hay-fever, was always “the beautiful.” Moosilauke was her favorite summit. From these places she generally wrote charming letters to the Portland “Transcript,” which its readers will remember, and others may judge of by the following from Wood-Giant’s Hill, Centre Harbor.