The Pine-tree coast . ough identified with the history ofKittery from so early a day, not many yearsago these islands contained only a few scattered farmhouses to which onerough road led the way. Visitors were then few and far between. And savewhere a few clearings had subdued it to the farmers hand, the greater portionstill lay tossed and tumbled about, in rocky pastures, wooded fells, or low-lyingfens bristling with rough thickets, quite as the first settlers found it. The bestland had little value, and the worst none at all. But note the changes of a few short years the old owne
The Pine-tree coast . ough identified with the history ofKittery from so early a day, not many yearsago these islands contained only a few scattered farmhouses to which onerough road led the way. Visitors were then few and far between. And savewhere a few clearings had subdued it to the farmers hand, the greater portionstill lay tossed and tumbled about, in rocky pastures, wooded fells, or low-lyingfens bristling with rough thickets, quite as the first settlers found it. The bestland had little value, and the worst none at all. But note the changes of a few short years the old owners have been bought off, and their humbledwellings replaced by handsome residences. The old breakneck bridge acr<Chauncys Creek has given place to a modern structure, new roads have beenopened, hotels built, and such general transformation effected that identificationof the old sites has become difficult, to say the least. 1 missed those sturdy-looking, weather-beaten old farmhouses, with their mammoth chimneys and. CRAVES OF THE SETTLERS. 26 THE PIXK-TKKE COAST. long -well-sweeps. Somehow they seemed more closely knit to the nature ofthe place — to that blending of simplicity, wildness, and seclusion; that absenceof everything which recalls the city to us, and is our ideal of a country life. \Yt i an but look on at all this uprooting of old landmarks with a shrug of submission. Pray Heaven they do not uproot all the old traditions as well! The tide is ebbing fast, uncovering the flats as it goes out. We do not findthe pungent, salty exhalations it sends forth at all unpleasant, or the noondayheat, which an hour ago was stifling us, so oppressive. A light air, cool andrefreshing, brings with it the fragrance it has just brushed from the sweet-scented, red-and-white clover-fields that border upon the sea. For many, Cutts Island holds a sentimental interest from its having beensometime the home of an English gentleman, of whom there is little else to sayexcept that he was of
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