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THE

SKETCH BOOK

of
Jtature anb (J^utboor Hife



A MONTHLY MAGAZINE

OF OUTDOOR INSPIRATION FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE

THE PICTURESQUE



PUBLISHED BY

ARTHUR E. VOGEL



"Volume I

JUNE, 1909— MAY, 1910



MANCHESTER, N. H.
M C M X



F5I

/ o (J ^



INDEX TO VOLUME I



Announcement, Old Home Week 48

Abandoned Farms, by Maurice Baldwin IS

August, William Howitt 84

Autumn, The Golden Days of Jennie June 144

Autumn Lessons, F. W. P. Greenwood 184

Aga^-.iz, Louis, Charisteristics from etc., . (book review) 212

Ants, Observing the by Edward S. Currier 288

Abandoned Home, The (selected) 336

Books of the Open Air, 26-27

58-59, 90-91, 122-123, 188-189, 220-221, 250-551

Birds, A Retreat for by Annie Chase 99

Butterflies, (selected) 103

Bii f.s. The Voices of G. White 137

Break of Day, At the .... . by Sabra Alger Nuttall 171

Butterflies, The Monarch and Mimic . . . . E. P. Felt 233

Bluets, Amanda B. Harris ZM ^ ^ V

Chrysanthemums, (selected) 191 '

Country-Side, The 25

Camp, An Evening in by Paul H. Brown 131

Country Life, Taft on 320

Cathedral, My by George B. C. Rugg 345

Editorials, 110-111

142-143, 174-175, 206-207, 238-239, 274-275, 306-307, 338-339

Evergreens, How to Know the 192

Emerson, R. W., Selections from 194

Farm?, Do Men Think of the (selected) 25

Field Flowers, Maeterlinck on 52

Forest Conference Notice 55

Flora of York, The by Sarah F. Sanborn 182

Flowers and Foliage, (selected) 290

Flora, White Mountain (selected) 312

Gardens, Byway Ideas for Winifred Weld Beck 42



mBEX—Continued



Gipsying, Going (selected) 107

Gentian, The (selected) 223

Grosbeak, The Rose Breasted by Annie Chase 309

Home Coming, The Leonard Alden Frink 35

Halcyon Days, The Susan Fenimore Cooper 155

Hills, The Gift of the by Alice D. 0. Greenwood 163

Hermit Thrush, The by Anna E. Cobb 218

House Banking, (selected) 310

Introduction, 3

Ivy, The Drummond 102

Inevitable, The by Maurice Baldwin 195

Infinite Unity, The by Maurice Baldwin 208

June Days, William Howitt 7

June — and Roses, by Maurice Baldwin 21

Junco, The, or Slate-Colored Snow Bird, by Anna E. Cobb 286

Laurels, The by Carl Burell 44

Midsummer, William Howitt 53

Mitchell, Donald G,, Selection from 70

Mountains, The Lure of the (selected) 61

Mid Year (selected) 93

Mount Prospect, N. H., . . by Rupert Edward Blatchford 245

Mount Wantastiquet, by Agnes L. Scott 280

May flowers, Amanda B. Harris 322

Nature Thoughts, .... Jefferies—Thoreau — Whitman 14-15

46-47, 78-79, 104-105, 134-135, 166-167, 200-201, 236-237

270-271, 302-303, 334-335

Nature, Back to (selected) 16

Nature Notes 18-19

50-51, 82-83, 114-115, 150-151, 178-179, 210-211, 242-243

278-279, 314-315, 348-349

New York's Suburbs at Dawn in Midsummer, (selected) 71

North Pole, Eureka— the 112

Nature's Teachings, Gearge'B. Griffith 152



IIS^DEX— Continued



November, William Howitt 180

Nature Interests, Cooperation in . by Edward F. Bigelow 202

New England Meadow, In a by Annie Chase 215

Nature Life Spurgeon 226

Nature, A Challenge from by H. W. R. Frost 240

Nature, The Three Kingdoms of {selected) 259

Nature, This Is {selected) 272

Nature Signal Gives Warning {selected) 277

Nature Rapture a Search for Health?, Is

by Rev. R. D. Sawyer 332

Open, Out in the Bertha Hirsch Baruch 39

Ocean Vestibule, Our by Thomas F. Anderson 67

October, William Howitt 140

Outdoors, Sleep {selected) 269

Playground, The Nation's . ... by Thomas F. Anderson 28

Paradise, The Earthly John Ruskin 80

Poetrv, Miscellaneous 73

103, 120, 133, 141, 169, 198, 232, 281, 333

Presidential Range, New Paths of the 121

Pine Tree, The John Ruskin 258

Plants and Souls, Growth of {selected) 341

Rustic Simplicity, He Sought Ed Mott 147

Roof, The Old Susan Brown Robbins 283

Summer Homes in New Hampshire . . by F. W. Rollins 13

Selections, Miscellaneous 12

41, 45, 85, 89, 109, 149, 205, 235, 256, 264, 269, 313

September, William Howitt 117

Sparrow, The White Throated Anna E. Cobb 168

Sylvan Robbery, A by Royden W. Cheney 227

Sluggard's Garden, The {selected) 291

Spring, The Return of . . .by Rupert Edward Blatchford 304

Spruce, The Lonesome by M. Bodwell 316

Shakespeare, Flowers in Luella Knott 323



llSiBEX— Continued



Thoreau, Henry D S. E. Saville 56

Thanks Giving, by Maurice Baldwin 165

Trees Do, What William R. Lazenhy 252

Trees in Winter, The Beauty of . . . . by Carl Burell 276

Vacations, Contracted {selected) 138

Vacations, Healthfulness of .... Dr. A. S. Atkinson 266

Wild Flowers, Native {selected) 87

Woods, In the- Leonard Alden Frink 125

Winter Decorations from the Fields {selected) 133

Wood-Thrush, The John Burroughs 170

Winter-Vacation Habit, The {selected) 216

Woodpecker, The Frank M. Chapman 297

Whittier Country, In the by Agnes L. Scott 299

Wild Flowers, Favoritism of Alice Lounsberry 311

Woods, to Find Your Way When Lost in the {selected) 319

Walking, The Benefits of R. J. Roberts 351



POETRY

Abandoned Farm, An Edward Tallmage Root 74

Autumn George Arnold 124

Autumn, Early {selected) 130

Autumn, To Keats 136

Autumn, A Still Day in Sarah Helen Whitman 146

Autumn in the Garden Henry Van Dyke 154

Autumn, Late {selected) 162

Bright June C. Webbe 24

Chrysanthemum, The Eben Rexford 177

Country Cheer, {selected) 317



INDEX— Continued



POETRY

December, Joel Benton 222

Fields, Out in the Elizabeth Barrett Browning 43

Gardens, Margaret E. Sangster 92

Goldenrod, Picking Edith Livingston Smith 101

Hills, Sunrise on the H. W. Longfellow 86

Invitation, The Percy B. Shelley 89

Indian Summer Henry Van Dyke 153

June Ballad, A Aronel Nilwen 20

Long in a City Pent Keats 57

November Woods, The Frank Farrington 176

November, Edwin Carlile Litsey 183

November Alonzo Rice 190

Open Road, The Maude Goldring 318

Solitary Life, The Praise of a . . . . William Drummond 38

Sea, Do-wn to the by R. H. Cheney 77

Summer, Farewell to George Arnold 98

September, Helen Whitney Clark 106

Summer, Passing of {selected) 116

Selection from Thomas Hood, 265

Spring, A. Tennyson 296

Spring Magic, S. A. Brooke 331

Shephard Woods, The by H.W.R. Frost 340

Spring, Flowers of by Robert Page Lincoln 350

Towfi Weariness, Maurice Baldwin 60

Winter, John Kendrick Bangs 199

Winter Fireside, The Robert R. Carrell 244

Winter Woods, The Ninette M. Lowater 249

Winter, Bayard Taylor 282

Woods, Lilacs in the Lilla T. Elder 298

Waters, The Meeting of the Thomas Moore 301

Winter, The Death of Anna B. Hadley 308



MEIfflBfflK

OF NATURE AMD OUTDC»R* LIFE




JUNE. 1909



PH.ICE-IO<^



'the COMPANYWITH THE PYRAMID*

1^ Of




NEWHAMPSHIRE"



I



2,sai.2io.4a

2.937.319.76



^ 347. 45 y
3.940.I7 "\



Fire Insurance Co.




TOTAL LIABILITIES $2,352,468.27 -
P0LICY-H0LDERS5URPLU5 $2,508,681.54-




UP IN BRETTON WOODS
IN THE HEART OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS



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'/ love not Man the less, but Nature more"



The Sketch Book

of
Nature and Outdoor Life



Vol. 1 JUNE, 1909 No. I




Redolent of Field and Sky

A little magazine of outdoor inspiration sent from New Hampshire

the Picturesque bearing its message of the Open Air —

of green fields fern-filled woodlands

and silent hills stately trees and wayside flowers sketched in

prose poetry and illustration



ARTH\JRE.\OGEL. Publisher MANCHESTER. N. H.

ISSUED MONTHLY

lOc A COPY $1.00 A YEAR

Copyright, 1909. by Arthur E. Vcgel



THE SKETCH BOOK

of Nature and Outdoor Life



DESCRIPTION

en, A booklet of sketches in prose, poetry, and illustration, contain-
ing original and other matter inspired by the beauty of Nature, and
particularly the Joy of Life among the mountains and valleys, fields
and woods, lakes and breams, and seashore of New Hampshire —
the Picturesque.

PURPOSE
dl. A little messenger for the tired in mind or in body, telling of the
refreshing, health-giving influences of Outdoor Life throughout the
year ; for the lover of Nature, telling of panorama and scenic view,
of forest rambles and walks a-field; for the ^udent of Nature, telling
of bird neighbors, lately trees, and wayside flowers; and for the
Summer gue^, telling of re^fulness and recreation; there — among the
fir-clad, rock-ribbed, and silent hills, green fields, fern-filled wood-
lands, and sloping meadows, and all that is soul-inspiring belonging
to the intimacy with Nature.

QUALITY

(H. Di^indlive in typographical arrangement and mechanical appear-
ance; of convenient (pocket) size; its contents of such quality as to be
worthy the reading. Indeed, this Little Visitor comes unto you with
a heart love for all herein spoken that is good, uplifting, and ju^. So
may it be received, for all as of such shall be termed "The Elecft"
and should number a goodly list.

CONTRIBUTORS

(H. Contributions to its pages are by writers in sympathy with ^ate
and national intere^ in the welfare of New Hampshire as an " Out-
door Life" ^ate, and the range of contents includes such topics as
scenic attra(ftions, advantages for summer homes, railroad, carriage
and automobile routes, hotel facilities, roads and farms, seashore,
mountains and lakes, fishing, tramping and mountain climbing, fore^ry,
botany, geology, ornithology, and kindred topics incident to Nature
and Outdoor Life.



^X^





THE SKETCH BflDK

J4ature and Outdoor Life




INTRODUCTION

WITHIN recent years thousands of people in New
England and the country over have learned with
a happy surprise of the charm and grandeur, the
mingled pastoral grace and impressive majesty, of the
scenery of New Hampshire. Almost no state in the Union
compresses within it longitude so varied and so beautiful
a range of landscape. Though one of the oldest settle-
ments of the Atlantic coast its northern counties still
include an almost primeval region, and fi'om the lower
counties in which everywhere are the gentle evidences of
a time -mellowed and humanized influence, there is a
gradual and delightful crescendo of the more primitive and
aboriginal traces of Nature until the modern wanderer may
himself tread forest fastnesses that only yesterday the an-
cient sachems might have deserted.

dL Yet it is hardly more than two decades since the un-
usual attractions for the Nature lover and the student of
Nature, ( for there is a distinction to be made between
them,) have made their now constantly increasing appeal
to the people of their own part of the country and the
world at large. Permanent residents are scarcely aware of



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The Sketch Book



the thousands of foreigners who have visited the great
hostelries of the state during the Summer season. The
Peace " controversy " at Portsmouth alone made friends in
far Japan and conservative Russia, and has not an Earl of
Scotland stood under the balcony of Mother Eddy's win-
dow at Fairview ! In several of the nothern tow^ns large
numbers of people from other states have aquired magnif-
icent properties, and many distinguished persons have es-
tablished a nearly year-round residence within its borders.
Aside from these, thousands of pleasure-seekers, rest-
seekers, invalids, artists, Appalachian mountain climbers,
scientifics — to coin a collective that may include botanists,
geologists, minerologists, agriculturists, et al. Campers-
out and tourists generally have found what they sought
if they have looked at the right place on the farms, moun-
tain slopes, lakes, rivers, or seashore of New Hampshire —
the Picturesque. All of them have taken away exquisite
memories of "the vision as they saw it" of some part of
the state's diversified beauty.

<n. The purpose of The Sketch Book is to crystalize these
memories in such form that they may reach others who
are yet to know^ that America has no more, beautiful,
healthful, or restful a Canaan than the Granite State — a
Land of Promise fulfilled.

dL Ex-Governor Rollins instituted an observance which
is one of the most beautiful expressions of true sentiment




^iwt^h j?j:-,^_



The Sketch Book [ 5

that mankind has ever known. Old Home Week is as
perfect in its idea, as pure in its pm'pose, as holy in its
celebration as the days of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or
Easter, for it makes commemorative and rejuvenates the
noblest impulses of the human race— reverence and remem-
brance. Old Home Week has been referred to because
the spirit of that annual festival is felt by all who visit
New Hampshire, un pays du revenants in very truth. It
does not matter that they were not born here, nor that
some ante-natal tie has still its lure.

dL Subsidiary only to the feeling that brings back from
afar the wanderer from "Home "—the sweetest word in our
Saxon legacy— is our love of places where we have been
happy. Vernon Lee's erudition leads her to personify it
as Genius Loci— the Spirit of Places, the impersonal Lure
of Surroundings. And who has not felt it! It has no
necessarily human associations; it is truly a rapport, a
communion with Nature as she reveals herself to us alone,
and to one or another of us it may be no more than the
memory of a graceful sloping of trees, the glisten of
brooks over granite boulders, the leaping of trout, the
sanctity of white lilies on a pond, the solemn compassion
of silent mountains, the irony of crags, the gentle invita-
tions of meadows through which a brook sings, like a
happy heart, its promises.
<Il It takes but the turn of a lane, or the lushness of a




Tbt)ketLbB<x.Kf



6



The Sketch Book



meadow, the brooding of a group of willows, the hauteur
of a clump of pines, the lisp of leaves along a woodland
road, the silver tip of a snow-clad peak, the smell of new
mown hay, the breath of lilacs from an ancient cottage-
side — and one or another feels rising in his heart the
wistful happy remembrance of some cherished hour, a
troupe of memories in its train .

CL But the joy of outdoor life may be experienced any-
where on the surface of this "best of all worlds", when-
ever the human heart is attuned to the mulitudinous har-
monies of Nature. The revelation awaits us if we will
but see, the infinite song is ours if we will but hear.
There is no spot on earth from pole to pole that has not
its peculiar beauty, its special charm, its gift of wonder.

CL And in The Sketch Book all who treasure the memory
of such things should and will give them back to gladden
ungladdened hearts, making permanent in sketch, story,
poem, or picture the adventure that gave them a thrill,
the scene that was a happiness to them, the romance of
their life in the Open.

dL No one needs an aeroplane to reach easily any part of
New Hampshire. Beautiful roads and "shining bands of
steel" bind in happy union seashore, lake, camp, home-
stead, and city. And The Sketch Book in its future pages
or by post will tell more specifically the how and where,
the when and why of New Hampshire— the Picturesque.




The Sketch Book



June Days

It is the time of roses; We pluck them as we pass. — Hood.

THE Spring is gone! the Summer is come! Beauti-
ful as Spring is, and delicate and poetical her child-
ren — the snow-drop, the violet, the primrose, and
the cowslip — we have seen and loved them once more,
and we will no longer regret them. As they came, and
passed away amid the lingering chills of Winter, we wel-
comed them and we mourned over their departure. No
season like Spring makes us so sensible, by its fleeting
beauties, of the fleeting time; but Summer is the season
of full-blown enjoyment; and now let us enjoy it. The
great, wise monarch of Jerusalem exclaimed, in reviewing
these very thmgs, "Come on, therefore; let us enjoy
the good things that are present, and let us speedily use
the creatures, like as in youth; let us fill ourselves with
costly wine and ointments, and let no flower of the
Spring pass by us; let us crown ourselves with rosebuds
b(^fore they be withered." That was wisdom in Solo-
mon's time, and it is wisdom now. It is wisdom to grasp
the good that is before and around us, and not to waste
time in lamenting for what has gone, or may soon be
going. And June seems the season made for the uni-
versal rejoicing of all the creatures of existence. The
country is arrayed in the fullest and newest beauty; the
trees are once more thick with leaves — but leaves of the
most delicate freshness. It is, as Spenser says, wherever
we turn our eyes, "a leafie luxurie."

dL But if the days of June are now warm, and brilliant,
and beautiful, ah ! how soft and beautiful is a June night !







The Sketch Book



Oh ! what is there that can equal its pleasant obscurity,
which is yet not darkness! What can equal the calm,
clear, lofty beauty of the sky, where the moon beams like
a celestial creature, as she is, and the evening star burns
with the radiance of immortal youth. There is a balmy*
softness in the air. The trees stand in shadowy masses,
that seem to listen to the still and musing sky above
them. There is a soft gloom beneath umbrageous hed-
ges, or as you walk through shrubberies and plantations,
that is peopled with all the tender feelings of the pres-
ent, and the tender memories of the past. What would
we not give to go hand in hand again with those with
whom we have enjoyed such hours, and talked of death,
and wondered who should first explore its mysteries — and
they were those first? and we walk on, through deepen-
ing shadows, and wonder what and where they now are.
(H. How every place and scene, on this still and thought-
ful night, seems to unlock its secret essence. Every spot
has its own sentiment, and its peculiar odor. Here the
leafy aroma of trees; there the scent of forest turf; here
the earthly smell of deep, rich soil; and there the frag-
rant breath of sweetbriar, or delicious effusion from a
clover or bean-field. Near the hamlet, the warm, rich
odor of peat, or of the wood-fire, announces that the
weary laborer has supped, and perhaps now sleeps, un-
conscious of the cricket that sings in the gardenhedge, or
the nocturnal thrush in the old elm that overcanopies his
dwelling.

C How delightful is the meanest sound of a Summer
night! How the moth, dashing against the cottage
pane, or fluttering among the garden leaves, enriches the
stillness ! with what a lordly boom the soaring cockchaf-




The Sketch Book [ 9

fer mounts past your ear into the flowery lime! How
the smallest runnel murmurs aloud ! how palpably the
mountain- stream sounds along ! how deeply sonorous is
the distant waterfall, or mill- weir. The frogs in the
marshes seem to be turning a thousand wheels ; and the
dorhawk, the cuckoo, and the nightingale, give wood,
and meadow, and tree, their different charms. The
quails pipe from the green corn, the curlews from the far
moorlands; and if you be near the ocean, what a voice of
majesty is that ! full of the meaning of ages, and of the
poetry of the infinite !

dL Ay, walk, happy youth ! in the flush of thy happiness,
along the dusky margin of that old, old sea-beach. The
soft waves break in flame at thy feet ; hear the stroke of
an oar, somewhere in the dim obscure ; list the wild and
shrill cries of tern and plover, that, never sleeping
soundly, come sweeping past, and plunge onward, un-
seen. There is not a sound that, heard tonight, shall
not mingle with thy thoughts and hopes of life, and may,
years hence, pierce through thy memory, followed by an
ocean of tears. But hush! there are voices, shrill and
laughing voices. The musing young man springs on-
ward, forgetting the poetry of the ocean and of night, in
the more vivid poetry of hope and love. Let him go!
For young, or for old, for every human being that has a
soul alive to the impressions 'of God in Nature, the calm
and the gloom, and every sound and sensation of a Sum-
mernight, are holy.

dl. The various grasses which make mowing-grass beauti-
ful, are the perennial clover, filling the air with sweet-
ness; the yellow goats-beard; the dog-daisies, whitening
all around ; the chervil, under hedges and trees ; the yel-







10



The Sketch Book



r^



low rattle; the lotus; the beautiful quake-grass, which
all children have delighted to pull; the poas, fescues;
rough cocksfoot, on banks, among thickets, and in rank
grounds; the wild oats and darnels by the waysides, with
red, pensile panicles; and in the thickets, the foxtail and
timothy, with their spikes; the graceful melic, in the
shade of woods; the light air-grass and purple burnet, in
meadows.

(H. The corn, now growing tall, becomes very pleasant to
behold, and to walk through along the field-paths. The
rye, tall as your head; its cerulean ears having long been
shot, and the wheat now beginning to shoot. The pecu-
liar flowers, and appearance of corn-fields, have some-
thing in them extremely beautiful and cheerful. The
red poppies, the peerless blue of the viper 's-bugloss, the
corn-bottles, the corn-marigolds, the scarlet anagallis,
and the crimson of the cockle, make a brilliant spectacle
to the eye of the lover of Nature, though not of the
farmer. These are the productions of sandy lands,
Avhere they flourished in Job's time, who talks of lands
producing "thistles instead of wheat, and cockles instead
of barley."

CL The wild-rose, elder-floM^er, and the bitter-sweet, all
signs of confirmed Summer, are out. Evening primroses
of a splendid kind are to be seen in the sandy fields.
(H. But Summer has now established its reign. The scythe
rings in the fields, and all the bustle of hayharvest be-
gins. Here are once inore the merry sunburnt groups in
the hayfields; hay hanging in the trees of the lanes;
every thing is warm and dry. We delight now in the
deep, cool grass of shady valleys, where the cool stream
runs lightly, and the quivering leaves of overhanging




The Sketch Book



[11



trees cast dancing circles of light on the gravelly bottom

below; where the lovely azure crowfoot salutes you from

rhe margin, and the purple comfrey dip its leaves in the

water. On the trees chestnuts are conspicuous, nuts on

the hazels, and apples in the orchards. Gooseberries,

currants, and strawberries, are ripe, as June takes his

leave. The cuckoo departs, and glow-worms come out

on heaths and banks of lawns. Anon, and the thirsty,

fainting, sun-tanned Summer, will shoAv changes of color

in grass, in leaf, and in corn. Anon, we shall be heard

saying.

It is the Summer of the fleethig year :
On the brown sward the flowers are faint and few;
All songrs are hushed, and but the clear halloo
And larum of the bird-boy reach the ear ;
Through the warm air floats far the lines' perfume,
And wayside boughs have lost the rose's bloom.



e carnival of Nature and of man
in it? Dost thou not rejoice in it



OL That is June! th
Who does not rejoice
my reader? Open thy heart wide as it can expand it-
self; fling abroad thy imagination over the world, and
recollect for how many millions of our fellow-men is June
making a paradise, and preparing joys. In what dells,
and glen, and pleasant lanes, in the vicinity of ancient
villages, and overhung by dewy and odorous boughs, do
thousands of happy children ramble, and gather flowers,
and weave them into posies and garlands, and are as blest
as the angels in heaven, knowing no sorrow, and fearing
no morrow ! By what old wells, bubbling up in shade or
sunshine, do there sit poets and poetesses of God's mak-
ing, glorious creatures who shall make heaven glad with
their songs, though they never be heard on earth, drink-
ing all that earth and sky have of beauty and sweetness !




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By cottage doors, where the flowery honeysuckle stoops
down to bid them another good-morrow, do there sit
feeble old men and women, who have nearly done their
day's work on the earth; and in the sunshine, and in the
breath of flowers that falls upon them, feel the throb of
joy in their bosoms that shall accompany them to the
eternal gates of God.

(U. But not over England alone does the Summer fling its
beauty and its gladness; throughout Europe and Ame-
rica, and over many a region besides, are not mighty and
populous nations all astir in the open air, filling their
souls with a thousand natural and social enchantments?
God sees them from His invisible throne, and doubtless
rejoices in their joy; and the genius of man has made
him of late years a happy participator in the divine bene-
ficence. His steamships are speeding over the ocean in