Amesbury has among its attractions a Lion's Mouth! In the old days of
Indian ambushes it must have earned its right to the name. But now the
only existing danger is lest one should be eaten up--with kindness.
It is a short mile from the mills, and a pleasant walk in spite of its
ending! At last there comes a little hollow with a large farm-house on
the left, and a grass road winding past it at right angles with the main
road and leading into beautiful woods. These woods are the very jaws of
the lion; and it is very hard, on a hot summer's day, for those who go
into them to come out again. A few rods up the road from the hollow are
other houses. People bearing some of the earliest recorded names in
Amesbury, descendants of the brave pioneers, are to be found here, or
having departed this life, have left good records behind them. One of
these latter lived here in the pleasantest way. He and his wife carried
on their large farm in an ideal manner; everything was upon a generous
scale. There was money enough not to wear out life in petty economies,
and largeness of soul enough not to put the length of a bank account
against the beauties and refinements of life. The loss of their only
child, and a few years afterward of their grand-daughter, one of the
loveliest children earth ever held, was--not compensated for, that
can never be, but made much less dreary by a friendship of many years'
standing between them and their summer neighbors. In this case, too, the
gentleman is a native of Amesbury, proud and fond of his birthplace.
Every summer he comes to the cottage of this friend, a charming little
house only a few rods from the larger one, and spends the summer here
with his family and servants. He has made a great deal of money in New
York, but fortunately, not too much, for it has not built up a Chinese
wall around his heart; his new friends are dear, but his early friends
are still the dearest.