Arts & Leisure
Across the sea from York: take a tour of Celia Thaxter’s garden t
By Melissa Wood
Tour a recreation of poet Celia Thaxter’s garden at the Isles of Shoals on Wednesdays this summer. Reservations are required. For more information visit www.sml.cornell.edu.
Photos courtesy of Priscilla R. Chellis
YORK- It's hard to believe that the lonely outcropping of rocky islands six miles offshore known as the Isles of Shoals once was frequented by famous artists such as author Nathaniel Hawthorne and painter Childe Hassam.
Their host was Celia Thaxter, a 19th-century poet who grew up on the islands when her father, Thomas Laighton, was caretaker of White Island. The Laightons later built the Appledore Hotel on Appledore Island, and Thaxter had a summer cottage on the island.
Those days are long gone, but a recreation of Thaxter's garden, a reminder of the past, can be found today on Appledore Island.
Although her summer cottage burned in a fire in 1914, Thaxter's garden was brought back to life in 1977 by Dr. John Kingsbury, founder and first director of the Shoals Marine Laboratory, formed in 1973 in a partnership between the University of New Hampshire and Cornell University.
Kingsbury reconstructed the garden by following Thaxter's last book, "An Island Garden," which was published in 1894, the same year that she died at the age of 59.
In the book, Thaxter's descriptions of her garden are accompanied by paintings by Hassam.
"Ever since I could remember anything, flowers have been like dear friends to me, comforters, inspirers, powers to uplift and to cheer," wrote Thaxter. "A lonely child, living on the lighthouse island 10 miles away from the mainland, every blade of grass that sprang out of the ground, every humblest weed, was precious in my sight, and I began a little garden when not more than five years old. From this, year after year, the larger one, which has given so much pleasure to so many people, has grown."
Despite Thaxter's famous guests on the island, according to a passage in the book "The Isles of Shoals in Life and Legend" by Lyman Rutledge, her happiest hours were spent in her garden.
"Her greatest interest was her flowers. She was in her garden at three or four o'clock every morning, watering, cherishing, petting, and communing with her plants."
The Shoals Marine Laboratory is offering tours every Wednesday through Aug. 15 of that recreated garden where visitors can enjoy the exuberant color of her historic garden with heirloom flowers and imagine the inspiration such a lonely but beautiful landscape must have been to those famous seaside visitors over a century ago.
Today, Pamela and Mark Boutilier, owners of Appledore Arbor, a furniture and bedding store in of North Hampton, N.H., are the caretakers of the garden.
"There's just so much human history and natural history," said Pam.
Tours are $95 per person and leave from Eastman's Docks in Seabrook, N.H., at 9:30 a.m. and return at 4:30 p.m.
Public access is limited on Appledore because of the fragile nature of the island environment, so tour sizes are limited and reservations are required. Reservations may be made by contacting the Shoals Marine Laboratory office at Cornell University at (607) 255-3717 or online at www.sml.cornell.edu.
