Glen-Haven, April 29th, 1851.

Frederick Douglass:—Among all the pleasant retreats that it has been my fortune to meet with in my "wanderings" as David Copperfield would say, none surpass Glen-Haven. To one who is weary and worn, and desires a season of rest, and an opportunity to recruit, this shore offers great inducements. It is situated at the head of the Skaneateles Lake, one of the most beautiful sheets of water in our State. There is a Water-Cure establishment here, under the care of Dr. Jackson, whose long experience, keen perception, and nice discrimination, eminently fit him for such a post. Add to this his great conversational powers and genteel urbanity of manner; those who come here for medical aid, find themselves surrounded by a home feeling which adds not only to their comfort, but is a great aid in their restoration to health. The Cure is located within a few rods of the Lake shore, looking out upon the Lake and the eastern shore, which rises with a gradual slope from the water, and is dotted with farmhouses and buildings as far as the eye can reach, forming a most picturesque and beautiful landscape. In the back-ground is what would pass for a mountain in this part of our country, being a hill nine hundred and sixty feet above the level of the Lake, from which issue springs of pure soft water in great abundance, which supplies the Cure. This hill rises at an angle of about twenty-degrees, and is covered with forest trees, in which there is a sufficient amount of evergreens to render it beautiful. It is the favorite resort of such birds as are common to this latitude, and at day-dawn we are enlivened by their sweet songs. Soft water, pure air, appropriate diet and exercise, are all necessary to the [illegible] treatment of invalid[s] hydropath[illegible]. Nature itself, under any system of [treatment], is the great restorer of health by her own [illegible] powers, and all she needs is to have the obstacles [removed] which have been thrown [illegible] her pathway by our [illegible] and [illegible] mode of living, especially with [illegible] to [illegible] and food. The [table here is] [illegible] supplied with fruit and vegetables, "got up" in the most [illegible] manner, which forms a large portion of the living of most of the inmates, though meat and butter are not forbidden, except in particular cases. Tea, coffee, tobacco and whiskey are entirely banished. He who thinks he cannot well live without meat and butter, has never sat down to a Glen-Haven table.—This is the greatest place for universally good appetite that I have ever known.

I will close this short sketch by transcribing the following lines by Professor Percival, of Franklin College, Tennessee:

Glen-Haven Water-Cure.

On the rocky side of a green-clad hill,
The parent of many a bounding rill,
Is a cool retreat, as wild and sweet,
As ever was trod by fairy feet.

If beauty a pledge of fame could be—
Or the voice of Nature's melody
The tribute of fame, it well might claim,
Glen-Haven, its sweet, melodious name.

There are shadows that lie in the bright green vale,
Where the trees wave cool in secreted gale;
And vistas blue where the sun looks through,
Giving [illegible] wet with dew.

From rock to rock there is music made
By the sporting voice of the wild [illegible];
And murmuring low are the waves that flow
Where the blue Skaneateles rolls below.

The flowers are there of the sweetest bloom,
The birds of the richest song and plume;
And as fair to the eye [in] the soft blue sky
As the [sun-bright] [illegible] of July.

And the Spirit of Health has made her home
Where the [illegible] delights to roam,
[illegible] pale [illegible], defeated, flees;
For Life [is Summer] amid scenes like these.