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When we were getting acquainted with Brant Rock, someone told us this area was once commonly called the Irish Riviera, I guess because so many Irish folks from Boston bought homes on the beach here. We also heard that it's named after the Brant Goose, hunted in the waters off Brant Rock. The seven-story tall, thin concrete tower that is a landmark feature of Brant Rock is actually one of several such structures built along the shipping lane from the Cape Cod Canal to spot enemy U-Boats in World War Two.

As with so many localities in this area of the country, we have a lot of history to enjoy. Marshfield is best known as being the last home and final resting-place of America's first great statesman, Daniel Webster. On one of our walks, we pass by the little island in a river where he used to go to hunt birds. Further on the walk, we pass by the gunning shack he used out on that island, later transported off the island and converted into a tiny house that is still being used. On Sunday morning, we've gone to the Congregational Church and sat in the pew that belonged to Webster in the early 1800's. Abutting Brant Rock and Green Harbor to the south are Duxbury, then Kingston, then Plymouth, the three original settlements of the Pilgrims. At the lighthouse in Scituate just north of us, two sisters living in the lighthouse during the War of 1812 gave warning of the approach of a British warship, thereby saving the town.

A walk in the morning can also include Bluefish Cove, Blackman's point (a former site of one of Marconi's transatlantic radio transmitters,) Babe Ruth's reputed summer home before he left for the Yankees, and a winter of harbor seals sunning on rocks offshore from that same house.