In a wealthy waterfront neighborhood filled with tradition, gardens and grand houses, residents of Beverly Farms once enjoyed pastoral views and over-the-fence chats. Mary Larcom Dow writes at the beginning of Old Days at Beverly Farms that she was nominated to pen her memories as a result of her absence from a historical society meeting. However, it is clear that no one was more inside the fold of the community than Dow. With her house-by-house description of architecture and inhabitants, landscape and gardens, Dow delightfully captures the "old days" of the nineteenth century. She focuses on the warmth of extended families, the particular sound of their laughter, their hardships and, most of all, their neighborly love.