New England

Each of the trio of smart resorts that make up New England' s chicest summer- home destinations offers individual flavours, finds

Arabella Youens

Martha' s Vineyard

The warm summer breezes and vast sandy beaches of Martha' s Vineyard have long attracted the Left-leaning American politi- cal classes to its shores during the months of July and August. It was Ulysses S. Grant who put the 23-mile-long island, which is roughly twice the size of Jersey, on the presidential-vacation map, when he visited a friend in 1874. It later gained international notoriety after the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident in which Mary Jo Kopechne was killed when a car driven by Senator Edward Kennedy fell off the Dike Bridge. Bill Clinton and his family regularly visited during and after his presidency, and the island was once more in the international press when President Obama and his family holidayed there last August. Unlike the more glitzy Long Island villages

of the Hamptons, the Vineyard succeeds in absorbing the influx of high-profile politicians,

O

Living the American dream

Above The Obamas succumbed to the pull of Martha' s Vineyard last year. Right A haven by the sea: Nantucket' s quiet harbours and clapboard houses are much sought after

60 Country Life International, Summer 2010

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