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 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
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 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
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 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032193652 
 
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Picturesque Berkshire 
 
 PART l-NORTH 
 
 Complete in Two Parts, with 1200 Illustrations 
 
 PICTURESQUE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 
 
 THEE MT F. jPlDjOlIXCS GOnvEP=jPL]Srir 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 
 
 I. , 
 
Picturesque Berkshire 
 
 Published by the Picturesque Publishing Co., Northampton, Mass. 
 
 CHARLES F. WARNER, Editor and Manager. 
 
 This work is published in two parts, showing north and south sections of the county. 
 Uniform with previously issued volumes of the " Picturesque" series. Price, Family 
 Edition, in one volume. Cloth, $4 ; each part separately bound, $2 each. Holiday Edition , 
 both parts, $6. The book will be sent, post or express paid, on receipt of check or money 
 
 order. Address 
 
 THE W. F. ADAMS COMPANY, 
 
 Old Corner Bookstore, 
 
 Springfield, Mass 
 
 /^yf;L(c^JJ 
 
 Other Publications of the Picturesque Publishing Company 
 Northampton, Mass. 
 
 Comprising the four western counties in Massachusetts (with 
 Berkshire as above) as follows : 
 
 Picturesque Hampshire. 
 
 In one volume, uniform in style with Picturesque Berkshire. 
 Cloth, $2. 
 
 Picturesque Franklin. 
 
 In one volume, uniform with the above named. Cloth. $2. 
 
 Picturesque Hampden. 
 
 In two parts, showing east and west sides of the county. Family 
 Edition, in one volume, Cloth, $4 ; in separate parts, also Cloth, 
 $2. Uniform with the series. 
 
 Any of the above named publications will be sent on receipt of 
 price named, in the iorm of a check or postal note. 
 Address 
 
 THE W. F. ADAMS COMPANY, 
 
 Old Corner Bookstore, 
 Springfield, Mass. 
 
 IN PREPARATION: 
 
 ' Picturesque Worcester," 
 Detroit," ' 
 
 ' Picturesque Catskills," " Picturesque 
 Picturesque Boston." 
 
NT^oJUcTo 
 
 The hills throw a spell ovei- their ciiildren which is 
 never dissolved. To one born and reared where moun- 
 tain summits kiss the clouds, and mountain streams 
 make ceaseless music, no spot on earth can ever be 
 so dear as his " native heath." He may wander in 
 other lands and under other summer skies, but he finds 
 no attractions potent enough to break the attachment 
 he feels for the hills amid which he first drew breath. 
 The natives of " the hijl 
 
 country," anywhere on ^ 
 
 the face of the globe, have 
 shown the same fond af- 
 fection for their first and 
 early home.. In those 
 who have gone forth from 
 the mountains of Switzer- 
 land this passion is almost 
 uncontrollable. Indeed, 
 it can hardly be stirred 
 to its depths without the peril of 
 
 ^ii^^^_^^ 
 
 AN OLD CEAIETEEY 
 
 a tragic fate: — 
 
 " The intrepid Swiss, who treads a foreign shore, 
 Condemned to climb his native heaths no more, 
 If chance he hears the song so sweetly wild, 
 Which on those cliffs his infant hours beguiled. 
 Faints at the long-lost scenes that round him rise, 
 And sinks a martyr to repentant sighs." 
 
 The natives of the Berkshire hills feel 
 this emotion as sincerely, if not as pas- 
 sionately, as though it had been kindled 
 among the Alps. It was nourished by 
 the same fountains, and inspired at the 
 „same shrine. For, Nature reveals herself 
 
 the dweller in the mountains, in ways 
 unKaown to the natives of the plains. 
 The^ried and entrancing view from the 
 hilltop; the mysteries of the deep lying 
 valley; th^parkling foam and gladsome 
 notes of theWscade, as it dashes down 
 the hillside; fte clouds at play, making 
 ever-changing p^tures of field and forest ; 
 the indescribable gorgeousness of the sun- 
 sets—these delights, which are forever 
 denied to the dwellers on low and level 
 lands, are the sources of pure and noble 
 impulse ; and at these the imagination is 
 set aflame, glowing with the love of our 
 native home. With whatever advantages 
 Nature has endeared the western prairies 
 
 and plains, which are not enjoyed here, we do 
 not regret them; our hills are so affluent in all that 
 tends to develop the truest manhood, that we can 
 at least afford to be generous. For, from the Revolu- 
 tionary period till now, Berkshire has been the home 
 of a stalwart race, distinguished for the imaginative 
 force which the highlands generate, and for a spirit of 
 manly independence and undying love of liberty. 
 
 Picturesque Berkshire is designed to minister 
 to the best sentiment of the people for whom it has 
 been prepared. It is the purpose of Art to translate 
 into its own forms of expression the language in which 
 Nature speaks in its most striking scenes. The face 
 that is dear to ijs, and on which we have looked lov- 
 ingly for years, speaks to us in ideal sweetntss and 
 
 beauty from the accurate 
 . ^ lines of the photograph. 
 
 So that majestic hilltop, 
 which has become so 
 familiar to our gaze, to 
 ^_ which our eyes have 
 wandered so often as the 
 first flash of the morning 
 sun turns its brown sum- 
 mit to burnished gold, 
 will beam with more love- 
 liness and grandeur when the artist has reproduced it 
 on the pictured page. Thus in this book one familiar 
 and much-loved scene, at least, will be embalmed for 
 the delight of each of Berkshire's sons and daughters. 
 But more than this, in the light of these pages, 
 these sons and daughters may explore the entire ex- 
 tent of the county. For, starting from their homes in 
 
 whatever direction they will, within these limits, scenes 
 of which theythave heard but never seen, as well as 
 those which have been hidden from their thoughts till 
 now, will be brought home to them by the artist's skill. 
 and they may discern the actual in the ideal pictui-e. 
 How else could they learn to know so well all the most 
 salient and beautiful features of the land they love so 
 well, as by poring over these pages, where all that is 
 mflst picturesque and impressive is spread out before 
 them, as in a vivid map, from the eastern boundary of 
 
 WIMTEK WOOttS 
 
 A GLEN IN sriuua 
 
 the county to the New York line, and 
 from Greylock to " the Dome ? " 
 
 And info this beloved Berkshire, which 
 Nature has so lavishly endowed, Industry, 
 in its varied forms, and Art, with its mar- 
 velous revelations, have come to combine 
 their triumph with hers. To the music of 
 the streams has been added the music of 
 the mill wheel ; and while, in his happy 
 home, the lonely farmer may exult in the 
 harvest produced by his toil, the groups 
 of skilled and contented workers in the 
 factories are daily adding to the treasures 
 of production for which we are indebted 
 
PICTURESQUE, BERKSHIRE 
 
 to that image of divine energy, 
 the creative force of Labor. 
 
 So Art, also, has found a lodg- 
 ment in these hills —Art, not alone 
 in the wonders of the pencil, the 
 brush and the chisel, but in more 
 splendid and artistic forms of life. 
 From the scorching heats of the 
 great city, from the mansions 
 where Wealth has set up its house- 
 hold gods, and where Fashion 
 wears her most attractive guise, 
 come the groups that find, in these 
 our mansions fresh from Nature's 
 hand, the delights which even the 
 wealthy city denies them. Let 
 Nature and Art go hand in hand, 
 as becomes them, in inevitable 
 and happy union; but let it be 
 remembered, to the glory of the 
 first, that what industry and afflu- 
 ence cannot find in the intermin- 
 
 fiood of 1874, where the ravines 
 show traces of the disaster to 
 this day. 
 
 Noon found us taking a quiet 
 lunch in a sheep pasture beside a 
 sparkling spring of water at the 
 foot of Goshen hills. The after- 
 noon did not seem so cheerful, as 
 snow banks began to appear, and 
 we dismounted to plod behind, 
 and allow the poor horse to zig-zag 
 around the mudholes on up the 
 long hillsides. It was some com- 
 pensation, however, to turn and 
 see the blue haze of Holyoke 
 range rising up through the bare 
 brown woods, and the flash of 
 silver from the Connecticut river. 
 Soon the roadway cut through a 
 high snowdrift, and the little 
 church of Goshen appeared 
 through the rift. The village 
 straggled over the hill summit, and the trees seemed to bend their backs to the north 
 wind, and send out tops and branches entirely toward the southern sun. 
 
 Across the divide we turned to the west and commenced the descent into Cum- 
 mington. The road ran beside brooks rushing in a new direction, sometimes coming 
 from a hill above, or roaring through a rocky gorge a hundred feet below us. 
 
 The forests became sombre with tall pines, and ghostly with the dead leaves of 
 giant beeches. Soon the clear waters of our rushing brooks mingled with the muddy 
 stream of the Westfield coming from higher western hills. 
 
 Through Cummington we came into the shadow of Deer Hill, the sunset gleam- 
 ing through the budding trees, lighting up the smoke and steam of factories and 
 sending fantastic pictures across snow-speckled mountain sides. On through washed- 
 
 Or.D-TIME PITT5FIELD 
 
 rilTSiUKLD STATION 
 
 able avenues that intersect the city, in the vast warehouses and palatial 
 residences they have built, or in their magnificent temples of pleasure, they 
 rejoice to discover amid these hills — the celestial ichor of the pure breath of 
 heaven, the vigor born of closer contact with Mother Earth, the returning 
 bloom of the faded cheek, the new light flashing in the wearied eye, the 
 glories of the cloud and sunshine, the inspiration caught from the voices 
 of the mountains, the forest and the stream. Thus Nature and Art, united 
 in happy harmony, are making of Berkshire one of the bright garden spots 
 of the land. 
 
 These are some hints of the message which these picturesque pages will 
 carry to the homes and workshops of Berkshire ; and much more might be 
 said, only that the panorama before us has more eloquent expression than 
 pen can give. When this book shall reach the hand of some far-off native 
 of Berkshire, in a distant city, or in western wilds, it will, we trust, kindle 
 memories as ardent as rise before the Swit- 
 zer, when he listens, in a foreign land, to 
 the Rans des Vaches ; but these memories, 
 instead of overpoweringhim in a fatal swoon, 
 will quicken all the nobler instincts and im- 
 pulses which they were treasured to inspire. 
 
 TliE KAILKOAD TEACKS FROM THE SOUTH STREET CROSSIKG 
 
 prjror^^j^ 
 
 A GREYLOCK PILGRIMAGE 
 
 Started out on a fine spring morning 
 from Northampton, with a companion who 
 took all the care, and a quiet horse at the 
 end of a buckboard, to interview the famous 
 Greylock mountain of Berkshire county. 
 
 The snow had disappeared from the 
 valleys, and we stirred up considerable dust 
 as we jogged along through Florence and 
 Leeds, the sun warming us up so that we 
 felt quite disposed for a lark. On through 
 Williamsburg, over the track of the terrible 
 
 mr 
 
 VIEW OK THE NOKTH SIDE OF WEST STREET 
 
 out glens in the gathering twilight 
 to a farmhouse in the edge of Windsor, 
 to sleep in a bed near the rafters, and 
 to waken in the morning by hearing the 
 rain patter on the roof, as in childhood. 
 
 On this morning we tried to see the 
 famous "Windsor Jams," and found a 
 narrow, rocky gorge filled with ice and 
 snow, with a rushing stream underneath. 
 The weather clearing, we followed the 
 course of the Westfield river through the 
 snow and mud, up into the hills of Savoy. 
 Deserted homesteads became plentiful. 
 Perhaps a turn in a rocky ravine revealed 
 a bit of smooth grass and an old apple 
 orchard. In its center was atumble-down 
 ruin of a house and barn, desolate and 
 forsaken. 
 
 At Savoy Hollow the air became quite 
 chill, as clouds obscured the sun, and 
 the wind swept down off the snow-clad 
 hills. The road became a quagmire as 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 A PIOInEESQUE GLIMPSE AT THE CITY FKOM KEAH THE STATION 
 
 our poor horse plodded on and on, getting higher and higher into the mountains. We 
 were told that we could get a glimpse of Greylock from the highest point at Savoy 
 Center. And sure enough, as we landed our horse over the last washout, and climbed 
 the highest point in the village, we caught a glimpse of his crown just as the sun 
 broke out for a moment before disappearing for the night. 
 
 But we had yet to go to the northward, and in the gathering twilight pushed on up 
 
 dotted with groves of evergreen and maple, while lakes and streams 
 flashed in the sunlight. North Adams nestled in a ravine at the foot 
 of the mountain, the smoke and steam from railway trains drifting 
 across steeple and chimney, the blue and purple terraces rising majes- 
 tically to the heavens, out of the noise and strife. 
 
 To the southward toward Pittsfield the blue line of peaks move 
 on and are lost in the distance, while northward the mountain is 
 isolated from the main range by a ravine that leads to William stown 
 and the west. 
 
 In the afternoon the scene was indescribably grand from the hills 
 north of North Adams. The groves with their long shadows, the road- 
 way leading down into the city, all partly sinking into gloom, formed 
 the support for a picture of the mountain and its crater-like summit, 
 liathed in a glow from sun-lighted clouds above, opening just' enough 
 for a glimpse of the blue sky beyond. 
 
 It seemed a golden pathway leading up out of the city, through 
 granite gateways, over fleecy, shining portals, directly into paradise ! 
 
 Elbridge Kingsley. 
 
 WHAT THE BOOK IS AND IS NOT 
 
 It seems somewhat necessary, in a work of this kind, to show its 
 reason for being, and what it is intended to accomplish. 
 
 Thousands of people, doubtless, will take up this book, who have 
 never seen the other books of the "Picturesque" series — or did not 
 
 BLOCKS OS WliST STHEET 
 
 ... £>^i^.> 
 
 AN OUTLOOK FKOM THE PARK 
 
 know there were any others — and it should therefore be stated that " Pictur- 
 esque Hampshire," the first of these volumes, was issued in 1890, " Pictur- 
 esque Franklin " in 1891, and " Picturesque Hampden" in 1892. This book 
 was only needed to complete the series, as noted in another article, and this 
 is the raison d'etre. 
 
 The response of the people in each county to this unique line of work, 
 
 into the Florida mountains, and stopped for the night within sight and hearing 
 of the traflic through the Hoosac tunnel. The next morning was sharp and 
 frosty, and the sky without a cloud. The road descended into deep ravines 
 and wound up again in a bewildering fashion. After traveling two hours, 
 through drifts as high as the horse's ears, a look across the gorges showed 
 us our last night's stopping place in plain sight, only a short distance in a 
 straight line behind us. Coming to a sharp turn of the road in a deep snow- 
 drift, we were obliged to lift the horse and buckboard around to get through. 
 
 Before noon we were at Florida church, its little steeple directly over the 
 tunnel, and overlooking the Deerfield valley. And very interesting it was to 
 watch the tiny, snorting worms emerge from the bowels of the earth, and move 
 on down the valley beside the Deerfield river. 
 
 Here we struck the old stage road, full of mud and snow, and telegraph 
 poles. Up and down the hills we went. A little snow — then a little mud — 
 till our horse, looking about, said: "Haven't we had about enough of this 
 sort of thing?" We agreed that it was enough. And after one more pull 
 through mud up to the hub, we emerged from the slough of despond out 
 upon a plateau overlooking the valley surrounding Greylock. 
 
 Dismounting and walking out upon a jutting point, there we were two 
 thousand feet in the air, looking upon a mass of mountains rising over a thou- 
 sand feet higher out of the plain below. Down in the valley, the surface was 
 
 LOOKING TOWARD THl'] PARK PROM THE STATION 
 
8 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 lias been something unusual, considering the fact that the publishers were 
 unacquainted with the art of scientific bookselling, and now that the sale of 
 these books has been taken in hand by such experienced booksellers as the 
 W. F. Adams Co., of the " Old Corner Bookstore," Springfield, Mass., the 
 publishers feel that it will not be many years before every family in Western 
 Massachusetts will have one or more books of the series. In time, it is be- 
 lieved, too, that only the complete set will satisfy, for the series represents a 
 large territory, in which all the inhabitants have more or less interest in com- 
 mon; but this point is amplified upon elsewhere. 
 
 Next it is in order to say what this book is, and this necessarily involves 
 a further statement as to what it is not — in order to satisfy those who expect 
 
 THE ATHEN^UM 
 
 THE FIJKST COSGREGATIONAL CHURCH • 
 
 not only multum in parvo, but much 
 that is not worth while. It is quite 
 evident what Picturesque Berk- 
 SHiREis; asafirstthing — itisabook 
 of pictures, and plenty of them. The 
 term "profusely illustrated," was, it 
 is believed, never applied to any work 
 so justly as it may be to this, and 
 when it is stated, as is the truth, that 
 every engraving used in this book was 
 made expressly for it, a better idea 
 may be had of the value of this 
 feature. Let the subscriber for this 
 book imagine, if he can, what it 
 would cost him to travel and make 
 the collection of pictures given in 
 this book, some of which, however, 
 he could not collect by any amount 
 of traveling. Certainly the same ex- 
 tent of territory has never been so 
 elaborately pictured before. 
 
 Every town in the county has 
 been represented by a variety of 
 characteristic and attractive views. 
 Everything will not be found here, 
 for of subjects of interest there is 
 practically no end, and the apology for things absent is lack of space, not neglect. 
 
 To any who live, or have lived, in the Berkshire hills, the book must have a special 
 attractiveness. With few exceptions, not only the most secluded glens and rockiest 
 hilltops, but the churches and public buildings in every town have a place. The pic- 
 tures show great variety. There are the high mountains, the meadows, the streams, 
 the orchards, farmhouses, the farmers at their work, the children at their play, and 
 the bits of roadway, as well as the cultivated landscapes and elegant residences 
 at the summer resorts. In studying the picturesque side of human nature the artist 
 carries us from tlie group about the country tavern fire to the crowded grounds of the 
 country "cattle show," and shows us many of those touches of nature which make the 
 whole world kin. This is what the book is — a pictured representation of life all over 
 Berkshire, and to make this faithfully — to do this one thing well — obliged the pub- 
 lishers to discriminate carefully in the work of compilation, and this requires a state- 
 ment qI what the book is not. 
 
 Picturesque Berkshire is not an historical work, for the very good reason that 
 we have stiready hinted at — that it is' not possible to do everything at once well, and 
 tfien Berkshire ,htstory has been pretty well handled already. While the book is not 
 historical, ths picturesque past is linked with the present time by the narration of old 
 stories and notations upon old customs relating to pictures of objects yet in existence. 
 In the main the book is made up, in text and illustration, of such things as a leisurely 
 traveler of an appreciative turn of mind would find interesting and attractive. He 
 do:s not delve deeply into the musty records of the past, or attempt to unravel its 
 
 tangled skeins. A monument may take his attention, or an old house suggest a question, 
 and thus bring out a bit of tragedy or romance; but nature and life right around one, with 
 such reminiscences and reflections as these easily start, are the real substance of the work. 
 This book is neither a gazetteer or guide-book, yet any one interested will readily get 
 an impression of the nature of different parts of the county, and the work may be a sug- 
 gestive aid to those planning a carriage trip, and a help in choosing a country home for 
 the summer. It can be easily seen that the book is no advertising scheme, and the main 
 aim has been kept distinctly in view all through — that being to show in the most attract- 
 ive manner those features of Berk- 
 shire county which give it charm and 
 interest, and to do this at a popular 
 price. Pictures which once could 
 only have been the possessions of the 
 rich may now add to the attractive- 
 ness of the humblest home, and it 
 has been the earnest effort of the 
 publishers to place an art work within 
 the reach of all. 
 
 NOTABLE MEN AND WOMEN 
 IN BERKSHIRE 
 
 WINTER VIEW OF THE I'ARK 
 
 Berkshire, more than any other 
 county in Western Massachusetts, 
 seems to have been prolific as a field 
 of action, of a great number of men 
 and women of note. As Clark W. 
 Bryan shows elsewhere, the county 
 bid fair at one time to become the 
 country-seat, if not the general 
 dwelling place of many of the 
 literati of the land; and while the 
 
 ST. STErHEN'S — METHODIHT CHURCH IN DISTANCE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out, if portraits were not given of Messrs. Tinker 
 and Foster, those famous characters in an active, but bygone political age, and while 
 it is not the province of this book to discuss politics, it may be said that these gentle- 
 men's successors in their line of action will probably never appear on this terrestrial 
 stage. As the day of the tythingman has gone, so also has that of the political master 
 
 .i!f%r"^ 
 
 fr. . . ,,^__ . . __. ... -:- ■■%^. .. . I 
 
 CORNER EAST AND SOUTH STREETS 
 
 " Picturesque" books have, heretofore, not been at all noted for portrait work, 
 it is found absolutely necessary to use a considerable number of portraits in 
 this volume, that the county may be given credit for what it has furnished in 
 the way of famous and picturesque personal, human character, as well as 
 magnificent scenery, and cultivated landscapes. 
 
 The limits of this book forbid extended mention of the subjects of our 
 portraits, and inasmuch as this is not a biographical 
 
 work, it will probably not be expected that we should 
 
 give an extended, or even any perfunctory account of 
 the lives of the notable men and women whose por- 
 traits are given in succeeding pages. The records of 
 such characters as William CuUen Bryant, Longfellow, 
 Hawthorne, Beecher, Melville, Jonathan Edwards, 
 Mark Hopkins, Rev. John Todd, Gov. Briggs, Cyrus 
 W. Field, Charlotte Cushman, Fanny Kemble Butler, 
 Catherine Sedgwick, and others are well known to all, 
 and their identification with the interests of the Berk- 
 shire hills is alluded to in Mr. Bryan's and other 
 articles. For similar reasons it is not deemed neces- 
 sary to give a biographical account of other subjects 
 of portraits, such as Elder Leland, , " Josh Billings," 
 Edward R. Tinker and Edward Foster, and "Weather- 
 Prophet Beebe." With the exception of the latter 
 picturesque Bear Mountain character, ex-Senator 
 Dawes, aiid those once very noted politicians, Messrs. 
 Tinker and Foster, the above named subjects of por- 
 traiture have joined the " silent majority; " and who 
 of the present generation needs to be told of the ex- 
 tended general service which the incorruptible Berk- 
 shire sfatesma:n' has performed for his time, and for 
 all time, and humanity, in his study of the Indian 
 question— and how, despite the proverb, he is a 
 prophet whom his own country delights to honor ? 
 
 The management of this book were advised that a 
 book devoted to northern Berkshire would be like the 
 
 PUBLIC BUILDINGS NORTH OF THE PARK 
 
 and "legislative manager." In the names we have 
 given of their representatives, Berkshire has furnished 
 the very best men of their class, and they will, doubt- 
 less not rebel at the slight touch of humor involved in 
 linking them with a very picturesque political past. 
 
 The discriminating and perspicacious reader will 
 readily see, it is believed, why the subjects of portraiture 
 are not treated of in the text specifically. It is certain 
 that no county in the " Old Bay State" can make a 
 more honorable and interesting showing, in the way of 
 a portrait gallery of the good and great who have 
 honored its hills and valleys as their abiding places, 
 and who have also written poeiii 'and prose in praise 
 of their surroundings. 
 
 PICTURESQUE WESTERN MASSACHU- 
 SETTS COMPLETE 
 
 REV. JOHN TODD, D. D. 
 
 With the issue of Picturesque Berkshire the 
 publishers have completed their representation of 
 Western Massachusetts, or all that part of the state 
 lying west of Worcester county. , The counties of 
 Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden have, as is pretty 
 generally known, been presented in their order, in 
 four volumes, and any public-spirited inhabitant of 
 these shires, who has one or more of these books,, will 
 
 BUSINESS BLOCKS ON KOBTH STK?ET 
 
 HOKTHIiSTKEET, EKOM IHE.l'AKK 
 
10 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 library. For children it will be an invaluable educator regarding that part of 
 the country they live in; the pictures will not only please but instruct, and 
 exert a refining influence in the home. Who can estimate the interest these 
 books will possess to the absent sons of this part of the state who are wander- 
 ing in the far west? No gift will be so prized by them as one or more of 
 iliese volumes ; it will come to some of them, at least, like a beatific vision, 
 
 5.^%. 
 
 A NORTH STREET VIEW 
 
 some day want them all. No other such area in the Bay state is so fair to the eye, 
 and so celebrated in song and story, and its inhabitants should consider the complete 
 " Picturesque " series of books a possession of as much value to their households as 
 the dictionary and gazetteer. This is 
 claimed not from the mere advertis- . ^ 
 
 ing instinct of a publisher, but be- 
 cause it is believed that these books 
 .are a valuable complement to those 
 other now conceded-to-be family 
 necessities. Then again, every lover 
 of his country ought to possess such 
 a comprehensive memorial of her as 
 these books constitute. For, surely, 
 if they did not appeal to patriotic 
 pride, we might well ask, in those 
 well-known lines : — 
 
 " Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
 
 Who never to himself hath said, 
 ' This is my own, my native land ! ' " 
 
 It should not be forgotten that the 
 Western Massachusetts series gives 
 a representation of the old county of 
 Hampshire, which originally com- 
 prised the present counties of Hamp- 
 shire, Franklin, Hampden and Berk- 
 shire, and when one reflects that 
 nothing in any way approaching to 
 such a pictured representation of this 
 region has been given before, or been 
 
 possible to make, at any price, it will not seem extravagant in the publishers 
 to claim that they have furnished, in the now complete series, something which 
 every family in Western Massachusetts should be proud to place in the home 
 
 UNITARIAN CHURCH 
 
 amid the wearisomeness and frequent 
 repinings of exile. 
 
 When one reflects that in the four 
 volumes comprising the Western 
 Massachusetts series there are over 
 three thousand five hundred illustra- 
 tions, embodying the study and appli- 
 cation of many trained artists and 
 writers for over five years, and that 
 exactly the same work can never be 
 duplicated, it will not be deemed out 
 of place to here enforce the impor- 
 tance of securing the series of these 
 books complete, while it can be had. 
 Those desiring further information 
 on tliis point are referred to the ad- 
 vertisement on the back of the title- 
 page of this book. 
 
 Berkshire men are noted for 
 their local pride. A well-known poli- 
 tician was a member of a state con- 
 
 NORTH STREET — LOOKING SOUTH, 
 
 VIAPLEWOOU Bl-Il.DINCS 
 
 THE OLD FIRST CHUKCH 
 
 vention at Worcester, and being asked by the chairman, who, strange to say, failed 
 to recognize him, to give his name, replied, " Mr. Emerson, Sir, from the grand old 
 hills of Berkshire." 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 II 
 
 ness and variety. Our hills boast no astounding grandeur; there is nothing about 
 them of an Alpine character ; they possess few scenes which can properly rank with 
 the sublime. The highest mountain tops, the most precipitous cliffs — sufficient to 
 claim our admiration, wild enough to be the marvel of tourists from the tame coast 
 country — cannot for a moment compare with similar scenes among the White moun- 
 
 X> 
 
 K£KKSUIK£ OUIMT HUME FOR AU£U WOMEN 
 
 A PEN DESCRIPTION OF THE BERKSHIRE HILLS 
 
 Probably the best printed description of the Berkshire hills ever given was 
 that written many years ago by " Godfrey Grcylock," author of " Taghconic, 
 or Letters and Legends about our Summer Home." The book is a familiar 
 one to Berkshire people, but for the instruction and pleasure of many out of 
 the county, who have not seen it, we quote : 
 
 KOKTH STKEET — THE BArXJST CHLKCH A>D VICISITY 
 
 tains or the Alleghanies — not to mention more unapproachable 
 wonders of nature. Our deepest ravines, often penetrated by 
 smooth, flower-bordered roads, are very different things indeed, 
 from the earthquake-rifted chasm of other lands. 
 
 If the traveler seek some object for a day's or a week's won- 
 der, some tremendous cataract, or "Heaven-piercing Cordillera," 
 
 SOUTH STKEET 
 
 COURT-HOUSE 
 
 "Berkshire is a region of hills 
 and valleys, of lake and stream, of 
 woodland, farm and field. Its beauty 
 is world renowned, for the pens of 
 Bryant and Mrs. Sedgwick [and 
 since their time many others. — Ed.1 
 have made it their favorite theme. 
 Within its limits are Monument 
 mountain, the Stockbridge Bowl, 
 Green River, Icy Glen, and a thou- 
 sand other scenes of storied or of 
 unsung loveliness. 
 
 * * * "Within this mountain- 
 walled amphitheatre lies cradled the 
 upland valley of the Housatonic, witli 
 all its fertile farms, its mansioned 
 homes and frequent villages. Some- 
 body has called it the Piedmont of 
 America. I do not know how just 
 the appellation may be, but I do 
 know that if Piedmont can rightly 
 be called the Berkshire of Europe, 
 it must be a delightful region. 
 
 " What we most admire in Berk- 
 shire scenery is its freshness, bold- 
 
 THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 he must seek it elsewhere. But if he 
 asks for a retreat among wild and 
 picturesque scenery, adorned by 
 much that is pleasant and refined in 
 his city life, but far removed from 
 its heat and turmoil; where he can 
 draw closer the silken cord of social 
 intercourse, and yet throw loose some 
 of its galling chains ; where nature 
 ennobles by her greatness, but liever 
 chills with a frown, he may find it all 
 amid the varied beauty of the Berk- 
 shire hills. 
 
 " The inexhaustible variety of our 
 vistas is wonderful. It is marvelous 
 in what an endless series of com- 
 binations, mountain, valley, lake, 
 stream, rock, field and wood present 
 themselves. Wherever you go, you 
 meet a succession of changes which 
 at once charm the eye and delight 
 the heart. At every turn 
 
 " You stand suddenly astonished, 
 You are gladdened unaware." 
 
12 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 SOME FACTS ABOUT BERKSHIRE COUNTY T 
 
 The management of this work had believed their series to be complete on chronologi- 
 cal lines, when the three books, " Picturesque Hampshire," " Franklin " and " Hamp- 
 den," were published, but farther historical research shows that Berkshire was set o£E 
 from the old county of Hampshire as early as 1761, while Hampden and Franklin did 
 not secure separate autonomy until 1812. Berkshire was thus set off by the " General 
 
 BUglMESa OUTSKIRTS ON KOKTH STKEET 
 
 A KOKTH STKEET SIDEWALK 
 
 Court" of the old Province of Massachusetts Bay, in the first year of the reign of 
 George! II, fifteen years before the Declaration of Independence of the colonies. 
 
 The width of Berkshire on the north is fourteen miles, on the south twenty-four, and 
 its length, the entire west boundary of the state, is fifty miles. This county is the most 
 rough and hilly of the four western ones of the state, but there is a considerable 
 quantity of fine land, 
 mostly in the interval of 
 the Housatonic, and no 
 region of the state is 
 so attractive as Berk- 
 shire to the summer visit- 
 ors from New York 
 and other large places. 
 Nearly every town in the 
 county has a large quota 
 of pleasure seekers, from 
 June until late autumn, 
 and the fame of this 
 beautiful country is 
 world wide and requir- 
 ing more defini te descrip- 
 tion elsewhere. 
 
 It is the most elevated 
 region in the state, and 
 the familiar expression, 
 
 WOCONAH STREET — LOOKING TOWARD THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 "frohi the hills of Berkshire to the sands of Cape Cod," 
 means something of a descent. The Green and Taconic 
 mountains cross the county from north to south, and their 
 average height is about 1,200 feet above the level of the 
 sea, while Mountains Gteylock and Everett, in the north 
 and south parts of the county, are from two to three times 
 higher. 
 
 BISHOP TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES AND HOUSE OF MERCY 
 
 The county possesses 
 in rich and inexhaustible 
 abundance three very im- 
 portant articles of com- 
 merce, in iron, marble and 
 lime, and its wood and 
 water power are sufficient 
 to enable it to fit them 
 for useful purposes. The 
 population of the county 
 
 by the census of 1800 was 33,835, and it has steadily increased since then, until now 
 (census of 1890) it is 81,108. 
 
 FENK STREET SCHOOLHOUSE 
 
 A BLACKSMITH'S SHOP 
 
 Two OTHER Notable Sons of Berkshire. — Among other notable sons of 
 Berkshire, who left their native hills and "won name and fame for themselves in the 
 far west, might be mentioned Francis E. Warren, who once labored on the farms of 
 Hinsdale, but afterward became Governor of Wyoming and United States Senator. 
 George F. Root, the composer of many of the most stirring war songs, was a Berk- 
 shire boy, though his melodies had their inspiration in,— at least were published 
 from, ^prosaic Chicago. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 13 
 
 liiait 
 
 I II I -, I 
 
 THE JAIL 
 
 WINTElt AT 8ILVEB LAKE 
 
 -IP 
 
 1 1 
 
 -IfliK > 
 
 «. 
 
 LIKCOLN STllEET 
 
 TRIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS 
 
 The facts of this article were gathered from J. K. A. Smith's excellent history 
 of Pittsfield. It is, indeed, a collection of extracts which, without delving 
 deeply in detail, portray some of the more picturesque aspects of the days when 
 the forefathers first pefr^lrated the Berkshire wilds. 
 
 The tide of population, satting westward from Plymouth Rock, in the brief 
 space of twenty-six years advanced to the shores of the Connecticut, where 
 Springfield was founded, in 1636. Thirty additional years carried it forward 
 barely ten miles to Westfield, where, stayed at the base of Tekoa mountain, 
 it paused for more than half a century, until suddenly, in 1725, it overleaped 
 the Hoosacs, and the village of Sheffield was planted upon the broadest and 
 most fertile meadows of the Housatonic. Twenty-seven years more elapsed 
 
 before a permanent settlement was effected at belated Pontoosuc. Thus one hun- 
 dred and sixteen years intervened between the settlement of Springfield and that 
 'Of Pittsfield. 
 
 The early settlers found the mountainous district of Western Massachusetts teem- 
 ing with the various-species of game and fur-bearing animals then common in New 
 England. Here, too, they met occasional hunting parties of Indians, mostly Mohe- 
 gans. The permanent native inhabitants were, however, sparse, even beyond the 
 ordinary meagerness of Indian populations. The petty villages of a few insignificant 
 
 ADVENT OBURCH 
 
 UBTH0DI8T CHUBGU 
 
squads alone broke the solitude of the moun- 
 tain wilderness. One of these little hutidles of 
 savage wigwams lay between Sheffield and 
 Great Barrington, and the smoke of others 
 curled up among the woods where Pittsfield, 
 Stockbridge, New Marlborough and Dalton 
 now stand. It is not probable that they had 
 settled abodes at these places, but, as was cus- 
 tomary among the aborigines, they removed 
 their lodges, or abandoned them, and sought a 
 new home as convenience dictated. The lakes 
 Onota and Pontoosuc must have been favorite 
 resorts of the Indians. There their frail birch- 
 bark canoes glided when they fished, and from 
 the tangled coverts alongshore they shot the 
 deer which came to drink or to immerse them- 
 selves to escape tlie heat of the summer days 
 and the' insect pests of the woods. Near the 
 outlet of Lake Pontoosuc was an Indian burial 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ORCHAED STREET SCIIOOLHOUSE 
 
 1. ~ * d-ifi^'Mba, 
 
 I'E.VN STREET 
 
 place and here have been exhumed some of their skeletons interred in the usual 
 sitting posture. 
 
 But by the summer of 1752, which is usually accounted the birth-year of Pittsfield, 
 some o? the settlers had log cabins ready to receive their families. First came Solomon 
 Darning, from Wethersfield, with his wife Sarah behind him on a pillion. 
 
 Mr. Deming's farm was on the north side of Honasada street, in the eastern out- 
 skirts of the township, a region much frequented by the Indians, who were accustomed 
 toftiake themselves a terror and an annoyance to the wives of the settlers, calling at 
 their cabins in the absence of the men, and, with insolent threats, demanding food 
 
 and drink. It was considered impolitic, in the 
 precarious state of public affairs, to offend the 
 red nuisances by well-deserved punishment; 
 and the only recourse. — one to which only the 
 bolder dames dared to resort — was to shut and 
 bolt the door in their impudent faces. 
 
 In the same summer, came Charles Good- 
 rich, "driving the first cart and team which 
 ever entered the town, and cutting the way 
 through the woods for a number of miles." It 
 is of tradition that he reached the last of the 
 Hoosac summits which he had to pass, ju.st at 
 nightfall; and, fearful of missing the path if 
 he attempted to proceed in the dusk, tied his 
 horses to a tree, and kept guard over them all 
 night against the wild beasts, w alking around 
 to prevent himself from falling asleep, and 
 munching an apple, his sole remaining ration, 
 for supper. Goodrich was a man of consider- 
 able property and long continued the wcaltliiest 
 citizen of the town, as well as one of those most distinguished for enterprise 
 and intellectual ability. 
 
 Pittsfield was approached by one or two rough roads. But many of its 
 settlers appear tb have come by the most direct route practicable, through the 
 woods, guided by marked trees. This was done more easily than we are apt 
 to suppose, on account of a practice which prevailed, both among the aborigi- 
 nes and the pioneers, of burning the underbrush, in order to facilitate hunting. 
 
 RESIPENCE OF H. W. BISU01> 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MRS. THOMAS ALLEN 
 
 A PICTL'RESQUE CORNER ON FENN STREET 
 
 as well as to destroy the lurking place of enemies, and, by the natives in order 
 to prepare some portion of the ground for their rude culture. 
 
 It is a mistake to picture the aboriginal forest of New England as a scene 
 altogether, or chiefly, of sombre shades and tangled thickets. The hunters of 
 a labor-hating race, courting neither difficulty nor danger in the chase, did not 
 choose that their grounds should be cumbered with thickets which at once 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 15 
 
 field, Tyringham, Alford, Egremont and Mount Washington. Northward a 
 few families had made their liomes in Williamstown and Lanesborough. Here 
 and there, among the green woods, solitary hunters and trappers — hardier 
 even than the pioneer farmer — planted patches of vegetables in the scant 
 clearings where they built their lonely cabins, — seminaries which produced 
 the boldest and most successful scouts in the coming war. 
 
 The Indians formed a more considerable element in the population of the 
 
 SUMMER ON EAST STREET 
 
 impeded their pursuit of game, and afforded concealment to hostile braves ; and so, 
 since it cost but a kindling spark, the annual fires swept them clear. Even the patient 
 squaws were not enamored of hard work, and the same ready agent helped them to pre- 
 pare the meadow for the hoe. Thus immense tracts were swept of their undergrowth, 
 while the more mossy trees were unharmed; so that it is related that a deer could be 
 seen, in a heavily-timbered country, 
 at a distance of forty rods. Even the 
 upland forests were passable — with 
 a little occa'sional aid from the axe — 
 for carts and drays, such as were used 
 by the early settlers. 
 
 The Plantation of Poontoosuck 
 had, in August, 1754, made respect- 
 able progress. Most of the sixty 
 home-lots had been taken up; and, 
 although in some instances two or 
 more were purchased by a single 
 settler, the population of the place 
 must have been nearly two hundred. 
 The dwellings were as yet all of logs ; 
 but CharKs Goodrich was preparing 
 to build, on Wendell Square, the first 
 frame house in the township. 
 
 Between the years 1725 and 1754, 
 the territory embraced in the present 
 Berkshire county gained a popula- 
 tion of perhaps something more than 
 fifteen hundred, — almost all of it 
 south of Poontoosuck. The towns 
 of Sheffield and Stockbridge were 
 incorporated; and settlements were 
 planted in New Marlborough, Sandis- 
 
 WINTER OX EVST STIiEKT 
 
 LOOKING UP WILLIS STREET FROM EAST 
 
 valley than at any previous date 
 ■ since its settlement by the English, 
 showing a census of probably about 
 three hundred. 
 
 The mission commenced in 1734 
 and established at Stockbridge in 
 1735, had in twenty years produced 
 an admirable change in the condition 
 of the Mohegans; but it had not 
 wrought a miracle upon them. Ever 
 well disposed toward the white man, 
 and, upon the whole, well treated by 
 him, they received at his hands the 
 gifts of education and religion with 
 a readiness which was not to be ex- 
 pected in tribes whose experience 
 had been of a different character, 
 and they adopted the usages of civi- 
 lized life with astonishing facility. 
 They did not, however, leap at once 
 from the depths of barbarism to the 
 plane which the Saxon race had 
 reached only after ages and genera- 
 tions of painful climbing. Much 
 less did they elevate themselves 
 above the human passions and frail- 
 ties from which their teachers were not themselves free. There 
 was. moreover, a va^ahnnrl class, who liad'lost the virtues 
 
 
 ST. STEPHEN'S BECTORY — RESIUENOE OF KEV. W. W. NEWTOS 
 
 EAST &TKK1';I' 
 
i6 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ]USS1DENCE OF MRS. ENSIGN KELLOGG 
 
 KESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. TLUNKETT — THE LONGFELLOW HOUSE 
 
 of savage life without submitting to the restraints 
 of civilized society, — loose fellows, who hung around 
 the settlements, selling the fruits of their hunting 
 and trapping for rum, and then roaming from farm- 
 house to farmhouse, committing the annoyances of 
 which mention has been made. They were frowned 
 upon by the more respectable and numerous class of 
 the tribe ; but they created a bitter prejudice, in the 
 minds of the unthinking, against all of their color. 
 Nor were the annoyances to which the settlers were 
 subject wholly unprovoked on their part. The pro- 
 vincial government, its agents, and the better part of 
 the people, did, indeed, treat the Mohegans, not only 
 with scrupulous justice, but with tender and earnest 
 regard for both their temporal and spiritual welfare, 
 and with generous forbearance towards the frailties 
 and perversities of their wild neophytes. But there were 
 too many exceptions to this rule, even among men in 
 some small authority, who had come from sections of 
 the province where the Indian, without distinction of 
 person or tribe, was known only to the masses to be 
 detested. And if the Mohegans suffered injustice 
 from the hands of those who should have been in some 
 degree restrained by the well-known wishes of the 
 
 ■government, the treatment was simply intolerable 
 which he received at the hands of a rude soldiery, 
 hereditary haters of every redskin, and ignorant or 
 regardless of the long-tried fidelity of the tribe of 
 Uncas to the English cause. 
 
 In the spring of 1753, one Wampaumcorse, a 
 
 ' Schaghticoke Indian, domiciled at Stockbridge, being 
 in Sugar Camp at Hop Brook in Tyringham, saw two 
 men, Cook by name, passing by with horses which he 
 
 IIENEY W. LONGFELLOW 
 
 suspected to be stolen. He pursued them, and in an 
 altercation which arose he was shot dead. The Cooks 
 were thereupon arrested, and tried at Springfield. One 
 was convicted of manslaughter, and the other acquitted; 
 which seems to have been what the law and the evi- 
 
 Somewhat back from the village street 
 Stands the old-fashion'd country-seat ; 
 Across its antique portico 
 Tall poplar trees their shadows throw— 
 ' And from its station in the hall 
 An ancient timepiece says to all^ 
 Forever, never, 
 Never, forever. 
 
 Longfellow's " Old Clock on the Stairs." 
 
 dence required. But in the minds of the Schaghti- 
 cokes, as in those of the exiled PequotSi murderous 
 resentment against the English was always ready to 
 be aroused ; and this affair was used with the utmost 
 success to exasperate the Indians. Its effect was soon 
 apparent " in the surly behavior of several in whom 
 it had not before been observed ; " in the stealing of 
 guns ; in more frequent intercourse with distant tribes, 
 and the consorting together of the worst-tempered 
 and worst-behaved fellows, who had a drunken pow- 
 wow, which was kept up, in the woods some six miles 
 west of Stockbridge, with fresh supplies of rum from 
 Kinderhook ; and finally some negro slaves reported 
 a plot, in which they had been invited to join, for the 
 massacre of as many of the whites as possible, and 
 flight to Canada. 
 
 Upon this, the wildest excitement prevailed at Stock- 
 bridge, and not less, of course, in the more exposed 
 outpost of PoontoOsuck. The people of the former 
 place wisely determined to call the Indians together, 
 let them know their apprehensions, and endeavor to 
 ascertain what foundation there was for them. > 
 
 It appeared, as had bfeeh' anticipated,, that " the 
 great body of the tribe were jentirely unacquainted 
 with the secret plot, but that the thing was real with 
 
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 ■ ' 
 
 ^-S^ 
 
 ^^■r 
 
 ■-.,4 
 
 '-'X^ ' 
 
 
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 V; 
 
 
 
 ^Ql ^^ 
 
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 ^ 
 
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 P^T', 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 K rArittil 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 y 
 
 
 StM 
 
 Im 
 
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 „SP1 
 
 ■■ \ 
 
 L! 
 
 EAST STREET HOMES 
 
 KESIDEXCE of; RUSSELL ALLEN 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 regard to so many that the authorities looked upon them- 
 selves as in a worse state than in an open war." 
 
 To restore quiet and avoid the Indian resentment, the 
 sum of £zo was distributed by the government among 
 the friends of the dead savage. As a result the excite- 
 ment among the natives to some degree subsided. 
 
 On the evening of Thursday, the 29th of August, some 
 Stockbridge Indians, who had been northward on a hunt- 
 ing excursion, returned in haste with the startling report 
 that, on the previous day, they had, in concealment, wit- 
 nessed the total destruction of Dutch Hoosack, a village 
 northwest of Williamstown, by a band of six hundred 
 strange savages. 
 
 Even yet, however, there appears to have been no ap- 
 prehension, at Stockbridge, of danger from any of the 
 Indians then in the town ; and timely notice was expected, 
 from the scouts who were scouring the woods, of the 
 approach of any others. The people attended church as 
 usual; and, in the absence of their neighbors for that 
 purpose, the family of one Chamberlain, who lived in the 
 retired locality of "The Hill," seem to have considered 
 themselves in perfect safety, until they were suddenly 
 attacked at about three o'clock in the afternoon. There 
 were in the house Chamberlain, his wife, three children, 
 and' another man, named Owen. Two Indians only at- 
 tacked the house. Chamberlain, his wife and a child 
 escaped. Owen, after a severe struggle, was killed and 
 scalped, as was also one of the children. The third child 
 
 17 
 
 HENRT L. DAWE,-: 
 
 a laboring man from Canaan, Conn., who had been at 
 work in Poontoosuck during the summer. 
 
 The woods were full of the prowling savages. A scout 
 sent out from Fort Massachusetts towards Albany ascer- 
 tained that, "on the 25th or 26th of August, forty-two 
 canoes of Indians, of five, six or seven in a canoe, crossed 
 the lake " (either Lake George or Lake Champlain), " with 
 a design to make a descent on our frontier." On the 6th 
 of September, a man who had ventured to return to Poon- 
 toosuck was "shot at by three Indians, and the bullets 
 penetrated his clothes in several places." He returned 
 the fire and "shot one down, but did not get him." 
 
 The reliable local tradition is, that the white combat- 
 ant, having procured a re-enforcement, traced his oppo- 
 nent by his blood to the shore of Lake Onota, and found 
 a pebble wrapped in cloth, which had evidently been used 
 to stanch the wound. But the injured man had disap- 
 peared ; whether carried off by his friends, or plunged into 
 the lake to save his scalp from his pursuers, is uncertain. 
 
 For several years the border communities carried on 
 their work in armed fear of sudden attack. Poontoosuck, 
 
 f4\ 
 
 7/^ 
 
 fw 
 
 1 
 
 i/'- 
 
 ■ -;-«^^ft*l»*i«-S!S;,:- 
 
 
 
 ■■ -cyap' 
 
 hr' 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 ■ - ■ 
 
 \. 
 
 ■- .- 
 
 
 'is^ ^-f- " 
 
 THE HOUSATONIC.IN WINTER 
 
 was made captive, but was killed by the savages when, after a short flight, 
 they came upon a party of English from Poontoosuck. The party from Poon- 
 toosuck was a portion of the population of that place, mounted on horses flying 
 to the stronger settlements of the south. On their way they were repeatedly 
 fired upon from the woods ; and some of the fugitives narrowly escaped the 
 bullets of the hidden foe. But the only person who was killed was one Stevens, 
 
 mm''^^- 
 
 THE END 01 EAST STREET 
 
 HOME OF SEKATOBilBAWES 
 
 in common with most of the frontier towns, had its fort which was garrisoned 
 by an average force of thirty men. 
 
 Tradition is garrulous of encounters in the township, both before and 
 after the breaking out of the war, between the white man and the red, with 
 fatal results to the latter; but these stories are happily discredited by the 
 fact, that no mention of them is made in contemporary reports, in which every 
 
 \f: ' ^' . f'l 
 
 A FOOTBRIDGE ACROSS THE STREAM 
 
 indication of the presence of the enemy on the border was scrupulously noted, and 
 whose writers were well informed of every incident which happened at Poontoosuck. 
 Two Indians were, however, killed near the fort at Lanesborough ; and the universal 
 belief that the woods, up to the very walls of the forts, were full of hostile savages, 
 
i8 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 must have had some foundation in fact. Peace 
 was at last assured in 1760 and the settlers were 
 again left free to win for themselves comfort 
 and prosperity. 
 
 THE DEAR OLD HOMES OF BERK- 
 SHIRE 
 
 HEK3IAK MELVILLE 
 
 Many of the homes amid the Berkshire 
 hills are ancestral homes, from whence pre- 
 vious generations have been removed to the 
 larger, higher life, after their warfare had 
 been accomplished here. Hallowed associa- 
 tions linger around these dear old homes and 
 the reminiscences of childhood days, that have 
 been " put away in the heart, like rose leaves, 
 are taken out to fill life with sweetness now 
 that the roses are gone." 
 
 What beautiful pictures, we, who long years 
 ago crossed the threshold of those homes, to 
 enter upon the commerce of the world, call to 
 
 THE GAS HOUSE NEIGHBORHOOD 
 
 mind as the twilight deepens. All 
 along the journey of life we meet with 
 "a touch of the vanished hand," and 
 a strain of the mother's hymn, she 
 sang to us when we nestled in her 
 safe, loving arms. We never travel 
 too far away, or grow too old to lose 
 those holy influences that were about 
 us in those " mothering days." Sor- 
 rows, disappointments, and many 
 " ills of the flesh " have come to us, 
 and we long for her hand to rest again 
 in blessing on our heads and to hear 
 her gentle voice in words of love and 
 sympathy and guidance. Those 
 were the days when we walked with 
 light and willing feet through the 
 pleasant fields, gathering the butter- 
 cups and daisies in our childish 
 hands — days "when we flew in 
 little curves over all prickles and 
 alighted only on blossoms." Now, 
 when the travelers go back to the 
 
 old homes, as they often do, how much that made up life in childhood time 
 has passed out of it. We can say with Heine, " I beheld the mountains 
 looking at me earnestly and nodding to me with their mountain beards. Here 
 and there I remarked a distant hill, which appeared to raise itself on tiptoe 
 and look curiously over the hills in order to see me," for the hills of Berk- 
 shire remain unchanged, amid all other changes. 
 
 Down in the hollow is the old red school-house, where we toed the mark, 
 at the crack between the two wide boards that met in the floor, just in front of 
 the teacher's desk, where the broken pitcher stood filled with " bouncing 
 bets," or hollyhocks ^.nd marigolds. What a volume of learning there was 
 in " Webster's spelling book." How we pitied the maid who lost her eggs, 
 her chickens, and her beautiful green gown, because the thoughts of assured 
 
 ON THE OUTSKIRTS — POMEROT AVENUE 
 
 prosperity caused her to forget, for 
 the moment, to carry her head level, 
 and her milk was all spilled upon the 
 ground. Now, we see a new genera- 
 tion of boys and girls coming out of 
 the door, and somehow they do not 
 seem in touch with those who came 
 out at close of school when we did. 
 The rail fences have given way to 
 wire ones and there are no more play- 
 houses in the corners, with pretty 
 bits of broken china placed in a row 
 on the rail for dishes. The tall 
 steeple of the old meeting-house still 
 points toward heaven, as it did in 
 childhood days, but the silvery haired 
 shepherd who led the flock on the 
 hillsides, long since passed into the 
 better country and his weary feet are 
 resting in "the green pastures and 
 by the still waters." 
 
 " The blue-eyed girl, who sang air " 
 and " the black-eyed girl, who sang 
 
 THE SAMPSON PLACE 
 
 OBAl'TOWEK — THE POLLOCK PLACE 
 
 alto," have joined the company of singers in the holy city. The sober, staid elderly 
 people who sat in the front pews, with their bunches of fennel and carryway in the 
 summer time, are not there to listen to the word as it is preached in the church militant. 
 They have had their membership transferred to.the church triumphant. But no place 
 on earth, notwithstanding the changes, brings us so near to heaven as a visit to these 
 old familiar places. We wonder we did not better appreciate the holy influences of 
 those early days when wewere mingling with them and they made part of our lives 
 But they gave us strength of heart later, and have enabled us to carry one spray of 
 
%A-,'^^" 
 
 I 
 
 KESIDBNCE OF FKANK DllTTON 
 
 THE RIDE ABOUT THE COUNTY 
 
 P ITTSFIELD. 
 
 Berkshire is a district of mountains and tumbled hills. The 
 only spot where it can fairly be said to repose in quiet is the wide 
 valley basin where the country city of Pittsfield stands. Even here 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 palm branch and stem of 
 passion flower — symbols 
 of the victories and the 
 glories of suffering — with 
 a steadier and more trust- 
 ful hand. 
 
 Susan Teall Perry. 
 
 19 
 
 lU I , 
 
 KESIUEKOIi OF CHAKLEb ATWATEli 
 
 OUT FOR A WALK 
 
 Pittsfield, by reason of its elevation, has to a considerable degree 
 possessed itself of these blessings, and in addition has a rare ac- 
 cessibility and surroundings within easy driving distance, as high 
 and wild and picturesque and beautiful as one could desire. It is 
 the focusing place of several railroads, and is therefore an easy 
 place to get out of, or, what is more to the point, to get into. 
 
 The central village is located on a mildly elevated plateau where 
 
 ItESIUENCE OF WILLIA31 A. WIllTl'ELSY 
 
 ELMWOOD — KESIDENCE OF MRS. EDWARD LEARNED 
 
 the high, blue waves of the encircling hills are in clear view on every side, 
 and no matter what outgoing road one takes, it soon brings one into a region 
 which has the reported Berkshire character. Though to the eye Pittsfield is 
 in the lowlands, yet in fact it is one thousand feet above the sea level, a 
 height which takes one to the mountain tops in the Connecticut valley, where, 
 at that height, coolness, pure air and breezes are supposed to reign universal. 
 
 its streets radiate from a little elm-arched park. A determined looking 
 bronze soldier stands guard here on a high granite pedestal. He has a sword 
 
 HOMES ON liAKTLETT AVENUE 
 
 JiBSlDEMCE OF G. H. LAFJ^IN 
 
 at his side and carries a flag, and he seems particularly interested in railroading, for 
 it may be observed that he is invariably looking down toward the depot. In the midst 
 of the elm bower a fountain plays, and various settees are distributed along the borders 
 of the gravel paths. There are almost always loiterers here. In the morning you see 
 them reading the Springfield Republican., and during the rest of the day, I suppose, 
 
20 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 WENDELL AVENUE — SOUTH FROM EAST HOUSATONIO STREET 
 
 WENDELL AVENUE — NOKTII FKOM EAST HOUSATONIO STREET 
 
 WENDELL AVENUE HOMES 
 
 at least the elderly men whom I have seen in earnest discussion there, are 
 settling the affairs of the nation to suit themselves. 
 
 On the north side of the square stands the massive granite Atheneum and 
 the big marble court-house, which is nearly hidden in summer by the grove 
 of elms before it. To the west the most prominent building is that of the 
 widely known Berkshire Life Insurance Compamy. On the north side arc 
 the granite First Congregational church, the brownstone Episcopal church, 
 and sandwiched between these the city hall, which has every appearance of 
 being an old-timer. St. S tephen's, of all the group, is the building that lingers 
 longest in the mind, though at first sight it seems, with its short, heavy tower, 
 almost clumsy in its massiveness. I cannot say just where its charm lies, 
 but it nevertheless was to my mind a very satisfying and delightful structure. 
 
 On the remaining side the park looks down the broad thoroughfare of 
 East street. This street has a noble double file of old elms on either side and 
 many comfortable and handsome homes repose behind the masses of foliage. 
 
 It is not the purpose of 
 this article to catalogue 
 or describe in detail the 
 fine residences and public 
 buildings of the place, for 
 that to most would be 
 tiresome. The pictures 
 are so profuse as to them- 
 selves tell the story with 
 some completeness, and 
 these written impressions 
 are simply supplemen- 
 tary. The city is well sup- 
 plied with trees, and on 
 the residence streets the 
 dwellings are so screened 
 from view as to make pic- 
 turing them in summer 
 well-nigh hopeless. For 
 this reason it was neces- 
 sary to take most of the 
 pictures about town when 
 the leaves were off. 
 
 Pittsfield's chief busi- 
 ness street runs north, the 
 business blocks beginning 
 near the park. It is lined 
 solidly by substantial 
 brick blocks for a half- 
 mile or more and in a 
 scattering way still far- 
 ther. This is the great 
 trading center for all the 
 southern half of the 
 county, and the produce, 
 the vehicles and the char- 
 acters which appear on 
 the street are varied and 
 interesting. The stranger 
 will, perhaps, regard the 
 broad-brimmed Shakers, 
 who come from West 
 Pittsfield and Mount Leb- 
 anon, with as much curi- 
 osity as any. In the 
 winter the most interest- 
 ing of the pilgrims to the 
 town that I met the day I 
 was there was a tall farmer 
 who had come down from 
 some mountain on the 
 front bob of a sled. While 
 he watered his horse at 
 the stone trough east of 
 the park he told me he had 
 got in all over in the snow. 
 
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 TMK HIGH SCUUUL 
 
 ■".■'-"T;?^'^';^?^^^, P>^-.-v|^™^jr -^-x-?^"^^ - 
 
 HIS FIKST I'ANTS 
 
 AN ENTRANCE TO THE LEARNED PLACE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 21 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MRS. A. C. JOSLIN 
 
 Before one of the Main 
 street stores the sojourner 
 in town remarks with aston- 
 ishment some gigantic foot- 
 prints which start from tlie 
 horse block at the curbing 
 and go straight for the en- 
 trance. It is a question 
 whether these are the foot- 
 prints of the proprietor or 
 of a customer. The owner 
 must be worth seeing if lie 
 is at all proportionate to hi,'; 
 number twenty-seven boots 
 but the possibility of his 
 proving unamiable prt- 
 vented my following him. 
 
 On the way up the street 
 one is impressed by the 
 lofty and symmetrical spire 
 
 KKtolDEMCE OF THEUOORE POMEROY 
 
 of the big Catholic church and by the 
 long white row of buildings behind its 
 park of trees that in former years 
 was the Maplewood Institute and is 
 now a favorite summer hotel. Back 
 of this is a square, high building con- 
 nected with the hotel by a bridge at 
 the second story. It looks very like 
 a church and suggests the idea that 
 the hotel people must be uncommonly 
 religious to have a church all their 
 own in such close connection. 
 
 In following the side street back 
 one comes quite unexpectedly on a 
 good-sized park just south of the 
 railroad. Halt of it is a grove of 
 young shade trees and the other half 
 is a clear, grassy expanse where the 
 boys play ball. The street adjoining 
 continues to East street. On the lat- 
 ter are two dwellings that I cannot 
 refrain from giving a more marked 
 mention. First there is the large and 
 beautiful old-fashioned house where 
 the preacher and writer, Rev. William 
 
 VVilberforce Newton, makes his home. It would be difficult to find a finer example of 
 its type of gambrel-roofed simplicity and commodiousness. The second dwelling is 
 " Elm Knoll," now the home of Mr. Plunkett. Aside from its attractive situation this 
 is notable as having been the summer home of the poet Longfellow for several seasons. 
 It was here he wrote that favorite poem, " The old clock on the stairs." Not far beyond 
 where you turn the corner and go down a little hill is the modest home of Senator 
 Dawes. If you continue, the street becomes a country road and wanders out into a 
 fine farming district where some of the mansions are so large and handsome that they 
 would add distinction to any street in the city. This is a characteristic of all the 
 gently rolling outskirts of the place. Of these great farms one of the most noted is 
 some two miles east of the center. A finely proportioned stone arch guards the 
 entrance and emblazons the name of "the Allen Farm." The road leads through it 
 
 THE OLD MARTIN PLACE 
 
 up a gentle rise to a racing track and 
 what seemed to me the largest barns 
 I had ever seen. 
 
 West of Pittsfield, on the high 
 ground near Lake Onota, on opposite 
 sides of the lake, are the great Valen- 
 tine and Walker farms. To get to 
 these you leave the village and follow 
 West street up the hill under its fine 
 arch of old elms and maples and past 
 a number of thrifty intervening farm- 
 houses, till you come to some highly 
 cultivated fields fenced in along the 
 road by a massive and new stone 
 wall. Over the fence are some sub- 
 stantial buildings and slick inclos- 
 ures where, the day I passed, a family 
 of pigs were industriously digging 
 up the earth with their noses, and 
 a flock of guinea fowls was picking 
 about in a grassplot. On the rise 
 beyond was a most charming and 
 picturesque modern farmhouse, and 
 far back, across the fields on the 
 
 'WW«^9P 
 
 _ ^'f^^ . *^ ^_ ' _■ 
 
 SOUTH COJStiKECATIOJNAL UIIUKCU 
 
 KZBKIEL COLT PLACE 
 
 edge of a pine wood, stood the summer mansion of the Valentines, over- 
 looking the lake. 
 
 On the west shore of the lake is a similar place owned by Wirt D. Walker 
 of Chicago, so like the other in attractiveness it would be difficult to choose 
 between the two. From the south end of Lake Onota I had one of the most 
 charming views of Greylock that I met with in the county. Another fine 
 view of this mountain is from a turn in the road about a mile south of the 
 city where, from a terrace, you overlook a long reach of lowland which seems 
 to extend in a wildly undulating expanse to the very base of the mountain. 
 
 The day I was at this spot I drove westerly through some mill villages in 
 the glens to the Shaker settlement in West Pittsfield. I made pictures of the 
 various houses and big buildings belonging to the community amid the fertile, 
 well-cultivated fields about, and, as it was nearly sunset, tried to get kept over 
 night. Company prevented a granting of my request, and after visiting a 
 
22 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 'lllli aALlJsllLUY bCHOOL 
 
 THE EATON PLACE 
 
 i 
 
 COllKEB BROAD AND SOUTH STttEETS 
 
 access than that up at Pontoosuc lake. The electric cars take you straight there. A 
 pleasant road follows the winding eastern shore line of the lake up to Lanesboro, its 
 full length. Another road turns westward at the lower end, but I don't know where that 
 goes to. I followed it in the expectation itwould take me along the west shore. Instead, 
 it went up into the hills and when I lost sight of the lake and began to get into the mud 
 I thought it time to turn back. By the shores of the lake are boat houses, wharves, sum- 
 mer cottages, and on the west side of the sheet of water a white steamer was moored. 
 At the northern end of the pond its borders become swampy and, alongshore, like levia- 
 thans of the deep, are many great stumps with huge, sprawling arms, barely afloat. They 
 looked so much like devilfish I could almost imagine they were alive. The two lakes 
 
 room where penwipers, match scratchers, emery bags, pin cushions, baskets, etc., were 
 kept for sale, I made a purchase and wended my way toward Pittsfield. When I entered 
 the city I accosted a young man near the park and asked him to direct me to a good hotel. 
 He said the Burbank and the American House were both good, "but," said he, glancing 
 at my machine, "the American is the one you want — there are some other surveyors up 
 there." He seemed to know what I ought to do and I took his advice. That night 1 slept 
 in a room whose windows seemed to be just over the railroad track; for every now and 
 then I was roused by a train that came crashing in with a sound which, to my. unfamiliar 
 ears, seemed like an impending doom that was going to raze the town. 
 
 Perhaps there is no prettier pleasure ground, and certainly there is none easier of 
 
 Tin-: CAMPBELL PLACE 
 
 S^ 
 
 - f'^^ ' 
 
 HUUTH STHEET HOMES 
 
 gOUTH STKKET BELOW THE HILL 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 23 
 
 week or so. They were almost indignant that I should suggest such a thing and said 
 it would be lucky if it was finished by the time snow flew. But what they could occupy 
 themselves with- that length of time was a mystery to me, for it seemed nearly finished 
 then. However, I reflected that this bit of a building was to cost )^27,ooo, and that 
 was so much beyond my comprehension I saw good reason why the other should be 
 
 AN OLD LANDMARK ON SOUTH STREET 
 
 Pontoosuc and Onota, with the woods and fields bordering them, and the 
 fine hill and mountain ranges rising not far back, are, I fancy, among the 
 most charming to be found in New England. 
 
 On the way back to Pittsfield one can conveniently stop at the cemetery. 
 It has a very fine stone-arched entrance. To get to the burial section you 
 have to follow a winding road along a stream, across bits of 
 meadow, over hills and through strips of well-grown woodland. 
 I doubt if there is anything finer in its way in the state than 
 this half of the cemetery. In a park-like meadow, a;t the foot 
 of the slope where the stones begin to appear, are some 
 miniature ponds where a family of ducks have a floating 
 house, and enliven the scene by their excursions on the 
 water and alongshore. I made a tour among the stones 
 
 A MEADOW STREAM — FROM A DRAWING BY ADELAIDE MOPFATT 
 
 also. Nevertheless, I thought, as I walked back along the winding road 
 to the entrance, that however rich and awe inspiring the finished mausoleum 
 proved it never could be as fine as nature in these woods and meadows. 
 Here I write " The End." These are but rambling notes and impres- 
 sions, and just where they come to a close is no great matter. 
 
 Clifton Johnson. 
 
 r .,,.,.,-™. ,. 
 
 THE HOLMES PINE 
 
 PICKING FLOWERS 'FOR I THEj TEACHER^ 
 
 on the hilltops until I came to a new tomb in process of construction. 
 It was a many-sided marble building with an unpainted shed against 
 its side and many chips and a few old barrels about. Some workmen 
 were putting gold leaf on a slab of mosaic at one side and were having 
 a hard time of it, for a brisk breeze blew that had a strong tendency 
 to catch and scatter the glittering tinsel. Inside, several more men 
 were at work polishing and dabbing in ways that were quite beyond 
 my understanding. I asked would they have the place finished in a 
 
 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 
 M ^ -~ 
 
 
 
 
 TILLOTSU»'s MILL I'OSD 
 
 BARKEUVILLE 
 
24 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE TILLOTSON MILLS 
 
 THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 
 
 BY HARLAN H. BALLARD 
 
 Berkshire county is full of interest to students of nature. Its geological 
 ■structure has for many years drawn the attention of eminent men of science. 
 Its flora is rich and varied. It produces many plants whose flowers attract the 
 eye of the summer tourist by their beauty, and many, rarer and more modest, 
 which are sought in hidden corners by the botanist. Its valleys are alive with 
 
 More persons are doing that to-day than ever before. Never has it been so widely 
 acknowledged that every square inch of the .earth's surface affords opportunity for 
 thought and discovery. Never has the importance of training the young to habits of 
 close attention been so strongly felt. 
 
 Methods of teaching are passing through a change which is revolutionary. Facts 
 regarding nature are not now conned from a book and recited. Pupils are made to 
 
 ONE OF THE HOMES OP WEST PITTSFIELD SHAKERS 
 
 SIIAKEli VILLAGE— THE OFFICE 
 
 THE MAIN STREET IN SHAKER VILLAGE 
 
 the birds common to New England and New York, and its higher hills are 
 visited by strange birds from more northern districts. 
 
 The quiet beauty of Berkshire scenery is of itself enough to draw people out 
 of doors. Nothing is so uninteresting as a person who is hardly to be interested. 
 The faculty of taking a lively interest in one's natural surroundings can easily 
 be cultivated in this county. 
 
 It is easy here to imitate White and Kingsley, who studied the wood they 
 burned on the hearth, the stones they trod on, the brook that wet their feet. 
 The fact that these men and others of like character have derived such enjoy- 
 ment from a somewhat untechnical observation of nature makes it probable that 
 it were wise for many of us to follow in their footsteps. 
 
 liUtLDINGS OF THE WEST FITTSFIELD SHAKERS 
 
 handle the things they study. Instead of reading about minerals, they break them, 
 weigh them, heat them, and test them with strong acids. 
 
 The union of those who are working in similar lines increases their interest. 
 
 If you have found a new flower, it is pleasant to have some appreciative friend to 
 rejoice with you. 
 
 It was a favorite dream of Louis Agassiz to see small societies established in every 
 town for the purpose of studying the district in which they live, for a radius of five 
 or ten miles. He felt that such a combination of students would render possible the 
 
 THE EASTERN VALLEY, PROM POTTER MODMTAIH 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 25 
 
 A WHITE BIliCH THICKET ON POTTER 3I0UNTAIN 
 
 purchase of books and apparatus which indi- 
 viduals could hardly afford to buy. He hoped 
 that libraries might be started, cabinets built, 
 local museums founded. 
 
 With the desire to realize in some measure 
 these ideas of Agassiz, a little society was organ- 
 ized in connection with the Lenox high school 
 in 1875. It was called the Lenox High School 
 Scientific Society. Its members made many 
 delightful excursions in search of plants and 
 minerals, and while most of their findings were 
 very common things to educated eyes, they were 
 new to those that found them, and quite as in- 
 structive as if they had been rarer. Now and 
 then, too, something really out of the ordinary 
 was discovered, as where the fruit of the trailing 
 arbutus was plucked on the rocks of the " Pinna- 
 cle" — and when a vein full of quartz crystals 
 was brought to light. 
 
 The success of this society attracted the 
 notice of other schools in Berkshire, and similar 
 organizations were started with equally good 
 results. These joined the Lenox society, and 
 the name, "Agassiz Association," was adopted. 
 The collection of specimens taken from distant 
 points, and the comparison of observations 
 >made by many observers helped to broaden and 
 correct views and theories based on merely local 
 study. In order to in- 
 crease and extend an in- 
 terest in nature-studies, a 
 sketch of the societies' 
 work was published in 
 1880, and a general invita- 
 tion extended to all who 
 might be interested, to 
 form local clubs and unite 
 with the "Agassiz Asso- 
 ciation." The responses 
 to this invitation were 
 far more numerous than 
 had been anticipated. 
 Branches, or "chapters," 
 were formed in nearly all 
 the states of the Union, 
 and some in foreign lands. 
 Since 1S80 more than 
 fifteen hundred of these 
 local societies have been 
 started. Some of those 
 first organized are still 
 active. The greater part, 
 however, liave maintained 
 an organized existence, 
 averaging about four 
 
 SD 
 
 A WOOD KOAD 
 
 L00KJKI3 AgiiySS LAilK U^UTA TOWARD GllEyLOCK 
 
 years, during which time they have devoted themselves either to 
 a more or less systematic study of their own districts, or have fol- 
 lowed one or more of the courses of study, which it was found 
 expedient to provide for those who had no experienced leader 
 among their own number. 
 
 Most of the societies, therefore, seem to have regarded their 
 connection with the Agassiz Association much in the light of a 
 four-years' course of observation and study, during which prepa- 
 ration could be made for entering upon a more strictly scientific 
 course in a college or university. The greater benefit has come 
 to those clubs which have caught more clearly the true purpose of 
 the association, viz. : to estabhsh local societies, which may become 
 permanent and continue adding to the knowledge of their environ- 
 ment. Owing to the juvenile character of the magazine in which 
 the first invitation was issued, and in which for six years the pro- 
 ceedings of the association were published, the greater part of its 
 membership for the first few years were 
 children, and the methods of study 
 pursued were often desultory. Owing 
 also to the vast circulation of the popu- 
 lar magazine which was the first "offi- 
 cial organ" of the association, an 
 extremely large number of members 
 was enrolled — amounting to a total of 
 more than twenty thousand. This was 
 unwieldy, and, moreover, foreign to 
 the original purpose of the association. 
 Another medium of communication 
 was sought in a journal called the 
 '■'Swiss Cross," mhonoroi the national 
 emblem of Agassiz's native land, and 
 this paper, conducted wholly in the 
 interests of the association, and edited 
 by its president, soon gave a new tone 
 to the society, and stimulated real work 
 among such of its members as were 
 truly interested and earnest. 
 
 Quite an army of boys and girls who 
 had joined the association just "for 
 fun," now left it, but on the other hand 
 a steadily increasing number of young 
 men and women and of adults united 
 with it, and the society grew and 
 
26 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 A SOUTIIEHN VIEW ACUOSS ONOTA 
 
 One of the chief reasons for securing the incorporation of the Agassiz Association, 
 was the necessity of obtaining a permanent fund, the income from which might be applied 
 to meeting the current expenses of the society, engaging teachers to conduct its courses 
 of study, publishing a suitable official paper, aiding needy students, etc. 
 
 Within a week after the organization of the A. A., the first donation of five thousand 
 dollars was received. It came from Mr. H. E. Deats of Flemington, N. J., a young man 
 
 prospered until in iSHgthe publisher of the Swiss Cross wsls forced to suspend 
 its publication. This sudden cutting of the main cord which united the scat- 
 tered chapters was a serious blow to the " A. A.; " a blow from which it has 
 now (1893) but just recovered. Room was soon found for a department in 
 Popular Science News, published in Boston, and this department, called " The 
 
 ON THE ROAD WEST OF LAKE OKOTA 
 
 
 Out Door World," has for several years contained a 
 monthly summary of the societies' work and progress. If 
 the A. A. were able to publish a. journal of its own, it 
 would be much to its advantage. 
 
 The Agassiz Association was incorporated with the 
 following incorporators: Harlan H. Ballard, W. R. 
 Plunkett, Edward T. Slocum, George H. Tucker, J. F. A. 
 Adams, Henry W. Bishop, Zenas Crane, James M. Barker, 
 H. E. Deats, Alpheus Hyatt. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR A DAT S HOEING 
 
 BUILT IN 1777 — OLD FAKMIIOUSE NORTH OF ONOTA 
 
 ciation in their gifts and in 
 their bequests, when they 
 realize the widely beneficial 
 character of its work. 
 
 A CENTRAL MUSEUM 
 
 This year, 1893, the Agas- 
 siz Association makes an 
 exhibit at the Columbian Ex- 
 position. This exhibit con- 
 sists of the literature of the 
 society. Specimens collected 
 by various chapters, photo- 
 graphs, illustrations of chap- 
 ter work, courses of study 
 with prepared collections of 
 minerals, and a quantity of 
 material fully illustrating the 
 methods of work pursued by 
 the association. 
 
 The Berkshire Atheneum, 
 the leading literary and scien- 
 tific institution of the county, 
 has made arrangements to 
 
 who had for several years been a member of 
 the association, and who was desirous of testi- 
 fying in this manner to the benefits he had 
 secured from the society, and of helping it ex- 
 tend those benefits to others. It is very impor- 
 tant that this endowment fund be increased to 
 fifty thousand dollars, and to this end the 
 society confidently appeals to all who are in- 
 terested in helping young men and women 
 educate themselves. 
 
 The Agassiz Association is a pioneer in the 
 work of University Extension. It is believed 
 that every chapter and member of the associa- 
 tion will contribute to this fund according to his 
 ability ; and that generous-minded men and 
 women will be induced to remember the asso- 
 
 ON THE WAT TO PASTURE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 27 
 
 CAUSEWAY ACROSS OKOTA 
 
 receive this exhibit entire at the close 
 of the fair, and to preserve it as the 
 nucleus of an Agassiz Association 
 Museum. Thepresidentof the A. A.- 
 is the librarian and curator of the 
 Atheneum, which will consequently 
 become the national headquarters of 
 the society. This museum will in 
 time doubtless contain a collection 
 fully representing the natural re- 
 sources of Berkshire, as well as 
 interesting specimens contributed 
 from all parts of the world. 
 
 to draw out this leviathan 
 with a hook. They snap- 
 ped like pipestems in his 
 horny mouth, which fairly 
 bristled with broken 
 hooks, the trophies of 
 his numerous encounters. 
 Sometimes he could be 
 seen basking in the sun in 
 the shallow water near the 
 bank, or, on a moonlit 
 evening, lashing the water 
 of the pond, and turning 
 somersaults, or, stretching 
 out full length, chasing a 
 venturesome and belated 
 muskrat that was making 
 for the other shore. This 
 made him look like a sea- 
 serpent five rods long, with 
 
 SIMMEK KE&IDENOE OF BENKY C. VALENTINE 
 
 
 1 ¥ ^ 
 
 IN A PASTURE 
 
 SUSIMER HOME OP WIKT D. WaLKEU 
 
 Y 
 
 ^ 
 
 UP WEST STREET HILL 
 
 A BERKSHIRE COUNTY EEL STORY 
 
 He lived in a pond not many miles from Pittsfield. He had had it all his 
 own way there for many years. Fishermen from far and near had tried to 
 capture him. Some had got their hooks into his mouth, but it was impossible 
 
 AN OLD WEST STREET DWELLING 
 
 a muskrat 
 head at the 
 forward end 
 of him. As 
 this old eel 
 was getting 
 domineering 
 in his en- 
 croachments, and'had chased Sam Pomeroy and one of the Briggs boys, who went in 
 swimming one evening, half way home, there was an ill-feeling created against him 
 that led to concerted measures for his destruction. Jim Knight and myself, both of 
 us then mere striplings, thought we could cover ourselves all over with glory if we 
 could drag him out. So he slept with me one night and we concocted schemes that 
 we thought ought to secure him a dozen times over before evening. We finally decided 
 we would build a raft and sally out after him, meeting him in his own element. Our 
 raft was made of logs with boards loosely laid on. We left the ignoble, gaping crowd 
 of other boys, and boldly pushed from the shore. 
 
 We were armed with a strong pole, to which we had tied two long, tough whiplashes 
 made of woodchuck skin, at the end of which we had attached a weighted slip noose 
 of brass wire. This we planned to pass over his head and by a sudden impulse throttle 
 him. The sun was shining in his circuit overhead, and the pond was still, transparent, 
 and glassy as a mirror. We could see an occasional sucker rubbing his swollen gums 
 on something succulent on the bottom; but what cared we for suckers then? We 
 
 THE VALENTINK FAUMHOU 
 
FEEDING TITE CHICKRXS 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 It was a fearful moment ! I glanced 
 at ray companion. He was as pale as 
 ashes. Should I give the desperate 
 jerk ? I looked at the landscape, at the 
 distant shore, thought of home and 
 longed to be there. These things passed 
 through my mind with the speed of light- 
 ning, like swift-winged messengers of 
 doom. I felt that I should unmask a 
 volcano by a jerk. I gave a vigorous 
 pull. In a second all was chaos, the 
 water boiled like a pot, and the quick 
 surges leaped along the shore. The ei 1 
 coiled and doubled, he lashed the deep, 
 he leaped half his length out of the 
 water. I could see the glittering noos2 
 with its deadly embrace about his waist, 
 Jim and I clung to the pole with desperate 
 strength. The tough wood bent, and the 
 line of whiplash hummed like a trolling 
 line that strikes a log. At length the eel 
 made directly for the raft and was upon 
 us with open mouth and writhing like a 
 serp ent. I clung to the pole with one 
 hand while I pounded him with a paddle 
 with the other, my companion joining in 
 
 LOOKI^G AT PICTURES WITH GRANDMA 
 
 WEST STREET WILLOWS 
 
 moved warily from place to place, and thrice I laid down the paddle and took 
 up the pole with the fatal noose attached, thinking I caught a glimpse of him. 
 At last we really saw him. He was busily swallowing his morning meal. 
 I tell you 'twas a splendid but a fearful sight. He was a monster! The bub- 
 bles came up from his fanning gills to the surface of the water, and there he 
 lay with his silvery sides and his tail gently undulating and playing in the 
 shadowed and uncertain depth, apparently caring nothing for our doings over- 
 head, and looking, to my magnified vision, about as long as a rod of rubber 
 hose does to a drunken fireman. With a firm hand I lowered the glittering 
 noose and passed it lightly over his head, just brushing his fins and sliding it 
 gently along a little farther. 
 
 THE POND AT POMEROY'S UPPER MILL 
 
 FARMHOUSES ON WEST STREET 
 
 ST. JOSEPH'S ROMAN CVTUOLIC CHURCH 
 
 the melee. In the struggle the raft was rent asunder and went to pieces, and we were 
 both instantly in the water. I clung to the pole, perhaps more with the instinct ot 
 self-preservation than in the interests of fishing, and with my free hand clutched a 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 29 
 
 THE OLD GEK^[.■\^- LUTHEKAN CHURCH 
 
 IN THE CHILDREN ? 
 
 -HOUSE or MERrV 
 
 FRENCH CATHOLIC CHUIiCII 
 
 fragment of the raft. I expected momentarily that every leg I had would bo 
 bitten off close up, but just at this juncture a man appeared with a boat and 
 rescued us. I stuck to the pole with the tenacity of a snapping turtle to the 
 leg of a young gosling, and the man pulled stoutly toward shore, I tugging 
 with the writhing monster behind, leaving a wake like that made by a 
 screw propeller. 
 
 On landing, the three of us joined in drawing him up on the bank. He 
 knocked me over with his tail, but we finally succeeded in killing him. I do 
 not say how long he was — don't ask me. He was skinned and cut up in 
 sections and distributed through the village, and peace reigned once more 
 throughout her borders, for the dreaded terror of the waters was vanquished. 
 
 The selectmen held a meeting and decreed a vote of thanks and further, 
 
 as a tilting testimony to 
 our courage, they be- 
 stowed upon my compan- 
 ion and myself a medal. 
 It was a ten-cent piece 
 with a hole and a string in 
 it to wear about the neck as 
 a rich memorial. I have- 
 mine yet. It won't pas."^, 
 because it's punched. 
 A. E. Bartlett, 
 in " The Co7nic Angler' 
 
 BEFORE THE RAIN 
 
 The silver poplar's pearl and 
 emerald sheen 
 Glimmeis incessant, shadow- 
 ing the eaves ; 
 The willow's wide, fair foun- 
 tain fall of green 
 WhispeiS Uke rain; a pulse 
 
 of gladness heaves 
 The world of waving leaves. 
 Florence Perry. 
 
 SECO^D CO.NCKUGAIIUNAL (.I.Li.Cll vCoLul.liDj 
 
 OLD MILLS ON WAHCONAH STREET 
 
 THE NEW GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH 
 
 Advice for the Fisherman. — In fishing you should never be in a hurry. Note the 
 following instance of patience exhibited even in a small boy. He was sent by his 
 mother to a neighbor's to get some sour milk. When told that they had none he 
 sweetly said, " Well I gusss I'll sit down and wait till it sours." That boy would, with 
 proper training and diet, make an excellent fisherman. Fish as a general thing are shy 
 on first acquaintance. They will not meet you at the landing ; they will not come to 
 you, but you must go to them. And when you go, go slowly ; you must wait their moods, 
 study their habits. Have patience like the little boy, and while you are waiting remem- 
 ber the fish are growing. 
 
 A. E. Bartlett, in " The Comic Angler.'''' 
 
30 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ENTRANCE TO THE PITTSFIELD CEMETERY 
 
 MAPLEWOOD INSTITUTE 
 
 One of the most prominent institutions of Berkshire for many years was Maplewood 
 Institute, a seminary for the instruction of young ladies. It was so well known and so 
 popular all over the country, and so far in advance of its time as to give a deserved 
 celebrity to Pittsfield, and materially add to her reputation as an educational center. This 
 institution and the Berkshire Medical college, which ranked among the first of its class; 
 the half-dozen famous schools for young men and young women which contemporaneously 
 
 by N.S.Dodge 
 as a board- 
 ing school for 
 girls. During 
 this brief re- 
 gime, which in 
 all covered but 
 a few years, the 
 middle build- 
 ing of the three 
 was burned 
 to the ground 
 and the school 
 was given up 
 altogether. 
 
 In 1841 be- 
 gan the real ex- 
 istence of the 
 Young Ladies' 
 Institute. In 
 November Mr. 
 and Mrs. Tyler 
 commenced 
 their school 
 with only eight 
 pupils, but 
 such was the 
 reputation of 
 Mr. Tyler, and 
 the quality of 
 the school he 
 established, 
 that in less 
 thanfouryears 
 it had increas- 
 ed to more 
 
 than one hundred boarding pupils, overflowing the buildings and coloniz- 
 ing in the neighboring houses. The day school had experienced an even 
 more phenomenal growth, for no less than sixty girls from the town itself had 
 availed themselves of these opportunities. The school was known as the Pitts- 
 field Youhg Ladies' Institute. The months of May and October were the only 
 vacations, the anniversaries occurring the last of September, and the school 
 year beginning in November; nor were holidays allowed to interfere with 
 study and discipline, with a single exception ; although nothing was known of 
 Christmas, the Fourth of July was abundantly and suitably celebrated ! 
 
 The cost of an education at this, one of the best and most fashionable 
 schools of its time, reads somewliat curiously to-day. In 1844, ^170 a year 
 covered the expenses of the boarding pupils, unless they chose to pursue 
 music at $10 per quarter, the classics at $3 each, or French at JS5. And the 
 day scholars might get the basis of their education for $12 or #28 a year, ac- 
 cording to their ages! It must be concluded that even then these were 
 hardly adequate prices, or that fashion changed all that, for when Mr. Tyler 
 left the school ten years later, these figures had more than doubled, and ex- 
 penses were otherwise greatly increased, though still coming so far below the 
 modern idea, as to seem absurdly small. In 1847 the tide of prosperity was 
 
 THE CATHOLIC CKMETEKY 
 
 A ROAD IN THE CEMETERT 
 
 or successively dwelt within her borders, long gave a widespread 
 and enviable reputation to this Berkshire town, and in large meas- 
 ure determined her well-known character as an intellectual center. 
 It is more than possible that the underlying reason for the entire 
 change into a busy commercial community, and the consequent 
 revolution in her social atmosphere, is connected with the deca- 
 dence of these institutions of learning. 
 
 In 1841 Rev. William Hart Tyler, a brother of the famous pro- 
 fessor of Greek at Amherst college, secured the property known 
 in local parlance as the case might be either as the Cantonment 
 grounds or the Gymnasium buildings. Already this property had 
 experienced a varied and not inconspicuous history. Almost at 
 the beginning of the war of 1812, the government established there 
 a " Cantonment " for military encampment. Three plain wooden 
 buildings served as barracks for the new soldiers, while the " Light 
 Dragoons " encamped on the meadow. A year later the fortunes 
 of war turned this post into a military prison, and sometimes as 
 many as two thousand prisoners were crowded within its limits. 
 Upon the close of the war the Cantoement grounds were sold at 
 auction to Lemuel Pomeroy, who replace^ the old wooden barracks 
 by three substantial brick buildings built on the same unattractive 
 models as their predecessors, and Prof. Charles Dewey opened 
 there a preparatory school for Williams college. It was known, 
 with some pretense at foreign ways, as the Berkshire Gymnasium. 
 After nine years of successful and famous existence, various causes 
 operated to close this school, and the buildings were then occupied 
 
 THE CEMETERY DUCKS 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 31 
 
 PECK'S UPPER, MILL 
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE WEST BRANCH OP THE HOtrSATONIC 
 
 had been the home of the First parish, and Mr. Tyler bought the structure, 
 moved it to the rear of his new chapel, and turned it into a gymnasium of re- 
 markable amplitude and convenience for that day. These four buildings, the 
 East building, the West building, the Chapel and the Gymnasium, set in the 
 midst of their beautiful grounds, constituted the school as it was.known to gener- 
 ations of fortunate schoolgirls, for more than forty years. 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to quote from a little old catalogue of 1846, the de- 
 scription of the grounds as they looked to the pedagogical and parental eye of that 
 date, "A Ijrge part of the original twenty acres," says this enticing catalogue: — 
 
 such that Mr. Tyler felt amply justified in replacing the burnt dormitory with a some- 
 what elaborate chapel of Grecian architecture, being an exact reproduction of one of 
 the famous temples to Minerva. Its general style, dignified aspect — in particular such 
 details as the marble floor, laid in alternate blocks of the blue and the white limestone 
 of the county — testified to the aesthetic and intellectual atmosphere of the institution. 
 Four years later a fire badly damaged the old church in the town, which since 1794 
 
 A GLIMPSE OF RUSSELL S WOOLEN MILLS 
 
 e. , -^«L ^ 
 
 >1 . ,-. . 
 peck's lower mill 
 
 WOODS AND MEADOWS NEAR THE CEMETERY 
 
 Known as the military 
 
 fferounds,— from their association 
 
 (Iwith the scenes of the last war, are 
 
 'still within the enclosure of the 
 
 institute. 
 
 "Four acres are laid out in a 
 circular garden, sloping from the 
 green in front of the building 
 towards the south, surrounded and 
 intersected by spacious gravel 
 walks, ornamented with shrubbery 
 and flowers, tastefully set off with 
 parterres and arbors, and enlivened 
 by an artificial fountain. Grounds 
 at once so ample, retired and beauti- 
 ful, present every inducement for 
 physical exercise, where, without 
 exposure to passers by, the pupils 
 engage in the various sports which 
 taste and health may require, enjoy 
 their walks, their conversation, 
 their buoyant and gleesome laugh- 
 ter and even their retirement, in the 
 open air without danger of intru- 
 sion from abroad or of becoming 
 themselves an annoyance to others. 
 The circular walk enclosing the 
 garden and one-fourth of a mile in 
 length is used by the pupils for 
 equestrian exercises, while every 
 week in suitable weather they are 
 carried abroad a few miles for 
 exercise and relaxation, among 
 
 TREES AND GABLES BY THE STKEAM-SIDE 
 
32 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 HilNi; INT(; PONTOOSIit' VILI A(JK 
 
 the scenes of novelty and beauty 
 which abound on every side. 
 And for this purpose the insti- 
 tute is furnished with conven- 
 ient and elegant carriages seat- 
 ing from twenty-five to thirty at 
 a. time. As a further means of 
 securing health, there is attach- 
 ed to the establishment a bath- 
 ing house, retired, commodious, 
 and fitted up with every con- 
 venience for warm and cold 
 ablutions, and no one of these 
 advantages is attended with ad- 
 ditional expense ! " 
 
 Among the new ideas 
 domesticates! here by Mr. 
 Tyler, were' the estab- 
 lishment of a board of 
 trustees, decidedly an in- 
 novation in a private 
 school, and the " Examin- 
 ing Committee," selected 
 yearly from- persons of 
 experience and acquire- 
 ments, who examined the 
 progress and considered 
 
 A BACK-YARD GROUl* 
 
 be despised to-day, and which was much 
 more advanced than that required by 
 later patrons of the school. The text- 
 books used are now indeed somewhat 
 antiquated, but they were the best in their 
 day, and the subjects studied there by 
 the schoolgirls of 1844 bear comparison 
 not unfavorably with those pursued by 
 their grandchildren in the colleges of 
 1884. And it must be remembered that 
 these girls were much younger than the 
 modern college student. One who was 
 still in school at nineteen, was so old as 
 
 SVMMEK ON PONTOOSUC LAKE 
 
 to be an object of equal interest and 
 dismay ! Special attention was paid 
 to music ; as it was the intention to 
 make this a musical center, no pains 
 nor money were spared to that end. 
 Shortly, other and more startling 
 ideas came to Professor Tyler. 
 Already he was using in his classes 
 the written questions he had pre- 
 viously used in his classes at Amherst 
 college when a tutor there, and it was 
 not a very long ^tep practically when 
 
 A WIKTEK St'NSBT 
 
 A MILL 1'0>U 
 
 the needs of the school, making a report^of its condition. This valuable feature did 
 much for the institution with the public. 
 
 Such was the famous school in its early days, or rather, such was its outward and 
 visible form. The "inward and spiritual grace" was equally advanced and remark- 
 able. Professor Tyler was an extraordinary man. At a very early date he saw the 
 need and the possibility of what we call to-day the "higher education" of women. 
 The eai-liest catalogues give us a curriculum which in its essential features is not to 
 
 A iiUIET DAY 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 33 
 
 in 1845 he arranged the curricu- 
 lum of the school in a regular 
 course of four years and his first 
 class of eight young women was 
 graduated. In an educational 
 way it was a tremendous stride, 
 however, almost a leap in the 
 dark, for only two schools for 
 young women had preceded him 
 in such a daring experiment. In 
 like fashion he introduced, at a 
 very early date, "Calisthenics," 
 developing into gymnastics as 
 time and knowledge advanced, 
 to the mingled admiration and 
 horror of the community. The 
 earliest catalogue reveals more- 
 over that if French was inex- 
 pensive, it yet was correct, for 
 the instruction was given by a 
 native Frenchman, a rare privi- 
 lege in those days. Very early, 
 too, appeared scientific appa- 
 ratus and other departures in the 
 way of scientific learning very 
 new for women. " Object teach- 
 ing," the great ide?, that had invaded the kingdom 
 of learners, and was shortly to revolutionize all their 
 ways, was a favorite idea with Mr. Tyler. It so per- 
 vaded all the work of the school, that however crude 
 its methods', its main principle, that of teaching the 
 mind to think for itself, was so inwrought in the 
 mental fiber of the pupils as to cause the actual de- 
 ficiencies of the education of that time to disappear 
 before the mental strength engendered. A distin- 
 guished observer has said of this remarkable man, 
 that in his mind indomitable energy to execute 
 and far-reaching sagacity to contrive, were happily 
 blended. Perhaps no more noticeable evidence of 
 this can be given than the fact that in 1853 he called 
 together a convention of distinguished educators to 
 consider the practicability of turning his school into 
 an actual woman's college. The work of Mrs. Tyler 
 was as much a feature of the school as that of her 
 husband's. Her careful attention to the social edu- 
 cation of the girls committed to her charge was no 
 less valuable thanthe other side of their instruction. 
 Morals, manners and even the fashions of the day, 
 were instilled by precept and example. To produce 
 educated women, who should-yet be gentlewomen, 
 was the aim of this seminary, and it is little wonder 
 that undersuchcontrolitwas a favorite and fashion- 
 able schojl, combining in some ways the later 
 popalirity of Farmingto.i and Vassar, and occupy- 
 ing a similar position in the 
 educational world, to either or 
 perhaps both of those institu- 
 tions. So wide-spread was its 
 popularity that at one time it 
 contained pupils from every state 
 in the Union, and that from the 
 families best known in social 
 and public circles. It reached 
 such distinction as to become 
 the subject of a well-known 
 caricature. Dr. Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, sometime resident in 
 Pittsfield, succumbing to a 
 highly influential social preju- 
 dice originating in local quar- 
 ters, made it a feature of his 
 story of ' ' Elsie Venner, " under a 
 most unfair disguise. The car- 
 icature was so extreme, however, 
 that it had little effect, and was 
 probably seldom recognized. 
 
 It was always the same school 
 though time and circumstances 
 changed its methods somewhat. 
 In 1854, at the height of its popu- 
 larity, after more than twelve 
 years of real and wonderful suc- 
 
 ^. 
 
 THE VIEW OF roNTOOSUC LOOKING KOUTIl TOWARD GREYLOCK 
 
 I'OXTUOt^UC IN Tllli DAYS OF' THE FIRST SKTTLKKS 
 
 A PICTUKKSCfUE BIT Oi' THE XOUTH SHORE 
 
 cess, private reasons induced 
 Mr. Tyler to sell the school to 
 Prof. J. H. Agnew, a man of 
 considerable literary distinc- 
 tion, who carried it on along the 
 same lines for three years. The 
 school at this time also began 
 to feel the interest in sesthetic.=, 
 developing throughout the coun- 
 try, and its more solid features 
 were to some extent superseded 
 by the new accomplishments, 
 especially drawing and painting, 
 wliich shortly took on much im- 
 portance in its scheme of study. 
 Prof. Agnew's interest in and 
 devotion to literature, his high- 
 bred courtesy and air of distinc- 
 tion created an intellectual and 
 aesthetic atmosphere, and gave 
 a distinct character to this 
 school for the few years dur- 
 ing which he remained there. 
 Financial reasons somewhat 
 affected the prosperity of the 
 institution' and eventually led to 
 a change of ownership. In 1857 the school was 
 sold to Rev. C. V. Spear, who had long been- one of 
 the principal members of its faculty. With him 
 was associated Prof. James R. Boyd, but in i860 
 Mr. Spear assumed entire control of the seminary, 
 which after this time remained in his possession 
 until 1884, when it was given up altogether. Under 
 Professor Agnew, the name was changed to Maple- 
 wood Young Ladies' Institute, usually shortened to 
 Maplewood Institute, and by that name it was 
 known for the greater part of its life. 
 
 The'high standard and great popularity of the 
 school continued unabated. Perhaps it reached its 
 zenith in 1864, at which time it was crowded with 
 pupils — 201 in all. It had always had both a south- 
 ern and western contingent and its patrons still 
 continued to be the most prominent people of their 
 region, while the large number of day scholars 
 showed the confidence of the community which 
 knew it best. The growth of the town had reduced 
 the size of the grounds to the more manageable 
 dimensions of nine acres, but the winding walk, 
 the grove and garden of the flowery early catalogues 
 remained, and like the buildings had added much 
 of beauty and convenience. Vacations had also 
 greatly increased and taken to themselves more at- 
 tractive seasons. March; August and September- 
 were all vacation months, and holidays were no 
 - longer unknown. But with all 
 its advantages, its expenses had 
 not increased correspondingly. 
 Three hundred and thirty dol- 
 lars a year is a price which would 
 seem something more than ridic- 
 "* ulous to the proprietor of a fash- 
 
 ionable school to-day. But no- 
 where was an education at once 
 solid and graceful to be more 
 successfully obtained for the 
 young lady of the period, before 
 the war, than at Maplewood. 
 
 Mr. Spear was a man of an 
 exceptionally alert mind, much 
 interested in the sciences, and 
 anxious to avail himself of every 
 new discovery. Exact and 
 thorough, he felt that founda- 
 tions must be perfect and knowl- 
 edge certain, and on that basis 
 he endeavored to build up. the 
 structure of a general education. 
 Careful to a fault, he spent his 
 strength too much upon detail 
 perhaps, but the versatile and 
 non-persistent minds of young 
 women needed such constant 
 
34 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 NORTH ADAMS CESTKE 
 
 A BLLUK1I> UtiAI.'D 
 
 checks that it is not strange he 
 should have despaired of any 
 other method. Nevertheless, 
 while he recognized that the de- 
 velopment of new methods, and 
 the experiments of new depar- 
 tures, were not for such a school 
 as his, but rather that he must 
 lead his flock in sure paths, he 
 was more than ready to pursue 
 new paths so soon as he was con- 
 vinced of their value. 
 
 Just at this point, when the per- 
 manency and continued success of 
 this great school seemed assured, 
 when its natural course was to re- 
 turn to its earlier paths and fall 
 into the new lines of the higher 
 education just opening before the 
 young women of the land, and 
 perhaps to evolve into a wonikn's 
 college, it received a fatal blow. 
 In the summer of 1864 the school 
 was devastated by an epidemic of 
 typhoid fever, of a peculiarly 
 virulent and fatal type. More 
 than fifty cases occurred, thirteen 
 of which resulted fatally. It was 
 
 THK VILLAGK AKD TH K MOUNTAIJfS 
 
 proved beyond a doubt that the 
 disease resulted from local condi- 
 tions. Sanitary science was then 
 almost in its infancy, and much 
 that was most harmful was the 
 result of ignorance, rather than 
 neglect. Nor was it ignorance of 
 a culpable character, for it must 
 not be forgotten how little was 
 known of what is " A, B, C " to- 
 day. It was the study of this 
 very epidemic which, more than 
 any other one thing, turned public 
 attention to the causes of typhoid 
 fever and its possible prevention. 
 The suffering which fell upon this 
 school was indeed in some sort a 
 vicarious suffering of the whole 
 community for its own ignorance, 
 and the dreadful result did more 
 than can now be measured for 
 the safety and health of the whole 
 public. The causes of the trouble 
 were carefully removed, and there- 
 after there was perhaps no safer 
 school in the country in its sani- 
 tary conditions, but the ijistitution 
 only partially recovered from this 
 
 CATHOLIC CHLKCa fROW ChSTKK STltKBT 
 
 SUilMKK HTKKKT 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 blow. The public could not be 
 expected to forget the past, or to 
 run more risks. The school crept 
 back into life somewhat slowly — 
 and at first its scholars were 
 drawn almost entirely from Pitts- 
 field itself or from a very narrow 
 circle, whence their health could 
 be very carefully watched. In 
 1 866 it had returned almost to its 
 former numbers and prosperity, 
 and pupils were again drawn 
 largely from the West, when a 
 second blow fell with crushing 
 force. In the spring of that year, 
 several severe cases of cerebro- 
 spinal meningitis occurred, with 
 one death from that disease, re- 
 sulting in a final loss of confidence 
 in the school. The causes of this 
 epidemic were never discovered 
 and the highest medical authori- 
 ties believed it to have no local 
 cause whatever. But the public 
 could not be made to believe that 
 this was not a repetition of the 
 first experience, and resulting 
 from the same causes, and con- 
 fidence could not be revived. 
 
 GKETLOCK FHOSr FLORIDA MOUNTAIN 
 
 35 
 
 and suddenly from that season 
 of business depression combined 
 with other causes, and it never 
 again regained a full comple- 
 ment of pupils. 
 
 In 1883, failing health com- 
 pelled Mr. Spear to give up active 
 work, and at that time he leased 
 the school to Mr. Louis C. Stanton, 
 who had been for some time one 
 of his teachers, but this experi- 
 ment lasted only a short time. 
 Mr. Spear soon presented the 
 property to Oberlin college, which, 
 after due consideration of the 
 field, and some futile experiments 
 on its own account, eventually 
 sold Maplewood for a summer 
 hotel — a use to which the build- 
 ings had already been put. The 
 year 1884 was the last year that 
 saw a school within its gates. For 
 nearly seventy years, Maplewood 
 had been an educational institu- 
 tion. For more than forty it had 
 sheltered a famous and popular 
 school for girls. Thousands felt 
 its molding power, and all over 
 the country to-day matrons, young 
 
 *! f 
 
 MAIN STRERT NORTH ADAM> 
 
 THF, LIBRARY 
 
 Under these conditions, it be- 
 came impossible to step forward 
 into the new place required by the 
 demands of the higher education, 
 nor was it possible, on the other 
 hand, to retain the fashionable 
 character of the " Institute" as a 
 finishing school. Mr. Spear, 
 whose interest in the school was 
 great, kept up the struggle gal- 
 lantly, under considerable per- 
 sonal strain, and sometimes at 
 much financial loss, for some 
 years longer. With the advent 
 of Prof. B. C. Blodgett in 1867, 
 music, as has been said, always a 
 great feature of the education, 
 was made a principal department, 
 which largely increased the num- 
 ber of scholars temporarily, and 
 indeed during the rest of its exist- 
 ence this became a central point of 
 attraction. Thus the school at 
 times almost regained something 
 of its former popularity, and the 
 financial depression of 1873 found 
 ft with more than 150 pupils. For 
 some reason it suffered greatly 
 
 and old, testify to its great value, 
 and dwell with affection upon its 
 beauty and its power and influgnce 
 for good. Certainly such an in- 
 stitution deserves at least a back- 
 ward glance from those who look 
 upon its outward shell and wonder 
 at the old-fashioned structure, or 
 admire its famous trees. 
 
 Anna L. Dawes. 
 
 GRKYLOCK FROM ABOVE NORTH ADAMS 
 
 A NEWSPAPER writer, once de- 
 , scribing the personnel of certain 
 picturesque (though highly re- 
 spectable) officials who took part 
 in a commencement day proces- 
 sion at Williamstown, said : " The 
 spotless white cravat and the un- 
 diminished figure of Rev.'' Dr. 
 Davis of Westfield, vice-president 
 of the institution, surged in the 
 throng. And among others pres- 
 ent was Graham A. Root of Shef- 
 field, sheriff of 'our county of 
 Berkshire,' at whose hands, on ac- 
 count of his politeness, a hanging 
 would be shorn of half its terrors." 
 
36 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 AX HISTORIC MILL 
 
 JIAIN STRlUiT VHOM IHE WFST 
 
 TEACHING IN A COUNTRY SCHOOL 
 
 THE KOKTn ADAMS STATION 
 
 ^-r--*\ 
 
 A KOAU DOWN THE HILL fUOW TH IC KOUTii 
 
 
 Berkshire's faculty for furnishing^reat men in an emergency has often been noted, 
 and was thus once facetiously alluded to by Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield 
 Republican, on the occasion of a political convention : 
 
 " Hampden has but one man to offer, but up in Berkshire, where great men are plenty, 
 the case is different. Barrington can furnish one, also Lee, and Pittsfield several, to say 
 nothing about North Adams ! " 
 
 If ever the old adage was falsified, it certainly was not in the fifties of this 
 century, when one in her early teens made her maiden effort at teaching a 
 country school on the bleak hill-tops of Western Massachusetts. There was 
 no "royal road," but rugged and devious were the ways that led to these 
 academic heights. In vain the panorama of mountain, vale and woodland 
 appealed to the youthful imagination. Old Greylock with his cloud-encircled 
 top pierced by rising sunbeams, or glorified by departing day, had no tale to 
 tell the homesick girl of a world beyond with a larger outlook. 
 
 Was it that the newer methods, which make the education of the young a 
 
 A LOOK ACIIOSS THE VILLAGK TOWAUU TIIK KAST 
 
 THE INDISPENSABLE MAN 
 
PICtlJRE.SQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 pleasant, instead of an arduous task, had not been dreamed of, or did the appreciation of the 
 wonderful landscape need the discipline of maturer years ? The forest was the only witness of 
 the silent tears ot the forlorn one, and the birds alone were benefited by the carefully pre- 
 pared lunch. 
 
 The first step in the formidable undertaking was the examination of teachers, usually held 
 
 i1 
 
 UNION SCHOOL 
 
 on the Saturday before the opening of the spring term, when the 
 teachers from out of town were expected to have arrived. This was 
 a painful ordeal for the young and timid Taeginner, for in addition to 
 that digaified body the school committee, there were some teachers of 
 mature years and large experience, who to the eye of the younger 
 aspirant had little mercy upon her fearful, timid answers. The school 
 committee usually consisted of the clergyman of the town and two 
 other members. These last might be either some retired male teacher 
 of advanced years or some farmer who had succeeded in acquiring a 
 little more schooling than had the average of his class. There was 
 no feminine element upon the school Jboard, at this time, to soften 
 
 A TET DOG 
 
 KMKKlNfi THK TOWN FHOM IHE W KsT 
 
 BAPTIST CHURCH 
 
 A GLIMPSP. OF THE ARNOLD PRINT WORKS 
 
38 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 FAUM.S ON TMH NOIJTHRRX HILt.TOF 
 
 MILLS BY THK STREAM 
 
 and grace the proceedings. This rubicon 
 successfully passed, the teacher was handed 
 over to the care of the prudential committee 
 of the district in which her lot was cast. 
 Most happy was her fate if, as sometimes 
 was the case, that committee was a just and 
 conscientious man, a leader in the social and 
 religious life of the community, with a wife 
 from the best nurtured of the New England 
 
 liFXlH CVTIIOI.H 
 
 I'l'rscOPAL cnriicil 
 
 farmer community. Quite otherwise was her fate if some neighborhood feud of 
 long standing existed, and the committee was a hard man, unyielding and narrow 
 minded. In that case, although in his self-willed obstinacy he might stand by 
 the teacher of his choice, even to the extent of producing a rawhtde for her 
 use, yet tlic other party to ihe quarrel would as zealously assert his rights, and 
 
 ABOVE THE TOWN' 
 
 the path of that teacher would be filled with pitfalls for lier unwary feet. Happily, 
 the teacher of to-day has no district committee with neighborhood prejudices to stand 
 between her and the higher body. Another trial to which she was subjected was the 
 boarding round among the families of the pupils, this supposed to be a necessity in 
 order to eke out the teacher's small salary. Again was the poor teacher fortunate 
 when her turn came to spend- the week with the one or two cultured and more prosper- 
 ous farmers, or with the physician or clergyman of the village. More frequently the 
 term was lengthened out to three or four weeks with some poorer, ignorant people of 
 large families, and direst condition of all from which she shrank most was the sharing 
 her sleeping apartment with one of the most undesirable of her flock. At this time, 
 instead of choosing the pleasantest and easiest time of travel in the year, the two 
 school terms were taught, the one in the hottest, the other in the mostinclement season. 
 Oa one bitter December night, after a weary day, the teacher climbed a hill of nearly 
 
 CO.NGKEGATIOSAL CHURCH 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE BLACKIXTUN RESXDBNCK 
 
 HESIDKSCK, Of UEORGK W. CHASE 
 
 length of the alternate week to the unhappy 
 one who was not near enough to return 
 to the home fireside. The schoolrooms of 
 those days were not made attractive with 
 charts, maps and appliances to make teach- 
 ing interesting, neither was it considered 
 important that the taste be cultivated by 
 papered and tinted walls ; indeed, in one in- 
 stance at least the dilapidated portion of one 
 
 NORTH ADAMS AS IT WAS 
 
 HESIDENCE OF H. TOKREY CADY 
 
 two miles in length, as the concession of board- 
 ing at that place before the deep snows should 
 arrive was granted. In vain the young, home- 
 sick girl sought some scrap of reading to beguile 
 the long, weary evening. At last she succeeded 
 in unearthing a small volume telling the thrill- 
 ing story of some Siberian exiles, and by the 
 dim light of a tallow candle, with a sympathetic 
 heart, she lost herself in their greater woes. 
 
 The lot of the teacher of those days was not 
 ameliorated by the frequent observances of re- 
 ligious and patriotic holidays, the only recog- 
 nized ones. Fourth of July and Thanksgiving 
 day, were carefully arranged for outside the 
 regular school term, and the Saturday holiday 
 allowed only once in two weeks. And oh ! the 
 
 
 SLIDING TIME 
 
 J> TUK WKSTKBN VIIJ,A<iK 
 
 1 UK CKMKTI'liV 
 
40 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 EAGLE STKI'.RT 
 
 A STREET IN THE REAR OF DRURY ACADEMY 
 
 part of the building was used for kindling the fires to make the other part habitable. In 
 some of these buildings the long, plank seats with high benches in front surrounded 
 the three outer sides of the room, leaving the center for the stove and recitation work. 
 But in spite of the discomforts and the lack of suitable apparatus for instruction, there 
 were compensations. There were earnest pupils who, when it was not so easy as now to 
 
 KOON AT DPUKT ACADEMY 
 
 enter academies ^d seminaries which were fewer in number, had to rely 
 upon the district school for a greater part of their education. In one such 
 school in Berkshire, the teacher, a young girl, passed one happy fruitful win- 
 ter, in spite of unpleasant details, for around that schoolroom she looked 
 into the faces of young men and maidens, some of them older than herself, 
 who were filled with high purpose and aim. From that little snow-bound 
 
 A VIEW OF THE EAGLE MILLS 
 
 TUB STREAM BY THE/:RAiLROAD 
 
 A HILLSIDE HOUSE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 41 
 
 .#'* 
 
 
 «««-i,j^!5gi 
 
 ^^^ ,7 •* 
 
 r?*^.^»«£ 
 
 METHODIST CIIIKCH 
 
 CHUKCH STREET SCHOOL 
 
 VJKU" A(:i;it>S THK HILLS 'I U THE EAST 
 
 country in her need, and they are remembered upon Decoration day by their com- 
 rades in arms and a grateful nation. 
 
 STATE STREET 
 
 hamlet set upon a lofty hill-top went out some to fill responsible and honorable places 
 in the world's arena. One became an honored pupil and associate in the short-lived 
 but famous Agassiz school on Penikese Island. Another was a teacher for years in 
 one of our most famous young ladies' colleges. Another fills with honor that profes- 
 sion so eminently appropriate for women, who are the healers as well as the teachers 
 of the nation. Of those young men whose records we seek, several served their 
 
 A Day in the Country. — " The meal proceeds. This butter is from 
 our cows. This is cheese which grandmother made. The bread is so white, 
 the currants so red, the shaved beef so country like, the tea just as good 
 as city tea. The boys are bursting to narrate the wonders of their experi- 
 ence. The wood- ■■..'km. 
 chucks, the squir- ' 
 rels, the hawks, 
 were all chroni- 
 cled; the rides, 
 the accidents, 
 .the hens' nests 
 found, and a 
 ■world of eager 
 news were set 
 forth. Each boy 
 was eager to go 
 forth and show us 
 all the wonders of 
 the new place ; 
 the barn, the 
 woodhouse, the 
 well, the great 
 elm tree, the cel- 
 lar, the garret, the 
 orchard and the 
 garden." — Star 
 
 rUperS, ^^jj IMVERbAIlsT UHL KOH 
 
42 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 favored few whose ardor and devotion leads them far astray from beaten tracks of com- 
 merce and " crowded hives of men." 
 
 How much of pleasure one may find in woodland walks and forest glades — the 
 golden sunlight darts here and there among the trees and, touching first a leaf then 
 fern orbit of moss or lichen-covered bark, brings out their gracefulness most perfectly. 
 
 Ti ; n i i*"T 
 
 'Jllli HOSPITAL 
 
 WOODLAND TRAMPS 
 
 Full half the charm and beauty of the Berkshire hills is lost to all who 
 know them only from the highway. That half — the better share — is found 
 by lake and stream, in wood and mead, upon the mountains' sides and on their 
 wind-swept crests. 
 
 Nature is always at her best when man is least conspicuous: 'tis true she 
 offers here and there along the wayside glimpses of pleasing form touched up 
 with bits of dainty coloring, but all her fairest works of floral wealth and land- 
 scape beauty she hides securely from vulgar eyes, sharing them only with the 
 
 LUOlCINr; INTO TlllC VILLAGE KliUM THE NORTHERN HILL 
 
 OX TIIL sold II IJLANt II OF THE HOO.SAC 
 
 M-:w LKIVEIISALIST CIU'ltCH 
 
 In every hook beneath the sheltering arms a host of wild flowers find congenial 
 homes. The hardy liverleaf is first to make its spring debut, while April charges 
 vainly at the snowy ramparts of old Marius. There are two forms of this 
 Hepatica, known by the segmentation of the foliage. A sort with sharp-lobed 
 leaves and white or slightly pink or bluish-tinted flowers is most often found, 
 while one with rounded lobes and deep-blue flowers is not rare. Mingled with 
 these in open upland woods are tall Canadian violets,- whose seemingly pure 
 white petals are 
 externally purple 
 — the largest and 
 finest of our 
 many species, of 
 which the yellow 
 sorts, both stem- 
 less and caules- 
 cent, together 
 wi th rostrata and 
 sylvesfris, are 
 quite plentiful. 
 Here, too, are 
 clumps of purple 
 trilliums, and In- 
 dian turnips — a 
 vile slander on 
 the red man — cut 
 leaved and white 
 
 VIvAZIK .STKEKT .SCHOOL 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 43 
 
 l:i>[i>i;xcK 
 
 fickle bloodroot, too — how various are the 
 memories that word recalls — in truth it is 
 a pretty flower, though so fragile, and, 
 later in the season when its rank leaves 
 are fully grown, makes quite a foliage 
 effect among the underbrush. 
 
 Our rocky ledges furnish species no 
 less interesting — bright columbines im- 
 properly called honeysuckles, and little 
 mayflowers, a term unlimited in applica- 
 tion, but here intended for the early saxi- 
 frage and not for the arbutus which is so 
 common in rich upland woods. This 
 little rock breaker, such is the meaning 
 of its Latin name, bears-quite a contrast to 
 the homely species found in swampy lands, 
 and being easy to transplant and cultivate 
 deserves a place in every shaded lawn. 
 
 Occasionally one comes across a soli- 
 tary bush of barberries, showy alike in 
 flower and in fruit, a straggler from some 
 yard or garden plot, its pendent racemes 
 of small, yellow roses — the very picture of 
 sweet innocence — offering a set of roguish 
 traps for each unwary bee. The stamens 
 are laid back against the floral leaves, 
 but let an insect touch the inner basis of 
 the filaments and up they spring quite to 
 the ovary and stigma, a delicate arrange- 
 ment to insure perfection of the fruit. 
 Allied to the berberis, but in no way re- 
 sembling it, or for that matter one another, 
 are the may apple and the blue cohosh. 
 Both are perennial woodland herbs; the 
 
 i;F-IEiKXrE OF COL. JOHN B K ACEWKl.L 
 
 dentarias with spicy root stocks far more 
 edible; — ground nuts, that little plant 
 which causes so much trouble to the bota- 
 nists seeming now rue and now anemone, 
 or neither one, yet very like them both. 
 Its larger relative, the early woodrue, is 
 more reasonable and quite content to be a 
 true thalictrum. 
 
 The pale spring beauty with unpleas- 
 ant odor, ill deserves its name, but for- 
 tune's favors are not always just. And 
 
 
 the true O. spectabilis — the only one that botanists have left 
 us in that genus — which opens its few showy flowers in May or 
 early June to the wax-flowered Jacob's ladder with its spiral 
 spike which dots the moister meadows in October. Ragged, 
 fringed orchids in purple, green and white, as well as several 
 
 
 .V |)0\\XLOOK Fi:0-M THE MOUNT \IN 
 
 UKaivliV AlOKT — PUBLIC PARK 
 
 former variously known as mandrake, um- 
 brella plant, wild lemon, Indian apple and 
 the like, conceals its beautiful white flower, 
 of which it has no need to be ashamed, 
 under a pair of broad, web-footed leaves. 
 The blue cohosh is a more common plant 
 with regularly triternate foliage and uncon- 
 spicuous flowers. While yet quite young 
 its seeds enlarge so as <o burst the ovary 
 and then appear as single fruits, the pro- 
 duct of as manv individual blossoms. 
 Orchids there are in many forms, from 
 
 A UACK-YAHD GROUP 
 
44 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE ROAD TO ADAMS 
 
 Other habenariar, including tlie great orbiculata with a single pair of large, flat, shining 
 leaves; graceful spyranthese, next to Jacob's ladder, and pink pagonia; lace-leaved 
 goodyera, crawley or chicken's toes in three varieties, the smallest one quite rare and 
 hard to find ; and cyprepediums, both pink and yellow. 
 
 Within the mountain woods the most distinctive shrubby forms are bright 
 azaleas — joy of the native's heart — and larger evergreen laurel, quite as beautiful. 
 
 HAKBLK QUARKY AT NATTWiAL BRIDGE 
 
 PROFESSOR MOWBRAY'S NITRO-GLYCERIN E WORKS 
 
 A HOME rxniCR THE HILL 
 
 BLOSSOM Tins, 
 
 WITT'S LEDGE 
 
 In May and June these universal favorites are at their best and oftentimes whole 
 mountain sides are almost covered with their showy flowers. The service berry, 
 too, peeps out at us in May, offering its well-known, pleasant fruit a little later 
 in the season. 
 
 And many types of floral life there are which cannot be enumerated here ; 
 wondrous indeed it is that all this wide diversity of things is brought about by 
 heat and sunshine acting in unison on otherwise inert vitality. 
 
 But sunny summer days are not the only times when woodland walks are 
 filled with pleasure, for the wanderer. One can see much of interest when the 
 rain pours down in torrents and the clouds hang dark and low. Even the com- 
 monest things seem to be someway different from what they are when skies are 
 clear and gentle breezes sweet. The tenderest flowers close their petals to keep 
 out the drops, while others, not as easily affected by external things, remain wide 
 open till the sun shines out again. Each individual pine tree gathers its groups 
 of needle leaves into as many perfect cylinders which stand out rigidly against 
 the stormy blast, and, little thing as it may seem, their whole appearance is much 
 changed thereby. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 45 
 
 sway, its sights and scenes are ever realistic, while to the ones who do not call 
 it home they offer sweet attractions for a season's rest. 
 
 Arthur Harrison. 
 
 THE RIDE ABOUT THE COUNTY 
 
 North Adams, Clarksburg, Adams, Cheshire, Windsor 
 
 After coming over Florida mountain we took a rambling country way that 
 led northward through open fields and patches of woodland. I stopped in 
 one place to photograph a little house with tumbledown outbuildings, that 
 
 r.OCKS BFXOW THK BItlltC.IC 
 
 At night another phase of things ex- 
 ists, your lantern throws a vague, uncertain 
 light in which the objects all about you 
 take on weird, fantastic forms." You can- 
 not judge of distances and the dark 
 shadows are but darker for the light. You 
 hear no sounds except the whispering 
 wind and night birds, owls and whip-poor- 
 wills, callingf rom tree to tree. You see no 
 animals unless perchance you start a par- 
 tridge from his lodging place, or, rarely, 
 you may meet some little evening wan- 
 derer. The compound leaves of many of 
 the plants are closed in a sort of sleep 
 at night's approach, and now, at first, are 
 hardly recognizable; such little details 
 make the study of nature unending in 
 its interest. 
 
 The autumn coloring of these Berk- 
 shire woods is often beautiful beyond de- 
 scription; bright clumps of scarlet maples 
 dotted here and there upon the golden 
 background stand in striking contrast to 
 the somber pines ; each twig and tree ex- 
 hibits varying shapes and shades, the sub- 
 divisions of a perfectly harmonious whole. 
 
 In winter, too, our hills are full of interesting sights, huge drifts which every now and 
 then^loom up before'the traveler, and raging storms of snow and ice coating the trees 
 with pearls and diamonds which flash and glisten when the sun comes out. 
 
 To those whose lot it is to live within this land of joyous summers and stern winter's 
 
 ON TIIK KOAD VF THE VALLEY 
 
 KATIHAL BIUDGE 
 
 GliEYLOOK VILLAGE AND SADDLEItACK BIOI'K'IAIX 
 
 THK BAVISa ABOVE NilUKiL BSIDOK 
 
 Stood in interesting contrast to the rough moun- 
 tain ridge which ran steeply beyond a stretch of 
 meadows. A man sat by the window smoking a 
 pipe, but when he saw my intentions were serious, 
 came out and said he would like a photograph, but 
 if there was anything to pay he couldn't, for he 
 hadn't any money. 
 
 We struck the Stamford road at a red bridge, 
 where was a busy sawmill and a little pond that 
 looked very pretty with its edging of woods, and 
 the great ridge of the Green mountains towering 
 beyond it to the east. There was much teaming on 
 the road we were now following, which was muddy 
 in streaks, but much better than the roads we had 
 been used to on the hills. The valley opened away 
 very attractively northward. Along this part of the 
 way it was a gentle level, a mile or so in width, shut 
 in on the east and west by parallel mountain ranges. 
 
 AT A Back doou 
 
46 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 MILL BRLOW HLACKIXTON 
 
 THE CIIURCir — BLACKINTOX 
 
 THE UPPER VILLAGB 
 
 A ghostly moon huQg over the ragged eastern peaks now that the afternoon was well 
 advanced. As we went on up the road, Greylock's blue domes began to rise above the 
 ► near hills behind us. We saw two fat, dirty hogs rooting in a roadside field, and I 
 thought they would make a striking foreground for Greylock. But they had objections, 
 and I had no sooner started to set up my machine than they trotted off to a near 
 house, grunting in high dudgeon. 
 
 It seemed a fertile and thrifty farming country and the houses were scattered all 
 along the road. Now and then there was a slight grouping of the houses, but there 
 was;noJchurch, orjpublic buildingsland'stores^to markja^center, and I have but a vague 
 
 impression of what to describe as Clarksburg. In our travels we were 
 several times directed to the place, but following the directions never brought 
 us to anything in particular. It was simply country road whatever way we 
 traveled, with no more striking landmarks to be found than a little bridge, a 
 small cemetery or two, and certain mammoth signs advising the public to 
 " Buy of Smith." 
 
 At Stamford we took a cross way east and came back by a hilly road that 
 skirted the base of the mountain. It was delightfully picturesque and for 
 
 
 HOMES ON THE TEKHACE 
 
 THE VILLAGE frKBET 
 
 GlIAltlJ up THE CROSSIM. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 47 
 
 plodded slowly up the long rise and the rain fell more and more heavily. 
 iThe road was protected from the wind by its position, and I did not note 
 that it was blowing till I neared the level hill-top. Then I wondered to see 
 'the sheeted rain driving along between me and the mountain. Once on the 
 ■ibare upper road the wind struck me with a sudden blast that sent the blankets 
 •flying and, but for a lucky clutch, I would have lost them. My umbrella 
 
 BLACKIKTON MEADOWa 
 
 miles gave a succession of fine views of Greylock lying far off southward across the low 
 valley lands. But the mountain was most impressive when we saw it from the highest 
 rise of ground above North Adams. It never had seemed so handsome and big as now 
 when it rose range upon range into the skies from the valley dtepths before us. Darkness 
 had begun to gather by the time we descended the zigzag street that led down the hill 
 to the center. We put up at the Richmond house. We had been so much in the wind 
 and sun that our faces fairly 
 
 burned with the exposure, and ^_ 
 
 had a ruddy and convivial glow j 
 
 that we thought might damage i ; ^ 
 
 our characters. But this made ' ''''"■ 
 
 no impression in North Adams. 
 When daylight came next 
 day it was raining, and the man 
 at the livery stable said it was 
 "very cold, sour weather." 
 After breakfast it lightened and 
 the clouds showed signs of break- 
 ing away. My friend left on an 
 early train and in time I started 
 out alone. Greylock loomed up 
 very handsomely in the cool, 
 moist atmosphere, its highest 
 peak sometimes lost in a white 
 whirl of cloud that now formed 
 and now disappeared. I took 
 the road west up the valley and 
 had no sooner got beyond the 
 borders of the to wn than it began 
 to rain again. For the sake of 
 variety I concluded to take the 
 hill road to Williamstown, and 
 I made the turn southward and 
 began to climb. The horse 
 
 A i,im; ok i-iU'i.Ai;.- 
 
 THE MOUNTAINS FRO>t BLACKINTOX 
 
 flapped and snapped, the mud 
 flew and it seemed as if I was 
 to be blown off the hill. I 
 hastened the horse and some 
 distance beyond drove under an 
 open shed by the roadside. A 
 house was near and I ran up to 
 it to ask shelter. The kind old 
 lady who came to the door did 
 not give me time to speak, but 
 said, " Come right in out of this 
 dreadful storm." She made me 
 very comfortable by the kitchen 
 stove, and was good enough to 
 go down cellar and get a pan of 
 apples to regale me with. The 
 weather held threatening all day, 
 though the hardest of the rain 
 was presently over. The valleys 
 were misty and the near moun- 
 tains were shut from sight half 
 way down by the clouds, and 
 the wind rattled and surged 
 around unceasingly. 
 
 It was four in the afternoon 
 when I left. I would gladly 
 have stopped all night, but 
 
 
 All I O l!l. \' UIN 1 ■ 
 
 1> IIIK VILI.AGK 
 
48 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 could not, because all the extra bed-ticks were in the wash. However, I was advised that I could 
 without doubt get a place at the second house up the road toward "the Notch." With this I 
 started. The wind was still fierce and the air misty. At the place I had been directed to, a man 
 was sawing boards by the roadside. He would keep me, he said, if he had a place for my horse, 
 but he'd got the barn floor torn up. There were three brothers lived up the road toward the 
 Notch, mighty nice folks, too; he knew very well I could get kept there. I drove on. At the 
 home of the three brothers some men were at a shed hitching up a horse. They would keep me, 
 they said, but they had no place for my team. But I could get kept a little ways up the road, 
 indeed, most any one would keep me. The next likely house was one near a big watering trough. 
 Two men came out on the piazza in response to my knock. They, likewise, had no place for my 
 
 A WINTER SUKSKT 
 
 CHUKNIKG DAT 
 
 white cottage at the end of the road. The man was at the barn and I had to drive across the yard to 
 it and hunt him up to get my horse taken care of. He was nowhere to be seen. I hallooed in a door 
 and frightened a cow and a calf. I thought I stirred up the man, too, though I could not see him, and 
 I was still looking in that door when he appeared around the corner of the barn, outside. 
 
 The little place, hemmed in as it was that night by the fog-veiled hills, seemed to me very charming 
 and the morning view was no disappointment. The day opened bright, breezy and sunlit. Wind 
 clouds were sailing in the blue sky and trailed fine patches of blue shadow over the landscape. Across 
 a deep ravine ran a steep mountain ridge and there was a beautiful outlook down the road of fields, 
 orchards and distant valleys and hill ranges. It would be difficult to find a prettier place for a country 
 drive or vacation than the Notch. 
 
 I made an early start, but stopped just beyond the first house down the road to get a photograph. 
 
 horse, were overcrowded with stock — even the barn floor was filled 
 with sheep. They recommended the place beyond — I could get kept 
 there — they had plenty of room up there. I continued to climb the 
 hill. At the back door of the next house were a number of men, sheep 
 and turkeys. The men were awfully sorry, they would like to keep 
 me, but their barns were so crowded they had to keep these cosset 
 sheep in the woodshed, and they ha^ no place for my horse. I could 
 get kept at the next place, sure. If I couldn't, come back and they 
 would take care of me somehow, if they had to keep my horse in the 
 
 " parlor. The way wended upward, hemmed in by misty mountains. 
 
 „ As I went on two dogs followed me from the last place, barking savagely 
 till they lieard a hound baying on the mountain, opposite, when they 
 stopped and gave him their attention. The people at the next house 
 gave me the shelter I had been so long seeking. It was a pleasant. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 49 
 
 
 
 
 THt; COUNTRY SCHOOL TEACHER 
 
 TBK IiOAI> DOWN THE NOTCH 
 
 THE NOTCH CASC^UK 
 
 I left my horse and went 
 some distance across a 
 field for the purpose. 
 While I was making 
 ready my horse began to 
 walk along. I shouted, 
 " Whoa," again and 
 again, left my camfera and 
 and ran to stop her. She 
 then broke into a trot, 
 and, to add to difficulties, 
 the two dogs whose ac- 
 
 • i/ 
 
 '^^"^-^l^ .V* •«**.«»»•-> 
 
 
 
 great mountain ranges flanking on either hand its mild meadows. Zylon- 
 ite is Adams' northernmost village, and Renfrew its second, both manufac- 
 turing places with great modern mills and long lines of monotonous brick 
 
 SUMMER FIELDS 
 
 quaintance I made the night before, at that moment came barking down the road. I was 
 frightened at this and thought a runaway unavoidable. But the climax came suddenly. 
 The horse stopped at a pool in the road and began to drink and some one ran out from 
 the house and called off the dogs. I hitched the horse to a fence before I went back to 
 my camera. 
 
 The road I traveled was the one I had come up on the evefting previous and I con- 
 tinued on it down the hill to Blackinton. This is a manufacturing village. It has pleas- 
 ant meadows about, and some fine residences and handsome elms at the center, and the 
 village looks toward the fine mountain ranges southward. Greylock village is in charac- 
 ter and surroundings much like Blackinton, but has a newer look. Just outside the 
 village to the west was once a famous battle ground of the whites and Indians. There 
 stood Fort Massachusetts, the most exposed of the line of frontier fortifications. In a 
 cornfield on its site now grows a thrifty young elm planted some years ago to commemo- 
 rate the spot. 
 
 I passed through North Adams and on its eastern outskirts made a picture of some 
 teams grading down a steep hill, with the Greylock ranges behind making a mighty 
 back£;round. My route lay down the valley t« Adams, and a noble valley it is with the 
 
 1W» R»AD tr TBI NOTCH 
 
so 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 but the farmer with whom I staid knew no more of the persons 
 buried there and why it was so neglected than I did. 
 
 A short walk from the house in another direction are the Whit- 
 ford Rocks. This rough ledge has many visitors and its attractions 
 
 
 '' A ' 
 
 
 .-I'JUNG woi:k in Tllr: NOTC:r 
 
 mill houses where tlie oper.iuves make 
 their homes. 
 
 In Adams, itself, manufacturing is 
 predominant and the valley level is 
 largely given up to the mills and 
 homes of the operatives. I did not 
 linger long in the town, for gloomy 
 clouds had been rolling up in the 
 northwest that threatened rain, and I 
 
 
 YllOM A JIOrNTAIK SIDE 
 
 AA I^lEULSTl^t. ll.fcl 
 
 wished to get as far as possible in my journey toward home. 
 At Cheshire I turned up the hill eastward, and by that time 
 the sun had set and I sought lodging at a farmhouse. 
 
 In the morning I looked around. Far across the valley, 
 northerly, Greylock raised its blue summit high in air and all 
 along the west were handsome lesser ridges. In a scrubby 
 pasture not far away was a deserted burying ground, fenceless 
 and forlorn to the last degree. Most of the stones were fallen 
 and half covered by the moss and grasses. The dates were 
 of the last part of the last century and the first part of this. 
 
 TUK FKIKND BY TIIK WAYSIDi: 
 
 '■ S'1M|;SI-;'S AKY BKKUIKH UVKU 'IHKllKV" 
 
 ON GKEYLOCK 
 
 are various. The rocks have on 
 one side an irregular ascent clothed 
 with bushes and small trees. On 
 the other it falls away abruptly to 
 the field below in a perpendicular 
 descent of many feet. Over this 
 the gentleman whose name the 
 rocks bear fell or threw himself 
 years ago and met his death. Like- 
 wise, no less a personage than the 
 devil has an interest in the spot, 
 for here is a deep hollow in the 
 rocks, partly filled with water, 
 which is known as the Devil's 
 Washbowl. Last, and perhaps not 
 least, the rocks are clothed, in their 
 season, with clouds of laurel blos- 
 soms, the only ones which grow in 
 a ten-mile circuit. Truly, it is a 
 place worth visiting. 
 
 The road to Windsor was all up 
 hill, my host told me, and he was 
 
 >VKi: 'S' M.K 
 
THE i;0 \l. 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 right with a vengeance. Much of the way led through the 
 woods where were many ragged fields which had been cut 
 over, now wastes of brush and stumps. At the points where 
 there were breaks in the forest, there were fine back views 
 of Greylock. The mud grew worse and worse as I went on 
 and the road was much drifted with snow. I calculated my 
 progress to be about a mile an hour. At length the path left 
 the snowy highway and meandered about the water-soaked 
 pastures. I followed this black trail of mud wherever it led, 
 through bogs and over stone walls and numberless hummocks 
 
 51 
 
 ON GBETLOCK SUMMIT 
 
 the tricklings from that give it a muddy green hue 
 that it keeps for miles. When I came out of the 
 woods at West Cummington, I was in Hampshire 
 county, and whatever further adventures I had on 
 my homeward trip are, of course, excluded from this 
 Berkshire narrative. 
 
 A GAMPEB S TEST AT SIGHT 
 
 till it again entered the 
 main road. In spite of 
 mud, ruts and snow, I in 
 time came to the village 
 of Windsor Hill. Flocks 
 of sheep were picking 
 about the brown fields 
 among the snowdrifts, 
 and were the chief signs 
 of life, though the cross- 
 roads' store and the black- 
 smith's shop were open 
 forbusiness. Butthelittle 
 village on its great, roll- 
 ing hill-slopes, with dips 
 here and there into wide, 
 wooded valleys, was pecu- 
 liarly attractive; and all 
 those roads criss-crossing 
 
 
 TITK WIt.l.IAMSTOWX STAGE 
 
 about the stone-walled fields must 
 be well worth following. 
 
 When I passed the white church 
 and town-house, I encountered a 
 young man with whom I exchanged 
 some remarks about the lateness of 
 the snow. He said if I was in- 
 terested in that sort of thing 1 
 could find a drift twenty feet deep 
 over there on a near hill. But 1 
 was fully satisfied with those I had 
 already traveled through, and I 
 spattered along down the muddy 
 road to East Windsor. This village 
 is in a tumbled glen where two 
 mountain streams meet. It has 
 two or three small, wooden mills 
 and shops, and a bit of a church 
 set off in a field entirely outside 
 the group of village houses. 
 The brook water was very clear 
 here, but down the hill the stream 
 skirts an enormous clay cliff, and 
 
 WILD WINDS 
 
 W ILLlAMSTliW.N 
 
 Oh ! oh ! how the wild winds blow ! 
 
 Blow high, 
 
 Blow low, 
 
 And the whirlwinds go 
 To chase the little leaves that fly. 
 
 Fly low and high, 
 To hollow and to steep hillside : 
 They shiver in the dreary weather, 
 And creep in little heaps together, 
 And nestle close and try to hide ; 
 Oh, oh, how the wild winds blow ! 
 
 Blow low. 
 
 Blow high. 
 
 And the whirlwinds try 
 To find a crevice, to find a crack, — 
 They whirl to the front, they whirl to the 
 
 back; 
 But Tommy and Will and Baby, together. 
 Are snug and safe from the winter 
 weather. 
 
 All the winds that blow 
 
 Cannot touch a toe, 
 
 Cannot twist or twirl 
 
 One silky curl ; 
 Though they rattle the door in a noisy 
 
 pack 
 The blazing fires will drive them back. 
 Mrs. M. F. Butts, in Youth's Comf anion. 
 
52 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 M< • llli 
 
 A.T THU STATI«K 
 
 -^rr ' \ 
 
 \l 
 
 I "^ 
 
 
 I A 
 
 ''•ly' 
 
 . 'i A> 
 
 %1 
 
 ^ 3f/ 1 
 
 - h / \; 
 
 <'t*m 
 
 St: . 
 
 ONE OF THE OLD MASSIOKS 
 
 GREAT ORIGINS IN BERKSHIRE 
 
 In the " Professor at the Breakfast Table," Dr. Holmes makes this claim : 
 "Boston has opened and kept open, more turnpikes that lead straight to free 
 thought, and free speech, and free deeds than any other city of live men or dead 
 men;" and in order to balance his claim and keep the eastern end of the state 
 from sinking into the ocean from sheer weight of merit, we will make the counter- 
 claim, that Berkshire has produced a race, which for independent thought, daring 
 schemes and achievements that have had world-wide consequences has not been 
 surpassed. We claim also that more of those first things that draw the chariot 
 
 FKENCH CATHOLIC CHURCH ANP VICIKITT 
 
 ii 
 
 ''^""'-^""■^''fiifiifl 
 
 «BIFFIN HALL 
 
 REStDEKOE OF FRESIDEHT OARTSB 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 53 
 
 ' J- <\~ 
 
 \f/MI // 
 
 H ,■>% 
 
 hKLTA >'S1 BnrsE 
 
 LOOKING TOWARD THS METHODIST CHURCH 
 
 o£ progress forward so that people can see that it has moved, have been planned and 
 executed by the inhabitants of the 950 square miles that constitute the territory of Berk- 
 shire, than can be credited to any other tract of equal extent in the United States. Men 
 who were liable to be killed and scalped at any moment, learned to think quickly and to 
 the point without waiting to find out the opinions of other men, and so as we should 
 naturally expect, men who had lived, — with eyes and ears wide open, — through the 
 " era of provocation and preparation," in which George III had been studying new ways 
 
 ^•~V<, f^io^ ' i. 
 
 ji»\ ' » f ' 
 
 \ 
 
 MORGAN HALL 
 
 in which to wring more taxes from his American subjects, were ready to re- 
 sist the royal grab-game in every possible way, and their first aggressive 
 action was to establish a boycott on those things whence the filling of his 
 coffers was to come. 
 
 All over the state, assemblages of citizens — generally called Congresses — 
 were held to "take into consideration the alarming state of public affairs," 
 but it was prompt, wide-awake Berkshire which took definite action first. 
 [The action taken was similar to that described in the resolutions known 
 as the "Lenox Covenant,'' given on page 8 of Part II.] 
 
 Then these God-fearing patriots communicated their action to the pastors 
 of the churches — at that time the sources and centers of influence — and 
 appointed a solemn day of fasting throughout the county, in which they went 
 to church, and listened to political boycotting sermons from men who believed 
 
 
 '■' -^i 
 
 WIKTIR OK THK »Tlt«K* 
 
 college: chapel 
 
54 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 (.JKEYLOCJi HULSK 
 
 WKST C0LLK<;E 
 
 that political responsibilities rate as important as any in the eye of that God 
 who has seen fit to place man in communities whose existence depends on the 
 fulfillment of mutual duties. The men of Berkshire had but few luxuries, — 
 they bravely determined to go without these, and the women were not a whit 
 behind, for they not only decided to forego their tea, but resolved to wear only 
 a black ribbon around the neck in sign of mourning for their " nearest and 
 dearest." This action on the part of Berkshire was soon followed throughout 
 the state, but it was the dwellers among these glorious hills who gave the cue. 
 Five weeks later a town meeting was held in Pittsfield to consider the threatened 
 revocation of the state charter, and they said, 
 
 " We believe it to be of the greatest importance, that the people of this Province utterly refuse 
 submission to said acts, * * ♦ and that the courts of justice immediately cease and that 
 the people of this province fall into a state of nature, until our grievances are fully redressed 
 by a final repeal of these injurious, oppressive, and unconstitutional acts," etc., etc. 
 
 The Court was to sit in September at Great Barrington, but when the sheriff. 
 
 WILLIAMSTOIVN KLM& 
 
 according to ancient custom, commanded the people to make way for "the court," he 
 spoke to an assemblage of Berkshire yeomanry, who to the number of 1,500 had assembled 
 for resistance to the " Royal Court of Injustice," and filled the court-house and the space 
 about it, and told the sheriff that to no laws but the ancient ones would they give way on 
 any terras. The royalists thought order — submission to the king after the revocation 
 of the charter — would soon be restored, but no other court ever sat in Berkshire under 
 the royal authority, and Governor Gage wrote home to England : " A flame sprang up at 
 the extremity of the province. * * * The popular rage is very high in Berkshire and 
 
 EAST COLLEGE 
 
 J.\- WILLIAMSTOWK STREET 
 
 MAKK HOFKINS MEMORIAL BflLDIKG 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 55 
 
 LAWRENt-K LlBUAIty 
 
 makes its way rapidly to the rest." The judges retired from Great Barring- 
 ton, to insure their safety, and the duty of " obstructing " the courts was 
 inculcated all over the state, from the pulpit and platform and by the wayside, 
 but the Berkshire CongresS and active opposition was a beacon light, an- 
 swering back to the torches that lighted the pouring of the tea into Boston 
 harbor, and did much to consolidate the sentiments of those who could not 
 see with the statesman's prescient eye. 
 
 One of the most intense and eager patriots of the state, who had much 
 to do in the moulding of the new order of things after the revolution, was 
 Hon. Theodore Sedgwick of Stockbridge. Here in a house still standing, 
 there was born on December 28, 1789, his illustrious daughter — Catherine 
 Maria Sedgwick — who was the first among American women to achieve a 
 
 ALPHA iJKr.TA rm hou^k 
 
 VIf,l,\<;B KOOFH ANN S1'1I!KS 
 
 liKblUtiVUK OK a. T. I'KOCTOK 
 
 true fame in literature — to produce books which not only delighted the cultivated and 
 literary classes, and were read by thousands of the plain people here, but were ap- 
 preciated in England, and reproduced there, and translated into many of the continental 
 languages, by sheer force of their own merits and their picturesque style, and that, 
 too, just at the time when the brilliant and genial Sidney Smith was asking the; 
 
 '^m 
 
 HOMES 0>" THE STREET 
 
 LASI;;\-M'', (lYMN-AHIVM, 
 
56 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ^v^. 
 
 UuysES WEbT OF THE PAICK 
 
 contemptuous question that has cost 
 his reputation so cruellj', " Who reads 
 an American book ? " 
 
 It is difficult to describe to this 
 volume-surfeited generation the sensa- 
 tion caused by "A New England 
 Tale," put forth by its author with 
 many misgivings in 1822. It was a 
 genuine book — had pictures of life 
 and people not before described, and 
 sent back an echo to the writer which 
 sustained her while producing " Red- 
 wood," which came out two years later 
 and producedagenuine literary furore. 
 What it was to the women of America, 
 no words can tell. They felt that 
 through this priestess of the imagina- 
 
 UAYliTAGK UUMLMiiM' 
 
 TV-ILLIAMSTOWK FROM AK OLD PEIKT 
 
 five, the whole land had experienced 
 an anointing from the chrism of the 
 immortals, and to-day among all the 
 flood of books, no purer, fresher % 
 pictures of life and human nature can 
 be found than in her numerous novels, 
 and when she was fifty she wrote 
 a series of "Letters from Europe," 
 which surpass in charm any of the 
 recent hurried, alleged descriptions, 
 contained in the rapid tours, which 
 consist mainly of arrivals and de- 
 partures at railway stations. She 
 may be called a woman who had 
 dared, and she held that the posses- 
 sion of a talent was sufficient warrant 
 for its use, and she is always seeing 
 new opportunities for women, and 
 perceiving ways in which their 
 status and condition can be amelio- 
 rated. Many of the accomplished 
 facts in their activities now, were 
 
 HASK HOPKINS 
 
 TACOWIC llfM 
 
 THF, ilAitii HOPKINS HOi'SE 
 
 cm P81 ][«usi 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHUECH 
 
 her dreams half a century ago. She is a bright star in the Berkshire galaxy, and 
 apropos of women and their doings, it is not amiss to mention that Miss Susan B. 
 Anthony is a native of Adams in Berkshire. 
 
 Up to 1864 there stood in the center of Pittsfield park a tree known far and wide as 
 " The Old Elm " — an original forest — tree that sent out no branch till it was ninety feet 
 high, and above that bore a rounded crown of greenery that carried its height up to 128 
 
 
 WATER STREET 
 
 / -|"*' 
 
 ir 
 
 |{ (HI? 
 
 CLARK HALL 
 
 TWO OF THE THOMPSON' LABORATORIES 
 
 feet. Its loftiness and symmetry had so appealed to the men of the time, 
 that it had been spared in the general denudation of the land, and it had re- 
 mained a conspicuous object and a celebrated landmark up to 1790, when a 
 new meeting-house was to be built, and the same sort of vandal was living 
 then as now, who, to raise or depress a sidewalk a foot, will sacrifice one of 
 God's beautiful green trees that it has taken three centuries to produce. It 
 was proposed to cut down this tree, so that the front of the meeting-house 
 could occupy its place. Madame Lucretia Williams threw herself between 
 the axeman and the tree to save it, and defied him to go on although the axe 
 had already struck three blows. She was the wife of the principal magistrate 
 of the town, and the axeman was awed into desisting, till a further consulta- 
 tion could be held. The reprieve was improved by her husband to good 
 
 ■x'a 
 
 HOMES EAST OF THE HILL 
 
 LOOKING TOWARD THE TOWN FROJI WATER STREET 
 
58 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 'iiiiiiiiiiiiii! iiiiiifiiii^ 
 
 :MILL HU5IES 
 
 NEAR THE STATION 
 
 purpose, for he made a proposition to give as much land from his acres south 
 of the tree for a public park, as the authorities would give by setting their 
 church back to the north. Successive strokes of lightning finally destroyed 
 the tree, but not till its foreseen destruction had been discounted by planting 
 a circle of elms about it, and so to a plucky woman is Pittsfield indebted for 
 its pretty green centerpiece. 
 
 We have recalled the old elm, because it was the rallying place for all 
 festive and important out-of-door occasions, and beneath its spreading branches 
 in i8io was held the first cattle show and agricultural fair, which was a 
 
 
 ..J 
 
 > WINTERlLANDSCAPE 
 
 true farmer's holiday, recognizing that men must be entertained and amused at 
 times, as well as to have opportunities to claim well-won prizes. This became the 
 model and pattern for similar fairs throughout the land, and affords a striking example 
 of the thriving of a, cause that is championed by one of those enthusiasts reproachfully 
 called one-idea men, and hobby-riders. The belief that great good might be effected 
 by improving the breeds of domestic animals, had taken possession of Mr. Elkanah 
 
 A\ HOUSE Con the otjtskikts 
 
 ENTUANUEVro FLOKA'b GLEN 
 
 A EARM IN THE VALLEY 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ..■ y-T. 
 
 
 59 
 
 LOOKING TOWAKD THE MOUNTAIN 
 
 A HAIM- DAY INDOOKK 
 
 Watson, an accomplished 
 and traveled man, of great 
 versatility and fertility of 
 mind, and for ten years it 
 so dominated him that he 
 says he "neglected his 
 private affairs," but during 
 that time, taught by the 
 errors and blunders of other 
 regions, he evolved the 
 cattle show and agricul- 
 tural fair into a stated festi- 
 val, which was copied in all 
 the length and breadth of 
 the land. 
 
 As the population of 
 Berkshire increased, great- 
 er efforts were constantly 
 making to improve the 
 means of communication 
 with the outside world, for 
 their isolation was the 
 everlasting fly in the oint- 
 ment of the Berkshire peo- 
 ple ; but the hills could not 
 be abolished, they must be 
 
 A W001>LAND 8TKEAJ1 
 
 of enginei ring as to be visited 
 and studied by foreign rail- 
 road builders. Overcoming 
 the first steep grade of eighty- 
 five feet to the mile, had 
 demonstrated that "impossi-, 
 
 ble" was barred out of the railroad dictionary, 
 and that no matter how formidaljle the moun- 
 tain, its conquest resolved itself into engineering 
 skill and an adequate amount of fuel. Compared 
 with the ascent of Pike's Peak and the White 
 
 IK IIOUSE-CLEASIXG TIME 
 
 \/ . 
 
 BERLIN PASS AND DODD S CONE, FROM BEE HILL 
 
 surmounted, and there are some people living to-day who can recall the boundless jubila- 
 tions when, on the 27th of December, 1841, the first railway train passed across the 
 county to Albany, coming through the " deep cut " at Washington, then such a marvel 
 
 A lUNTING tXlM-l;ITI<..N 
 
6o 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ST. PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH 
 
 mouiiiains, tliis seems very insignificant, but remember it was the first 
 heavy grade conquered — As Tennyson says, 
 
 " All can raise the flowers now 
 For all have got the seed." 
 
 Berkshire was now fully " joined on " to the new time and the modern 
 era, but she still had another mighty first thing to create, in a marvel 
 of man's power — in the boring of the Hoosac Tunnel, a glorious 
 achievement, whether viewed from the standpoint of a triumph over 
 natural obstacles, or that of the faith and indomitable perseverance 
 of the men who finally saw their dream realized. 
 
 OLD PLACE ON THE HOPPER ROAD TO SOUTH WILLIAMSTOWN 
 
 a route for a canal from Bt^ton to some 
 point in New York, and their report had been 
 made in 1826. The engineer — Col. Loammi 
 Baldwin, one of the most famous men of 
 his day — finally fixed upon the exact route 
 afterwards occupied by the Hoosac Tunnel, 
 and proposed, to make a canal-tunnel as the 
 least formidable solution of the problem. He 
 made careful' and detailed estimates of the 
 
 THE HIGH SCHOOL 
 
 The completion of the Albany and Schenectady railroad in 
 September, 1 83 1 , with great pomp and ceremony, am id unbound ed 
 commercial rejoicings and the assured success of the Erie canal, 
 sent an envious, bitter pang to the souls of Massachusetts states- 
 men, because, as Charles Francis Adams says, "These ad- 
 vances in New York had given anew and portentous significance 
 to the Berkshire hills, causing them to throw a dark shadow 
 over the future of Massachusetts. They seemed stationed on 
 the western border of the state, an inseparable barrier, against 
 which the eastward tide of commerce struck, and then with a 
 deflected course flowed quietly in the direction of New York. 
 Either in some way that barrier must be overcome or the material 
 prosperity of the state would be seriously threatened." 
 
 Previous to this, a commission had been appointed to survey 
 
 GOODRICH BALL 
 
 this by at least ten years, and had the benefit of the knowledge 
 and experience gained in its construction, to help in pushing 
 forward their own work. The experimental work on this was 
 begun in 185 1, but not till twenty-four years after did the first 
 car pass through it. The difiiculties overcome as new problems 
 presented themselves would require a volume instead of a sketch, 
 and the history of its finances alone would make an exciting 
 chapter. Private capital fought shy of it, and there were long 
 seasons when all work on it ceased, and all the world remembers 
 Dr. Holmes' prophecy that when the first car should pass through 
 it, people might don their ascension robes. When the war came, 
 paralyzing great public projects, the wiseacres shook their heads, 
 and said " that's the end of the Hoosac Tunnel," but the Berkshire 
 
 '. ,*« • -i* * c 
 
 «i:^: 
 
 HATE SOME? 
 
 cost of tunneling, and showed that the 
 highest possible cost would be $^.2$ per 
 cubic yard, and placed the sum total of 
 expense at ^5930,832, while the actual 
 cost of the railway tunnel when com- 
 pleted, with all the aids that the most 
 accomplished scientists and engineers 
 could lend, was JS20 per cubic yard, and 
 at a total cost of more than $10,000,000 ! J 
 It must not be forgotten that the 
 longer and more conspicuous Mont Cenis 
 and St. Gothard tunnels in Europe were 
 later in conception and execution than 
 
 8H001 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 6i 
 
 WINDSOR JAMS — I 
 
 men of whom it had taken possession, were 
 not to be daunted and succeeded in tunnel- 
 ing into the state treasury, and there was 
 nothing for it, as the pessimists sadly said, 
 but to "send good money after bad," and 
 the state finally completed the work and on 
 February 9, 1875, the first train of cars passed 
 
 ^through its four and one-half miles, bear- 
 ing some gray-headed men, the dream of 
 whose middle life had at last material- 
 ized. When begun, hand-drilling was used, 
 and gunpowder was the only explosive 
 known. The successive discovery of dyna- 
 mite, and the power of compressed air, and 
 the invention of the diamond drill facilitated 
 
 gthe last half of the work immensely, and 
 now as the traveler makes his comfortable 
 trip through it, 1,028 feet under the moun- 
 tain at its deepest point, he emerges into a 
 very different world from that addressed by 
 the writer in the Boston Courier, at the time 
 the canal-tunnel was projected, who, having 
 made a careful calculation, isaid it would 
 
 "take fifty-two years and nineteen days to 
 complete it, for, as C. F. Adams says, "it 
 seems scarcely possible that any human life 
 can have spanned the well-nigh incredible 
 gap that separates the America of 1878 from 
 that of 1830." It was the faith and indomi- 
 table perseverance of Berkshire men who 
 carried to completion the first great railway- 
 tunnel of the world. 
 
 Cyrus W. Field — the man who carried to 
 its triumphant completion, in the face of 
 
 WINDSOR JAMS — II 
 
 ALLENVILLE 
 
 tremendous odds, the first Atlantic cable, was born in Stockbridge. The story of " How 
 Cyrus laid the cable," is familiar to every schoolboy, but not so obvious is it how he was 
 appointed to the work by that providence of God which knows when and where to find 
 its instruments in each generation — and puts a passion of enthusiasm into selected souls, 
 that can know no rest till that which they have been set to do is accomplished. At 
 thirty-five years of age Cyrus Field had accumulated a fortune, and achieved a high 
 position in the business world — there was nothing in his outward life to prevent him from 
 sitting at ease and at peace, beneath his own vine and fig-tree, to the serene end of a long 
 life, but the idea that a telegraphic nerve of communication between the continents might 
 be laid beneath the Atlantic took possession of his spirit, and thenceforth there was for 
 him no further rest, for the busy thirteen years that intervened between the first meetings 
 of a handful of capitalists around a table in his library, to study globes and charts, and 
 hear the answers to letters addressed to Morse, who thought it quite possible to send a 
 message through thousands of miles of wire, and from the geographer of the bottom of 
 the ocean — Maury — who said there was a plateau of land highly adapted to being the 
 resting-place of a cable, between Newfoundland and Ireland, but he cautiously added 
 that he "did not pretend to consider the possibility of finding a time calm enough, the 
 sea smooth enough, a wire long enough and a ship big enough, to lay this tremendous 
 coil across the ocean." Less than Jioo,ooo were at first subscribed by the capitalists for 
 a work that in the end cost many millions, and the fearful difficulties to be surmounted 
 
 A COUNTRY BRIDGE 
 
 UlKKFIl TIME 
 
62 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 A WIMKK JtUAifW^l 
 
 C •^4i^WL.ito-:-;.vl(*'^^'' - i>.'.:-r^- ta-f*i: _ ■ ■at&!tii.:£;'_k-;-i^ju..^x. 
 
 hAowv> — -aAX Ul liULLUW 
 
 I 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 were mercifully hidden 
 from the eyes of its pro- 
 jector. 
 
 The first wood pulp 
 and the first paper made 
 from it was made in Lee 
 about thirty years ago by 
 Charles H. Plumb, and 
 its usfe since then has 
 cheapened the dissemina- 
 tion of knowledge won- 
 derfully. 
 
 Williams college was 
 the first one in America 
 to have an astronomical 
 observatory as an adjunct 
 of its instruction, and 
 from this college was sent 
 out the first college natural 
 history expedition. It 
 went to Nova Scotia, and 
 the results were gathered 
 up and published by Prof. 
 Albert Hopkins, its organizer and inspirer. But not all the glories of Berkshire are 
 natural and intellectual. She has had her share in those works of philanthropy and piety 
 that will make the nineteenth illustrious among the centuries. 
 
 63 
 
 ■1 
 
 THE OLDEST INHABITANT 
 
 SAVOYj'HOLLOW 
 
 I HILL^l<KN■^ MNDAY 
 
 ANIOLD FARMHOUSE NEAR SAVOl' CENTRE 
 
 In Pittsfield in 1874 was founded the first college-hospital in the United 
 States, which looked for support to current contributions, derived from all 
 denominations with an impartiality as complete as that of disease itself. It 
 was called the House of Mercy, and began its work in a rented house. The 
 entire administration of its affairs has been conducted by women, but so 
 carefully and successfully, that it has won the confidence of moneyed men 
 and women, so that now it rejoices in a considerable endowment, and has a 
 congeries of six buildings, all beautifully adapted to its work. It has been 
 copied in many parts of the land. 
 
 SAVOV CF.NTKE 
 
 x.:KEKX MOI NTAIN Ilo^>'^■ — **lJO\VKKll'y 
 
 .WOY lIOl.l.OW 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 The first attempt to in- 
 struct, Christianize, and 
 transform the American 
 Indian into an intelligent 
 and conscientious citizen 
 was made in the year 1734, 
 in Stockbridge, by Sargeant 
 and Woodbridge — mis- 
 sionaries, — acting under 
 the auspices of the Board 
 of Commissioners for In- 
 dian Affairs in Boston, who 
 held funds contributed in 
 England for the promotion 
 of the gospel in foreign 
 parts. The whole experi- 
 ment is full of instruction, 
 showing the measureless 
 sacrifices our ancestors 
 were willing to undergo to 
 save souls, and its final out- 
 come points to the inevita- 
 
 AN OLD ItESIDENT 
 
 ble conclusion that on this continent 
 the Indian is but "provisional," and 
 destined to fade and disappear. But a 
 far more potent influence was to flow 
 from this supreme estimate of the value 
 of the human soul, and the belief in the 
 power of efforts to uplift and save it. 
 In 1807 there were held in the shadow of 
 the immortalized "Haystack" those 
 open-air prayer meetings and confer- 
 ences that resulted in sending the first 
 foreign missionaries from Williams col- 
 lege, — but those conferences were also the germ of what afterwards developed 
 into the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which certainly 
 has kindled a network of points of light over most parts of the known and 
 
 ON THE ROAD TO FLORIDA 
 
 accessible world ; so that when we review the glorious origins in Berk- 
 shire, we say " Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their 
 
 words to the end of the world." 
 
 H. M. Plunkett. 
 
 A WILDERNESS of sweets ; for Nature here 
 
 Wanton'd as in her prime, and play'd at will 
 
 . Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweets, 
 
 Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss. 
 
 Mi/ton. 
 
 THE GRASS-GROWN ROADWAY 
 
 A HOME ABOVE SAVOT CENTltE 
 
 THK (>I:KVL0<:K llANiil-: I'UnM riA\"(tY CENTKE 
 
 SaVOY CEKTUE, lUOM THE WEST 
 
 ON THE ROAD NOKTIf OF SAVOY HOLLOW 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 65 
 
 A STORY WITH AN APPLICATION 
 
 In Irving's "Salmagundi," "town "is defined as "an accidental assemblage 
 of a church, a tavern and a blacksmith shop." Such towns occupied many a 
 
 THE "NEW STATE" CHURCH 
 
 THE ROAD TO THE VALLEY 
 
 But if an old man, Berkshire born, would see 
 how old is the new, and how new is the old, let 
 him follow my example and foot it across Wind- 
 sor on a summer day. He must not hurry, but 
 take time to absorb the scene. He should even 
 
 hill-top in Berkshire early in 
 the present centurj', while the 
 great lines of travel were still 
 by stage across these moun- 
 tain ranges. The " Meet'n- 
 Haouse " was the general 
 rallying point and hub of the 
 township, the tavern was the 
 traveler's home, and, on rainy 
 days in summer, the black- 
 smith shop was board of 
 trade, club, lyceum, gymna- 
 sium and morning paper, all 
 in one. All that is changed. 
 The ruddy glow of the forge 
 and the cheerful "come- 
 pound, go-penny '' that rang 
 from the blacksmith's anvil 
 are merely a memory; the 
 tavern has faded to a tradi- 
 tion, and the church to a 
 lonely and emaciated kinder- 
 garten. 
 
 Perhaps " Savoy Holler " 
 answered to Geoffrey Cray- 
 on's definition of a town, 
 down to as late a date as 
 any other place in Berk- 
 shire. The " Gixen .Alountain 
 
 ON THE KOAD AFTER SUNSET 
 
 climb the old church belfry, to widen 
 his view, when he reaches "the 
 Hill." If Solomon could have 
 stepped out of his walls of cedar and 
 ebony, and have looked on this land- 
 scape, with its eternal newness of 
 near-by fields, abloom with clover 
 and daisies ; with Potter mountain 
 and his fellow Taconics lying like a 
 resting caravan between Hancock 
 and " Lanesberry ; " and blue Grey- 
 lock to the northwest, sleeping away 
 " the still lapse of ages," the author 
 of the song of songs could not have 
 
 House," atleast, 
 (lately destroyed 
 by fire,) held on 
 bravely to all the 
 good old tradi- 
 tionary ways of 
 a country tavern. 
 A few - years 
 since, after an 
 absence at the 
 West of some 
 thirty years, I 
 passed through 
 the silent street 
 of Savoy, and 
 saw, leaning 
 
 against one of the cool, long-legged columns of the Mountain house veranda, 
 the well-remembered figure of good, kindly Calvin Bowker, the proprietor. He 
 seemed to be in a deep brown study, and I remembered that when I passed 
 through the place thirty years before, he stood in the very same spot, in the same 
 attitude, and in the same brown study ! My first impulse was to touch him, to 
 see whether he was a living landlord, or a petrifaction. The mould of quiet 
 years had gathered on him, but he was alive, and no doubt was living over, in 
 his day-dreams, the time when the elder Bowker kept the old red hostelry across 
 the road and a little farther to the west, and the boy Calvin tended bar and knew 
 just how many fingers of Medford rum or cider brandy each customer required. 
 
 SUGARHOUSE 
 
 ASKING THE WAY 
 
66 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ( 4 r •■ .-t - 
 
 out, 'n' whilst I was lookin' 'em up, I gut kinder lost in the woods, 'n' wan- 
 dered 'round 'n' 'round a long spell. Finally I come to what I fust thought 
 was Kingdom Come, for nobody talked about anything but souls. They told 
 me it was the place where they furnished souls for such unfortunate people 
 as missed gettin' one in the uzhle way. They kep' ther stock in a thunderin' 
 big buildin' with shelves all 'round. The lower shelves, where the big souls 
 was kep', was several feet wide, 'n' they gut narerer 'n' narerer, till, 'way to the 
 top, where they put the little contracted souls, they wasn't more 'n two inches 
 wide. I watched the crowd, comin' and goin', 'n'pricin' souls. Them on the 
 
 A COW LANE 
 
 felt that he was in a stale 
 and wearisome world. And 
 yet, as I walked down a dis- 
 continued and grass-grown 
 road toward Cheshire, there 
 was such an intense melan- 
 choly and loneliness over it 
 all, that the rollicking song 
 of a bobolink seemed like 
 a comic song among the 
 tombs. 
 
 I missed, most of all, as 
 I passed the "town," the 
 blacksmith shop, where a 
 rustic Socrates in the old 
 days was wont to scatter 
 bits of a quaint philosophy, 
 as sparks flew from the 
 ringing anvil. Certain art- 
 ful ones who used to con- 
 gregate there, h ad a peculiar 
 way of freeing their minds 
 in cases of bitter personal 
 hostility, without actual 
 
 A COLD DAY 
 
 collision. This way was, for each of two enemies 
 to invent some cutting fable, vision or revelation 
 about the other, which he would rehearse to the 
 rainy-day group around the forge, in the other's 
 presence and hearing. I will give a single illus- 
 tration. Two Windsor farmers, X and 
 
 Z , who had long been too hostile to speak 
 
 to each other, had improved their opportunities 
 alternately, in the above mentioned way, at 
 periods of days or months apart. I will give 
 one of these deliverances which I happened to 
 hear. It was' in haying time, a quiet rain was 
 falling steadily, and a considerable company of 
 men and boys was gathered, as usual, mostly 
 barefoot and in shirtsleeves. There were forks 
 to be mended, tubs to be hooped, heel wedges 
 and bow-pins to be made, and a wrestling match 
 
 to be settled. X and Z were both there, 
 
 and both knew that the sturdy smith would allow 
 
 no blows or loud abuse. X , a big, brawny 
 
 fellow, with a reputation for being "close as the 
 bark of a tree," sat on the end of the water box, 
 flahbling a little nervously in the blackened 
 water. It was Z — -'s "turn," and the company 
 was mildly expectant. The blacksmith, as he 
 lighted his pipe with a red-hot nail rod, opened 
 
 the way by asking Z what made him look 
 
 so solemn .■■ 
 
 " Wal, I'll tell ye," said Z , " I hed the rot 
 
 darnedest dream las' night thet ever a feller 
 dremp. I dremp that some of the yerlins gut 
 
 MitlM. TH I. Rlnl MAIN 
 
 TUE SLOPES IN MIUSliMMER 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 67 
 
 u-i;ii, r>iMi)> 
 
 PASTURES AND FORESTS 
 
 wide shelves come awful high, but the folks that gut 'etn walked out like kings 'n' 
 queens, with faces shinin', heads up, 'n' hands open. Them that gut the little ones 
 sneaked out as if they'd stole somethin'. Bime by, who should I see comin' in but 
 
 X . You can all guess what he called for, 'n' you'd guess right, too. He wanted the 
 
 biggest soul in the store, 'n' wanted it quick. But when he found he couldn't beat 'em 
 
 down on the price, he kep' on tryin' cheaper 'n' cheaper ones, till he gut to 
 the very top shelf. Them, the clerk told him, was fo'pence (6X cents) apiece. 
 
 'An' is them the cheapest you've gut?' says X . Then the clerk ast the 
 
 boss if they was any souls made for less than fo'pence. ' No,' says the boss, 
 
 ' but ther's a few two-cent gizzards up stairs, if anybody wants.' X 
 
 said he'd look at 'em. So the clerk brought one down, 'n' it turned out to be 
 
 jest a fit. Soon's X gut it into him, he gut right down on his belly 'n' 
 
 crawled out o' the store ; 'n' the clerk slammed the door after him so hard 
 that it waked me up, 'n' behold, it was all a dream ! 'N' now I'm lookin' for 
 some Joseph to interpret the 'tarnal thing ! " But this was a story with too 
 plain an application, and of course X had his inning on the next rainy day. 
 
 E. R. B. 
 
 A HILLSIDE 
 
 
 ,' « 
 
 A LOOK BACK AT FLORIDA 
 
 A UILLIOF BARNYAKD 
 
68 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 LOOKING INTO THE VALLEY FBOIC THE OLD STAGE BOAD 
 
 the greatest thinkers, writers and preachers in the denomination, 
 Rev. Washington Gladden and Rev. Theodore T. Mungcr. 
 
 Several other churches are close by. Of these I would mention 
 the very handsome granite structure of the Episcopal, and the 
 charming modern architecture and fine color of the brown brick 
 Universalist church. The building last mentioned was still incom- 
 plete when I was last in the town. Just across the street a parish 
 house was being erected by one of the church societies, and this 
 afternoon they were dedicating it. Nothing but the ground floor 
 was laid. Near the front stood a lonesome piano and at the back 
 a large tent where, through the door, I could see a booth of figures. 
 Near the street was a little group of people and one man among 
 them was urging the others to come in to refreshments. I stopped 
 to ask a question and was immediately invited to become one of 
 the company. I confessed to being a stranger in town, but the 
 man said that made no difference. He seemed to be making literal 
 application of that portion of Scripture which commanded to 
 '• Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come 
 in, that my house may be filled." The invitation was so kindly 
 and cordial, I was sorry not to accept it. 
 
 On the spur of a hill which rises abruptly above the town is 
 Drury academy. It fronts no street, but is approached by a lane 
 on one side and a picturesque, shadowed path on the other. On a 
 fine terrace of the northern hills stands the large and fine-looking 
 hospital of the town. On the neighboring hill to[the east is a good- 
 
 T ^ ■ ^ 
 
 FLORIDA CHURCH 
 
 EASTERN HILLS, FROM FLORIDA 
 
 sized park, and a second park of which the town is proud is on its southern 
 borders down the Hoosac valley. 
 
 One feature of peculiar interest within North Adams limits is the natural 
 bridge on the hill-top back of the village. It is in a little hollow and so secluded 
 
 NORTH ADAMS AND ADAMS 
 
 Of all large towns and cities in the state, I am of the opinion that 
 North Adams carries off the palm for striking picturesqueness. You 
 get slight hint of this from the railroad station, orfrom anywhere along 
 the Fitchburg line. The railroad traverses only the depths of the 
 valley basin in which the town lies ; but follow any of the streets back 
 to the base of the near northern hills and you begin at once to realize 
 the Alpine beauty of the place. The streets which ascend the hill are 
 alarmingly steep, and those which skirt its slope bring you almost 
 directly above the roof-tops of the houses below. This in itself makes 
 the hillside interesting tramping grotlnd, but the glory of it all is the 
 immense line of mountain domes southward. They are so near and 
 so lofty that the view toward them from any point on these steep 
 streets is magnificently impressive. A tiny tower on the ridge which 
 reaches highest into the sky marks Greylock. East and west are other 
 mighty ranges which are only less impressive than that to the south. 
 The town in the hollow, with its masses of roofs, chimneys apd spires, 
 makes a pretty picture in contrast with the mountains, and some views 
 which bring a big mill or other large btMlding into the foreground are 
 especially interesting. •• 
 
 Main street runs east and west on the lowest level. It is closely 
 occupied by business and its blocks are as a rule substantial and well 
 appearing. The new building of the Hoosac savings bank is particu- 
 larly handsome. At the upper end of the street are tiie town library, 
 Ihe soldiers' monument and two large brick churches, tlie Baptist and 
 Congregational. The latter numbers among former ministers two of 
 
 FLORIDA VILLAGE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 69 
 
 names painted. Some were laid on very large with red paint, but none of the indi- 
 viduals whose names were recorded were persons of special distinction, so far as I 
 noticed, and they could well be spared. In the wild gloom of the rock arbor to which 
 I descended, a few rods below, the virtues of a certain baking powder are extolled and 
 numerous additional names adorn the rocks. Thus do business, pleasure and nature 
 
 Tnt: Filial TKA<K THi;Ol"(.;H IIIK HiMtSAC TINNKI, 
 
 :AI; lill-, KVST ri.iKTAL — nous \C ITNNEL 
 
 THE <:ent[:al shaft 
 
 
 RUINS AT THE EAST POETAL 
 
 that you might pass the place within a few feet and notice nothing unusual. 
 Indeed, the first thing one notices is Hot the bridge but a great gap of perpen- 
 dicular precipices opening before him where a tremendous' hill of marble has 
 been half quarried away and where, In the depths, are derricks and buildings 
 and men at work. The view across this pit and the valley beyond to the east- 
 ern mountain ridge is very striking. Just back from the edge of the precipice 
 a small stream from the north has cut its way far down into the rock and then 
 roars along through its narrow, tortuous channel with the hollow, echoing tones 
 which waters have when so shut in. A massive arch spanned the stream in 
 one place, but tlie near banks were so high and the course of the channel so 
 crooked, it is almost impossible toget a picture which would give a satisfactory 
 impression of the place. On the rocks deep down I discerned a number 01 
 
 TIIK UEKI.HKLD ItlVKIl 
 
70 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 out into the sunlight again-, 
 up go windows, and doors 
 fly open, the air freshens and 
 by the time the brakeman 
 has appeared with his paper 
 and is flapping out the lights 
 you have begun to enjoy life 
 once more. There are people 
 who will go through the tun- 
 nel and back just for a pleas- 
 ure trip. It is a question 
 with me whetherpeople with a 
 liking for such pleasures are ■ 
 safe outside of an asylum. [ 
 One of the prettiest rides ' 
 on an electric road in the | 
 country is, I am sure, that I 
 from North Adams to F 
 Adams. It is largely through 
 the fields, often with not even 
 a country road alongside. 
 
 COVKltED BKIDGL AT H003AC 
 
 THE DEEKFIELD VALLEY, FROM ROWB 
 
 walk hand in hand. The whole place with its waterworn depths and low 
 monotones of the dashing stream had a strange, foreign aspect. It was in 
 sentiment like the caverns pictured and read about, and not like anything one 
 would think to find near home. 
 
 Before leaving North Adams, something should be said of the Hoosac Tun- 
 nel. The state burrowed it at a cost of |io,ooo,ooo, and at the time it was finished 
 its length of four and one-half miles was the greatest in the world. It was a 
 tremendous feat of engineering. The passenger on the railroad is apprised of 
 its approach, when traveling in the daytime, by noting the brakeman climbing 
 
 ODTSIDE THE GROUNDS ON CATTLE-SHOW DAY 
 
 Few stops are made and 
 you go coasting along in 
 the most reckless fash- 
 ion, apparently, and the 
 journey is most breezy 
 and exhilarating. It is 
 so like a pleasure trip 
 that you do not mind the 
 necessary stops in the 
 villages, nor even such 
 a pause as is caused 
 when the conductor has 
 to run on ahead and 
 drive some cows off the 
 track. As to the scenery, 
 the quiet valley lands 
 with the beautiful moun- 
 tain ranges east and 
 west are all that could 
 be desired. 
 
 NEAR HOOSAC TUNNEL STATION 
 
 CEMETERY ON THE STAMFORD ROAD 
 
 up on the seats to light the car lamps, and mak- 
 ing a journey through the coaches to see that all 
 windows are shut. Then you suddenly plunge 
 into darkness and see hazy lights .flashing along 
 the tunnel walls at short intervals. The atmos- 
 phere of the car becomes increasingly smoky 
 and gassy. Your neighbof across the aisle 
 covers his breathing apparatus with a handker- 
 chief, and you think if things get much worse 
 you will follow his example. The passengers 
 are very quiet and some lay their heads doWn 
 on the seat backs or support them oi; their hands 
 and shut their eyes. Your anxiety not to have 
 the mountain cave in on you changes to anxiety 
 to get out as soon as possible. You are even 
 willing to risk shaking the walls down by a little 
 extra speed if that will bring things to a conclu- 
 sion more quicklyi But of a sudden you dash 
 
 IB AN AUTUMN CORNFIELD 
 
 Adams has several great mills in the valley 
 along the stream, of which the famous paper-mill 
 plant of L. L. Brown is the finest in situation, 
 with the little tree-bordeted lake on its southern 
 side and Greylock rising up handsomely in the 
 eastern view of it. The village possesses a 
 number of fine churches and a very creditable 
 town hall. It's best residence district lies on 
 the eastern slope which rises steeply above the 
 valley. The roads do not attempt a straight as- 
 cent, but climb diagonally, and the views all 
 along are very impressive. Greylock lifts itself 
 into the sky to the westward, in a simple, un- 
 checked rise from the lowest depths of the valley. 
 The outlook from any back yard on this eastern 
 ridge is worth a handsome sum of money. 
 
 Below the chief village of the town are 
 several others linked along the stream. Usually 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 71 
 
 these villages are groups of mill houses about a single large manufac- 
 tory. The most populous is Maple Grove. It is well named, for its chief 
 feature is the fine row of big maples which line its main street. Beyond 
 the southernmost village the road circles up a steep-sided and most 
 picturesque little valley. The wood has been newly cut off to the south 
 and clears the view straight down into the cool depths where two streams 
 curve through some bits of meadow. One stream tumbles down from 
 a wooded ravine that opens far back up toward the western mountains. 
 It seemed a pretty spot to ramble in if one had time, but then, in Berk- 
 shire, one is never far from these attractive nooks wherever he hap- 
 pens to be. 
 
 Aside from the jottings in this article, both North Adams and Adams 
 have partial treatment in the series entitled " Rides About the County." 
 
 •"^"TTVi^^^ffmTWr' ^'^ 
 
 THE RIDES ABOUT THE COUNTY 
 
 Windsor Jams, Savoy, Florida 
 When the pictorial treatment of Northern Berkshire was first under 
 consideration it was thought that an extended series of winter pictures 
 would be strikingly unique and interesting. To carry out this plan I 
 as artist, started from the Connecticut valley, in a sleigh equipped for a 
 several-weeks' absence. The day before had been snowy and this day, 
 was windy. My route was, for the most part, through uphill woodland. 
 
 if. sex 5S*' '■''i^^^ 
 
 LOOKING TOWARD GEKYLOCK FROM STAMFORD, VT. 
 
 road was drifted clear across to the tops of the fences. I pushed on till my 
 horse was in so deep she could not move, when I concluded it was time to turn 
 back. This was accomplished by unhitching the horse, stamping a path for her 
 and then dragging out the sleigh by main force. 
 
 (Continued on page 73.) 
 
 ^V^ffi"*^ 
 
 THF, SOUTHF.RN VALLEY FROM CLARKSBURG 
 
 S". '''.s.,-^'-?- 
 
 •*»* 
 
 In the opens I caught dashes of the breeze and saw little winrows of snow ranging along 
 over exposed knolls, but this was slight preparation for the state of things on the first 
 high hill-top on the borders of Chesterfield. The wind was there a furious gale and the 
 
 A CLARKSBURG CF.SIF.TERT 
 
 HF4) BRIDGE PONP 
 
 i\ SI MMF,1{ MilRMNti 
 
72 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ■AVul.lili U>iW — PET IIOI-STEIN 
 
 RED BRIPGE 
 
 THE PET H0L3TEIN 
 
 Princess of the Low Countri^, 
 I'urn your handsome, dusky face ; 
 
 Tell me how you came to be 
 Far from all your race 
 
 Live your kin, remote or near, 
 In the land of dyke and dune,— 
 
 Windmills whirr and skies are clear. 
 Clacks the wooden shoon. 
 
 ON THE KOAD TO AIJAMS 
 
 llCi(iM"OK 
 
 r\>TMKS AMI HILLS U K TW E EN NOIM'H AI>AMS ANP AP AMS 
 
 IK MAIN STKF.ET IN ZVI. UNITE 
 
 In your wide ancestial halls, 
 Blooms the rose at pane and door ; 
 
 Snowy lace I he curtains fall, 
 White the sanded floor. 
 
 Surely you do nut belong 
 In this home of low degree.— 
 
 With its roof not half so long 
 As your pedigree? 
 
 Z\LUKITE CIIArEL 
 
 Then the farmer sings her praise, 
 Boasts her wondious yield of milk. 
 
 Praises all her gentle ways. 
 Strokes her coat of silk. 
 
 And Ih'.' good cow never stirs. 
 Chews her cud quite placidly ; 
 
 Royal ancestry is hers. 
 Yet content is she. 
 
 Laura .SanumksOn. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 73 
 
 BENFREW MILLS 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 I went back six or eight miles and tried the Goshen road. All went well till I came within 
 sight of the hill-top houses. There the hurricane and drifting snows held lull sway and 
 were savage enough to turn the sleigh over several times and shoot its contents out into 
 the drifts. Chance brought along a friendly farmer and with his assistance I pulled 
 through to the hotel. The next day travel was entirely suspended in those parts and i 
 made friends with the sitting-room stove at the hotel and talked about the weather and 
 the roads with such individuals as happened in. It was their unanimous opinion that I 
 had better go home, that my undertaking bordered too close on hardship and the impossi- 
 ble. I accepted this advice and the following day, at noon, when the drifts had been 
 rudely channeled, I departed. The winter was an unusually snowy one and the roads 
 much worse drifted than usual, or the trip would not have been cut so short. As it was, 
 Picturesque Berkshire had to content itself, as far as winter is concerned, with picturing 
 
 -3?»^ -..-^ 
 
 
 
 AN ADAJIS SCHOOL EUILDIKG 
 
 some of the snowy aspects of town scenery as it is to be noted in Pittsfield 
 and Willi amstown. 
 
 The spring was a backward one and even in the valleys the snow long 
 lingered. It was the last week in April when I again started. A buckboard 
 was substituted for the sleigh and I had an artist friend for company. For 
 some miles the roads were hard and even dusty, but we found Goshen hill sadly 
 muddy and not yet free from shreds of winter's snowy garments. 
 
 We followed up the Cummington valley, and cool evening was settling down 
 when we crossed the Berkshire line and began to look for a stopping place for 
 the night. A farmer at Allenville accommodated us, and after a substantial 
 supper we drew up about the kitchen stove with the family, including two dogs 
 and an equal number of cats, and chatted away the evening. Just before bed- 
 time, when we looked out of doors we noted that the moon was encircled by a 
 hazy halo, and we retired with premonitions of a rainy to-morrow. 
 
 Sure enough, it began to mist at daybreak and by breakfast time it rained 
 heavily. We staid indoors and read the local papers and thus learned what a 
 good many people we had never heard of before were doing and something of 
 
 WHY BKUOK 
 
 BUILDINGS OK UrrEl! PARK STKKET 
 
74 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 the short-comings of each paper's contemporaries. 
 We also studied the pictures and mottoes on the walls 
 and perused a county gazetteer. About the time we 
 had exhausted these sources of entertainment the 
 weather showed signs of clearing, and under the guid- 
 ance of a young man of the house we visited the 
 famous Windsor Jams. On the way we stopped at a 
 busy sawmill. It was like a thousand others scattered 
 along the streams among the hills, — low, spreading and 
 unpainted, with an acre or so of log-piles about it. 
 Within the circular saws were humming, a big beech 
 log was being sliced into boards, and a quantity of 
 short sections of spruce was being converted into 
 barrel staves. It was astonishing how fast this barrel 
 material was turned out. 
 
 To get to the Jams we followed the mill raceway 
 back among the pastures and entered the woods. Here 
 the snow lay in drifts and patches and 
 there were places where it was fair sled- ^ 
 ding. The woods were all adrip with 
 moisture, and if one chanced to jar a tree 
 he passed under he brought a shower of 
 water drops down on himself. Under 
 foot the ground was soaked, too, and we 
 had to fish our way very guardedly in the 
 more boggy spots. We crossed a rude 
 bridge which, on account of the rain, was 
 half inundated. Our guide wore rubber 
 boots and he slopped through the thin 
 streams, sliding over the planks without 
 hesitation. We followed with no more 
 mishap than having a little water slide 
 into our shoes. The woods here were 
 very fine — tall, clean-trunked beeches and 
 maples, mostly, with scattered groups of 
 evergreens. To the beech bushes and the 
 lower limbs of the full-grown trees clung 
 withered fringes of last year's leaves, and 
 they looked very ghostly among the som- 
 ber tones surrounding. 
 
 We crossed a second bridge, climbed 
 a rough hill and crept along the verge of 
 the wooded precipice which, with the 
 steep crags opposite, walls in the wild 
 ravine. In the depths, hemmed in by the 
 irregular, moss-grown cliffs and overhung 
 by the scraggy trees that look almost as 
 aged as the rocks themselves, is the roar- 
 ing, foaming stream. I wanted to get a 
 photograph from below and the guide and 
 I essayed a descent. We slipped down 
 the bank, clutching at convenient tree- 
 trunks and branches, standing, sitting, 
 creeping, as circumstances demanded. 
 Everywhere were dead stumps, moss, rot- 
 ting leaves and wetness, and the going 
 down was no pleasure trip. 
 
 The torrent nearly filled the glen . Now 
 and then a great boulder broke the stream 
 and snow and ice jams lingered along the 
 banks. As my guide was crossing one of 
 the latter it collapsed and he made a sud- 
 den descent into the water. Luckily it did 
 not come above his boot-tops. The stream 
 tumbles through this rocky channel for a 
 half-mile or more, and we climbed along 
 the banks as far as the upper end before we turned 
 back. It was not possible to keep along the bed 
 of the stream, as is sometimes done in the low water 
 of midsummer. Even then it is considered quite 
 an adventure to make one's way clear through from 
 end to end. 
 
 By the time dinner was eaten, the clouds were so 
 shredded with blue sky we thought it safe to start. The 
 little hamlet where we had spent th^ night was almost 
 at once cut from sight by the turns of the half-wooded 
 road which followed up the crooked ravine. We passed 
 many little farmhouses on the way to Savoy Hollow, 
 but most of them were deserted and with the run-down, 
 faded fields about, all on the lifeless edge of spring, 
 looked uncommonly forlorn. It was beautiful, too, and 
 must be particularly charming in blossom time when 
 
 GREYLOCK 
 
 FRONTISPIECE ILLUSTRATION 
 
 Who fitly can declare 
 
 The glory and the value to mankind 
 
 Of the great hills that rear 
 
 Above the bustle of the busy plain, 
 
 Above the want, and sorrow, and doubt, and sin, 
 
 Above the struggle of toiling hand and brain, 
 
 The infinite consolations of their calm ? 
 
 Round all the earth, down all the hollow years, 
 
 Since Israel's king lifted his weary eyes 
 
 To their eternal strength, and sought the balm 
 
 Of their sweet quiet,— yea, to this our day, 
 
 Shall men resort where these great preachers rise ; 
 
 The everlasting truths which hold the world 
 
 UKICYH^UK, FltOlM ADAMS 
 
 Teaching, in wordless sermon and silent psalm ! 
 
 Come here where Greylock rolls 
 
 Itself towards heaven ; in these deep silences, 
 
 World-worn and fret'ed souls 
 
 Bathe and be clean ! Cares drift like mists away. 
 
 Reformers, hurrying the Millennium's dawn,— 
 
 Urging to-morrow's blossom to bloom to-day, — 
 
 Here gird your baffled, warring minds anew 
 
 With God's enduring patience ! Linger here 
 
 When through light leaves the west wind whispering goes, 
 
 When summer's breath the warm pine filters through. 
 
 When tempests strike and shines agcinst these sides 
 
 When terrible in its inaccessible snows,— 
 
 You who would learn the secret of the hills, 
 
 God give you giace to know it, and hold it true ! 
 
 Julia Taft Bayne. 
 
 the thickets of mossy and neglected old apple trees 
 are in bloom. 
 
 The afternoon was only half-way pleasant. At 
 times threatening clouds would gather and throw the 
 earth into gloomy shadow, and then the warm sunlight 
 would break free and flood the landscape. We found 
 Savoy Hollow to be a wide vale flanked by high hills 
 darkly wooded, with evergreens in places, and, again, 
 with grayer forests, showing here and there wide 
 patches of desolation where the choppers had recently 
 been. A little stream makes a swift winding way 
 through the low meadow land, and a village with two 
 little white churches has its place where the valley nar- 
 rows northward. The most striking buildings of the 
 village were the old hotel with its quaint pillared front 
 and a big, brown farmhouse which in its day was plainly 
 a very pretentious mansion. Its sagging, two-story 
 portico caught the eye, as did the remnants 
 
 ~ ^ of old-style wooden ornaments aloi^ the 
 
 eaves and about the windows. Indoors, 
 the antique hall and best rooms and fire- 
 places have still much of their old-time 
 flavor, and are well worth a visit. 
 
 The hills grew wilder as we went on, 
 and the road rougher and more muddy. 
 The horse could do little but plod, and in 
 the worst places we got out and walked. 
 At length we came into a lonely clearing 
 in a spruce wood. In the midst of this 
 rough acre was the town-house. Some 
 one was shingling the roof; otherwise 
 we might have thought it forsaken. It is 
 so much the habit of the larger valley 
 towns to choosfi their pleasantest sites for 
 public buildings that this situation seemed 
 unaccountable. The reason for it, so we 
 were told, was that the villages of the town- 
 ship were none of them large and none 
 central, and the placing of the town hall 
 was a compromise. 
 
 STime distance beyond we began the 
 ascent of a steep hill and half way up 
 came upon Savoy Centre. It seemed a 
 joke to call it the center of anything, for 
 there were only two or three houses there 
 and a school-house a quarter-mile down 
 the western road, but the title is inherited 
 and had some logic in it in the early days 
 of the town. We hitched our horse to the 
 wheel of a wagon standing in a farmer's 
 yard, and climbed a steep hillside to get 
 a view of Greylock, which we were prom- 
 ised could be had from there. We panted 
 slowly upward through the drifted snow 
 patches intermitting with the faded grass, 
 and once on top sat down on one of the 
 numerous boulders strewn about, and 
 looked into the west. Across a wide valley 
 rose some low hills and beyond their even 
 horizon line there floated in the air the 
 giant form of Greylock. It was distinct 
 in color from everything surrounding and 
 seemed in its gray blueness as much a part 
 of the sky as of the earth. A tiny tower 
 marked the highest summit. This tower 
 has no interest as a matter of beauty, but 
 it was always mentioned in connection with Greylock 
 by the people we spoke to along the way about the 
 mountain. Indeed, we sometimes questioned if they 
 did not think the tower more important than the 
 mountain itself. 
 
 When we returned to the wagon we kept on in our 
 course northward. The road did not lack the muddy 
 features of those we had been getting accustomed to, 
 but, as well, was generously supplied with snow patches. 
 In wooded places these were quite extended, and at 
 one spot, just ofi the road in an orchard,the snow piled 
 well up into the apple-tree branches. The farms were 
 few and far between, and in the whole afternoon's 
 travel we met only one or two teams. It was remark- 
 able in some places how subdivided the clearings were 
 by stone walls, and it seemed to me it made the faims 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 75 
 
 THE L. L BUOWN MILL 
 
 look strangely foreign. At nearly every place we passed, a dog or two came out 
 in front of the house to look at us, and in the main were very solemn and gentle- 
 manly about it. They were a particularly wholesome, fine looking lot of dogs, 
 I thought, and had many points in their favor as compared with the town and 
 valley dogs. There were frequent twinklings of red sap buckets among the 
 maple thickets along the way, but the season was nearly over and not much 
 seemed to be going on about the rude little sugarhouses. Toward evening we 
 passed the little Union church with its long line of horse sheds and adjoining 
 school, and when the darkness began to deepen we commenced the descent of 
 a long hill, with a magnificent valley view before us. Half way down was a 
 picturesque group of farm buildings, and there we applied for shelter. The 
 
 V I s 
 
 \ / \ 
 
 A LOOK TO^VARD THE JIOUXTAIKb 
 
 woman of the house was willing to take us in if the man at the barn was. I crossed 
 the road to the building indicated, opened a door and entered a shed. I could discern 
 a second door before me. It was open and within was pitchy darkness. This was 
 discouraging, but from the blackness came the sound of milk streaming into a pail, 
 and I ventured a salutation. When I asked for lodging the man hesitated to say 
 "yes "to a stranger whom he had not even a sight of, but after some conversation and 
 
 CAl nilLIC 
 
 u^iiytt 
 
 ■a 
 
 CENTi:K .SJUKI.T ASU IMVKHSALIST CHUECJl 
 
 KNTEKINU AD.\il.-. tUuM IIIK KOKTH 
 
76 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 lENIlJEf STl.Kr, [• EL(tCK.S 
 
 EPISCOPAL CHUKCH 
 
 serious consideration he said he would attend to us when he finished millcing. In time 
 we got in out of the chilly night air and drew up by the briskly burning fire in the 
 kitchen stove. We had maple syrup with our biscuit and butter for supper, that was so 
 good I cannot forbear mentioning it. Indeed, at all the farmhouses I stopped the 
 maple syrup seemed much thicker and more delicious than we get in the valley. 
 
 J 
 
 OLD QUAKER CHURCH 
 
 In the morning the first sounds were of some one stirring about the kitchen 
 and a lone bird caroling out of doors. The sun shone clear in the east, but 
 the air was very keen in the early day. The ground was frozen stiff and 
 rocky and the snow was hard enough to walk on, and all the pools were 
 glazed with ice. Everything, to the farthest distance, was sharply defined 
 in the sparkling air. Our host pointed out the central shaft of the Hoosac 
 tunnel far off across the valley where we could discern some stone work and 
 curling wisps of smoke. 
 
 At eight we had hitched up and started. The way led down a rough, 
 frozen road that would have shaken us up fully as much as was necessary 
 even without the frequent thank-you-m arms which broke its course. In places 
 it was so icy it seemed best the horse should sit down and slide. We were 
 fearsome she would take some less safe method of sliding, and at length con- 
 cluded we had better insure ourselves against destruction by getting out and 
 walking. We had no sooner reached the foot of the hill and crossed a little 
 
 Af ivnrnrns r cHriicii 
 
 "1 
 
 BAPTIST CHUROH 
 
 A UILL POND 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 77 
 
 
 HOOSAC STREET SCHOOL-HOCSE 
 
 COKGREGATIONAL CHUhCH 
 
 ... /.MJi^i^-^-^ z -f*! 
 
 PARK STREET 
 
 A MAPLE GROVE VIEW 
 
 side. All along we had 
 beautiful Swiss view s into 
 the southern valley, with 
 a magnificent wooded 
 mountain slope on its 
 farther side. 
 
 At length we came to a 
 spot in the road where an extensive snowdrift still held forth. In the midst of this we 
 had to make a turn on to a side road, and that turn was in the nature of the apex of a 
 sharply pointed wedge, with not the least sign of relief in the way of a rounded corner. 
 We studied the matter while the horse stopped and went to sleep, but the solution of 
 the difficulty by any natural method was too much for us. We alighted ; my companion 
 woke the horse and engineered her while I lifted around the back end of the vehicle. 
 
 bridge tThtt spanned a swift stream, then the road began to ascend rather more 
 steeply, if anything, than it had come down. It was necessary to make frequent 
 stops to rest the horse until we came to milder territory, where the road turned 
 eastward and skirted the hillside. By the wayside here was a small cemetery, 
 barren and treeless and hemmed in by stone walls. It had not even pictur- 
 esqueness in its decrepitude. Luckily this type of cemetery, which has neither 
 tree, shrub nor vine to relieve its bareness, is not numerous. 
 
 When, a little later, our path began to descend we were astonished at the 
 roadway drifts we encountered. They were channeled through, or we should 
 have been shipwrecked in them, for they were five or six feet deep. The inhab- 
 itants calculated that the last of them would not disappear before June. The 
 road led into a deep ravine where a picturesque, covered bridge spanned a little 
 river. Beyond, it made a long ascent up and around a great, rocky pasture hill- 
 
 RILLBIDE HOUEB 
 
78 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 T. niAULrS CAIUOLIC CITLHCir 
 
 'We were shut in by a patch 
 of woodland, but as soon as 
 we left it we were among 
 brown fields again and on 
 ahead was a little village. It 
 _.was Florida — just two or 
 ■ three houses and a mite of a 
 church on a great hill. In all 
 our journeying about the 
 township I looked in vain for 
 aught that would give reason 
 for its name, unless it was 
 oppositeness, just as school 
 children will sometimes nick- 
 name a very fat fellow 
 "Sliver." But if Florida 
 lacks flowers, it has some 
 wonderful views, and there is 
 perhaps no to wn in the county 
 more interesting to make a 
 circuit of in a drive. Im- 
 mediately beyond the church 
 the road dips sharply east 
 and north, and you look down 
 into a beautiful, great valley, 
 beyond which are immense 
 blue hills rising one after the 
 other and rolling away to the 
 horizon. In the deepest 
 depths of the hollow we 
 caught glimpses of the Deer- 
 iield river, saw tiny trains 
 creeping along their sinuous 
 tracks, and heard the faint 
 whistling of the engines. 
 The railroad seemed an in- 
 vader and lent the scene an 
 
 THK SOVTIIEUN OI' 
 
 UF SIAIM.E 11 
 
 MAPUE GIIOVE- TIIK SCHOOL BUILDING 
 
 air of mysterious strange- 
 ness. Indeed, the rough 
 vastness of the region gave 
 one the feeling that it should 
 naturally be an unbroken 
 solitude, entirely given over 
 to its native wildness. 
 
 The road skirted the hill- 
 side and the views were very 
 fine all along. At length we 
 came to the old stage road 
 over the mountain and began 
 a steep ascent. Three lines 
 of telegraph poles straggling 
 along the way gave it quite a 
 metropolitan air. Toward 
 the crest of the rise the road 
 went through a rough and 
 horribly muddy pasture to 
 avoid the snowdrifts with 
 which the main highway was 
 blocked. We had been 
 through mud a-plenty before, 
 but nothing like this. The 
 pasture was a waste of soggy 
 moss through which many 
 wheels had ploughed a wide, 
 black track of deep, sticky 
 mud. I walked. My com- 
 panion drove along the trail 
 of his predecessors and 
 nearly disappeared, horse 
 
 ON THE WINDSOR EOAD— A CIIOPl-EK'a LUNCH 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 79 
 
 ' *W 
 
 
 lEsliNii litiw JANI. AlUtciW 
 
 WINDSOK — SCHOOL-HOU&K ON THE WINDSOR HILLS 
 
 and all. Then he tried the mossy borders, 
 and, though the wheels cut in less deeply, the 
 vehicle pitched about so violently over the rough 
 hillocks that I begged him to get back into the 
 mud again. We were thankful when we came 
 once more to comparative terra firma on the main 
 road, and there we gave our panting horse a rest. 
 In time, progress over the rolling, half-wooded 
 
 -t 
 
 A JtOADMUli CU.Ml'AMUA 
 
 WINDSIIK POKD 
 
 i^. •:.■ 
 
 B^:^EFICrAlU^;s of thk fuesii air fpnd 
 
 WISIKll— ON THIS WAY TO. SCHOOL 
 
 mountain top brought us to a spot where the blue 
 western valley opened before us. Here the tele- 
 graph poles left the road and pitched straight 
 down through a narrow and brushy clearing into 
 the valley. On a grassy knoll here we ate our 
 lunch, while the horse investigated a bag of meal 
 by the roadside. It was a wonderful down-look. 
 The great valley basin sweeping away to the great 
 hills westward, the tiny farm buildings dotting _ 
 the fields at the foot of the slope, and, in the low- 
 
 est level. North Adams' outreaching streets and jl 
 
 THE^OLD^CLEVRLANDllIIOLSH 
 
 AviMisoi: poirr (irnrv 
 
8o 
 
 dwellings veiled in the smoke 
 of its chimneys, combined to 
 make a scene of impressive 
 beauty. Greylock's serrated 
 ridge loomed up vast to the 
 south, but, unhappily, was 
 nearly hidden from this point 
 of view by a fringe of birch 
 woods. 
 
 The steep, downward 
 plunging road brought us 
 after a little to a sharp turn, 
 where we emerged from the 
 woods and had the monarch 
 range of Grey lock straight 
 before us. It was a very clear 
 but mellow day and the out- 
 looks from the long loops of 
 the roadway as it zigzagged 
 down the mountain side were 
 delightful. I felt sure a ride 
 over the mountain on the out- 
 side of one of the old coaches 
 must have been a great treat. 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 were touches of green along the 
 water courses and on protected south- 
 ern slopes. 
 
 I ate my lunch on the square before 
 
 SUNSET IK IIAYIKG TIME 
 
 a deserted log house. The windows 
 were gone, so I looked in. The cracks 
 between the logs were chinked with 
 mortar and the interior was divided 
 into four little board-partitioned rooms. 
 As I went on I began to get glimpses 
 of a big white church with a handful 
 of houses about it on the great, bare 
 hill-top southward. The spring was 
 late and the fields were, for the most 
 part, brown and withered, but there 
 
 AKRIVAL OF A PRESIT AU: EOT 
 
 J'KIMITIVR l-'AKM BLILUIXii; 
 
 Teru, Hinsdale, Dalton, Berkshire 
 On the warm, bright morning of May eleventh I was toiling up the roundabout hill 
 road from Cummington to Peru. Now it led through the woods, and now across pasture 
 fields. The farmhouses I passed were few and far between, and some of these were de- 
 serted. At other spots where houses had been were only a dil^idated barn or two left, 
 or perhaps a pair of broken chimneys and a cellar hole. I passed a stone school-house 
 where the children were out at recess and, in a ragged, half-treed district beyond, found 
 
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 KAliLT SPltING 
 
 AT THE KCHOOL-HOUSE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 8l 
 
 WINDSOR HILL 
 
 SAWMILL— EAST WINDSOR 
 
 Peru church. A 
 small boy and a 
 small girl came 
 from a near house 
 to investigate. 
 They were par- 
 ticularly interest- 
 ed in the horse's 
 nose-bag, out of 
 which it was eat- 
 ing. But after 
 they settled to 
 their satisfaction 
 what it was for 
 and what I was 
 there for and 
 what my camera 
 was good for, they 
 went back to the 
 shadow of their 
 house and played 
 get dinner with a 
 small table and a 
 set of little dishes. 
 
 Three men were plastering the weather-worn horse sheds with flaming circus bills. The leader of the 
 trio wore a stovepipe hat and a linen duster. I wondered whether they had to gel pei mission before putting 
 up the bills. The custom of decorating country horse sheds is a common one among circus people, but the 
 attitude of the members of these same churches toward the circus is so doubtful that they will seldom go to 
 see more than the street parade. This use of the horse sheds seems therefore out of harmony. 
 
 You can hardly mention Peru to any one without their informing you that the rain which falls on one side 
 of the roof of Peru church finds its way to the Housatonic river, and that which falls on the other side 
 to the Connecticut. Everybody wTao writes of Peru tells the same story, and, in accord with this time- 
 honored custom, I have told it, too. Another interesting point is the fact that this is the highest village 
 in New England, it being 2,200 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 At present it is but a scattered congregation which gathers at the old church, but in the palmy days of a 
 half-century ago this was one of the largest assemblages in the county. When meeting time drew near, 
 the vehicles came in platoons from every approaching road and the church was crowded to the doors. The 
 
 THE ROAD NEAR THE BLACKSMITH SHOP 
 
 THE CHTUCH 
 
 ■n 
 
 LOOSING NORTH TOWARD WINDSOR CIIURCIt 
 
 THE STRBAJI BELOW EAST WINDSOR 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 A BROOK AT EAST WINDSOR 
 
 minister, too, was 
 one of the lead- 
 ing lights of the 
 county and re- 
 ceived as large 
 a salary as any 
 preacher in Pitts- 
 field. 
 
 I took the 
 Hinsdale road 
 and half way 
 down the western 
 hill stopped to get 
 a picture of the 
 old Ford man- 
 sion. The dwell- 
 ing was a large 
 one of the digni- 
 fied and hand- 
 some architecture 
 of seventy-five 
 years ago, screen- 
 ed on its hillside terrace 
 by a fine group of trees. 
 It was a pity to see it so 
 warped and decayed and 
 broken-windowed. From 
 here there was a fine view 
 of the western valley where 
 lay Ashmere reservoir with 
 its prettily irregular shores 
 spreading its blue mirror at 
 the foot of the slope. 
 
 By the time I was fairly down the hill I was in the borders of the pleasant village of 
 Hinsdale. It is in reality a good-sized town with its center near the railroad station and 
 reaching out its scattered suburbs over the mild hills near, and in frequent groups along 
 the stream on the way to Dalton. Its homes are comfortable and neat in appearance and 
 cheerful in surroundings. Down the pleasantly picturesque valley on the Dalton road 
 
 DOWN THE KOAD 
 
 WAHCONAII FALLS— 11 
 
 WAHCONAH FALLS — I 
 
 EAST WINDSOR 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 83 
 
 ERU— THE PLACE OF A FAEMHOUSE 
 
 f'¥^.ST7^X^, 
 
 
 A DESERTED CABIN 
 
 are a number of large mills. One of these was naught but a windowless shell of gray 
 stone walls. North of it stood a dreary looking acre of fence frames that had once 
 been in use, for hanging cloth on. 
 
 By the stream, above one of the mill villages, a boy was seated on a log fishing- 
 He was having dull times there in the sun, I thought, and he acknowledged that he 
 wasn't having much luck. However, he said another boy caught a two-pound trout 
 there in the morning, and he was laying for a mate to it. I made his picture and drove 
 
 PERU VILLAGE, FROM THE NORTH 
 
 on. When nearly out of sight I heard him calling after me, and stopped to find 
 out what the trouble was. He wanted to know if he had broken the glass. It 
 is curious, but no one who saw my camera could refrain from some reference to 
 breaking the glass, any more than those acquainted with Peru could refrain from 
 telling wherfe the water which fell on the roof went to. I thought this boy was 
 going to prove an exception to the rule, but to my sorrow found I was mistaken. 
 
 Dalton lies well down in the valley, in part along the stream and in part along 
 high adjoiningi terraces. It is an eminently thrifty place, notable for the several 
 big mills, fine, modern public buildings and numbers of comfortable and even 
 costly homes. Of the mills those of ex-Lieutenant Governor' Weston and of Z. 
 and W. M. Crane, paper manufacturers, have an especially wide and enviable 
 reputation. For many of its good things the town is deeply indebted to those 
 public-spirited citizens. , 
 
 Above the Crane mill is a beautiful reservoir half surrounded by the amphi- 
 theatre of a wooded hillside. The mill itself is a large, handsome structure on 
 a meadow level'with a pleasant profusion of trees about, If you drive up the 
 
 StTKDAT SCHOOL 
 
 
 THE END OF RECESS 
 
 AN 0LD-11ME RCSrOENCE ON IlIE WESTERN ROADWAY 
 
84 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 PERU CEMTRE 
 
 glowing fluid on a long, iron table and other men ran a heavy roller 
 over it. Next a man with a long, iron lance cut off the ragged end 
 and slipped the blade of his instrument under the limp sheet to 
 loosen it. Then it was slid off on a second table and pushed from 
 that into an oven and kept there seven days tempering. I took a 
 look into the fiery furnace whence they dipped the glass, but it was 
 so hot and dazzling I did not fancy getting very near. The dim, 
 high-raftered place with its strong contrasts of light and shade 
 made a striking and weird sight. 
 
 The next day opened hot and clear, and the dews and mists of 
 the night were soon dissipated. Two strolling musicians were in 
 town. One had a bagpipe with its long droning monotone and 
 medley of short notes, and the other produced more lively melody 
 on a fife. They had probably spent the night in some cranny at 
 the furnace, as I 
 
 was told tramps ', ' * 
 
 frequently did. 
 On the pond a 
 
 .^ handsome.flock 
 
 ' of speckled 
 geese and a 
 brace of mot- 
 tled ducks were 
 paddling about. 
 They looked 
 very pretty 
 
 when they pad- 
 
 slight hill past the mill you 
 come into a wonderland of 
 pretty lawns, and curving 
 streams crossed by rustic 
 bridges. Beyond, where the 
 gravel paths converge, is a 
 beautiful stone mansion, 
 like a fine manor house in 
 an English park. 
 
 From here I went on 
 toward Berkshire up a level, 
 monotonous road hedged in 
 by bushy, new-grown woods. 
 As I approached the village 
 the road dropped down a hill 
 and here were little brown 
 houses with narrow yards 
 around them and potato 
 patches at the sides and, in 
 the north, Greylock loomed 
 up in handsome outline. 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 A HOME CORNER 
 
 HER OWN HEN 
 
 THE STORE ON PERU HILL 
 
 The highway led along the horders of 
 a fine, smooth pond, across which, to 
 the east, was a handsome mountain 
 ridge. On ahead were 
 houses and a green hill 
 and beyond that some 
 heavy chimneys rose, 
 from which curled up 
 black smoke clouds. 
 
 After I had found 
 lodging and had eaten 
 supper, I walked up over 
 the hill to the big, red- 
 painted huddle of build- 
 Around them are many heaps 
 Within, at this time, all 
 
 died along in mid pond, and very ridiculous when 
 they came in shore and keeled up with their heads 
 out of sight, and I suppose grubbing in the mud 
 below. After breakfast I drove up the long west- 
 ern hill, through the fields and some patches of 
 fine woodland toward Lanesboro. 
 
 Lanesboro, New Ashford, South Williams- 
 town, H'ancock 
 After the long ascent from the Berkshire side, 
 the hill, at the base of which lies Lanesboro, dips steeply into a long valley. On 
 the lowest level are broad meadow lands, through which wanders a stream of the 
 most crystal clear water imaginable. The village strings along the base of the 
 
 ings belonging to the glass company, 
 of various-colored slag and broken glass, 
 was vacant and gloomy except at the furnace where the fiery eyes 
 of the imperfectly closed doors were glowing. On a bench, just out- 
 side the door, sat a man smoking a pipe, who went in at intervals to 
 take a look at the furnace. He said that in the morning, sometime 
 between midnight and dawn, they would begin glass blowing. 
 
 In a building below I witnessed the process of casting glass 
 for heavy, opaque windows or roofing. When I had fairly got 
 into the gloomy depths of the structure a man accosted me and then 
 drew nearer. 
 
 " I came near thinking you were some one else," he said. 
 
 " Well," I replied, " perhaps I am some one else — I never was 
 here before." 
 
 " So ye are,'' said he, taking a closer look, and added to a friend, 
 " I thought it was Pat Hurlihy, sure." 
 
 As I was not acquainted with Mr. Hurlihy I did not know whether 
 to feel flattered by this mistake in identity or not. But now, along 
 came three men bearing a big pot of molten glass. They poured the 
 
 PERU CEMETERY 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 85 
 
 THE VIEW FROM SNVKE lUI.L 
 
 
 THE OLT> FORD HAKSION 
 
 
 OLD HOUSES ON THF WAY TO HIKSDALE 
 
 eastern hill, while scattered farmhouses dot the slope across the meadow. The homes 
 looking from beneath the elms and maples appeared pleasant and well kept, and the 
 regio/i as a whole seemed uncommonly fertile and thrifty. This effect is counteracted 
 to a degree by the vacant cones of two charcoal kilns in the meadow and by a silent, 
 towering iron furnace in the middle of the settlement. 
 
 Special interest attaches to Lanesboro as being the birthplace of the famous 
 humorist " Josh Billings." His real name was Henry W. Shaw, and the old Shaw 
 homestead, where he passed his early years, still looks down from its position on a 
 
 high plateau of the western hill. It is a large, substantial building with a 
 wing on either side and many outbuildings. 
 
 Josh Billings is remembered as a reticent boy who cared little about the 
 companionship of other boys, but preferred to go around by himself. His 
 father was the richest and most prominent man in the village. Indeed, Squire 
 Shaw's reputation was national. He was a man of marked ability, knew more 
 theology than the minister, and more law than nine-tenths of the lawyers, and 
 
 Zg-r 
 
 HOUSEKEEPING ON THE LAWN 
 
 the town always elected him to the Legislature when he wanted to go. In Bos- 
 ton, if his support was gained for a measure, that measure was considered as 
 good as passed. He was a forcible speaker, and he could shed tears and work 
 on the feelings of his audience and be inside as cool as a cucumber. The 
 squire frequently came down to the store where the post office was and sat 
 for an hour or more to talk politics. The villagers were always glad to listen. 
 
 f*^ 
 
 
 ' i I lilt 
 
 ^ 'iTRANGE TBASI ON PEliU COMMON 
 
 CAUSEWAT AT THE ASHMERE RESERYOIR 
 
86 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 LOOKING DOWN PLUNKETT STREET 
 
 BEIDGE BELOW HINSDLAE BKOTHERS' MILL 
 
 HINSDALE, FROM THE EAST 
 
 "Hen Shaw," as Josh Billings was called by the villagers, went to Lenox academy, 
 then the most notable school in Western Massachusetts, and later was sent to Hamilton 
 college. After a time it was whispered around that he had run away and joined a 
 menagerie. But it was not known surely, for nobody dared ask the old squire about 
 his affairs. Two or three years later Josh came home. He then showeda decided 
 fondness for getting around the tavern and store to talk and crack jokes. Once a 
 menagerie came to town and he spent the day in showing up the animals. So odd and 
 humorous were his comments and descriptions that he kept a crowd about him from 
 morning to night. That confirmed in people's minds the story of his running away 
 from college. 
 
 After Josh won fame as an author and was making a fortune by his writing in New 
 
 for there was wisdom and depth to what he said. He would have made a far 
 greater reputation had he not loved money better than political honors and 
 given businessprecedence. In his younger days he was a democrat, but later 
 became an ardent Clay man, and it was understood that had Clay been elected 
 tO'the presidency. Squire Shaw was to have been his secretary of state. 
 
 
 ~ 1l«^ j^ 
 
 HINSDALE — HEAR THE STATION 
 
 A VILLAGE KOADWAT 
 
 THE PARRISH MILL 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 87 
 
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 himself much. He had not been brought up to 
 habits of systematic work and was physically lazy. 
 In figure he was a broad-framed man, over six 
 feet tall, spare, bony and round shouldered. After 
 he began to write he let his hair grow long and 
 cultivated oddity. He was a keen judge of charac- 
 ter and in his humor was not a little thought and 
 wisdom. 
 
 
 
 
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 -«sji 
 
 HINSDALE OUTSKIRTS 
 
 York and his lecture tours, he still made Lanesboro his 
 summer home. He boarded at the hotel and liked to sit 
 around and talk to such listeners as gathered. Once in 
 awhile he would go fishing, but he did not like to exert 
 
 StTMSriT OF WARNER, HILL 
 
 BERKSHIRE KENNELS 
 
 It was his desire that 
 he should be buried in 
 the Lanesboro cemetery, 
 and that his grave should 
 be marked by a block 
 in the rough from the 
 marble quarry in the 
 town, on which there 
 should be simply his and 
 his wife's names. When 
 he died the Lanesboro 
 quarries were no longer 
 worked, and a great, 
 rough bowlder was 
 brought from Pittsfield. 
 There it is, halfway up 
 the hillside in the neatly 
 kept cemetery among the 
 village homes. 
 
 Not far from this stone 
 is one of the old table 
 monuments, beneath 
 
 which rests the body of 
 Johnathan Smith, a man 
 who wielded great influ- 
 ence in the last century 
 in helping establish the 
 republic. I deciphered 
 and noted down the 
 ancient lettering on the 
 marble slab. It reads 
 thus: 
 
 In Memory of Mrs Esther 
 
 Smith 
 Consort of Col. Johna- 
 than Smith 
 Who departed this life 
 
 June the 12th 
 
 1797 in the 53d year of 
 
 her age. 
 
 also 
 
 Of Col. Johnathan Smith 
 
 Who died Sept. the 9th 
 
 1802, 
 Inthe62d(yearof his age. 
 When you pass by re- 
 ,/( -r.:- member me. 
 
 RAYMOND'S BLOCK 
 
 A GAME OF MARBLES 
 
88 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 As you are now so once I was. 
 As I am now so you must be. 
 Prepare for death and follow nie. 
 
 I went up the pleasant Lanesboro valley 
 lOVer an increasingly steep road. The neigh- 
 boring hill ranges became higher and more 
 rugged and tumbled, and held in their hollows 
 many beautiful but lonely little intervales. 
 When I passed over the last rise and began 
 to dip downward I had some fine mountains 
 in view and in the midst of them, on an irregu- 
 lar terrace, I came upon the very picturesque 
 little town of New Ashford. A small, white 
 church marked the village center. Next it was 
 a brown, unpainted school-house and as I 
 passed the children looked up from their books 
 and out of the open windows to discover who 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 MAPLE STEERT, LOOKING EAST 
 
 perched far above with an attendant hemlock 
 tree ; and then into the deep, gloomy hollow 
 whence come faint gleams of foamy waters. 
 The road pitches along down a fine, half- 
 wooded valley that in time opens out wider 
 and affords handsome views of the big hill 
 ranges along the north. At South Williams- 
 town I made a turn westerly and southward. 
 The village by the stream which winds around 
 the hillside is very pretty, and the mountain 
 views on every hand are very charming. The 
 place has a church, a hotel, a store and on a 
 fine hill a great, vacant school building. 
 Everything was very quiet, though I wit- 
 nessed one incident which narrowly missed 
 being striking in more senses than one. It 
 
 THE MONROE EJIMOHS HOU: 
 
 MOONLIGHT AT HINSDALE BKOTHEKM DAM 
 
 IJ was passing and his business. The farmhouses 
 were scattered, and the adjoining fields and 
 pastures were exceedingly hilly 
 and the mountain slopes very 
 near and steep. It is doubtful 
 if there is a place in the county 
 more interestingly varied in its 
 scenery. Down the northern 
 road is a white-stoned cemetery 
 on a high knoll, and a little after 
 you come upon a qu\int, 
 weather-worn little mill in a hol- 
 low, that has below it a deep, 
 rock-walled ravine. It is well 
 worth one's while to get out 
 and clamber down the hillside 
 for a look up at the tiny mill 
 
 THE PLUHKETT RESIDEXOE 
 
 A FAMILIAR FIGURE 
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH 
 
 THE LONE FISHERMAN 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 89 
 
 IN THK BUSIMBSS CKNTEK— MINSDALK 
 
 KOAD TO PLUNKETt'S EKSERVOIR 
 
 lcU12^ti B£LUVV 'iUE VILLAGE 
 
 was all about I was not near enough to guess, but, as I said, it came very near 
 being striking. 
 
 Now I began to travel down the Hancock valley. The town is fifteen miles 
 long and three wide, and lies between two mighty hill ranges. The road undu- 
 lates along over the little side spurs that jut down into the valley from these hill 
 ranges. On the top of every rise is a house and nearly every one made a 
 
 was this. A small colored boy was playing about the door of one of the humbler homes. 
 Suddenly and without warning a colored woman with a pipe in her mouth and a broom in 
 her hand rushed violently out of the house door. She made some wrathful ejaculations and 
 flourished the broom, while the small boy made haste to scamper clown the road. What it 
 
 HINSDALE:. BHOTHEKS' MILL 
 
 THE Renfrew uIll 
 
 ENTERING JERICHO 
 
QO 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE COKGKEGATIONAL CHUKCH — HALTuN 
 
 EVIfiNING— DALTON, FROM DKPOT STHEET 
 
 picture in contrast with the surrounding nature. It was a pretty piece of 
 farming country. At the rear of some of the houses I noted there was a great 
 kettle swung up from the ground on a rail. I was curious enough to ask what 
 it was for, and learned they were made ready for the spring soap boiling. 
 
 The sun disappeared early behind the western ridge, though for hours its 
 mellow light continued on the eastern slopes. I asked a man I overtook on a 
 load of boards how far it was to Hancock Centre, but he said the town was so 
 strung out 'twould be hard to tell where the center was. I persevered, however, 
 and at length the valley took a westward turn and let in the sunlight on a little 
 village. There on the level were a white church, a small stone mill and rows 
 of little mill houses crowding close up to the sidewalk. Down the street the 
 valley broadened out into a wide interval of mellow farming country. 
 
 I concluded to drive over to Lebanon Springs to spend the night. While 
 jogging along a lonely stretch of road I was approached by a man riding awhile 
 
 MAIN STKEET ON THE " FLAT ' 
 
 horse and leading a colt. My horse pricked up her ears and of a sudden made a 
 violent jump to the side of the road. This sharp cramping with the suddenness of the 
 stopping had like to have thrown me out. As it was I managed to keep my seat and 
 clung to the reins. The harness had broken and the thills had shot above the horse's 
 back in a most alarming manner. But the man on the white horse stopped, my horse 
 quieted down a little and 1 got out and held her while he drove past. Then I mended 
 the harness with some cord I carried and journeyed on once more. 
 
 THE TOWN HALL 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF SUMMER 
 
 On sloping hills the daisy blossoms show 
 Their harmony of blended sun and snow ; 
 And from cool sweeps of meadow sweetly ring 
 The choral notes that joyous warblers sing. 
 
 THE HIGH SCHOOL 
 
 CltANK rONl> 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 91 
 
 'GREYLOCK OF GREYLOCK' 
 
 Deacon Hiram Brown, son o£ " Sweet Billy Brown " of Cheshire, 
 born in the " Notch " in 1797, was a unique and admirable character, 
 well worthy a page in local history. He reached a sweet and green 
 old age of ninety-four years, and has lately been gathered to his 
 fathers. His life was a checkered one, but marked by singular purity 
 and philanthropy, and his earnestness and rare sweetness of character 
 left their impress on his handsome countenance. Greylock mountain 
 looks immediately down on his early home, from which circumstance 
 and from his flowing white hair, he was known in the home of his de- 
 clining years — Elm wood. 111., — as " Greylock of Greylock." A good 
 part of his life was spent in Cummington, Mass., where he was fore- 
 most in religious matters, and from 1845 to i860 was the leading spirit 
 in that region in the anti-slavery and anti-sectarian movements, for 
 which Cummington was a rallying-point at that time. He was the 
 intimate friend of Garrison, Phillips and Pillsbury, and Garrison pro- 
 nounced his hospitable home " the greenest spot on all the Green 
 mountains." As an off-hand speaker and debater, the hearer had no 
 fear that he would blunder. He was quick of thought and sympathy, 
 and by nature a leader. His grace of manner, native courtesy and 
 ready wit, notwithstanding his entire lack of school education, opened 
 wide all doors to him ; but nothing could seduce him from the thorny 
 path of the reformer. The following autobiographical sketch of his 
 apprenticeship is given just as it fell from the old man's lips with- 
 out a moment's previous notice 
 to him : 
 
 " I was born in ' the Notch,' 
 Cheshire, Mass., October 24, 1797, 
 and am now nearing my ninety- 
 fourth milestone. My father, 
 William Brown, better known in 
 Berkshire county history as 
 'Sweet Billy Brown,' failed in 
 business, and there being a large 
 family of us, I was apprenticed 
 to Mr. Crane, paper maker of 
 Dalton, 1809! I was then only 
 twelve years old and remained 
 until I was fourteen. I could not 
 be spared from the mill to go 
 to school. 
 
 " At Carson & Crane's I was 
 employed as layboy, and after 
 the firm dissolved, remained 
 with Crane. Dalton then had 
 one meeting-house and one 
 store. I was small of my age 
 and had to stand on a stool to 
 reach my work. It was my part 
 to take the sheets off the felts, 
 when they came out of the press, 
 and also to size the paper by 
 dipping a half-quire at a time in 
 
 THE Z. AND W. 41. CUAKE MILLS 
 
 WINTER ON THE CRANE GROUNDS 
 
 a tub of thin glue, which I made 
 from leather scrapings from the 
 tanneries. The paper was then 
 hung in a loft, surrounded by 
 shutters, to dry. There were no 
 rollers to calender the paper, but 
 three or four girls inspected it 
 and went over it with broad 
 knives, scraping off the " nubs," 
 and then it was pressed again, 
 but not ruled. They made all 
 kinds of writing paper and music 
 paper, but the whole output was 
 only about ten ream s a d ay . The 
 power for the beater was an over- 
 shot water wheel on the brook, 
 and there was a splendid spring 
 of pure soft water. The vat man 
 dipped the pulp from the vat on 
 to a screen, and shook it till it 
 was in the right state to be turned 
 over on the felt ; and a great deal 
 depended on the vat man's skill 
 at his part of the work. We 
 made good, honest paper and it 
 -r-- wasmostly sold in Albany. Ped- 
 
 ~ ~~ ' dlers brought in a large share of 
 the rags, some of them smelling 
 bad enough ; but the best came 
 from the Shakers. These were mostly linen and were always 
 clean and sweet. 
 
 " I lived in Mr. Crane's family, and had a lonesome, homesick 
 time of it. Sundays, in the summer, I used to go off into the woods 
 to cry. Once in a long while I walked across the hills to 'the 
 Notch,' to the mingled joy and grief of my mother. 
 
 "The law of the state allowed apprentices to choose a new 
 trade at the age of fourteen, and as my life in the paper mill had 
 been a hard one, I changed and became a clothier. Even at Dalton 
 there was always some fun or some kindness to lighten the time. 
 The last of my old playfellows at 'the Notch,' my cousin, John 
 Stafford (Stafford's Hill), has just passed away, and I stand like a 
 lone, leafless tree on a bleak landscape. I have had many steep 
 pitches to climb, and have made some sacrifices for freedom of mind, 
 and the freedom of the slave, but, on the whole, life has been sweet 
 and good, and this has been, and is still a good world to live in." 
 The following poem, written as a birthday song, and repeatedly 
 sung on the anniversary by his neighbors, is the composition of his 
 son, Edwin R. Brown, a native of Adams, now of Elmwood, 111.: — 
 
 SUUI12B NEAB THE CBANES' UILLS 
 
 Birthday Song— ( 
 
 The man of Cheshire once was fresher, 
 
 Ere he grew so grey, 
 But, I'm thinking, while we're drinking 
 
 To his health to-day, — 
 Though the fire once burned higher, 
 
 In his youthful veins, 
 That his living and his giving 
 
 Bring him precious gains ; 
 
 Air : Sally Horner) 
 
 So we greet him as we meet him, 
 
 With a round of cheers, 
 Telling once again the story 
 
 Of the rolling years. 
 Pass him sweetly, years that fleetly 
 
 Glide his white head o'er, 
 And, for Greylock of old Greylock, 
 
 Bring your richest store. 
 
92 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 A RAIKY DAY 
 
 ONE OF THE OLD HOUSES — " PRIEST " JENNINGS' HOME 
 
 Many sorrows left their furrows 
 
 On his frosty brow ; 
 Many a pleasure, many a treasure 
 
 Cheered his heart, as now ; 
 Smiling, weeping, true ways keeping, 
 
 In Truth's battle strong ; 
 Living cleanly and serenely, 
 
 Life is sweet and long. 
 
 So we greet him, as we meet him, etc. 
 
 Swift the rolling years go bowling — 
 Who knows whence or where ? 
 
 Ends, or middle, life's a riddle. 
 And a mystery rare. 
 
 But there's beauty, and there's duty 
 
 In this world of ours, 
 And their wooing and their doing 
 
 Grace the passing hours. 
 
 So we greet him, as we meet him, etc. 
 
 -Sunset nearing, never fearing 
 
 Is the patriarch true. 
 Living longer, love grows stronger 
 
 Still from me and you. 
 Hands are grasping, arms are clasping — 
 
 Ready! you and I, 
 And to Greylock of old Greylock 
 
 Drink a bumper dry ? 
 
 So we'll greet him, as we meet him, etc. 
 
 RESIDENCE OF ZENAS CRANE 
 
 TUE GHAUREKLAIN HOUSE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 93 
 
 RKSIDENCS OP EX-HF^TE^A^T G0VFR^01t V ESTON 
 
 THE IRVING HOUSE 
 
 THE RIDE ABOUT THE COUNTY 
 
 Berry Fond, Potter Mountain, Cheshire, Windsor 
 
 The sky had had a murky look the night before along the west when I 
 drove into Lebanon Springs, and this morning, about breakfast time, it began 
 to rain. I sat in the hotel office and read a Springfield Republican of the 
 day before and listened to the tale of a traveling medicine man who had a 
 shiny two-horse cart at the barn. Two other gentlemen came in and sat 
 while they smoked a cigar apiece and settled it to their satisfaction that the 
 world's fair was "the greatest beat out." 
 
 The rain did not fall very earnestly, and after a time some straggling 
 beams of sunlight encouraged me to start. . On the previous evening I had 
 made the acquaintance of a young man, whom I overtook on the road, and 
 gave a ride, and who had offered to pilot me up the mountain to a picturesque 
 cascade he knew of. I called on him this morning and he and his brother 
 went with me up a steep side road and across the pastures to the woods. 
 
 ON THE ZENAS CRANE GROUNDS 
 
 There we began at once the ascent of a ragged ravine. A young growth of trees clothed 
 its sides. Over its black, mossy rocks a little stream was making the steep downward 
 descent in a series of silvery cascades. In the spongy, treacherous soil, among the trees 
 of the stony banks of the ravine, many wild woodland flowers flourish, particularly wake- 
 robin and the delicate little flower known from its peculiar shape as " Dutchman's 
 Breeches." For half a mile or more we toiled up the steep mountain side. Then, all at 
 once, we came into a little opening where lay a small lake. Here on the mountain top the 
 
 THE POND AT THE WESTON MILLS 
 
 WILLOWS- ZKHAS OKA.NK OKuLKOO 
 
 A TILLAGE VIEW — ilAIN STRBBT 
 
94 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ON VVKST MAI2J MKKKl' 
 
 wind was blowing a 
 gale, and the waves on 
 the little sheet of water 
 ran into whitecaps that 
 fiercely lashed the stony 
 shore as they broke 
 against it. The trees 
 about were strangely 
 twisted and misshapen, 
 showing how windy a 
 situation it was. Back 
 on a low, bare ridge 
 was an old cellar hole 
 where once was a house, 
 and there were traces 
 of an old road winding 
 down the steep hillside 
 through the woods. It 
 
 IHB OLD STOMB MILL 
 
 la DALION CEMETERY 
 
 seemed a wonder any one should think of building on such a bleak, desolate 
 height and so inaccessible. But every hill-top had once its home, no matter 
 how exposed or how toilsome the way to it. 
 
 At the edge of the pond lay two battered old boats filled with water, and I 
 learned that fishermen sometimes resorted here to catch bullheads. The pond 
 is one of the bottomless kind, but my companions said its reputation had been 
 injured for them by soundings they had taken, which proved twelve feet to be 
 its greatest depth. At the time A. T. Stewart's body was stolen, some years 
 ago, a story appeared in a leading New York paper to the effect that four men, 
 shortly after the theft, had been seen bearing a mysterious burden up this moun- 
 tain side. On arrival at the pond they had gone out in a boat and lowered their 
 heavy object into the water. The tale created considerable excitement till it 
 was traced back to a man 
 whose reputation as a roman- 
 cer was such that the story 
 was immediately discounted 
 about one hundred per cent. 
 
 We followed the faintly 
 marked old road in going down 
 the mountain, and thereby 
 encountered one or two 
 brush fences. A brush 
 fence is made by 
 lopping young 
 \'\ ^ trees down 
 
 BPI8C0PAL CHUBCH 
 
 IN THE LIBBART 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 with a blow of the axe that half 
 severs the stem about three feet 
 above the ground. The more 
 trees that are brought down into 
 this live tangle of brush, the 
 better the fence. It is more 
 effective than barbed wire, I 
 judged from the effort it cost to 
 getthrough. Butacombination 
 of crawling and climbing and 
 patience took us through its 
 difficulties, and we were, in 
 i'-** the course of time, down 
 the mountain 
 and back on the 
 main highway. 
 
 95 
 
 A PAKTIAL VIKW OF TBESwESTON .MILLS 
 
 BBTWfiEW DAhTOS AND HIN8DALE,1| 
 
 I went on alone. At Hancock I was overtaken by a smart 
 shower and drove under the horsesheds and ate my lunch, while 
 I waited for it to pass. Afterwards I went eastward and 
 climbed the long, zigzag road up Potter mountain. The view of 
 the western valley basin kept getting finer and finer. From the 
 summit I looked back on the great sweep of lowland hemmed 
 in on three sides by the mighty wooded hills. Its fresh spring 
 greens were flooded with a sudden burst of sunlight from the 
 threatening blue cloud-drifts. The effect was magnificent. 
 
 • The road here turned a corner round a hillock, and I was 
 struck by a chilly eastern wind, and found a good-sized snow- 
 drift by the wayside, with an attendant patch of soggy mud for 
 the horse to toil through. The mountain top was much of it 
 mossy and brushy pasture land, but with no sign of 
 flocks or habitations, save one or two old cellar holes. I 
 soon began to skirt the hillside in descent, and there was 
 a great sweep of blue valley before. Northward was , 
 Greylock, lost in clouds, but lesser ranges lent variety to 
 the landscape, and two shining lakes of dainty outline lay directly 
 eastward. Shreds of sunlight were wandering here and there over 
 the wooded hills and green fields, and to the south a shower was 
 trailing its delicate gauze over the spires and roof-tops of Pitts- 
 field. The road as it dessended the hillside passed through some 
 fine groves of large trees, and along the borders of several bar- 
 ren, ragged slopes of cut-off land. 
 
 During the three days following I was about Pittsfield and in 
 
 AROHITEOTDHAL DETAIL— WESTOH BOUSE 
 
 the southern part of the county, sections which 
 receive a separate treatment, and this narrative 
 is discontinued for that space. It was 
 a clouded afternoon when, many 
 days later, I left the village of Berk- 
 shire on a journey northward. My 
 path led up a narrow valley flanked, 
 east and west, by rugged hill ranges, 
 and the road was often shut in by young 
 woods. The leaves were fast un- 
 folding and the fields were well 
 
 ZEiiAS CHASE 
 
 ENTKANOKS TO THE TOWN UALL 
 
 fc^. 
 
 A SKETCH FROM CBANT! AKD COMPANT'S DAM 
 
 carpeted with green. Along the brook and in the wet meadows were thick 
 growths of cowslips bright with yellow blosso*ns. 
 
 As I approached Cheshire the road bordered a long, narrow lake, choppy 
 with waves and gloomed by the overhanging clouds. Midway the lake was 
 crossed by a low, picturesque causeway to a sp_qt where was some kind of a 
 mill with two or three spans of horses on the roof, furniBhiTig-power by walk- 
 ing up the endless incline of a tread.-wUl. The day was one of the lowery 
 
q6 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 iJAltToA VlljLJi VliiiV 
 
 WINTER AT THE WESTON MILLS 
 
 P1TI:&FJELU AAD i»ALTON STAGE 
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHUIiCJI 
 
 TUE LUNG BKlI>Uii 
 
 sort that is supposed to 
 give fish an appetite for 
 the baited hook, and I saw 
 a number of fishermen 
 and fishergirls scattered 
 alongshore, trailing their 
 lines in the waves. 
 
 On the road I met a 
 team drawing a load of 
 sand that was so white and 
 so like sugar it made one's 
 mouth water to look at it. 
 The sand is found in 
 Cheshire in great creamy 
 cliffs and mining and pre- 
 paring it for the glass 
 workers is a chief industry 
 of the town Cheshire 
 
 CIlUUL toLLl(jlll;]JjK 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 ^J 
 
 
 J 
 
 j^S 
 
 IQHh 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 m 
 
 HH 
 
 pHHBHI 
 
 ^^ " ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 j^FOJtTE-UUCllKKE 01' THt. ZLNAf Cl;A^E KKblliENCJ-; 
 
 elongated pieces of mossy and pebbly granite rock. 
 
 I thought it would be interesting to bring away one as 
 
 a specimen. But when I lifted a bar I concluded it 
 
 would be better to order my specimen sent 
 
 by freight. 
 
 I looked into the furnace through a 
 space where a board had departed, but was 
 not thereby much enlight- 
 ened as to the process of 
 iron-making. Not far from 
 the piles of pig iron are 
 some waste fields filled with 
 heaps of slag, and above the 
 building much powdered 
 charcoal scattered about 
 and then acres of great 
 piles of cord wood. Among 
 
 TUK EAULK 
 
 village has a pleasant r 
 situation on the broken 
 valley hills at the 
 northern end of the 
 reservoir I had been 
 skirting. Its roads 
 concentrate at a stone 
 bridge which spans the 
 stream easterly. Near 
 this is an iron furnace 
 — a monster building, 
 silent and weather 
 worn, which has not 
 been used for months 
 and may not be again 
 for years. On the 
 level near the stream 
 are many piles of pig 
 iron in gray bars. 
 Each had a broken, 
 rusty end, but other- 
 wise had the look of 
 
 WINb.SOK ,1'ALL^ 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 97 
 
 UESIDKNCK OF 51K?«. J. B. CRANE 
 
 these woodpiles are several large, white cones where the wood is burned to charcoal. Several men were 
 wheeling barrows of the four-foot sticks up an inclined causeway to an upper door of one of these kilns 
 and I followed after to investigate. In the black interior was a man packing the wood in solid from base 
 to apex. It held fifty cords, he said, and took twelve days to, burn it. A cone above was burning and I 
 got to leeward of the smoke, went up close and looked it over. It was tightly closed, save for a few 
 chance cracks and some small openings near the bottom where an occasional brick had been taken out. 
 You would expect fifty cords of wood to make some noise in burning, but all I could hear was a faint 
 sizzling of sap. Nor was aught to be seen save the smoke puffing out at the vent holes and a black ooze 
 
 creeping downward 
 from the cracks. As 
 for heat, that was only 
 perceptible when you 
 approached very close. 
 Cheshire has four 
 little churches in its 
 village group, a num- 
 ber of quite handsome 
 residences among the 
 cottage houses whicli 
 are therule, and several 
 interesting old ones. 
 It began to rain while 
 I was touring the town 
 and I hastened to a 
 hotel. The most re- 
 markable feature of 
 my stopping place was 
 the presence in the 
 best room of two pic- 
 tures in elaborate 
 frames which were 
 identical in size and 
 subject. It is a mys- 
 tery to me still how it 
 could have happened 
 that the place should 
 possess these twin 
 luxuries. 
 
 The weather, next 
 day, was still threaten- 
 ing in spite of the 
 papers promising fair 
 and everybody's say- 
 ing they thought it was 
 going to clear soon. 
 Had the weather been 
 more promising, I 
 would have made my 
 trip more extended. 
 As it was I took my 
 way up the steep road 
 of the eastern moun- 
 tain, which led toward 
 home. In a rough, cut- 
 off clearing I came 
 upon a chopper sitting 
 on a log eating dinner 
 from his tin pail. I 
 made his picture, pie 
 in hand, and he was 
 very anxious I should 
 send him a print. 
 
 He said, " I know 
 who'll be tickled to see 
 that picture! It's my 
 daughter." 
 
 The road went on, 
 up and up, through the 
 woods much of the 
 way, till, after long 
 hours, I came out on 
 Windsor hill. 
 
 RKSIDENCF. Oi' SIRS. MARSHALL CRANi: 
 
 
 ON A BACK PIAZZA 
 
 
 ^ti n^'" I'f 'P 
 
 ^^1 
 
 wm 
 
 
 
 SOME OLD STOXF-S 
 
 JuJk 
 
 _-i' 
 
 '<)a. 
 
 UESIUKSUE OF MRS. JOHN D. CAKSON 
 
 ^ 
 
 OFFICE OF W. 
 
 CKANB, AKD OLD CRASE HOUSE 
 
 On the height, the highway was still a slough of mud in spots, and was badly 
 washed in other places, and was at its worst in the shadow of the httle store at the 
 crossroads. 
 
 The twenty-foot snowdrift I had seen on the pasture slope two weeks before still 
 held its own and looked as if it would last half the summer. The inhabitants of the 
 hill could doubtless snowball on the fourth of July if they chose. At the school-house, 
 within sight of the drift, many of the boys were barefoot. 
 
 I continued down hill through the woods by a fine dashing strLam. The thank-you- 
 marms of the road proved too much for the string with which I had mended my har- 
 ness and I was alarmed to see the thills, on a steep descent, shoot up over the horse's 
 
98 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 LKllKIM; 'Ju\\-Al;Lt I'll 1 M-ll.l,l> FKuM 1 1 1 Iv rlMKTEIIV 
 
 lOWX Mill SI-; ASI> MR TIIUDIs !■ rilMICII 
 
 UPPER MAIN STKCET — WESIONVILLK 
 
 BUSINESS BLOCKS NEAR THE WESTON MILLS 
 
 crossed the county line than the sun, as if in mockery, burst forth with great 
 splendor and the clouds all about seemed to melt far back toward the horizon. 
 The wet, sunlit landscape, framed by the uproUing, vapory cloud-maisses was 
 very beautiful. 
 
 Clifton Johnson. 
 
 WINTER AMONG THE BERKSHIRE HILLS 
 
 Summer dwellers lose much of the beauty of the Berkshire hills in 
 winter. The northeasters bank the snow up against the locked doors and 
 barred windows of the homes of the city comers, who always go away with 
 the birds. But here and there are homes where the smoke curls out of the 
 chimneys and where the walks are kept well shoveled between the front gate 
 
 THE WESTON CHALET ON' MOUNT WESTON 
 
 BAPTIST CHUnCH 
 
 head. But the horse is one 
 of the kind that is always 
 glad to stop, and nothing 
 serious was the result. 
 
 Again the horse stumbled 
 and one of the lines un- 
 hitched from the bridle. At 
 the same moment my um- 
 brella caught in the wheel 
 and made a great clattering. 
 However, nothing broke, 
 even with these complica- 
 tions. When peace and 
 order was restored it began 
 to rain hard and so continued 
 till I reached the valley bot- 
 tom. But no sooner had I 
 
 THE CKANE MILL, WHERE THE GOVERNMENT PAPER IS MANUFACTURED 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 9Q 
 
 tLD BKKKSnil!!-. 5IU.T.S 
 
 h\ IIIL 1 0^D SIDE — BERKSHIRE 
 
 iiig of being drifted in with the snows of extreme weather, says : " The snow has been 
 so heavy that for days the only morning paper I had was the sheet of fresh fallen snow 
 in front of my window, which recorded the events of the night beforeto any one who 
 had the eye to see them." " To any one who has an eye to see them," the beauties of 
 winter in Berkshire will be held at as high a value as the glories of the summer time. 
 To such " the winter of discontent never comes." " God exhibits himself in a frosted 
 bush to-day, as much as he did in a burning bush to Moses of old." S. t. p. 
 
 GLENMON "WOOLEN MILL — DALTON 
 
 and the door. These are the homes of " the stayers " — the people who live 
 here throughout the year and who love nature in her winter dress as well as in 
 her summer one. 
 
 A walk through the woods on one of the still, cold days of winter, over the 
 crust of snow, is exhilarating and full of interest, especially if one walks as 
 Thoreau suggested, "like a camel, which is said to be the only beast that 
 ruminates when walking." The 
 leafless trees are hung with icicles, r 
 which sparkle in the sun like 
 jewels, and the evergreens laden 
 with snow are a beautiful sight. 
 "The lady of the woods"— the 
 white birch, with its silver sheen, 
 stands in front of the background 
 of evergreens ; pretty patches of 
 green and brown moss lie on the 
 cold, grey rocks. No sound is 
 heard to break the solitude except 
 the wood chopper's axe. or the 
 "haw' and gee" of the farmer as 
 he drives his oxen down the moun- 
 tain road, with his load of fire- 
 wood, We go up the elevations 
 and we feel that we have reached 
 one of the table-lands of the 
 journey, and it becomes a mount 
 of vision for us. The tints of 
 the sunset sky are never more 
 ethereal than at the closing of a 
 cold winter's day, and the moon- 
 light of a winter's night is marvel- 
 ous in its beauty. True, in a 
 sense the "country stayer" is 
 shut in, and leads a more inward 
 life than in the other seasons of 
 the year. John Burroughs, speak- 
 
 BKRESHIRE GEESE 
 
 GRKTLOCK— LOOKING NORTH FROM THE WILTON FARM 
 
 Berkshire Glass Sanq. — 
 " Godfrey Greylock," in his book 
 called "Taghconic," thus de- 
 scribes the sand in Berkshire, 
 which is used for making glass : 
 
 " It was white and fine as the 
 purest snow that is driven over our 
 mountains. The i magination' can 
 conceive of nothing more bril- 
 liantly white than this mass glit- 
 tering in a July sun. Strangers 
 exhaust their rhetoric in their at- 
 tempts at comparison — the driven 
 snow, salt, loaf sugar, the silver 
 fleece, the fleecy clpud, are all im- 
 pressed into the service. One 
 very young gentleman likened it 
 to his lady's bosom ! 
 
 " They tell a story of one, Mr. 
 R., of Lanesboro, whose good lady 
 had a box of this sand placed upon 
 a shelf, close by a similar box of 
 salt ; but the two getting somehow 
 transposed, Mr. R. gave the sand 
 to his horses, for salt, for some 
 days, before he discovered hismis- 
 take— for the beasts made no 
 mention of it, although un- 
 doubtedly they had it on their 
 tongues." 
 
100 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 WILLIAMSTOWN AND ITS 
 COLLEGE 
 
 The first time I saw Williams 
 town was in the winter. In the 
 morning, at sunrise, it had been 
 biting cold and the snow was so 
 solid and stiff it would hold one 
 up, but as the day advanced the 
 snow softened and the roads be- 
 came slushy. The village of 
 Williamstown is a mile distant 
 from the station, and to get there 
 I took the coach which I found in 
 waiting at the platform and hung 
 on while the vehicle pitched along 
 over a road chiefly remarkable for 
 the number of cradle holes it got 
 in to the rod. The voyage ended 
 in safety at the Taconic Inn and 
 I at once began to explore the 
 town. It is made up of one long, 
 wide street, along which the 
 houses and churches and college 
 buildings cluster thickly, and of a 
 
 4 
 
 OS THE POND — BERKSHIRE 
 
 type, and seems in peculiar har- 
 mony with the country landscape. 
 Williamstown has a remarka- 
 bly charming situation. Its main 
 street rambles up and down the 
 several hills on which it is built 
 and by which it is elevated above 
 the meadow lands surrounding. 
 Its horizon line is an unbroken 
 circle of noble mountains. The 
 wide, chief thoroughfare is a park 
 of well-grown elms, and the village, 
 as a whole and in detail, looks 
 wellkept and thrifty. Among the 
 comfortable homes are several 
 wooden stores, one or two brick 
 blocks, and two commodious sum- 
 mer hotels, but most prominent, 
 of course, are the college build- 
 ings. Of these there are not far 
 from twenty and, besides, a num- 
 ber of well-built college fraternity 
 houses. The proportion of new 
 buildings of goodly size and 
 handsome architecture is larger 
 
 A MORNING VIEW OF BERKSHIRE VILLAGE 
 
 number of side streets on which the dwellings soon become scattering till the streets are 
 merely country roads running over the adjoining meadows and hills. Even far out 
 there are occasional fine summer houses and in the main village are many of them. Of 
 these the new Proctor house is especially notable and to my thinking there is not a 
 more beautiful mansion in the country. It is in the large, square, white-painted colonial 
 
 THE CHAPEL 
 
 THE ROAD TO BERKSHIRE 
 
 BALANCE ROCK— LANESBORO 
 
 than fortune blesses most colleges with and their aspect is increasingly pleas- 
 ing by reason of the fine setting the old town affords. 
 
 The college began work just a century ago this year. 'The president and 
 a single tutor did all the teaching and old West college served for dormitory, 
 chapel and recitation rooms and whatever other purposes were necessary. 
 It was the only building the college possessed. West coHege still stands and 
 in spite of its age shows no signs of decrepitude. It has the appearance of 
 being one of the kind that never wears out, and may be expected to at least 
 last several hundred years to com e, though it may be necessary to occasionally 
 replace the stone doorsills which the passing feet wear away grain by 
 grain. This building stands on the highest knoll of the village, in the middle 
 of the street, as if it were a fortress of defense to which the people might 
 flee in case of assault. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 lOl 
 
 SCHOOL-HOUSE AND METHODIST CHURCH — LANESBORO 
 
 In front of West college I met a man who said, in response to my inquiry, " Yes, Gar- 
 field used to room in this building. He and my uncle used to sweep it out. Garfield was 
 poor and besides sweeping had to cut wood to help out." 
 
 Besides President Garfield, such men as Bryant the poet, several members of the famous 
 Field family, William D. Whitney the noted philologist. Prof. A. L. Perry the political 
 economist, and many others of scarcely less reputation are among the college graduates. 
 
 Near the depot is a village so different from the one 1 have described, it seems hardly 
 a part of the same town. The little Hoosac river wanders along through the hollow here 
 and beneath an old-time covered wooden bridge. Close by is a great brick mill with 
 
 
 Tllh: .si.K TH I.I:N r.XL- nl TIIF._\I1-LA 
 
 LAXESBOBO VALLEY 
 
 OLD COAL KILNS 
 
 A FAEMHOI'SF. 
 
102 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 rather than the boys. The way in which they were put on the head was very expressive. 
 Some had a serious tilt forward ; some a jolly or free-and-easy position on the back of the 
 head ; others had a don't-care or desperate twist sidewise. Without doubt they to some 
 degree expressed the mental attitude of the wearer. They certainly had much more 
 character than the stiff derbies which still linger, or the little caps some wore that stuck 
 to their heads like a clamshell to a clam. 
 
 It was prijme snowballing this particular day and the boys were improving the occasion 
 to the best of their ability. Every time a class came from a hall and began to scatter on 
 the street, the fellows who broke off from the main gang went in a storm of flying balls. 
 Whenever one took a side path he made a dash to gain a safe distance, and then turned 
 
 GRAVE OF JOSHfBILLIKGS 
 
 ''Vt W^ -^^-^'^'^r -3'^'/'*^f 
 
 '"* ' '^"\' ' y"'^' ^^4 ^^^^ '"'^ "" "- 
 
 ON THE VALLEY ROAD 
 
 BIRTHPLACE OF JOSH BILLINGS 
 
 LANESBORO CEMETERY 
 
 ti^'-'. '*''^''' 
 
 -«. 
 
 BAPTIST CHLECH 
 
 attendant rows of white wooden houses. While in this neighborhood I saw a 
 horse flying along a side street, dragging a vacant sleigh. It turned a sharp 
 corner and in a flash the sleigh tipped over and went scraping and plunging 
 along on its side.- Asiit dashed on toward the town, men and boys came into 
 the street and began chasing and yelling. As nearly all the yelling was in the 
 horse's rear he went none the slower on that account. In the evening at the 
 hotel the comment on the runaway was in this wise : " He was a young horse 
 and that's his third time running away. He's spoilt now. He's got the notion 'o 
 running and he'll do it every chance he gets — might just as well sell him to 
 the horse railroad. He'll never be safe anywhere else." 
 
 The college boys about town, in the main, wore the slouch hats that have 
 recently become the fashion, and they were a curious study — I mean the hats 
 
 GRAVE OF JONATHAN SMITH 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 103 
 
 IIKMil' W. SHAW — "JOSH BILLINGS 
 
 ■A boy 
 
 Things I Don't Hanker After to See.- 
 under fifteen with over fifteen bad habits. 
 
 A man who has more hair under his nose than knows 
 under his hair. 
 
 It is not only highly natral tew luv the feriiail sek, but 
 tis highly pleasant. 
 
 Verry few people enjoy munny, bekause tha kant git 
 enufi uv it. 
 
 Dew a good turn whenever you kan even if you hav 
 tew turn sumboddy's grinstun tu dew it. 
 
 The word " kolide," used bi ralerode men, haz an in- 
 definit meaning tew menny folks. Thru the kindness of 
 a nere and dear frend, i am able tew translate the wurd 
 so that enny man ken understand it at onst. The term 
 " kolide " is used tew explain the sarcumstance ov trains 
 of cars triing tew pass each uther on a single trak. It 
 is ced that it never yet haz bin did suckcessfully, hense a 
 "kolide." Josh Billings. 
 
 EPISCOPAL CHUKCH 
 
 to return the fire. Once a fellow threw a snowball through a glass case on a 
 lamp-post. The sound of breaking glass seemed to exhilarate. the students' 
 souls and they joined in a general fusillade of the partly dismantled lamp. I 
 understood, however, that such performances were exceptional and that the 
 students, as a rule, were very considerate of other people's property. . 
 
 In the afternoon I was astonished by the sight of a student running in a 
 wild sort of fashion through the sloppy streets straight along the middle of 
 the way. He was bareheaded and his long hair was flying in a breezy tangle. 
 Except for his black stockings he was dressed in a complete suit of white. I 
 watched him out of sight and wondered what was the matter with him. He 
 
 ♦V 
 
 THE SCHOOLBOY 
 
 A DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE NORTH OF LANESBORO 
 
 tains looming along the hori- 
 zon make a grand frame for 
 the quiet beauty they inclose. 
 This time in town I made 
 views of the house of Presi- 
 dent Hopkins, who for so 
 many years was at the head 
 of the college and whose 
 thought and teaching have 
 been an inspiration to so 
 many of the students who 
 were in his classes. In an 
 evergreen grove beyond this 
 substantial dwelling is a 
 monument which commemo- 
 rates thefact thatonthat spot 
 
 AJI OLD TIMER 
 
 had such a look of serious con- 
 cern on his face I concluded he 
 could not be out for pleasure. 
 
 I visited Wiiliamstown again in 
 June. It was a debatable question 
 whether it was more beautiful then 
 than in winter. The snows bring 
 out all the graceful contours of the 
 hills, and the trees without their 
 leafage allow one many delightful 
 views of the mountains that are 
 hidden in summer. Nevertheless, 
 nature is sleeping in snowtime and 
 many prefer the world of green into 
 which it is transformed a few 
 months later. The town is then 
 enveloped in foliage and, from with- 
 out, the towers and a few high roofs 
 are about all there is to be seen. 
 The village street with its lines of 
 fine old trees and clean lawns is 
 like a park, and the grassy slopes 
 and meadows around, with their 
 symmetrical, isolated elms, are no 
 less delightful, while the blue moun- 
 
 Gt>V£BNOR BRIGGS 
 
104 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 creature,'' that later was carried into execution by several of the party, who 
 were among the first and most notable of our foreign missionaries. 
 
 It was commencement time and the seniors, who were to leave next day, 
 had " high jinks " that night, whatever those may be. At any rate, I was given 
 to understand that "high jinks " were somewhat devious and mysterious in 
 their nature and that they lasted till after midnight. The latter fact was not 
 
 >' *4pJi^-'i 
 
 ON THE ROAD TO NEW ASnFORD 
 
 the American Board of Foreign Missions made its start. The story is, that in a neigl- 
 boring field the students, in the early days of the century, were in the habit of gathering 
 to prayj Once a thunderstorm drove them to the shelter of a haystack, and while the rain 
 drenched the landscape, the thought and purpose came to " preach the gospel to every 
 
 A MOUNTAIN VIEW— NtW ASHFOHD 
 
 H|||||iii^> ^'■isjNr 
 
 IN A PASTURE 
 
 conducive to the early ris- 
 ing of the participants, and 
 in the morning breakfasts 
 were hurried and some run- 
 ning was indulged in to get 
 to chapel on time. The 
 seniors on this occasion 
 wore gowns, and little caps 
 with a square top piece and 
 a tassel, and one of their 
 number said the class look- 
 ed very fine all up in the 
 front seats at chapel. My 
 chief impression of the 
 gowns was that they were 
 not very good to run in. 
 
 The morning was mild, 
 the fields were dewy and 
 blue mists were trailing 
 about the hills. By the 
 time the sun had fairly 
 gained possession of the 
 valley realm about I betook 
 myself to the depot to await 
 the next train east. 
 
 AN \U'rUSIN UEAN STACK 
 
 ^'y^'yii/'.. ,^y^^-s^. 
 
 A I>AT*S FISHING 
 
 A TFARM IH THE VALLET 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE IN LANESBORO 
 
 105 
 
 Embowered in spreading elms and maples, it stands on a hill set apart for the purpose in 
 the original allotment of the land, and before a single house had been built in the township. 
 
 Its square belfrey, surmounted by the traditional white-painted spire, overlooks a rich 
 valley bounded on either side by sentinel hills. The meeting-house itself, a plain, brick 
 
 ,.::«?- 
 
 
 ,' '.» ■ 
 
 
 r-if' 
 
 NEW ASHFORD HILLS 
 
 ON THE KOAD WEST OF THE VILLAGE 
 
 HBW ASHFOBD 
 
 NEAR THE TOWN 
 
 structure, has outlasted for many generations those who originally raised its 
 walls and offered praise and prayer within them. What praise that was — 
 "in the use of the Old Hundredth hymn" — lustily rendered by bass viol, 
 violin and chorus choir ! With what vigor and skill the well-remembered 
 leader guided his singers through the intricate mazes of the anthem or 
 brought out their full lung power in " Crown Him Lord of all ! " 
 
 To-day the broad white doors stand hospitably open as they have on so many 
 Sabbaths past, and the bell peals out its summons, echoing and reverberating 
 from the eternal hills, which caressingly, pr6tectingly shut in the little hamlet on 
 everyside. Indeed, they seem to joininthe everlastingpsalmandtoringinthe 
 day when the "mountains and hills shall break forth into singing" — and shall 
 echo the joy of the whole earth as they have so long echoed its groaning and woe. 
 
 With other summer guests, and the few remaining descendants of the 
 sturdy founders of this church, we ascend the steps of broad, white flagging, 
 cut from the neighboring quarries, and enter the ancient sanctuary. The bell 
 has ceased its measured tolling and the audience — painfully small in com- 
 parison to olden times — is seated in a solemn hush. Here was our child- 
 hood's home ; yet by very few among those there are we recognized and bid 
 welcome with kindly greeting — still for us the whole room is filled with the 
 presence of those who worshiped there in years gone by. 
 
 We are again seated in the old family pew where once our childish feet 
 swung helplessly, guiltless of any contact with the floor and where we whiled 
 -away the "seventhly and eighthly " sermons and "long prayer " by counting 
 over and over again the diamond-shaped panes in the old windows. Perhaps 
 these were open in the drowsy summer afternoons and a buzzing fly or wander- 
 ing bee would saunter in, greatly to the delight of restless youngsters ; or, 
 yielding to the 
 soporific influ- 
 ences of the 
 place and hour, 
 our little heads 
 sank lower and 
 lower till, pillow- 
 ed on father's 
 arm or on moth- 
 er's lap, we slept, 
 blissfully uncon- 
 scious of the 
 "decrees" of 
 " election, justi- 
 fication "and the 
 terrible realities 
 of sin and sor- 
 row which make 
 the message of a 
 Saviour so in- 
 finitely precious 
 to human hearts. 
 The old church 
 has been much 
 changed since 
 thatunconscious 
 child slept there. 
 A fine new pul- 
 pithas supplant- 
 ed the high box 
 affair with its 
 immense sound- 
 ing board be- 
 hind it. The 
 galleries and the 
 old square pews ^ piotukesque ratihe 
 
io6 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 AN IIISTOBIC BARN 
 
 THE KOAD NORTH OF NEW ASHFORD 
 
 vanished lorrg ago, and even those which replaced thetti, are now old. The diaraond- 
 paned windows, too, are gone and the greater comfort of the neat inside blinds hardly 
 atones to us for the loss of the old-fashioned windows — our solace through the weary 
 sermon-time. 
 
 We miss them as we do the faces of our early friends, and how the well-known forms 
 arise before us as we sit in the old place to-day ! In memory's vision, before us sits the 
 
 SOUTH WHiLIAMSTOWN HILLS 
 
 squire's family — " a rosebud garland of girls " long since blossomed into the 
 fullness of reliant womanhood. 
 
 The squire, a distinguished-looking man, with massive brow, sits at the end 
 of the pew, with gold-headed cane between his knees. Here was a man whose 
 fame was by no means local, who had been a member of the chief legislative 
 council of our land, and a personal friend of men whose names will be forever 
 enrolled among their country's most valued sons. 
 
 Nor is the squire's the only name which would be known, should we mention 
 it here; for, not far away sits a young lawyer who afterwards became the 
 governor of his state. And so, from out these old white churches on the New 
 England hillsides have gone forth noble men and women with stalwart faith 
 and consecrated zeal to become bone and sinew of city churches ; to plant 
 the faith of their fathers in new states and territories; to maintain all that 
 
 LOOKING INTO SOUTH WILLIAMSTOWN 
 
 
 j 
 / 
 
 
 1 
 
 ^'^ 
 
 V 1| 
 
 ^ \ 1 
 
 il4 
 
 V ' 
 
 t 
 
 1^ 
 
 1 
 
 ) 
 
 1 
 
 "5]l 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 A ROADSIDE VIEW 
 
 A MANSION ON THE HILL 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 107 
 
 THE CHURCH AT SOUTH WILLIAMSTOWN 
 
 is best and truest in our American life, and to hand down to future genera- 
 tions the priceless heritage of a God-fearing ancestry. 
 
 At the other end of the squire's pew sits his sweet-faced wife, who counts 
 the welfare of this zion above her "chief joy." She is the president of the ' 
 ladies' society, of the missionary association, and, next to those of the minis- 
 ter's.wife, her opinions are sought and respected. She would merit the title of 
 lady in its original derivation of "loaf-giver," did she not by rank or blood. 
 Behind her is another dear old " mother in Israel." Always can that placid 
 
 face be seen in 
 
 its place and with 
 it is associated in 
 our memory the 
 slowly waving 
 palm-leaf fan of 
 summer days, and 
 the little foot- 
 stove carried on 
 her arm into the 
 unwarmed pew 
 for winter com- 
 fort. At this 
 moment the faint 
 odor of fennel an d 
 caraway steals 
 across our senses 
 and a white hand 
 
 SOUTH WILLIAMSTOT^-K 
 
 HANCOCK — DlfSBKTED 
 
 surreptitiously reaches us a few sprigs. 
 Across the aisle is Deacon T., his grey 
 head and broad shoulders bent in prayer; 
 
 Deacon D. comes slowly down the aisle _.: 
 
 with contribution box in hand, and Deacon 
 
 S. sits with keen black eyes fixed on the 
 
 parson, for, with theological lance in rest, he anticipates the 
 
 passage at arms that shall ensue the next time they shall be 
 
 slowly pacing together under the branching elms of the 
 
 village street. There is sweet Lucy T., the belle of the 
 
 village, whose pretty face and dainty gf.wns charmed /jj 
 
 A LOOK TOWARD THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 scenes of her happy girlhood. How the shadows throng 
 around the pastor's pew ! 
 
 Here sits the minister's young wife whose thoughts are dis- 
 tracted from her husband's best efforts by anxiety lest the 
 young olive branches at her side may, by some more out- 
 rageous prank than usual, cause an exchange of knowing 
 
 LOG HOUSE BETWKFN HANCOCK AXD LVSESBOKO 
 
 our childish fancy. 
 Poor girl! The de- 
 sire of half the 
 county, she married 
 a worthless fellow 
 at last and now oc- 
 casionally wanders 
 back in widowhood 
 and sadness to visit 
 the graves of her 
 parents and the 
 
 A VALLEY SAWMILL 
 
io8 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 nearly through his sermonistic effort, (we fear we cannot even 
 tell what the text was,) and the doxology, wheezed out by the little 
 cabinet organ in the corner, recalls us as in an awakening from a 
 dream to the present, but we feel that we have to-day almost 
 "joined the choir invisible!" have worshiped in the old meeting- 
 house with the "great majority." 
 
 If this visit has taught us anything, it is the necessity of 
 " strengthening the things that remain." 
 
 All honor to the brave few, diminished in numbers by removals 
 and death, who are striving to keep the candle alight in the old 
 place ; and shall not those whose paths may stretch far from the 
 old church door, but who tenderly recall the old associations of the 
 ancient house of God, encourage by prayer, sympathy and perhaps 
 financial aid these feeble churches in the hill towns? There are 
 still lost sheep on the hillsides and the watch-fires of pure religion 
 should be kept alight on the mountain tops. 
 
 Anna M-. Fuller. 
 
 THE WILLIAMSTOWN ELM 
 
 looks among the sages, as if to say : '^A^inister's children! What else can you expect?" As this 
 vision fades, the saintly face of another minister's wife is seen. Rapt with an almost more than mortal 
 beauty, that eager, uplifted countenance inspires the burning words of faith and zeal which fall to us 
 from her husband's lips and in her own sweet daily life she is to us a "living epistle, known and read 
 of all men." Here also sits a little auburn-haired girl who has since traveled far from her father's 
 
 first parish and has served her 
 father's God and her own, for many 
 ^ - years as a missionary in India. 
 
 In the pulpit, instead of the 
 young student - preacher whose 
 bodily presence occupies it to-day, 
 a succession of shadowy forms rise 
 and fade away before us as dissolv- 
 ing views on a panoramic 
 canvas. Here stand grave 
 men, high-browed and stern, 
 whose arrows theologic are 
 hurled with a zest ; men 
 whose reputation has been 
 by no means circumscribed 
 and whose influence none 
 can measure. Fatherly faces 
 smile kindly down upon us 
 and the white hands raised 
 in benediction have often 
 patted our childish heads. 
 The young student is 
 
 TWILIGHT 
 
 IN TRAINING 
 
 
 
 THE HANCOCK KOAD 
 
 BETWEEN SOUTH "WILLIAMSTOWN AMD HAHCOCE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 lOQ 
 
 t 
 
 
 1 
 
 '^ _^^J< 
 
 ^'^ 
 
 ri 
 
 E xJ^i + • s » 
 
 
 
 THE WILLIAMSTOWN KLM — SPRING 
 
 AMONG THE HANCOCK HILLS 
 
 
 A DIP IN THE ROAD 
 
 PROFANITY WITH PROVOCATION 
 
 and woe to him who could not hold it, or who failed to "heel in" and "point 
 out " properly. If one, lacked muscle, he must make it up in keeping a keener 
 edge on his scythe. There must be three strokes between mowers ; anything 
 more was lagging, anything less was crowding. From overwork and exposure 
 farmers broke down instrength earlier in life then than now, and had to take 
 their place with the children in spreading swaths and carrying drink. While 
 whetting the scythes, which had to be done every few rods, there was lively 
 banter and brag among the mowers, much of it theological, but there was very 
 little profanity. I remember being with such a gang, where "the old man" had 
 been sent back on one occasion a quarter of a mile, for a jug of the favorite 
 drink — sweetened water and ginger, with a dash of vinegar. The old man in 
 this case was a good deacon, with a countenance of such'profound solemnity 
 and gravity, that, as Charles Lamb would have said, Newton might have deduced 
 
 Before the days of the horse mower and reaper, it was always an interesting sight to 
 See half a dozen stalwart mowers swing off on a big meadow, keeping stroke with mili- 
 tary precision, and taking turns in the lead. It was the incarnation of democracy, each 
 one being a leader in turn. The pace was set by whoever was leader for the time being. 
 
 1 
 
 A CIDER UILL 
 
 IN HANCOCK VILLAGE 
 
 HANCOCK HOMES 
 
no 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 the law of gravitation from it. Just as he reached the group of mowers, who were 
 rnopping their brows and casting out tobacco quids, preparatory to a good swig, the 
 bottom dropped out of the jug. The old man stood a moment, looking in a dazed 
 way, alternately at the bottom on the ground, and the empty shell in his hand, and then 
 slowly ejaculated to himself, "That — beats — the — devil! " 
 
 One or two of the more impenitent sinners among the mowers smiled a little, but the 
 rest were horrified at the good deacon's unheard-of profanity. They could hardly 
 have been more shocked if the minister, in taking his sermon from his pocket on Sun- 
 day morning, had pulled out a deck of cards with it. The deacon made proper con- 
 fession the next Sunday, but claimed great provocation ! e. r. b. 
 
 IIAMCOCK CHURCH 
 
 Curiosities of Natural History. — The following facts, though remarkable, 
 are not solitary; several similar cases are recorded. 
 
 In 1806 a strong and beautiful bug ate its way out of a table made from an apple, 
 tree which grew on the farm of Major General Putnam, in Brooklyn, Conn., and which 
 was brought to Williamstown when his son, Mr. P. S. Putnam, removed to that town. 
 It was cut down in 1786, sixty-five years after it was transplanted, and if the tree was 
 then fifteen years old, it was eighty years old when it was cut down. As the cortical 
 layers of the leaf of the table are about sixty, and extend within about five of ihe 
 heart, as the inner ones are quite convex, about fifteen layers have been cut off from 
 the outside. In 1814 a third bug made his way out, the second having appeared two 
 
 "I'M RISING NINETY-FOUR" 
 
 GRETLOCK OF GRF.TLOCK 
 
 [See also page 91] 
 The patriarch of Elmwood, Iiending low with weight of years, 
 His handsome face a record true of countless smiles and tears, 
 Passed down the street with feeble step, the setting sun the 
 
 while 
 Touching with gold his snowy hair, symbol of Heaven's smile. 
 A trav'ler paused beside him, with, "Your pardon, aged sire, 
 I come irom good old Berkshire, and your blessing I desire " 
 "God bless you, then," the old man sighed, " 'Twas there I 
 
 dwelt of yore, 
 Tell the boys at ' Cheshire Corners ' that I'm rising ninety-four. 
 
 " They'll be coming from ' The Kitchen,' from ' The Notch,' 
 and ' Stafford's Hill,'— 
 
 'Twas in 'The Notch 'that I was born, I see the old home 
 still.— 
 
 Tell them, if down at ' Wolcott's Hall' they dance the ' Money 
 Musk,' 
 
 I'm with them in the spirit, though my body's but a husk ! 
 
 Take a message to my brother George,;'twill do his old heart 
 good ; 
 
 Tell my sister,"— here the old man stopped, a moment doubt- 
 ing stood, — 
 
 " Alas, how I forget myself ! they all have gone before, 
 
 While I^lone am waiting, and I'm rising ninety four ! 
 
 " Take an old man's greeting to his friends, if any yet remain 
 In the dear old town of Cummington, for there with might 
 and main. 
 
 ON THE SHORE OF BERRT POKD 
 
 OUTLET OF BERRY POND 
 
 We fought the demon slav- 
 ery,and there the proph- 
 ets came, 
 
 To kindle in that moun- 
 tain nook fair freedom's 
 sacred flame." 
 
 A gleam of joy illumined 
 then the sage's wrinkled 
 face, 
 
 As sunshinetints aruin old 
 With transient glow and 
 grace ; 
 
 " Ah, glorious days were 
 those," said he, "but I 
 shall fight no more ; 
 
 I'm weary, and would rest 
 me, for I'm rising ninety- 
 four." 
 
 The old man's voice grew 
 weak and hoarse, a tear 
 bedewed his cheek. 
 
 His eyes put on a far-off 
 look, as he went on to 
 speak,— _ 
 
 " My dear ones, they are 
 sleeping in the mountain 
 graveyard lone. 
 
 The Hoosac sings their 
 lullaby when gentle 
 south winds moan ; 
 
 Remember poor old ' Grey- 
 lock,' sir, if e'er you pass 
 the spot, 
 
 For they were true and 
 tender, and shall never 
 be forgot ; 
 
 If friends of mine are liv- 
 ing still, O bless them 
 o'er and o'er,— 
 
 How gladly would I meet 
 them — but I'm rising 
 ninety-four I " 
 
 E. R. Brown. 
 Elmwood^ III.^ i8q3. 
 
 or three years before. The last bug came forth from nearest the heart, and 
 forty-five cortical layers distant on the supposition of its age, from the outside. 
 The tree had now been cut down twenty-eight years. Of course the egg must 
 have been deposited in the wood seventy-three years before. This bug ate 
 about three inches along the grain, till it emerged into the light. The eating 
 of the insect was heard for weeks before its appearance. These facts were 
 given by Mr. Putnam, in whose possession the table still remains, and were 
 first published in the Repertory at Middlebury, Vt., in i8i6. One of the bugs, 
 preserved for some time by the Rev. Dr. fitch, " was about an inch and one- 
 fourth long and one-third inch in diameter; color dark glistening brown, with 
 tints of yellow." — History of Berkshire, fiage jg. 
 
 A (iUMl-MC 
 
 )F CflKSRIUE liESFKVoIR 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 III 
 
 MARK AND ALBERT HOPKINS 
 
 FLUKK LELASn 
 
 The brothers Mark and Albert Hopkins were united, not 
 simply by kinship, but by intellectual affinity and by an inti- 
 mate and life-long participation in the same successful under- 
 taking. Their inheritance from ancestry was of a positive 
 and commanding type. The New England temper, in its 
 more liberal and cultivated form, came to them as a birth- 
 right. They were, by the inevitable drift of their lives, men 
 of refined and earnest sentiments, of large and generous 
 intellectual activity. Their native gifts, their early surround- 
 ings, their later training, and the duties which enclosed them 
 all lay in one direction. They seemed to find, to create and 
 to take possession of a world congenial to them as they 
 went forward. 
 
 The field of their activity was not an ambitious, nor ap- 
 parently a wide one, but they rendered it most memorable 
 and serviceable. Born in Stockbridge, — the one in 1802, the 
 other in 1807,— they were both graduated at Williams college, 
 were soon associated in instruction in the institution, and 
 spent their lives in Williamstown. The 
 younger brother became professor of 
 mathematics and natural philosophy in 
 1829; and the older brother, of moral 
 philosophy and rhetoric in 1830. Albert 
 Hopkins remained a professor till his 
 death, in 1872. His work in later years was 
 confined, first to natural philosophy and 
 astronomy, and at length to astronomy. 
 
 Mark Hopkins became president of the 
 college in 1836, and retained this office till 
 1872. His chief line of instruction was 
 moral and intellectual philosophy. This 
 vvjrk he continued after his resignation, 
 till his death in 1887. 
 
 No two men have been more completely 
 identified with Berkshire county, have 
 more perfectly expressed its best phase of 
 life, have more rejoiced in its liberal gifts 
 or more freely added to them, than these 
 two brothers. The college, the best- 
 known and most influential institution in 
 the county, owes much of its growth and 
 power to them. They were admirably 
 fitted to work together, and to perform 
 
 successfully the particular task which fell to them. The progress of the college was 
 simply the unfolding of their own powers and preferences. 
 
 Neither of them was desirous of any more prominent position than that he held, 
 or any more conspicuous service than that he was rendering. Their successes were 
 slowly accumulative through long lives, and in the end they found, even beyond an- 
 ticipation, that they had built up a college ready to carry on to remote periods their 
 labor and their memory. 
 
 They were fortunate in their surroundings. They were able to exert a powerful 
 personal influence over young men. They had, also, the wisdom to see that this was 
 an ample and adequate task for any man to perform. They were appreciative of the 
 the high character of their work, and rendered it with unfailing enthusiasm. 
 
 There were points of striking contrast, as well as of agreement, between them. 
 They supplemented each other in giving character and strength to the college. They 
 were both possessed of an even, spiritual temper, but the one on the emotional and 
 prophetic side, the other on the intellectual and practical side. The one called out 
 
 TOWN HALL AKD BAPTIST GBCRCH, CHESHIRE 
 
 insight by insight, by a quick, flash-like response tothe import 
 of spiritual things; the other deliberately unfolded and en- 
 forced the reasons of faith, and made faith seem wide, 
 rational and constructive. In the one case, the emotion gave 
 rise to rapturous vision; in the other, the reposeful vision 
 called out firm and sufficient belief. Both men were steadfast 
 in their spiritual moods, but the strength of the one was 
 more instinctive, and of the other more reflective. Both 
 loved to come in contact with men, met them easily, and 
 impressed themselves strongly on those they met, but the 
 words of the younger came forth from a more personal and 
 pungent atmosphere, one charged with more electric and 
 spiritual impulses. The older brother took a wider, more 
 social pleasure in men and delighted in a play of thought 
 that readily included both the jocose and the serious. He 
 did not so much bring a controlling temper with him, as give 
 scope and vivacity to the temper already present. 
 
 Professor Hopkins was strongly drawn to nature, de- 
 lighted in its study, and entertained ^a genuine enthusiasm 
 for its beauty. 1 Dr. Hopkins, while sensitive to physical 
 , objects, sought persons rather than things, 
 = was social in his nature, and formed his 
 habitual pleasure in keeping step with 
 the thoughts of men. The philosophy 
 of the one was natural philosophy; and 
 of the other, moral philosophy. Profes- 
 sor Hopkins strove to bring the inspi- 
 ration he formed in the world to men 
 as an immediate revelation; Presi- 
 dent Hopkins endeavored to widen the 
 processes of mind till they enclosed great 
 fields of light. 
 
 The one brother was active, athletic, 
 full of physical impulse; the other was 
 slow, physically sluggish, and used his 
 large resources simply as so much fuel 
 with which to maintain mental heat and 
 vivacity. Both owed much to bodily en- 
 dowments. Professor Hopkins, tall, erect, 
 firmly knit, with a sharp eye and overhang- 
 ing eyebrow, made the impression of re- 
 serve penetrative power. Dr. Hopkins, 
 large of frame and deliberate in movement, 
 with an open, intellectual and genial face, 
 imparted dignity to speech, and used 
 
 n 
 
 '.v.. #r. 
 
 UNIVEKSALIST CHURCH 
 
 CHESHIRE CORNER 
 
 his physical gifts as a favorable pedestal from which to win the eyes and ears 
 of men. 
 
 The college, slowly gaining breadth and reputation, chiefly by their influence, 
 owed them a very different debt. In instruction, its leading obligation to Professor 
 Hopkins was an earlier and wider interest in natural science than might otherwise 
 have fallen to it. But this influence was by no means so extensive or superior as to 
 have assigned him the position he actually held in the college. His true kingdom 
 was a much larger one. It lay in the world of spiritual impressions. He himself pos- 
 sessed, and so carried with him, a sense of nearness and reality in connection with 
 the higher and more fugitive convictions of his faith altogether unusual. No one ap- 
 proached him in this respect. In all that touched the religious life of the college, as 
 an actual experience of spiritual things, he ruled and ruled alone. It was not easy to 
 shake off the sense of invisible relations in a college or in a community in which he 
 
 (Continued on(pag& 113) 
 
112 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 MiiTHoi*iSr CHUKCH 
 
 LOOKING SOUTH FROMlTHE SCHOOL 'BTJILDING 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 113 
 
 MARK AND ALBERT HOPKINS 
 
 (Continued from page iii) 
 was present as their constant witness. 
 He had the true prophetic spirit, the 
 same in all ages — vision, the product 
 of personal life, personal life momen- 
 tarily renewed by vision. His charac- 
 ter was so faultless that it brought no 
 limitation to his words, even in close 
 contact with sharp-eyed and critical 
 young men. Faith in him as a man 
 enabled him to bear the prophetic 
 mantle as he rendered to us spiritual 
 things. Rarely has one ever inspired 
 more awe, or awakened more suddenly 
 overpowering belief than he speaking 
 from the mount of revelation. There 
 was that in him also which addressed 
 strongly the imagination and grew in 
 successive classes as a mythical con- 
 ception of the man. For many years 
 he did not so much guide, as consti- 
 tute, the religious life of the college. 
 He maintained a daily prayer meeting 
 
 CHESHIRE, ON THE OVTPKIRTS 
 
 in which the petition of our Lord found most direct answer,— Give us this day our 
 daily bread. Professor Hopkins, like his brother, was especially fitted to deal with 
 young men, and it is hudly possible to find another example of:so peculiar, so pro- 
 tracted and so powerful an influence as that which he exerted over the students of 
 Williams college. 
 
 and fully to him. The alumni of Wil- 
 liams college have been remarkable for 
 their loyalty to the institution, and the 
 secret of it has been in a large meas- 
 ure in their personal relations of its 
 earlier years. Nothing is so signifi- 
 cant to life as life itself; and without 
 it, the accessories of life are one and 
 all burdensome. 
 
 The Dr. Hopkins work, in its variety 
 and amplitude, gathered about this one 
 center. He was primarily a teacher, 
 and so a preacher and a philosopher. 
 His sermons were addressed in the 
 same wide and awakening way to the 
 minds of men. His books, were lectures 
 on themes he had handled in the recita- 
 tion room, and his influence everywhere 
 was that of one who knew how to 
 quicken and guide in a clear, practical 
 way the intellectual processes of his 
 own generation. 
 
 Every man of power strikes the 
 circle of his life around some dominant 
 center. It includes or excludes spaces 
 
 ir 
 
 
 
 FEEDINO THE SHEEP 
 
 LOOKING INTO THE VILLAGE FROU THE SOUTH 
 
 here and there as they stand related to the superior tendency. The elaboration 
 of truth, not as a fine-spun theory, an abstraction personal to the thinkers, but 
 as a spiritual process and practice between men and men, was the crowning 
 faculty and force of Dr. Hopkins. To this work he gave himself, where this 
 work is most fascinating and far reaching, in the training of young men. He 
 overlooked many things. He took little satisfaction in accumulation — the 
 material of knowledge so easily becoming the rubbish of knowledge — or in 
 handling the details of life, but he chose, with the clear election of a large mind, 
 that good part which the progress of years shall not take from him. 
 
 Berkshirelias no more picturesque features, in its social unfoldingj than these 
 
 Dr. Hopkins was much superior to his brother as an instructor. His^'powers 
 
 all culminated in the recitation room. He brought to it a genial interest in young 
 
 men, a pleasure in making and guiding their thoughts, — slow or nimble as they 
 
 chanced, — a large, free and fearless handling of the topics of discussion, and a 
 
 sportive satisfaction in the responsive attitudes different minds were taking in 
 
 the rapid fling of the truth, backward and forward. In the active rebound of 
 
 thought he showed the dexterity and pleasure of a boy playing his ball against 
 
 a barn. Many teachers have given more information than President Hopkins ; 
 
 few indeed as much impulse as he. He was not avaricious of knowledge. He 
 
 preferred rather the power of the mind itself, and he made of instruction an 
 
 intellectual gymnastic in which his pupils put their strength to instant exercise. 
 
 If this end — effort directed toward the truth — was reached, he cared little what 
 
 particular opinions and facts had furnished the occasion for it. He belonged to 
 
 that earlier school which is always passing out of vogue and always returning into 
 
 vogue according to the measure of our personal powers, that school in which life 
 
 andlifeonly is relied on to beget life. With the immense accumulation of the 
 
 material of knowledge which has overtaken us, the pupil is often put to the 
 
 hard work of harvesting facts, till eager in acquisition and slow in assimilation 
 
 he says to himself, I must pull down my intellectual barns and build greater that 
 
 I may have where to store my goods. The person knowing was always greatly 
 
 superior with Dr. Hopkins to the thing known, and he never undertook to add 
 
 dignity to moderate endowments by loading them down with stuffed panniers. 
 
 This spirit made his exercises delightful even to the less eager minds, and few 
 teachers have called out the respect and persorjq.1 aftacbnjent which fell so readily 
 
 THE TRON FURNACE 
 
INDEX TO TEXT 
 
 EDITORIAL 
 
 Introductory, 
 
 Notable Men and Women in Berkshire, 
 Picturesque Western Massachusetts 
 
 Complete, 
 
 Some Facts about Berkshire County, . 
 Trials of the Early Settlers, . 
 What the Book Is and Is Not, 
 
 CONTRIBUTED 
 
 A Berkshire County Eel Story, 
 
 A. E. Bartlett, 
 A Greylock Pilgrimage, Elbridge Kingsley, 
 A Story with an Application, 
 
 Edwin R. Brown, 
 
 Great Origins in Berkshire, 
 
 H. M. Plunkett, 
 Greylock. A Poem, Julia Taft Bayne, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 5 
 
 27 
 6 
 
 65 
 
 S2 
 
 74 
 
 Greylock of Greylock, Edwin R. Brown, 
 "I'm Rising Ninety-Four," E. R. Brown, 
 Maplewood Institute, Anna L. Dawes, 
 Mark and Albert Hopkins, 
 
 Prof. John Bascom, 
 Profanity with Provocation, E. R. B., 
 Teaching in a Country School, 
 
 Henrietta S. Nahmer, 
 The Agassiz Association, 
 
 Harlan H. Ballard, 
 The Dear Old Homes of Berkshire, 
 
 Susan Teall Perry, 
 The Old Meeting House in Lanesboro, 
 
 Anna M. Fuller, 
 The Pet Holstein. A Poem, 
 
 Laura Sanderson, 
 The Ride About the County, 
 
 Clifton Johnson, 
 Pittsfield, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 no 
 
 3° 
 
 .1" 
 
 109 
 
 36 
 24 
 
 105 
 
 North Adams, Clarksburg, Adams, Ches- 
 hire, Windsor, 45 
 
 North Adams and Adams, .... 68 
 Windsor Jams, Savoy, Florida, . . 71 
 Peru, Hinsdale, Dalton, Berkshire, . 80 
 Lanesboro, New Ashford, South Williams- 
 town, Hancock, 84 
 
 Williamstown and its College, . . 100 
 
 Two Eccentric Ministers 114 
 
 Winter Among the Berkshire HillSj 
 
 S. T. P., 98 
 
 Woodland Tramps, Arthur Harrison, 42 
 
 SELECTED 
 
 72 An Endless Variety of Scenery, , -115 
 A Pen Description of the Berkshire 
 
 Hills u 
 
 19 Oliver Wendell Holmes, . . 114 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Frontispiece. Greylock. 
 
 Elbridge Kingsley. 
 
 TOWNS AND VILLAGES DESCRIBED 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Adams, 72-78 
 
 Blackinton, ... ... 46-47 
 
 Maple Grove, 77-78 
 
 Cheshire, 110-115 
 
 Clarksburg, 71 
 
 Dalton, 
 Florida, 
 Hancock, 
 Hinsdale, 
 HoosAC Tunnel, 
 LanesborouGh, . 
 
 Berkshire, 
 New Ashford, . 
 North Adams, . 
 Peru, 
 
 . 90-99 Pittsfield, . 
 
 68 Savoy, . 
 
 107-109 Williamstown, 
 
 86 South Williamstown, 
 
 . 70-71 Windsor, 
 . 99-103 AUenville, 
 
 . 99-100 Windsor Jams, 
 
 104-106 East Windsor, 
 
 . 34-50 Windsor Hill, 
 
 83 Wahconah Falls, . 
 
 • 6-33 
 
 . 62-67 
 
 51-61 
 
 107-109 
 
 . 79-82 
 
 81 
 
 61 
 
 82 
 
 81 
 
 82 
 
 CiARK W. Brtas Compart, PrinfCTs, SPRiNGprELi). Mass. 
 
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 EC 
 
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Picturesque Berkshire 
 
 PART II-SOUTH 
 
 Complete in Two Parts, with 1200 Illustrations 
 
 PICTURESQUE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 
 SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 
 
Picturesque Berkshire 
 
 Published by the Picturesque Publishing Co., Northampton, Mass. 
 
 CHARLES F. WARNER, Editor and Manager. 
 
 This work is published in two parts, showing north and south sections of the county. 
 Uniform with previously issued volumes of the " Picturesque " series. Price, Family 
 Edition, in one volume. Cloth, $4 ; each part separately bound, $2 each. Holiday Edition, 
 both parts, $6. The book will be sent, post or express paid, on receipt of check or money 
 order. Address 
 
 THE W. F. ADAMS COMPANY, 
 
 Old Corner Bookstore, 
 
 Springfield, Mass. 
 
 Other Publications of the Picturesque Publishing Company 
 Northampton, Mass. 
 
 Comprising the four western counties in Massachusetts (with 
 Berkshire as above) as follows : 
 
 Picturesque Hampshire. 
 
 In one volume, uniform in style with Picturesque Berkshire. 
 Cloth, $2. 
 
 Picturesque Franklin. 
 
 In one vplume, uniform with the above named. Cloth, $2. 
 
 Picturesque Hampden. 
 
 In two parts, showing east and west sides of the county. Family 
 Edition, in one volume. Cloth, $4 ; in separate parts, also Cloth, 
 $2. Uniform with the series. 
 
 Any of the above named publications will be sent on receipt of 
 price named, in the form of a check or postal note. 
 Address 
 
 THE W. F. ADAMS COMPANY, 
 
 Old Corner Bookstore, 
 
 Springfield, Mass. 
 
 IN PREPARATION: 
 
 " Picturesque Worcester," " Picturesque Catskills," '" Picturesque 
 Detroit," " Picturesque Boston." 
 
 COPYKlGHt, 1893. BV THE PiCTURESyUE PUBLISHING CO., Norchampton, MisS. 
 
NTROD 
 
 The -traveler, passing from the northern to the 
 southern part of a pleasant land, leaving scenes which 
 have lighted the eye and thrilled the' sense, will often 
 find himself unexpectedly confronted by new visions 
 of loveliness, surpassing any he has left behind. His 
 past impressions are by no means obliterated ; on t^ie 
 other hand, his joy in the treasures of beauty whicli 
 his eye caught up and engraved qn his, memory is 
 intensified by the newer visions. For in the illimita- 
 ble capacities of the sense of beauty, no object once 
 seen can be suppressed, but all objects cling together 
 in one harmonious impression. 
 
 In this Second Part of Picturesque 
 Berkshire, in which we traverse the south- 
 ern section of the county, we trust that 
 those whose eyes dwell on these pages, as 
 well as those who have studied the First 
 Part, will find open to themthe happy experi- 
 ences of the fortunate traveler. 
 
 No doubt the settlement of Berkshire in- 
 volved almost incredible hardships. The 
 wilds were subdued in the face of constant 
 perils from the savage foe. The pioneer, as 
 he with immense labor made a clearing in 
 the primeval forest, doubtless deplored the extra toil 
 which the removal of these huge growths cost him, be- 
 fore he could prepare his land for the seed. But Nature, 
 in her exuberance, took no thought of human ease. 
 Yet is there not great wisdom manifest in the distri- 
 bution of her favors? Are there not compensations 
 to atone for the hardships she imposes ? ^ 
 
 The toil-worn farmer in his hillside home, glancing 
 over" his cultivated acres, and remembering how the 
 swinging axe had to precede the plough, how the cpn- 
 suming fire had to complete the work the axe begun — 
 
 but still happy in the pride he feels in his native hjUs ; 
 still conscious of the vigor with which the free moun- 
 tain air had nerved his arm ; of the priceless health 
 with which his children had grown to hardy manhood 
 and beautiful womanhood — does he think he would 
 exchange places with the pioneer of the prairie, with 
 its inevitable malaria, its sickly atmosphere infected 
 with chills and fever, and without a single hill in sight 
 to relieve the dreary monotony of the dull, flat and 
 painful expanse? The plain may have grown no tim- 
 ber to be first cleared away, but it is destitute of'" 
 
 THE MODERN LENOX VILLA 
 
 mountain breezes and inspiring summit-views, and all 
 those charms which bring calm content to him who 
 dwells where the deadly cyclone can never paralyze 
 him with its midnight dread. So the Berkshire farmer 
 may gaze on fields made fertile by toil. Labor has 
 won- its triumphs; the wildness of Nature has been 
 tamed, and he may cast no look of regret at sunnier 
 and warmer lands. 
 
 But the landscape is 
 not yet complete in its 
 possible beauty. And now 
 comes Art, with its hand- 
 maid Wealth to complete 
 the picture. The more 
 generous instincts of our 
 common nature are not to 
 be stifled in the crowded 
 
 marts of trade, and the glare of Fashion cannot 
 blind the eye to the glories of the hillside, the cloud 
 and the sunset. An intelligent .sense of beauty, 
 armed with the ample resources elsewhere garnered, 
 now surveys the scene, and splendid improvements 
 are to adorn the barren wastes. 
 
 A new style of architecture supplants the old. 
 The square and bare box of a dwelling has had ils 
 day. It was the best the early settler could con- 
 struct, and let him have all praise that for his time 
 he could do so well. But now on a site selected by 
 the best taste, the modern villa attests the progress 
 of Art — affluent of varied an2;Ics and far-seeing 
 towers, rich in cornice and capital, magnificent in 
 outline — the crowning beauty of the scene. 
 
 And where are the nobler qualities of human 
 nature displayed in more useful service than where 
 man devotes his means and his genius to the work 
 of adorning the face of Nature, and applying the 
 pruning knife to the lavish excess with which she 
 has loaded the green earth ? Here an obstruction is 
 to be leveled, there an unsightly ravine to be filled 
 — prosaic methods, to be sure, but very poetic in 
 results. In one place are terraces ; in another, lawns. 
 And, when impertinent objects are cleared away, 
 a new landscape appears, the very shimmer of 
 which is the breath of undreamed-of rapture. 
 
 And so the natural adornment is made more 
 lovely by the touch of Beauty. Man does nowhere 
 seek, indeed, to "gild refined gold," or to "add a 
 new perfume to the violet ; " but his labor 
 may fairly challenge admiration when he 
 brings the hidden gold from its native 
 recesses to glisten in the sunlight, and 
 clears away the dead leaves that have 
 choked the violet, that it may unfold its 
 matchless loveliness and send its fra- 
 grance heavenward. 
 
 Nor are these beauties entirely cov- 
 ered by tide deeds, for the humblest citizen 
 of Berkshire is entitled to feel a personal 
 pride as he gazes on the wonderful de- 
 velopments of Nature and Art in these 
 hills and valleys. As the summer visitors throng 
 to these abodes — and nearly every town is enlivened 
 by their presence — the darker cares of life fly 
 before their advent. The resources of refined 
 taste are devoted to the forms of recreation which 
 
 the season invites. 
 ^>.' "" ' Nor can it all be con- 
 
 fined to an exclusive 
 world. The passing 
 " Tally-ho " summons 
 girls to the windows of 
 farmhouses and boys 
 to the farm fences. 
 And while Music sends 
 its notes out on the 
 still night air, and 
 Beauty whirls in the 
 rapture of the mazy dance — while the hills re-echo 
 the sounds of pleasure — it is not to be forgotten 
 that the native youth and maiden are sharers in all 
 this free and fair delight. 
 
 Thus it is to be hoped that in a winter home 
 in the distant city, the pages of Picturesque 
 
 COMFORTABLE rARMIIOUSE 
 
 A GLIMPSE THROUGH A NOTCH IX THE JIODSTAISS 
 
Berkshire will become a memento of happy hours 
 passed in this beautiful land, while in many a farm- 
 house fond eyes will linger on the beauties of famihar 
 scenes. 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE SOUTHERN "SENTINEL" 
 
 SONG TO BERKSHIRE 
 Tune : " The Old Oaken Bucket ' 
 
 Dear Berkshire, dear birthplace, the hills are thy towers, 
 
 Those lofty fringed summits of granite and pine ; 
 No valley's green lap is so spangled with flowers. 
 
 No stream of the wildwood so crystal as thine. 
 Say, where do the March winds such treasures uncover? 
 
 Such maple and arrow-wood burn to their full. 
 As up the blue peaks where the thunder gods hover 
 
 In cloud-curtained Berkshire who cradled us all? 
 Then here's to old Berkshire, 
 To granite-ribbed Berkshire, 
 To cloud-curtained Berkshire who cradled us all ! 
 
 The voice of her fame is in tongues without number ; 
 
 It laughs through the torrent, it lurks by the cave ; 
 The brown matted sod, where the weary limbs slumber, 
 
 Is sweet with the praise of the shrewd and the brave. 
 In legends long hallowed, in jest and in story. 
 
 The rude scattered hamlets their founders recall. 
 And love follows close on the footprints of glory 
 
 In broad-bosomed Berkshire, who beckons us all. 
 
 OUNT EVERETT, or 
 , " The Dome," as it 
 is more popularly 
 called, has become 
 possessed of much 
 the same affection 
 ^nd pride of the 
 people in its vicinity 
 that Greylock has 
 with its friends in 
 the north part of the 
 county, and all the 
 inhabitants of the 
 county glory in them 
 both. While Grey- 
 lock is more widely 
 known throughout the country, peyhaps, in print, "the 
 Dome'' and its contiguous territory was generally 
 visited by admirers of Berkshire scenery some time 
 before Greylock, probably because accommodations 
 for summer visitors were sooner offered in the south- 
 ern part of the county, and the picturesque views in 
 the vicinity of the mountain are not equaled in any 
 other section of it. Rough and primitive as the 
 
 tion at Mr. Spurr's place in Mt. Washington, and 
 furnish interesting reading. 
 
 The Dome 
 
 Ascend the Dome — Taconic's topmost height. 
 And gaze upon the billowy land below. 
 
 A Land of Hills I that bursts 'upon the sight 
 Like the great deep, swol'n with convulsive throe. 
 The hills, like waves, seem heaving to and fro. 
 While gazing as from some tall vessel's mast. 
 
 Thine eyes sweep o'er that circle's gorgeous show, 
 Till, objects crowding on them thick and fast, 
 They shrink before a scene so volumed and so vast. 
 
 C. P. D. 
 
 Dr. Timothy Dwight, in his "Travels in New Eng- 
 land and New York," thus speaks of the mountain: 
 
 "Taghconic, clad at this time in misty grandeur, 
 partly embosomed and partly capped by clouds, par- 
 ticularly ornaments the landscape. Its sides are not 
 precipitous, nor its summit angular, but it is everywhere 
 limited by lines which are flowing and graceful. This 
 fact has always appeared to some to sensibly diminish 
 its magnificence; still it is a highly sublime object." 
 
 Rev. Dr. Edward Hitchcock, president of Amher.st 
 college, ascended the mountain in 1845, and thus wrote 
 of it and the little town in which it lies : 
 
 "The height of Mount Everett (the Dome) is 
 rather more than 2,600 feet. It is surprising how little 
 
 vn-;\V {.OUTII, OVKlt Tni! IIOUSATONIC valley, from GROVNDS of JOIIK E. PAKSONS, LESOX 
 
 A health to old Berkshire, 
 To honor-crowned Berkshire, 
 To broad-bosomed Berkshire, who beckons us all ! 
 
 In camp or in court or as fortune may find us. 
 
 Like children we turn to the purple-topped Dome ; 
 We go where we must, but our hearts are behind us — 
 
 Thy name is of childhood, thy breath is of home ! 
 The long shady street in our dreams we remember. 
 
 The smooth sloping orchard, the vine-mantled wall, — 
 In dreams we return with the snows of December, 
 To sound-hearted Berkshire, who waits for us all. 
 Then here's to old Berkshire, 
 To old, happy Berkshire, 
 To sound-hearted Berkshire, who waits for us all ! 
 
 Dora Read Goodale. 
 
 Thou shalt look 
 
 Upon the green and rolling forest tops, 
 
 And down into the secrets of the glens, ' 
 
 And streams that with their bordering thickets strive 
 
 To hide their windings. Thou shalt gaze at once 
 
 Here on white villages and tilth and herds. 
 
 And swarming roads, and there on solitudes 
 
 That only hear the torrent and the wind. 
 
 And eagle's shriek. 
 
 William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 accommodations were, at first, when Milo Smith 
 opened his hospitable farmhouse to city boarders, a 
 hearty welcome and clean, wholesome quarters and 
 food, with plenty of pure air, were sufficient to en- 
 courage the annual hegira of hundreds of transient 
 guests every summer to the town of Mount Washing- 
 ton, and to inflame them, almost invariably, with an 
 ambition to emulate the example of Longfellow's 
 youth, who cHmbed as he cried "Excelsior! " 
 
 Greylock and "the Dome " have been often called 
 the "twin sentinels of the county," and their repre- 
 sentation in the northern and southern parts of this 
 work comes quite as a matter of course. Doubt- 
 less thousands who have visited these mountains will 
 appreciate their "counterfeit presentments," impossi- 
 ble even, as it is, to here convey any idea of the sensa- 
 tions connected with a close actual acquaintance with 
 their charms. The visitors to "the Dome" comprise 
 a multitude — many of them famous men and women 
 — some of whom have left their names and records 
 of their impressions in the visitors' books near the 
 mountain. In one of them may be found the fol- 
 lowing : These books may be seen now, upon applica- 
 
 is known of this scenery in other parts of Massachu- 
 setts. I doubt whether nine out of ten of our intelli- 
 gent citizens beyond Berkshire county are not igno- 
 rant of the existence of such a township within our 
 limits. And even in the vicinity, very few have ever 
 heard of the scenery of that place, which almost re- 
 pays a lover of nature for a voyage across the Atlantic." 
 For many years the mountain was called "the 
 Peak," and it is thought that a colony of Swiss, loca- 
 ted at its base, gave it that name. Catherine Sedg- 
 wick refers to the mountain, in her story, " The Boy 
 of Mount Righi." When President Hitchcock visited 
 it he gave the name " Mount Everett," to the disgust 
 of many. Dr. Orville Dewey made many protests, and 
 Miss Sedgwick wrote the following lines thereupon: — 
 
 Oh, call it not Mount Everett ! 
 
 Forever 'tis the Dome 
 Of the great temple God has reared 
 
 In this our Berkshire home. 
 
 And let the name the red man gave 
 
 To all this mountain range 
 So sacred be that other term 
 
 Shall seem an utterance strange. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 Taghconick — what that name imports - 
 Has been but vainly guessed. 
 
 As Urim let it reverence claim, 
 Worn on that rugged breast. 
 
 OUR ARTISTS AND OTHER 
 HELPERS 
 
 The "Picturesque" publica- 
 tions have, in their inception and 
 progress, been singularly fortunate 
 in the esteem and interest which 
 has been extended them by some 
 of the foremost artists of the 
 country. Prominent among such 
 artists the management are pleased 
 to have placed such a name as 
 that of Kingsley, the painter-en- 
 graver. He has constantly incited 
 to high ideals in this line of work, 
 and his suggestions have helped 
 
 forward, so that the experiment is now made of issuing Picturesque Berkshire 
 as a purely art work. It is well understood that the claim for this of an art work, 
 will be disputed by some ; such a heterogeneous mass of pictures, it v/ill be said, 
 cannot be considered an art collection of great value. But that depends upon the 
 plane of effort upon which one stands. One may sigh for "more worlds to 
 conquer," and, like Archimedes, for a place to put his lever, but he can only con- 
 sole himself .; with the thought that "All things come to him who waits." One 
 thing at a time must suffice the accomplishments of the " Picturesque" publica- 
 
 lot of work, and in none of the 
 "Picturesque" books has the 
 varied life of the people and their 
 institutions been more carefully 
 pictured. 
 
 Walter Cox and William L. 
 Maclean of New York and Fred- 
 erick Knab of Chicopee have con- 
 tributed striking pen and ink work, 
 and we are indebted to J. L. War- 
 riner, Esq., of Pittsfield, H. F. 
 Keith and Isaac Spurr of Mount 
 Washington, H. S. Gopdale of 
 New York, S. S. Wheeler and 
 the Berkshire Mutual Insurance 
 Company, also of Pittsfield, the 
 Sedgwick Institute and Artist 
 Costello of Great Barrington, 
 and Prof. Dodd of Williamstown, 
 for many originals, and to many 
 others for single rare pictures. 
 Credit is due to the Boston En- 
 graving Company for the excellent results achieved with the now favorite half- 
 tone process. The notion was long ago exploded tliat only New York concerns 
 could do justice by such work, and the quality of the illustrations in tliis work 
 will long be referred to with pride by every son of Berkshire. 
 
 pLD-TIME LEXOX 
 
 ON MAIS STItEET 
 
 tions management, and it is believed to be a step forward that this book is 
 issued without anything savoring of advertising in its pages. Mr. Kingsley has 
 inspired to this end, and in so far he has been a friend and helper. Of the part 
 he has taken in engraving for all these publications, what need be said ? '• It is 
 Kingsley!" That is enough, except that it might also be said, in allusion to 
 his magnificent frontispiece of Greylock, here is something which must ap- 
 peal to every son of Berkshire. Never, it is believed, has 
 this subject been better treated. Kingsley's Greylock must 
 take its place among the best of the engraver's works. 
 
 The artistic motive power, so to speak, of this work was 
 in the hands of Clifton Johnson of Hadley and R. Lionel 
 DeLisser of New York, in the order of the books. Mr. 
 Johnson's work in other "Picturesque" publications has 
 given him reputation, and his name is now becoming a 
 familiar one in the world of letters, throuj^h his contributions 
 to the leading magazines 
 and some excellent bools 
 of the day. 
 
 The Southern Berk- 
 shire country is to be con- 
 gratulated that so excel- 
 - lent an artist as Mr. De- 
 Lisser has been enabled 
 to picture its charms. He 
 has hterally ransacked 
 this beautiful section, and 
 only lack of space pre- 
 vents the use of many 
 more pictures than are 
 even now seen in his 
 crowded Second Part. It 
 is, however, a representa- 
 tive and carefully selected 
 
 THE OLU COLKT-IKUSE — NOW THE CHAIJI.ES SEDGWICK LIBKARY 
 
 Without good printing, however, the book would be a 
 failure. Good paper, fine engraving and interesting text 
 would all be spoiled except for care in " the art preservative 
 of all arts," and so tribute is rendered to the printers, the 
 Clark W. Bryan Company of Springfield, Mass., who were 
 constrained by all the ties of self-interest and kinship, as 
 '•to the manor (Berkshire) born" to make this book, in 
 mechanical execution, the crowning one of the series, as it 
 ccrtainlv must be conceded to be. 
 
 TUK EGGLESTOS MOXIMENT 
 
 ON CLIFFWOOD STREET 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher 
 thus wrote, in his "Star 
 Papers," of scenes in 
 Lenox, some of which are 
 pictured in these pages : — 
 
 " If one spends July or Oc- 
 tober in Lenox, they will hard- 
 ly seek another home for the 
 summer. The old church 
 stands upon the highest point 
 in the village, and if in summer 
 one stands in the door, and 
 gnzes upon the vast panorama 
 he might, without half the 
 Psalmist's devotion, prefer to 
 stand in the door of the Lord's 
 house, to a dwelhng in tent, 
 tabernacle or mansion." 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 NEAU THE CL'KTIS HOTEL 
 
 THE OLD CHURCH 
 
 THE "PICTURESQUE" SERIES 
 
 For the convenience of those who desire to know some- 
 thing in detail about tlie other "Picturesque" books of 
 Western Massachusetts, it may be said that " Hampshire," 
 the first book issued, has Northampton, the " Meadow City," 
 for its center of description. This is the seat of Smith col- 
 lege, tor women, and the center of a great educational in- 
 fluence. Within a radius of eight miles there are more 
 institutions of learning than in any similar area in the United 
 States. The scenic beauties of the place and its surround- 
 ings have been commemorated in song and story by many 
 famous writers, and the beauties of the Hampshire hills are 
 considered by many fully equal to those in the other western 
 counties. Here William Cullen Bryant, Charles Dudley 
 Warner and J. G. Holland were born, Jenny Lind lived sev- 
 eral summers, and Jonathan Edwards first thundered forth 
 his anathemas against sin and iniquity. 
 
 "Little Franklin," often so called, was represented in the 
 sfecond book issued of the " Picturesque" series. The beau- 
 
 a very interesting manner, 
 and Holyoke, as a manu- 
 facturing place, is made to 
 show many hitherto hid- 
 den artistic places. 
 
 Elbridge Kingsley con- 
 tributed a frontispiece to 
 all these books, and Clif- 
 ton Johnson had the gen- 
 eral art management. 
 It would seem that no 
 private or public library 
 in New England ought 
 hereafter to be considered 
 complete without the 
 series. Information as to 
 price, etc., will be found 
 on the back of the title- 
 page of this book, and all 
 editions are limited. 
 
 THE OLD ACADEMY 
 
 THE BIRCHEN ROAD TO THE DEPOT 
 
 A SCENE NEAR THE DEPOT 
 
 tlful inland town of Greenfield is 
 the shire seat of this county, and 
 the hill towns about are rich in 
 beauty. Indian history, too, 
 gives the Deerfield valley a 
 deep tone of romance and trag- 
 edy, and the book is one of the 
 most artistic of the series. 
 
 " Picturesque Hampden," the 
 last of the series issued before 
 the Berkshire books' publication, 
 is in two parts, one taking 
 Springfield and the other Hol- 
 yoke for centers of description, 
 each with those towns on each 
 side of the Connecticut river 
 to which they are related. In- 
 land city life is here depicted in 
 
 AN INTERESTING DOCUMENT 
 
 LENOX STATION 
 
 Itwasnotlongafterthethrowingof theteainto Boston harbor, 
 in 1774, that many patriotic towns and cities all over the country 
 took measures to discourage or "boycott" all importations of 
 Great Britain. Among these towns was Lenox, and its example 
 in drafting and securing the signatures of its citizens generally 
 to a pledge was what led to similar action elsewhere. The 
 paper circulated in Lenox reads as follows and was called 
 
 " The Lenox Covenant 
 
 " Whereas, the Parliament of Great Britain have of late undertaken to 
 give and grant away our money, without our knowledge or consent, and in 
 order to compel us to a servile, submission to the above measures, have pro- 
 cefded to block up the harbor of Boston; also have or are about to vacate 
 the charter and repeal certain laws of this province, heretofore enacted by the 
 General Court, and confirmed to us by the king and his predecessors : there- 
 fore, as a means to obtain a speedy redress of the above grievances, we do 
 solemnly and in good faith covenant with each other— 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 9 
 
 " jst, That we will jiot import, purchase, or consume, or suffer any person for, by or 
 under us, to import, purchase, or consume in any manner whatever, any goods, wares, or 
 manufactures which shall arrive in America from Great Britain, from and after the first 
 day of October next, or such other time as shall be agreed upon by the American Con- 
 gress ; nor any goods which shall be ordered from thence from and after this day, until 
 our charter and constitutional rights shall be restored, or until it shall be determined by 
 the major part of our brethren in this and the neighboiing colonies, that a non-impoita- 
 tion or non-consumption agreement will not have a tendency to effect the desired end, 
 or until if shall be apparent that a non-importation or non-consumption agreement will 
 
 CUCRCII STKEEr, FKOJI WALKER 
 
 not be entered into by the majoaty of this and the neighboring colonies, except such ar- 
 ticles as the said General Congress of Noith Ameiica shall advise to import and consume. 
 "2dly, We do further covenant and agree that we will observe the moststiict obedi- 
 ence to all constitutional laws 
 and authoiity, and will at all 
 times exe;t ourselves to the " 
 
 utmost for the discouragement 
 of all licentiousness and the 
 suppression of all disordeily 
 mobs and liots. 
 
 A VIEW (IN A XATLEAL FRAME) OVEK LENOX — SOUTHWEST FkOMrrlAZZA OF JESll' PLACE 
 
 it, shall not adhere to the real intent and meaning thereof, he or they shall be treated by us with all the neglect 
 they shall justly deserve, pai ticularly by omitting all commercial deiling with them. 
 
 " 6thly, That if this or a similar covenant shall, after the first day of August next, be offered to any trader 
 or shopkeeper, in this county, and he or they shall refuse to sign the same, for the space of forty-eight hours, 
 that we will, from henceloith, purchase no article oi'Brilish manufacture or East India goods from him or them 
 until such time as he or they shall sign this or a similar covenant. 
 
 " Witness our hands, dated at Lenox, this 14th day of July, 1774. 
 
 The above was signed by over 
 ninety heads of families in Lenox. ^AW^' '^ „E. ''^J^ 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF LENOX 
 
 THE TOWN HALL 
 
 To recollect Lenox, — " Lenox the 
 Beautiful," as it has been called by an 
 enthusiastic admirer, — means to rec- 
 ollect the most popular, and at the 
 same time most beautiful autumn 
 resort in America. What nature has 
 left undone to make the place attract- 
 ive has been supplied by the hand of 
 man, so that to-day the countless 
 magnificent summer homes vie in 
 wealth and beauty with those of New- 
 port, Bar Harbor, and the other 
 famous resorts. An English tourist, 
 who had made a circuit of the world, 
 once said of Lenox that it is the most 
 beautiful spot on the face of the earth. 
 This is a good deal to say, but thdse 
 who live there and those who have 
 passed seasons in its borders all agree 
 that Lenox the "Beautiful" well fits it. 
 
 CATHOLIC cnuRcn 
 
 So long as my recollections of Lenox do not date back to 1769, when the 
 the first church was established there, and when the name was taken proba- 
 bly from Charles Lenox, the Duke of Richmond, I shall not attempt to go 
 into the' early history of the town. Instead, it will be my province and 
 pleasure to give my impressions and recollections extending back ten or more 
 years. I shall never forget when in the early morning in the latter part of 
 
 THE EPISCOPAL CHfRCll 
 
 "jdly. We will exert oui selves, as far as within us lies, in promoting peace, love and unanimity 
 among each other, and for that end we engage to avoid all unnecessary lawsuits whatever. 
 
 "4thly, Asastiict and proper adherence to the non-importation and non-consumption agreement 
 will if not seasonably provided against, involve us in many difficulties and inconveniences, we do 
 promise and agree, that we will take the most prudent care for the -raising of sheep, and for the manu- 
 facturing all such cloths as shall be most useful and necessary, and also for the raising of flax, and the 
 manufactuiing of linen, further, that we will, by every prudent method, endeavor to guaid against all 
 those inconveniences which might otherwise arise from the foregoing agreement. 
 
 " 5thly, That if any person shall refuse to sign this or any similar covenant, or, after having signed 
 
 VIEW ON MAIN STREET, WEST 
 
10 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 m%Mt 
 
 SIIATTL'CK— " BROOKIRKST'* 
 
 STABLE ON THR JESLP TLAOk, LENOX 
 
 THE FRELINGHUYSEN PLACE 
 
 September I approached Lenox. 
 There was a chill in the air, 
 but coming from the lowlands 
 it seemed so clear, pure and in- 
 vigorating that to inhale it was 
 like old wine. But the beauty of 
 the scene was so impressive that 
 I thought little of the air. The 
 approach to the town is hardly 
 attractive. Leaving the train 
 on the Housatonic railroad, the 
 tourist finds himself with only a 
 small and decidedly unattract- 
 ive wooden station in view. 
 The town is two miles away, 
 but the drive, especially in the 
 early morning, is delightful. 
 Through a thick forest, with 
 great shade trees nea'rly arching 
 over the road, past cornfields 
 and acres of golden grain shin- 
 ing in the mornings sun, by orchards with gnarled old apple trees, — not perhaps the 
 oldest inhabitants can tell how old, — thickly hiing with late fruit; up the winding hill 
 road all the, way, until one enters the main street of the toWa. And all during the ride, 
 especially if it be for the first time, new beauties of landscape are continually 
 unfolding to the 
 view, until one- - 
 
 wonders how so 
 many varieties 
 of view can be 
 gathered to- 
 
 gether in one 
 section. Butun- 
 til the tourist 
 reaches the town 
 he sees only na- 
 ture — nature un- 
 adorned. It is re- 
 served for him 
 until he reaches 
 the town to see 
 architectural 
 and an artificial 
 beauty. There 
 the two are com- 
 
 be so favored, rent 
 
 some one of the cot- 
 tages or mansions for 
 
 the season, or better 
 
 still for a term of years. 
 
 During many seasons 
 
 of the past the latter 
 
 was a popular mode 
 
 for life in the town, as 
 
 many cottagers were 
 
 absent in Europe, and 
 
 some of the most at- 
 tractive cottages were 
 
 let with advantage to 
 
 tenant and owner. 
 I need scarcely 
 
 speak of the past when 
 
 I say that the well-regulated society person can no more neglect a visit to Lenox during 
 
 some part of the season than he can omit to observe Lent or to speak French at 
 
 dinner. So fashionable is the place that the society 
 butterflies are watched as closely as the hands on the 
 dial of a clock, and the people who are within the 
 charmed circle know as surely, and can indicate as 
 clearly,. when the fashionable people are to arrive. 
 The surface of the town is delightfully diversified in 
 the north and western sections by picturesque hills and 
 valleys, and the Lenox mountain, on the border of 
 Richmond, in the eastern part. Here is found the 
 deep and wide gorge known as "the Gulf." Nature 
 has indeed spread her favors with a lavish hand 
 through the section, but none have received richer 
 gifts than Lenox. It was formerly the shire town of 
 the county, but the removal of the court-house to 
 Pittsfield did not take with it many of the old and 
 noted New England families. Much of the wealth, 
 culture and refinement of the county remained there, 
 and they still remain. Now, as in the olden time, the 
 lover and student of nature goes to Lenox for his sum- 
 mer and autumn pleasure. 
 
 THE V,'. B. BACON PLACE 
 
 ■^^.I^ 
 
 EESIDENCE OF MORRIS K. JESUP 
 
 Both my reader and myself are losers because my recollections do not 
 extend back to the days "when Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dr. Channing, 
 Charlotte Cushman, and other noted persons of the past frequented 
 
 THE AN60N PHELPS STOKES PLACE — " TliEHOMESTEAD ' 
 
 bined. Perched high 
 on a broad and fer- 
 tile plateau, and over- 
 looking the beautiful 
 hills and vales of 
 Berkshire, stands 
 
 Lenox, the pride antl 
 glory of those who are 
 fortunate enough to 
 live within its bound- 
 aries, and the Mecca 
 of the thousands who 
 go there each summer 
 and fall because it is 
 fashionable, and who 
 in order to do so flock 
 to the hotels, or if they 
 
 RESIDENCE OF WM. D. SLOANE— "ELM COUliT ' 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 II 
 
 .VMi:i: I'Lvi 
 
 Till. Bl>lli'l 1 I. 
 
 Till-: .r<i>ti'ii \v, lu i;i>: 
 
 TlIK WuiiL^KV I'LAf'K- 
 
 C01:SE11 OF THE IIAVEX liESIDEXCE 
 
 the Berkshire hills. But next to remem- 
 bering the celebrities is to remember 
 those who remember them, and that 
 it is my good fortune to be able to do. 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne went to Lenox 
 from Salem in 1850, and the three years 
 which followed are designated as the 
 "productive period" of his life. Cer- 
 tainly he accomplished a vast deal in a 
 literary way during the years he was at 
 Lenox and the subsequent period of his 
 life at Concord. Perhaps more was ac- 
 complished during the time he lived 
 among the hills than at any other period 
 of his wonderful life. After having written 
 the book that made him famous, '" The 
 Scarlet Letter," he buried himself among 
 the hills, and produced in rapid succession 
 " The House of the Seven Gables," begun 
 and finished while he lived in Lenox; 
 '• The Blithedale Romance," drawn from 
 experiences found elsewhere, but put into 
 shape there, " The Wonder Book for 
 Boys and Girls," "Tanglewood Tales," 
 " The Snow Image," and his short " Life 
 of Franklin Pierce." 
 
 Only recently I saw a letter written by 
 Hawthorne to his publisher in October, 
 1850, and it recalls my last visit to his 
 quaint, homely little cottage. It seems by 
 his letter that the famous novelist drew , 
 inspiration from the hills when the leaves 
 were turning, for he writes as follows : 
 
 " I shan't have the new story ready by 
 November, for I am never good for any- 
 thing in the literary way until after the 
 first autumn frost, which has somewhat 
 such an effect on my imagination that it 
 has on the foliage here about me, — mul- 
 tiplying and brightening its hues ; though 
 they are likely to be sober and shabby 
 enough after all." 
 
 Before it was burned down it was my 
 pleasure to visit the little red cottage, 
 perched high on the hills, and near the 
 famous Stockbridge Bowl, in which Haw- 
 thorne lived during this fruitful, if not 
 eventful period of his life. All that could 
 be said for the dwelling was that it was 
 picturesque. It certainly was not com- 
 fortable, and the successful novelist 
 of to-day, his son Julian, for instance, 
 would not live there for a day. The few 
 rooms were close and inconveniently 
 arranged, and the only charm came from 
 the view of the surrounding hills. That 
 was perhaps enough to compensate for 
 the discomforts the family must have 
 found in the cramped and narrow quar- 
 ters. Yet, Julian tells me the family was 
 happy there, and that his father worked 
 through the day, and sometimes far into 
 the night. There are those still in Lenox 
 who remember distinctly the famous 
 author. To one of these I once went for 
 information regarding his life while in the 
 Berkshire hills. I was told that he lived 
 almost entirely by himself, that the people 
 of the vicinity saw very little of him. 
 Occasionally he went to Lenox to buy 
 provisions, or for something he needed, 
 as he did to Pittsfield, but the villagers 
 saw little if anything of him socially. He 
 wore his hair long, and, in the words of my 
 informant, '' always appeared to be think- 
 ing." To think was considered almost 
 a crime in those early days of American 
 literature, and it is needless to say thai 
 among the people of the vicinity Haw- 
 thorne was anything but popular. 
 
 This anecdote of Hawthorne was told 
 to me, and is now printed for the first 
 
 w \ l;|i's l;i:,s|i.i,.\ri-; - " i. \K\\( 
 
 Ml>.s 1 . 11 i;M.--^ ri. ' 
 
 IMI'sE iiK THE IMIKIJ'S STukEs TL 
 
 'rilE (iix.UiJlAN 1-1. \rE — '■ Y(.iKl N 
 
 ■"■J ■ ■' i'w ■ ■"-^^-;-■V^ / 
 
 EKTRAKCE TO THE MCKIM COTTAGE 
 
12 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE I'OLSOM PLACE — " SUNNY RIDUE" 
 
 LOWER ENTRANCE TO THE WOOLSBY PLACE 
 
 time. He was far from ricli in the goods of the world 
 when he lived in the little red cottage, and so long as he 
 could not afford to keep a carriage he walked when he 
 had to go to Lenox. But he was a good deal of a pedes- 
 trian, his health was never better than during the lime 
 he lived in the hills, and he in no way objected to a long 
 tramp in the bracing autumn air. One morning when 
 he was reluming from Lenox, laden with bundles and 
 baskets filled with purchases of househbld goods, he met 
 a farmer who asked him to ride. " Ride,'" he said, look- 
 ing squarely in the farmer's eye, "ride, why, only the 
 rich man rides. Did you ever hear of Adam riding? It 
 is a new fashion, and I belong to the older generation." 
 Then remembering his natural courtesy, which he extend- 
 ed to every one, he added, " I thank you, but I love to 
 walk, and I love your beautiful Berkshire hills." 
 
 But now the little red cottage, which was in later years 
 visited by so many people, has been destroyed, and all 
 
 MRS. DE P. caret's PLACE —" GUSTY GABLES " 
 
 and the lovers of the beautiful. To 
 watch the foliage during the summer 
 months, as green as the sea, take upon 
 itself the richer 'and more beautiful 
 coloring, is always a delight. To go 
 to Lenox to see the leaves turn has 
 grown to be am expression widely 
 known among the people who fre- 
 quent the fashionable resorts, and the 
 expression means a vast deal to the 
 lover of nature and nature's ways. 
 
 It is in the glorious autumn days 
 when the coaching parades come, 
 when the finest turnouts of the sec- 
 tion are brought out, and when the 
 fashion and beauty of Lenox is best 
 displayed. The tub parade never 
 ceases to be a novelty, and its never- 
 
 THR LIVINGSTON PLACE — " OSCEOL \ LODGE," 
 
 that is left of Haw- 
 thorne in the Berk- 
 shire hills, are the 
 memories of him, 
 and tliey are fas^t 
 becoming so dim 
 that it will take only 
 a very few years 
 to entirely obliterate 
 them. 
 
 It is not wonder- 
 ful that the visitors 
 to Lenpx are enthu- 
 siastic over the beau- 
 tiful hills. They 
 have a charm pe- 
 culiarly their own. 
 
 taking as they do the pleasure-seekers 
 from the larger seaside and northern 
 resorts when the summer season closes. 
 It is doubtful if any other northern 
 resort could hold out sufficient induce- 
 ments to draw the great number of 
 tourists who go there every autumn. 
 Once there they stay. The beauty of 
 the place is enchanting. When the 
 visitor goes there in the summer he 
 cannot and will not depart until he 
 sees the leaves turn. This is the 
 delight of the hills. The great stately 
 maples, the hickories and oaks, all 
 take upon themselves different color- 
 ings; the maples the brightest scarlets and yellows, the hickories dull browns and bronzes, and the 
 oaks the richest maroons and sober tints. Looking off over the broad sweep of valley below the 
 pl.iteau upon which the town rests, the scene during the autumn days is a most wonderful and pictur- 
 esque one. Skilled and noted painter^ have gone to the hills from time immemorial to transfer to their 
 canvases the rich and beautiful colorings of the foliage, and some of them have succeeded, but the 
 task has been a difficult one, and they have goae away little satisfied with their work. Perhaps no- 
 where in the world is the autumn landscape coloring so rich and beautiful as in the vicinity of Lenox, 
 or, to put it more broadly, throughout the Housatonic valley and the Berkshire hills. The panorama 
 seems all the time changing, — always offering special pleasures and novelties to the lovers of nature, 
 
 RESIDENCE iJb EGMO.NT SCUEKMERHoKN 
 
 THE LENOX CLUB HOUSE 
 
 ending variety gives to it a continual charm. I shall liever for- 
 get the first tub parade I witnessed in Lenox. It was in 1883. 
 1 1 seems as though the later ones were not so brilliant, and that 
 
 AUCHUUTY — ''THE DORMERS '' 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 13 
 
 THE H.VIECLAY PLACK— "IJONME BIJ VE ' 
 
 HOME 
 
 Outside fall the snowflakes 
 lightly ; 
 Through the night loud raves 
 • the storm ; 
 In my room the fire glows 
 brightly, 
 And 'tis cozy, silent, warm. 
 
 Musing sit I on the settle 
 By tlie fire-light's cheerful 
 blaze. 
 Listening to the busy kettle 
 Humming long forgotten 
 lays. 
 
 Heine. 
 
 
 
 THE r.^STURia GATE 
 
 THE LITTLE SCHOOLGIRL OF 1820 
 
 '»WWW«P»^WII«( 
 
 SCHEUSrEKHOUX K^TATE ENTRANCE 
 
 they did not so abound in variety and beauty. It 
 was more of a novelty then in this country, there 
 having been few if any held, and all who took part 
 seemed to vie one with another for beauty and 
 artistic effect. Then, as now, there were all sorts 
 of equipages in the parade; the drag, the dogcart, 
 the tallyho, the stately landau — all figured in the 
 great procession — and all were decorated, not only 
 with the rich and varied flora of the' section, but 
 with banks and clusters of blossoms from the 
 private and public green-houses of Lenox and the 
 surrounding towns. Added to this was the turning 
 and turned foliage of the " thousand hiljs," crimson, 
 maroon, yellow, brown and gold. The perfectly 
 groomed horses, the handsome women in gay and 
 becoming costumes, and the elegant and well- 
 dressed men, all formed a most attraciive part 
 of the picture, and one which one who has seen it 
 is not likely to soon forget. The tub parade seems 
 
 to herald the close of the society season, for after it many of the cottagers and visitors go away 
 But even though the season closes, Lenox has its charm. Many of the stately old mansions 
 open their doors during the winter season, and when they are opened out of season the visitor 
 finds all the hospitality and comfort of the southern or colonial home. But to its friends, — 
 to those who appreciate it, — Lenox is always hospita]3le, and its guests are always welcome. 
 
 Albert Hardy. 
 
 Grandmamma was ten years old when she went to school at the Lenox Academy. 
 Schoolmasters were very severe in those days ; they never allowed a scholar to be 
 spoiled because of sparing the rod. But about this time a new schoolmaster came 
 who did not believe in corporal punishment. He had many novel ways of punishing 
 the offender. One morning, very soon after he had entered upon his duties, he intro- 
 duced "Ichabod" to the scholars. " Ichabod" was a round stick of wood, two feet 
 long ; it was dressed in a grotesque manner and had a foolscap on its head. Any 
 scholar who broke a rule of the school, or did anything to offend the teacher, would 
 have to take " Ichabod " and go to the " Court-house," (Lenox was the county seat at 
 that time), and make a bow, or a courtesy, to the judges and the squires. For a number 
 of days the sight of "Ichabod," standing in the corner, was enough to keep every 
 
 scholar right up to the standard. Any 
 
 BL'TTEKNUT COTTAGE — MliS. 
 
 boy or girl would far rather take a good 
 whipping than go with " Ichabod" to the 
 court-house. One afternoon while the 
 teacher stood in the middle of the room, 
 with a pin between his thumb and finger, 
 waiting for the scholars to become quiet 
 enough to hear the sound of its drop- 
 ping on the floor, grandmamma broke 
 the silence by laughing aloud. How 
 could she help it when the boy who sat 
 nearest to " Ichabod," stuck a piece of 
 broken pipe in the mouth of the grotesque 
 figure while the stern man's back was 
 turned. " Eliza ! " thundered out the deep 
 voice of the schoolmaster, " lake ' Icha- 
 bod ' and go to the court-house." Poor 
 little Eliza! There was no demurring 
 from the demands of those who were in 
 
 THE OLD HILL 
 
 NEAR wood's FOKD 
 
 authority in grandmamma's time. Obedience was inculcated in children's 
 education from their earliest years. 
 
 Eliza took "Ichabod" in her arms; not a scholar dared even to give her a 
 look of sympathy, although she was a great favorite, not only with her young 
 companions, but with her elders as well, because of her bright, cheery disposition. 
 
 Eliza was a pretty child, and as she stood in the door of the court room and 
 made her courtesy to the honorable body, they looked very stern and wise. 
 They had heard of the new schoolmaster's mode of discipline and were bound 
 to stand by him and uphold his form of government. Grandmamma turned and 
 
H 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 went out as soon as sbe could, feeling that she was disgraced for ever- 
 more in the eyes of those wise men, but one of the judges, with his 
 quill^pen stuck behind his ear, came out and followed the little girl 
 down the steps and asked her what her offense had been. " I laughed 
 out loud, sir," little Eliza replied, hanging down her head so the curls 
 almost hid " Ichabod." The judge patted her gently on her head, and 
 
 IN THE SHADE AT STEADMAN'S BROOK 
 
 Edwards in the 
 church at Stock- 
 bridge, was invited 
 to the house of a 
 brother divine in 
 an adjoining town. 
 This divine was 
 very fond of "the 
 cup that cheers 
 but does not inebri- 
 ate." Patriotism 
 audi divinity went 
 hand in hand and 
 tea had been ban- 
 ished from the table 
 of these good par. 
 sons in the county. 
 No tea was men- 
 tioned in the invi- 
 tation to take " supper." On arriving Dr. West was confounded .by the steaming urn on the 
 table, with its' tempting odor. But the persuasion of his brother divine and the circumstances 
 induced for once a compromise. The doors having" been carefully locked and the curtains 
 drawn, they proceeded to the enjoyment of the tabooed beverage. Scarcely had the first sip 
 crossed their lips when a loud knock at the door upset their pleasure and the urn as well, 
 which, in his attempt to conceal, the sleeve of the host caught ancj turned its torrid contents 
 
 CliOSS-ROADS — LENOXDALE AND LEE 
 
 said, kindly : " Well, child, don't do such a thing as that again in 
 the schoolroom, but laugh as long and as loud as you want to out- 
 side of it. The Bible tells us that ' A merry heart doeth good like 
 a medicine.' " Grandmamma's burden of disgrace was made so 
 much lighter by these words and the merry twinkle in the judge's 
 eye, that she felt she had not committed an unpardonable sin after 
 all. She marched back to school with a much livelier step, and a 
 sort of triumphal look on her face, that indicated to her companions 
 that her punishment had not been greater than she could bear. 
 
 The Lenox academy is just the same outwardly as it was in 
 those earlier days, I am told. So it could be used for an illustra- 
 tion to this article, and an old-fashioned little schoolgirl pictured to 
 go with the incident, which is strictly true. The old court-house 
 is still there and I believe is used for town business. 
 
 Susan Teall Perry. 
 
 AN UNLUCKY TEA PARTY 
 
 When the " Tea Question " was at its height in the hands of our 
 government, Rev. Stephen West, who succeeded Rev. Jonathan 
 
 •n ■•- '" ,. -«I*V 
 
 ' :l''i"^^^m^^Mi 
 
 EUINS OF THE HAWTHOKNE HOUSE 
 
 into the lap of his guest. Close-fitting small clothes and stockings proved a poor defense, and for a few 
 moments the words and demeanor of the victim were anything but clerical. Yet Rev. Stephen West was 
 reverenced so much for his great piety, that it is related that at the time of' Shays' rebellion, his was the 
 only house not molested. His power over the children was so strong in its influence for gdod that a little 
 boy- who had to go at nightfall through the woods after his father's cow, and who was a very timid boy, kept 
 up his courage by constantly repeating : " Old Dr. West ! Old Dr. West ! " sure that nothing would harm 
 him while he possessed such a protection. ' ' 
 
 NIGHT 
 
 COLDEN-KOD 
 
 How beautiful is 
 night I 
 A dewy freshness fills 
 
 the silent air ; 
 No mist obscures, nor 
 cloud, nor speck, 
 nor stain, 
 Breaks the serene of 
 heaven ; 
 In full orbed glory 
 yonder moon divine 
 Rolls through the dark 
 blue depths ; 
 Beneath her steady 
 
 ray 
 The desert circle 
 spreads, 
 Like the round ocean, 
 girdled with the 
 sky; 
 How beautiful is 
 night ! 
 
 Southey. 
 
 THE r.l!IIK;E AT STEADMAN S BEOOK 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 15 
 
 
 BEADY FOE THE TUB 
 
 ;is<^^?&»isfexs'--. 
 
 THE OLD COURT-HOUSE 
 
 of her regard for Mr. Charles 
 Sedgwick, for a long time clerk 
 of the courts, a man greatly 
 respected and loved by all the 
 people of Lenox and the county. 
 It is now generally known as 
 " Sedgwick Hall." Mrs. Scher- 
 merhorn placed the title in five 
 trustees, for such uses by the 
 town as are indicated by the 
 name given it. She died soon 
 after the purchase, and her son, 
 Mr. t'. Augustus Schermerhorn, 
 and her daughter, Mrs. Col. 
 Auchmuty, put it in complete 
 repair. Later, the old court 
 room, being deemed unsafe for 
 large assemblies, Mr. Schermer- 
 horn built an addition for 
 that purpose known as the 
 "Assembly Room." The pres- 
 ervation of the building for 
 many years yet to come has been 
 thus secured and in a manner 
 highly appreciated by the town. 
 
 This old 
 
 The old court-house in Lenox is 
 an object of especial interest and is 
 one of the very few buildings of the 
 olden time which have been preserved 
 to the present day. Erected in 1S15-16, 
 of brick, two stories in height, at a 
 cost of $26,000, of which the town of 
 Lenox contributed $3,500, it is of a 
 style of architecture simple and beau- 
 tiful. This cost does not seem a large 
 sum in this day, especially in com- 
 parison with the more costly marble 
 court-house in Pittsfield, but relatively 
 it is quite as much, and in the eyes of 
 many the building is not less attractive. 
 It took the place of a stillmore simple 
 wooden structure known then as the 
 " Old Court-house," built in 1788, when the sessions 
 
 lIEXKir WARD BEECHER 
 
 EOLU o'clock tea 
 
 of the courts were removed from Great 
 Barrington to Lenox, 
 which became thereafter 
 the shire town. The 
 courts were held in this 
 building from the time of 
 its erection till the re- 
 moval of the county seat 
 to Pittsfield in 1868. 
 Soon after it was vacated 
 by the courts and county 
 officers, it was purchased 
 of the county by Mrs. A. 
 C. Schermerhorn, apublic- 
 spirited lady of New 
 York, who resided in an 
 elegant summer home in 
 Lenox. She gave to it the 
 name of "The Charles 
 Sedgwick Library and 
 Reading Room," in token 
 
 court-house will, while it remains, be 
 associated with the early history of the Berkshire 
 bar and with a manner of social life long since 
 passed away. The conditions under which the 
 early life of that bar became so charming have 
 disappeared, and the like will never return. Lenox 
 was then a small, quiet village filled with a delight- 
 ful social life of its own, of people of culture and 
 distinction. During all that time the town was 
 without railroad, telegraph, or telephone. Lawyers, 
 in court time, gathered there for the week and 
 sometimes longer, and while there, formed with the 
 people of Lenox a social circle unusually attract- 
 ive and brilliant, spending their leisure hours out 
 of court in entertainments and social intercourse 
 where wit and repartee of rare quality enlivened 
 the passing hours. 
 
 AFTER THE TLB PARADE 
 
 ..^r^^V '&'■^'"^^^■ 
 
 ^-^ 
 
 EVENING OS LAUREL LAKE 
 
 NEAR THE^SIETHODIST CHUUrU 
 
 The bar of the county, in 
 those days, took high rank 
 in that of the commonwealth 
 for the learning and ability 
 of its members, and this 
 building has been the theatre 
 of many forensic contests of 
 great interest, taken part in 
 not only by lawyers of Berk- 
 shire, but also by those of 
 the old county of Hampshire 
 and of the adjoining county 
 of Columbia in the state of 
 New York. The records of 
 these contests and the tradi- 
 tions of their unwritten his- 
 tory would form material for 
 rare and entertaining story. 
 
i6 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 Contemporaries who yet survive give most interesting descriptions of the distinguished 
 actors of those times, and of striking characters among the officials and other habitues 
 of the courts when they were held here. The sheriff, arrayed in blue coat with gilt 
 buttons and buEf waistcoat, with cockade in hat and drawn sword in hand, going in 
 and out by the side of the judge — the crier in wig, and himself as time-worn as the 
 walls of the building, opening and closing the daily sittings of the court with as murli 
 formality and solemnity as if the portals of/ the temple of justice itself opened and 
 
 .V LOOKOUT ON LAUKEL LAKK 
 
 AT THE BOAT LASDISG, LAUUEL LAKE 
 
 the present spacious public house so favorably known among summer 
 visitors. Here, when the work for the day was over, the lawyers passed their 
 evenings in a freedom of social intercourse and in discussions and idebates, 
 enlivened by wit and repartee nof often equaled for brilliancy or spirit. At 
 nine o'clock Mr. Curtis always appeared in their midst with something warm, 
 and if there had been any lagging of interest it soon revived and seldom failed 
 to rise higher than ever. Marvelous were the stories which Mr. Curtis 
 
 shut at his command — and the venerable doctor of jJivinity, the lofty rhetoric of 
 whose prayers invoking, at the beginning of each session, the guidance and blessing 
 of the god of justice upon all engaged in its administration, was like the music of a 
 deep-toned organ — these and other unique and worthy personages, who contributed 
 so miuch to the respect and awe which the courts of justice in olden time inspired — 
 
 ON WOOD S POND 
 
 NEAE THE LENOXDALE SMITHY 
 
 broughtin every 
 night, with' his 
 creature com- 
 forts always pre- 
 pared with un- 
 surpassed skill. 
 It was not his fault if any one went 
 away ignorant of the minutest detail 
 of current or uncurrent gossip pertain- 
 ing to any phase of Berkshire life. He 
 was often prodded with interrogatories 
 and applauded for the wisdom of his 
 answers. He had a genius for his call- 
 ing, carried a big heart and a warm 
 
 I.EXOXDALE CENTEU 
 
 THE HOTEL AT LENOXDALE 
 
 all have passed away with their generation. It would be well 
 if their portraits adorned the walls, of this old court-house, 
 reminding all who go in and out of^its doors of the days 
 when justice was there meted out without the fear or favor 
 of man. 
 
 Outside of the court-house, but always associated with it 
 in the memory of those times, was the home of the lawyers 
 at the house of Ochran Curtis, on the opposite side of the 
 street. The host was the father of the popular proprietor of 
 
 DAM A>'P BRIDGE, LEKQ^DAI^S 
 
 hand. Since his death there 
 has been no one like him. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Shepard, 
 whose prayers were so promi- 
 nent a feature at the. opening 
 of every session of court, 
 was a grand personality. He 
 commanded the most affluent 
 and gorgeous rhetoric in all 
 his utterances. It was once 
 said of him by an irreverent 
 lawyer that " Dr. Shepard 
 never used a word of less 
 than ten syllables in all his 
 prayers." Be that as it may, 
 it was his own fault if any 
 one was no better for listening 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ; A HAILSTORM IN BERK- 
 SHIRE 
 
 17 
 
 LEXOX CEMETF.ltY 
 
 *' I will not rise to trouble any one if they will let me sleep here. 1 i 
 my head and lyolc out on this glorious scene." — Fanny Kembli Butter. 
 
 'ill ask only to be permitted, once in a while, to raise 
 
 to them, for all in their turn, the judge who was to preside, the lawyers who were to 
 conduct the causes, the parties litigant, the witnesses called upon to testify and the 
 jurors who Were to wfeigh the evidence were, each in their proper order, separately 
 and impressively presented in fervent petition for special guidance in language that 
 
 no one ever mocked. He was ever 
 
 ^ATHA^•IEL HAWTHOIISE 
 
 a welcome guest at the Curtis house 
 where, without loss 
 of dignity, he made 
 himself one with 
 the lawyers in what- 
 ever entertained or 
 delighted at their 
 celebrated evening 
 sessions, contribut- 
 ing his full share of 
 wit and humor to 
 tlie good-cheer of 
 those occasions. 
 
 Mr. Charles Sedg- 
 wick, clerk of 
 courts, whose name 
 the building now 
 bears, was the 
 charm of court life 
 at Lenox. He was 
 
 a gentleman of the highest culture and attainments, qualified to 
 adorn any public station or social position, of a personality most 
 attractive and a character most lovable. To lawyers and laymen 
 alike, his demeanor was so winning that every one deemed him a 
 devoted friend. His office in the court-house was the resort of 
 whoever had a leisure hour for social amenities or pleasant 
 conference, and no one ever turned from his door who had not 
 been gladdened by his smile and cheered by a kind word. This 
 building, though it has ceased to be a court-house, will still carry 
 with it the pleasantest memories so long as it shall be called 
 " Sedgwick Hall." 
 
 H. L. Dawes. 
 
 Among the diversified expe- 
 riences of a varied life, nothing 
 is more vivid than the recollec- 
 tion of a hailstorm that 1 wit- 
 nessed some years ago in the 
 town of Lenox. I was at that 
 time a humble member of the 
 useful and popular tribe of 
 •' summer boarders." I had gone 
 in search of a country retreat 
 where I could, for some weeks, 
 enjoy the delights of seclusion 
 and repose, "far from the mad- 
 ding crowd's ignoble strife." By 
 a lucky chance I discovered my 
 paradise in a farmhouse, where, 
 contrary to the fate of some 
 sojourners, the fare and hospi- 
 tality were all tliat my imagina- 
 tion had conjured up. I soon found that this farmer was not of the New Jersey 
 type, pictured in the funny papers, who reduce a beefsteak to tenderness by the 
 use of a mallet and chopping block. In fact, beefsteak was not often on the 
 table ; but the sweet-faced farmer's wife served me with viands which forestalled 
 any regret that the meat markets were at a distance. 
 
 This gentle woman had the gift of imparting to every dish she prepared a 
 delicious flavor, which might have been the envy or the despair of a Parisian chef. 
 One dish in particular, frequently on the table, was a revelation of the sweeter 
 
 glories of the culinary 
 art. From a memo- 
 
 FAKNT KKSIBLE BCTLER 
 
 HAIVTHOKXES LITTLE RED HOUSE 
 
 randum which I per- 
 suaded her to give me, 
 and which is now lost, 
 I found that it was 
 compounded of salt 
 codfish, eggs, and 
 cream, with some other 
 simple ingredients that 
 I have now forgotten. 
 If you partook of that 
 )-ou knew what was 
 meant by the phrase 
 "table luxury." 
 
 When, the next win- 
 ter, I gave a supper 
 to a few friends at 
 
 But to me there is a pe- 
 culiar, quiet charm in these 
 broad meadows and gentle 
 eminences. They are better 
 than mountains, because they 
 do not stamp and stereotype 
 themselves into the brain, 
 and thus grow wearisome 
 with the same strong impres- 
 sion repeated day after day. 
 A few summer weeks among 
 mountains, a lifetime among 
 green meadows and placid 
 slopes with outlines forever 
 new, because continually fad- 
 ing out of memory — such 
 would be my sober choice. 
 Hawthorne. 
 
 CIIAKLOTTE CUSHMAN 
 
 UN 1{0\1> FJ:0M LENOX TO STOCKBIJIDGE 
 
 Delmonico's, I asked, showing my memoran- 
 dum, if I could have that dish served among 
 others, and was told that it should be done, per- 
 fectly, though it was rather below the art of their 
 cuisine. I fondly fancied that I should give my 
 friends a surprise. But on tasting it, none of 
 us could eat any. I concealed my bitter disap. 
 
i8 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 A FINE ELM NEAR THE 
 
 pointment ; but I reflected 
 that it is the divine gift of 
 cooking, and not the ma- 
 terials of which a dish is 
 composed, that conduces 
 to digestion or commends 
 it to the palate. How 
 many women there are, 
 unknown to fame, who in 
 in this, as in other arts, 
 surpass the proudest 
 achievements of men. 
 
 I arrived at this farm- 
 house at the close of a 
 long day and a tiresome 
 journey; and that night I 
 sank to slumber between 
 the whitest of sheets, feel- 
 ing that I could willingly 
 resign the joys of New 
 York. 
 
 I wandered for days 
 amid the most magnifi- 
 cent ; scenery. I found 
 such calm restfulness 
 among the hills, and felt 
 an influx of so much new 
 life and vigor as I looked 
 over the varied landscape, 
 or listened to the music of 
 the mountain streams, 
 that I asked myself if it 
 
 MISS SAKGEUT'S fXem BUILDINGS IN LENOX 
 
 of a window, engaged in writing. Several partly finished manuscripts were 
 lying on the table in scattered heaps. They were the fruits of the desultory 
 occupation with which I beguiled my idle hours, — sketches and studies to be 
 afterwards polished into forms fit for the editor's eye. Noticing that the 
 bright sunshine had become obscured, I turned my eyes and saw that a cloud 
 of exceeding blackness was rising' above the summit of the hill. With the 
 passing thought that a shower of possibly unusual violence was soon to 
 burst, I gave my attention again to my work. In a few moments I heard a 
 slight patter on the windows. I looked again, and saw a spectacle that 
 must be forever inlpressed on my memory. 
 
 A solid wall of hailstones was rushing towards the house, as though the 
 heavens had discharged a million Galling guns at once, and sent against me 
 an irresistible volley. I say a " solid wall," because the storm did not ap- 
 proach in detached masses or irregular shapes, but rose in its perpendicular 
 terror with a smooth and even front, and compact as the serried ranks of a 
 
 A BIT Of LAUREL LAKE 
 
 should ever be my lot to behold anything 
 more impressive and sublime. But a new 
 wonder was to come. 
 
 The house at which I had been for 
 some weeks a guest was situated near the 
 top of a hill. One afternoon, early in 
 August, I was seated at my table in front 
 
 " MRS. GAINES 
 
 'KITTY AND ME 
 
 THE LATE COL. AUCHMUTY'S 
 WAR HORSE 
 
 m^^M^^M" 
 
 READY FOR THANKSGIVING 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKS trt RE 
 
 19 
 
 military phalanx. For some seconds I was lost in wonder, before I apprehended 
 the portending danger. I sprang up, and had just time to draw back the table from 
 the window when the embattled storm struck the house. The instantaneous 
 destruction was sublime. Every pane of glass 6n that side was broken. At the 
 first stroke they were nearly all demolished ; and then the few that remained were 
 heard to break, like the scattering shots at the conclusion of a battle. In perhaps 
 
 A GLIXPSE OF THE "BOWL," OR LAKE MA'HKEENAC ' 
 
 STOCKBRIDGE BOWL 
 
 The Stockbridge Bowl ! Hast ever 
 seen 
 
 How sweetly pure and bright 
 Its foot of stone and rim of green 
 
 Attract the traveler's sight ? — 
 High set among the breezy hills. 
 
 Where spotless marble glows, 
 It takes the tribute of the rills, 
 
 Distilled from mountain snows. 
 Lydia Sigourney. 
 
 BERKSHIRE HOMES 
 
 " Where run bright rills, and stand 
 
 high rocks. 
 Where health and beauty comes, 
 And peace and happiness abides. 
 Rest Berkshire Hills and Homes.- 
 The Hoosac winds its tortuous 
 
 course. 
 The Housatonic sweeps 
 Through fields of living loveliness. 
 As on its course it keeps." 
 
 Clark W. Bryan. 
 
 LAKI! MAHKEENAC, FROM TIIK STOKES FAIIM 
 
 while the tempest raged, and I was the while pelted with hailstones of the size of walnuts. 
 Outside of the house the havoc was terrible. That patient farmer, when the cyclone had 
 passed, went over his fields only to see that the labor of the entire season went for 
 naught. All his growing crops were gone. Corn, potatoes, beans, and a flourishing 
 vegetable garden, were all destroyed. Trqes were stripped of their foliage, and in the 
 orchard the half-grown apples lay thickly strewn beneath the branches whereon they 
 grew. In perhaps five minutes all was over ; the sun came out again, to shine upon a 
 
 ruin more coinplete than im- 
 
 • "' ' '~ 1 agination could depict, or 
 
 language fitly describe. A 
 few other farms suffered, but 
 none so much as this. This 
 fated spot bore the chief 
 fury of the storm. But this 
 farmer and his wife looked 
 .<• upon their losses without a 
 
 complaint or murmur. In 
 the calmness of their forti- 
 tude, in the courage with 
 which they met adversity, I 
 saw in this patient man and 
 this brave woman what ,vir- 
 tues are bred in the hills of 
 Berkshire. 
 
 Can there be a disaster 
 which is not attended with a 
 touch of humor? In this 
 locality the luxury of ice was 
 then unknown in summer. 
 But in two or three house- 
 holds there were busy hands 
 to make the most of this 
 calamity. After the tempest 
 had ceased, hailstones were 
 in the unusual delicacy of 
 
 LAKE MAHKEENAC, FROM LESOX ROAD, BY MOONLIGHT 
 
 gathered, and youth and maiden found comfort 
 ice cream. 
 
 It has been said that Nature repairs all her damages with every returning spring. 
 But here was one exception. I visited the same spot the next summer, and I saw 
 that the scars of the previous summer's devastation had notall been healed. Shade 
 trees and apple trees still bore the sad marks of the destruction that had sWept 
 over them. They lifted against the sky bare and barren branches and sprays to 
 
 A GLIMPSE Ol'" THE HOLSATOMC 
 
 twenty seconds the assault was over, and the carnage complete. The shots 
 poured into the room thick and fast. Such was the force of the blast that drove 
 them that the hailstones flew laterally across the roolm, and struck the opposite 
 wall like bullets. Meantime, my manuscript had been scattered all over the 
 floor ; and I cannot forget the ridiculous situation in which I was caught as I 
 attempted to save them,— flying about the room to gather the imperiled papers, 
 
 VIEW OF THE VALLEY FKUM DK. FIELD'S GEOINDS 
 
 SlUUIibKlifOE 
 
20 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 which the foli- 
 age had not been 
 restored. Even 
 the rcsebuslies 
 mourned a par- 
 tial decay. But 
 my friends at 
 the farmhouse 
 were as cheerful 
 and hopeful as 
 though no ad- 
 versity had test- 
 ed their courage. 
 Or rather should 
 I say that their 
 courage was in- 
 vincible against 
 disaster ? We 
 have been ac- 
 
 ON THE IIIUIIWAY TO STOCKBltlDG I". 
 
 customed to say that man is powerless beforethe forces of Nature, 
 when it goes forth in its fury. But may we not say that man is 
 capable of displaying forces sublimer still? Let a surtimer tem- 
 pest do its worst; but against all the havoc it makes, I weigh out 
 the constancy, faithfulness, the inexhaustible mental and moral 
 resources, which rise superior to every assault, and enable the 
 human hand and brain to defy all that Nature can do. 
 
 J. M. s. B. 
 
 THE RIDE ABOUT THE COUNTY 
 
 Lenox, Stockbrtdge and Great Barrington 
 
 One who finds himself at Lenox for the first time, altliough he 
 come with the idea that the good old town has perhaps been ad- 
 
 THE STOCKBKIDGE ISN 
 
 M^AK IHE TUWK 
 
 vertised for more than she really can lay claim to, is willing to 
 admit, after a day or two of driving or walking about, that the 
 " half hasn't been told." One cannot tell which charms him most 
 in Lenox — her natural beauty and wealth of changing scenery, or 
 the hand of art and architecture in " cottage life," as it is called 
 in this the " Inland Newport." Of course We speak of it in the 
 sense that has made Lenox famous — a summer resort. From 
 every eminence, and these are legion, one gets a wealth of view 
 and sweep of loveliness in hill, mountain and valley that is as 
 changing as a kaleidoscope ; and herein lie? the charm of Lenox 
 , life. Whether it is northward away off to Greylock, southward, 
 with the Monument mountain a few miles away or farther on the 
 
 THE FOUNTAIN 
 
 An Anecdote of Dr. Shei^herd — 
 Rev. Dr. Shepherd, who preached 
 many years in Lenox, was a puritan of 
 the strictest sort, but was a very witty 
 man. He had a habit of keeping his 
 eyes open when he prayed. Not far 
 from Lenox is a village that has always 
 been noted for its frequent change of 
 ministers. The Lenox divine had been, 
 called on so many different times to be 
 one of a council to dismiss and settle 
 parsons there, that once after coming 
 home from settling a new shepherd over 
 the fastidious flock he said to his man 
 as he drove into the yard ; " Don't take 
 the harness off from the horse yet, 
 David. I've just settled a man down 
 there in the village and I'm expecting 
 to be sent for every moment to dis- . 
 miss him.'' 
 
 Dome, to the south portal of the 
 Taconics east to the mountain tops, 
 west to the range of forest and hill, it 
 is a charm, and varied changeful scene. 
 One might give pages of the beauty 
 of Lenox; its life, its social gayety, ils 
 quiet home life of the cottager or the 
 hotel guest in summer. It isn't a 
 striking village is Lenox. It nestles at 
 the foot ot the liill as one drives into it 
 from the north, embowered among the 
 trees, with roof and spire peeping up 
 through the foliage each side of the 
 broad street. The old church is on 
 the hill. Dr. Parkhurst went from 
 here to minister to and agitate 
 New York. Here in the old tower 
 
 ANUTHEK ViEW ON THE MAIN TlIOBOUGHFAltE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 it 
 
 THE UECTOKY 
 
 1)N MAIN STUICKT, STOCKBUIDGE 
 
 historic fame, gave 
 the old church this 
 clock, when she was a 
 dashing young woman 
 years ago, and was 
 among the earliest to 
 see the beauty of 
 Lenox, when a sum- 
 mer's outing and a 
 country residence was 
 a thing thought of by 
 but few. The church- 
 yard close by has many 
 noble names chiseled 
 on its marble. Here 
 in Lenox Charles Sum- 
 ner came, and in the vil- 
 lage made his suit and 
 did his wooing as he 
 and his bride walked 
 up and down the quiet 
 streets. Not the streets 
 of to-day, to be sure ; 
 and yet the village in 
 many ways has not 
 changed much. The 
 old church is here ; the 
 old court-house build- 
 ing is here, but its walls 
 echo no more to plea 
 of lawyer, and judges 
 no longer sit in judg- 
 ment and equity, for 
 Lenox ceased to be a 
 county seat more than 
 twenty years ago. All 
 the old " county offi- 
 cials " have gone ; 
 their homes are owned 
 now by " city folks." 
 
 THE CHIMES 
 
 The " Woolsey Place," away back in the woods and from which one 
 gets a charming view down south, is among the earliest of the summer 
 homes. It was the Aspinwall place, the summer home of the steam- 
 ship men of other days, and Mrs. Woolsey inherited it from her father. 
 
 STOCKBIUDGE 0\SINO 
 
 Curtis' hotel is heri.' ; 
 the same as of old, ex- 
 cepting that it has 
 been added to and en- 
 larged. Landlord Cur- 
 tis, the senior, has a 
 rich fund of anecdote 
 and reminiscence of 
 the other and early 
 days of the summer 
 business that would 
 fill a book. Across 
 the way on the vil- 
 lage green is a monu- 
 ment telling the hero- 
 ism of one of Lenox's 
 sons in the Revo- 
 lution. Last year a 
 grandson had his re- 
 mains brought here 
 
 ASSEMBLV ROOM IX THE CASISO 
 
 
 ^ SI i Hi- 
 
 MOSUMEST TO JONATHAN 1 I'W A i: IJ^ 
 
 THE OLD MISSION UoLSE 
 
22 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 entire length by the roadside. Hon. David W. 
 Bishop, the railroad magnate, with his " Interlaken " 
 villa. George Westinghouse, the electrical inven- 
 tor, the foundation of whose fortune was laid 
 with the air brake. His marble mansion is on a 
 beautiful eminence overlooking Laurel lake. He 
 lives in the town of Lee 5 but they call it Lenox. 
 The Anson Phelps Stokes mansion, " Bonnie 
 Brae," overlooking "Lake Mahkeenac.'' Mr. 
 Beckwith's nearly completed mansion, with Mr. 
 Cook's just planned, will each cost up into the mil- 
 lions, before they are erected and furnished. 
 
 The city cousin adds much to the wealth of 
 Lenox in many ways. Here he and his family come 
 in June and stay till fall. They come to enjoy the 
 drives, the scenery, the quietude and the social 
 
 AIs ULJJ WILLOW 
 
 CTRUS W. FIELD 
 
 from far away and the monument was dedi- 
 cated with military pageantry; the regulars 
 came to do honor to the bones of the revo- 
 lutionary hero and his wife. The little old 
 town haU has served Lenox for a century 
 nearly; a modest, square building, unpreten-. 
 tious and unassuming, and all efforts to 
 change it have failed. Its quaintness and 
 antiquity please the town. 
 
 There is too much to tell of Lenox to 
 crowd it into a simple chapter; to particu- 
 lajize would take too much time and space. 
 The " cottage " feature of Lenox life is grow- 
 
 electricity are found in Lenox ; barring, possibly, 
 a few private gas or electric light plants. Kero- 
 sene is used for domestic and public lighting in 
 all the village. 
 
 The old academy has been spared in the 
 
 ENTRANCE TO THE CEMETERY 
 
 IN THE CEMETERY 
 
 life in dinners, receptions, dancing parties, literary 
 entertainments, archery, tennis, coaching parties, 
 tub parades in autumn, etc. And yet they are in- 
 terested in Lenox for 'herself and themselves. 
 Recently a plan for macadamizing the streets- was 
 promoted. The town appropriated liberally, and 
 private subscriptions among the "cottagers," as 
 they call themselves, m^de up the balance, some 
 )f lo.coo. It must beremembered that non-residents, 
 these same cottagers, pay a good share of the town's 
 taxes besides. Sewers make the village healthy ; 
 a village improvement society is sustained; the 
 water supply is from the mountain side miles 
 away. The library is well maintained ; a bank 
 does a fine business. And yet the streets are 
 lighted at night by lamps, and neither gas nor 
 
 CATHRRINE SEDGWICK 
 
 march of progress. It is of old-time architec- 
 ture ; square, two stories, with a little belfry and 
 weather-beaten. Here, in the days agone, were 
 educated many men who have made prominent 
 places for themselves. 
 
 ing. Some one told Mr. Curtis some years ago (and I don't know 
 but it was Fanny Kemble) that the time would come when all 
 the hardhack pastures which were then monopolizing the various 
 slopes, would command fabulous prices, and would be the abode 
 of wealth and the sites of mansions. Whoever made the 
 prophecy was a true prophet; and Mr. Curtis has lived to see it 
 fulfilled. Think of land selling in a country village at the rate 
 of $9,000 an acre! And yet that has been done in Lenox, time 
 and again. One of these desirable summer cousins, as they 
 are called, has brought another. We speak of Lenox, to be sure ; 
 but it must be remembered that the town of Stockbridge comes 
 almost to the very doors of the hotel, but it is all "Lenox." 
 Here have come such prominent names as Hon. John E. Par- 
 sons, the lawyer-philanthropist; the Havens, W. D, Sloane, a 
 son-in-law of Mr. Vanderbilt, and his brother who has just pur- 
 chased the General Rathbone property and formerly the Henry 
 Ward Beecher homestead on the Lee road, where that famous 
 divine wrote his celebrated " Star Papers " years ago, when he 
 was in the prime of his manhood and fame. Here is the sum- 
 mer home of Charles Lanier, the banker, the Frelinghuysens' 
 old colonial mansion where ex-President Arthur came after his term of office, to seek rest and absolute quiet in 
 the home of his Secretary of State. Hon. Richard Goodman, a pioneer cottager. General Barlow, Henri Braem, 
 Joseph Burden, Mrs. Haggerty whose cottage ex-Secretary Whitney occupied, where Mrs. Cleveland was en- 
 tertained and in whose honor, a few years ago, was given one of the grandest receptions of its kind that Berk- 
 shire ever saw. The Morgan cottage (a mansion costing away up into the millions and just finished), The 
 Schermerhorn place hid in the trees and walled in. Colonel Auchmuty's home on one of the sunniest slopes and 
 grandest of views in all the town on the Pittsfield road. Mr. Bradford, with a mile of domain and terraced its 
 
 IN MEMORY OF MRS. THEODORE SEDGWICK 
 
 THE FINE ROAD 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 23 
 
 The handsome Trinity Episcopal church stands in the triangle opposite the 
 Frelinghuysen mansion, and the rectory is just beyond. It is ,a handsome 
 edifice, of granite, rough hewn, and its portals are wide open every day in sum- 
 mer. Its memorial porch ^nd chancel are handsome. It was largely planned* 
 and greatly assisted in the building by the late Colonel Auchmuty. The second 
 largest piece of mosaic pavement in the country is found in Trinity church ; its 
 columns are fashioned after some of the oldest temples in Europe. Other 
 churches are the old Congregational on the hill, the Methodist and the Catholic. 
 All are well sustained. At Trinity, in summer, gather congregations whose 
 wealth may be counted by millions, and few young men minister to more wealthy 
 or refined congregations than the rector of Trinity in summer. Speaking of the 
 late Colonel Auchmuty, Lenox has much to be proud of, in his quiet, unostenta- 
 tious life here. His establishment of the famous trade schools in New Yorkishis 
 best monument. His old war horse, 
 "Mrs. Gaines," was an animal 
 which the villagers pointed out with 
 pride many years. She was be- 
 lieved, at the time of her death, 
 this year (1893), to have been the 
 last remaining horse that was with 
 General McClellan's Army of the 
 Potomac. 
 
 The social life of Lenox is also 
 manifest in the Lenox Club, an 
 association of gentlemen whose 
 summer homes are here, or who are 
 guests at the hotel, for not all Lenox 
 
 ESS'o.'Siasa&s'ii. 
 
 TIN ItOASTEK 
 
 OLD FIREPLACE UTENSILS 
 
 here. Once a year the club give a reception to 
 the ladies, and the occasion is one of interest, 
 and looked forward to as among the real attrac- 
 tions of the year. The reception at the club is 
 usually the closing leading social event of the 
 season. 
 
 Lenox has much of history ; but we are not 
 dealing with perfunctory historical matters 
 in this liesurely walk 
 about Berkshire. Yet, 
 Lenox doesn't lay 
 claim to so much of his- 
 tory as Stockbridge, 
 Williamstown and 
 some other Berkshire 
 towns ; although old 
 in point of settlement 
 and prominent as the 
 county seat for a cen- 
 tury. The fame of 
 Lenox lies and has re- 
 mained for many years 
 in her natural beauty 
 and the attractions 
 which have brought to 
 her borders, year by 
 year, wealth, aristo- 
 cratic society and all 
 that makes up an " In- 
 land Newport," as it is 
 called. The cottagers 
 come in June in goodly 
 numbers, either to their own homes, to leased cot- 
 tages or the hotel, for the season. In July, they 
 go to Newport, Bar Harbor or, possibly, journey 
 early to Europe, mayhap for one season, but 
 
 SPINNING WHEEL 
 
 lives in its own house. Not an 
 elaborate clubhouse ; but a two- 
 story wooden building, with 
 wide lawns and ample grounds, 
 a tennis court, bowling alley and 
 wide, cool piazzas tempting one 
 to rest and quiet. One would 
 hardly call it " clubhouse " in 
 that sense ; for there is nothing 
 stiff or formal in it. It is the 
 gathering place of the gen- 
 tlemen who find, in summer, 
 their resting place at Lenox, and 
 meet each other socially here. 
 Many things for the betterment 
 of Lenox, in its public affairs, 
 have been created and promoted 
 
 usually to stay only a few weeks 
 and return in September, when 
 social gayety and the round of 
 pleasure begins. This it is that 
 has made Lenox famous in all 
 New England, and she is " ex- 
 clusive " to a certain extent. Man- 
 sions costing a quarter of a million, 
 with handsome grounds to corre- 
 spond, dot the hillsides and the 
 slopes. The Lenox of old, in its 
 farms and middle classes, is de- 
 parting. The city man is taking up 
 his domain at a large price. They 
 are homes. A gem in the Berk- 
 shires is Lenox, the queen of re- 
 sorts, — quiet, peaceful, isolated and 
 charming. The railway station is two miles away; the cottagers wouldn't have it 
 nearer if they could. It's a steady up-hill from the station to the village, and the 
 stagecoaches to and from the village are one of the features of Lenox. Electric 
 cars between the village and the station would be an innovation that Lenox life 
 would hardly want to experience. Royalty has been here every season in the per- 
 son of embassadors froih nearly aU the prominent European nations. 
 
 Stockbridge 
 One needs more than a chapter to tell 
 of the beauties and the glory of Stock- 
 bridge. She nestles as peacefully in the 
 valley as a child at ease in his mother's • 
 arms. The high hills each side, the 
 Monument mountain, so full of legend 
 and story, as the sentinel towards the 
 south, the range of the Taconics dividing 
 the town from West Stockbridge on the 
 west ; all these are set off to great advan- 
 
 SAP PAILS AND YOKE 
 
 SNOWSnOES 
 
 MONUMENT TO THE STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS 
 
 KITCHEN UTENSILS 
 
 tage by the Housatonic river flowing 
 so peacefully along in its windings 
 through meadow and Vale and at last 
 tumbling itself by a sort of cascade 
 and water . power at the southern 
 boundary of the town at Glendale and Housa- 
 tonic. 
 
 Seen at the best in the summer or springtime 
 is Stockbridge. She invites rest of the most 
 delightful character, the moment one leaves 
 the pretty railway station of stoned and brick, 
 the well-kept grounds and landscape gardening 
 greet the eye as you leave the train, showingthat 
 some organized effoi-t has brought this about. 
 The Laurel Hill Association, the pioneer village 
 improvement association of the country, formed 
 many years ago, through the efforts of one 
 public-spirited lady, Mrs. Goodrich, has lived 
 all these years, quietly doing its work, as seen in 
 better sidewalks, street lights, hiding of un- 
 sightly bits of scenery about the village and giv- 
 ing the whole village bounds an air of neatness 
 and improvement, and inciting everybody to 
 her borders. 
 
 Stockbridge, like many of the other Berk- 
 shire towns, is 
 rich in her old 
 families ; fami- 
 lies who have in 
 some instances 
 all passed away, 
 and the first 
 name is no 
 more; but yet 
 living in many 
 things that have 
 made for the 
 best kind of 
 popularity of the 
 place. Here was 
 the Sedgwick 
 family of whom 
 
 YA-EK ntAMB 
 
24 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 Catherine, who later lived in Lenox, and by her pen made Berkshire famous, was of that good old 
 stock that has representatives here yet. The Dvvights, a good family, row nearly all gone. Here 
 were the Fields, both the elder D. D., who so many years ministered here in the latter part of 17C0, 
 and whose remains repose in the village cemetery. Here are also his sons, David Dudlej', Dr. Henry 
 M., Cyrus W., — the latter known from 
 his connection with laying the Atlantic 
 cable and now deceased — the Fields 
 and Stockbridge are practically in- 
 separable. They turn to her now more 
 fondly than ever as life nears a close. 
 There are many more of the families 
 who gave Stockbridge its early promi- 
 nence. Judges half a score; con- 
 gressmen, divines, authors, artists, and 
 in fact, all the walks of life have come 
 from Stockbridge, as a native town, 
 in goodly numbers. 
 
 Her main street is a beautiful place. 
 The great elms, planted here some of 
 them almost before there was any vil- 
 
 
 THE SEDGWICK PLACE 
 
 lage, have found the soil indigenous to 
 their growth. A huge willow, said to be 
 the largest in the country, grew to prodi- 
 gious proportion from a riding whip 
 planted sometime in 1756, by. a passing' 
 traveler. Broad streets, houses with ample 
 grounds in front, and well kept, are on 
 every side. Just a quiet, cozy home life. 
 Monuments, one to the soldiers of the 
 town and the other to commemorate the 
 memory of Jonathan Edwards, that emi- 
 nent divine, are in the little triangles at 
 the street corners. Fountains, drinking 
 
 — tubs for man and beast 
 are private donations. 
 The hotel is also 
 an ideal country inn. 
 It was the "Red Lion 
 Tavern" and was erect- 
 ed in 1764. The old 
 sign is preserved yet, 
 and here are the old- 
 fashioned Franklin 
 stoves, old-style tin 
 lantern on the porch, 
 antique furniture all 
 about ; and a collec- 
 tion of ceramics, (for 
 Mrs. Plumb is a con- 
 noisseur in that direc- 
 tion) which makes one 
 almost envious to pos- 
 sess some of the rare 
 display. Hosts of dis- 
 
 STOGKBRIOGE TOWN HALL 
 
 JONATHAN EDWAIiDS 
 
 A DKINKISG FOrNTAIN 
 
 THE METHODIST CHURCH 
 
 ^f^ *- '* - ^^^^f^-'M 
 
 tiCOlsT. PAUL'S CHURCH 
 
 tinguished guests have been sheltered beneath its hospitable roof. It has 
 recently been enlarged, but the original red lion is preserved. Here is the 
 old Jonathan Edwards home, with the same clapboards upon it that were 
 hewn out in 1756, and nailed on with hard-wrought nails. Tliis is also known 
 as Edwards Hall. 
 
 .,.r 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 Stockbridge history is 
 also interesting. Here 
 were the Stockbridge In- 
 dians, among whom came 
 John Sargent to labor, 
 and who was instrumen- 
 tal in the conversion of 
 many souls. This was 
 in 1736. Sargent's re- 
 mains repose in the village 
 cemetery hard by the 
 resting place of the dusky 
 people whose ameliora- 
 tion and salvation were 
 Ills study and work. Then 
 
 25 
 
 -y---^ 
 
 THE OLD STOCKBRIDGE DEPOT 
 
 came Stephen West, famous by his writings years ago. Then came Edwards 
 in 1751-S; and here his famous "Freedom of the Will" was written. His desk 
 is preserved as an heirloom and cannot be purchased. The Indian burial ground 
 is on the Great Barrington road, on a knoll overlooking the meadow, and thence 
 on to the river. A monument of native stone marks the spot where the Indians 
 sleep their last sleep. The site of the Mission church now has a chime of bells 
 donated by Hon. David Dudley Field, said to be one of the ablest legal 
 lights in the world, and whose form even now is seen in Stockbridge in summer, 
 although over eighty winters have passed over his head. He has just given the 
 town a handsome piece of land for a public park. The Mission house yet 
 stands, th-; oldest building in the town. The chimes are rung out every sunset, 
 
 THE HEIGHTS 
 
 RESIDENCE OF DAVID DUDLET FIELD 
 
 at Mr. Field's ex- 
 pense, and are a 
 memorial to his 
 grandchildren. His 
 daughter. Lady 
 Musgrave, died 
 some years ago. 
 
 Summer homes 
 are beautiful in 
 architecture and in- 
 viting to the city 
 cousin. The sum- 
 mer homes of such 
 gentlemen as David 
 Dudley Field, Mr. 
 Blakeman, Mr. 
 Southmayd, Hon. 
 Joseph Choate, the 
 
 RESIDENCE OF BIRHSKYE BLAKKMAX 
 
 eminent lawyer; Tuckermans, 
 Prof. Joy, and others, a long 
 list of them. Many prominent 
 men have sought Stockbridge 
 for a few weeks' rest, while in the 
 other years such men as Web- 
 ster, Marcy, VanBuren, Garfield 
 and others have been at Stock- 
 bridge. Dean Stanley came in 
 ■1887, and preached in the little 
 St. Paul's church. He was Mr. 
 Jt'ield's guest and was charmed 
 with Stockbridge iii autumn. 
 
 Across from the hotel is the 
 handsome St. Paul's church of 
 granite, a memorial to his wife 
 by Charles E. Butler, the emi- 
 nent New York lawyer, who, 
 with his partner, ' Mr. South- 
 mayd, had summer homes here 
 for many years. Some beautiful 
 gifts are in the church. It is 
 open every day for prayer or 
 \'isitation. The public library, 
 Jackson library, was a gift to the 
 town, and the hall above was 
 also presented to Stockbridge by 
 the late John Z. Goodrich. Her 
 academy, known in the past as 
 "Williams Academy," is now 
 the high school, and is buried 
 almost in the edge of the wood. 
 
 \ lEW FROM MR. CIIOATE S FLOWER GARDEN 
 
 A SCMMEK HOUSE 
 
 beyond which is Laurel hill. The old Congregational church is farther along to the west, 
 a substantial structure, built many years ago. Its tall, graceful spire is one of the first 
 things seen among the trees as the traveler by train enters the town. The cemetery is 
 across the broad street. The town-house, the church, the Mission chimes, are all on 
 the same triangular piece of land. 
 
 Yet, all of Stockbridge is not in the village, for the northern boundary of the town 
 takes in a portion of what is known as Lenox village. Here are the mansions of Messrs. 
 Sloane, Lanier, Bishop and others. Curtisville is a port" . -^f Stockbridge, and on the edge 
 of its lake, formerly Stockbridge Bowl, now known as La,. , Mahkeenac, are the elegant 
 summer homes of Mr. Beckwith, who has bought hundreds of acres of land in that 
 
26 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 vicinity to add to his grounds, his lawns and his fields. H. H. Cook's handsome place on the 
 opposite shore of .the lake is also in Stockbridge. Anson Phelps Stokes' " Bonnie Brae,"— for- 
 merly the home of Sam Ward of New York, will be one of the largest country seats of the 
 kind in the country when it is completed a year or so hence. On the shore of Mahkeenac was 
 the little " Red House '' wherein Hawthorne wrote the " House of tl\e Seven Gables," and 
 
 whose desk is now in the 
 Pittsfield museum at the 
 Atheneum. The " Lit- 
 tle Red House " was 
 sacredly guarded by its 
 owner, and few visitors 
 saw it ; but some care- 
 lessness a few years ago 
 resulted in its total de- 
 struction by fire. At 
 Curtis vi lie, Hon. John 
 E. Parsons of New 
 
 iWILLOW, AND MONt'MEKl MOUMAIJ^ IN 1HSTA^CE 
 
 iV ELEGANT ROADWAY IN STOCKBUIDOE 
 
 York and Lenox has recently bought the old hotel, some adjacent 
 buildings and the water privilege of the lake, so that no manufactur- 
 ing should disturb, and here he has erected "St. Helen's Home," a 
 memorial to his daughter. Miss Helen, who died of fever in Florida, 
 a year or so ago. - Here come every fortnight in summer a contingent 
 of fifty poor children from New York, under the auspices of the Fresh 
 Air Fund. So " being dead, slie yet speaketh," may well be said of 
 
 THE HULL PLACE 
 
 'lage green, is not only a 
 weird scene, but is one of 
 the annual features of 
 summer life in Stock- 
 bridge. Bear mountain 
 is to the southeast, and 
 here has lived for- many 
 years Mr. Lev^ Beebe, 
 who from his mountain 
 perch has made himself 
 felt the country over 
 through his weather fore- 
 casts. His domain is 
 1,300 acres on the moun- 
 tain top. 
 
 Charming views greet 
 the eye from every side in 
 Stockbridge. They are 
 
 KRSIDENCE OF MRS. lASIGII 
 
 tlie lovely young 
 woman whom " St. 
 Helen's Home '' com- 
 memorates, through 
 the kindly benefaction 
 of her father. 
 
 The chapter on 
 Stockbridge widens ; 
 abridgment of a town 
 so lovely and so closely 
 allied with the literary 
 history of the county. 
 
 and also with its material 
 prosperity, is' difficult. 
 There are three lakes in 
 her borders — Averic, 
 Mahkeqnac andGlendale. 
 Icy Glen is a charming 
 retreat. So completely 
 isolated and shaded in the 
 woods is it, that ice is 
 found therein all the year 
 round, for . the sunlight 
 does not disturb it. Ex- 
 cursions through the glen 
 by torchlight, the young 
 people dressed in fantastic 
 costumes, and on their re- 
 turn a dance on the vil- 
 
 LIGHT AND SHADE ON THE HODSATONIC 
 
 too numerous to repeat, for the guidebooks are full of them. It is a 
 changing panorama wherever one walks, climbs, rides or drives. The 
 drives, too, are legion, southward over Monument mountain, so full 
 of legend and story. The tale of the Indian maiden and her lover 
 sitting all the day and then throwing themselves from the jagged, rug- 
 ged cliffs is told again and again with renewed zest and relish. North 
 to Lenox or Curtis ville; over the mountains to the west along the. 
 range of high hills in that direction ; eastward to Lee, or farther on 
 to Tyringham, or over tlie well-kept but steeper highways to Bear 
 mountain; or down the region known as " Muddy Brook," and' thence 
 
 AN ICNTHANfVE TO PRIVATE GUOUMtS 
 
 to Great Barrington. The river 
 road is also charming with its 
 bits of scenery at every turn. 
 Stockbridge presents a wealth 
 of handsome things to tempt 
 the eye and to make the stay in 
 the village for a summer, or a 
 permanent residence, all that 
 one can desire.-i-.One of Berk- 
 shire's handsomest towns is 
 '' Old Stockbridge," as it is yet 
 called by the elder people. 
 
 RESIDK>CK OP JOHKPH 
 
 WINDERMERE — RESIDENCE OF REV. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 27 
 
 A GLIMPSE OF THE HOVSATOXIC 
 
 Great Barrington 
 In whichever direction 
 one enters the lovely — yea, 
 charming — village ot Great 
 Barrington, he is pleased and 
 delighted with what the eye 
 rests upon. Pen fails to de- 
 scribe in a single chapter the 
 loveliness of the scene ; 
 whether in the time of spring- 
 ing buds and forest singing 
 of the birds; whether in sum- 
 mer's heat you find rest and 
 comfort along its shady 
 streets ; whether in glorious 
 autumn, when the early frosts 
 
 have just tinged the 
 mountain-side for- 
 es,ts witli the glories 
 of the variety of 
 tint ; or in the frosts 
 of a clear winter's 
 day when the hill- 
 sides are covered 
 with snow and the 
 air is filled with it. 
 Historically 
 speaking, Great 
 Barrington (so nam- 
 ed from Lord Bar- 
 rington, I believt) 
 lays claim to many 
 features which 
 
 make her story of 
 the past eventful. 
 Its history has been 
 
 THE OLD GRISTMILL, STOCKBBIDGE 
 
 way to the sea. The well-kept farmhouses are an attraction, just on 
 the village outskirts. 
 
 Great Barrington is the market town for a large tract of terri- 
 tory east and west ; it has a railway station and the merchants and 
 tradesmen do a thriving business with outlying farmers. It is not 
 
 OX THE ROAD TO ICY GLEX 
 
 told time and again, and ac- 
 curately and interestingly so, 
 by Charles J. Taylor, the 
 treasurer of the local savings 
 bank, a loyal son of the town 
 and who has made his work a 
 " labor of love." Here was the 
 first armed resistance to King 
 George III, and the judge of 
 the King's Bench met opposi- 
 tion in the yeomanry of the 
 
 ICY GLEN 
 
 A VIEW IN GLEXDALE 
 
 day and lime, who set him on horseback with his face to the rear 
 and sent him out of the town. That was before the revolution. 
 Here Shays' rebellion found some comfort and finally collapsed 
 near Great Barrington. Here was the first triumph of liberty in 
 slavery times when, at the Berkshire court (then Great Barring- 
 ton was the shire town) a runaway slave was freed by Theodore 
 
 V VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE AT GLEXDALE 
 
 Sedgwick's claim that she could r.ot be 
 held under the Massachusetts Bill of 
 Rights. 
 
 Great Barrington has a scope of 
 Berkshire scenery peculiarly 
 its own, and unlike any other. 
 It is more than a panorama ; 
 It is a kaleidoscope in its 
 wealth .of variety and attract- 
 iveness at every turn. A' 
 chapter on views and drives 
 and walks with a new point 
 of interest could be written. 
 How snugly the village 
 proper is nestled in its quie- 
 tude in the valley along the 
 river, the lovely Housatonic, 
 flowing so peacefully and 
 gently along in its winding 
 
 E.M» UL" THE STREET, GLEXDALE 
 
 THE SOHOOLHOUSE AT GLEXDALE 
 
28 
 
 a manufacturing place to any 
 great extent, although here were 
 the first rubber mills and the 
 Russells were and have been the 
 woolen manufacturers, father 
 and sons, for many a year. 
 Housatonic village, on the north- 
 ern borders of the town, is the 
 busy manufacturing village of 
 Great Harrington and a delight- 
 ful village at the west side of 
 Monument mountain. Here, at 
 Great Harrington village, is the 
 location of the Housatonic Agri- 
 cultural society — said to be the 
 best managed, the most liber- 
 ally patronized and withal the 
 best " cattle show " organization 
 in all New England, if not in all 
 the country. It is the great 
 holiday occasion of the region 
 for miles around. Here is seen 
 life in all the phases peculiar to 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ON llOAD TO WKST STOCKBltlDOE 
 
 cattle show days. Your artibt 
 has caught 'some of the charac- 
 teristic scenes of a country cat- 
 tle show; 20,000 people assem- 
 bled to renew old acquaintances, 
 to witness t^e contests of horse 
 and man in sports, to discuss the 
 vegetables, cattle, talk politics, 
 exchange gossip, etc. A motley 
 group of exhibits — ah equally 
 motley gathering of people. 
 
 Monumentmountain is in the 
 northern border of thetovm and 
 is claimed alike by Great Har- 
 rington and Stockbridge. A 
 lovely road leads over a portion 
 of the mountain side and its 
 huge cliffs can be easily seen 
 from the roadway. Here is the 
 legendary part of Great Har- 
 rington. Octave Henzel, Hryant 
 and others have told the story, 
 — it need not be detailed. The 
 
 picture of the 
 
 Indian maiden 
 
 throwing herself 
 
 from the cliff, 
 
 because by the 
 
 law of her tribe 
 
 slie could not 
 
 wed her cousin 
 
 lover, was for 
 
 years the vig- 
 nette oE the old 
 
 bills oE the Ma- 
 
 haiwie bank, in 
 
 other days, be- 
 fore it was 
 
 nati on aliz- 
 
 ed. - Every one 
 
 in Berkshire 
 
 knows, or thinks he does, the tradiiion of Monument mountain; it nted not be 
 repeated here. 
 
 Views are innumerable, from whatever point one climbs. What a sweep one 
 ,s;ets Irom the west of the village towards Berkshire Heights. It is a study and a 
 lasting memory; once drunk in, never forgotten. What a view one gets from June 
 
 OLLN AVLMl, 
 
 JAKED UEID, Jl{. 
 
 OLD "dobbin's*' FKIKND 
 
 A VISTA ON IliE WILLOW EOAD 
 
 OS ROAD TO LENOX FKOM STOCKEHIDGE 
 
 mountain! It is the other side of the panoramic wealth of beauty. How 
 quietly the village nestles at your feet in the valley! It is wonderfully social, 
 more so than most villages. Call on a business man, say at five in the afternoon, 
 and it is fortunate if you do not find him "out to tea" with Jiis wife and friends, 
 the guest of some neighbor. This indicates the good feeling and fellowship of 
 the town and village. 
 
 Here is tlie handsome church, the Congregational, the gift of Mrs. Hopkins- 
 Searles, (^e was then Mrs. Mark Hopkins). It is a handsome church of grey 
 dolomite ; its great organ is the pride of the village, because it is the handsomest 
 and largest in the county, and indeed takes a high place among those of the 
 country. Its echo organ in the opposite gallery require^ over two miles of 
 electric wires to put its harmony into response chords with its larger and con- 
 trolling fellow. The church parsonage and grounds are the pride of the village; 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 29 
 
 the building is open every day and the visitor can call and 
 examine it at will. Handsome, rich furnishings ; not a 
 particle of veneer or sham about it. Its material was In 
 part taken from her quarries across the river. ' 
 
 The Searles mansion of grey dolomite is a striking 
 figure of Great Barrington attractiveness. It is a castle 
 indeed. It was begun when Mrs. Hopkins was a widow; 
 it was the site of her girlhood home when she was Miss 
 Kellogg, and she named it " Kellogg Terrace." Its archi- 
 tect, Mr. Searles, was afterward and now its owner; he 
 married Mrs. Hopkins, inherited part of her millions and 
 their union is said to be a love affair, despite the difference 
 of ages ; — she was older than he. I need not attempt to 
 describe the terrace ; visitors are not admitted, for its high 
 stone walls are securely guarded at the portals. One of 
 the haiidsomest of views in all Berkshire is obtained 
 down the valley, with the June mountain at the left. Its 
 wealthy original owner has long since ceased to dwell on 
 its beauties. The high fountain is in front. The lawn is a 
 real mead, and its present possessor, Mr. Searles, seldom 
 or ever comes here. It may be a school of art or music 
 some day; that is the question the villagers often ask 
 themselves. Here in this village Mark Hopkins was a 
 country hardware clerk, and he and his bride years ago 
 (afterwards Mrs. Searles) went to California together to 
 
 K*A*?5i|fe 
 
 IIAWi'HoltN BUSH AND tLM 
 
 c.irve out their mark on ihe scro'l of fame and fortune, and did it in the higher niches. 
 Here Bryant the poet lived, and his residence was across the broad street from the 
 Searles place. He was town clerk of Great Barrington, and the record of his own 
 marriage, as his duties required him to make, is still shown in the town clerl<'s office. 
 His house is yet preserved. The Berkshire Inn, a quaint and charming piece of hotel 
 architecture, made somehow just to fit the spot and the surroundings, stands also on 
 the same plot of ground which Bryant owned. It is a prominent summer resort, and 
 Mr. Ticknor has made a reputation for it and for himself. The Collins sanitarium and 
 other places attract and accommodate the summer tourist. Here Bryant wrote his 
 " Green River," the little stream coming into town btlow the village, after leaving its 
 
 LOOKING WEST FROM GLEX AVKXT3E, STOCKBIUDGE 
 
 head waters at Austerhtz over in New York state, and coming down through 
 Egremont to Great Barrington. Many of Bryant's loftiest productions, to 
 many minds, were inspired by and at the time of his residence in the " Grand 
 Old Hills of Berkshire." While Bryant's memory lives, Great Barrington 
 will share in a good degree this honor as his residence, though not his 
 birthplace. 
 
 Long before the locomotive whistle woke the echoes of the valley, the 
 summer guests came. Their names are legion and among them many promi- 
 nent. Garfield wrote verses in Great Barrington ; the first Chinese servant 
 in Berkshire came years ago with the Chinese consul. Major Gibbons came 
 
 A IIAYMAKKU'S DAY 
 
 
 SCENE IN THE £l'Cl'UBS 
 
 some years ago and built himself a summer home here. He was a 
 southerner; was crossed in love, his affianced marrying a rival, I be- 
 lieve, on the day of his to-be wedding. He retired frorn publicity, and 
 female society or servant seldom or never graced his house in this 
 village. His property is no w owned by Colonel Brown of the New York 
 A'ews, who has made a lovely place of his belongings ; and, as he says, 
 he prizes Great Barrington over any other place he finds. So divines, 
 poets, authors and scholars have sung ; it would be superfluous to- 
 reiterate what they have so beautifully told in their rapture of delight. 
 Other summer residents are here. There was the David Leavitt 
 place, south of the village and just under the shadow of June moun- 
 tain. Its great barn was for yea^s the wonder of the town; his art 
 gallery was immense and his summer home was that of princely wealth, 
 where hospitality unbounded was dispensed. It is now owned by a 
 Mr. Crowe of New York. The residences of the Teff Is, William E. 
 and son, merchant princes of New York, are below the village at 
 "Jumbo Tent." Mr. Frank Pope, who has made himself felt in the 
 electrical world, owns the oldest house in the village, built in 1757, and 
 he has enlarged it materially ; but leaves the old inscription on 
 marble in the brick work. William Stanley, Jr., the electrical inventor, 
 is a native of the town. Judge Dewey of the superior court lived here 
 many years, and loves Great Barrington even yet above all other places. 
 All her sons love Great Barrington; many of them are doing much to 
 
30 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 improve her as a sum- 
 mer resort and to add 
 to her reputation. 
 
 Mount Peter is a 
 delightful elevation 
 just in the village and 
 the place to which easy 
 and daily walks are 
 made. Eldon's cave 
 in the "Tom Ball" 
 region, dividing Great 
 Barrington from Al- 
 ford, is in easy dis- 
 tance of the village 
 and is a curiosity. 
 Belcher's cave is al- 
 most in the village ; 
 it has its legend or 
 history to the effect 
 that in the revolution- 
 ary times it was re- 
 sorted to by one Bel- 
 cher, a noted counter- 
 feiter. Near here lived 
 Crosby, the hermit, 
 who went to the asylum 
 
 BIRD'S-EIE VIEW Ot GKEAT BAltHIiGTO-N 
 
 spirit of its former 
 self remains, although 
 the age of progress 
 gives the village all the 
 moder.n improvements 
 in railway, telephone, 
 electric lights, steam, 
 etc. The village is a 
 gem; well kept and 
 lidy even on the back 
 streets or in the locality 
 across the river known 
 as " Brooklyn," be- 
 cause it is annexed to 
 the village proper. Its 
 town-hall is a beauty 
 — an ideal — with court 
 room, town offices, 
 registry pf deeds ofifice, 
 library and sole public 
 hall, all under one roof. 
 The old cannon cap- 
 tured from the British 
 ship " Macedonia" in 
 the war of 1812, stands 
 on the green in front 
 of the town-house. It is too old for use and has been spiked. The handsome 
 soldiers' monument near the hall is a tribute of .Great Barrington to her 
 soldier dead. 
 
 Yes, Great Barrington is an ideal village ; it is an ideal town in its natural 
 beauty and in its lavisli gifts, in attractiveness from the hand of .Nature. Her 
 churches are well sustained ; a hopeful sign of every. community. Her schools 
 are well kept and liberally maintained. Her village heeds are well supplied by 
 an enterprising population. Her streets are regular and handsome, with few 
 or no fences. Her highways are also well looked after. Her water supply is 
 bountiful and pure. Tiie moral and literary tone of her people is good and all 
 
 A GLIMPSE TOWAKD THE HILLS • 
 
 a year or so ago. A love affair crossed his path and eccentricity followed. Tht 
 auction sale of his effects furnished a sketch for your artist. East Rock and 
 Moijnt Bryant are nearly 1,500 feet above sea level; Berkshire Heights 980 feet 
 above tide-water and 264 feet above the village, invite the tourist to a wealth of view 
 in all directions. To the Heights the waters of Green river are pumped up from the 
 west to flow down to the village again by gravity, as a supply for the villagers. 
 
 WAYSIDE HOMES 
 
 that makes for her betterment and to make it a safer and better place for the; people, their 
 sons and daughters to dwell in; all that makes for a cordial invitation and pleasant sojourn 
 
 to the visitor, are maintained and cared for. . 
 
 We might linger in Great Barrington for days, with new things to feast on and to dwell 
 on constantly. The artist paints the picture as seen; it needs to be tasted and feasted 
 upon long to be appreciated. , - o. 
 
 If you are English, and hesitate about expressing too much pleasure among these 
 scenes, you may recall that Lord Coleridge said that " England has nothing more pleasingly 
 picturesque than Berkshire." 
 
 SUMMER RAIN 
 
 t'-^v^~- 
 
 A BIT FKOJI THE PASTUItE 
 
 either for domestic or other purposes. In lime the whole slope will be 
 the site of cottages — the dream and hope of the original projectors. 
 
 Then you may go six miles east over Three Mile hill to Lake 
 Buel ; a charming resort for camping, picnicing, fishing or rowing. 
 Two groves invite to rest and a day or longer of ease and comfort. It 
 is the lake resort of Great Barrington and the vicinity. Ice Gulf, 
 where in a chasm ice is found all the year, is also an attraction only a 
 little way from the village. There are drives in every direction. 
 
 The life of Great Barrington is peculiarly New England. The 
 
 A GLANCE PKOM 'I'llE IllLLMUE 
 
 .A.slant thfe driven rain incessant streams ; 
 The thirsty meadows sigh as with delight ; 
 The wind-blown poplar shifts from green 
 
 to white, 
 .^nd whit^ to green, as aimlessly as dreams. 
 Down lea^js the torrent from the gurgUng 
 
 spout 
 
 And plunges, foam-white in the dash. The 
 roof 
 
 Resound^ with hasty drops, like hoof on 
 
 hoof 
 Of elfin horsemen — a wild, cantering rout ! 
 The windows stream and blur the world 
 
 witli mist, 
 
 Gray Night comes creeping early from the 
 nills, 
 
 Pallid and tearful like a child unkissed, 
 That broods upon its little wrongs and ills. 
 /ames Buckham. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 31 
 
 solid bronze, cast in Municli and cost j!i5,ooo. From the lialWay, immediately after 
 entering, is the entrance to the grand atrium. 
 
 There are three of these atria, and they are the central feature of the house. The 
 grand atrium is of large size, and its angular lines are broken on either side by rows of 
 
 ON THK MAIN , STREET. GliEAT BAUIUKGTUN 
 
 THE HOPKINS- SEARLES MANSION 
 
 Berkshire county enjoys the distinction of having within its borders one 
 of the handsomest and most costly private houses that stands upon the 
 American continent, and the town of Great Barrington will be for many 
 years famous as the location of the " Hopkins mansion." Some years ago 
 Mrs. Mark Hopkins conceived the idea of erecting the magnificent structure 
 pictured in these pages, and in 
 1884 the work began. The Hop- 
 kins place contains about 150 
 acres and lies a little south of 
 the centre of the town. The 
 mansion stands near the north 
 end of the place, and is some 
 distance from the road. Itfaces 
 the north and sits on the side of 
 a hill, which slopes to the south 
 and stretches away to the beau- 
 tiful meadows below. Several 
 architects have been employed 
 upon the mansion, at different 
 times, and the house is not even 
 yet completed. 
 
 The building has a frontage 
 to the north of 180 feet and is 
 about loo feet deep. Its massive 
 walls -are broken by seven 
 beautiful towers and numerous 
 gables. The material is native 
 blue dolomite from a quarry 
 across the Housatonic river, 
 which, by the way, is one of the 
 features of the beautiful land- 
 
 A VIEW ON srAIN STREET 
 
 atfC? 
 
 THE BUSINESS CESTIIE 
 
 massive marble pillars which support 
 the roof. These pillars represent all 
 the marbles of the world, no two 
 being alike. In the hall-way or pas- 
 sage leading to the atrium, the wood- 
 work is all of the finest English oak 
 and the ceilings and upper wall are 
 of stucco work, pure white and of 
 exquisite design. Right here it may 
 be stated that throughout this entire 
 mansion there is not a particle of 
 coloring, excepting that which may 
 be in carpets, hangings or furniture. 
 The walls and ceilings are all of oak 
 and stucco, and not a drop of paint 
 or oil has been used in the finish of 
 the wood. It is polished by hand 
 alone and the finish is magnificent. 
 To the right of this grand atrium, in 
 one of the towers, is the library, and 
 on the opposite side, in another tower, 
 is a reception room. The library has 
 the same finish of oak and stucco, 
 and is lighted by an ingenious ar- 
 rangement of windows over the 
 
 THE MILLEK HOUSE, GBEAT BAKKJNGTOS 
 
 scape here. It is somewhat difficult to designate the style oC 
 architecture of the building, but it may be said to be a com- 
 bination in which the old French style predominates. At 
 the north the house has four stories, and at the south there 
 are two more, made by the slope of the hill. On the south 
 side is a high and massive terrace which is paved with 
 marble, the rail being surmounted with the same stone. 
 Under this terrace is a large winter conservatory in which are 
 kept the plants that beautify the grounds in summer. The 
 appearance of this terrace gives the impression of a fortress, 
 and it is one of the most striking features of the building. 
 The main entrance to the mansion is through a grand porch 
 on the north side. The doors for this entrance are historical 
 
 THE BEKKSUIliE COUKIEU OFFICE 
 
 SOLDIl^RS' MONUMENT 
 
 shelves. The walls of the reception room are paneled in 
 oak, these round rooms being very tasteful and handsome. 
 Coming back into the grand atrium, one has his attention 
 drawn to the brilliant light that comes through a massive 
 arched doorway at the opposite end. Looking toward this, 
 the main source of light for this royal chamber, the idea of 
 light and distance obtained is marvelous, and a look between 
 the massive marble columns and a second double row of oak 
 columns, to the music room entrance, is like a glimpse of 
 oriental magnificence. The floors of the atrium are of 
 quartered oak, the walls are wainscoted high with oak, and 
 above the beautiful marble columns rises the arched roof. 
 The surrounding rooms are for domestic purposes and are 
 
32 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 A BUSY DAT OK MAIN STREET 
 
 is not marred by a player's seat, but the organist is located on a conical-shaped 
 booth, depressed somewhat and place4 some; distance from the organ. The room 
 is lighted by several hundred incandescent' lights concealed in the ceiling, and 
 these are controlled 
 by the organist, the 
 lights being raised 
 or lowered in ac- 
 cordance with the 
 character of the 
 music. Above and 
 apart from the 
 music room is a 
 beautifully finished 
 chapel for the Use 
 of the family. 
 
 Leaving the mu- 
 sic room and com- 
 ing back through 
 the grand atrium the collius house 
 
 in perfect harmony with the rest of the 
 house. The second row of columns 
 just mentioned are all o£ a rare oak of 
 tan color, and are richly carved. The 
 columns lead up to the grand entrance 
 to the music room, and the oak, like that 
 used in the grand archway, is of the 
 same kind as that used in the music 
 room. England and Scotland were 
 hunted over to find enough of this rare 
 wood, and its cost was ^35,000. 
 
 Passing on under the arch, one enters 
 the music room, in an extension on the 
 north side. Pages might be written 
 about this music room, and it would not 
 then be adequately described. The 
 room is oblong, the organ occupying 
 one end, while the other end is circular. 
 The ceiling is arched and very high, with 
 a view to obtaining the best acoustic 
 effects. At one side over the arched 
 entrance from the atrium are two balco- 
 nies, which curve and sweep in irregular 
 lines, giving a peculiarly pleasing 
 
 fe-ti'^jSS.^5- ,« '-•*!ffiii£i-T-' 
 
 ON RAILROAD STREET 
 
 effect. The side walls are wainscoted 
 high up, and above the oak is again seen 
 the marvelous stucco work wrought in 
 emblematic musical designs. About 
 the room, in niches, are magnificent 
 carved oaken seats, so arranged as to be 
 retired, and hung with beautiful tapes- 
 tries. But the crowning glory of this 
 room is the organ. The case is a beau- 
 tiful musical temple, made of carefully 
 selected oak, and is a work of art in 
 itself, that is probably not excelled, in 
 this country. The wood used in thig 
 case cost jSi2,ooo, and a large number of 
 men worked two years in carving the 
 
 into the hall-way, the grand stair 
 case is sure to be noticed as an ob- 
 ject of interest. It is made of oak, 
 but the rail, which was made in 
 France, is of hammered steel of 
 unique design. There are also two 
 elevators in the house, making easier 
 access to the upper floors. All the 
 rooms in the house are of different 
 designs and each is a study in itself. 
 There is a Moorish room, Turkish 
 room, Roman and Grecian rooms, 
 and in each the stucco, the carving, 
 the windows, and everything are in 
 keeping with the style of architecture 
 represented. Many of the passages 
 are wainscoted to the ceilings, and 
 others only part way. All through 
 the house are scattered the most 
 magnificent bronzes, statues and 
 other works of art. The kitchen 
 has a tile floor and a tile wainscoting 
 and is as nearly complete in its way 
 as any room in the house. 
 The main idea of the building is a great musical palace, all else being subservient to this. 
 The music room is, therefore, the central feature, and the magnificent atrium is designed simply 
 as a preparatory chamber for the sublimity of the musical temple beyond. 
 
 From the south windows of the house the views are as fine as any in southern Berkshire. 
 They take in the beautiful Berkshire meadows, the valley of the lower Housatonic and the range 
 of East and June mountains. It is the intention of the owner to make of the 150 acres a grand 
 park or garden, and a few years will probably see this plan carried out. Two beautiful and 
 artistic bridges will be thrown across the river, the grounds will be traversed by carefully con- 
 structed roads, and the whole will become a veritable garden of Eden. In such an article as this 
 the place can be but briefly described, but the time will probably come when the public will be 
 permitted a nearer view of the structure upon which, when finished, some ^2,000,000 will have 
 been expended. 
 
 The first indictment — regularly found by the grand jury — that resulted in atrial in Berk- 
 shire county, was one against Landlord Root of Great Barrington, it being charged that he 
 "did wittingly and wilfully suffer and permit singing, fiddling and dancing in his dwelling- 
 house, there being there a tavern or public house." It is recorded that he pleaded guilty and 
 was fined ten shillings and costs. , 
 
 THE BERKSHIRE INN 
 
 ■M 
 
 THE RAILWAT STATION 
 
 elaborate designs. The organ case and the balconies are built into the room, and the effect is of an 
 entire whole, not a place broken by protruding line of balcony and organ case. The lines are so 
 softened that the harmony is perfect and the effect is marvelously delicate and beautiful. The organ, 
 which cost ^75,000, is of the best metal, and one of the best instruments ever niade. The front of it 
 
 AUCTION SALE^OE HERMIT CROSBY'S EFFECTS 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 THE GOOD STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS 
 
 33 
 
 [From the Boston Post Boy, September 3, 1739] 
 In a letter from a friend in the country dated August 21, 1739, we have the 
 following passages : I have lately been to see my friends at Housatonnoc, (now 
 called Stockbridge) and was well pleased to find the Indians so well improved, 
 particularly in husbandry, having good fields of Indian corn, and beans, and 
 other sorts of grain, as oats, etc. They have good fence about their field, made 
 with their own hands. Some of them live in houses built after the English man- 
 ner and Capt. Concopot has built a barn that is well shingled, etc. They 
 have several horses among them, and some cows, hogs, etc. They are many of 
 them grown industrious in business and diligent; I observed several young 
 women sewing 
 
 clolh,making shirts, 
 
 etc. But I was in 
 
 special gratify'd to 
 
 find them improv'd 
 
 in learning; several 
 
 of them have made 
 
 good proficiency, 
 
 can read in their 
 
 Testaments and 
 
 Bibles, and some of 
 
 them can write a 
 
 good hand; the 
 
 children are in gen- 
 eral as mannerly 
 
 as you find in 
 
 any country town. 
 
 There are about twenty 
 
 families of Indians that 
 
 live there ; and now the 
 
 great and general court 
 
 have taken such effectual 
 
 care, and put them in 
 
 possession of the land, 
 
 they have designed for 
 
 them (which hitherto they 
 
 have been hindered from 
 
 possessing). I make no 
 
 doubtbut they will greatly ■■ uld jialedoxia' 
 
 BRIDGE STRKKT, LOOKING EAST 
 
 A THANKSGIVING INCIDENT OF STOCKBRIDGE 
 
 THE TOWX HALL 
 
 The day before Thanksgiving of the year 1756, a stagecoach stopped in front of a 
 quaint house, still standing (although modernized) in the village of Stockbridge. 
 The travelers who got out were President Burr of Princeton college, and Esther 
 Edwards, his wife, whose father was Rev. Jonathan Edwards, the parson of the church 
 
 at that time. They had 
 journeyed with their 
 two little children from 
 Princeton, New Jersey. 
 As the young wife went 
 into the open door of the 
 home, her mother met her, 
 and with a show of mater- 
 nal pride in her face the 
 daughter laid the little 
 bundle of flannel she had 
 been carrying, into the 
 mother's arms. " This is 
 my boy," she said. The 
 grandmother peeped into 
 the small breathing place 
 left open in the warm out- 
 
 BliU'OE STREET 
 
 CORNER OF MAIN AND ELM STUKET:? 
 
 side wrappings and saw 
 the face of her grandson, 
 Aaron Burr. The young 
 mother was beautiful. A 
 writer in the New York 
 Gazette said of her, after 
 mentioning the marriage 
 of the president of the 
 college : " They came to 
 town Saturday evening, 
 the 29th ult.,the president 
 and his beautiful young 
 bride. I think her a per- 
 son of great beauty, 
 though I must say I think 
 her too young (being only 
 twenty-one years of age) 
 
 MONUMENTS IS THE CEMETERY 
 
 increase in number ; for several Indians have 
 been with them, and manifested a desire to 
 tarry with them, could they have land to 
 work upon. There is a church gathered and 
 fourteen Indian communicants; the number 
 of the baptiz'd is near sixty. While I was 
 at Stockbridge, the Rev. Mr. Sargeant (the 
 minister there) was married to Mrs. Abigail 
 Williams, a virtuous and agreeable young 
 gentlewoman, daughter of Ephraim Williams, 
 Esq. There were ninety Indians present at 
 the marriage, who behaved with great gravity 
 while the prayers were being made, yea, dur- 
 ing the whole ceremony, and seem'd exceed- 
 ingly well pleased that their minister was 
 married; they show him great respect, etc. 
 And I hope he may prove yet a great 
 blessing among them, and be instrumental 
 of -turning many of them from darkness 
 to light. 
 
 IIRNER DRESSER AVENUE AND .MAIN STREET 
 
 for the president who is so much older. However, I hear 
 she is a very valuable person." The bride's father was not a 
 modern preacher with a large salary, and presents from his 
 rich members thrown in at intervals. It is recorded that 
 when the town of Stockbridge settled him it agreed to pay 
 him in this manner : " The Indians and English inhabitants 
 of this town will give 100 sleigh loads of fire-wood for the 
 Rev. Jonathan Edwards annually, and carry it to his dwell- 
 ing house. That is to say, the Indians are to give eighty loads 
 and the English twenty. The English residents of the town 
 shall also give the Rev. Jonathan Edwards £fi. 3s. 4d. lawful 
 money." The minister's pretty daughter could not expect 
 much " pin money " out of her father's meagre income. To 
 get her wardrobe she painted fans and made lace for the rich 
 ladies in Boston. The old fireplace before whose blazing 
 logs the happy grandmother took the wrappings from her 
 grandson, is still preserved intact. Long years afterward 
 when Aaron Burr was branded with difgrace he came to 
 Stockbridge, unknown at the time to any one, and asked per- 
 mission to go over the old Edwards place. What his feelings 
 were at that time were only known to the Searcher of hearts. 
 
 s. T. p. 
 
34. 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 .ESTHETIC STOCKBRIDGE 
 
 Apropos! Why should the excess of women over men — in Massachusetts — be 
 always cast up against the state as a reproach or, at best, as a fit subject for derision? 
 
 Did nota certain Darwin discourse most eloquently on the "survival of the fittest"? 
 
 Ought not the proportion of women to men — following Darwin — be a matter for 
 pride and congratulation to those most nearly concerned? a matter for deep and 
 painful thought to those who have hitherto mocked? Stockbridge is the subject of 
 
 EPISCOPAL CHUKCH 
 
 my story, not woman, but Mrs. Nickleby and I have 
 this much in common, that the appropriateness of 
 our " apropos" is not always discernible. 
 
 The size of Stockbridge is not at all commen- 
 surate with its importance in other respects. Geo- 
 graphically, it is a point ; politically, it is nowhere. 
 Out of a population of 2,200 it can muster but 500 
 voters. (This apparent afterthought, no person of 
 intelligence need be told comes first in order of 
 sequence.) To a place in the world of business 
 Stockbridge can clearly lay no claim. It does not ! 
 It scorns business ! The world of letters is its 
 domain ! Literature is in the air ! Stockbridge is 
 picturesque ! It is aesthetic ! Incidentally it is 
 fashionable. But Stockbridge is no common sum- 
 mer resort. Its frequenters are reputed possessors 
 of mind and culture, and to a degree higher than 
 the rest of mankind. 
 
 Allow me to present you ! This is Stockbridge 
 Main street — one corner of it — and it is so ob- 
 viously intended for a picture, that the ubiquitous 
 camera is leveled at it almost daily. Artists of the 
 brush do not visit the place as frequently as could 
 be desired, but the amateur photographer— ye 
 gods ! His name is legion ! Those big elms are 
 a century old. One of the oldest inhabitants 
 
 METHODIST CHUaCH, GREAT BARKINGTON 
 
 Stockbridge, in his will, a goodly sum of money outright and a yearly income to be invested 
 in books to the end of time. Somebody else gave land, another somebody gave the 
 library building. Some few misunderstandings have arisen because of this multiplicity 
 of donors. The library committee and the representatives of the givers of the building 
 and the land hold different views. The committee has radical views — wants heterodox 
 volumes, Sunday reading rooms, etc. The others are more conservative. Too much 
 latitude under such circumstances, of course, will be forever out of the, question, but on 
 
 the whole things go smoothly, and the library is utihzed 
 to its fullest extent — prayer meetings on the top floor, 
 reading rooms on second, and a short time ago a " Boys' 
 Club" in the basement. 
 
 This is the oldest house in "town," as the natives 
 say. There have been many changes in the old place 
 since it was first erected, but there is a flavor of an- 
 tiquity about it even to-day. Go behind and look at 
 the house, you are reminded of a huge spyglass pulled 
 out to its fullest extent. There have been additions 
 upon additions, and no two are of the same height. 
 The front of the house, inside, is the old part. It was 
 built in 1737. The woodwork is largely as it used to 
 be and the great (double) doors are a genuine antique. 
 The hinges stretch clear across each door and the latch 
 turns down under the crosspiece instead of resting 
 upon it as other latches do. This door is never locked, 
 — there is no lock, — but a substantial bar is put up 
 every night to give a semblance of securing the prem- 
 ises against intrusion. Many illustrious men have 
 lived in this old house in the old days. In its title, Ed- 
 wards hall, it preserves the name of the most famous 
 man of them all, Jonathan Edwards. Of late years it 
 has become a summer boarding house, and illustrious 
 men, to this day, are not lacking within its walls. Frank 
 R. Stockton is one of the latest visitors well-known 
 to fame. Edwards hall was built for the parsonage. 
 
 Stockbridge came into existence as a missionary 
 station, and still the church holds a prominent pl^ce. 
 There are four churches, but of them all this is the 
 gem — pictorially— it is the Episcopal church. Mr. 
 Butler and his children built it in memory of Mrs. 
 Butler. Mrs. Butler was a second wife, and one of 
 
 THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH 
 
 almost remembers when they were plant- 
 ed. This next bit of Main street takes in 
 the library. It is a free library, stocked 
 with all kinds of books — frivolous as well 
 as ponderous. That library has a history. 
 Long years ago a poor boy, appointed to 
 light the fires in the schoolhouse, lighted 
 a fire not on the programme. He burned 
 down the building accidentally, and then, 
 terrified, ran away from the village as 
 fast as his legs could carry him. He 
 didn't have a cent, but he had pluck. He 
 helped a drover with a lot of sheep and 
 received one sheep as payment. From 
 that animal grew a large fortune. Mr. 
 Jackson — the run-a-way's name was Jack- 
 son — died wealthy, and to compensate for 
 the damage he had done learning's cause 
 by the fire in his early days, he left to 
 
 THE CONGREGATIONAL PARSONAGE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 35 
 
 the few step-mothers on 
 record who had justice done 
 to her able administration. 
 The duties of step-mother 
 are not easy, but this dear 
 lady was appreciated and 
 loved, which made her task 
 comparatively light. The 
 church outside is gray with 
 red tiling roof; inside the 
 prevailing hue is brown, with 
 accents of brilliant color in 
 the stained-glass windows. 
 Artists rave over the pews — 
 such is the beauty of the 
 wood (quartered oak) of 
 which they are composed — 
 and from chancel to church- 
 porch there is nothing short 
 of perfection in every mi- 
 nutest detail. 
 
 establishment, more money was asked and paid than would have bought, in the begin- 
 ning, all the ground owned by the syndicate. But the Casino behind the undertaker's 
 enterprise had quickly built a stable. Stable was not to be bought at any price. The 
 Casino was built to hide the stable. En passant, it is used for dances and theatricals. 
 It is truly ornamental — it was built for a purpose. Vide Ruskin. S. 
 
 A Story of Dr. Bellamy.— This story is told of Dr. Bellamy, a noted divine 
 and teacher of theology in this country years ago : One of his parishioners, a notorious 
 scamp, came to him one day, saying, in the parlance of the divinity that prevailed in this 
 part of New England at that period, " I feel that I have obtained a hope ! " The doctor 
 looked surprised. " I realize that I am the chief of sinners," continued the hypocriti- 
 cal canter. "Your neighbors have long been of that opinion," rejoined the doctor. 
 The man went on to say out the lesson—" I feel willing to be damned for the glory of 
 God." " Well, my friend, I don't know any one who has the slightest objection." 
 
 Once a member of Dr. Bellamy's church was brought before that solemn tribunal 
 for some profane words spoken in wrath. He was a man liable to be provoked to a sud- 
 
 e:;ti;axce tu hie guulmjs 
 
 THE SKARLEF-HOPKIKS PLACE, FKOil MUUST PEIEK 
 
 The church was 
 designed by Mr. 
 McKim — so was 
 the Casino. The 
 Casino is an awful 
 innovation — a new 
 departure of the 
 most pronounced 
 type. These are 
 sadly degenerate 
 days. Our fore- 
 bears found amuse- 
 ment for them- 
 selves. Their de- 
 scendants,forsooth, 
 must have their 
 
 "■^-^mammi^C^ 
 
 amusements provided for them. The elect 
 few dance in the Casino every Saturday night 
 unofficially. The same few dance in the 
 Casino every chance they get. Anchovy 
 sandwiches, lemonade and coffee are pro- 
 vided for Saturdays; other times the feast of 
 reason must suffice. If the library has a 
 history, the Casino has a story — it was 
 forced into being. 
 
 Some uncultivated ground was for sale, 
 but no one wanted to buy it. It lay idle 
 for years. A syndicate (they didn't so name 
 it) of workingmen bought the land at last 
 and proceeded to build thereon. The great 
 Demos! On the main street! Think of 
 of that! Ye gods! But that was not the 
 end, to prove possession and stir up things 
 generally. An undertaker moved house and 
 sign to the most conspicuous place on all 
 acquired property. That was the last of the Demos straw. After that everybody 
 (of fhe few) in the village wanted to buy that property and nobody wanted to sell. 
 When at last the .irgumentsof the wouM-be purchasers prevailed, they found, to their 
 cost, delay was not cheap, as for the strip of land whereon stood Mr. Undertaker's 
 
 OLD BUILDINGS AND SITE OF THE HOPKINS PLACE (FKOM AS OLD PlLIMj 
 
 den gust of passion by a scamp, but tender and 
 cherishing as a June dew to the widow and father- 
 ""---.^ less. After hearing the evidence of his accusers. 
 
 Dr. Bellamy said: "The man is a grievous sinner 
 on one side, but, ray friends, I think he has more of 
 \ the milk of human kindness in his heart than all the 
 
 rest of my church together." 
 
 BIRD S-Iil'E VIEW 
 
 Among other things. Great Barrington is noted 
 for having bt-en the first county seat of Berkshire 
 county. In 1761 it was incorporated as a town and 
 made the seat of justice for the shire. County 
 buildings were afterwards erected in the town and 
 courts were held here until 1787, then they were re- 
 moved to Lenox. About 1755, m the second French 
 war, a block house was built, about a mile above the 
 bridge on the west side of the riveir, as a place of 
 security to which the inhabitants might flee in case 
 of an attack. In 1743, when there were only thirty 
 families in the place, the people employed Rev. 
 Samuel Hopkins to preach for them. He was after- 
 
 NEAR THE GROUNDS 
 
 A PEEP UETWEKN THE TREES 
 
 wards made a doctor of divinity, and while at Great Barrington he published a num- 
 ber of sermons and books on subjects of doctrine that excited considerable con- 
 troversy. The sentiments he advocated were in the line of the most inhuman and 
 repulsive Calvinism, and are generally termed " Hopkinsinian." 
 
36 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 A NOTABLE BERKSHIRE TOWN 
 
 Multitudes of people have been enraptured with the scenic beauty of the 
 Housatonic valley in the lower part of the county of Berkshire, and multitudes 
 of pens have gracefully delineated, in charming pen pictures, its pleasing alter- 
 nations of vale and hill and mountain. It is sufficient for the purpose of this 
 brief article to say that, in the early colonial times, the Housatonic, which gently 
 meanders through this lonely region, was fringed with a strip of fertile interval 
 land, in some places expanding to considerable width, and in others contracting 
 to very narrow limits ; that the uplands and hills on either side gradually rose 
 higher and higher as they approached the mountains ; that the mountains in 
 majestic grandeur looked down upon the hills ; and that both the hills and the 
 mountains were clothed with a dense forest in which game was so abundant as 
 to afford a comfortable subsistence to th; aboriginal inhabitants. 
 
 And who were these aboriginal inhabitants ? They were the red men sub- 
 sequently known as the Stockbridge Indians. Traditions which were carefully 
 kept alive among them narrated the annoyances and dangers to which they 
 were exposed by the raids of their savage neighbors on the west and north. 
 The fierce and warlike Six Nations in Central New York sometimes threatened 
 them and sometimes protected them, and the secluded region which sheltered 
 them between the Green and Taconic ranges of mountains was sometimes 
 
 WILLI-VM CULLEX BUTANT 
 
 picturesque, but compared with most of the modern 
 what a wonderful advance! For the pleasure of 
 qu.iint verges accompanying each picture. 
 
 menaced with an invasion of hos- 
 tile tribes from the north. But 
 these Stockbridge Indians, unlike 
 most of their race, appear to have 
 been endowed with exceptional 
 sagacity and wisdom, measured by 
 the remarkable utterances of Mr. 
 Pickwick. Being asked what he 
 would do if he found himself en- 
 veloped in a mob, that profound 
 philosopher replied that he would 
 shout with the mob. But, said his 
 persistent interlocutor, suppose 
 there are two mobs. Shout with the 
 loudest and biggest mob, was the 
 triumphant answer. Sothese Stock- 
 bridge Indians, with an instinctive 
 sense of future security and safety, 
 in the conflicts between the colo- 
 nists and the Indians, prudently 
 shouted on the side of the former, 
 or what was substantially the same 
 thing maintained a "masterly in- 
 activity." In process of time, 
 when the colonists became involved 
 in the French and Indian wars. 
 
 engraver's specimens in this book — 
 the reader, we reproduce below the 
 
 THE BllYAMT SCHUOL 
 
 Lake Buel was so named in honor of 
 Samuel C. Buel of Tyringham, who saved 
 several persons from drowning, July 23, 
 1812. A silver medalwas struck and award- 
 ed Mr. Buel, by the Washington Benevolent 
 society of Great Barrington. 
 
 m 
 
 A CURIOUS OLD BOOK FOR CHILDREN 
 
 Nothing marks the improvement in modern methods over the times of our 
 forefathers, so much as the progress which has been made in engraving and 
 printing. This is shown very forcibly in the reproductions made on this page of 
 four little pictures taken from a book for children printed no longer than fifty 
 years ago. This book was presented 
 by William CuUen Bryant to a little 
 girl in Cummington, Hampshire 
 county, of whom he was very fond, 
 and who is now living. The book is 
 filled with quaint pictures of the char- 
 acter herewith given, and doubtless 
 the people of that day thought the 
 animals and scenes depicted very 
 
 COME, JfLAY IN THE GAUDICN 
 
 Little sister, come away, 
 And let us in the garden play, 
 For it is a pleasant day. 
 
 We will not pluck the pretty flowers, 
 That grow about the beds and bowers. 
 Because, you know, they are not ours. 
 
 And much I hope we always may 
 
 Our very dear mama obey, 
 
 And mind whatever she may say. 
 
 BKEAKFA8T AND PUSS 
 
 Here's my baby's bread and milk. 
 For her lip as soft as silk : 
 Here's the basin, clean and neat ; 
 Here's the spoon of silver sweet ; 
 Here's the stool, and here's the chair, 
 For my little lady fair. 
 
 No, you must not spill it out, 
 And drop the bread and milk about ; 
 But let it stand before you flat, 
 And pray, remember pussy cat ; 
 Poor old pussy cat that purrs 
 All so patiently for hers. 
 
 True she runs about the house, 
 Catching, now and then, a mouse, 
 But, though she thinks it very nice. 
 That only makes a iiny slice ; 
 So don't forget, that you should stop. 
 And leave poor puss a little drop. 
 
 FjauUTENED BY 
 
 Good stranger I here repose to-night, 
 
 And with the morning's earliest light 
 
 We'll guide you on your way. 
 
 THE &TltA>GKK 
 
 Who knocks so loudly at the gate ? 
 The night is dark, the hour is late, 
 
 And rain comes pelting down ! 
 O, 'tis a stranger gone astray I 
 That calls to ask the nearest way 
 
 To yonder little town. 
 
 Why, 'tis a long and dreary mile 
 For one o'ercome with cold and toil ; 
 Go to him, Charles, and say, 
 
 FRIGHTENED BY A COW 
 
 A very young lady. 
 With Susan the maid, 
 
 Who carried the baby, 
 Were one day afraid. 
 
 They saw a Cow feeding, 
 * Quite harmless and still 
 Yet screamed, without heeding 
 The man at the Mill— 
 
 Who, seeing their flutter, 
 Said, Cows do no harm ; 
 
 But send you good butter. 
 And milk from the farm. 
 
 liVAKT HOUSE 
 
PICIURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 37 
 
 THE OIITRCH PLVCF, CREVT B.VnnrxGTON 
 
 Konkapot made known the wish of himself and his people to receive Christian instruction, to some of 
 the ministers of the province, but notably to the Rev. Mr. Hopkins of West Springfield, who having 
 some intimation that certain funds belonging to the "Trans-Atlantic Society for the promotion of the 
 gospel in foreign parts," were in the hands of commissioners in Boston and unemployed, visited 
 John Stoddard as early as 1734, to ascertain whether the income of this fund or any part thereof could 
 be rendered available for the gratification of Captain Konkapot's wishes. Mr. Stoddard was familiar 
 with ihe relations of the Indians to the province, and of the uses to whicli the missionary fund could 
 be applied. The information 
 which he imparted to Mr. Hop- 
 kins appears to have been satis- 
 factory, as that gentleman ini- ■HHBHEBSSHHKBUlb^' 'W' ! 
 mediately consulted the Rev. 
 Dr. Williams of Longmeadow, 
 who united witli him in a re- 
 quest to the Rev. William 
 
 iheir zeal and valor in 
 behalf of the New Eng- 
 land colonies were rec- 
 ognized by the promo- 
 lion of two of their prin- 
 cipal chiefs, Konkapot 
 and Umpachene,. who 
 were commissioned re- 
 spectfully as captain and 
 lieutenant in the provin- 
 cial service. 
 
 Like Henry IV of 
 France, when he proposed 
 to return to tlie mother 
 church, and solicited relig- 
 ious instruction, Captain 
 
 GRiiUXDy i)N COLoMM, RROWN .-. ESTATE 
 
 RESIDENCE OF J. a. BREWER 
 
 IHE UULLlsTEU I'LACE 
 
 about four hundred persons, and Rev. John Sergeant was selected by 
 the commissioners of the missionary fund to impart religious instruc- 
 tion to them, with a salary of one hundred pounds per annum. The 
 duties of thiS; position he faithfully discharged until his death after a 
 ministry extending over a period of fourteen years. These Stock- 
 bridge Indians seem to have possessed many of the qualities and 
 iittributes with which Cooper invested his ideal Indian. They were 
 brave, generous and magnanimous. Their vices, and no doubt 
 
 Williams of Hatfield to write to the 
 
 commissioners, soliciting them to bestow 
 
 some attention to the condition of the 
 
 Housatonic Indians. Then as nowpublic 
 
 bvisiness was mainly transacted through 
 
 the agency of committees or commissions, 
 
 wherein the usage of the province did 
 
 not inaterially differ from the present 
 
 practice of the commonwealth. Mr. 
 
 Williams complied with this request, and 
 
 the result was that Mr. Hopkins and Dr. 
 
 Williams of Longmeadow were appointed 
 
 a committee to visit the Indians and 
 
 ascertain their wishes in respect to M '"' %iiiMftf '^^%,i^.^,iiS^Ji 
 
 religious and other instruction. After all on the east road to Sheffield 
 
 HLVKi; ^tkect 
 
 lURNING TO EGREMOXT 
 
 they were addicted to some vicious prac- 
 tices, were not of the degrading and 
 brutalizing character that prevailed among 
 some of the tribes of American savages. 
 Mr. Sergeant is authority for the state- 
 ment that their religious ideas and 
 opinions had not descended to abysmql 
 depths of darkness when they solicited 
 instruction from the ministers and 
 churches in the province. Indeed, it is 
 explicitly stated that they believed in one 
 infinite and supreme creator and ruler of 
 the universe^ — the embodiment of wisdom, 
 goodness and love — who loved the chil- 
 dren he had created, and was not 
 
 THE IIUDBELL FI.ACE 
 
 the useless processes of circumlo- 
 cution had been exhausted, which 
 Thackeray satirizes with keenest 
 irony in his "Wax and Pomatum " 
 officials, and after another com- 
 mittee consisting of John Stoddard, 
 Ebenezer Pomeroy and Thomas 
 Ingersoll had gently removed all 
 obstacles and impediments, the 
 Indians were withdrawn from the 
 present townships of Sheffield and 
 Great Barrington, and located in 
 the town of Stockbridge, which was 
 incorporated for their especial 
 benefit in 1735. By accretions from 
 Connecticut and New York, this 
 Indian colony presently numbered 
 
 THE BERKSHIRE HEIGHTS RESERVOIR 
 
38 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ON WAIEK STKfikl 
 
 constantly fulminating threats of vengeance 
 and destruction against them. This Indian 
 concensus of religious belief very nearly 
 corresponds with the opinions of many 
 Unitarians at the present day. They had 
 even symbolized the heavenly bodies as 
 visible signs of the existence of the happy 
 hunting grounds which they hoped and 
 expected to inhabit when they passed into 
 the purely spiritual condition. 
 
 Oh the termination of the pastorate of 
 Mr. Sergeant, the great theologian, Jonathan 
 Edwards, appears upon the scene. In some 
 respects Mr. Edwards is the most remarkable 
 man that has" ever lived on the western 
 continent. As the fortress and bulwark of 
 
 fancies and delusions which at various times have seemingly blocked 
 the pathway of religious progress and development. That Mr. 
 Edwards fully believed in this iron-clad creed is sustained by the 
 following brief summary of his views. Says one of his biographers; 
 " If these doctrines, (Calvinism) in the whole length and breadth of 
 them, were relinquished, he did not see where a man could set his foot 
 down, with consistency and safety, short of deism, or even atheism 
 itself, or rather universal scepticism." 
 
 Mr. Edwards had been involved in an irreconcilable unpleasantness 
 with the church and people of Northampton. For twenty years, more 
 or less, he had persistently labored to impress upon the minds of his 
 people that God was influenced by sentiments of hatred and revenge 
 against the human race, except such — ah infinitesimal number com- 
 pared with themass of mankind — as he had^lected to be saved. And, 
 per contra, that men are " naturally God's enemies." Is any reader 
 sceptical or incredulous in this matter?. Let him read the series of 
 sermons which Mr. Edwards preached to his people in Northampton 
 on this particular phase of Calvinistic theology, and be convinced. At 
 this late day it is the prevalent impression that Mr. Edwards did not 
 feed his people so much on the pure inspiring and elevating truths of re- 
 ligion, as upon the gloomy, drearj', despairing abstractions of an irra- 
 tional theology utterly repugnant to the beneficent attributes with 
 which the human mind invests Omnipotence. 
 
 It is not clear that these simple, unsophisticated sons of 
 nature, the Stockbridge Indians, comprehended, to any ap- 
 preciable extent, the tendency and scope of the teachings 
 and doctrines of the great New England divine. And, just 
 so far as they did not comprehend them, it may be assumed 
 that their peace and happiness were promoted and assured. 
 Imagine the feelings of these untutored red men when required 
 to surrender their belief in the great and beneficent good 
 
 -., '•^■•t '■• 
 
 BEUKSHIKE KITTKNS 
 
 VIEW ON THE BAST KO.iD TO SHtrFiELD 
 
 the dogmas of Calvinism against the assaults of the disciples and fol- 
 lowers of Artoinius, he occupies a conspicuous and eminent position 
 not only in his native land, but also in Europe. Morally and intellec- 
 tually he was infinitely a greater and better man than the originator 
 and inventor of the Calvinistic system of theology. His mind was 
 larger, broader and more comprehensive than Calvin's. It is doubtless 
 true that, while in conformity with the prevailing sentiment in Massa- 
 chusetts, he would have placed rigid restrictions upon the propagation 
 of Arminianism and Quakerism in the province, fully convinced that 
 they were pestilent heresies, his better nature and his humanity would 
 have revolted with horror at the bare suggestion that the apostles of 
 error should be burned at the stake, wherein he would have been 
 unlike Calvin, in procuring the burning of Servetus, who differed 
 with him in opinion, and was never known to express any contrition 
 for the atrocious act. We can now, m view of the advanced state of 
 public opinion in regard to the fallacy* of the doctrine of a limited 
 salvation, smile at the zeal which Mr. Edwards manifested in defence 
 of the dogma of election, predestination and the final damnation of at 
 least nine-tenths of the human race. It was merely an incident in the 
 evolution of religious thought and advancement in the age in which he 
 lived, and will unquestionably take its place in the category of errors, 
 
 spirit who had 
 watched over and 
 protected them for 
 ages ; in the happy 
 hunting grounds 
 where their fathers 
 disported among 
 green hills, tower- 
 ing forests and 
 majestic rivers, 
 where every pros- 
 pect 'attracts and pleases; and in the place of these satisfying and fascinating 
 illusions and fancies, accepting as immutable truth the allegation that their an- 
 cestors were writhing and shrieking in the torments of liquid fire, and that their 
 torfut-e, owing to some trivial transgression of some remote progenitor in the dim 
 and misty past, was eternal in its duration. 
 
 Contemplated from any point of view there is something sad and pathetic in 
 the career of Jonathan Edwards. We very much dislike to invest him with a 
 
 OLD HOUSE 0> IIOAD L"P MOhUMENT 3I0DNTAIN 
 
 '^^'^MpM^l 
 
 rO^ 
 
 
 VIEW Bl IHL WATSIDl', (,01hG II" UIK MO^.MIAI^ 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 39 
 
 ■'^**,Ma.*(*rf.*.'-'- * '■* 
 
 1,^2.^*^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 >.'- 
 
 -«*. 15>ft.<lfc twMSSWH'M.alK.f 
 
 uMls 
 
 «J 
 
 
 
 "1 
 
 
 » 
 
 THE MEADOWS — MO>UMENT MOUNTAI> IN UISTASgE 
 
 selfishness and self-complacency not only injurious to him, but repugnant to our own estimate of the man. He was 
 unhappy in his Northampton pastorate — one of the most important churches in New England — because his 
 preconceived opinions were not in harmony with those of his people. They would not yield what they deemed 
 fundamental truths ; and he could not yield, as he 
 was never known to recede, in the slightest degree, 
 from any position he had conscientiously assumed, 
 even to secure peace and concord between pastor 
 and people. 
 
 A few years after Mr. Edwards removed from 
 Northampton to Stockbridge, to become the 
 spiritual instructor and guide of the Indians, and 
 subject their faith or their credulity to the severest 
 strain by exacting their entire acquiescence in n 
 
 OLD MAK OF THE MOUNTAIN 
 
 A SCENE NEAR HTDB'S PEAK 
 
 system of theology, stern, austere and 
 forbidding to all except the elect, the Rev. 
 Aaron Burr who had married his daughter 
 Esther, and was officiating as president 
 of Princeton college, suddenly died. It 
 was very natural that the attention of the 
 authorities of the college should be 
 directed to Mr. Edwards as the successor 
 of his son-in-law, and he was elected to 
 the presidency of the institution with 
 entire unanimity. He left Stockbridge 
 for Princeton in January, 1758, and died 
 in March of the same year. Among his 
 last words, recorded by his daughter as he 
 
 uttered them, were these : 
 " Give my kindest love to 
 my dear wife, and tell her, 
 that the uncommon union 
 which has so long subsisted 
 between us, has been of such 
 a nature, as I trust is spiritual 
 and therefore will continue 
 forever." Perhaps in the 
 superior world this hope has 
 been realized, and Mr. 
 Edwards may still be pon- 
 dering and meditating on 
 abstruse metaphysical dis- 
 tinctions, as was his habit in 
 the earth life, while his 
 amiable and excellent con- 
 sort finds her time fully oc- 
 cupied in attending to duties 
 analogous to those which were incident to her existence in the 
 material body. 
 
 Mrs. Esther Burr and her two children, a son and a daughter, 
 were inoculated for the small-pox at the same time as Mr. Edwards, 
 and seemed to have perfectly recovered at the time he died. But 
 suddenly she was seized with a violent disorder of which she died 
 
 A GLIMl-SE OP THE UOUSATONIC 
 
 THE DEVIL'S PULPIT 
 
 in a few days, and which the attending physician said he " could call by no 
 name but that of a messenger sent suddenly to call her out of the world." 
 She died fifteen days after her father, and in the twenty-seventh year of 
 her age. 
 
 Contemporary authorities assert that Esther Edwards Burr excelled most 
 of her sex in personal beauty. In manner she was plain and unafEected, 
 but graceful and fascinating; in conversation fluent and interesting. It is 
 said that she possessed a vivid and lively imagination, and great cheerful- 
 ness and pleasantness of temper. " She was hopefully converted when she 
 was seven or eight years old," and it is averred that her conversation and 
 conduct until her death were such as " becometh godliness." This estimable 
 
40 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 lady, endowed with such rare and shining qualities, was the mother of Aaron Burr, vice- 
 president of the United States. Her daughter, and the granddaughter of Jonathan 
 Edwards, the writer thinks was' the wife of Tapping Reeve, a justice of the Supreme. 
 Court of Connecticut, and the head of the celebrated law school at Litchfield. 
 
 Mrs. Edwards soon followed her husband and daughter to the invisible world. A few 
 months after the death of Mr. Edwards, Mrs. Edwards undertook a journey to Phila- 
 delphia to look after the welfare of her two grandchildren, the orphan children of her 
 daughter Esther, then in that city ; but as they had no relatives in that section of the 
 country, she proposed that they should become inmates of her own family. A few days 
 after her arrival sheVas attacked with a malignant dysentery which terminated her life 
 in five days. Her remains were taken to Princeton and deposited by the side of Mr. 
 Edwards. " Thus they who were in their lives remarkably lovely and pleasant, in their 
 death were not much divided. The father and the mother, the son and the daughter were 
 laid together in the grave, within the space of a little more than a year." And the 
 biography previously mentioned thus moralizes : " Surely America is greatly emptied 
 by these deaths ! How much knowledge, wisdom, and holiness is gone from the earth 
 forever ! And where are they who shall make g(5od their ground ! " 
 
 AH accounts agree in describing Mrs. 
 
 Edwards as a. woman of rare mental gifts 
 
 MONUMENT MOUNTAIN and, uncommon personal loveliness. Dur- 
 
 ing the whole of her married life she 
 
 Thou who wouldst see the lovely and the wild 
 
 Mingled in harmony on Nature's face, 
 
 Ascend our rocky mountain. Let thy foot 
 
 Fail not with weariness, for on their tops 
 
 The beauty and the majesty of earth 
 
 Spread wide beneath shall make thee to forget 
 
 The steep and toilsome way. There as thou 
 
 stand'st, 
 The haunts of men below thee, and above 
 The mountain summits, thy expanded heart 
 Shall feel a kindred with that loftier world 
 To which thou art translated, and partake 
 The enlargement of thy vision. Thou shalt look 
 Upon the green and rolling forest tops, 
 And down into the secrets of the glen 
 And streams, that with their bordering thickets 
 
 strive 
 To hide their windings. Thou shalt gaze at once 
 Here on white villages, and tilth and herds, 
 And swarming roads, and there 'on solitudes, 
 That only hear the torrent and the wind, 
 And eagle's shriek. There is a precipice 
 That seems a fragment of some mighty wall. 
 Built by the hand that fashioned the old world 
 To separate its nations, and thrown down 
 When the flood drowned them. To the north a path 
 Conducts you up the narrow battlement. 
 Steep is the western side, shaggy and wild, 
 With mossy trees and pinnacles ol flint. 
 And many a hanging crag. But to the east 
 Sheer to the vale, go down the bare old clitfs— 
 Huge pillars, that in middle heaven uprear ; 
 Their weather-beaten capitals here dark 
 With the thick moss of centuries, and there 
 Of chalky, whiteness, where the thunderbolt 
 Has splintered them. It is a fearful thing 
 To stand upon a beetling verge and see 
 Where storms and lightning, from the huge, gray 
 
 wall, 
 Have tumbled down vast blocks, and at the base 
 Dashed them in fragments, and to lay thine ear 
 Over the dizzy depth, and hear the sound 
 Of winds, that struggle with the woods below, 
 Come up like ocean murmurs. But the scene 
 Is lovely round ; a beautiful riveijjhere 
 Wanders amid the fresh and fertile meads. 
 The paradise he made unto himself, 
 Mining the soil for ages. On each side 
 The fields swell upward to the hills ; beyond, 
 Above the hill, in the blue distance, rise 
 The mighty columns with which earth props 
 
 heaven. 
 
 Bryant. 
 
 A GLIMPSE BY THE WAYSIDE 
 
 managed, and successfully managed, the 
 temporal affairs of her husDand. When 
 she died, at the age of forty-nine, although 
 Uie mother of eleven children, she had 
 hardly an equal in matronly beauty. 
 
 Later there came to this town of unsur- 
 passed natural attractions, as settlers or 
 residents, individuals whose names are 
 household words in the nation. The 
 names of Bacon, Sedgwick, D wight, Wil- 
 liams, Hopkins, Palmer, Hart, Field and 
 Sergeant are inseparably associated with 
 the history of Stockbridge and of Berk- 
 shire county. s. B. Q. 
 
 BEECHER ON BERKSHIRE 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher thus wrote of 
 some of the more beautiful towns in this 
 county : 
 
 " Great Barrington is one of those 
 places which one never enters without 
 wishing never to leave. It rests beneath 
 the branches of great numbers of the 
 stateliest elms. It is a place to be desired 
 as a summer residence. 
 
 " Next, to the north, is Stockbridge, 
 famed for its meadow elms, for the pic- 
 turesque scenery adjacent, for the quiet 
 beauty of a village which sleeps along a 
 level plain, just under the rim of the hills. 
 If you wish to be filled and satisfied with 
 the serenest delight, ride to the summit of 
 this encircling hill ridge, in a summer's 
 afternoon, while the sun is but an hour 
 high. The Housatonic winds, in great 
 circuits, all through the valley, carrying 
 willows and alders with it wherever it 
 goes. The horizon, on every side, is piled 
 and terraced with mountains. Abrupt 
 
 and isolated mountains bolt up here and there over the whole stretch of plain, covered 
 
 with evergreens." 
 
 Mr. Beecher's comment upon Lenox has already been quoted. His paiticularly 
 
 local references close with this paragraph : 
 
 " From Sheffield to Williamstown, and then to Bennington, in Vermont, there 
 
 stretches a county of valleys, lakes and mountains, that is yet to be as celebrated as 
 
 the lake district of England and the,hill country of Palestine." 
 
 THK SPHINX ABOVE THE CLOUDS 
 
 Fanny Kemble, who lived some time in Lenox, is remembered as a remarkably 
 generous woman, and there is not an aged person in the region to-day but can tell 
 stories of her munificence. She was very unconventional in her habits, however, 
 and it is not to be supposed that many of the graver people would look with much 
 complacency on the conduct of so spirited a lady, much less on her man-like pro- 
 pensities to driving, hunting and fishing, and less than all on her man-like attire. 
 15ut she had the tender sympathies of a noble woman, as many poor people at whose 
 bedside §he watphed, and whpm she attended in sickness, have testified. 
 
 uLu boot's TAVEHN (DB.STHUYEDJ 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 41 
 
 PICTURESQUE LEE 
 
 Though the town of Lee 
 is less widely 'famed for its 
 natural beauties than some 
 of its neighbors, the reason 
 is not so much its inferiority 
 in this respect as the lack of 
 descriptive pens to advertise 
 them to the world. There 
 has also been a lack of mo- 
 tive in this direction. Its 
 predominating interest for 
 most of the century has been 
 manufacturing, and there has 
 been little motive to ex- 
 ploit its attractions for the 
 tourist and the summer resi- 
 dent. At one time there 
 were no less than twenty-five 
 paper mills in the town, and 
 now there are more than half 
 that number. So absorbed 
 have its inhabitants been in 
 their business pursuits, that 
 perhaps they have themselves 
 hardly appreciated their aesthetic advantages. As matter of fact, both in the gen- 
 eral, character of its scenery, and in many of its more special features, the town 
 may clialleage comparisonwith the most famous of its Berkshire rivals. Itaboiiiid.s 
 in charming landscapes, and there is hardly an acre of its territory from which in 
 some direction there is not an appeal to the sense of beauty. 
 
 Lee is situated in the valley of the Housatonic and on the slopes of its border- 
 
 ranges along a converging 
 yista of hills for thirty miles 
 to Greylock, whose clearly 
 cut form standing squarely 
 across the line of view closes 
 it in that direction. 
 
 The Housatonic river, first 
 touching the town at its 
 extreme northeastern point, 
 forms for some distance the 
 boundary between Lee and 
 Lenox; then entering the 
 town at Lenoxdale, it pur- 
 sues a beautifully winding 
 course to South Lee, where 
 it turns abruptly west into 
 Stockbridge, in search of an 
 escape from its entangle- 
 ment in the hills, which it 
 finds at last at Glendale. Its 
 descent through the town, 
 though gradual, is quite 
 rapid, securing a swift cur- 
 rent and furnishing nunier- 
 ous sites for mills. Seven 
 dams and eight bridges cross 
 the river within the limits of 
 the town, and they add much to the picturesqueness of the views as one follows 
 the river up or down the valley. Its waters are increased during its course through 
 the town by numerous tributaries from the hills, attractive to the artist for their 
 ever varying beauties and to the sportsman for their supply of trout remaining 
 mysteriously unexhausted after the ravages of a century by successive troops of 
 the devotees of Izaak Walton's gentle art. Three of ^these tributaries are of con- 
 
 TIIK, CREAT HAIIKINGTON CATTLE SnoW 
 
 THE KACE — KEADY TO START 
 
 'ONLY FIVE CENTS TO niT niBl!' 
 
 ing hills. Viewed from neighboring emi- 
 nences its main portion shows as a long 
 a;id deep depression in the landscape, 
 shut in on all sides except the north by 
 ranges of hills, the river winding almost 
 exactly through the middle. On the east 
 it is bounded by the long undulating range 
 known as Washington mountain, lying 
 -partly within its own limits, and partly 
 in the town of Washington. On the 
 south the view is closed on the right by 
 the massive pile of the Beartown range, 
 and on the left by Pixley mountain, with 
 an opening between- into the beautiful 
 valley of Tyringham. In the middle of 
 the view on the west rises the ridge called 
 Rattlesnake mountain, revealing over its 
 northern slopes the more distant hills of 
 Richmond, and over its southern ones 
 those of West Stockbridge, and from 
 some points the peaks of the Catskills on 
 the far horizon. Northward the eye 
 
 lllE MIOOl'INC 
 
 siderable size. One, the outlet of Laurel 
 lake, falls into the river in a little cascade 
 near the Eagle mill at the center of the 
 town. The second, through which flow 
 the combined waters of Greenwater lake 
 in Becket and of Lake May in the north- 
 eastern part of Tyringham, empties 
 about a mile below the center. The 
 third, called Hop brook, flowing lazily 
 down from the valley of Tyringham, 
 meets the river -near South Lee. The 
 Lake May stream, descending several 
 hundred feet in the course of three miles, 
 is hardly inferior, as a source of water 
 power, to the Housatonic itself, and is 
 utilized by several mills. Shut in closely 
 between the hills and plunging down its 
 deep gorges, it presents many scenes of 
 wild beauty for the pencil and the cam- 
 era of the artist. 
 
 A somewhat peculiar feature in the 
 landscape of Lee is a series of rocky 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE CANE STAND 
 
 42 
 
 eminences running diag- 
 onally across the valley 
 from Laurel lake on the 
 west nearly to the moun- 
 tains on the other side. 
 They rise so precipitously 
 as to be at many points 
 inaccessible, and with 
 their crowns of ever- 
 greens, they are promi- 
 nent and attractive ob- 
 jects both summer and 
 winter. One of these emi- 
 nences, rising at its high- 
 est point two hundred 
 feet above the river, and 
 called Fern Cliff, is almost 
 in the village limits, and 
 furnishes from its summit 
 a beautiful view of the 
 village and its immediate 
 surroundings. A shaded and grassy amphitheatre at the top forms an almost ideal place 
 for picnics and open-air assemblages, while its secluded pathways and cool recesses make it a 
 most refreshing place of resort of a summer day. It forms an admirable adjunct to the play- 
 grounds of the neighboring schoolhouses, and is supposed to be a favorite trysting place for 
 lovers on moonlight evenings. On its northern slope is a detached portion of cliff, large as a 
 house, called Union Rock. Every visitor is expected to climb itj a somewhat difficult feat except 
 for youthful agility, but well repaying the effort by the added prospect of the village and valley 
 which the outlook affords. 
 
 On the eastern side of Fern Cliff is a deep recess formed by a shelving rock, which is known 
 as Peter's Cave. The story is that in the time of Shays' rebellion, with which the inhabitants 
 of Lee were deeply implicated, this cave furnished for some time a hiding place to Peter Wil- 
 cox, one of Shays' men, who with others had been outlawed and condemned to death for treason 
 against the government. Here he was secretly fed by friends from the neighboring farmhouses 
 until the ban of the governmpnt was lifted. In its deep seclusion and diiificult accessibility it 
 
 is not poorly adapted to 
 ■'■•■'■ such a purpose even now, 
 and it is seldom visited 
 except by adventurous 
 boys. Another incident 
 of this abortive uprising 
 is associated with the 
 eastern part of the town. 
 While General Lincoln 
 was on his march towards' 
 Western Massachusetts 
 to restore order, two hun- 
 dred and fifty malcontents 
 gathered on the ridge in 
 Cape street, where Mr. 
 Sennett. now lives, then 
 occupied by Arthur Perry. 
 Here they were confront- 
 ed by several hundred 
 government troops under 
 General Patterson of 
 Lenox, who had taken a 
 position half a mile away on Hamblin's hill on the other side of Greenwater brook. Shays' 
 men, it is said, supplied their lack of cannon by mounting Mrs. Perry's yarn beam on a pair of 
 • wheels and parading it as a piece of artillery. The government officers had not reckoned on 
 being compelled to face cannon balls, and so precipitately -nithdrew, greatly to the exultation 
 and amusement of the rebels at having beaten the government with a Quaker gun. The prob- 
 ability is that there was no 
 serious purpose of bloodshed on 
 either side. 
 
 The points of vantage for 
 fine and extensive landscape 
 views in Lee are numberless, 
 but some claim special mention. 
 From numerous points on the 
 Washington range of hills, there 
 are most commanding views 
 westward to the Catskills, and 
 northward and southward al- 
 most to the limits of the county. 
 From Golden hill in the extreme 
 north of the town there are 
 views in all directions hardly to 
 be paralleled in the county for 
 variety and beauty. High Lawn 
 farm in the northwest part of the 
 town, belonging to the estate of 
 the late Hon. Elizur Smith, and 
 
 iilLALUUT HUUHKb 
 
 famous for its breed of horses, is a landscape in itself, such is its 
 extent and variety of surface. Comprising more than six hundred 
 acres under the most perfect cultivation, variegated with groves of maple 
 and evergreen, commanding magnificent views in every direction, 
 northward the cultivated beauties of Lenox, eastward the rugged ones 
 of Mount Washington, Rattlesnake mountain on one side, and the 
 blue waters of Laurel lake on the other— it presents a combination of 
 attractions possessed by few estates in the country. From one point 
 Greylock in the north and the Dome in the extreme southwest can 
 both be seen at the same moment. This estate alone could furnish 
 desirable sites for quite a township of summer palaces. Laurel lake 
 ill itself and in its surroundings is one of the most charming little 
 slieets of water in New England, as worthy of a poet's descriptive pen 
 as the lakes of Wordsworth, and certain sooner or later to find its place 
 in song and story. Adjoining High Lawn on the north, partly in Lee 
 and partly in Lenox, is the beautiful place of Mr. G. W. Westing- 
 house, called Erskine park. With 'its numerous white buildings, 
 almost a hamlet in themselves, and its private electric plant, whose 
 numerous lights set the hill-top aglow at night, duplicating themselves 
 in the waters of the lake, it presents a rare and charming spectacle. 
 It seems like a fragment of the White City— Chicago —set down 
 
 AFTEHKOOS TEA UN TH K UUuUNUS 
 
 ANr» l.l'ITIJ-; \Vn 
 
 among the Berkshire hills. Cornhill on the road to Stockbridge is almost 
 equally rich in beautiful landscapes and commanding sites for residences. 
 The view in the direction of the Tyringham valley is especially delightful. 
 From the heights of Beartown the views open magnificently northward 
 through the whole extent of the Housatonic valley. It is from this van- 
 tage ground that Levi Beebe, the Beartown prophet,"has for more than 
 thirty years studied the weather signs and gained skill in weather pre- 
 diction that has made his name a household word through all the region. 
 He has come to seem a part of the mountain itself, and is as picturesque 
 in character and person as anything in Berkshire. One interesting fea- 
 ture of all the landscapes of Lee is the- commanding steeple of the Con- 
 gregational church. It appears as a central object in nearly every view, — 
 now towering high in the air, and now just visible above the hills and 
 trees. Its builders builded better than they knew. Their spire stands more 
 widely significant of the supernatural among the beauties of the natural 
 than they thought when they thrust it so far up towards the sky. It is an 
 object of constant admiration to the summer visitors, and they have 
 repeatedly expressed their desire in case of its destruction by fire or 
 storm, to contribute for its restoration, that it may be kept perpetually 
 
PICTUllESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 43 
 
 in its place as a part of the landscapes 
 of Berkshire. 
 
 The villagers of Lee are modest in 
 their pretensions, and make no claim 
 to comparison with some others in the 
 region for elegance and beauty. They 
 are suggestive of comfort and com- 
 petence rather than of wealth and 
 luKury. But there are few pleasanter 
 nooks in the county than the square 
 in the south part of the center village, 
 with its gem of a park and its hand- 
 some public and private buildings. 
 Portions also of East Lee village and 
 of South Lee are very attractive. As 
 one of the youngest towns of the 
 county, Lee has few residences of 
 historic or ancestral interest. The 
 Hyde parsonage, just west of the river 
 in the center, has something of this 
 
 did in one sudden wave it proved irre- 
 sistible. Trees were uprooted and 
 carried down stream, and even boulders 
 tons in weight were torn from their 
 beds and swept along like pebbles. At 
 last the wave with its accumulated 
 debris struck the houses and other 
 buildings lining the Greenwater brook. 
 Some of the inhabitants, startled by 
 the thunder of the approaching flood, 
 had just time to escape from their beds 
 to the neighboring hills. Others were 
 roused by David Baker, who, from 
 his home on the mountain, having 
 early notice of the disaster, at the risk 
 of his life raced on foot before the 
 wave to warn the people in the valley 
 of their danger. But to some alas the 
 warning came too late, and seven were 
 swept to their death. One family of 
 five went down in the wreck of their 
 house, and only one survived. Only two or three who were caught by the flood came 
 out of it alive. The wave did not spend its force until it reached the Housatonic, 
 and it left the valley for two miles a scene of ruin indescribable. The loss of property 
 was very large, and though partially met by contributions which poured in generously 
 
 luUT OF CHUIJiTIAN HILL 
 
 THE SEDGWICK INSTIllTE 
 
 interest as the residence of Dr. Alvin Hyde, for more than forty 
 years the pastor of the Congregational church ; as also does the 
 house of Theron L. Foote, built in the last century, but in perfect 
 preservation and occupying one of the most charming sites in 
 town. Mr. Foote is the fourth in direct descent from the original 
 settler on this spot. This house once served as a tavern, and dur- 
 ing the Shays rebellion is said to have been the rendezvous of 
 Shays men in all this region. The Jared Bradley house in Bradley 
 street, and the Bradley homesteads on the north road to Stock- 
 bridge, also have some claim to antiquity, as have a number of 
 houses in South Lee. In East Lee, near Mr. McLaughlin's 
 foundry, is standing a house said to be the first frame building 
 erected in town. It now serves as one of the outhouses of 
 the foundry. 
 
 The East Lee valley was the scene a few years ago of a destruc- 
 tive flood, the traces of which still remain. In the early morn- 
 ing of 'April 20, 1886, Mud pond, on the mountain in the 
 extreme eastern part of the town, a little reservoir of two or three 
 acres used for storage purposes, suddenly, for spme cause as yet 
 unexplained, burst through its embankment and poured itself 
 down the mountain side and out into the valley. The amount of 
 water was absurdly small for the effects wrought, but coming as it 
 
 from all parts 
 of the country, 
 that part of the 
 town has never 
 fully recovered 
 from the shock 
 to its prosper- 
 ity. Many of the 
 buildings have 
 been repaired, 
 but not a few 
 stfll lie in the 
 ruin in which 
 the flood left 
 
 them ; and the deep gorge ploughed by the mad waters down the mountain side 
 
 will remain forever a m.emorial of the East Lee flood. 
 
 Lyman S. Rowland. 
 
 THE SEDGWICK BOYS AT I'LAV— POLO IN THE WATEII, ETC. 
 
 Dean Stan- 
 ley, when in 
 Berkshire, stood 
 on the piazza of 
 Rev. Henry M. 
 Field's home 
 in Stockbridge, 
 and as he looked 
 off upon the 
 beautiful land- 
 scape said : — 
 " Can Heaven 
 be more beauti- 
 ful than this?" 
 
 >»1.1tli 
 
 / If Ik 
 
 L)X EAST sTHEKT 
 
 THE -MU.NLJIL-N !■ MILLS iiiii(_|,: 
 
44 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 Bolivar ,and the two-seated wagon had disappeared from the post under the ipaple 
 tree. Old Bolivar had gone to meeting and was standing, with a sanctimonious 
 look on his face, in his accustomed place under the meeting-house shed, and he 
 was at his post before the last bell stopped ringing. Grandfather walked the two 
 miles to the meeting-house, but the rest of the family stayed at home. From that 
 time old Bolivar Was a noted character in Berkshire. 
 
 " ^. ■*»*&^ 
 
 On TllK EAST UOAD 10 bliLUlLLD 
 
 OLD BOLIVAR 
 
 Grandfather's go-to-meeting 
 horse was one of the noted 
 characters of Berkshire, sixty 
 years ago. He was such a trust- 
 worthy animal that after grand- 
 father had hitched him uj), he 
 needed no tie strap to ensure 
 his faithfulness at his post. 
 Grandfather was a very pfunc- 
 tual man and his Sunday-go-to- 
 meeting shoes, and those of his 
 family, were never known to 
 go squeaking up the aisle after 
 meeting had begun. Old Bolivar 
 was always standing under the 
 ipeeting-house shed before the 
 last bell stopped ringing. One 
 Sabbath morning grandmother 
 found that the children had not 
 learned their catechism ques- 
 tions perfectly, and she had 
 been hindered about getting 
 ready, trying to make the chil- 
 dren "see their way through 
 adoption, justification and sanc- 
 
 tification." They had run: away from the catechism ques- 
 tions — those dear grandc{iildren, during the week. The 
 new-mown hay, the flowers of the field, the singing of the 
 birds had entirely obliterated the catechism from their 
 minds, and now at the beginning of the " Day of all the 
 week the best," their good grandmother had brought them 
 face to face with the doctrinal points they must be able to 
 define at Sunday school, and do credit to their religious 
 home teaching. Grandfather grew very uneasy as he 
 watched the pointers of the clock go round. 
 
 " Keziah," he said to his wife, in an impatient tone, " the 
 last bell has rung — we'll be late to meeting — I always said 
 I'd never go squeaking up to my slip after the preacher be- 
 gins, and I won't." So grandfather took off his Sunday-go- 
 to-meeting shoes and put on his everyday ones that were 
 too weary with their daily march through the week to an- 
 nounce themselves as coming into meeting. 
 
 Grandmother put on her leghorn scoop bonnet with the 
 
 A Curious Circumstance.— The following circumstance is, related by Dr. 
 D wight as having occurred at the great bridge in Great Barrington: "A Mr. Van 
 Rensselaer, a young gentleman from Albany, came one evening into an inn kept by 
 a Mr. Root just at the eastern end of the bridge. Mr. Root replied that that was im- 
 possible, because it had been raised that very day, and that not a plank had been 
 laid on it. Mr. Van Rensselaer said that it could not be true, because his horse had 
 come over without any difficulty or reluctance; that the night was indeed so pro- 
 foundly dark as to prevent him from seeing anything distinctly, but that it was in- 
 credible, if his horse could, see sufficiently well to keep his footing anywhere, that 
 he should not discern the danger, and impossible for him to pass pver the bridge in 
 that condition. Each went to bed dissatisfied, neither believing- the story of the 
 other. In the moaning Mr. Van Rensselaer went, at the solicitation of his host, 
 to view the bridge, and finding it a naked frame gazed for a moment, with aston- 
 ishment, and fainted."' > 
 
 THE MOUNTAINS IN 
 OCJOBER 
 
 A SCEKE Ua THE HluHVV'Ai ^EAK UKEAT BAKKl^U'XUU 
 
 That scenery which a few 
 weeks ago. stood in summer 
 green now seemed enchanted. 
 The Housatonic was the same. 
 The skies were the same. The 
 mountain forms were un- 
 changed. But they had blos- 
 somed into resplendent colors 
 from top to base. It was 
 strange to see such huge -moun- 
 tains, that are images of firm- 
 ness and majesty, now tricked 
 out with fairy pomp, as if all 
 the spirits of the air had reveled 
 there, and hung their glowing 
 scarfs on every leaf and, bough. 
 I stand alone upon the peace- 
 ful summit of ]the hill, and turn 
 in every direction. The east is 
 all aglow ; the blue north flashes 
 all her hills with radiance ; the 
 west stands in burnished armor ; 
 the southern hills buckle the 
 zone of the horizon together with emeralds and rubies, such 
 as were never set in the fabled girdle of thd gods ! 
 
 Only the brotherhood of evergreens — the pine, the cedar, 
 the spruce and the hemlock — refuse to join the universal 
 revel. They wear their sober green straight through autumn 
 
 BlilDGE A\D -UAil AT JIEAU UF UliEEX KXVKK 
 
 IIEAU Oil' GEEEN RlVElt WATEli I'UWEtt 
 
 long, black lace veil hanging down the 
 side, drawn off from her face like a cur- 
 tain, folded a white muslin handkerchief 
 across her black silk waist and was ready. 
 But when the door was reached, old 
 
 OLD "ff'ILLOWS 
 
 and winter, as if they were set to keep the path of sum- 
 mer open through the whole year, and girdle all seasons 
 together with a clasp of endless green. But in vain do 
 they give solemn examples to the merry leaves which 
 Irolic with every breeze that runs sweet riot in the glow- 
 ing shades. Gay leaves will not be counseled, but will 
 die bright and laughing. Beecher. 
 
 In his " Wonder Book for Boys and Girls," Nathaniel 
 Hawthorne gives some accurate descriptions of Lenox 
 scenery. Therein he has clothed six of the classical 
 myths in forms adapted to the capacities and suited to the 
 improvement of the young, and with remarkable success. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 BROOK AND POND LIFE 
 
 45 
 
 Born of the quaint old Indian tongue, the 
 word Taghconic, with its pleasing sound, mimics 
 the gurgle of the babbling brook, and with its 
 meaning "plenty water," well fits the mountain 
 range that in its quiet beauty bears the name. 
 From Vermont and the Greens upon the north 
 to Connecticut and the Canaan mountains in 
 the south stretches a double line of hills that 
 form the natural foundation upon which the 
 commonwealth has reared the superstructure 
 of a county. Double, I called these hills, but 
 
 m '^■i<'-w* 
 
 
 THE TRESTLE AT VAX DEUSKN VILLE 
 
 VAN DEUSENVILLE 
 
 GREEN RIVER 
 
 A VlfeTA ON THK (iliEES RlVEi; 
 
 they might, indeed, 
 be termed an arch — 
 for the two pillars, 
 the Hoosacs on the 
 east and the Tagh- 
 conics on the west, 
 resting their bases 
 on the southern 
 Massachusetts border, 
 stretch to the north- 
 ward in a narrow 
 line across the state 
 and there, joining in 
 
 When breezes are soft and skies are fair 
 I steal an fioiir from study and care, 
 And hie me away to the woodland scene, 
 Where wanders the stream with waters of green. 
 As if the fringe of herbs on its brink 
 Had given their stain to the wave they drink ; 
 And they whose meadows it murmurs througli, 
 Have named the stream from its own fair blue. 
 
 Yet pure its waters — its shallows are bright 
 
 With colored pebbles and sparkle of light, 
 
 And clear the depths where its eddies play, 
 
 And dimples deepen and whirl away, 
 
 And the plane-tree's speckled arms o'ershoot 
 
 The swifter current that mines its root, 
 
 Through whose shifting leaves, as you walk the hil], 
 
 The quivering glimmer of sun and rill. 
 
 With a sudden flash on the eye is thrown, 
 
 Like the ray that streams from the diamond stone. 
 
 Oh, loveliest there the spring days come, 
 
 With blossoms and birds and wild bees' hum ; 
 
 The flowers of summer are fairest there, 
 
 And freshest the breath of summer air ; 
 
 And sweetest the golden autumn day 
 
 In silence and sunshine glides away. 
 
 Bryafi/. 
 
 i*ff * 
 
 .^ r^^M' 
 
 ^,iMi*3j3»* t"i'jii"i* 
 
 .■T\':£2r"^-2:ji^^v!:i"l 
 
 i>i,ikR.-Hii{K iiEn;in> 
 
 •^1^ 
 
 iaK DAM AT \ AK l>ELbEi,\'lLLE 
 
 LUKG LAKE 
 
 a single sweep, they claim the rugged form of Greylock as their keystone, 
 while from out this quaintly rustic arch the Housatonic flows. 
 
 Much has been said and written about these Berkshire hills, but strangely 
 few are they who have yet sung the praises of the Berkshire valleys. Yet whai 
 were one without the other? Nor are her valleys all, for the streams that wan- 
 der through their lower levels, when seen in the sunset light, form but the silver 
 setting of the emerald green of nature. New England, north and west, takes a 
 just pride in the winding Connecticut valley, while the old Nutmeg state her- 
 self glories in her Housatonic, and New York dwells long upon the theme 
 of her favored Hudson, but Berkshire levies alike her tribute upon each and 
 claims a portion of them all. Thus three great water basins draw from her a 
 portion of their aqueous supplies. Where, in the prehistoric, earlier days once 
 
 OA TUE SEliJioKii KiVEK 
 
46 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ebbed and flowed the seas of 
 Silurian time, now ebb and flow 
 only the seas of Time itself. 
 Water, indeed, is there, but its 
 strange lives and its salty nature 
 both are gone and the babbling 
 brook now meekly wanders o'er 
 the rocks that tell the story of its 
 former greatness. 
 
 Often in summer. Upon the. 
 rounded boulder that in former 
 ages the glacier has crunched 
 and ground beneath its ponder- 
 ous weight, now sfts the sun- 
 tanned schoolboy whose naked 
 feet bathe idly in the pool below. 
 
 FOOT OF THREE-MILD HILL 
 
 CLIMBING THE HILL 
 
 Given the freedom of the 
 stream, and alike to him 
 are the weighty questions 
 of both church and state, 
 of polity and policy. Lit- 
 tle cares he for aught — 
 aught save the dread mos- 
 quito ! With his skates in 
 winter, and in summer his 
 fishi ng tackle of string and 
 crooked pole, he forms as 
 much a part of the brook 
 life of Berkshire as does 
 the fish that shyly nibbles 
 at the harmless bait on 
 his bended pin. It is well 
 that the potent Yankee 
 forces within him should, 
 in their younger days, be 
 thus tamed and softened 
 by a contact with nature, such as life, in its busier seasons, cannot know and many a time, in 
 after years, when the purling stream shall have long since ceased to ripple over those wading 
 feet and heavy toil and care shall have worn their deep lines in both brow and palm, the ferny 
 bank and shadowy pool will come into his thoughts in a way so deep that only soul itself 
 can understand. 
 
 It was thus as a schoolboy among these hills that I learned to know and love alike the 
 sunny lake and the mud-pool by the roadside. Nothing brought more happiness than a tramp 
 of miles along some mountain stream, by day or night, in sunshine or in storm, and later 
 years have not dimmed for me the charms of nature. A brookside visit still will serve 
 to brighten many a com- 
 ing hour of toil. 
 
 Many of the more 
 common, living forms 
 that find a home in and 
 around our streams and 
 ponds are quite familiar 
 to us all, but let us catch 
 for a moment a glimpse 
 of some of those which 
 spend their humble lives 
 in quieter obscurity. 
 
 The stem that nobly 
 bears yonder water lily as 
 its fitting crown bears 
 other treasures, too, 
 beneath the water's sur- 
 face. Such a friendly 
 
 shelter as this is the chosen home of many a molluscan 
 form. Rarest of these among our Berkshire pools is the 
 " fresh water limpet," or ancylus, as it is technically 
 called. It consists of a single, delicate shell, shaped 
 much like the scale-bugs so common upon cultivated 
 trees and plants, but unlike them it does not always feed 
 upon the host over which it travels. Scarcely the size 
 of a single rice grain and but little thicker than the paper 
 of the page you read, this almost transparent shell yet 
 bears within a strange living form that yields rich treas- 
 ure to the scientist. , 
 
 Like all shells of its class, the under side of its entire 
 length is flattened into a soft, muscular surface, called the 
 foot, by means of which it crawls. Near the front edge 
 of this foot, and still underneath its body, is found the 
 mouth, almost circular in outline, and curiously furnished 
 with three minute, horny jaws, one in front and one upon 
 either side, each deeply grooved, and all working like 
 three washboards rubbing across each other. But turn a 
 
 A LONG LAKE WOOD PATH 
 
 Still more powerful lens upon this complex mouth, and yet 
 other wonders will await us. We shall find here also a per- 
 fectly transparent tongue, broad in proportion to its length, 
 and armed like the tongues of nearly all shells, with several 
 thousand siHcious, glassy teeth. All of these bright teeth, 
 for bright and shining they are, are so sharp that the most 
 powerful microscope shows not a sign of dullness upon 
 them, while even their seemingly broad bases are so narrow 
 that a dozen of them could stand in position side and side 
 across the edge of the keenest razor. They are arranged in 
 rows running in both directions, from front to back, and from 
 side to side. The teeth in every row that run along the length 
 of the tongue are wholly different from all the others except 
 those in the corresponding row just opposite. Thus the 
 outside rows upon both edges of the tongue are exactly alike, 
 and so are the two next, and the two next to them, and so on. 
 The rows from side to side vary in size, but all are duplicates 
 of each other. The teeth along the outer edges are exceed- 
 
 belciirr's caae 
 
 AT THE TOF OF THltKE-MILE HILL 
 
 ingly small and sharp, but we shall find a regular gradation in size 
 between these and the larger teeth along the middle of the tongue 
 while a' powerful glass will reveal the fact that many of them have 
 their sharp edges cut and divided into the most delicate, needlelike 
 pmnts. When first hatched, this shell, like all its relatives, has but a 
 narrow tongue, furnished with only two or three rows of teeth, but as 
 it grows older, other rows are added along its edge, until some 
 have as many as seventy-two lines of these minute, shining knives. 
 
 Far different from their 
 human friends, these little 
 forms are strangely consist- 
 ent in their ways for, if ever 
 a single tooth varies from 
 what it should be, every tooth 
 within that row will be found 
 to have the same deformity. 
 With such a set of jaws and 
 teeth, do you wonder that the 
 lily stem from which it came 
 should have upon it tiny 
 marks as if its surface had 
 been eaten ? 
 
 But the study of its mouth 
 does not exhaust the won- 
 ders of this little traveler, for 
 like its larger neighbors, it 
 is furnished with a full set of 
 
 NEVE illE TO\S5. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 47 
 
 ON THE IIOUSATONIC 
 
 muscles and organs for sight and 
 motion, hearing, feeling, and digestion 
 and has, besides, a perfect heart with 
 perfect blood and perfect circulation. 
 Although this tiny creature leads a 
 quiet life in its home among the water 
 sedges and the lily stems, yet its kind 
 has traveled far and is known to many 
 climates. It is found in the grassy 
 pool at your feet, and found alike in 
 the islands of the Spanish Main and 
 the rivers of the west, from the cold 
 Canadian lakes to the tropic groves of 
 South America, and from the high 
 mountains of the New World to the 
 daYnp vales of the Old. 
 
 But now close beside the rough, 
 time-worn stone that the ancient gla- 
 ciers once tore from its rocky bed 
 beyond the Canadian border, comes 
 swimming the yellow and brown 
 and speckled body of the lazy triton. 
 No wonder that his repulsive form and 
 ridiculously serious face and scale-like 
 spots have made him the namesake of 
 
 the fabled sea triton of Greek mythology. Like many of the lower batracliiaus, 
 this quaint mock sage has the strange power of reproducing portions of his body 
 that are lost. Its feet and tail are easily broken and are doubtless often snapped 
 off by the fishes, but they all soon grow again. Even an eye, when once put out, 
 is, in a few weeks, replaced by another, bright and new. From time to time these 
 animals lose their outer skin and come forth in a newer and a larger suit, and 
 often have I laughed to watch this comic sham, with look as wise as Solomon, go 
 through the act of shedding his speckled coat. The skin, which for a few days 
 has looked more dull than usual, cracks open in a short line along the back ar.d 
 the little hand-like fore feet slowly reach up to the back of the neck and there 
 evidently try to unbutton his refractory collar, the creature, meanwhile, posing, 
 for all the world, as though he were waiting to hear something drop. At last 
 after many trials, the work is done and bending his longhead underneath hisbreast 
 he proceeds to pull his shirt off over it. This allows his head to project through 
 the slit in the back. Then demurely winking fast one 
 eye and then the otljer, and repeatedly gaping his new 
 mouth so wide that one would think he were about to 
 divide into halves, like a pea pod splittinglehgthwise 
 he looks himself over carefully and then rubs and 
 pulls the skin from his fore feet exactly as a laborer 
 rolls down his sleeves. The stupidly simple interest 
 he takes in the whole proceeding is ludicrous in the 
 extreme, and after the changing of his coat has at last 
 been completed, the way those knowing eyes survey 
 his new jacket from end to end is droll beyonb 
 description. 
 
 The Menobranchus, or mud puppy, whose darker 
 form, scarcely four inches in length, is so strangely 
 like, yet unlike, that of his neighbor, the triton, finds 
 here also a congenial home. This animal, with its 
 curiously fringed and tufted gills standing out upon 
 either side of its neck, is more nearly like the siren of 
 the South and the axolotl of Mexico than any other 
 that has yet been found within the limits of our North- 
 ern waters. 
 
 Like the old sailor who had fallen overboard in the 
 mid-Atlantic, the green frog sitting on the rock at 
 my feet is " Wet, ma'm ! wet ! very wet ! ! " but a close 
 examination of his damp form will bring to light many 
 unseen charms. Even the tiny leech that clings to his 
 curious feet, though dark and repulsive at first, yet, 
 when seen through the keen eye of the microscope, 
 reveals a subtle beauty, for even he is curiously and 
 wonderfully made. 
 
 But these strange creatures have yet other neigh- 
 bors as fascinating as they. From between the bowl- 
 shaped leaves of the pitcher plant, the buck bean, or 
 three-leaved Menyanthes, lifts its dainty, star-like 
 flowers, so finely fringed with white, as though a snow- 
 flake from a winter's storm had fallen on the slender 
 stem and changed into a crystal flower. It is with us a rare plant and a choice 
 one, for no mountain pass or meadow vale within our Eastern states yet held 
 a fairer gem. Above and around it, among the grass and sedges twine the yellow, 
 thread-like stems of the dodder. Starting, like others, from its seed, this little 
 twiner soon lays hold upon some neighboring plant and opens its career of theft. 
 Its nature changes and a parasitic life begins. No longer needing connection 
 with the earth, its useless lower portions die away while the leafless top grows on, 
 dwarfing the life and sucking the juices of the plants over which it twines, while it 
 
 decks their dying stems with garlands 
 of its small, white flowers, so different 
 from the bright morning-glories with 
 which it scientifically belongs. 
 
 But just here, rising above this 
 tangled mass, stands perhaps the most 
 picturesque of all the water-side plants 
 of Berkshire. It is the common 
 Typha, or cat-tail flag, whose naked 
 spadix and noble leaves unite with the 
 ferns and sumachs in lending such a 
 tropical air to the shores of many of 
 our Northern ponds. In Europe the 
 young sprouts of this plant are often 
 eaten, especially by the Cossacks 
 along the Don, and it is even used in 
 some parts of Britain where it is 
 locally known as Cossack asparagus. 
 Around us the showy heads of the 
 tour-pronged cuckle, Bidens chrysan 
 themumoides, form a yellow mass, 
 with flowers as large and handsome as 
 those of many of the much-prized 
 chrysanthemums of our gardens, while 
 beneath them, in the long, damp moss, 
 the rare Drosera finds a home. This is a queer little, insect-eating plant whose 
 history dates back into the remote geologic ages of the fossil beds. Its leaves are 
 strangely covered with long, stiff hairs whose ends are tipped with glands secreting 
 a viscid juice that proves a deadly trap for the unwary fly. 
 
 Passing farther on, we may find the surface of the pond covered, in places, with 
 a bright green, scum-light growth. It is the curious pond weed which always floats, 
 with scarcely a visible root or top, spending its whole time drifting about and 
 growing and dividing. 
 
 In such a short tramp one can notice but a few of the living forms around him, 
 for the kinds that inhabit even our Berkshire streams are hundreds in number, and 
 the study of them has been the life work of many a scientist. 
 
 But here the pool ends and we reach the stream again. Going a short distance 
 up its ferny bed, one catches the beauty of its shadowy way. In the words of 
 Trowbridge it is: — 
 
 " Just a brooklet, so perfect and sweet, 
 Like a child that is always a child ; 
 A picture, as fair and complete, 
 As softly and peacefully wild, 
 As if Nature had only just made it 
 And laid down her pencil, and smiled." 
 
 Who would wish now to break the charm its quiet 
 beauty brings to soothe the mind? Resting upon a 
 mossy stone, we try, with the fish and flowers, to share 
 once more a portion of the brooklet's life. We watch 
 the sparkling water play with the dancing light and 
 shade until the cricket sounds its evening chirp and 
 the twilight glow of the sunset sky fades slowly o'er 
 the westerri hills, till Nature seeks again her quiet rest 
 and day is lost in the dusk of evening. 
 
 Walter Harrison. 
 
 VACATIONS IN BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE HIGHWAY, NEAR THE VILL\OF. 
 
 The advantages of the Berkshire hills as a place for 
 summer resort are marked and increasingly manifest. 
 Situated as this region is a thousand to fifteen hun- 
 dred feet above the tidewater — two hours distant from 
 Springfield and Albany, and four and a half hours 
 from New York and Boston, the natural, social, busi- 
 ness, literary, political and religious associations 
 make this country the most attractive arid the most 
 available of any mountain region in New England. 
 The White mountains are always interesting, but they 
 are distant, and are given up to tourists, who descend 
 upon the hotels like an Egyptian plague of locusts 
 and leave not any "green thing" to those who come 
 after them. But the Berkshire hills are quiet, peace- 
 breathing, easy to get into and easy to be lost in, and 
 there is a peacefulness and refreshment about them which the more notorious 
 mountain haunts fail to develop. 
 
 Pittsfield, Mass., is the terminus of four distinct railroads, and from this as the 
 center of the Berkshire region it is possible to go to New York by eight distinct 
 routes — three ways by water and the rest by rail. These routes are: The Boston 
 & Albany, the Housatonic, the Harlem, the Hudson River, the West Shore, 
 the night boat from Albany and Troy, the day boat from Albany, and the boat 
 from Hudson. 
 
 HOLSATONIC 
 
48 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 Perhaps some day when our Shaker friends are through with their experiment of 
 celibacy and retirement from the world and have given in their witness to the testimony 
 and revelation of Ann Lee, their great caravansaries may become philanthropic 
 schools of reforms for our gamin boys and wayward girls, and thus the superfluous 
 energies of our now overdeveloped and complex parochial life may seek this line of work 
 as the next and newest field for the exercise of its powers. 
 
 One other interesting excursion from Pittsfield, the queen city of the Berkshire region, 
 is through the enterprising town of Dalton where Lieutenant-Governor Weston has his 
 
 picturesque 
 chilet, " Great 
 Hearth," on 
 Mount Weston, 
 past Windsbr 
 Falls to Cum- 
 mington, the 
 hom^ of the poet 
 Bryant. As one 
 
 NMAli TIIK TOWN, CIltKAT BABRINGTON 
 
 DEEP SHADOWS IK TlIK HOUSATONIC, SOUTU FROM IRON BRIDGE, GREAT HARRINGTON 
 
 The carefully prepared map of the Berkshire Life Insurance company 
 furnishes a most convenient choice of roads for a carriage itinerary through 
 this wonderful county, extending as it does from the hills of Connecticut to 
 the Green mountains of Vermont. 
 
 Here are the famous drives to Williamstown, along the Cheshire Harbour 
 valley with the manufacturing towns of Adams, Renfrew, Xylonite and 
 Maple Grove scattered along the sides of Greylock. Then from North 
 Adams a detour can be made to the pretty 
 little hamlet of Florida, or on through 
 Williamstown to Pownal and Benning- 
 ton, where the great monument now 
 stands, and back again to Pittsfield, 
 around the beautiful mountain road which 
 skirts the western side of Greylock and 
 leads into the quaint old town of Lanes- 
 borough and along the shores of Lake 
 Pontoosuc into Pittsfield. 
 
 Or one can ride out over the causeway 
 that spans Lake Onota, past the beauti- 
 ful mansions of Mr. H. C. Valentine of 
 New York and Mr. Walker of Chicago, 
 places which remind one, in the beauti- 
 ful glimpses of lake and mountain seen 
 from their lawns, of views upon the 
 Lake Como and the Lake Maggiore in 
 Italian Switzerland, just before reaching 
 Milan. Then from Onota's placid water, 
 the mountain path leads on to Lulu cas- 
 cade and Balance rock and over Potter's 
 mountain to 
 Hancock and 
 Stephentown. • 
 From Potter's 
 mountain the 
 Catskills are 
 plainly visible, 
 with the Cats- 
 kill Mountain 
 house ledged 
 like a white 
 flower on some 
 ravine's slope, 
 and in the op- 
 posite direction 
 the white meet- 
 ing-house of 
 Peru on its high 
 hill-top is easily 
 seen. The ride 
 
 to Peru itself is most interesting, showing as it does a typical deserted hill town, and the 
 route on to Savoy leads through a wildly picturesque region. Still another drive is to 
 Lebanon Springs, stopping at the Hancock and Lebanon Shakers, where, if one is so 
 fortunate at the latter spot, he may happen to see the remarkable and now quite 
 famous Brother Alonzo Hollister, whose facial resemblance to Emerson is quite marked, 
 and whose busy pen and eager mind together make him a most attractive visitor. The 
 famous lake of " Queechy," giving as it did the 'title to the novel of that name, fur- 
 nishes another beautiful drive through the environs of the quaint old town of Richmond 
 and past the celebrated Richmond iron works. Burnham farm, near by, at present under 
 the charge of the Brothers of St. Christopher, is also an object of interest to the tourist 
 who wishes to see the practical and most successful working out of the problem of caring 
 for and developing the wild and wayward boys of our cities, who are saved by this 
 experiment at Burnham farm from becoming classed early in life as jail birds and prison 
 hangers on. 
 
 ^Mr 
 
 ^r^ 
 
 
 ^^V_ 
 
 
 
 ; '", 
 
 
 l^fSxR.' 
 
 
 
 ^--^^*~~Ttf 
 
 
 W^' 
 
 
 •'■''i*t".f-^jSt 
 
 PUP^^y 
 
 ^^■f vt;. m 
 
 ' ' ^-'S^ r '^. 
 
 W-W 
 
 ■jm^ ■ 
 
 
 
 1 \ ■■ 
 
 
 B^^J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■?v-,- 
 
 •' ■."• ■ "■ 
 
 ' '■-' ' ■" ' ' ,;^S 
 
 tPP^^S'"''.':'^ 
 
 n 
 
 MAIN SIKKIiT Ki:O.M PLEASANT, IIUUSATONIC 
 
 wandersoverthe 
 grounds of this 
 home of the 
 poet in his boy- 
 hood, in some 
 strange way the 
 association of 
 the arbor cul- 
 ture in that 
 neighborhood 
 brings forcibly to mind the matchless 
 rhythm of our great poet of nature in his 
 famous " Forest Hymn " : — 
 
 " The sroves were God's first temples ere man 
 learned 
 To hew the shaft and lay the architirave 
 And spread the roof above them, ere he framed 
 The lofty vault to gather and roll jback 
 The sound of anthems ; in the darkling wood, 
 Amid the cool and silence he knelt down, 
 And offered to the Mightiest solem^ thanks ; 
 And supplication, ****#* + 
 * * * Let me often to these solitudes 
 Retire, and in thy presence reassure 
 My feeble virtue. Here its enemies 
 The passions at thy plainer footsteps shrink, 
 And tremble and are still. 
 
 Be it ours to meditate. 
 In these calm shades, thy milder majesty. 
 And to the beautiful order of thy Works, 
 Learn to conform the order of our lives." 
 
 A little brook which runs near by this old Bryant homestead seems as if 
 it might have been the occasion of the composition of his exquisite little 
 poem : — 
 
 THE RIVULET 
 
 " Thou changest not, but I am changed, 
 Since first thy pleasant banks I ranged. 
 And the grave stranger came tri see 
 The play-place of his" infancy, 
 Has scarce a single trace of him, 
 Who sported once upon thy brim, 
 The visions of my youth are pastj — 
 Too bright, too beautiful to last. 
 I've tried the world, it wears no more ; 
 The color of romance it wore, 
 Yet well has nature left tl.e truth 
 
 She promised in my earliest youth. 
 
 And I shall sleep and on thy side, 
 
 As ages after ages glide. 
 
 Children their early sports shall try. 
 
 And pass to hoary age and die. 
 
 But thou unchanged, from year to year, 
 
 Gayly shall play and glitter here ; 
 
 Amid young flowers and tender grass, 
 
 Thy endless infancy shall pass ; 
 
 A nd singing down thy narrow glen, 
 
 Shall mock the fading race of men.'' 
 
 ON MAIN SlUEEl, HOUbAiONlL 
 
 IKT, HOI.^'^AT'0^■!C 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 While the natural advantages of Berkshire 
 cannot be surpassed, it is by no means devoid 
 of literary life, aid many authors well known to 
 fame have made their homes among the Berk- 
 shire hills. The picturesque settlement of 
 Williamstown, the seat of the college, stands on 
 the side of Mount Greylock. This pretty tow n, 
 boasting of but one street, is the center of ;ill 
 literary life at the 'present day, and it was here 
 that Mark Hopkins lived, worked and died. 
 The college has been the Alma Mater of many 
 famous sons, who have gone forth and lived 
 their lives and left their influence to bear testi- 
 mony to the moral strength which they have 
 here acquired. It was on his journey hither that 
 President Garfield was bent when he was so 
 cruelly shot in the depot at Washington. 
 
 Williamstown ■ has much natural beauty, 
 aside from the many hapdsome buildings attached to the college. The broad avenue which 
 runs through the center of the town, is bordered by sentinel-like trees, magnificent elms which 
 have stood the st^-ess of many seasons. The college library stands back from the street, and 
 near it is the chapel, a quaint, old-fashioned building containing a window to the memory of Presi 
 dent Garfield, erected by the students. The college buildings are scattered through the town, 
 and across the campus one goes to watch the athletic talent of the college teams, foot or baseball, 
 as the case may be', and the crimson of Harvard or the purple and white of Amherst are frequently 
 seen, mingling with the royal purple of Williamstown. Once, many years ago, a little band of 
 
 students met behind a haystack, 
 -T near the college, to listen to the 
 preaching of a zealous mission- 
 ary, and thus, in this primitive 
 manner, was formed the Ameri- 
 can Board of Foreign Missions, 
 nearly a century ago. 
 
 49 
 
 of the Breakfast Table " gave the delightful 
 story of " Elsie Venner " to the world. He has 
 laid the scene of the story in the city of Pitts- 
 field, at the time of the novel's first appearance, 
 merely a pretty country town. Dr. Holmes 
 owned a residence in the southern part, and 
 used a certain mountain in the neighborhood for 
 the scene of Elsie's adventures, and so it hap- 
 pens that South Mountain is the object of much 
 speculation, and many a school-girl and boy has 
 tramped the mountain for the sole purpose of 
 seeing " Rattlesnake Cave," where they fondly 
 imagine Elsie used to seclude herself. The 
 cave in question is a small one with an opening 
 at each end, and there are ledges of rock in- 
 side; a damp, gloomy place, suggestive of snakes 
 
 VIEW NEAR TIII5 MILLS, HOUSATONIC 
 
 CORKER MAIN AND PLEASANT STREETS 
 
 I '■ THE NEW MILL " 
 
 Rose Terry Cooke, who, until so recently charmed us with 
 her prose and poetry alike, lived for many years in Pittsfield, 
 and many a passer-by has seen the authoress as she sat on 
 her piazza on summer days. 
 
 Then, too, there is Herman Melville, who, a generation 
 ago, charmed the boys with his famous stories of adventure. 
 '' Abby Lodge," the. beautiful home of the author, is a short 
 distance from Pittsfield and affords a pleasant drive. On 
 one of the principal streets of "' ' 
 
 Pittsfield stands an old-fashioned 
 house, which is said to be the house 
 spoken of by Longfellow in his 
 poem of "The Old Clock on the 
 Stairs." Across its antique portico, 
 however, no shadows fall, and the 
 house has been somewhat changed 
 within the last few years. 
 
 In the ceinetery of Lanes- 
 borough is found the grave of the 
 gifted Shaw, familiarly known as 
 "Josh Billings." 
 
 It was among these quiet hills 
 that the author of "The Autocrat 
 
 and rheumatism. Maplewood 
 school, which no longer exists, 
 was undoubtedly the "Insti- 
 tute" of the novel, and so for 
 these reasons Berkshire people 
 claim the story of Elsie Venner 
 as their especial property. 
 
 Pittsfield, the center of Berk- 
 shire county, might well be called 
 a city of churches, possessing 
 as it does the sanctuaries of 
 all denominations: Lutheran, 
 French, Colored, German, 
 Roman Catholic, Unitarian, 
 Methodist, Baptist, First and 
 Second Congregational, Advent- 
 ist and Episcopal. In fact, there 
 is one place "in the town where 
 there is a church on every corner, and the churches of the Congrega- 
 tional, Baptist, Methodist and Episcopal denominations look toward 
 the four corners of the globe. As one comes from the station in this 
 beautiful place which never seems a city, he faces the shady park, with 
 the soldiers' monument, looking west. The Congregational and 
 Episcopal churches on the north side, and the court-house and Athe- 
 neum on the south. Magnificent elms stretch far down the avenue, 
 and shade the court-house and the park; and the gleaming white of 
 the court-house marble contrasts with the green verdure. The stone 
 is from the Lee quarries, where some of the finest marble in the 
 country is cut. Next to it stands the Atheneum, a gray stone 
 building, erected by the late Hon. Thomas Allen, containing the 
 library lecture and reading rooms, and the museum. In the central 
 
 PARK ftlltKET, HOUSATONIC 
 
 UN JIAIN STREET 
 
 EAST MAIN STREET 
 
 hall stands the exquisitely wrought statue 
 of Rebecca meeting Isaac, by the great 
 sculptor, Benzoni. The veiled face is 
 wonderfully executed and the features, 
 even through the marble covering, are 
 very clear, and the body is covered with 
 the same veil-like substance. The rest 
 of the hall is taken up with casts of 
 famous statues. 
 
 The First Congregational church fac- 
 ing the Atheneum, is of gray granite, 
 and the interior decoration of oak wood 
 is very fine. Next to it is the new 
 Episcopalchurch, St. Stephen's, built of 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
 
50 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 'GUS" BARNES ET ALS. 
 
 ON llIK UUU.SATOMC lilVEU 
 
 Longmeadow sandstone. The win- 
 dows in this' church are particularly 
 fine, and are the work of Miss Tilling- 
 hast and Tiffany in New York, Clayton 
 and Peel of London, and of Ford and 
 Brooks of Boston. The body of the 
 pulpit has inserted in it three panels 
 six hundred years old, and nearly 
 everything in the church is given in 
 loving memory of some dear friend. 
 
 The attractive church, Trinity, in 
 Lenox, has only been built within a 
 few years, and the channel is especially 
 worthy of note. There has recently 
 been added a new rectory, built in the 
 same style as the church. 
 
 St. Paul's church, Stockbridge, is 
 a beautiful building, with an exqui- 
 site baptistry and Florentine chancel. 
 Under the organ loft may be seen the 
 famous "Singing Boys," executed in 
 marble. Although the church is small, 
 it is an exquisite gem, and well suits 
 the quiet, beautiful town in which it 
 stands. Were time and space allowed, 
 one could extend to an almost indefi- 
 nite length the description of this most picturesque region. But let us 
 hope that enoughhas been said concerning "Picturesque Berkshire," 
 to induce the unfamiliar traveler to see for himself its many beauties, 
 and we are confident that he will go away exclaiming with the Queen 
 of Sheba, when she went on her willing pilgrimage to King Solomon 
 in all his glory, and gave as the verdict of her itinerary, that, " Behold, 
 
 the half has not been told." 
 
 Wm. Wilberforce Newton. 
 
 BAILROAD OftOSSING AT HOUSATOSIC VILLAGE 
 
 It is related that, in the early days of the war, a barbecue was 
 held by the patriots upon the summit of Mount Peter, and here, 
 after the sports of the day were over, their flag was left flying 
 
 '■ Gus " Barnes was an " institution " of southern Berkshire in other days. 
 "Gus" dwelt at Great Barrington and kept tavern there in the old Berk- 
 shire house building, which has since been converted into a business block 
 with stores and offices. Everybody new "Gus." In fact, not to know him 
 was held to be a very great lack in equipment of local history. And nobody 
 could know him without knowing that he was first, last and always a demo- 
 crat. He voted the ticket straight, from presidential elector down to town 
 constable, and faithfully read and fully believed the Pittsfield Sun as next to 
 the Bible, the most important compendium of truth extant. Though the 
 temperance people were wicked enough to declare that " Gus " was " experi- 
 mentally " acquainted with the quality of the potations dealt out at his tavern, 
 " to be drunk on the premises," no one can say that he ever saw " Gus " the 
 " wuss for liquor." Still, there's a tradition on that point which " will not 
 down." After a sojourn of two years at Chicago, he returned to Berkshire 
 and called, of course, on Phineas Allen of the Sun, and after he had 
 renewed his subscription to the paper and the two had " indulged in refresh- 
 ing remembrances of the past," Barnes arose to leave. Thereupon Allen 
 remarked, as he took the hand of his old patron and fellow democrat, " By 
 the way, Gus, I forgot to ask you how you like the water at Chicago." To 
 tliis came the quick response, " I vanny, Phin, I forgot to try it ! " 
 
 One of the men who knew "Gus" was the late Hon. J. M. Seeley, or 
 
 " Uncle Mark" Seeley, as he was 
 affectionately and familiarly called by 
 his Berkshire neighbors. But " Uncle 
 Mark" was of a different makeup 
 from " Gus." He managed a factory 
 instead of a tavern, and was a republi- 
 can rather than a democrat. Never 
 having sought office he was all the 
 more available as a candidate for the 
 legislature, when the time came for 
 his friends to demand that he accept 
 a nomination. The democrats had 
 several times elected "Hen" Wright 
 of Great Barrington, who was so 
 popular with "the boys" of both 
 parties, that it was difficult for the 
 republicans to hit upon a man to beat 
 him. The next session of the legisla- 
 ture would be the one for election of 
 United States senator, and naturally 
 the republicans wanted to win. It was 
 the segacious Mr. Tinker of North 
 Adams who, knowing the lay of the 
 land, politically, all over the county, 
 saw that " Uncle Mark " was the man 
 to name as the " favorite in the 
 race " against " Hen " Wright. 
 He was entered in the lists and 
 beat by several lengths ahead, 
 served twice in the House and 
 was promoted to the Senate. 
 
 Sheffield, that as everybody 
 in Berkshire knows, was for many 
 years the home of the excellent 
 and talented' Unitarian divine, 
 Rev. Dr. Orville Dewey, was also 
 the birthplace of a celebrity of 
 another denomination, the late 
 Bishop Edmund S. Janes of the 
 Methodist Episcopal church, 
 KEAK FKEicHT BFPOT. iToisATosic who, iH the exerclse of the 
 
 upon the liberty pole 
 erected for the occa- 
 sion. During the night 
 the Tories succeeded 
 in cutting it down, 
 but the flag was soon 
 in the hands of the 
 patriots again, who 
 " lashed the pole, with 
 a flag attached, to 
 a tree top, filled the 
 body of the tree witli 
 iron spikes, and with 
 prudent watchfulness 
 kept their colors flying 
 despite the Tories. 
 
 CATHOLTC CHURCH 
 
 IIOL'SATONIC^PASSENGER DEPOT 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 51 
 
 functions of his office had ^become known throughout the 
 land, presiding as he did in the sessions of conferences from 
 Arobstook to San Francisco. Those posted as to localities 
 of note in southern Berkshire point the traveler to a grass- 
 grown cellar place near the roadside where the house stood 
 in which this divine was born. It is near the Salisbury, Ct., 
 town line. Here at Sheffield, too, was for many years the 
 home of that prince of polite court officers, the late Graham 
 A. Root, who was for many years sheriff of "our county of 
 Berkshire," and of whom it was once remarked, and that 
 appropriately, " at his hands, on account of his politeness, 
 k hanging would be shorn of half its terrors ! " 
 
 SOME REMINISCENCES 
 
 Amusing reminiscences are given of early settlers on the 
 hills of the eastern borders of Berkshire. And among 
 others which have " come down to us from former genera- 
 tions," is one concerning a certain picturesque " old stager " 
 jvho dwelt someiyhere on the heights of Becket, and who 
 outlived his fourth wife. The funeral of the last of the 
 four successive wives was over, and the oft-married and oft- 
 bereaved man, accompanied by his minister, went with the 
 cortege from the place of obsequies to the mountain "grave- 
 yard." On the way, the minister remarked, in confidential 
 
 condolence, " Brother , it is indeed a great affliction to 
 
 lose a wife ; and how a man thus afflicted must need the 
 grace of God to sustain him. And how much, surely, he 
 must need divine help on losing a second and a third part- 
 ner of his joys. But here you are called topartwith afourth 
 wife! May Heaven sustain you in the unspeakable sorrow 
 of your great bereavement ! " To this abundance and acme 
 of tenderness came the response, " I swanny, parson, 'tis 
 tough; aint it? Why, I'd riither hev lost my best farrow 
 keow! " Thus much is historyV-what follows is embellish- 
 ment, added, as the story has been repeated. It is that, on the 
 return from the interment, the mourning man picked up 
 near the "graveyard" a horse-shoe, and exclaimed, "Well, 
 there's no great loss without some small gain." The wicked 
 ones in giving this addenda make the adjectives change 
 places so that the proverb quoted reads in their version to 
 make the wailing widower say, between sighs, "With this 
 small loss a greater gain." It was this same " stager" who, 
 complaining to his neighbor that a cow from the herd of 
 the latter had for a second time trespassed on his grounds, 
 said, " You don't suppose that my wife and I as we sit at 
 home of a Sunday morning readin' the Bible want to be 
 disturbed by that air old keow-bell ! " 
 
 In another neighborhood of the same town lived another 
 of the "old stagers," who was still alive when Kossuth, 
 the Hungarian patriot, was in America. Receiving the 
 adulation of thousands upon thousands all over the land as 
 a supplement to the honors shown him in Europe, the great 
 chieftain of the Magyar en route with his retinue through 
 Massachusetts to Albany must have felt humiliated not alittle 
 by the unseemly familiarity of the "old stager" aforesaid, 
 who had come down to the country station of Chester to 
 see the hero. The Hungarian traveled by the afternoon 
 train, which in these days, made halt at the little depot at 
 half-past one o'clock, tarrying usually for five minutes. 
 Schoolmaster Allard, a teacher well remembered of yore in 
 that region, sensing the importance of the event of Mr. 
 Kossuth's journey through America, forgot for the time 
 the drill of the school-room in which his voice, as is still 
 remembered by his pupils, was so often heard in his arith- 
 metical injunction of " Units under units, tens under tens," 
 and in the morning asked the pupils to assemble at the 
 school-house promptly at one and march to the station to 
 see the lion of the times. There, drawn up in double file, 
 they stood in respectful attitude by the coach of the train 
 from which the dark-visaged Magyar of renown beamed 
 kindly on the lads and misses, asking them questions and 
 smiling at their ready replies. People of the village stood 
 around in respectful attitude, or at least with curiosity that 
 was pardonable. But this "stager" from the hills wasn't 
 agoin' to let the occasion pass without talking face to face 
 with the celebrity from beyond the seas ; not a bit of it. The 
 man coming must be a good deal of a fellow because all the 
 people were talking about him. So, judging of him as he 
 (Continufid on page 52.) 
 
 "yi country Ooy Oy t/t£ old stotie wall 
 
 A POEM WITH A HISTORY 
 
 When Albert Hardy, now editor of Godey^s 
 Magazine, in New York city, was engaged in 
 literary work in New England, he passed many of 
 his summer months among tlie Berkshire hills — 
 chiefly in Lenox, and in the vicinity. His home 
 was then in Springfield, and it was his especial 
 delight to make extended pedestrian tours among 
 the hills, he very often walking from Springfield to 
 Lenox and Pittsfield. It was in the summer of 
 1889 that Mr. Hardy wrote " Sam," the poem which 
 follows. It was first published in the Boston Globe, 
 and was shortly after popularized by being read by 
 the famous elocutionist, A. P. Burbank, at Chau- 
 tauqua. Impressed with the manliness and beauty 
 of his young friend, Samuel E. Houston, son of 
 Hugh Houston of West Becket, Mr. Hardy wrote 
 the poem, which has since been incorporated in 
 many books of verse, and which is very popular 
 with elocutionists. This is the poem : — 
 
 SAM 
 
 AN IDYL OK THE BliRKSHIRE HILLS 
 
 A country boy by tlie old stone wall, 
 
 That keeps the meadow and road apart, 
 Stands handsome and manly and strong and tall ; 
 
 And sturdy is he as the maple tree 
 That's by his side. For Sam is young 
 
 And his honest heart is as light and free 
 As the bird that sings in the summer slties. 
 
 He loolcs far off o'er the distant hills, 
 \^'hile a soft light shines in his hazel eyes ; 
 
 And leaning there by the meadow wall, 
 
 He gives this sweet, familiar call : 
 
 "Co', bossi CO', boss! co,"boss!" 
 
 Xow to manhood grown, and the bells sound sweet 
 
 As the cows come slowly from out the wood ; 
 And he leaves the wall and hurries to meet 
 
 The mild-eyed creatures, for they all know 
 The hand that strokes them as they pass 
 
 Along the road where the daisies grow. 
 A nd each one stands by the cowyard bars 
 
 Seeming well content with the strong brown hand 
 That milks them there 'neath the summer stars ; 
 
 And Sam's eyes look love as he sings again 
 
 The well-remembered, sweet refrain, 
 
 "Co,' boss I CO,' boss! co,' boss ! " 
 
 iH^ 
 
 '"«P^.> A, 
 
 ""^ 
 
 '^H» 
 
 ■■ And a ftping voice o'er tlie old stone wall ' 
 
 'Twas a day in June, such as poets love, 
 There by his side a fair girl stands, 
 
 And the flying clouds in the sky above 
 Seem to play at forfeits with the sun. 
 
 How well Sam knows that a lover's heart 
 Throbs 'neath his coat, and that every one 
 
 Of the clover blossoms in the field 
 Is breathing to him an old love-song. 
 
 And that every bud a joy can yield. 
 So the maiden there by the broken wall 
 Takes up and sings the old-time call. 
 
 " Co,' boss ! CO,' boss ! co,' boss ! " 
 
 Once more Sam stands by the meadow bars 
 With his wife beside him, and her arms 
 
 Enfold a dear form, whose baby prate 
 Is sweeter to them than the brook's gay aong 
 
 As it flows away at the foot of the hill. 
 Happy they wait, for they know eie long 
 
 The cows will come from the meadow side. 
 So Sam caresses his little son, 
 
 While the young wife looks with joy and pride ; 
 And a piping voice o'er the old stone wall 
 Just breathes in baby notes the call, 
 
 " Co,' boss ! CO,' boss I co,' boss ! " 
 
 ' 'Twits a day in June, such as poels love^' 
 
52 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 would of oxen, he put on his best "hard-times " frock, as he would if he had been 
 going out to buy the best pair of bovines on the hills. Thus clad and with his best ox 
 whip he drove in his new cart to the village, where he halted his steers at the shed 
 of the "store." Thence going to the station, he elbowed his way through the 
 crowd and up to the car window, where, readjusting the quid of tobacco in his 
 mouth, by way of emphasis, and to get a good start in the memorable remark he 
 was to make, he said, as he looked with his mingled innocence and audacity into 
 the face of the distinguished visitor, "Well, Mr. Kossuth, erbeout whut is yeour 
 everidge heft? " To this impertinence the well-bred foreigner very good-naturedly 
 replied, as he tried to hide the smile that dawned on his care-worn visage, "1 
 haven't been weighed 
 very lately." The man 
 with his new frock and 
 best "cattle team" 
 drove back to his farm, 
 thinking that he had 
 done the smart thing 
 of the occasion. Be- 
 fore starting from the 
 village he had to stop, 
 of course, at the 
 " store ' ' and talk about 
 it to "Lorrunce" and 
 "Reel" Root, pat 
 the big brindle dog 
 "Bose," lying half 
 asleep and half awake 
 on the floor, and buy a 
 fresh supply of " the 
 weed " for himself and 
 an extra pound of 
 old Hyson for "the 
 wpman," in celebration 
 of his accomplishing 
 the feat with which he 
 had charged himself 
 as he set forth on the 
 morning, big with the 
 possibilities of agrand 
 achievement ! 
 
 The "good old 
 times " were spiced 
 with operations of 
 sharp men. And Mr. 
 .Adams, the veteran 
 ex-conductor of the 
 Boston & Albany 
 (Western) railroad, still 
 living at Springfield, 
 recalls one of these experiences wherein a man in partnership with Alexander 
 Birnie, brother of the late William Birnie, undertook to rob his associate of the 
 stock of goods which they had in a store for the supply of workmen engaged in 
 building the railroad. This partner had, in the evening, during the absence of Mr. 
 Birnie, made out a bill of sale of the whole stock to a Becket man who was not 
 particularly inquisitive as to the manner of acquiring property. He gave the 
 seller money and also a horse and sleigh, with which the latter made good his escape 
 out of town and beyond the state limits. The next morning the purchaser appeared 
 at the store and laid claim to the entire stock in trade. Prompt action on the part 
 of Mr. Birnie and his clerk, Mr. Adams, 
 soon brought a trial before a country jus- 
 tice of the peace, at West Becket, where 
 assembled a great crowd of the curious, 
 and in which litigation figured such well- 
 remembered old-time lawyers as "Squire" 
 Filley, the rotund magnate of ancient 
 Otis. The result was a finding for Mr. 
 Birnie, that established his claim to the 
 goods which had been fraudulently con- 
 veyed, and so of course in the purchaser's 
 losing the money he had, advanced, his 
 horse and sleigh and the cost of the 
 litigation. This in keeping with the rules 
 of court proceedings in those days, in- 
 cluded the fees of both lawyers and the 
 pay and mileage of witnesses on both 
 sides of the case. 
 
 But Becket had other than thtese 
 picturesque fellows. And in the congre- 
 gations of Rev. Mr. Mills, Rev. Mr. Hyde 
 and other ministers of the Becket church, 
 there were many fine families. It was at 
 Becket Centre where the father of L. 
 B. Williams of Northampton and his 
 
 brothers, H. F. and C. H. Williams, did a large business as a country merchant 
 and was a magistrate respected by the people around him. His sons were born in 
 that town, and there the eldest began to learn the ways of the business world. 
 There were Wadsworths, Snows, Huntingtons, Perkinses, Clarks, Chaffees, Rudds 
 and others who gave good account of themselves and some of whom are doing 
 well in the world, in and out of the state, to this day. 
 
 A tradition of the eastern border of the county shows the oppbsition which the 
 projectors of the first railroads met in forwarding their enterprises. It is to the 
 effect that a farmer by the name of Deming, through whose acres in the town of 
 Washington, the route for the Western railroad was laid, determined to stop the 
 
 i,, ' encroachment, andjfull 
 of the consciousness 
 of his right and power 
 so to do, appeared on 
 the / scene where a 
 party of surveyors and 
 construction men were 
 at vyork, and declared 
 with the emphasis of 
 righteous indignation, 
 " Gentlemen, I own 
 as high as heaven and 
 as deep as hell, and 
 this road isn't; going 
 through ! " TJie re- 
 mark, which, it may be 
 imagined caused a 
 smile on those who 
 heard it, was tpld by 
 some of the work- 
 men at the neighbor- 
 ing farmhouses where 
 they boarded, and of 
 cours,e became [part of 
 the legendary lore of 
 the region. 
 
 BTAUIIFUL BECliET — IHE VILLAGE ilvOM THE HILL, LOOKING WEST 
 
 A Country Store. 
 — Odd stories are often 
 told of the compre- 
 hensiveness of the 
 stock of a country 
 store, and much may 
 be allowed for the 
 stretch of imagination; 
 but this of a store still 
 , open, in the town of 
 Becket, is vouched for . 
 Two visitors to the village made a bet, upon the statement of one of them,' 
 that the other could not name anything of merchantable nature which could not be 
 found at that store. The doubter rather stretched his bounds ^hen he named a 
 church pulpit as the article which he did not believe could be found in the place. 
 The other man's faith is said to have been somewhat shaken when this unusual 
 article of merchandise was named by his friend, but he bravely stood by his bet, 
 and both men walked down to the village store and at once informed the gray and 
 grizzled proprietor what they called for. " Yes, yes, I've got one," he said, to the 
 delight of one man and the amazement of the other. Then he led the way to a 
 
 back room and showed them a church 
 pulpit which had but recently been taken 
 out from a Baptist church in the town 
 preparatory to the tearing down of the 
 edifice. 
 
 NOVEMBER 
 
 ' ' When is November ? " 
 When skies are graji, with scarce a fleck of blue, 
 When sharp winds blow which pierce you through 
 
 and through ; 
 When bird-songs cease, and empty nests hang high, 
 When butterflies and flowers have said good-by ; 
 When silver frost-work gleams on field and hill. 
 When hearth-fires flame and glow, as nights wax 
 
 chill; 
 When dead leaves drift through lonely forest ways, 
 When comes the glad New England day of days ; 
 Then is November. 
 
 Emma C Dowd. 
 
 THE PICTURESQUE VILLAGE STKI^ET 
 
 Wisdom's self 
 Oft seeks so sweet retired solitude ; 
 Where with her best nurse. Contemplation, 
 She plumes her feathers and lets grow her wingsi 
 That in the various bustle of Resort 
 Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 
 
 Milton- 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 53 
 
 THE CLAFLIN HOUS£ 
 
 reached, a glimpse is 
 afforded of a few farm- 
 houses in the little 
 valley on the left (the 
 murderer Coy lived off 
 there, just by the little 
 Methodist meeting- 
 house), but little hint is 
 given of the beautiful 
 country beyond, as the 
 train rolls over the 
 ridge, and the barren- 
 ness of the scenery 
 would discourage one 
 from investigating far- 
 ther, did he not know 
 that the " Promised 
 Land " was not far 
 away, and the pictur- 
 esque little village of 
 Hinsdale and the fair- 
 ly beautiful town of Dalton lies ter- 
 raced on the hills and in the valley, but 
 a little further on. 
 
 Yet Washington — bleak Washing- 
 ton — bleak hill-top that it is, is not by 
 any means devoid of picturesque in- 
 terest in itself. It is 1,700 feet above 
 the ocean level, and, therefore, about 
 
 OLD TAVEBN SIGKS 
 
 THE JIIDE ABOUT THE COUNTY 
 
 Washington, Lee, Becket and Tyringham 
 
 The town of Washington, on the Boston & 
 Albany railroad, in this county, should not be 
 confounded with the town of Mount Washing- 
 ton in the southwest part of this county, for they 
 
 WATSIDE REFRESHMENT 
 
 have some historic interest. Washington has an interesting history, too, and 
 has furnished the business and the political world with those who have made 
 their mark. Notable among these was the late ex-Governor Edwin D. Morgan, 
 war governor of Ne.v York, and United States senator, and whose father was 
 ' the well-known " Squire " Morgan, old-time magistrate of 
 the town. Sad it is to see that the old meeting-house on the 
 hill has gone to ruins — that the sanctuary fragrant with 
 the memory of such earnest preachers as the Rev. Moses 
 M. Longley and others like him, and of such good people 
 as the Morgans, the Blakes, the Abbotts, the Pomeroys 
 and others, should be left to tumble to pieces. 
 
 Becket 
 
 Becket, too, is on the Boston & Albany railroad, and 
 is one of the few ideal pure country places in the county, 
 without a cultivated landscape, but attractive because of 
 its natural simplicity. Our artist appropriately calls it 
 " Beautiful Becket." The elevation of the town is 1,200 
 feet, the air is clear and cool in summer, and the scenery 
 close by the village is wild and romantic in many places. 
 There are three villages in the town, but North Becket, 
 where the depot and hotel (the Claflin house) are located, 
 is the business; part of the town. The hotel, kept by 
 Landlord Schlesinger, is a favorite stopping-place with- 
 Hampden county people, as well as others, and was 
 named after ex-Gov. William Claflin, who originally 
 
 &iL£AT BtUKtT 
 
 700 feet higher than Mount 
 Washington, and there are 
 some very fine views 
 on the west slope, over- 
 looking Pittsfield, and 
 near the Congregational 
 church. Ashley lake, 
 Pittsfield's source of 
 water supply, lies here, 
 and is a mile long. Oc- 
 tober mountain is in this 
 town; the outlook here is 
 charming, and in the fall 
 months the foliage effects 
 are magnificent. Roar- 
 ing brook, which has its 
 source near the base of 
 the mountain, is a pretty 
 stream running through 
 Tory Glen, a place said to 
 
 are very different places. Our pictures give some 
 idea of the views which met our artist when he 
 entered this part of the Berkshire, yet it should 
 not be understood that the town of Washington is 
 utterly unworthy of its great patronymic. Here 
 the Boston & Albany railroad enters the small 
 village, clustered about the little raikoad station, 
 through a deep rock cut, at about the highest point 
 on the road. Coming from Springfield, by rail, 
 the traveler has been steadily ascending, and the 
 iron horse snorts and pants before he enters the 
 rocky rail gateway into the charming Berkshire 
 lands. In the last half-mile before that place is 
 
 A WATSIDE HOME 
 
 TOO LAZY TO FISH 
 
54 
 
 PICTURESQUK BIlRK SHIRE 
 
 occupied the place for a summer residence. The drives are interesting 
 all about, and the tally-ho frequently finds its way here. Mountain 
 scenery of much variety and grandeur is to be seen here. Becket 
 mountain is but two and a half miles from the depot, and is 2,200 feet 
 high, It is easily reached and at its base is located the reservoir of 
 Bulkley, Dunton & Co. Wadsworth mountain, three miles south of 
 North Becket, is 200 feet lower, but from its summit the steeples of 
 eight churches can be counted. Benton mountain also gives a good 
 view; it is 1,800 feet high, and only half a mile from the depot. For 
 
 THE SHADED BUOOK 
 
 a good view of the village, one need only ascend .the little hill and the 
 highway just to the east of the railroad crossing, where he will behold 
 our artist's " Beautiful Becket." 
 
 Yokun and Centre lakes are pretty sheets of water near the depot 
 village, and there are others in other directions, but less easy of access. 
 Within the past few years the residence portion of the village near 
 the depot has been much improved, and its convenience of access 
 will continue to make it popular for; Connecticut valley people, over 
 some other parts of the county. 
 
 Lee 
 The drive from Becket to Lee is about 
 five miles, up hill and down, and gives 
 one many a glimpse of what back coun- 
 try farm life is, on the exterior, and when 
 one drives into Lee Itself he is agreeably 
 surprised at the bustle and energy evident 
 in the place. It is not a large town, but is 
 the smartest in the county, reckoned by 
 its size. Here are large marble quarries 
 and paper mills, and the first paper pulp 
 made in this country had its origin here. 
 Marble went from Lee for a large part of 
 St. Patrick's cathedral. New York, Girard 
 
 brought this last sen- 
 tence to a close, we 
 unexpectedly found 
 close corroboration of 
 our judgment: Prof. 
 Gildersleeve of Johns 
 Hopkins University 
 says, " This is the only 
 place I was ever in 
 where I could walk all 
 day and find a new 
 and charming view 
 every five minutes." 
 Our artist's pictures in 
 this charming town 
 also give plentiful 
 hints of what is to be 
 found here. 
 
 The old-time Shak- 
 er interest of the town 
 is referred to else- 
 where, and need not 
 be alluded to here, 
 except as Mount 
 "Horeb'' is related 
 thereto, j This place 
 was selected by the 
 Shakers for their 
 "spiritual commun- 
 ion '' place in 1844, and 
 the prospect from this 
 point is magnificent. 
 At the summit of this 
 mountain the Shakers 
 cleared a small piece 
 of ground and built a 
 fence around it, an in- 
 ner fence around the " spiritual fount," and erected a marble 
 monument, with an engraved message purporting to be from . 
 God himself, warning all to keep sacred the grounds and 
 never desecrate them. The Shakers held services there for 
 several years, and finally discontinued them of course when 
 the organization broke up, after which the monument was 
 broken, carried away piecemeal, for relics, by strangers. 
 
 TIIL KaVINE 
 
 0OKGEE6AXIOSAL CHUHCH 
 
 THE DLD GUISTMILL 
 
 college^ two wings of the capitol at Wash- 
 ington, and many other handsome build- 
 ings, and at on€ time Lee paper manufac- 
 turers furnished the largest part of the 
 paper used by the great New York dailies. 
 "Highlawn," the "home of the brood 
 mares," was famous the country over for its 
 fine horses. Here the famous "Alcyone" 
 and "Alcantara " stallions were raised and 
 petted. At one time there was )fi5o,ooo 
 worth of horseflesh here', and it was 
 probably the most costly establishment of 
 the kind in the country. The picturesque 
 features of the town are so comprehen- 
 sively treated of elsewhere, in an article 
 from the pen of Rev. L. S. Rowland of 
 Lee, that we are obliged, on account of 
 restricted space, to "cut short" the 
 record of the extremely pleasant impres- 
 sions of our jaunt through this part of 
 the county. 
 
 Tyringham 
 
 One of the most delightful of country 
 drives is that from Lee to Tyringham, 
 and once within the limits of this latter, 
 quaint, small town, one sees new scenes of 
 beauty unfolding every hour, providing, 
 always, of course, he keeps moving and 
 has his eyes open. Turning to a well- 
 known authority on Berkshire, as we 
 
 TH£ BAPTIST CHCBCH 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 55 
 
 Nothing is now left, and the whole Shaker 
 property passed into other hands. 
 
 Among other interesting matters in 
 this town is the geological collection of 
 Daniel Clark at his residence in the 
 southwest part of the place. 
 
 Tyringham is not a railroad town, but 
 it is easily reached by carriage from Lee, 
 and the people are entertaining a yearly in- 
 creasing host of summer visitors. Thost 
 who once come here generally appear at 
 least a second season if they can. 
 
 ] WHAT THE FARMER READS 
 
 ^^^t^ 
 
 WAMIINGTI 
 
 The Lee Powder Mill. — Besides 
 the flood disaster in East Lee, pictured 
 in these pages, the town of Lee has been 
 noted for other shocking calamities. In 
 
 September, 1824, a scene of most appalling desolation was'exhibited in this town. 
 It was the explosion of an extensive powder factory, owned by Messrs. Laflin, 
 Loomis & Co. At the time it was estimated that there were about five tons of 
 powder in the different buildings. On a very pleasant morning, when the Work- 
 men thought all things were 
 going securely, in a moment 
 every building was razed 
 from its foundations with 
 a tremendous explosion. 
 Three of the unfortunate 
 workmen were instantly 
 killed, and a fourth, who was 
 thrown into the river, lingered 
 for a short time, till death 
 relieved him. Every house 
 in the neighborhood was 
 more or less injured, and 
 every breast was shocked. 
 Such was the consternation 
 produced in the minds of the 
 inhabitants that they univer- 
 sally protested against the ' 
 
 rebuilding, and the feelings the dksertki> om-RCH 
 
 The dusk of winter's eve falls early in 
 New England's hills, and no gaslights 
 illumine the snowdrifts. 
 
 The farmer's cheery abode shows but 
 dimly against the murky sky, save where 
 the bright rays of a lamp project from 
 an uncurtained window, and make a 
 broad pathway of light across the snow. 
 Perhaps by the aid of that light, one 
 can see the snowflakes falling silently, or 
 j a misty rain, or perhaps its brightness is 
 _„„T- ■"" ' paled by the winter moon which slowly 
 &.\'^_ f, -.' .%'«;.- '^t''--. I emerges from some low-lying clouds in 
 
 the east and makes a glittering fairy-land 
 ''■ '''•■''TBK q£ ^]j qjji- pf doors. If we look in that 
 
 lighted window we see the farmer's family 
 gathered around a bright and glowing fire. Theirs is the " abode of comfort but 
 not of luxury." A rag carpet covers the floor. The walls are papered in bright and 
 glowing tints and a few chromos, no less bright and glowing, are hung around the 
 room. There is an organ in the position of honor, an old-fashioned desk and clock 
 and plenty of rocking-chairs. 
 
 In front of the large stove, capable of holding an immense 
 '' chunk," a table is drawn, and on it is placed a large lamp. 
 By the light of that lamp the farmer alternately reads and dozes, 
 as he sits in his particular rocking-chair, his stockinged feet 
 toasting on the fender. 
 
 He is tired ; his day's work has led him to the ice pond or 
 the wood lot or to the distant mills in the valley, and after the 
 discomfort of the day, this is elysium. 
 
 Mistress Farmer sits on the opposite side of the fire and 
 briskly stitches or knits on the endless succession of stockings, 
 or chops the corn-beef hash for to-morrow's breakfast. 
 
 And the farmer's daughter ? Perhaps she is busy with the 
 latest pattern in crochet, or with deft and nimble fingers she 
 apes the styles of the city, and "fixes over" her second best 
 woolen dress. Perhaps, her ambition is to graduate from the 
 Normal school, and she is studying Latin with the minister 
 of the village church, and so takes this quiet time to con the 
 next day's lesson. 
 
 >IETH0D1ST CEVllCiT 
 
 THE HIGHWAY OVER THE IIAILKOAD 
 
 of the proprietors coinciding, the site and water privilege were soon after sold, and 
 an extensive paper mill erected. 
 
 Thrice happy hfe! who on the 
 sunless side 
 
 Of a romantic mountain, forest 
 crowned, 
 
 Beneath the whole collected 
 shade reclines ; 
 
 Or in the gelid caverns, wood- 
 bine wrought, 
 
 And fresh bedew'd with ever 
 spouting streams. 
 
 Sits coolly calm, while all the 
 world without, 
 
 Unsatisfy'd and sick, tosses at 
 noon. 
 
 Emblem instructive of the vir- 
 tuous man, 
 
 Who keeps his tempered mind 
 serene and pure, 
 
 And every passion aptly har- 
 moniz'd. 
 
 Amid a jarring world with vice 
 inflam'd. 
 ^^^_^_^ Thomson, 
 
 SlLlsar WALLS 
 
 AS EXPRESSIVE SEBMON 
 
56 
 
 She probably has a novel laid away on the top of 
 the organ, waiting until that quiet hour after she is in 
 bed, when she can read a little before the light is 
 blown out. 
 
 The boys are in another corner, and have a huge 
 bowl of Baldwins and Greenings, which they busily 
 munch while hands and brains are occupied with a 
 game of cards or dominoes. Later they will read in 
 the Youth's Companion or some favorite book of ad- 
 venture until the tall clock in the corner gives nine 
 sonorous strokes — the bedtime signal for the boys. 
 
 These long winter evenings become the reading 
 harvest of the farmer, and so also are the long, 
 lazy Sunday afternoons when the family are home 
 from church. 
 
 All the week-day pastimes and occupations are then 
 laid aside. No dinner is provided, but all take their 
 turn in helping themselves to "a snack" from the 
 pantry shelf. In summer under a shady tree, and in 
 winter around the fire, they rest and read the papers. 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 MORNING SOUNDS 
 
 But who the melodies of morn can tell ? — 
 
 The wild brook, babbling down the mountain side ; 
 
 The lowing herd, the sheepfold's simple bell ; 
 
 The pipe of early shepherd, dim descried 
 
 In the lone valley ; echoing far and wide 
 
 The clamorous horn the cliffs above ; 
 
 The hollow murmur of the ocean tide ; 
 
 The hum of bees, the linnet's lay of love, 
 
 And the full choir that wakes the universal grove. 
 
 The cottage curs at early pilgrim bark ; 
 Crowned with her pail the tripping milkmaid sings ; 
 The whistling ploughman stalks afield ; and, hark ! 
 Down the rough slope the ponderous wagon rings ; 
 Through rustling corn the hare astonished springs ; 
 Slow tolls the village clock the drowsy hour; 
 The partridge bursts away, on whirring wings ; 
 Deep mourns the turtle in sequestered bower, 
 And shrill lark carols from her aerial tower. 
 
 Barnes Beattie. 
 
 ship of ten. The annual tax was afterwards increased 
 to fifty cents, and later reduced to twenty-five cents, at 
 which sum it still remains. 
 
 The library consisted of thirty volumes in 1825, 
 principally historical and religious works; for ex- 
 ample, " Stillman's Travels," " Watts on the Mind," 
 "Baxter's Call," " Cowper's Poems," "Edward's 
 Affection," etc., and not a work of fiction among the 
 original thirty! Additions have been made nearly 
 every year, and although books have been sold at 
 several times the library now consists of two hundred 
 and eighty-seven volumes. The largest number of 
 members was twenty-three, in the seventies, but at 
 present only fourteen persons are entitled to draw 
 books from its shelves. It has been kept at the home 
 of one of the members for twenty years and before 
 that was lodged in the house of one Samuel IJawes for 
 forty-eight years. 
 
 People took more care of books then, I think, than 
 they do no\y. The following is copied from the records :— 
 
 
 EARLY MORHINQ 
 
 a few stray books, or study the Sunday-school lesson, 
 until the gloaming the strains of the organ are heard 
 and the daughter of the house plays simple hymns. 
 Her sweet voice leads mother and the boys in song, 
 while father listens with pride, and thinks that little 
 organ a good investment, and his girl the best and 
 prettiest and the smartest in all the country round. 
 
 The farmer reads first and foremost the ■ county 
 paper ; after that what takes his attention will depend 
 on the bent of the individual. If all his interests are 
 purely agricultural, the Homestead, Farm and Fire- 
 side or some other of the numerous papers of that 
 class becomes a weekly visitor. Another person who 
 has more interest in politics and very possibly is a 
 " prohibition " crank or takes delight in the cognomen 
 of " mugwump " will take a daily. A third type is the 
 deacon of the church or the Sabbath-school superin- 
 tendent. Such take the Congregationalist or the 
 Watchman, and the Home Missionary. 
 
 Of books, the history of his county or town, and 
 
 the annals of the war interest the farmer most. But 
 few take time for books. Those who do, choose 
 Edward Eggleston or J. T. Trowbridge, and may find 
 themselves enthralled in the machinations of Rider 
 Haggard. Sometimes a little circulating library is in 
 existence and in this the farmer and his family find 
 books and readings 
 
 I know of one such organized as long ago as 1825, 
 in one of the most rugged, barren and bleak localities 
 of the Berkshire hills. Themselves living on wind- 
 swept, rolling heights, the inhabitants see in the dis- 
 tance the dim, blue cone of Greylock with a faint spiral 
 of smoke rising from Hoosac mountain at its base. 
 On the other side Remington hill stands guard, its 
 summit crowned with rugged evergreens. 
 
 This particular library was organized, according 
 to the constitution adopted April 15th, 1826, "for the 
 promotion of general knowledge." Any one might 
 become a member on payment of one dollar and an 
 annual fee of fifteen cents. It started with a member- 
 
 FINES 
 
 For grease on one book. 
 
 . 2CtS 
 
 For blood on cover, . 
 
 . I " 
 
 For ink on one book, 
 
 • 4. " 
 
 Corner of cover broken, 
 
 . 2 " 
 
 Grease on one book. 
 
 . 2 " 
 
 " " " " . 
 
 . I " 
 
 The farmer's wife, if her husband recognizes her 
 need for literature, usually subscribes for 7%^ Ladies'' 
 Home Journal, The Home Magazine, or some other 
 periodical of that class, or for a paper that devotes a 
 corner to crochet work and another to flowers or fash- 
 ions, while the Sabbath-school libraries purvey the more 
 mild and rather vacuous volumes of Pansy and the 
 exciting tales of E. P. Roe. These generally are all 
 that the woman's busy cares allow time for her to read. 
 
 The growing sons and daughters of the farmer are 
 either not allowed novels at all, as being injurious, or 
 are permitted to roam at will through any evil-smelling, 
 (Continued on page 59.) 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 57 
 
 AMID THE WILD FLOWERS 
 
 BY MRS. D. H. R. GOODALE 
 
 Everybody admits that there is a kind of intimate 
 charm about the Berlvshire hills; a nameless fascination, 
 which binds the beholder and invites, not mere cold 
 admiration, but positive lovp. Throiis;hrnit this whole 
 
 region the distinguishing character of the scenery com- 
 bines a noble, natural beauty with a softness in the near 
 views and a restful, almost human loveliness, peculiarly 
 winning. Even the casual tourist returns to review his 
 happiness and ends with leaving a bit of his heart behind. 
 
 Yet surely these lovely hills and valleys would miss 
 much of their endearing attractiveness without the in- 
 exhaustible grace and delicacy of that lavish succession 
 of native wild flowers in which they are clothed. At cer- 
 tain seasons there are certain flowers in apparent posses- 
 sion of the entire landscape. No gardening of man's 
 design can vie with a whole mountain-side of one burst of 
 laurel, or with miles upon miles of massive golden-rod. 
 That lowly carpet which creeps over unnumbered acres, 
 scarcely noticed in the mingled woodland greenery, under 
 the prescient power of April's sun, springs suddenly into 
 rare perfume and ethereal color, filling the woods on every 
 side with the sweet breath of trailing artutus. This is 
 the Puritan's mayflower, inimitable in its exquisite and 
 tender loveliness, the very aroma and blush of spring. 
 
 But in the calendar of the flowers " every day is the 
 best in the year." Each one, as it appears, is itself the 
 flower of time; each is a vivid impersonation of beauty, 
 
 
 the vital overflow and positive expression of that maternal 
 energy of the earth which keeps alive mankind and silently 
 sustains all her manifold races, whether of bird or bee, or 
 tree or flower. Mysterious power! What is itthat brings 
 to birth these frail, aerial children of the soil ? They lift 
 their heads to commune with man of something in his 
 deeper nature, to whisper mysteries of the high destinies 
 of an aspiring soul. Too weak a race for hard utility, 
 with what an irresistible power they plead for beauty ! 
 Surely they are the expression of something divine which 
 we cannot wholly fathom. In truth the lightest wayside 
 blossom can set us dreaming of a freedom from limita- 
 tions, an intensity and purity of life above and beyond 
 all the inevitable struggles and imperfections of the 
 mortal lot. 
 
 Even in a severe climate — and Berkshire has her 
 moods of terrible austerity — the season of wild flowers 
 is a long one, longer than we are apt to realize. It lasls 
 from March to November and even the three intervening 
 months are not absolutely flowerless. The wandering 
 witch-hazel, with its twisted ray -flowers of pure, pale gold, 
 holds these treasures firmly; in sheltered coverts they 
 may be found far into the winter. It has happened, in- 
 deed, that the enterprising foot-traveler has discovered 
 them in February, and classed the witch-hazel, therefore, 
 as the earliest flowering shrub of spring. That richly 
 mottled arum, the sy?nplocarpits, less prized for its dark 
 beauty and its hardy vigor than ignored because of its bad ■ 
 name (in the vernacular, skunk cabbage) and its undesir- 
 able odor, occasionally shows its strong spathe in warm 
 
 "WILD ROSE 
 
 DAIiilKS AND GUAfeSI^S 
 
 hollows, in February, and comes in March quite as a 
 matter of course. These are extremes that sometimes 
 meet. 
 
 Before the trailing arbutus appears — usually early in 
 April, though in a favorable season it may open its long- 
 nurtured buds in March — it is not unusual to find a few 
 firstlings of the year. The early yellow violet — Bryant's 
 violet — shows its cheerful head on moist banks sloping 
 to the sun. The coltsfoot, like tiny, stemless dandelion.<, 
 spangles with gold the sandy brookside. Here the wei- 
 shod alder is hanging out her catkins of rich maroon to 
 rival the quick-springing pussy willows. With red maple 
 in bloom to hang high the floral banner, the season of 
 efflorescence is fairly begun. 
 
 A whole sisterhood of modest beauties come hurrying 
 after, all retiring in their nature, yet each made to give a 
 pure delight. In rich, sheltered woods we find the cluster- 
 ing hepaticas with faint, changeful color, varying from a 
 blue white to a warm pinkish-purple. There is something 
 infantile in its exquisite fragility and innocent fairness, 
 nestling among its downy leaves. In the same woods the 
 light anemone, pure white or touched with rose, nods on 
 its slender stalk with every breath of wind. The graceful 
 adder's-tongue lily loves the water couises, and in moist 
 
 
 WILD LILV OF THE VALLEY 
 
 places dense colonies outspread, with thou- 
 sands of yellow, drooping heads above the 
 handsome, parti-colored leafage. 
 
 More rare, and worthy of long pursuit, is 
 the shy trillium, with its unexpected beauty 
 audits strange, faint scent of the sea. The 
 pointed trillium, white with crimson stains, 
 is more rare than the dark maroon, not un- 
 common along many ravines and mountain 
 streamlets. As the season advances, the 
 hurrying violets turn the very meadows to a 
 purplish cloud of bloom with their abundance. 
 The fortunate pedestrian finds the spring 
 beauty beside his path a dainty nosegay on 
 a single stem. Or at length, as he comes out 
 upon a sunny opening, behold! a dense 
 colony of new leaves, each sheathing as in 
 a half-closed hand the stem that uplifts the 
 brilliant flower of the bloodroot, with its 
 splendid whiteness, and the full perfection 
 of its cupped, yet starry form. 
 
 In the woods the shad-blow is white 
 enough to draw the eye from afar. It is a 
 beautiful little tree at this season, wreathed 
 as it is in dazzling white flowers, while the 
 delicate leaves are pricking in mere points, 
 and attractive again in June when its pleasant 
 carmine fruit (the bilberry) is ripe. It finds 
 a place in good catalogues of ornamental 
 shrubbery and lawn trees, and in one of the 
 best of these it has this mention: "On* of 
 
 BELLEWOllT 
 
 the finest very early flowering trees ; not 
 appreciated as it should be." 
 
 With the advent of June, or oftener late in 
 May, when the apple blossoms are falling, 
 and just at that fair, fragrant crisis of the 
 year when all life seems pausing on the 
 
58 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 l--u^. 
 
 J -.;^ » " 
 
 i^ - 
 
 
 ^ "^m' 
 
 :>''^-l^B 
 
 ■a*-^ 
 
 FOND LILIES 
 
 threshold of a new perfection, 
 the deeper wave of summer heat 
 and fullness floods the woods 
 and hill pastures of Berkshire 
 with a new vitality. Spring is 
 over. The long weeks of delay 
 and hesitation are past. The 
 time of tender hopes, of eager 
 expectation, has brought us, with 
 many a coy denial, to the hour 
 of surrender. Summer is at the 
 door. Richer color, fuller fra- 
 grance, more various and riper 
 beauty in the flowers of field and 
 meadow attend the culmination 
 of the genial year. The shy, 
 elusive flowers of early spring, 
 with their lovely, silent grace 
 
 that shrinks from too bold a gaze, evanescent in their best estate, have had their 
 brief day and passed from sight. The roses and lilies of summer, the field flowers 
 that deck every meadow, and the sturdy wayfarers that take their ease upon the 
 roadsides, are a more robust and cheerful race. They love the sun and shrink from 
 no less powerful eye. 
 
 The saucy columbine, all red and gold, still nods along the rocky pastures. The 
 exquisite hairbell, more enduring, more secure in our hearts, holds these rough hill 
 sides also, and will keep her light foothold there till harsh November comes to chill 
 her with his nipping frosts. In lush bottoms the purple wild geranium and the 
 feathery meadow rue stand knee-deep in tasseled grasses. In the fertile meadows 
 the oxeye daisy and the bold buttercup — merry vagrants that they are — mingle 
 with clover, white and red, to make every farm gay in despite of the farmer. The 
 
 cone flower or gypsy 
 daisy, a native of the 
 Western states, has 
 become so thoroughly 
 at home here that its 
 rich, brunette colors 
 everywhere deepen the 
 effect of these pictur- 
 esque culprits. 
 
 In old fields and 
 pastures the eglantine 
 and sweetbrier are 
 sheeted with their rosy 
 bloom. Our beautiful 
 native lilies, the magi- 
 cally graceful cana- 
 densis, a whole can- 
 delabra of drooping 
 bells upon one stem, 
 those flaring bells that 
 tremble and sway with 
 the deep, swaying 
 meadow grasses ; and 
 the vestal wood lily, 
 whose chaste chalice 
 turns ever toward the 
 sky, now thrill our 
 hearts once more. 
 'Twere vain to attempt 
 to include here the in- 
 numerable dwellers 
 
 WILD AZALEA 
 
 by field and forest. Their innocent tribes 
 gather on every hillside; they haunt the 
 meadows, the fields, the banks of every 
 stream; the quiet roadsides run over with 
 the spreading families that silently possess 
 and inhabit every inch of territory that 
 man yields. Some are more conspicuous 
 f oi: brilliance of color or, elegance of form ; 
 others more retiring; but each has its own 
 secret, its own voice. Each fills its little part 
 in the wondrous harmony of nature. The 
 crowd of inconspicuous flowers of summer, 
 many of which are individually unimportant 
 and hardly recognized, give in the mass that 
 cheering and enlivening sense of the beauty 
 and prodigality of earth which makes sum- 
 mer a time of joy. 
 
 Every thoughtful lover of flowers, who 
 has studied them in their hidden haunts, 
 
 WILD COLDMBIKE 
 
 knows how much their effect depends upon 
 an appropriate setting. A nook in the deep 
 forest, a sudden turn of the brown, babbling 
 brook, a solitary ravine, where ferns and 
 mosses grow thick and lush and the sun 
 peeps in only at high noontide, each of these 
 shares something of its own spjrit with the 
 flower that blossoms there. Who has not 
 had the experience of finding some rarely 
 beautiful or impressive flower, growing in its 
 own perfectly adapted habits, which, pluck- 
 ed and carried home in triumph, gave at last 
 a sense of disappointment ? Forced into an 
 incongruous place and environment, robbed, 
 perhaps, of its admirably contrasting foliage, 
 its first freshness irreparably lost, that 
 exquisite perfection which was its finest 
 charm has too often disappeared. Was it, 
 we involuntarily ask, so stately, so commanding in its pure loveliness as we 
 imagined in the excitement of discovery ? Ah, yes ! that vivid and suggestive grace 
 was wholly real, yet it was also a part of the scene. You cannot carry away with 
 you that world of magic in which it grew. 
 
 We have to admit, with Emerson, that for the perfect enjoyment of the world of 
 
 nature, we find 
 
 " Too strait and low our cottage doors, 
 And all unmeet our carpet floors." 
 
 Wordsworth declares 
 
 " 'Tis my faith that every flower 
 Enjoys the air it breathes.' 
 
 The budding twigs spread out their 
 fan , 
 
 To catch the breezy air 
 And I must think, do all I can, 
 
 That there was pleasure there." 
 
 And Shelley beckons ,* 
 
 " To the silent wilderness 
 Where the soul need not repress 
 Its music, lest it should not #nd 
 An echo in another's mind." 
 
 True poets and nature lovers 
 are at one in this; they realize 
 that something: must be fore, 
 gone if we would have the best 
 of that which tree and rock and 
 AHEMONE flower can bestow. We must 
 
 manage to shed that crust of 
 
 formality and self-interest which comes 
 of contact with a worldly world, and 
 approach the world of divine power 
 and beauty in a sincere and -childlike 
 spirit, ready to be happy. 
 
 To name all the birds " without a 
 gun," to love the wild flowers and leave 
 them growing, is not a matter of 
 exaggerated sentiment, but matter of 
 reverence for a real truth. It is in the 
 fullness of their own life and not when 
 forcibly detached from it and brought 
 by violence into closer contact with 
 ours, that we can learn of them most. 
 
 The showy lady's slipper is one of 
 those flowers that belong preeminently 
 to the spot in which it appears. 
 Lonely though it may be, as concerns 
 human affairs, we do not feel that the 
 beautiful wonder is "wasted on the 
 earth and sky," but gladly confess that 
 in this case, as in that of the rhodora, 
 ■' Beauty is its own excuse for being." 
 It is called "the most regal of our 
 orchids," by one who has made a 
 special study of the class, and he adds 
 that coming upon it suddenly for the 
 first time in a low, wet wood, he was 
 " as much startled as though a gaudy 
 cockatoo had fluttered by." While it 
 resembles the better known pink lady's 
 slipper, or moccasin flower of the 
 woods, its striking color — a rich rose 
 purple conspicuously mingled with 
 white— is much more effective. There wild lily 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 59 
 
 '.leaven, and with silent fortitude awaits the bitter frosts and rough 
 storms of early winter. 
 
 Still exquisite in that rare depth of purity of color, blue as if 
 " Heaven let fall a flower from her cerulean wall," she stands firm 
 even in crisp November, when snowflakes are flying, a witness to 
 the silent power of aspiration which no earthly ill can subdue. 
 
 WHAT THE FARMER READS 
 
 THE OLD BRIDGE AT LEE 
 
 is a tropical appearance in the whole 
 plant, the robust foliage and the rare 
 size, color and form of the flowers which 
 are commonly grouped in a vivid mass, 
 all strangely exceeding the modest sobri- 
 ety of our Puritan flora. The smaller 
 yellow lady's slipper, nowhere common 
 so far as I know, is not very uncommon 
 in parts of Berkshire county, and a goodly 
 number of native orchids, many of which 
 produce flowers of exquisite beauty and 
 refinement, will reward the patient 
 search of the trained flower hunter. 
 
 Several of these will be found on the 
 margins of ponds, where the quaint 
 pitcher plant also abounds. Of flowers 
 that give character to the whole view or 
 express an entire phase of the flower-life 
 of the season, none exceed in tender sig- 
 nificance the characteristic flowers of 
 autumn. Along the mountain roadside, 
 on the borders of the woods in every 
 neglected pasture or hill-slope the delicate 
 asters cluster, white or purple or lavender 
 of every varying depth of tint, while the 
 golden-rod stands thick with honeyed 
 richness, a type of every solid good. 
 These gifts of the floral year, as it draws 
 to its inevitable close, lend themselves 
 
 (Continued from page S6) 
 
 fifth-rate literature which may fall in their path. The person who can 
 do most to raise the standard of culture among the rural population 
 of the small hill towns is the librarian. 
 
 A lady once filled this post for a few weeks in a small country 
 town of eight hundred inhabitants. During the one day of the week 
 on which the library was open, an average of fifteen or twenty books 
 was taken out. Two-thirds of the patrons were girls from eight to 
 fifteen years of age. The younger ones disdained to draw books from 
 the juvenile department, with the exception of Miss Alcott's works, 
 which were always in great demand. The remainder they designated 
 as "Trundle-bed trash," and scorned them accordingly. 
 
 They all had a penchant for novels and were dipping at will into the 
 
 "Red Hair and Thunder Storms" 
 of Mary J. Holmes, as one sarcastic 
 young man expressed it, or Augusta 
 Evans, Mrs. Forrester and others 
 of their kind. One day the lady 
 ventured to substitute Mrs. Wig- 
 gin's "A Summer in a Canon,'' for 
 a very trashy novel which one 
 young girl of thirteenhad askedfor. 
 The next week the same damsel 
 came again, Saying that " she liked 
 that one very much indeed," and 
 "please would she select her 
 another," and all her mates wanted 
 the book in their turn, "and please 
 would she find them one, too ? " 
 
 After this as long as the lady 
 acted as librarian she selected the 
 books for all of them. Besides the 
 children, the library was patronized 
 by a maiden lady who wanted 
 books on geology, by the Baptist 
 minister and his wife and by a few 
 students on their vacation visits to 
 the town. 
 
 Almost every country town has 
 its public library. Some are free; 
 others require the payment of a 
 small quarterly fee. The methods 
 by which the books are selected are 
 various. The committee which have the matter in charge send to publishers for lists, 
 and pick the books out by guess ; or they see them advertised in papers and order by 
 mail; or when some one of the committee visits a city or large town, that one goes into 
 the bookstores and makes purchases. 
 
 One family who lived six miles away upon the distant hills sent for and returned 
 their books regularly every Saturday, always tying them up with the same stout string 
 
 riCTURESQUENESS IN BACK YARDS AT LEE 
 
 VIEW FRUAl 'iUK IKUN BRIDGE 
 
 ■^*^ 
 
 most kindly to the uses of man. They are more submissive than the flowers of 
 spring and summer, they do not elude our skill when we bend them to our own 
 ends and avail ourselves of their plentiful wealth for purposes of decoration. 
 
 But the lovely fringed gentian, an equal favorite and in some of the more 
 remote hill towns, almost equally profuse in bloom, has something of the sun 
 in her composition. A profound intensity is joined with a perfect serenity in 
 her calm regard, securely rooted in earth, she turns her face immovably toward 
 
 A TURN INTO THE PASTURES OR DOWN THE IIILL 
 
6o 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 7Z^ 
 
 THE BUSINESS CENTER AT LEK 
 
 COK^KU OF MAIN AM». l-AKK SXKEETS 
 
 with a knot on each end that had been 
 used in that capacity for years. 
 
 Yet another class of reading finds its 
 way into town. Stray summer boarders, 
 visitors, or friends in the city bring or 
 send quantities of the Seaside, Lovell or 
 Franklin Square libraries, and not the 
 best of these series either. The Duchess 
 finds more readers on New England hills 
 to-day than Dickens or Thackeray. 
 
 Still, if the children of the farmer had 
 some one to guide them and sift the 
 grains of wheat from the chaff of poor 
 books and tell them what to read, the 
 taste for good reading would be much 
 more developed, for they are willing to 
 
 ^LAK mil. l<x^ Eli ai lel 
 
 Western Massachusetts Fox Club — 
 Ijut annual hunts which had for the 
 liunterthe greatest charm. There are 
 still many residents of Berkshire who 
 remember with pleasure the first fox 
 hunt held at Chester, under the au- 
 spices of the club, and who regret that 
 the organization has since been re- 
 moved to another county. Berkshire 
 — the birthplace and early home of 
 the club — seemed the only proper 
 place for it, but when the change came 
 the opposing members gave way as 
 gracefully as possible, and the club 
 and its members and officers, as well 
 as the annual meets, were rem6ved to 
 Westfield. 
 
 But the first annual hunt of the 
 Western Massachusetts Fox Club was 
 an event ! A handful of sportsmen in 
 Berkshire originated the idea in the 
 
 FOX HUNTING IN BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE COKGREr.ATfON'AL CIlt'KCU 
 
 read and anxious to procure the books 
 that some one has recommended to them 
 as really good and "jolly, you know." 
 C. D. Nahmer. 
 
 THE VILLAGE BELLS 
 
 How soft the music of those village bells, 
 Falling at intervals upon the ear ► 
 
 In cadence sweet ! now dying all away, 
 Now pealing loud and louder still, 
 Clear and sonorous as the gale comes on, 
 With easy force it opens all the cells 
 Where mem'ry slept. 
 
 Cowper. 
 
 The merry fox hunts of England, the mock 
 hunts of Newport and Long Island and other 
 sections of our country, in which anise bags 
 formed a most conspicuous part, have all been re- 
 corded and elaborated upon in the various publica- 
 tions of the day, until the average reader knows 
 them by heart. He knows that in England one 
 poor, unfortunate fox is let loose, and straightway 
 a party of red-coated, mounted hunters, and a pack 
 of blooded hounds start across the country in hot 
 pursuit. To the victor belongs the spoils, and the 
 " brush " and " pads " are treasures not soon to be 
 forgotten by the fortunate and heroic captors. 
 
 The anise bag hunt has little of the dash arid 
 spirit of the genuine hunt; but it is sport, and was 
 at one time considered fashionable. The writer 
 remembers when Berkshire boasted not only of a 
 thriving: and vigorous hunting organization — the 
 
 ■'^^^•^p^^^^l^^ 
 
 fall of 
 
 during 
 
 ini. ULU BlOltbAN HUUfal!. 
 
 A GLLiirslS UKDEli lUE 1-AliK 'il.Eiia 
 
 1888. To be sure, the country was not overrun with foxes, but 
 the season a few had been seen by the farmers among the hillF, 
 and the originators felt confident that more 
 could be found. Future developments 
 showed that their judgment had been good. 
 It was right royal sport, and those who par- 
 ticipated in the first huttts will probably never 
 forget them. I remember when early in 
 November, 1888, I received a neatly printc d 
 little folder, announcing my invitation to the 
 first meet. It read as follows: — 
 
 "WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS FOX CLUB 
 " Request your presence at a hunt to be holden at 
 Chester, November fourteenth and fifteenth. The 
 hunter's horn will sound on t)ie morning of the fo-ir- 
 teenth, at five o'clock, for breakfast. At five forty-five 
 the hunters and hounds will be in readiness for the 
 chase. On their return at six thirty p. m.. there will 
 be a dinner given by the club to the guests. 
 
 " Please notify the secretary before the eighth in- 
 stant if we expect your presence, also number of 
 hounds. By so doing, it will afford us an opportu- 
 nity to make arrangements for all." 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 6l 
 
 That the members of the club carried out iheir promise to the letter is best known 
 by the guests who were present. They fairly overdid themselves. In the capacity of 
 special newspaper correspondent, and with commissions to make and send extended 
 telegraphic reporis to four of the great Amtrican dailies, namely, the Springfield Refiib- 
 licnii, the New York Herald s.n A World, and the Boston Globe, my visit combined at 
 once work and pleasure. Following was the committee who did the horors of 
 the occasion : — 
 
 President, George W. Roraback; vice-president, F. S. Gross ; secretary, D.-, O. J. Shepard- 
 son ; treasurer, C. D. Smith. Reception : N. A. Harwood, Frederick Harris, E. H. Alvord, C. 
 F. Flagg, James Keefe, J. W. Thomas, VV. P. Leshure, F. Burley. Club dmner : H. II. Carter, 
 
 C. Hillbarant, Wil- 
 liam N. Renfrew. 
 Lodging: J. C. 
 Cooper, E. M Ma- 
 son, I O. 13urley. 
 Hounds : O W. 
 Beach. Honorary 
 members : N. A. 
 Root and S. Otis. 
 
 NKAK I'ME KUUTHKUF ULOUli 
 
 The first day promised well, both as regarded 
 vyeather and sport. Promptly at five o'clock 
 the sleepy hunters were out of their beds, and 
 ready for the hasty brealfast that had been pre- 
 pared for them. The two hotels at Chester were 
 filled with guests, as were many of the private 
 houses. The sun had not yet risen when the 
 sportsmen, hounds and horses were waiting in 
 the street, in the glow of red fire and fire- works. 
 The streets were a blaze of light, and never 
 had there been such a scene in the quiet little 
 town. It was as weird as it was picturesque 
 
 ItkKT, LUUKlIsU WlitsT 
 
 &E.kK IHIC PAHK 
 
 WEATUEK PKOPIiET BKEliE 
 
 MEXHOiJlST CllUUCU 
 
 and beautiful. The rocks, 
 here and there in the 
 surrounding country were 
 covered in a thick mantle 
 of white frost, and as the 
 landscape caught the glow 
 from the brilliant red 
 torches, it sent back 
 flashes like millions of 
 diamonds. 
 
 Before the day had 
 dawned the hunters had 
 taken their places in the 
 double carriages which 
 were awaiting them, and 
 with the baying of the 
 hounds, the cracking of 
 whips, and the cheers and 
 
 shouts of those who remained behind, t'.ie sportsmen 
 dashed away. The hunters divided themselves into 
 three partie.s, one going three miles up the mountain 
 to Spellman's farm, one to Dwight Smith's and the 
 other to apicturesque hill about two miles away from 
 the center, and which is known locally as the "Gob- 
 bler." The various parlies had scarcely taken their 
 
 positions when the crack- 
 ing of the shotguns and 
 the baying of the hounds 
 indicated plainly enough, 
 even to the most inexpe- 
 rienced hunter, that game 
 had been found. 
 
 All small game had 
 been discarded, thesports- 
 men being out for noth- 
 ing less than foxes, and 
 foxes they proposed to 
 have. In the town of 
 Chester almost all busi- 
 ness had been suspended, 
 and the people waited in 
 knots and groups about 
 the village stores, the post 
 uuTEL, EAST LEE ofRcc and hotels, anxious 
 
 m^'m 
 
 
 ■^t** 
 
 VIEW ^EAli THH MAI UESliJEKCE 
 
 ^l. «huKljE6 Ei-laCOPAL LHll.Cil 
 
 to hear " of the hunters' 
 luck. 
 
 The day was a perfect 
 one, there not being a 
 cloud in the sky, and the 
 air was almost as warm 
 and balmy as May. The 
 sport went on all day, 
 some of the enthusiastic 
 hunters wandering away 
 to the danger of becom- 
 ing lost among the hills. 
 Food was forgotten. But 
 all things pleasant must 
 come to an end, and the 
 daylight does not last 
 any longer in the Berk- 
 shire hills than elsewhere. 
 Early in the afternoon the 
 first of the hunters made 
 their reappearance in the 
 village. The first party 
 came from the " Gobbler," 
 and bore in triumph two 
 magnificent foxes, one 
 a beautiful silver gray 
 and very rare late years 
 in this section of the 
 country. D uring the after- 
 noon the various parties 
 came dragging into the 
 center, until it was dis- 
 covered that seven dead, 
 and one live fox had been 
 captured. To Captain 
 Samuel Otis, a veteran 
 hunter, and native of these 
 hills, was given the honor 
 of the first " brush." 
 
 The stay-at-homes had 
 all day been making most 
 elaborate preparations for 
 the celebration which was 
 to come in the evening. 
 
i 62 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 LOOKING SOCTH ON MAIN STKEET, LEE 
 
 and F. Taylor, of Lee; A. 
 C. Brace, Fred Barnes, J. H. 
 Cacey, John Daly, Sherman 
 Foote, H. N. Horton, Charles 
 H. Morgan, Thomas Norton, 
 F. N. Pease, J. B. Shultis, 
 Jojin Stallman, J. A. Tamer, 
 of Westfield; C. E. Hibbard, 
 John H. Manning, Dr. C. S. 
 Burton, of Pittsfield ; J. C. 
 Be'nton of Great Barrington ; 
 F. W. Strong of Hinsdale ; 
 Charles Pease of Housa- 
 tohic ; E. A. Strong of West 
 Stockbridge ; A. F. Knox and mld i-'es 
 
 Fred Williams of Williams- 
 burg ; John Kelso of Blandford ; James Kelso of Chesterfield; Albert L. Church 
 of Leeds. Others at the table were John Tracy, J. H. Adams, Waldo S. Knox, 
 Charles L. Allen, Chauncey Bowen and F. P. Wright. 
 . The second day of this memorial hunt dawned dark and rainy, and although 
 
 For this purpose the barny old wooden building, known .as the rink was so 
 transformed that its interior would not have been recognized. It resembled 
 an immense hunter's camp, the walls and rear being thickly set with ever- 
 greens, Chinese lanterns and the national colors. Three long tables running 
 
 the length of the hg,ll were set for 
 eighty guests, and after a choice 
 menu had been discussed, speeches 
 were made. President Roraback 
 presided, but Captain Otis was the 
 hero of the hour. The following 
 out-of-town guests were present: 
 Gurdon Bill, Charles Bill, N. D- 
 Bill, D.J. Marsh, H. L. Niles, E. 
 A. Perkins, Dwight Smith, Henry 
 S. Dickinson, Charles S. Chapin, 
 W. P. Leshure, F. H. Williams, W. 
 
 A. Williams, F. H. Williams, 
 George B. Clark, W. H. Clark, E. 
 C. Thomas, Frederick Flagg and 
 Howard P. Merrill, of Springfield ; 
 
 B. R. Holcomb, C. O. Kingsley, 
 Chauncey Allen, R. N. Crane, R. D. 
 Gillett, F. S. Hagan, F. Pomeroy, 
 
 AN OLD HOL'SE 
 
 1 
 
 " GOIN' TO HAVE OUR PICTURES TOOK ! " 
 
 a few of the more enthusiastic sportsmen had the 
 courage to face the weather, the greater number 
 left the scene, to return the following year. The 
 
 KtJSCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH LEE 
 
 Western Massachusetts 
 Fox Club became a per- 
 manent organization at 
 a business meeting held 
 after the banquet, and 
 the officers remain to-day 
 practically unchanged. 
 But in the fall of 1890, it 
 was decided to remove 
 the headquarters of the 
 club from Chester to 
 Westfield, and in Novem- 
 ber of that year the first 
 hunt was held there. So 
 the old hunt and hunters 
 among the hills remain 
 only a pleasant memory 
 
 HOUSATOSIC STREET 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 63 
 
 ternity ? And that gig ! in which he journeyed forth on the roads of 
 his bailiwick — what Berkshire boy that ever saw "Squire" Filley 
 in his chaise, can forget the sight ? 
 
 In these later days, when the summer sojourner is so numerous, 
 and vacationizing has become a pleasure of the fashionable and un- 
 fashionable alike, Otis comes in for its share of note, and who has not 
 heard of Otis ppnds and Otis falls ? The ponds are eastward of the 
 center, and are several in number. Beautiful lily-pads seek the sun 
 upon their surface, and they entertain the shadows of tall trees. Camp- 
 ing parties of pix to a dozen frequently come up from Springfield, 
 
 IIIQHLAWN — nOlIK OF THE nROOD HARES 
 
 tioning, in a score of 
 towns, but had heard 
 of the " Squire " and 
 delighted to say some- 
 thing good of the man. 
 Who that once beheld 
 the portly form and 
 benign face of the old- 
 time justice of the 
 peace can ever forget 
 the pardonable if not 
 relishable egotism of 
 manner that marked 
 his intercourse with his 
 neighbors and his fel- 
 lows of the legal fra- 
 
 TTKIMGHAU WAY 
 
 in the minds of those who participated in 
 
 the sport. 
 
 Albert Hardy. 
 
 THE RIDE ABOUT THE COUNTY 
 
 Otis, Sandisfield, New Marlboro and 
 Sheffield 
 
 Otis, once the principal town of the upper 
 valley of the Farmington river, can hardly 
 lay claim to that distinction now, though It 
 still has its significance; and the conse- 
 quence that remains to it is well to foster. 
 Some of this arises from its men of promi- 
 
 7M^^ 
 
 THE OLD ALVIN UVUE PLACEj 
 
 ^^*.^^i^^^: 
 
 BRUSHING up THE OLD CHINA — IM GRAMDMOTHEr's DRESS 
 
 Holyoke, Westfield and other cities and towns. They tell their neighbors great 
 stories of their " Roaring Camp" — their life and sports, and come home well 
 browned up. The farms bordering this lake region do not boast the most fertile 
 soil, nor have their occupants come to Croesus-like wealth in tilling them, yet the 
 farmers are contented and happy, apparently, with what they have left. In 
 
 ESTRVNCE TO TlIK Ci 
 
 nence in other days, 
 such, for instance, as 
 Increase Sumner and 
 " Squire " Filley, law- 
 yers of distinction at 
 the old Berkshire bar. 
 Mr. Sumner removed 
 to Great Barrington, 
 where part of his ac- 
 tive life was spent, but 
 the magistrate of Otis 
 lived and died there, 
 and there was hardly 
 any one worth men- 
 
 TH£ WESTIHGHOUSE UANSION AT DUSK 
 
 A VIEW AT THE MARBLE QTARRY 
 
 speaking of these lands, one is reminded of the late Sterling Phelps, who 
 owned, in his day, or at one time or another had " morgidge on," at least a dozen 
 of these farmsteads. And once to behold " Star " Phelps was to remember 
 him forever — par excellence the " institution " of East Otis — though perhaps 
 it might be said that Porter Hunt, erstwhile " Bonniface " of the West Otis 
 hostelry, divided the honors with him. A noticeable feature in the landscape of 
 this region once was a meeting-house, but that has long since succumbed to 
 " the tooth of time and razure of oblivion," and is numbered among the things 
 
64 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 KEAUJTIIK WATER TASK, KOliTII LEK 
 
 Sandisfield 
 One of the most delightful of Berk- 
 shire towns, (and each of them is a 
 gem by itself,) is the quiet pastoral 
 town of Sandisfield. f'ew towns 
 possess more romantic views without 
 great grandeur, than just this isolated 
 town on the southeast border of Berk- 
 shire. Traversing its entire length 
 on the east side and forming its boun- 
 dary at that point of the compass, is 
 the Farmington river, and he who has 
 not seen the tumbling Farmington 
 has lost much. Its history has come 
 along since 1735, and it was known in 
 olden times as "the South Eleven 
 Thousand Acres." It was named for 
 Lord Sandys, who, in 1761, was made 
 first lord of trades and the planta- 
 tions. Its surface is hilly, undulating, 
 and isbeaulifiillvHiversified with rivpr. 
 
 that were. It was erected by the 
 Methodists, who once flourished in 
 this region, and was occupied by them 
 for years as a meeting place. It stood 
 eastward from Hunt's tavern, and this 
 reminds us to say that the innkeeper 
 himself was once a pillar in the 
 sanctuary. 
 
 Otis Centre is quite another place. 
 Here is a well-supported church and 
 hotel, also a school of more than ordi- 
 nary credit to such a village. The main 
 street is kept tidy and neat, and the 
 place has an air inviting to summer 
 visitors. The picture which our artist 
 obtained at Day's hotel, one cold 
 autumn evening, was taken by flash- 
 light, and depicts a party of villagers 
 and hunters around the open wood fire, 
 discussing their latest feats. AH the 
 party were taken unawares, and the 
 dog, pictured as crouched on the floor 
 
 A faCF.^E AT KOETir LEE 
 
 •BAPTIST CHUBCH 
 
 valley, pond and stream. The principal 
 stream as said above is the Farmington, but 
 there are Sandy brook. Silver brook. Buck- 
 hill and Clam river. The course of the 
 rivers is south, and so the waters of Sandis- 
 field find their way down through Connec- 
 ticut to Long Island sound. The eight 
 miles through New Boston to Otis is a 
 succession of panoramic beauties, many of 
 which our artist has caught. as he followed 
 down the Farmington river. Clam river 
 comes down from Montville and is also a 
 tumbling, noisy brook, and in springtime 
 or in seasons of rains is noisy and angry, 
 and might well be called " Mad" river. 
 
 Its hills, attain a considerable height, 
 though not abrupt, and rise into large 
 swells. Seymour mountain has an altitude 
 of about 1.700 feet, while Hanging moun- 
 
 THE^IRONiBRIDGE 
 
 ments, may yet come, and 
 if it does Otis must reap a 
 great share of the benefits. 
 The traveler will find 
 the most charming long 
 drive in the county fiom 
 Otis, along down the 
 Farmington river, to New 
 Boston, and will see here 
 and there the ruins of 
 some foundries, which 
 upon inquiry will prove 
 to have been iron forges, 
 as this section of the 
 country was once the 
 seat of a prosperous iron 
 industrv. 
 
 A WATER VIEW 
 
 near them, was so frightened by the artist's 
 flash-light that he sprang through the window 
 of the room, carrying the sash with him. 
 
 The traveler in this vicinity will note here 
 and there evidences of once attempted rail- 
 road construction — a bit of roadbed graded, 
 a cut laid through a hill or a rock, and the 
 fill laid across a ravine, and some gray-haired 
 arfddis'cdnsolafe denizen will inform him of 
 the hopes and struggles of the Otis people 
 over a railroad to give them access to the 
 outside world, down through the Farming- 
 ton valley to the line of the old canah route 
 to New Haven. And he will sigh over the 
 fact that Governor Washburn nipped the 
 enterprise in the bud by vetoing a considera- 
 ble appropriation which the Massachusetts 
 Legislature had made. But this road, it 
 seems from the latest business develop- 
 
 IH TEE VILLAGE OF KOKTH LEE 
 
 tain, just below New Boston on the river, 
 has also a fine look-off. Its peculiarity lies 
 in the fact that on its southeastern side a 
 crag 300 feet high overhangs the noisy 
 Farmington at its feet, and occasionally 
 large masses of rock come crashing down 
 its side. 
 
 Sandisfield in the early days was one of 
 the most important towns in Berkshire 
 county. This was before Pittsfield had 
 attained much prominence, and it is said 
 that thrifty tanners and farmers and mer- 
 chants of Sandisfield were practically the 
 bankers of the other sections of the county 
 which have now outstripped it. The Hulls 
 were an important family and one member 
 of the family afterwards became lieuten- 
 ant governor of the state. One of his 
 daughters was the wife of the late Alexander 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 65 
 
 ' Y'^'-'^'ffs^iM, 
 
 mMm**^' 
 
 iaHf^ _-^s'*''>S 
 
 DAVIS HOTEL AT SOUTH LEE 
 
 Hyde of Lee, and she not only maintained the dignified 
 standing of her own family, but was one of the noblest of 
 women. There are many prominent names in Sandisfield. 
 Here came the Sages of Revolutionary story ; the Twinings 
 
 AS OLD TREE 
 
 BKUTIIEHLY PRIDE 
 
 A VILLAGE SCHOOL-nOUSE 
 
 Farther on is New Boston West 
 and here is the town hall. Along 
 this stream are the ruins of the once 
 prosperous Hull tanneries, which 
 show that years ago an immense 
 business must have been done in 
 that line. They are now silent and 
 deserted and are fast going to decay. 
 Still farther on is New Boston East. 
 This is the business center of the 
 town of Sandisfield. It is on the 
 Farmington, and at one time had 
 quite large prospects of business 
 when a railway was proposed 
 through that section. Here is the 
 only hotel in town — Hunt's — and it 
 is an old-time, old-fashioned hospi- 
 table country inn. Hunt's is famous 
 
 are an old Sandisfield 
 family ; the Smiths, 
 who came from Cape 
 Cod to locate in the 
 mountain town of 
 Sandisfield; the 
 Merrills, of whom 
 Samuel was the pio- 
 neer, have lived here 
 for many years, and 
 James H., a descend- 
 ant of that name and 
 a merchant at Mont- 
 ville, is almost the last 
 of the old-time Yankee 
 peddler. Our artist 
 has caught him as he 
 is plying his trade 
 among some of the 
 honest country people 
 along his route. Other 
 
 THE DAM AT SOUTH LEE 
 
 I .^- 
 
 ■r^ 
 
 names are the Demmings, Strattons, Claflins, North- 
 ways, Sacketts, Fargos, Manleys, Wilcoxes, and, in 
 fact, many others. 
 
 The village of Sandisfield town is on the hill-tbp 
 and near New Marlboro line. Here is the old church, 
 f first organized in 1756, and its present church building 
 " was erected in 1852. It is seldom used now, as the 
 population, which in other days made that section of 
 Sandisfield capable of giving a membership of some 
 300 souls to it, is now passing away. But the old vil- 
 lage green is there, and the white spire of the church 
 is a prominent figure from any of the hill-tops for 
 miles around as it glimmers in the sunlight. Mont- 
 ville is a little hamlet lying in a valley, upon the east side 
 of which is the high ridge which separates that section 
 of Sandisfield from the other valley through which the 
 Farmington flows. Montville has the Baptist church, 
 erected there several years ago. The Clam river 
 furnishes power for some small industries, like rakes 
 and turning, and a few years ago one man did a very 
 prosperous business in making keelers, or little tubs 
 in which infants were bathed. Here for many years lived 
 George Shepard, who for a generation was the faithful 
 town clerk and the oracle of the Sandisfield history. 
 
 THE VILLAGE SMITHY 
 
 SOUTH LEE WATER POWER 
 
 lllVEKSIDE READING-ROOM 
 
66 
 
 HOJIAK CATHOLIC CHCKCH, £0TJ'1H LEE 
 
 the county over for its honest, 
 Yankee hospitality. 
 
 Sandisfield met a heavy blow 
 a few years ago. The Lee & 
 New Haven railway was surveyed 
 through Sandisfield on the east side 
 of the Farmington river. Just as 
 the rails were' about to be laid, the 
 scheme failed, the road was bank- 
 rupt, and Sandisfield, in common 
 with Otis and some other towns, 
 drank deeply of a bitter disap- 
 pointment. The town had been 
 bonded in a large amount to aid 
 the road which never came. Some 
 day the iron horse will find its way 
 through this valley. The town paid 
 its interest and maintained its 
 credit, until finally Massachusetts 
 redeemed herself, reimbursed San- 
 disfield, and the. bonds which had 
 been such a burden were publicly 
 burned with great jollification on the 
 village green near the Congrega- 
 tional church at New Boston East. 
 
 Latterly Sandisfield is becoming 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 due regard for other Berkshire towns, Sandisfield has a 
 variety of beautiful things in nature to attract the visitor. 
 There are many in Berkshire, especially in Northern 
 Berkshire, who will see in Picturesque Berkshire for 
 the first time by photograph the many handsome things 
 which Sandisfield, isolated twenty miles from railway 
 and but little known, has to offer. 
 
 New Marlboro 
 
 In many respects New Marlboro is one of the finest 
 old towns in Berkshire, the finest old county in Massa- 
 chusetts. It lies away above the Housatonic valley, and 
 the drive thereto from the lower grounds, like Great 
 Barrington or Sheffield, is practically a continuous up- 
 hill. It is in the southern part of the county and its 
 southern border touches the state of Connecticut. Its 
 history runs back to 1735, and it has had an honorable 
 career ever since. It probably takes its name from 
 .Marlboro, Middlesex county in this state, although 
 
 OLD GllAVJSSTOSES AT SOUTH LEE 
 
 A HAPPY FAMILY 
 
 some claim that it originally traces 
 its title to Lord Marlboro of Eng- 
 land. The town is watered by 
 numerous brooks and lakes and its 
 surface is generally uneven and 
 hilly, and this, like many other 
 Berkshire towns, is what gives it 
 such great facilities for handsome 
 views. The Green mountain range 
 has gradually lost itself before it 
 reaches New Marlboro, and the 
 town is divided from Great Bar- 
 rington and Sheffield by the high 
 ridge or mountain range which is 
 ^. east of Great Barrington and Shef- 
 P^ field plain. For this reason New 
 ,L> Marlboro has a valley which is 
 y peculiarly its own, lying along the 
 Konkapot river. This stream 
 rises in Monterey at Lake Garfield 
 and flows southerly to the Housa- 
 tonic somewhere near Canaan. 
 This valley is one of the most 
 peaceful and quiet in all Berkshire. 
 Unlike any other in Berkshire, 
 there are broad meadows on each 
 side and the rolling lands run back 
 on the hillsides forming the divid- 
 ing line of Sheffield on the west to the summit at New Marlboro town. It is nearly 
 an agricultural town. Some years ago, the village of New Marlboro on the Konka- 
 pot and now the seat of town government, having the town hall and other offices, 
 was one of the busiest of Berkshire villages of its size. Paper mills lined its 
 banks, producing both fine and coarse papers, and there were other industries which 
 made it very active. Fire and financial disaster have completely put an end to all 
 this business. The Carroll mills just below the village, which twenty years ago 
 were very thrifty, have been burned. The fine mills further up the stream are 
 also silent. It is a pretty little village and was the center of much trade. Mr. 
 Sisson, Mr. Stannard and some others have tried for several years for a branch 
 railroad from Connecticut, and it is probable that ere long this will be accomplished. 
 Lake Buel is one of the handsomest sheets of water in Berkshire, and snugly 
 nestled under the hillside, and at its north end is the pretty little village of 
 
 FERNCLIFF SCHOOL 
 
 LENOX CKEAUEKY 
 
 somewhat prominent 
 as a summer resort 
 and some city gentle- 
 men have recently 
 purchased farms in 
 the town. A Chicago 
 artist was the pioneer, 
 and away on the San- 
 disfield heights to- 
 ward South Sandisfield 
 he has built a cottage, 
 and here he entertains 
 a number of artists 
 and literary people in 
 summertime. With all 
 
 FEUNCLIFF AVENUE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 67 
 
 
 
 
 ! 
 
 
 ^^:i''**^- 
 
 
 
 |&\ . 
 
 
 ^^ffi^ffl^^i^" IIIIIMIHI 
 
 ^^^^^If 
 
 UNION ROCK, LK£ 
 
 TRYSTING PLACE, FERNCHFP 
 
 Hartsville. Some fine farms lie along the way and there is evidence of prosperity on every hand, 
 although gradually the town, as has been said before, is somewhat depopulated and running back- 
 ward. The long-prayed-for railway from Canaan up through this valley on to the northward, and 
 possibly to Westfield, which may come some day, would give this locality a boom and a prominence 
 of importance. 
 
 We cannot stop in this brief article to discuss the industries which from time to time have flourished 
 in this good old town. Within its borders have been made whips at Southfield, laces for corsets and 
 
 shoes, paper and 
 various other in- 
 dustries. New 
 Marlboro town is 
 away on the hill- 
 top, and from its 
 little park or from 
 the high ground 
 in the vicinity, is 
 a regular kaleido- 
 scope of views in 
 all directions. In 
 the years agone 
 it was prominent 
 as an educational 
 center, and the 
 South Berkshire 
 Institute, a roomy 
 and well-construct- 
 ed school building, 
 is now vacant. A 
 few years ago, by 
 reason of imperfect 
 drainage, a wasting 
 fever broke out, 
 some deaths oc- 
 among the 
 
 PETER'S CAVE, FERNCLIFF 
 
 ON THE TTRINGHAM RuAl> 
 
 UAKINO BUTTER AT THE LENOX CREAMERY 
 
 ON FERNCLIFF 
 
68 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE HOTISATONIC 
 
 boys sent there, and that, added to the 
 other drawbacks, settled the fate of the 
 South Berkshire Institute. For a few 
 years it was maintained as a summer 
 resort, but now it is idle. It is one of 
 the sightly objects and places of in- 
 terest in the town. Our artist has 
 given us a number of views from New 
 Marlboro and these speak for them- 
 selves. In the village is the famous 
 Bloodgood stock farm which has 
 brought the town into great prominence 
 in that direction. Many summer peo- 
 ple come here for their recreation and 
 vacation and to enjoy the drives, the 
 
 NEAR THE MACHINE SHOP AT EAST LEE 
 
 IN THE PATH Of THE FLOOD AT EAST LEE 
 
 IlELOW THE UAM AT EAST LEE 
 
 MAIN STHEET, EAST LEE 
 
 ELOOD KUIMS NEAR THE MILL 
 
 FUNERAL FROM CENTER OF THE FLOOD DISTRICT 
 
 THE RUINED GROCERY 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 69 
 
 'in- 
 
 
 ..•v^^ 
 
 
 GOING INTO TTiUNGIlASI FR031 THE EAST 
 
 SEAR THE BUSINESS CENTER 
 
 Strolls, the fishing 
 and the other attrac- 
 tions. Down be- 
 low is the little 
 village of South- 
 field. This at one 
 time was a very 
 busy place, but it is 
 gradually becom- 
 ing vacant. The 
 village pastor. Rev. 
 Mr. Benedict, help- 
 ed to plan the lit- 
 tle Baptist church 
 there, and although 
 
 OK THE MAIK STREET 
 
 going away for several years, he has returned to minister again to the people 
 whom he had served so long. Although this worthy gentleman never re- 
 ceived a salary exceeding $800 a year and probably not so much, he said once 
 in a public meeting, he was able, by frugality and economy, to keep out of 
 debt, to educate his family and to live at peace with all the world. 
 
 The history of New Marlboro is too long to attempt to even glance at it. 
 It has been loyal to every call of the country for help. In the war of the 
 Revolution and in 1774 they had resolutions of allegiance to the king, but 
 soon after eepoused the cause of the colonies. In 1812, she responded nobly, 
 
 THE METHODIST CHURCH, TYKINGHAM 
 
 and in the war of the Rebellion she expended nearly $26,000, sent 202 men to 
 the war, over twenty of whom were killed or died from wounds during 
 service. The town is rich in good names, like the Baldwins, Freemans, 
 Sheldons, Nortons, Canfields, Adamses, Wolfes, Sissons, Stannards, 
 
 THE BUSINESS CENTER 
 
 Alexanders, Gay lords. Harts, Sages, and in fact a long line of which space 
 would not allow enumeration. So New Marlboro, although isolated, is 
 after all one of the most inviting, pleasant and desirable spots to reside in. 
 Her natural scenery is grand, and she has a close rival to the Lanesboro 
 Balance rock, in the Tipping rock near Southfield. It is an immense bowlder, 
 weighing fifty tons, and is so nicely balanced that a slight pressure will 
 
 JEKVSALEM — TTRINGHAM 
 
 PICTCRESQUENESS AT THE MILL FOND 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 FEliSSlDE — TYRINGHAM 
 
 KOUTH UEMTKE SCHOOL 
 
 OEKTKE SGUOOL 
 
 LAKE MAY 
 
 cause it to oscillate. Camel falls on the Southfield 
 line of the town is picturesque, where water pours 
 from a precipice loo feet high. Iron, gold and silver 
 ore exist in limited quantities, and a few years ago, 
 Mr. William Gibson, in the south part of the town, at 
 a depth of twenty-two feet developed ore of both 
 kinds which essayed $2$ to the ton. Marble is also 
 found in considerable quantity. Only a mile or so 
 from Mill river towards Sheffi,eld is Clayton. Here 
 are the extensive china clay works of a large corpora- 
 tion, and kaolin in large quantities is made here. 
 
 Sheffield 
 
 The most southerly town in Berkshire, and in fact 
 among the first settled, is the old town of ShefiSeld. 
 A mere chapter could not do justice to it. Its surface 
 is diversified by mountain, hill and verdant valley, 
 and the scenery is charming in the extreme. Shef- 
 field became a township in 1761, but some thirty years 
 before that, the town was settled by people coming 
 from over the mountain and finding a dwelling place 
 there. Her history is among the most interesting of 
 any of the towns of Berkshire. It was in Sheffield that 
 the spirit of liberty manifested itself to such a degree 
 that the Declaration of Independence was practically 
 ratified in June, 1776. It is said that one man who 
 opposed its adoption at the town meeting was as good 
 
 as sent out of town, and from 
 
 that time afterward^ Sheffield has 
 been known for her loyalty as well ' 
 as her history. 
 
 The town is fortunate in being 
 diversified in scenery. It lies along 
 the side of the peaceful Housatonic 
 and the valley at this point is wider 
 than further north, even at Stock- 
 bridge. On the west are the rugged 
 peaks of the Taconics, and its 
 
 THE HEBMIT 
 
 il»*^ 
 
 THE KAKE FACTORY 
 
 THB LAST GLEAM OF DAY 
 
 SHAKER POND 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 71 
 
 highest is the Dome or Mount Everett, 
 the second highest point in Berkshire 
 county. On the east are the hUls divid- 
 ing the town from New Marlboro, 
 and the open valley farther south 
 extends further over the line into 
 Connecticut. There are innumerable 
 handsome drives in and about Shef- 
 field, while the village itself is a gem. 
 Great broad streets, lined with gigantic 
 elms on either side, are the character- 
 istic feature of Sheffield. There are 
 few handsomer country villages in 
 all the region than Sheffield. One of 
 the elms a mile south of the center is 
 a giant,and Dr. Holmes refers to it in 
 his " Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." 
 Just in the village is Pine Knoll, a 
 sort of park, reserved forever for stroll- 
 ing, picnics and meetings under the 
 tall pines constituting the shady grove. 
 Out to the west is Bear's den and 
 there are also a number of other 
 places of interest. In the southwest 
 corner of Sheffield, because the town 
 is on the border of Connecticut, is 
 Sage's ravine. It is situated between 
 two mountains and the water descends 
 in cascades and falls a distance of 
 several hundred feet within a mile. 
 In the morning when the sun shines directly on 
 the main fall a rainbow is seen in the spray. 
 
 In fact, nature has been lavish with her gifts 
 in Sheffield, like Ice gulf. Mossy glen, Bat's 
 den, the Dome, Ashley mountain and many 
 others. It is only a short drive to Twin lakes, 
 just over the line in Salisbury, Connecticut, and 
 no wonder the village is becoming more and 
 more famous as a summer resort year by year. 
 
 But Sheffield is famous in other ways than 
 her natural beauties. The town is rich in its 
 history, and this latter includes the famous 
 Declaration of Rights and Grievances, in 1773. 
 Here was born and here passed the latter part 
 of his life. Rev. Dr. Orville Dewey, one of 
 the purest men Berkshire ever gave to the 
 world, and one of the early exponents of Uni- 
 tarianism. His " Problem of Human Destiny," 
 written in Sheffield in 1850, is pronounced to be 
 one of the ablest works of American intellect. 
 .A.fter many years in active 
 ministerial life in Boston, New 
 Bedford, New York, Washing- ' 
 ton and other places, Dr. Dewey 
 returned to the home of his 
 boyhood to pass the remainder 
 of his days in quiet, and in the 
 village cemetery repose the re- 
 mains of one of the most famous 
 m»n Berkshire ever produced. 
 Citizens of Sheffield, in honor 
 of their distinguished towns- 
 man, erected a few years ago, 
 a hall to his memory, and here 
 are held the meetings of the 
 Friendly Union, a literary or- 
 ganization which meets weekly 
 during the winter, with lectures 
 or other entertainment which 
 give the village a social and 
 educational life that few others 
 maintain. Here was born John 
 Barnard, a superintendent of the 
 military academy, and one of 
 the important military men dur- 
 ing the war. His brother, Dr. 
 Frederick A. P. Barnard, has 
 been president of Columbia 
 college many years. The 
 Deweys, of whom Orville was a 
 branch, have been prominent as 
 judges, divines and professors. 
 
 " HALLOWE'EN ' 
 
 One of the most prominent Metho- 
 dist bishops was born and reared in 
 Sheffield. 
 
 Ashley falls, a few miles below and 
 just on the Connecticut border, is a 
 small village which at one time was 
 quite important on account of its 
 marble industry. In fact, marble is 
 quite plentiful in Sheffield, and the 
 handsome court-house at Pittsfield 
 was built from stone procured in 
 Sheffield. So this old town is rich in 
 many ways. Its farmers are among 
 the independent class. Probably few 
 towns in Berkshire possess more of the 
 thrifty farming element than just the 
 good old town of Sheffield, which has, 
 in a quiet and dignified way, marched 
 steadily on from the first of her settle- 
 ment in 1773, for more than 120 years, 
 until now. In the town of Sheffield, it 
 may be recorded here as amatterof his- 
 tory, a few years ago, the first woman in 
 Berkshire county cast her ballot for 
 school committee, and this was the 
 daughter of the late Dr. Dewey, whose 
 independence and breadth of thought 
 is fully as marked as that of her 
 sainted father. 
 
 SINGULAR OCCURRENCES IN 
 SHEFFIELD 
 
 HIVERSIDE FARM 
 
 A BUSKING PARTY 
 
 The following singular occurrences are said 
 to have taken place near the boundary line be- 
 tween Massachusetts and Connecticut. Part of 
 these occurrences took place in Sheffield and 
 part in the adjoining town of Salisbury, Conn. 
 The relation of these circumstances was ob- 
 tained from Mr. S. Sage and his family, who 
 were still livingonthe spot (June, 1836) and were 
 corroborated by great numbers of people living 
 about the same time. 
 
 " These occurrences commenced Nov. 8th, 
 1802, at a clothier's shop. A man and two boys 
 were in the shop ; the boys had retired to rest, 
 it being between ten and eleven o'clock at night. 
 A block of wood was thrown through the win- 
 dow; after that pieces of hard mortar, tUl the 
 man and boys became alarmed, 
 and went to the house to call 
 Mr. Sage, who arose from bed 
 and went to the shop, and could 
 hear the glass break often, but 
 could not discover from whence 
 the missiles came, notwithstand- 
 ing the night was very light. He 
 exerted himself to discover the 
 cause, without success. It con- 
 tinued constantly till daylight, 
 and then ceased till the next 
 evening at eight o'clock, when 
 it commenced again and con- 
 tinued till midnight ; then ceased 
 till the next evening at dusk, 
 and continued till sometime in 
 the evening, and then ceased. 
 The next day it commenced 
 about an hour before sundown, 
 and continued about an hour, 
 and then ;it left the shop and 
 began at the dwelling house of 
 Ezekiel Landon, 100 rods dis- 
 tant, in the town of Sheffield. 
 It continued several hours and 
 ceased till the next morning; 
 when the family were at break- 
 fast it began again, and con- 
 tinued two or three hours, and 
 ceased till evening, when it be- 
 gan again and continued several 
 
72 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 hours, and ceased till the next morning, when it began again and con- 
 tinued all the forenoon, and then ceased altogether. The articles thrown 
 into the shop were pieces of wood, charcoal, stone, but principally pieces 
 of hard mortar, such as could not be found in the neighborhood. Noth- 
 ing but stones were thrown into the house of Mr. Landon, the first of 
 which was thrown into the door. There were thirty-eight panes of glass 
 broken in the shop and eighteen out of the dwelling houses ; in two or 
 three instances persons were hit by the things that were thrown. What 
 was remarkable, nothing could be seen coming till the glass broke, and 
 whatever passed through, fell directly down on the window sill, as if it 
 had been put through with a person's fingers, and many pieces of mortar, 
 and coal were thrown through the same hole in the glass in succession. 
 Many hundreds of people assembled to witness the scene, among whom 
 were clergymen and other gentlemen, but none were able to detect the 
 source of the mischief." 
 
 VETERAN I'BDDLBR AND . HIS BUSINESS FIUEND3 
 
 HAULING LOGS, TTEINGHAM 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF SANDISFIELD, 
 
 acceptance of his constituents 
 and of his patrons. In those 
 days and for some time after, 
 the tanners of Southern Berk- 
 shire, of Western Hampden and 
 and of other sections of West- 
 ern Massachusetts, were a very 
 considerable element in the 
 business life of the region, and 
 had "their say" in the politics 
 of the places where their indus- 
 tries were located. The proc- 
 ess of tanning was then by the 
 use of liquor made from hem- 
 
 A LOAD OP PUMPKINS 
 
 In the old days Sandisfield had importance socially, in local politics 
 and in business circles, which one would not think of attributing to it 
 now, with many of the old f amihes gone ; the industries that once thrived 
 there died out and because of these decadences the name of the ancient 
 town is left off the political slates almost entirely. Time was when the 
 politicians went to Sandisfield for a lieutenant governor of the state. 
 The man who had this honor was the late John Hull ; and one of his 
 townsmen, the late Hon. Orlo Burt, who was well known in other days as 
 a tanner, was also state senator and alternated between Berkshire and 
 Boston and leather and legislation, with credit to himself and to the 
 
 CANNON HILL, TTEINGHAM 
 
 IPKESH POKE 
 
 oue:uatebiai,<»'OB CHOEES 
 
 lock bark ; the hills of many of the country towns abounded in forests of that 
 kind, making bark plenty and to be had at reasonable rates, and with this ne- 
 cessity for the conduct of their business assured, the tanners had nothing to do 
 but to persevere and success was sure. In those days William Clafliuj son of 
 Lee Claflin, a well-to-do bootmaker and leather dealer of Hopkinton, had, in 
 furtherance of his ambitions, started the tanning business with the late J. 
 W. Wheeler at 
 Becket, where the 
 two soon broaden- 
 ed their business 
 so as to need the 
 enlargement of 
 the little old tan- 
 nery they had 
 taken and also a 
 new one of thrice 
 the capacity of 
 the other, which 
 they builded in 
 the lower part of 
 the village. Here ^^^^ ^^^^.^ 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 governor as a visitor in 
 their midst. Within a 
 dozen miles of his indus- 
 try in this hamlet were 
 at least half a score of 
 other tanneries, each do- 
 ing at least a "living 
 business." Norton & 
 Ely were thriving in the 
 " beaver dam " neighbor- 
 hood of North Bland- 
 ford ; there were two 
 other tanneries flourish- 
 ing in Blandford, with one 
 at Russell and several 
 in the town of Chester, 
 one of which latter— that 
 at the depot village — is 
 the sole survivor of all 
 the many that were in 
 operation in its earlier 
 
 73 
 
 WILLOW GLEN, TyRlNGHAM 
 
 they were thriving at the time of the war, when Mr. Claflin 
 had risen in political importance so as to be president of 
 the senate, with the governorship, which came later, then 
 full in view, and these experiences but paving the way for a 
 career as congressman. So the people of the busy little 
 Berkshire hamlet of Becket used to have a full-fledged 
 
 greatest captain of 
 modern times and 
 led the armies of 
 the nation to their 
 crowning victories 
 and the country to 
 its boon of peace. 
 These successes 
 could but have 
 their influence on 
 the humbler toilers 
 in leather making, 
 and they had a right 
 to feel the increas- 
 ed dignity attach- 
 ing to their busi- 
 ness. But, while 
 the names of those 
 who came to na- 
 tional and world- 
 
 THB OLD SLATKK HOUSE, TTItlNGHAM 
 
 AN AUTCMN DAT 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 Mi 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 ¥ 
 
 
 m^' ^ 
 
 M 
 
 3 
 
 g| 
 
 i 
 
 ■1^^^ 
 
 -TV 11,11)1 eiHfpi 
 
 n^^mi 
 
 Hii^^-.^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 HH 
 
 HH 
 
 
 HHis^^iLj 
 
 years. Otis had its industry of the kind, 
 which was conducted by Spencer Watson, 
 son of the ever-to-be-remembered Oliver 
 Watson, who was a Nestor among the 
 tanners. The establishment at Otis was 
 coeval in its history with the one at San- 
 disfield and others in the neighboring 
 towns. Those were the days when, go- 
 ing outside of the state, there were other 
 leather makers found who achieved suc- 
 cess in that business and others growing 
 out of it, and who rose from their art, and 
 by means of it, to political importance. 
 Marshal Jewell, for instance, who had 
 with his brothers and father, come from 
 their little tannery in the woods at Win- 
 chester, N. H., and 
 located in the 
 leather and belt 
 business at Hart- 
 ford, had come to 
 be governor of the 
 state of his adop- 
 tion, minister of 
 the United States 
 to Russia, and the 
 best postmaster- 
 general the coun- 
 try had had up to 
 his day. And every- 
 body knows that 
 from a tannery at 
 Galena, 1)1., went 
 forth to the "war 
 for the flag" the 
 little self-reliant 
 and patriotic man 
 who became the 
 
 THE WINDING HOP BROOK 
 
 OLD GRAVESTONES 
 
74 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 A GLIMPSE or "OTIS' 
 
 wide fame rest secure with their laurels, many of the others have, as far as the busy world of to-day 
 is concerned, faded from memory, till concerning them it might be said :— 
 
 "But gone is all their fame — the very spot 
 Where many a time they triumphed is forgot." 
 
 From such fate may 
 the pen of the chron- 
 icler spare them. 
 
 Another source of 
 the importance of 
 Sandisfield in the 
 business world was 
 its maple sugar, 
 which in other years 
 amounted to many 
 tons. But the groves 
 of maples in Sandis- 
 field, as in other hill 
 towns of Berkshire, 
 have fallen before the 
 devastating march of 
 the men of the Rich- 
 mond Iron Works 
 and of the late Mr.^Barnum's Connecticut furnaces, men who have been utterly unmindful of the 
 beautiful and plaintive i jmction, " Woodman, spare that tree," and have laid low forests of beech, 
 birch and maple 
 that had clothed [" 
 
 the mountains and 
 the foot hills with 
 beauty and maj esty. 
 This to meet their 
 greed for wood to 
 char into coal to 
 feed the furnace 
 fires of the indus- 
 tries in Berkshire 
 and in near-by Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 People of three- 
 score years of age 
 originating in San- 
 disfield and in any 
 of the neighboring 
 towns will recall, 
 as will some of 
 lesser years, the 
 name and face of 
 Dr. Erastus Beach, 
 a physician of the 
 old school, whose 
 "ride" in Sandis- 
 field and vicinity a hunting pakt^ — ahound the tavern eire at OTIS 
 
 candidate for governor. But he belonged to a party whose 
 star was not in the ascendant in those days and so he did 
 not reach the executive chamber on Beacon hill. But that 
 Erastus D. Beach attained great success ,in his profession 
 and reflected honor on the town where he originated, no one 
 can deny. A brother of his was the late Theodore D. Beach 
 of Springfield, who is pleasantly remembered in business 
 circles there; and another brother is Dr. J. C. Beach. 
 There is a reminiscence to the effect that Dr. Beach, design- 
 ing his eldest son for a doctor, named him for the scientist 
 Erastus Darwin, and that wishing another son to become a 
 lawyer, named him for a prominent attorney. But, on com- 
 
 ^^Si^^B 
 
 t^m 
 
 
 v' 
 
 5?~'4pF^™^ 
 
 
 '-' ''^--V' 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 f' '' 
 
 Hipplll 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 M 
 
 the countky church 
 
 kept him one of the busiest of 
 men through all the seasons of 
 the two-score years, and who 
 with his family formed an im- 
 portant element in the social 
 life of the region. One of his 
 sons was the late Hon. Erastus 
 D. Beach of Springfield, a law- 
 yer of good parts and of envi- 
 able success in legal practice. 
 He was the very model of ur- 
 banity of manner, a fact which, ' 
 with his- ability as a lawyer, 
 stood him well in hand in his 
 political life. For politics had 
 their charms for him, and more 
 than once or twice was he a 
 
 M \I.\ 'TKICRT, OTIS 
 
 DAT s HOTEL 
 
 THE COKGUEGATIONAL CHURCH 
 
 ^ - i — '-i^^airf^ ^^^*iJ- ~ 
 
 POST OPFICE, ETC. 
 
 OTIS CKHTEE 
 
 ing to years, the sons reversed the paternal plans, E. D. 
 becoming an attorney and J. C. taking to medicine. For 
 whatever calling the Berkshire doctor intended his son 
 Theodore, local legends tell not. But he certainly was a 
 success as auctioneer. He so magnified his calling that he 
 made almost an art of it; and by the. business he made 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 himself as indispensable to Springfield activities 
 as were city officials or those most successful in the 
 learned professions. Who that ever heard the 
 ready and pat oratory of the urbane man as he 
 glowed over the desirableness of some corner lot 
 which he was selling at "vendue" will forget the 
 charm of his words or the peculiar smile with 
 which, and the accompanying nod, he recognized 
 each successive bid in the scale of rapid ascension 
 which, in the sale, was carried by his periods of 
 " Gem'men, gem'men, I am offered one hundred 
 dollars per front foot — only one hundred dollars 
 for this lot in this good location of our beautiful 
 city — only one hundred dollars? only one — one 
 hundred and fifty dollars. Gem'men that's better. 
 One hundred and fifty dollars — fifty, go two ? fifty, 
 go two ? " and so on through a long line of loquacity 
 
 75 
 
 that always " did the business.'' 
 This marvel of success in auc- 
 tion oratory was like his more 
 distinguished brother Erastus, 
 a democrat. But there were 
 many republicans who, soon 
 after the "war days," voted 
 for T. D. Beach as representa- 
 tive to Boston, and rejoiced 1o 
 see him elected. 
 
 THK GROVE AT OTIS PONDS 
 
 f 'y 
 
 4 
 J,'«-. 
 
 ffcsMJoj-s^ ^Maci^J 
 
 ». '?b!ivM«Mf-~_i 1 
 
 WEST OTIS 
 
 Facts About New Marl- 
 boro. — Although the object of 
 this work is not the reproduc- 
 tion of ancient history, certain 
 matters relating to the early 
 history of the town of New 
 Marlboro, on account of their 
 quaintness, come in at this point 
 quite appropriately. As would 
 appear to be indicated by the 
 name, the place was settled by 
 people from Marlboro. During 
 the hard winter of 1739-40 a 
 man named Wheeler remained 
 the only white inhabitant of the 
 town. The Indians, though 
 friendly in most respects, for- 
 bade him the use of the gun, 
 lest he should kill the deer, 
 and thus withheld from him part 
 of the means of his support. 
 His nearest white neighbors 
 
 
 WEST OTIS MAIN STBEET 
 
 were in Sheffield, a distance of ten miles, some of whom came on snowshoes to see him. The town 
 of Northampton, in Hampshire county, is somewhat responsible for the permanent settlement of 
 New Marlboro, for families by the name of Sheldon, Wright and Allen, came from there to stay, 
 while Rev. Thomas Strong, a native of Northampton, was the first pastor of the first church 
 organized in the town. His salary was fifty pounds. 
 
 OTIS FALLS — EAST OTIS 
 
 WB8T OTIS — SOT A SUMMER RESORT 
 
 A DESEItTEH HOME — OTIS 
 
76 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 A pond in the southeast part of the town, long called " Hermit Pond," derived its name 
 from the fact that a hermit lived for several years on its southeastern side. The name of this 
 hermit was Timothy Leonard. He came from Dutchess county, New York, five or six years be- 
 fore the Revolutionary war, and though he purchased a farm he led a solitary life till his death. 
 He died June 13, :8i7, from infirmity and old age, being, as was supposed, in his seventieth 
 year. Unwilling that any one should remain with him during a single night, he died as he 
 lived, alone and unattended. The cause of his leading a solitary life is supposed to be explained 
 by the fact that he was an inveterate hater of women. His description of them was : — 
 
 " They say they will, and they won't ; 
 What they promise to do, they don't." 
 
 AT TFE POST OFFICE, MONTEREY 
 
 1. 
 
 ■..Ju«.k 
 
 '■-JfUKSfS^ 
 
 " . ^^^""^^ 
 
 
 A MONTEREY STREET 
 
 LAKE GARFIELD 
 
 Let none smile at the history of Timothy 
 Leonard, for he is not a solitary instance 
 in which disappointed hope and mortified 
 pride have been suffered to blot out the 
 social affections, and produce uselessness, 
 wretchedness and ruin. 
 
 The Nature of Country Enjoy- 
 ment. — The fullest enjoyment of the coun- 
 try does not arise from strong excitements 
 acting in straight lines ; not from august 
 mountains, wide panoramas, awful gorges, 
 nor from anything that runs in upon you 
 with strong stimulations. All these things 
 have their place, but they are occasional. 
 They are the sub-base and come in as the 
 mighty undertone upon which soft and vari- 
 ous melodies float. A thousand daily little 
 things make their offering of pleasure to 
 those who know how to be pleased. 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 SELF-CONSCIOUS, BUT NOT ASHAMED 
 
 TEACHING THE DOG NEW TRICKS — MONTEREY 
 
 They love their land because it is their own, 
 And scorn to give aught other reason why 
 
 Halleck, 
 
 ,,-;; llhii 
 
 MONTEREY 
 
 A W !■ LI -K\U\\> Mn^ I rUI \ I AKMUt 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 77 
 
 CONGIIEGATION \L CHURCH, SA^DIS1IELD 
 
 TflT- I.KSEl.Tlli Ilii\ H)r M)i;r, SAXmsFJKLri 
 
 iffe- 
 
 lE JITLL AT WEST M'.W Uo.sTON 
 
 OLD MILL AT JIONTVILLE 
 
 A HILLSIDE FARM 
 
 " Do set down an' git rested 1 I declare, you look real tuckered ! 
 
 'Tain't very easy climbln' with your gown so flounced and puckered ; 
 
 Guess you wa'n't never here afore, you come along so soon, 
 
 We don't look for you city folks much 'fore the last o' June ; 
 
 ' What makes us live way off up here ' ? It doos seem pooty tough, 
 
 But there's more land to the acre, where the sile is middlin' rough. 
 
 " You'd better have a glass o' milk, an' cool off in the shadder ; 
 ' Who made that little grave yard ' .' Land o' Goshen ! that's our medder; 
 ' What makes that ledge so dirty ' ? Why, that's our new stun wall ! 
 They built it three foot higher when they plowed for corn last fall ; 
 No, 'tain't ' All rocks I ' they're footy thick, but only 'bout enough 
 For there's more land to the acre, where the sile is middlin' rough. 
 
 " When city folks set out to start, there ain't no use o' backin'. 
 They've worked an' give a pile sometimes, when help an' pay was lackin' ; 
 
 HAYING 
 
 It is five o'clock. The morning is 
 clear and fresh. A thin, blue film oi 
 mist hovers over the circuit of Iht 
 Housatonic along the mountain bell. 
 A hundred birds — yes, five hundred 
 — are singing as birds never sing ex- 
 cept in the morning. 
 
 In our house the girls are astir, and 
 the mystery of breakfast is developing. 
 The little dog is so glad, after the 
 lonesome night, to see you, that he 
 surfeits you with frolic. The men are 
 in the barn, feeding the horses, and 
 getting everything ready for work. 
 
 Will it rain to-day.? The heavens 
 overhead look like it, but the barome- 
 ter says No. Then a few rounds with 
 the scythe before breakfast, just by 
 way of getting the path open. 
 
 There they go, a pretty pair of 
 mowers ! The blinking dewdrops on 
 the grass tops wink at them and pitch 
 headlong under the stroke of the 
 swinging scythe. How low and musi- 
 cal is the sound of a scythe in ils 
 passage through a thick pile of grass ! 
 It has a crunching, mellow, murmuring 
 sound, right pleasant to hear. 
 
 The grass, rolled over in a swath to 
 the left, green and wet, lies like a loose- 
 ly corded cable, vast and half twined. 
 Around the piece, step by step, go the 
 men, and the work is fairly laid out 
 and begun. 
 
 NEW BOSTON POST OFFICE 
 
 OLD fuLKS AI noUE 
 
 THE OLD MILL AT NEW BOSTON 
 
 I recollect when they fust come was right in 
 
 squash-bug time. 
 An' some on 'em come up this way a larnin' 
 
 howtocUmb,— 
 An' one man ups an' hollers, when he'd stopped 
 
 awhile to puff, 
 ' Wal ! there's more land to the acre, where 
 
 the sile is middUn' rough.' 
 
 " They git some air that's fit to breajihe, an' 
 
 they ain't stuck up, nuther ; 
 They're jest as good as we be, an' you can't 
 
 tell which from tother ; 
 Theyjest hitch on to all our ways like floor 
 
 boards to a jist. 
 There ain't no "Bandoned Farm ' talk sence 
 
 they've j;ive us such a hist ; 
 An' with tlieir help, an' all our hills, I guess 
 
 we're safe enough. 
 For there's more land to the acre, where the 
 
 sile is middlin' rough " 
 
 Laura Sanderson. 
 
78 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE TKOUT POKD AT SANDISFIRLD 
 
 There sounds the horn ! 
 Breakfast is ready. All the 
 children are farmers' boys for 
 the occasion. Were Sebasto- 
 pol built of bread and cakes, 
 these are the very engineers 
 whoj^irould take it. Bless their 
 appfiites ! It does one good to 
 see growing children eat with a 
 real hearty appetite. Mountain 
 air, a free foot in the grassy 
 fields aind open groves, plain 
 food and enough of it — these 
 things kill the lilies in the cheek 
 and bring forth roses. 
 
 But we must haste and make 
 hay while the sun shines. Al- 
 ready John Dargan is there 
 whetting his scythe — John, 
 tou^hr as a knot, strong as steel, 
 famous in all the region for 
 ploughing, and equally skillful 
 at mowing, turning his furrow 
 and cutting his swath alike smoothly and evenly, 
 such farmers to spare, let them come on. 
 
 THE HIGHWAY NEAR HANGING MODNTAIN 
 
 If Ireland has any more 
 
 RAIN UPON THE ROOF 
 
 NKAK TllK HOTKL IN KEAV BOSTON 
 
 NKAK HANGING MOUNTAIN 
 
 When the humid shadows hover 
 
 Over all the starry spheres, 
 And the melancholy darkness 
 Gently sweeps in rainy tears, 
 What a bliss to press the pillow 
 
 Of a cottage chamber lied, 
 And listen to the patter 
 
 Of the soft rain over head I 
 Every tinkle on the shingles 
 Has an echo in my heart ; 
 And a thousand dreamy fancies 
 
 Into busy being start. 
 And a thousand recollections 
 Weave their air threads into 
 woof 
 As 1 listen to the patter 
 
 Of the rain upon the roof. 
 Now in memory comes my 
 mother, 
 As she used in years agone, 
 To regard the darling dreamers 
 Ere she left them till the 
 dawn; 
 Oh I I feel her fond look on me 
 
 As I list to this refrain 
 Which is played upon the 
 shingles 
 By the patter of the rain. 
 Then my seraph sister, 
 With wings and waving hair, 
 ■ And her star-eyed cherub 
 brother— 
 A serene, angelic pair- 
 Glide around my wakeful 
 pillow. 
 With their praise or mild 
 reproof, 
 As 1 listen to the murmur 
 
 Of the soft rain upon the roof. 
 
 And another comes to thrill me 
 
 With her eyes delicious blue ; 
 
 And I mind not musing on her, 
 
 That her heart was all untrue ; 
 
 I remember but to love her 
 
 With a passion kin to pain, 
 And my heart's quick pulses 
 quiver 
 To the patter of the rain. 
 Art hath naught of tone or 
 cadence 
 That can work with such a 
 spell 
 In the soul's mysterious foun- 
 tains, 
 Whence the tears of raptuie 
 well, 
 Asthatsubdued,subduing strain 
 Which is played upon the 
 shingles 
 By the patter of the rain. 
 
 Coates Kinney. 
 
 VIEW IN SOUTH SANUISriELD 
 
 The man of the farm strikes 
 in first ; John follows, and away 
 they go, up the hill, toward the 
 sun. The grass is full of dew, 
 which quivers in the sunlight, 
 and flashes by turns all the col- 
 ors of the rainbow. Round and 
 round the field they go, with 
 steady swing, the grass plat 
 growing less at every turn. 
 Meanwhile the boys have been 
 at work spreading the grass. 
 The hay-cocks of yesterday 
 have been opened, the noon 
 comes on, and it is time to house 
 the hay. The day passes, and 
 the night. With another morn- 
 ing, and that Saturday morning, 
 comes up the sun without a 
 single cloud to wipe his face 
 V . upon. The air is clear as crys- 
 tal, no mist on the river, no 
 fleece on the mountains. 
 Yet the barometer is sinking — has been sinking all night. 
 It has fallen more than a quarter of- an inch, and continues 
 
 A'lEW NORIil FROM liltllHili, AT KRW IIOSTON 
 
 MAKING SOAP BT THE WAT8IDK 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 79 
 
 which the mountain lifts up its head like a glorified martyr amid his perse- 
 cutors ! Only a look can we spare, and all of us run for the house, and in 
 good time. 
 
 Down comes the flood, and every drop is musical. We pity the neigh- 
 bors who, not warned by a barometer, are racing and chasing to secure 
 their outlying crop. 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 THE RIDE ABOUT THE COUNTY 
 
 IK MONTVILLE CENTRE 
 
 slowly to fall. Our plans must be laid 
 accordingly. We will cut the clover 
 and prepare to get in all of yesterday's 
 mowing, before two o'clock. 
 
 One load we roll in before dinner. 
 While catching our hasty dinner, af- 
 fairs grow critical. The sun is hidden. 
 The noon is dark. All hands are 
 summoned. 
 
 Now if you wish to see pretty work- 
 ing follow the cart — the long forks 
 leap into the cocks of hay ; to a back- 
 ward lift they spring up, poise a 
 moment in the air, shoot forward, are 
 caught upon the load by the nimble 
 John, and in a twinkling are in their 
 place. 
 
 We hear thunder ! Lightnings 
 flash on the horizon. Jim and Frank 
 and Henry Sumner are springing at 
 the clover, rolling into heaps and dressing it down so as to shed rain. There are 
 no lazy bones there ! Even we ourselves wake up and go to work. All the girls 
 and ladies come forth to the fray. Delicate hands are making lively work, raking 
 
 PLOUGHING THE HOME FIELD 
 
 Monterey, Mount Washington, Alford, West STOCKBRiDcaE, 
 Richmond and Egremont f i -^ 
 
 Monterey is also one of the hill towns and is as handsome as its^eigh- 
 bors, although its scenery is considerably different. Its early history is written 
 a good deal in connection with that of Tyringham, the first settlement being 
 made in 1739 by Isaac Garfield and others. Out of this Garfield vineTame 
 the lamented President Garfield, and it was of good stock. The surface of 
 Monterey is somewhat peculiar to itself. Extending nearly round the town's 
 entire outline, are high hills, which give it the appearance of lying in a large, 
 elevated basin. Its hills, however, are so broken that excellent roads are 
 
 conveniently built and its soil is espe- 
 cially adapted for grazing. Monterey 
 has some very thrifty farmers and 
 were it not remote from railway, (its 
 nearest station being Great Barring- 
 ton,) it would have been a very active 
 town. The drives are excellent. The 
 route from Monterey village south- 
 ward, following along the head waters 
 of the Konkapot river, is most de- 
 lightful. In the other direction, 'over 
 the hills to Sandisfield, it is a succes- 
 sion of beautiful views and look-offs 
 to charm the eye. The drive to Tyr- 
 ingham from Monterey village is also 
 picturesque. The road over Dry hill 
 puts one almost abruptly in the valley 
 of Tyringham, and it is one of the 
 many fine panoramic views for which 
 Berkshire is famous. . - 
 
 Lake Garfield is the principal body 
 of water in the town and is one of Berkshire's'most beautiful lakes.. It was so 
 named soon after President Garfield was elected, having prior to that another name. 
 This is the source of the Konkapot and is practically a reservoir, and built by the 
 
 BAPTIST CHURCH, MONTVILLE 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, NEW BOSTON 
 
 NEW BOSTON HOTEL 
 
 up the dispersed grass, and flying with right 
 nimble steps here and there, bent upon cheat- 
 ing the rain of its expected prey. 
 
 And now the long windrows are formed. 
 The last load of hay from the other fields 
 has just rolled triumphantly into the barn! 
 Down jumps John, with fork in hand, and 
 rolls up the windrows into cocks. We follow 
 and glean with the rake. The last one is 
 fashioned. 
 
 A drop pats down on my face — another 
 and another. Look at those baseless moun- 
 tains that tower in the west, black as ink at 
 the bottom, glowing like snow at the top 
 edges ! Far in the north the rain has begun 
 to streak down upon old Greylock ! 
 
 But the sun is shining through the shower 
 and changing it to a golden atmosphere, in 
 
 MAD RIVER FALLS 
 
 mill owners farther along the stream. It is 
 a favorite resort for camping, and its^oating 
 island was for a long time a gre^fe'^riosity. 
 The island is 200 feet long^ a'nd^^ises and 
 falls regularly with the water. Formerly it 
 was located at about the south end, now 
 floatihg from one side to the other, but a few 
 years ago it drifted up the lake to its present 
 moorings and seems likely to remain there. 
 At the foot of Lake Garfield on the high- 
 road to Tyringham is the residence of M. S. 
 Bidwell, one of Berkshire's most famous 
 philanthropists. He is one of the trustees 
 of Hampton Institute, and was among the 
 first to try the experiment of teaching the 
 Indian boys and girls to work on the farm 
 and in the house. His efforts have been 
 very si^ccessful, and every^ guirirner thes^ 
 
8o 
 
 AT THE FISH HATCHERY, UAKTSVILLE, NEW MAHLBORO 
 
 sons of the noble red man can be seen in the town of Monterey, at 
 the homes of the various farmers in that section. Mr. Bidwell comes 
 from old English stock, his ancestors being the early settlers of the 
 town, and Rev. Adonijah Bidwell was 
 the first pastor of Monterey, then 
 
 THE HATCHING TROtTCTBS 
 
 THE CROW HILL SCHOOL 
 
 It seems like a dream to me now how Jim and 
 
 I used to go 
 Ploughing our wdy to the district school 
 
 through the deeply drifted snow ; 
 Our homespun suits were of black sheep's wool, 
 
 pantaloons, jackets, and all, 
 Our shoes were made of the " beef critter's " 
 
 liide father l^pled in. the fall ; 
 The boyb took turns in the winter at cutting 
 
 the stove wood to fit, 
 'Twas an exercise we detested, but we made 
 
 the best of it. 
 The school-house was old and shaky from the 
 
 peltings of many a storm. 
 The glass was out of the windows, it was awful 
 
 hard to keep warm ; 
 The schoolmaster's desk was whittled by 
 
 knives of boys by the score. 
 Initials, peep-holes and ink spots were thick on 
 
 the sagging old door ; 
 1 cut the name of my sweetheart in the lid of 
 
 my desk one day. 
 And the schoolmaster "warmed my jacket" 
 
 in the old original way. 
 Whenever we disobeyed orders the ferule 
 
 came into play. 
 And it left a sting behind it that lasted for 
 
 inany a day ; 
 The boys had a nreJist posted, the girls took 
 
 turn with the broom, 
 And swept, and garnished with evergreen 
 
 boughs the walls of the dingy room. 
 Every mprning we read in concert, and lifted 
 
 our voices high. 
 All firmly resolvefto do our best to make a 
 
 noise or die. 
 When I think upon those happy days it is like 
 
 a misty dream 
 I might have in sleepy meadows bordering on 
 
 a lazy stream— 
 I hear the Tapping waters o'er the smooth- 
 worn Babbles glide — 
 Again I.am a careless boy, and Jim is sitting 
 
 by my side — 
 Hush] we are in the school-room ! hear the 
 
 tapping of the master's rule. 
 He is sayingv— ". Order ! I want order here in 
 
 Crow Hill scWeol ! " 
 
 'J HE si'AWX 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 Tyringhara, and officiated at the now deserted church near Dry hill. There have been other 
 noble families in Monterey. These include the Steadmans, Chadwicks, Benedicts, Thomp- 
 sons, Langdons, Tyrrels, Townsends and many others. 
 
 Hyde's falls, a few miles south of the village, is a romantic glen through which a brook de- 
 scends in a series of cascades 
 for nearly a mile. There are 
 many other beautiful places to 
 attract in the vicinity of Mon- 
 terey village. 
 
 Latterly, (and Mr. Bidwell 
 made the beginning,) Monterey 
 has become quite popular as a 
 summer resort. Its farmhouses 
 are sought by the tired people of 
 the cities and here they live for 
 the season, enjoying the plain 
 hospitality of the sturdy agri- 
 culturists in the vicinity of Mon- 
 terey village, or the farmers on 
 the hillside. The village itself 
 is a pretty little hamlet, but its 
 business is somewhat declined. There 
 is but one store now. A few years ago 
 there were two. The hotel is practi- 
 cally abandoned. The little Congre- 
 gational church on the Four Corners 
 stands on an elevated site, and here 
 the people for miles around come to 
 worship on the Sabbath. There is no 
 manufacturing now in the town, but it 
 is quite a trading point for the farmers, 
 who here bring their produce — butter, 
 cheese, etc. — to the country store, and 
 exchange for other commodities, and 
 the country merchant in turn sends 
 to the city, and by that means quite a 
 trade is built up. There are some 
 very cosy homes in Monterey village. 
 This place has an air of quiet, and is 
 in some respects a model and ideal 
 isolated country settlement. The 
 town has always been generous in her 
 support of churches and schools, and 
 her highways compare favorably for a 
 mountain town with others in Berk- 
 shire. It is thought that some day 
 the railway from Canaan, through 
 Egremont to Otis and thence to 
 We'stfield, will be a verity and will 
 revive the now somewhat dfooping 
 fortunes of this good old town. 
 
 Mount Washington 
 
 There is no town in all Berkshire, or indeed in Massachu- 
 setts, like Mount Washington. Jt is isolated, more than any 
 other town; it lies on the very summit of the Taconics and to 
 reach the town proper, it is "all the way up hill," whether one 
 goes from the Housatonic valley at Egremont, or climbs the 
 winding highway from the station on the Harlem road at 
 Copake. The town itself lies just back of the Dome, or Mount 
 Everett, and once reached is a broad stretch of rolling land, 
 and many farmers count in their domains hundreds of acres 
 of pasturage, woodland and fields that are tillable. Its eleva- 
 tion, some 2,600 feet above tide-water, makes it, (so the doctors 
 say, and they should know,) an almost certain cure for hay 
 
 STRIPPING THE SPAWN 
 
 fever and this was what first brought Mount Washington 
 into fame and prominence as a summer resort. 
 
 It would take more pages than we could spare to tell 
 all about this town. It was incorporated in 1764, (funny 
 how old some of the Berkshire towns are,) and has kept 
 its first family names well. These, like the Spurrs, 
 Schutts, Weavers, Races and others yet remain. The 
 town has hardly a store, nor even the proverbial black- 
 smith shop, neither priest, lawyer, doctor or tailor ; neither 
 railway, telegraph or telephone are within her borders. | 
 
 For years there was only one pauper, a town charge, and •'' 
 
 he was demented and crippled. Two schools for many 
 years supplied the educational demands of the people, 
 and even now there are no "grammar grades." A little 
 union cliapel, built a few years ago, is supplied by pastors ^ 
 from Uic villages of Egremont and Copake. on the bloodguod stock ..-arm 
 
 DISCUSSING A DEAD WILDCAT IN THE CLUBllUOMtJ 
 
 'A .11 
 l'«feg ft- " 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 Nothing in Berkshire, unless it be Qreylock, surpasses 
 Mount Washington in natural wildness, beauty and gran- 
 deur. Bash Bish falls make Mount Washington famous, 
 and it. is one of Nature's wonders and attractions. Our 
 artist tells the story by camera and pencil in better language 
 than the pen. In a short distance, by a series of waterfalls 
 the little stream, possibly fifty feet wide, makes the descent 
 of some 200 feet and its last leap after the watejs part at the 
 bowldei- is some sixty feet, and known as the Lower falls. 
 
 
 OON&REGATIOXAL CHURCH, NEW MARLBORO 
 
 Oa each side of the stream, where it has worn its way all 
 through the ages since it began its uneasy course, , is 
 "Eagle's Nest," with walls some 200 feet high as smooth as 
 those of a hard-finished room, with neither tree nor vine. 
 Then there is "Look-Off" and other interesting bits of 
 scenery. These elevations, like " Eagle's Nest," are acces- 
 sible and stairs or a circuitous path lead to the top; while 
 below are the waters dashing down the ravine. From the 
 
 .Kl-.i.. A i I'iNAL CHtl;L'U. SOI'THKI F.LD 
 
 
 
 .>s^ 
 
 81 
 
 highway near the falls and to the north- 
 ward the "Old Man of the Mountain" or 
 "Profile Rock" is clearly seen and much 
 resembles a similar formation in the 
 White mountains. Bash Bish may be 
 photographed or reproduced on the 
 
 I'OST OFFICE AND OOMilOS, NEW SIAULUORO ORNTRE 
 
 printed page, but a pen picture — and many a time the story 
 has been graphically told — does feeble justice to the gran- 
 deur, the wildness and the fascination of the scene. It should 
 be visited^ and yet how many thousands there are in Berk- 
 shire, who, while they have read of Bash Bish, have little con- 
 ception of just where it lies and how grand it is! 
 
 There are other places of interest in Mount Washington. 
 The town is on the southeastern border of the state; for a 
 
 time a small cor- 
 
 POKCH AT THE OLD RICHAKDSON HOUSE 
 
 The town became famous in another 
 direction in about 1878, when the Goodale 
 sisters, and " Sky Farm," their mountain 
 home, came into prominence in the literary 
 world. These then little girls, Elaine 
 and Dora, brought out a volume of 
 "Apple Blossoms," and afterwards 
 " Among the Wild Flowers of Berkshire," 
 which attracted much attention. The 
 books were the collection of simple 
 poems from their pens told in a beautiful 
 
 ner of it was 
 c&t off and 
 known as Bos- 
 ton Corners. at wo»'e 
 Here was the 
 
 scene of a prize fight years ago, because it was almost on 
 neutral ground. The pugilists were taken to Lenox, for 
 Massachusetts found a way to put her hand on them, and 
 paid fines in large sums for their encounter. Ex-Senator 
 Dawes was then district attorney, and tells of his interview 
 with Morrisey. He next met Morrisey when both were in 
 Congress, after the Morrisey and Heenan fight, I believe. 
 Bear Rock is a great attraction. Mount Everett can be 
 easily reached on foot from the town. One of the pastimes 
 in summer of some of the sporting fraternity of Mount Wash- 
 ington is to catch rattle-snakes along the mountain side 
 where they have dens, and the oil is sold as a remedy for 
 deafness 
 
 A STUDY IN BLACK AND WHITE 
 
 NEAR THE "WOODLAWs" 
 
 UETHODIST CHURCH, BABT5VILLE 
 
 A GLIUFSE OF SOUTHFIELD 
 
82 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 AT MILL RIVER 
 
 the cut of " Sky Farm as it Was," as used 
 in the book " Apple Blossoms. " A party 
 of New York gentlemen a few years ago 
 bought the territory, have laid it out info 
 smaller tracts and it is planned to erect 
 cottages for their occupancy in summer, 
 with a deer park and other attractions of 
 that sort. 
 
 As said before, few towns in Berkshire 
 afford such attractions in natural beauty 
 as Mount Washington. Its elevation, its 
 isolation, its healthfulness, its abundance 
 of streams fed by "living springs," its 
 wealth of views from many a look-off, all 
 combine to make Mount Washington 
 decidedly unique and in one sense famous. 
 
 Alford 
 
 Alford, in some respects, is lik,e a few 
 of the other towns in Berkshire county, 
 
 way and made a decided innovation. Since 
 then their pens have been prominent. The 
 home life of the Goodales has been very pecu- 
 liar.] Both the father and mother were literary 
 people;. at supper, for some years, it had been 
 the custom of the family to have read from the 
 "Sky Farm Daily," I believe they called it, 
 something which had been written that day. 
 So in this atmosphere and from such a parent- 
 age these ghrls (now to womanhood grown) 
 could not help thriving and finally budding out 
 and blossoming into the very life they embarked 
 in, At eleven the girls were fine Greek scholars, 
 for their mother taught them. An ideal family 
 was that of Mr. Goodale's " Sky Farm home." 
 The family have since gone from Mount Wash- 
 ington ; " Sky Farm " is now a summer resort 
 under another name. We are indebted to 
 Messrs. G. P. Putnam & Son, publishers, for 
 
 MILL HIVKE CIl.^Tn 
 
 PLATJIATKS 
 
 SOUTHFIELD SCHOOL-HOUSE 
 
 , S^»?', 
 
 OLD HOUSE AT MILL BIVER 
 
 NEAR POST-OFFICE, SOUTHFIELD 
 
 UMPACHENE FALLS 
 
 OLD BOARDING-HOUSE 
 
 in that it was never a manufacturing center, but from 
 its earliest history has been purely agricultural. By 
 the terra manufacturing is meant such industries as have 
 been incident to many of the other Berkshire towns, 
 like Pittsfield, Great Harrington, Dalton, Hinsdale, 
 the Adamses and some others. It has, however, 
 valuable deposits of marble aiid some nice specimens 
 
 MILL RlVKlt POST-OFFICE 
 
 of iron ore, notably in that section 
 of the town adjoining West Stock- 
 bridge. It is said that some very 
 fine specimens of hematite exist in 
 Alford. A quiet, peaceful town- 
 ship is Alford, and in several re- 
 spects quite romantic. It is a 
 narrow valley, upon each side of 
 which are the mountain ranges. 
 To the east is the range separating 
 it from the Housatonic vallfy, 
 while on the west are the rugged 
 Taconics. Its principal mountain 
 is Tom Ball; from whose summit a' 
 gorgeous view is obtained. Its 
 
 HOTEL AT MILL RIVER 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 -1 tent. At these quarries is a r 
 very interesting bit of natural 
 scenery, Icnown as the '' Fry- 
 ing Pan Spring." The little 
 stream coming down through 
 the woods, all at once loses 
 itself in a circular hole in the 
 marble, and goes gurgling 
 
 83 
 
 «**.-IS.. 
 
 Tn£ SHADED STREAK 
 
 THE OLDEST 
 
 Streams are fed by living streams from the mountain side, and are clear and 
 sparkling. Green river, made famous by Bryant, has its source among the 
 highlands in the southwest part of the town. ' 
 
 On each side of the valley, as it were, the highways leading from West Stockbridge 
 center down through a farming section, with the meadows stretching on to the brook running 
 the entire length of the town. On the northeas* side is a handsome drive from West Stock- 
 bridge center to Alford. A little way from the roadside are the famous marble quarries, 
 formerly owned by Mr. Fitch, and the stone taken from them was used in the construction of 
 the old city hall in New York, and even now retains its color and its hardness to a great ex- 
 
 TOWM HALL, MILL UIVER 
 
 down many feet, with a peculiar hissing sound incident to 
 a frying pan. Nearly a mile farther west it emerges from 
 the mountain-side. On the west side are also a number 
 ;0f other romantic glens in the mountain- range which 
 divides Alford from the town of Austerlitz in New York 
 (Continued on page 86) 
 
 ALKXANDEIt DAJI A^D JIILL 
 
 r 
 
 6f f"'V -4 
 
 SISSON'S MILL — hill RIVER 
 
 .,^. 
 
 ^ - 
 
 NEAR THE CUEAMERT, MILL RIVER 
 
 THE PINE BOAD 
 
 MILL RIVER CREAMERY 
 
 BELOW SISSON's DAU 
 
84 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 Eiijsi^S:; 
 
 ON THE SOAD TO CAMPBBLL S FALLS 
 
 GIBSON'S GROVE, HEW MARLBORO 
 
 CURIOUS EPITAPHS 
 
 The following inscriptions are taken from monuments in 
 the cemetery in Sheffield: — 
 
 Sacred to the memory of Jonathan Hubbard and Mrs. R. Rachel 
 Hubbard, his consort, this monument is erected. The Rev. J.Hubbard 
 was the first pastor of the church in Sheffield. He was blessed with a 
 lively genius and solid judgment. His public discourses were judicious 
 
 and his conversation 
 I instructive. He de- 
 
 parted this life July 
 6th, 1765, in the 62nd 
 year of his age.— Our 
 Fathers, where are 
 they ? and do the 
 Prophets live forever ? 
 
 Beneath this stone 
 lies the body of the 
 Rev. John Keep, A. 
 M., pastor of the 
 church in Sheffield.who 
 died September 3d, A. 
 D. 17S4, /Etat 36, et 
 ministeri 13, calmly 
 resigning his mortal 
 life in hope of a blessed 
 jmmortaUty thro' the 
 atonement of Jesus 
 Christ. He was blessed 
 with natural genius 
 improved by educa- 
 tion and a benevolent 
 heart, and was illustri- 
 ous as a Divine, a 
 
 'DOLCE FAR NIBNTE " AT LAKE BLEL 
 
 X RAVINE NEAR CAMPBELL S FALL** 
 
 CAMPBELL.^ FALLS, IJEW MARLBORO 
 
 in Sheffield, having been pre- 
 viously the pastor of the church 
 ip Norwich, and also in Taun- 
 ton. Mr. Judson was esteemed 
 as a learned divine, an acute 
 logician, and an evangelical 
 preacher He was mild, cour- 
 teous, and hospitable. By his 
 nunjerous friends he was 
 deemed a wise counsellor, an 
 active peace-maker & a sincere 
 ■Christian. What he was in 
 Truth the Great Day will 
 disclose. 
 
 Here lies the body of Ma jor 
 General John .Ashley, who died 
 November 5, 1799, inthe 64th 
 year of his age. ; 
 
 Make the extende.d skies your 
 
 tomb, 
 Let stars record yjjur worth; 
 Yet know vain mortals all 
 
 must die. 
 As nature's sickliest birth. 
 
 This^monument is erected 
 to perpetuate the memory of 
 Col. John Ashley, who depart- 
 ed this life Sept. ist, iio2, in 
 the 93d year of his age. 
 Virtue alone has majesty in 
 
 death. 
 And triumphs most when 
 
 most the tyrant frowns ; 
 Earth highest station ends in 
 
 Here he lies 
 And dust to dust concludes her 
 
 noblest song. 
 
 Who lives to Nature rarely 
 
 can be poor ; 
 Who lives to fancy never can 
 
 be rich. 
 
 TURNER S LANDING, LAKE BUEL 
 
 Preacher, a Friend and a 
 
 Christian. 
 
 When suns and planets 
 from their orbs be 
 hurl'd 
 
 And hvid flames involve 
 this smoking world ; 
 
 The Trump of God an- 
 nounce the Savior nigh 
 
 .\nd shining hosts of 
 angels crowd the sky. 
 
 Then from this tomb thy 
 dust shall they convey 
 
 To happier regions of eter- 
 nal day. 
 
 Sacred to the memory of 
 the Rev. Ephraim Judson, 
 Pastor of the church in 
 Sheffield. He died on the 
 23d of February, A. D. 
 1813, in the 76th year of his 
 age, and 23d of his ministry 
 
 V[l.A\ .,).\ LAKE HUKL, NEW MARLBORO 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 85 
 
 fir T 
 
 VIEW OF THE STREET IN SHEFFIELD 
 
 ON THE MAIN 6TKEET, SHEFFIELD 
 
 A WINTER MEW, SHEFFIELD 
 
 The repose and beauty of the scenery of Berkshire, its stimulating 
 climate, its ease of access and its quiet, render it a favorable residence for 
 literary persons, and we suggest to them that, if they desire to write theij 
 novels and poems and histories in the briefest possible time, and with the 
 least fatigue, they 
 should come hither. 
 — Rev. T. T. Mun- 
 ger. 
 
 O^VILLE DEWEY 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
 
 OLD STONES IN THE CEMETEJIT 
 
 THE TWO VILLAGES 
 
 T. DAVID'S — HOME OF THE LATE ORVILLE DEWET 
 
 Over the river, on the hill, 
 Lieth a village, white and still ; 
 All around it the forest trees 
 Shiver and whisper in the breeze. 
 Over it sailing shadows go 
 Of soaring hawk and screaming crow, 
 And mountain grasses, low and sweet; 
 Grow in the middle of every street. 
 
 Over the river, under the hill, 
 Another village lieth still; 
 There I see in tlie cloudy night ~\ 
 
 Twinkling stars of household light, 
 Fires that gleam from the smithy's door, 
 Mists that curl on the river shore ; 
 And in the roads no grasses grow. 
 For the wheels thathasten to and fro. 
 
 In that village on the hill 
 
 Never is sound of smithy or mill ; 
 
 The houses are thatched with grass and flowers ; 
 
 Never a clock to tell the hours ; 
 
 The marble doors are always shut, 
 
 You cannot enter in hall or hut ; 
 
 All the villagers lie asleep ; 
 
 Never a grain to sow or reap ; 
 
 Never in dreams to moan or sigh ; 
 
 Silent and idle and low they lie. 
 
 In that village under the hill, 
 When the night is starry and still, 
 Many a weary soul iii prayi-r 
 Ldteks to tlie other village there. 
 And weeping and sighing, longiS to go 
 Up to that home from this below ; 
 Longs to sleep in the forest wild, 
 Whither have vanished wife and child, 
 And heareth, praying, his answer fall : 
 " Patience ! that village shall hold ye all " 
 
 Rose 'Terry Cooke. 
 
86 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 ^^■ 
 
 West Stockbridge 
 This town is on the western border of Berkshire, and from its western 
 portal one can easily step over the line and be in " York state," which, it is said, 
 was quite haijdy years ago, when jailing for debt and other misdemeanor made 
 the departure of the victim rather necessary, and sometimes the more hurriedly 
 the better. But all that is long since past and gone. It.was originally a part of 
 the town of ptockbridge, and before its division was known as Queensboro, 
 and was a part of the domain of the Stockbridge Indians. The high Stock- 
 
 AUTUMN ON THE MAIN STREET, SHEFFIELD 
 
 THE RIDE ABOUT THE COUNTY 
 
 Monterey, Mount Washington, Alford, West .Stockbridge, Richmond and Egremont 
 
 'i (Continued from pdge 83) 
 state. The little village of Alford itself is s|mply a hamlet. The one church in Alford, and 
 which our artist gives a picture of, is a union affair, supported jointly by the Congregationalists 
 and the Methodists. During the time of the Shays rebellion, this little parish suffered con- 
 
 THE WILLOWS THAT SAVED THE ROAD 
 
 siderably, and the pastor, Rev. Joseph Avery, was dismissed 
 because of his sympathy for the rebellion. There is much 
 of interest in Alford. It is a quiet little village, but there 
 are yet quite a number of the sons of the old 'families. Here 
 came early the Deweys, of whom Jud^e Justin Dewey of the 
 
 METHODIST CBDRCH, SHEFFIELD 
 
 bridge mountain on its eastern border 
 divides it from the mother town, and 
 some have wondered why Stockbridge 
 and West Stockbridge should be almost 
 synonymous terms and why West Stock- 
 bridge wasn't given another name. 
 
 The surface of the town is full of 
 charming scenery, broken into hills that 
 vary from 500 to 900 feet above Williams 
 river, which is the principal stream and 
 which flows through the valley, one of the 
 most charming and lovely in Berkshire. 
 The entire length of Williams river from 
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH 
 
 THE HOTEL AT SHEFFIELD 
 
 THE BRIDGE ROAD 
 
 Massachusetts superior court is a descendant, and we 
 believe was born in Alford. In this town are the 
 Tobeys, the Williamses, Beebes and the Stoddafds ; 
 this latter family trace their ancestry back to 1060, 
 and the first of the family emigrated to Boston in 
 1639. Here are the Barnums and Tuttles. Only re- 
 cently there died in Alford Ezra C. Ticknor, nearly 
 ninety years of age, who was one of the oldest living 
 members of the state legislature and. was one of the 
 early promoters of the Boston & Albany railroad. 
 The Ticknors are an old family in Alfbrd and settled 
 there in 1764. * 
 
 In other days Alford was mpre important as a township than now. It is suffering the decay incident 
 to many other towns away from railway, although it is a beautiful six-miles' drive down the Seekonk 
 creek to Great Barrington. The town abounds in many handsome views, ?nd is gradually coming to be 
 a resting place in summer for a good many city people. 
 
 State Line to VanDeusenville along 
 through Rockdale is a succession of cas- 
 cades and is hemmed in'by the high walls 
 of the mountain-side. The town of West 
 Stockbridge, as also the southern part 
 of Richmond, has been known for "a long 
 time in respect to its minerals. Geologi- 
 cally its rocks are largely of limestone 
 formation, and this industry has been a 
 source of much wealth to Stockbridge 
 during all its history. Its marble is of an 
 especially fine texture, and as early as 
 17.90, building marble was taken from its 
 quarries. Much of the marble used in the State House in 
 Boston, the old City hall in New York, Girard college in 
 
 THE CURTIS MILL 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 87 
 
 THE SHEFFIELD ELM 
 
 scnooL-noiisK and ford at 
 
 Philadelphia came from this town. 
 In fact, much Berkshire marble is 
 found in most of the public build- 
 ings in many of the large cities. 
 
 Iron ore, too, of the finest quality 
 and of three distinct kinds, has 
 also given West Stockbridge a 
 good place in the iron-producing 
 world. It is said that ore taken 
 from these mines in this town makes 
 the finest car wheels of that of 
 any m the country. Deacon 
 Nathan Leet, in 1826, opened the 
 first mine upon his farm and it, with 
 the Hudson, Cone and other beds, 
 have made West Stockbridge 
 famous in that direction. For 
 many years flie old Pomeroy iron 
 furnace was very famous. 
 
 The first railroad in Berkshire 
 county, as we understand, was that 
 from West Stockbridge to State 
 Li ne and then to Albany. Pittsfield 
 found it convenient to ride by team 
 or stage to West Stockbridge and 
 from there go by railroad to Hud- 
 son river. The road was of the 
 primitive class, of wooden sleepers, 
 covered with strips of iron upon 
 which the little locomotives and 
 
 The drives and walks, with the village of West Stockbridge as 
 a center, are charming in every direction. This whether one goes 
 over the hill to " Old Stockbridge " or around the hill to Glendale 
 and Williamsville. There are charming views in all directions 
 from that side of the town. The drive down the river is very 
 ' pleasant. On the hill at West 
 
 Stockbridge, where was organized 
 the first church in town in 1789, is 
 also a delightful section of country. 
 The drive northward toward Rich- 
 mond, past the iron mines, many of 
 which latter are now being deserted, 
 is also a very pleasant outing. 
 The village is not as active as it 
 used to be a few years ago, since 
 its iron and lime industries have 
 been considerably crippled, but yet 
 there is much of village pride. Its 
 churches are neatly kept and in 
 good repair, indicative of the good 
 sentiment which pervades that com- 
 munity. One Berkshire man has 
 said that a community which keeps 
 its school-houses, its churches and 
 its sidewalks in repair, needs no 
 better voucher of its citizenship to 
 commend itself to the stranger or 
 its neighboring townsmen. The 
 town has of late begun to offer 
 some inducement for city people to 
 come among her people, and there 
 are many handsome slopes and 
 desirable sites for building pur- 
 poses, or for city homes and country 
 seats which in a few years, it is 
 '""""'^ thought, will be taken up by this 
 
 desirable class of visitors. 
 Richmond ; 
 
 Richmond is also famous in a geological sense, for here were discpvered by one of 
 her own sons. Dr. Stephen Reed, (a geologist of much reputation and one of the early 
 
 .'It 
 
 PINE KNOLL, SHEFFIELD 
 
 cars ran. The history of West Stockbridge is as interesting as many of the 
 other towns in Berkshire, from the time of its earliest settlement by Joseph 
 Bryant, who settled in the town in 1766. The town was incorporated in 1774, 
 and during the Revolution the settlement was loyal as much as was its mother 
 town Stockbridge, over the mountain. Many of the old families have de- 
 scendants in West Stockbridge yet. It would be loss of time to go through 
 all the various changes which have occurred in this old town, but such 
 names as appear in its history from time to time are a credit and are looked 
 back to with pride by the residents. 
 
88 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 RETURKIKG HOME 
 
 lecturers on tem- 
 perance from a 
 physical stand- 
 point) the fa- 
 mous " Rich- 
 mond Boulder 
 Trains." These 
 rocks are well 
 defined as to 
 course across 
 the town and 
 are of chlorist 
 schist. They ex- 
 tend across the 
 town from Try's 
 hill in Columbia 
 county, N. Y., 
 to the Richmond 
 line on the east, 
 the trail being 
 about three 
 miles wide on 
 
 STOPPIKG TO MAKE REPAIRS 
 
 OX THE ROATl FROM SHEFFIELD, SOUTH TO THE STATE LINE 
 
 A LOAD OP APPLES 
 
 Island, or about Norwalk and that 
 part of Connecticut. They were 
 grand people who came and have left 
 their impress even yet Here came 
 the Piersons, Parmlees, Rowleys, 
 Gates and others equally prominent. 
 The Pierson family of Pittsfield 
 sprang from this early stock. The 
 Rowleys were also prominent edu- 
 cators, President Rowley of De 
 Pauw college being a native of 
 Richmond. The Perrys came from 
 Richmond, the late George Perry, 
 one of the editors of \}a^ Home Jour- 
 nal, being a descendant of the first 
 clergyman of Richmond; they are 
 a literary family. The Cooks^Ros- 
 siters, Dorrs, Gastons, Nicholses, 
 Williamses, Grofifings and others 
 have all left descendants to honor 
 them and preserve the honor of 
 
 the west of Richmond arid two miles nearer Lenox 
 and Pittsfield. Somfe stones weigh many tons, 
 others are mere pebbles, but they were all un- 
 questionably dropped by floating ice during the 
 
 LANDSCAPE 
 
 glacial period, and the 
 " Trains " mark the course 
 of the current. They are 
 wonderful, and their discov- 
 ery and identification in 
 1842, made Dr. Reed famous 
 and Richmond known as 
 never before to the scientific 
 world. 
 
 Richmond's settlement 
 dates back to 1760 and in 
 1765 the first town meeting 
 was held; the early records 
 are yet well preserved. Her 
 history after the separation 
 from Lenox, as a town (and 
 which latter township lies 
 over the rugged mountains) 
 has been eventful. Her set- 
 tlers came largely from Long 
 
 PRESSING THE APPLES FOE CIDER 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 8q 
 
 GLIMPSE OF THE HOUSATOMIC AT SIIEFFI 
 
 Richmond. Lawyers and physicians, clergymen, 
 missionaries and editors of note, as also literary 
 people, both men and women, have traced their 
 ancestry to Richmond from among the early 
 settlers. It is a good old town yet, although 
 declining. For many years, Dr. Reid kept a 
 boys' school on the hill near the old church, that 
 turned out many graduates who have since be- 
 come famous, and the institution had a national 
 reputation. This glory has departed long ago, 
 but its influence yet lives. 
 
 Some one in writing of this old town, said 
 that Nature was evidently in one of her happiest 
 moods when she created Richmond, for she has 
 left her trace in a marked manner, and none 
 more so than in the depression wherein the 
 valleys lie, and within a short distance the 
 rugged mountain sides. Richmond is one of ,' 
 the Berkshire towns with many marked pecu- . 
 liarities both as to scenery, mountain, hill and 
 dale, peaceful valley and fertile field. Her 
 mineral wealth is also abundant and contributed 
 not a little to her reputation and the thrift of 
 her people. The iron mines in Richmond are 
 extensive and its ore is known wherever iron 
 is converted into car wheels, or cannon are 
 made and used. 
 
 The air here is bracing and pure. It is a 
 peaceful old town ; the village is hardly such, 
 excepting as the railway station, the store near 
 by and the long street peopled with good far- 
 mers constitute a village. At the Furnace there 
 is quite a settlement, largely of those employed 
 in the mines, the iron works, or superintendents. 
 In Richmond are numerous sources of streams. 
 Here rises the Williams river, which flows south 
 through West Stockbridge; others flow into 
 Richmond reservoir, partly in Pittsfield and 
 thence to the Housatonic. There are also others, 
 and these peaceful brooks through meadow and 
 field are tempting to the trout fisherman. 
 
 In Richmond is Perry's Peak, famous as one 
 of the best look-ofEs in Berkshire. Its summit 
 is bald and nothing obstructs the view. It is 
 
 accessible by team nearly to the summit, and from the top the view is simply 
 grand. Far away are the Catskills, while the Shawangunks rise like a cloud 
 line against the sky. South to the Dome, over the smaller hills in Alford, is 
 another handsome stretch of territory. North is Greylock, while to the west 
 the Green mountains, with the valley below and Pittsfield in the distance, make 
 it altogether one of the best views in the country. Lake Queechy, just over the 
 New York line in Canaan, is at your feet ; the Shaker settlements at Canaan and 
 New Lebanon are also nestled just at the foot of the hills. The beauty of 
 Perry's Peak, as one writer says, is the coup (Tceil which it affords in 
 all directions. 
 
 From Richmond came the Dwights. The elder Dwight for eighteen years 
 was the pastor of the old church, when it was one of the large parishes of the 
 county. Henry W. Dwight, the head of the American express system in New 
 England, was a son. In 1882, the old Congregational church burned, having 
 been the town's place of worship since 1795. Judge Dwight of Auburn came, 
 with his family, to assist at laying the corner stone of the present tasty cottage 
 church, and was called on to make a few remarks. It was a still afternoon in 
 May ; the sun was just going towards the west, and the audience of perhaps 300 
 were either standing around or sitting in their wagons. Without preparation, 
 standing on the corner stone, his head uncovered, he spoke for fifteen min- 
 utes as one inspired. The picture he drew of his father as he came Sunday 
 —.« -~ after Sunday ministering to the 
 
 people from 1819 ; of his sainted 
 mother, of the other fathers and 
 mothers of the town, was a 
 memory those who heard it 
 never forgot. To him and 
 others it was nearly holy ground. 
 For more than a century, this 
 same church had only five settled 
 pastors, and this for a period 
 of 120 years. Rev. Job Swift 
 was the first in 1769 ; then came 
 Rev. Mr. Perry, then Rev. Edwin 
 Dwight and so on through the 
 others. In Richmond are many 
 specimens of art. The late 
 Miss Catherine Pierson, whose 
 handsome home was known all 
 over that section, was a lover of 
 art, and, despite her eccentrici- 
 ties, made many people happier 
 by her going through the world. 
 She it was who encouraged 
 the young artist, Bridgman — a 
 Berkshire boy — furnished him 
 with means to go abroad for 
 study, and one of his best and 
 among his first paintings went 
 to his benefactress. Miss Pier- 
 son died a few years ago, leav- 
 ing a large estate, having in- 
 ' herited the ancestral acres and 
 the home of her birth and 
 where her eighty years and 
 more of life were passed. In 
 Richmond, a farmer demon- 
 strated a few years ago that 
 small fruits could be raised for 
 profit, and his example is being 
 imitated and making many of 
 his fellow farmers thrifty and 
 independent. Berkshire's first 
 fish culture was in Richmond. 
 Richmond is a good agricultural 
 
 THK MEETING 
 
 THK QUIET STREAM 
 
 " BOW WOW 
 
go 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 
 POST OFFICE, ASHLEY FALIS 
 
 METHODIST CHUKCH AT ASHLEY FALLS 
 
 and South parishes. The South village is an ideal, with its 
 shaded streets, its cottage homes, its single church spire on the 
 slight elevation of landj pointing heavenward. It lies nestled at 
 the very foot almost of the Dome and the mountain ridge of the 
 Taconics, on the summit of which is Mount Washington. The 
 charm of South Egremont lies in the fact that it is within easy- 
 distance of Great Harrington, over one of the best of highways, 
 or to Hillsdale over the mountain ; and yet no locomotive whistle 
 or much manufacturing disturbs its stillness and .repose. The 
 drives in the vicinity are also its capital as a siimmer resort. 
 They are numberless. Here is the Mount Everett hpuse, so named 
 from the Dome, and here Landlord Peck has in his family some 
 of the best of guests. It isn't a fashionable resort by any means ; 
 but men and their families come from the city ; to the Mount 
 Everett and the cottages in the village, for the genuine comfort 
 and restfulness of the village and its attractions, l^obert Carter, 
 
 the well-known 
 publisher of re- 
 ligious and Sun- 
 day - sch o ol 
 works for years, 
 made this his 
 summer home 
 during his life. 
 How he did op- 
 pose, with his 
 strict Sabbata- 
 rian notions, the 
 HAiLWAY STATION innovation of 
 
 ASriLI'Y PALIS 
 
 town and lately is becoming quite 
 popular as a summer resort ; especially 
 by those who purchase places and 
 build summer residences there. 
 
 E. F. o. 
 Egremont 
 
 Egremont wouldn't be a Berkshire 
 town if it were not unlike any other; 
 and yet is in many respects akin to the 
 rest of the Berkshire family. The 
 town is one of the thriftiest, agricul- 
 turally, in the county; in fact, Egre- 
 mont Plain is proverbial for her well- 
 to-do farmers and many of them re- 
 side on the ancestral acres. There are 
 two villages in Egremont, the North 
 
 THB SUSIKESS CENTER, ASHLEY FALLS 
 
 ir THE BED BBIDSE 
 
 Sunday trains on the Housatonic a few 
 years ago! 
 
 One of the ancient homesteads of the 
 town is that known as the Isaac TuUar 
 house, which stands near the brook and 
 near the old TuUar burial ground. He was 
 a wagoner during the French and Indian 
 war, and made some money, with which he 
 came from Tuxbridge, Ct., and bought a 
 tract of land, (now in Egremont,) 1735, and 
 then a part of Sheffield. The brick were 
 made on his own land and here he built the 
 old house which has stood since 1761. His 
 wife was Anna and the heart on the house 
 
 THE noTKL POBCH 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 91 
 
 A GLIMPSE THROUGH THE NOTCH 
 
 the section is the coun- 
 try trading place of 
 well-to-do farmers for 
 a considerable dis- 
 tance. The road to 
 Tfjllsdale is romantic, 
 leading over the moun- 
 tain. At the summit is 
 the famous " Echoes." 
 A shout gives back at 
 least three distinct 
 echoes. The places 
 are all within a few 
 rods of each other 
 and quite a natural 
 curiosity. White's hill, 
 near there, is just over 
 
 ON THE ItOAD TO COFAKE 
 
 was to signify their happy union. 
 The property is yet in the TuUar 
 family ; the old pioneer having died 
 in 1797 at the ripe old age of eighty- 
 five. 
 
 In one portion of the town, lying on 
 the road to Mount Washington, is 
 Guilder Hollow. John Van Guilder 
 was a real Konkapot Indian ; but liv- 
 ing in the family of a Dutch farmer 
 in New York state, he took his foster- 
 father's name and the locality was then 
 known, as now, as Guilder Hollow. 
 It is now deserted. He married the 
 daughter of a white settler named 
 Karner and settled in Egremont; he 
 was a part of the famous Stockbridge 
 Indian tribe. Their half-breed de- 
 scendants were for many years numer- 
 ous in Egremont, but another portion 
 of the tribe went to Granville, N. Y., 
 to another place named Guilder Hol- 
 low and there remain the descendants, 
 are now in Egremont. 
 
 Egremont as a town dates her history from 1760. The town was named 
 for Lord Egremont, according to some traditions ; butit is generally believed 
 to be named for the '' agreetnent" made with Great Harrington and Sheffield 
 as to boundary lines. The town is rich in minerals, especially in marble, 
 and the late Chester Goodale, the grandfather of the celebrated Goodale 
 sisters the poets, for many years did a large business in that industry ard 
 laid the foundation to quite a fortune. 
 
 The town has sent out her share of noble men and women to the pro- 
 fessions and to help the world. Grosvenor P. Lowrey is one of the promi- 
 nent members of the New York bar. Andrew Reasoner became a famous 
 
 COPAEG STATION 
 
 None of the Indian descendants 
 
 AN OLD KicIENl> 
 
 railroad manager. The old families are good stock and are loyal, industri- 
 ous and maintain the reputation of the old town. Here came early the Win. 
 chells, Lowreys, Karners, Dalzells, Klines, Races, Rowleys, Baldwins and 
 many others. 
 
 To North Egremont village is an easy, three-mile drive. This, too, is an 
 ideal country village on the main road from Austerlitz, over in Columbia 
 county, to Great Barrington, and from the latter village to Hillsdale. Here 
 is the valley of the famous Green river, which flows placidly and peacefully 
 on its way to the Housatonic. North Egremont, too, has its little church and 
 
 MOUNT WASHINGTON CHUAOH 
 
 the New York line and is one of the 
 grandest views in all the Taconic range. 
 In all that makes for the comfort of 
 the farmer, the social and educational 
 advantages of a community of that 
 character, Egremont is highly favored. 
 A flourishing academy once existed in 
 South Egremont; but the progress of 
 events and its distance from railway 
 finally led to its abandonment and the 
 town has its high school there. Mr. 
 Greenwood's famous horse and stock 
 farm is just over the Great Barrington 
 line, but so near South Egremont that 
 it properly belongs to the latter town. 
 Judge Rowley lives on the old farm 
 and is one of the best-known agricul- 
 turists in Berkshire ; interested in her 
 f airs,.her improvement among farmers 
 and yet a very level-headed magistrate, 
 one of the associates of the Great 
 Barrington court living in the county. 
 Yes, a grand good old township, .and 
 citizenship is Egremont ! 
 
 Country and City Life Con- 
 trasted. — It is no advantage to'live 
 in a great city, where poverty degrades 
 and failure brings despair. The fields 
 are lovelier than paved streets, and 
 the great forests than walls of brick. 
 Oaks and elms are more poetic than 
 steeples and chimneys. In the cpun- 
 try is the idea of home. There you 
 see the rising and setting sun ; you 
 become acquainted with the stars 'and 
 clouds. The constellations are your 
 friends. You hear the rain on the 
 roof and listen to the rhythmic sigh- 
 ing of the winds. You are thrilled by 
 the resurrection called spring, touched 
 and saddened by autumn, the grace 
 and poetry of death. Every field is a 
 picture, a landscape ; every landscape 
 a poem ; every flower a tender thought, 
 and every forest a 
 
 ^ 
 
 fairyland. Injthe 
 country you pre- 
 serve your iden- 
 tity, your person- 
 ality. There you 
 are an aggrega- 
 tion of atoms, 
 but in the city 
 you are only an 
 atom of an aggre- 
 gation. — Robert 
 G. Ingersoll. 
 
 I HE "DtHlE* ON A U V/1 DAI 
 
 In contemplation of 
 created things 
 
 By steps we may as 
 cend to God. 
 
 Milton. 
 
92 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 SET FARM COTTAGE AS IT 
 
 SOME SOUTHERN BERKSHIRE NOTA- 
 BILITIES 
 
 " Thanatopsis," were quarried from a 
 mine of unequaled literary wealtli, and 
 where the family name is still loyally 
 honored and cherished. 
 
 The icroll moves on. We see Fanny 
 Kemble Butler, but recently passed from 
 earth, as she was in the full vigor of her 
 noted capabilities and capacities as an 
 actress, a public reader, a poet, and an 
 ardent admirer of nature, untrammeled 
 by the popular chains of social conven- 
 tionalities, as when reading in her marvel- 
 ous tones of voice " Midsummer Night's 
 Dream," to a packed and delighted au- 
 dience in the old Berkshire county court- 
 house, now Sedgwick hall, in Lenox; 
 again accomplishing wonderful feats as 
 an equestrienne along the highways, and 
 even across fields and fences of Southern 
 Berkshire, once reaching the top of 
 Monument mountain on a snow-white 
 
 ELAINE GOODALE 
 
 (as a Child) 
 
 THE LONGING HOUR 
 
 A panorama of choice bits 
 
 "Picturesque," the first word appearing on the 
 title-page of this book, was never more appropriately 
 used than when prefixed to that of " Berkshire," one 
 of the most picturesque regions of country " held in 
 the Hollow of His Hand." The designation, " Pic- 
 turesque Berkshire," is, therefore, fully entitled to all 
 that the combined phrase implies. Berkshire has 
 easily won, and modestly wears, the descriptive des- 
 ignation of " Picturesque," and presents its claims 
 to this appellation pleasingly and acceptably to the 
 world at large, or, at least, to so much of its people 
 as have ever looked upon the scenic beauties which 
 nature here spreads abroad with such fair and 
 lavish hands. But while holding its natural charms 
 — nay, it may be said while growing more and more 
 beautiful from year to year and from day to day, 
 even the changes that have occurred in its person- 
 nel — in the rise and fall of gerierations that have 
 come and gone, in turn, one who has roamed within 
 sight of the Dome of the Taghkanics frequently, 
 for nearly a half-century, looks upon the gathering 
 cycle of Time here represented, as upon a panorama, 
 of scenic beauty, charmingly combined with many celebrated Instances of personal 
 character of strong individuality and important circumstance connected with 
 Southern Berkshire life. These recall by the deft handiwork of the camera, the 
 palette, the graver and the press, tender memories, all grouped in one amphithsetre 
 of art in illustrated print, at once welcome and entertaining reminders in pictured 
 
 display of some who still remain, and of 
 
 many others who have been prominent 
 
 ' factors in the growth and progress of 
 
 Berkshire, but who have now passed on 
 from their labors on earth, and "whose 
 works do follow them" in pleasant and 
 kindly remembrance. 
 
 After a hurried examination of the 
 photographs and sketches of subjects for 
 illustrating Picturesque Berkshire, 
 the half-closed doors of memory's halls 
 swing wide open, affording a welcome op- 
 portunity for looking within. At first a 
 confused view can only see " men as trees 
 walking," but closer/ inspection brings to 
 sight those who could only be brought 
 prominently forth by means of forging 
 anew the links of memory's chains that 
 bind the past to the present. 
 
 Prominently pictured on the unfolding 
 scroll of the panorama, on seats of liter- 
 ary eminence, we see the poet Bryant 
 crowned with well-earned laurels from the 
 growth of both our national fields, and from the fields of the world, as well, not as 
 pictured in paintings and sketches of his later years, but rather as when beginning 
 to turn the leaves of the book of life he vowed to " love, honor and obey " the com- 
 panion of both his early and later years, on the site where now stands the Berkshire 
 Inn in Great Barrington, the building in which the vows of love and constancy 
 were exchanged, being still kept in a good state of preservation, as an annex to 
 the Inn, near where his masterpieces, "Monument Mountain," "Green River"and 
 
 «J^J*iri 
 
 SKY FAKM COTTAGE AS IT WAS 
 
 Old Berkshire — her name makes the gentle 
 
 tear drops start — 
 Fond nurse of my childhood, dear home of my 
 
 heart ! 
 No scene so familiar, no landscape so kind 
 As to blur that first picture graved deep on the 
 
 mind. 
 When fancy ran wild with her riotous brood, 
 And mystery lurked in the unexplored wood, 
 When the rill gushed a torrent, the rock towered 
 
 so high, 
 And the child world was bounded by mountain 
 
 and sky ! 
 
 Youth leaves us — Work beckons — reluctance is 
 vain, 
 
 And the child of the hill-top descends to the plain, 
 
 Yet, no matter how sweetly life's voices are 
 blent. 
 
 There are moments that stir with a vague dis- 
 content ; 
 
 There are rare, lonely hours when he hears in 
 his dreams 
 
 Her breeze-burdened pines and her free flowing 
 streams ; 
 
 When a blessed mirage in the distance he sees — 
 
 Her fair sloping meadows, her many-armed trees ! 
 
 Then, Beautiful Berkshire, whatever his lot, 
 Its hopes, and its cares, and its joys are forgot, 
 And the pilgrim, the exile, whoever he be. 
 Turns fondly once more to his childhood and 
 thee! 
 
 Elaine Goodale Eastman. 
 
 DORA GOODALE 
 
 (as a child) 
 
 charger, where it was risky even for 
 the foot of man to venture. 
 
 Another turn of the scroll, and we 
 see, as if in a faded daguerreotype, the 
 mild, sweet face of Catherine Sedg- 
 wick of Stockbridge, whose " Hope 
 Leslie," " Married and Single " and 
 
 other (iomestic tales, which were household words indeed when authors were few 
 and books were scarce, as compared with the present day, when " of making books 
 there- is no end;" followed closely by Mrs. Charles Sedgwick of Lenox, whose 
 school for young ladies was one of the leading institutions of learning of her time, 
 and who also 
 ranked only a 
 , little lower than 
 the gifted wife 
 of her brother 
 in the scale of 
 literary acquire- 
 ment and ex- 
 cellence. 
 
 Th e open 
 face of Nathan- 
 iel Hawthorne 
 meets our gaze 
 with the same 
 grace of per- 
 sonality and 
 modesty of 
 bearing that 
 was his wont 
 when he penned 
 a portion of his 
 famous " Scar- 
 let Letter," in a 
 little cottage 
 near the bor- oj,k of the koohs showk stkakqers 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 93 
 
 THE OLD SMITH PLACE, MOUNT WASHINGTON 
 
 But the scroll unfolds 
 rapidly, and space for de- 
 scription narrows sensi- 
 bly. We can only look 
 hastily at Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, with the admi- 
 rable bill of fare of 
 his cheerful " Breakfast 
 Table " under his arm ; 
 Herman Melville with 
 " Omoo " in one hand and 
 "Typee" in the other; 
 Charlotte Cushman as 
 " Meg Merriles " in " Guy 
 Mannering," or as "Julia " 
 in "The Hunchback." 
 Among the freshest of 
 the pictures of 
 those of liter- 
 ary fame, we 
 see the " Sky 
 Farm " poets, 
 Elaine and 
 Dora Read 
 Goodale, and 
 their parents 
 H. S. and 
 Mrs.D. H.R. 
 Goodale, from 
 whom their 
 poetical gen- 
 ius is inherit- 
 ed, and all of 
 whom still re- 
 main to fur- 
 nish the read- 
 ing public 
 
 
 MOUNT KACE, FKOM MOUNT EVEKETT 
 
 PROFILE ROCK— OLD MAN'S FACE — NEAR BASH BISH 
 
 OLDEST CEMETERY IN THE COVNTT 
 
 ders of Stockbridge Bowl, now modernized into Lake Mah- 
 keenac, and where Stockbridge crowds Lenox to the wall, or 
 rather draws the line between the two towns, almost within the 
 center of the charmed circle, where some of the noted of 
 Lenox's notables " most do congregate." 
 
 Then comes G. P. R. James, who crossed the ocean to settle 
 within the shadow of Monument mountain, in Stockbridge, and 
 who, after purchasing a homestead and making preparations to 
 build a fully crowned English residence and make America his 
 home, tired of his investment and went back to his old home, without leaving.be. 
 hind, as a memento of his brief residence in Berkshire, even one of his " solitary 
 horsemen," who had been ;n the habit of prancing through all his novels. 
 
 THE "PENNTKOVAL ARMS'' 
 
 MILO SMITH AND Wlb'K 
 
 ODILDEK'S FOND 
 
 MOUNT EVERETT IN WINTER 
 
94 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 with the products of their gifted and versatile pens. We see E. W. B. Canning 
 of Stockbridge, who but recently laid down the burdens of life, and whose verse 
 in pleasing and cheerful strains, alike with his prose contributions, were popular 
 wherever known. 
 
 While many of these have gone on beyond, the panorama would not furnish its 
 full quota of those to whom literary honors are due, without mentioning a few of 
 those who are still with us — Mrs. H. M. Plunkett, Anna L. Dawes and J. E. A. 
 Smith, all of Pittsfield, and who are still active and useful in giving to the world 
 the products of their never too prolific pens. 
 
 The scroll pauses for a moment 
 here, until some distinguished rep- 
 resentatives of Southern Berkshire 
 pulpits are before us. Among 
 these we note Rev. Dr. John Todd, 
 the almost life-long pastor of the 
 First Congregational church of 
 Pittsfield; Rev. James Bradford, 
 of like length of service as pastor 
 of the Sheffield Congregational 
 church ; Rev. Alexander Hyde of 
 Lee, eminent as preacher," teacher 
 and local historian, followed far in 
 the background of gathering years 
 by Rev. Samuel Hopkins, the first 
 Congregational minister of Great 
 Barrington, and his successor, Rev. 
 Sylvester Burt, also of long-time 
 service ; Rev. Orville Dewey, born 
 and buried in Sheffield, who won 
 much fame as a scholar and devot- 
 ed pastor' of Unitarian fame, for 
 many years, in New York city ; 
 Henry Ward Beecher, whose local 
 habitation was in Brooklyn, while 
 his field was the wide, wide worlds 
 and who wrote his famous " Star 
 Papers" and "Norwood," a work J 
 of fiction, while a summer resident f_ 
 of Lenox ; Rev. C, Edwards Lester, 
 
 ELEOTIOK DAY AT MOrsT WASHlNrtTON 
 
 author of " The Glory and Shame of England," once pastor of the West Stock- 
 bridge Congregational church, and Rev. J. T. Headley, traveler and author of fame 
 and merit and an intimate friend and companion of Mr. Lester, often exchanging 
 services with each other during his pastorate in Spencertown, N. Y., an adjoin- 
 ing town of West Stockbridge, with Mr. Headley's foster father, the noted 
 blind preacher. Rev. Timothy Woodbridge. 
 
 Once more a halt, and then some prominent characters in connection with 
 political place and preferment appear, including Hon. George N. Briggs of 
 Pittsfield, a former governor of Massachusetts and who went through all the years 
 
 of his official life without wearing 
 a shirt collar ; Hon. George Hull of 
 Sandisfield, once lieutenant gov- 
 ernor of the same state; Hon. 
 Lester Filley of Otis, prominent in 
 both legal and political circles, 
 state senator, etc.; Hon. Henry W. 
 Bishop of Lenox, an eminent law- 
 yer and politician ; Hon. Increase 
 Sumner of Great Barrington, of 
 great learning and brusque man- 
 ners; Hon. John Z. Goodrich of 
 Stockbridge; Hon. H. L. Dawes, 
 Hon. F. W. Rockwell and Hon. 
 John C. Crosby of Pittsfield, who to- 
 gether have rounded out nearly half 
 a century of congressional honors 
 from the Western district of Massa- 
 chusetts, Mr. Dawes also holding 
 a seat in the Senate of the United 
 States three terms of six years each. 
 A change of scene, and groups 
 of distinguished families appear, 
 among whom we see the Field 
 family — Rev. David Dudley Field, 
 for a long time pastor of the Con- 
 gregational church in Stockbridge 
 and his son, David Dudley Field, 
 still in the active conduct of his 
 (Continued on page 96) 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 95 
 
 DOES FARMING PAY? 
 
 An Exhibit of the Theory and Practice of Enos Hard- 
 hack, Before the Saughconic Farmers' Club 
 
 Reprinted from Harper's ATa^axine of October, jSSo. New Ulustr'ations by 
 Walter Cox, Copyright reserved by the Author 
 
 Wa'aJ, brother farmers, these is cur'ous days 
 T' think o' askin' one ef f armin' pays ! 
 I aint no hand to write, but, ez ye please, 
 I'll try to I'arn ye some o' my ideas. 
 They'll be disj'inted, but yew switch me back 
 When I get runnin' on another track. 
 
 Doos f armin' pay? It sartin doos pay me. 
 
 Ti this I calc'late yew will have t' 'gree. 
 
 I bought thet Guilder farm, some on ye know, 
 
 Thirty odd year ago, an' bought it low. 
 
 Both farm an' I ez poor — ez poor ez crows 
 
 When they air moultin'. Darn it all ! I s'pose 
 
 They wa'n't a fence them days on thet hull farm 
 
 'Ould keep the tarnel critters aout o' harm ; 
 
 An stun ! haow 'mazin' thick they did crop aout. 
 
 Fac' trooth they wuz the on'y crop abaout ! 
 
 The weeds fit everythin' thet gut a stan'. 
 
 An' alius 'pieared t' hev th' upper han'. 
 
 Yew better b'lieve them fust five year 'r so 
 
 I hed a pooty tejus row to hoe. 
 
 I didn't set daown, much, t' make a plan ; 
 
 I didn't stan' raoun' like a hired man ; 
 
 Coat off, 'n' sleeves peeled up, I pitched in rough. 
 
 An' made work fly — the days wa'n't long enough ; 
 
 I jerked them blasted stun aout like Ole Nick. 
 
 They grow'd up inter fences 'mazin' quick : 
 
 They're there, jest five foot high 'n' four foot thick ! 
 
 Wa'al, soon ez I hed finished up wall-layin', 
 
 I bought a jumpin' steer (paid work in hayin'). 
 
 Put 'im in pastur', 'n' he hed ter stay in ; 
 
 I swapped some rails an' gut two likely caows, 
 
 Slickt up my barn Jn' sheds, 'n' patched th' haouse, 
 
 Meantimes the corn an' taters wuz a-growin'. 
 
 An' when the hendy moon-lit nights come on. 
 
 An' other boys wuz sparkin', / wuz hoein'. 
 
 Still, I own up, I wa'n't contented, quite. 
 
 Them caows come inter milk, an' gin a sight. 
 
 Farm, dairy, house-work, proved a'most too much. 
 
 I tried it on till I got tuckered aout. 
 
 Then gut a hired gal t' do some sech 
 
 (It cost a dollar a week 'n' f aound, abaout), 
 
 Sech waste, sech sars, sech shif'less ways she acted. 
 
 It druv me fairly ravin' an' distracted! 
 
 I couldn't Stan' it long; I hadn't orter ; 
 
 So daown I goes t' see Miss Bills's dorter. 
 
 They ast me in, 'n' kep' me there t' tea. 
 
 I guessed the widder's place wuz morgidge free ; 
 
 I knowed thet Hanner wuz alfired smart; 
 
 An' so — I made a tendry uv my heart. 
 
 She tuk me up. I never rued that day, 
 
 An' Square Betts tied us fast withaout delay. 
 
 I sort o' linger on them airly days, 
 
 Tho' thet don't 'zac'ly show haow farmin' pays. 
 
 With Hanner hitched a raousin' team we made ; 
 
 Didn't craowd 'n' haul — pulled square. We wa'n' t afrai d 
 
 T' work, up hill 'r daown, in any weather. 
 
 We scraped an' saved, 'n' saved 'n' scraped, together, 
 
 But scrimpin' never pays on stock, ye know : 
 
 Cob-meal is fillin', but yer pigs don't grow. 
 
 Feed crops an' critters well ; depend upon't. 
 
 They'll feed yew bread. But don't spect 'lasses on't. 
 
 Jes' crawl afore ye run, 'r, sure's yer born, 
 
 Bimeby yew'll crawl — the slim eend uv the horn ! 
 
 Thet tells the story haow, in six short year, 
 
 I'd built new barns an' g^t the humstead clear. 
 
 Uv course I didn't take the papers much, 
 
 Ner waste my time on farmin' books 'n such. 
 
 Fine city chaps who don't know " Haw " from " Gee " 
 
 Needn't talk their agricultooral voos t' me. 
 
 Ef they believe in ten-inch ploughin', let 'em; 
 
 They'll never see it on my farm, I'll bet 'em ; 
 
 Ef they like buryin' pipes, w'y, let 'em try it, 
 
 An' dreen their land — 'n' dreen their pockets by it. 
 
 Let 'em keep Jarseys, let 'em see the folly — 
 
 They don't sell me their high-priced calves, by golly ! 
 
 I swow I'm willin' they should " s'il " and " steam," 
 
 An' bring up Short-horn bulls on Jarsey cream. 
 
 Yis, yis, Pm willin' ; let 'em ; but I swan 
 It makes me sick t' see sech goin's on. 
 
 Naow I tell yew, t' fin' what farmin' pays, 
 Jest come clus hum ; study yer neighbor's ways. 
 Look et — we wun't be pus'nal — call him Black: 
 No fence, no critters, nothin' — dretful slack! 
 Huntin' an' fishin' w'ile things go t' rack : 
 A sportin' farmer 'z baoun' t' be — a shack. 
 
 An' then there's White ; he's one o' yer stiddy kin' ; 
 Looks aout ahead, an' never runs behin' ; 
 Follers his plaough, perdooces corn 'n' taters ; 
 He don't resk nothin' 'ith them speckleaters. 
 Gold up er daown, he hain't no call t' worry; 
 They wun't git red o' his'n in a hurry. 
 No, no. White's keerful ; Tarns us suthin', r'aly ; 
 Wun't drive a hoss t' death he hopes t' sell ye ; 
 But drives a bargain pooty keen, I tell ye. 
 Green — wonder ef ye know wut's ailin' Green ? 
 He works like blazes, fur ez I hev seen; 
 No better farm 'n' his'n in Saughconic, 
 Er savin'r wife from Kersnop to Hustonic; 
 Sober 'z a deacon on a Sabba'-day — 
 
 Can't tell rye from Jamaiker, so they say ; 
 Stays to his hum ; lives low. Wut hinders, naow, 
 Thet Green c-a-n-'t git a livin' et th' plaough ? 
 Wa'al, we've hed dealin's some; I'll tell ye then — 
 No jedgment, more'n a settin' Brahmer hen. 
 An' thet's the nub on't. E£ ye plan ez he doos, 
 Yer poor ez Laz'rus wuz — whoever he wuz. 
 
 Don't know Brown much, ner mean ter — grumpy feller ! 
 
 All his hard cider couldn't make him meller; 
 
 But they du say he's savin' up at las', 
 
 Supplyin' village folks with gardin' sass ; 
 
 He'd orter lay some by, fer yew may bet 
 
 He don't fool much on't off t' pay a debt — 
 
 Owes me three shillin'. Wa'al, it ain't no gre't. 
 
 Le's look et Grey ; wust thing 'baout Grey is — books ; 
 Grey reads t' much, 'n' keers t' much fer looks ; 
 Believes in puttin' picturs up in haouses. 
 
 An' puts on airs, 'n' dassn't wear patched traouses ; 
 Ef 'twa'n't fer money lef him, goodness knows 
 He might be naow a-wearin' poor-'aouse clo'es. 
 Wa'al, nut thet I've gut anythin' agin 'im, 
 On'y I du say they ain't nothin' in 'im ; 
 No dicker in 'im, sartin — not a hooter ; 
 C-a-n-'t swop 'n' make a cent — a cent o' pooter. 
 Sech farmers scarcely make the salt they're eatin' ; 
 They 'pear t' think thet hag'lin's 'z bad ez cheatin' ; 
 Mebby it is ; ef thet's the way t' figger. 
 We'd ciphered aout aour jail a leetle bigger 
 High-Sheriff Root — he'd jist rej'ice t' du it, 
 App'int more depooties, an' put us thru it. 
 
 Ha! wa'al, wa'al, it takes all kin's o' folks, abaout, 
 T' make a warld. I've guessed the reason aout. 
 Time wuz I wished some on 'em hadn't come 
 Till arter I wuz borned, an' dead, I vum ! 
 Ye see, these puzzlin' p'ints I understan' 
 Sence they made ch'ice o' me fer 6V-lec'man. 
 Can't all on us be rulers — sakes alive ! 
 'Twun't work t' hev all king-bees in a hive. 
 Dung 'em an' cultivate 'em ez ye will, 
 The's alluz some small taters in a hill. 
 An', p'int o' fac', yer sWiall-p'tater men 
 Will kin' o' work t' th' bottom uv the ben. 
 Naow le's go back t' Guilder farm once more. 
 We worked ten year much like we did afore. 
 We gut a fam'ly, not by no means small. 
 An' crops an' barns grew fatter ev'ry fall. 
 The widder lef us — kin' o' sudden shock. 
 She lef poor Hanner all her Harlem stock. 
 It went up t' one-ten, 'n' then I sol' it ; 
 One-thirty sence — a fool I didn't hoi' it. 
 
 Them Yorkers come in thick, 'n' haow Ian' riz ! 
 
 They air some good, I tell ye wut it is. 
 
 Rich s'il t' sech chaps ain't no consequence 
 
 Ner ain't clean crops, ner ain't a nine-rail fence. 
 
 Wut tickles them is traouts 'n' shutin', lots ; 
 
 Nice air, red claouds, 'n' awful sightly spots ; 
 
 Yer poorest pastur' hill where wind is ha'sh, 
 
 More'n likely is the one thet takes their cash. 
 
 But naow them days come on wut teched my pride ; 
 
 Hanner got off the hooks, an' up an' died. 
 
 Thet wuz a durn hard blow. I jes clean lost 
 
 The smartest help I ever come acrost. 
 
 I vow ! I thought I'd ruther 'twould ha' ben 
 
 My twenty head o' fattin' steer. But then 
 
 She'd gut the young uns pooty well along ; 
 
 The h'use-work wa'n't a-pressin' quite s' strong ; 
 
 Aour Jane could cook fer men, 'n' wait upon 'em, 
 
 'N' Silas hoe his row 'ith any on 'em; 
 
 Might ha' ben wuss ; but this ere loss, ye see, 
 
 Wuz suthin' more 'an money aout t' me. 
 
 I sot gre't store by her ; it's kin' o' queer. 
 
 My farm-work kep' some back' ard all thet year; 
 
 I foun', too, long afore the grave wuz sodded, 
 
 Jane couldn't make sech puddins ez her ma did. 
 
 Yis, mor'n three months I tuk on like all natur' ; 
 But 'twa'n't no use ; I knew thet soon er later 
 I'd gut t' make the best on't. I did so. 
 An' merried Lyddy Runnels, ez ye know. 
 She ain't like Hanner wuz, but hez good p'ints. 
 An' does her work up slick, but can't break j'ints, 
 An' stop up leaks ; 'n' so the farm don't pay 
 Not nigh so strong ez't didin Hanner's day. 
 
 T' show ye, naow she's hed some posies come 
 An' wastes her val'able time a-tendin' 'em. 
 Naow blows thet don't bring fruit, t' my idee, 
 
 Air wuthless, even ef ye git 'emfree. ■ --- 
 
 An' so I tell her; don't du any good ; 
 She'd craowd my onions with 'em, if she could; 
 I hain't a daoubt, she'd chuse a posy bed 
 Afore a bed patch o' solid kebbedge head. 
 Wust on it is, my gals I'arn arter her — 
 C-a-n-'t go t' meetin', 'n' c-a-n-'t hardly stir, 
 'Ithout admirin' suthin' , I declare, 
 Thet ain't no arthly 'caount t' eat 'r wear. 
 Sech conduc's sinful, 'n' thet's wut / say : 
 Live clus, an' lay by fer a rainy day. 
 Yis, brother farmers, it's the good ol' way: 
 Workin' an' S^vin', the^ makes farmin' pay. 
 
 Henry S. Goodale^ 
 
q6 picturesque 
 
 (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 94) 
 
 professional life as counselor at law in New York city, at ninety years of age; 
 Stephen J. Field, chief justice of the United States Supreme Court; the late 
 Cyrus W. Field, who found fame and fortune " when Cyrus laid the cable," the 
 first electrical connection between the Old and New Worlds, and also the first sub- 
 marine cable ever laid; Rev. Henry M. Field, of wide and well-earned fame as 
 preacher, author, traveler and editor of the New York Evangelist; the late 
 Jonathan E. Field, an attorney of prominence in his day, and father of Stephen 
 D. Field, of great native genius and success in the electrical world of to-day ; the 
 late Matthew D. Field, who chose a quieter and less exciting business as tiller of 
 the soil in Southwick, Mass. 
 
 In a quiet corner of the scroll we see 
 the Dewey family of Sheffield, embracing 
 Rev. Orville Dewey, before mentioned. 
 Prof. Chester Dewey of Rochester New 
 York University, and Mary E. Dewey, who 
 was for many years at the head of a note- 
 worthy and successful school for young 
 ladies, held in the St. David's Dewey home- 
 stead, where she still makes her home, and 
 occasionally favors the public with the 
 products of her pen, which are always ex- 
 cellent specimens of good English and 
 sound sentiment. Near this group may be 
 seen Hon. F. A. P. Barnard, the long-time 
 president of New York's Columbia col- 
 lege, and his brother, the late Gen. J. G. 
 Barnard, both of Sheffield birth and 
 ancestry. 
 
 The scroll moves more and more rapidly, 
 and we only catch sight of. a miscellaneous 
 crowd, among whom press forward ex- 
 Governor Edwin D. Morgan of. New York, 
 long-time resident of the " hill town " of 
 the Stockbridge Sedgwicks and Dwights of honorable 
 lineage and much public prominence ; the Burts of San- 
 disfield in large numbers, whose shoes have a name and 
 place of great excellence even at the present day; the 
 
 KMTUANCE TO BASH BISI-I 
 
 a native and 
 Washington ; 
 
 BERKSHIRE 
 
 prominently connected with the iron industry, Isaac Seeley, a noted accountant, 
 afterwards postmaster and register of deeds, all of Great Barrington ; the late 
 George R. Ives, who gave Great Barrington its first notoriety, in building tne 
 Berkshire house, one of the few famed hostleries of the country half a century 
 ago, but which has recently lost its identity in the new and enlarged Berkshire Inn ; 
 the late J. D. Gushing, founder and long-time publisher of the Berkshire Couriers 
 the late C. C. Alger, founder of the Stockbridge Iron Works, now entirely obliter- 
 ated, once located near Housatonic village ; Owen & Hurlbut of South Lee, paper 
 manufacturers of much position and excellent reputation from 1822 on to the 
 
 present time, with divisions and changes 
 that have resulted in one of the largest 
 paper manufacturing establishments of the 
 country — the Hurlbut Paper Company; 
 Platner & Smith at Lee, who with Owen & 
 Huribut and D. & J. Ames of Springfield, 
 for many years made nine-tenths of the 
 writing paper of our country ; the late 
 Phinehas Allen, who alone established 
 the Pittsfield Sun, and with his son, 
 Phinehas, also deceased, conducted it for 
 many years in connection with the book 
 business in Pittsfield. 
 
 Too prominently engraved on the tablets 
 of memory to pass by unmentioned appear 
 the names of Misses Sarah, Nancy and 
 Mary Kellogg, whose Great Barrington 
 seminary for young ladies had world-wide 
 reputation and wonderful success in its 
 palmy days; James Sedgwick, for many 
 years principal of the Great Barrington 
 academy, Marshall Warner of Glendale, Jared Read of Stock- 
 bridge, and Rev. Alexander Hyde of Lee, whose schools for boys 
 ranked high among other institutions where the ladder of learning 
 was successfully climbed — all now deceased. 
 
 The space allotted for this paper forbids further detail, although 
 names without number could be recalled with a little thought, of 
 those who have been prominently connected with the active life of 
 Southern Berkshire, during all the years of the last half-century, 
 and while I must not particularize farther, I cannot turn the 
 scroll of memory before me, without looking at Elihu Burritt, 
 who hammered iron by day, and obtained his education in study 
 
 A MILL ON a'HK DOUGLASS EoiAiIi 
 
 Ensigns of Sheffield, who 
 were held in high estima- 
 tion in official and legal 
 circles; the -Dewey s of 
 Alford, now represented 
 before the world by Judge 
 Justin Dewey of Spring- 
 field and the Massachu- 
 setts Superior Court: 
 Merchants Buell & Shel- 
 don, and the Friedleys 
 and Fuarys of West 
 Stockbridge, of fame and 
 prominence in the forties, 
 fifties and sixties, the first as successful country store keepers who were 
 held in high regard throughout all the region round about, and the two 
 latter, noted men, who quarried marble and sent it almost to the ends of 
 the earth; the Plunketts of Pittsfield, Hinsdale and Adams, successful manu- 
 facturers, merchants and eminent in life insurance circles ; Hinsdales and Kitt- 
 regdes of Hinsdale; Pomeroys, Pollocks and Learneds of Pittsfield; Cranes, 
 Carsons and Westons of Dalton* who have always held a proud position as 
 leading paper manufacturers of our country and of the world at large, as well. 
 Of memorable and notable business leaders all along the way, we must not 
 fold the scroll until we may see such men as A. C. & J. C. Russell, better known 
 for a long series of years as the Berkshire Woolen Company, John H. Coffing, 
 
 ItAVlBE AT BASH BlBil 
 
 by the light of his 
 forges at night, in a 
 little unpainted black- 
 smith's shop in the 
 quiet village of New 
 Marlboro. 
 
 Northern Berk- 
 shire, too, has had 
 and still has an equally 
 fruitful field from 
 which to glean inter- 
 esting reminiscence, 
 but the story should 
 be told by some one 
 whose acquaintance- 
 ship and intimacies 
 have been acquired 
 by actual residence 
 near unto or in sight 
 of Greylock, as mine 
 have been from long 
 sojournings within 
 easy reach of the 
 Dome of the Tagh- 
 kanics. 
 
 BASH BISH I'-ALLS BRIDGE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 What I have mentioned, although but a tithe of 
 what might be added "in the same subject con- 
 tinued," tells, without further comment, the simple 
 story of why the hills and homes of Berkshire have 
 become so famous as to cause a popular de- 
 mand for what is here presented — Picturesque 
 Berkshire. 
 
 Clark W. Bryan. 
 
 SECOND FALL AT SAGE'S KAVINE 
 
 Sage's Ravine and " Bash Bish " Compared. — Henry 
 Ward Beecher, in his " Star Papers," thus refers to the two 
 principal natural attractions of the southwestern part of the 
 county : 
 
 " Sage's Ravine is the antithesis of Bash Bish. Sage's 
 Ravine, not without grandeur, has its principal attractions 
 in its beauty; Bash Bish, far from destitute of beauty, is yet 
 most remarkable for grandeur. Both are solitary, rugged, 
 full of rocks, cascades, grand waterfalls, and a savage rude- 
 ness tempered to beauty and softness by various and 
 abundant mosses, lichens, flowers, and vines. I would will- 
 ingly make the journey once a month from New York to see 
 either of them." 
 
 A MOUNTAIN CLIMB 
 
 An agreeable excursion from Sheffield is the 
 ascent of the beautiful mountain which broods 
 with wide-stretched wings over the Housatonic 
 valley at that point, and lends an element of strong 
 
 97 
 
 tiqn, thought fit some fifty years ago to clap a new 
 name upon this venerable pile, setting it down on 
 maps and charts as Mount Everett, which, although 
 a good name in itself, and commemorative of a 
 great orator, is yet absurd and impertinent for the 
 rebaptism of a mountain. One can imagine the 
 crags drawing back from the scientific front like 
 thi old Scandinavian chief, who preferred being 
 damned with his ancestors to going to glory under 
 a new name and with unknown associates. 
 
 .'The young and strong can climb Taghkonic on 
 foot from the very base, but most people choose 
 the roundabout carriage road for the greater part 
 of the way, and reserve their legs for the final 
 ascent, ^yhere nothing else can avail them. The 
 drive itself is a great delight, and best of all in the 
 latter part of June, when the mountain laurel 
 . ' (Continued on page loo) 
 
 THE DOUGLASS COTTAGE AND GROUNDS 
 
 and assured peace to the landscape. The people 
 near about call it the High Peak, a name expressing 
 rather respect for its altitude than appreciation of 
 its gently rounded form, and the dwellers in Stock- 
 bridge and Lenox, as they see its calm height on 
 their southern horizon, speak of it as the Dome, 
 ■- or the Dome of the Taghkonics, but they who 
 Tiave loved it long and well in Sheffield call it 
 simply Taghkonic, the name given it ages ago by 
 the Indian tribes, who have so vanished from their 
 ancient homes that their nomenclature is almost 
 their only memorial. The preservation of sucli 
 relics of a past time and people is of great interest 
 to the archseologist as well as the poet, and for 
 the sake both of science and sentiment, it is un- 
 fortunate that modern geologists, ignoring tradi- 
 
 UPPEE FALL AT SAGE'S RAVINE 
 
 A FALL SEAR BEAK KOCK 
 
 Look Nature tlirough, 'tis revolu- 
 tion all ; 
 
 All changed ; no death. Day fol- 
 lows night, and night 
 
 The dying day ; stars rise, and set, 
 and rise ; 
 
 Earth takes th' example. See, the 
 Summer gay 
 
 With her green chaplet and ambro- 
 sial flowers, 
 
 Droops into pallid Autumn; Win- 
 ter, gray, 
 
 Hoared with frost, and turbulent 
 with storm, 
 
 Blows Autumn, with his golden 
 fruits, away, 
 
 Then melts into Spring; — soft 
 Spring, with breath 
 
 Favonian, from warm chambers of 
 the south, 
 
 Recalls the first. All to re-flour- 
 ish, fades ; 
 
 As in n wheel, all sinks, to re- 
 ascend. 
 
 Emblems of man, who passes, not 
 expires. 
 
 JUST OVER THE LINE 
 
98 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 BERKSHIRE SO BONNY 
 
 ■ Ohj Berkshire, so bonny ! 
 
 With wild g:len and stream — 
 With the billowy hill sweep, 
 
 The shadow and gleam ! 
 Oh, sunshine and summer! 
 
 How sweet ye will seem, 
 When ye come back again 
 
 In the light of a dream ! 
 
 When the snow whirls in drifts, 
 
 As the wijd nortliern gust, 
 Wheiithe sweet wild-wood flowers 
 
 Are ashes and dust — 
 Oh, brighter than ever 
 
 Thy beauties shall rise, , 
 A fair summer vision, . 
 
 To gladden my eyes — 
 Fair June on the hills. 
 
 And a smile in the skies. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 Erf^A^l^'W^- ^s^MLV.lil^^'bE 
 
 Aie-* »£.r .i— V 
 
 BASH BISH FALLS 
 
 FALLS OF THE BASH BISH 
 
 High pacing clouds around Taconic sweep. 
 
 Losing their vaporous bodies in her hills ; 
 Down whose rough sides the newborn waters leap. 
 
 Breaking in light cascades and sparkling rills, 
 Till many streamlets one broad current fills 
 
 That through a gorge its mazy way hath found 
 With murmuring voice that soothing thought instills 
 
 Till where a chasm yawns beneath profound. 
 
 It leaps 'a rocky ledge with one delicious bound. 
 • { 
 Rolling and tumbling down its rocky bed, 
 
 Onward the struggling water cleaves its way, 
 Roundjfallen trees, through mimic caverns led 
 
 O'er jutting rocks dashing the foaming spray 
 Now wreathed in shapes fantastically gay ; 
 
 Now torn, distracted, writhing as in pain. 
 Wandering as if it knew not where to, stray. 
 
 Then, like a charger managed by the rein, 
 
 Gathering its scattered strength, it leaps a chasm again. 
 
 PREPARING TO FLOAT AND FISH 
 
 B.VSH BISH BUOQK: 
 
 THE BASH-A-BISH 
 
 ■THE DODGLASS COTTAGE 
 
 Bash-a-Bish, daughter of rough old Taconic, 
 
 Sleeping with Winter's cold hand on her lips. 
 Hears the dfeep murmur of far Housatonic, 
 Waves her white arms and to seaward she slips ; 
 
 Gem of the Berkshire hills. 
 
 Queen of a thousand rills, 
 Joy to the forest her gay laughter brings — 
 
 Low bend the stately trees. 
 
 Hushed is the passing breeze. 
 Summer will come if the Bash-a-Bish sings. 
 
 High on the mountain side-'lbw in the meadow. 
 
 Ever impatiently seeking the sea, 
 Here in the sunshine, and there in the shadow. 
 Maker of marvelous music is she ; 
 
 Fern-fringed the rocky ledge, 
 
 Moss-hung the inisty 6dge, 
 Quiver the junipers over the brink — 
 
 Wrapped in a fleecy shroud 
 
 White as the summer cloud 
 Bash-a-Bish plunges, in crystal to sink. 
 
 Siren of Solitude ! ever her singing 
 
 Follows the wanderer, distant afar, 
 Unbidden memory, quietly bringing 
 Dreams of a day that no future can mar 
 Welcome her song of cheer 
 Ringing so sweet and clear. 
 Woven fast into the web of our lives ; 
 Heard in the glare of light. 
 Heard in the hush of night. 
 Heaven's benediction the Bash-a-Bish gives. 
 
 Laura Sanderson. 
 
 AMONG THE BERKSHIRE HILLS 
 
 I cUmbed a rugged mounta,in decked with trees. 
 Towards heaven toiling painfully and slow. 
 
 And ever stronger grew the playful breeze 
 That laughing softly beat the saplings low. 
 
 Upward, still upward, over black ravines. 
 Clutching at thorny vines and jutting spurs, 
 
 I struggled towards the peak where from grand scenes 
 Burst, like a dream, on nature's worshipers. 
 
 The Swiss may boast of towering mounts of snow. 
 With Alpine wild flowers cowering on their breasts ; 
 
 Fair France may be exultatitin the glow 
 Of sunny vales and vine-becrowned crests. 
 
 FALLS AT SAGE'S RAVINE 
 
 Oh, wondrous hill, from whose exalted brow 
 I watched far, sky-loved mountains, and the yale 
 
 Through which, Uke silver serpent, then and now, 
 A living river shone with splendor pale ; 
 
 But, Berkshire Hills, your loveliness need fear 
 Nor Gallic plains nor Switzers' world-famed mounts. 
 
 More fair, more free, your beauty bloometh here. 
 Than all the charms that Europe proudly counts. 
 
 Frederic Allison Tupper. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 99 
 
 SOME PECULIAR CHARACTERS 
 
 Every section of the country doubtless has boasted, 
 at one time or another, of one or more peculiar and 
 eccentric characters, or uncouth, wild or uncanny 
 people, and Berkshire has been no exception to the 
 rule. To recite the incidents connected with even a 
 few of these individuals would require some time, and 
 
 space would be 
 filled in such a 
 book as Pictur- 
 esque Berk- 
 shire at an 
 alarming rate. 
 Yet I am urged 
 to tell a few 
 stories. 
 
 When in 
 youthful dreams 
 I wander, no 
 more pictur- 
 esque character 
 stands before 
 me than a man 
 whom I will call 
 "Jake," for 
 short. He was 
 one of those 
 peculiar people, 
 without educa- 
 tion, whose dia- 
 lect is unwritten, 
 and whose ori- 
 
 gin was— well, nobody knows 
 where. As "Topsy" said, they 
 must have" just growed." "Jake" 
 was in the vicinity of sixty years of 
 age when I knew him best, and 
 lived alone in a log cabin on a lone- 
 ly road that skirted along the 
 mountain-side. He was very indo- 
 lent and had no visible means of 
 support except a fishing pole, a tin 
 pail, and an old six-footer English 
 fowling piece, all of which it was 
 his invariable custom to carry with 
 him when away from home. He 
 was followed by a white and yellow 
 spotted hound, the ears and tail of 
 which were his most prominent 
 points. Altogether, "Jake" was 
 not, when fully equipped for a for- 
 aging expedition, a person calcula- 
 ted to inspire one with confidence 
 as to the advancement of civiliza- 
 tion. I remember well that children 
 did not care to meet the man at a 
 distance of more than five rods 
 from a house, when going to and 
 from school. 
 
 One morning in the late autumn, " Jake " called at 
 the home of a farmer, for a friendly chat and an 
 opportunity to toast his shins at a civilized kitchen 
 fire, when the farmer took the opportunity to ask him 
 some questions concerning his health, prospects for 
 the winter, the condition of his larder, etc., knowing 
 that the previous winter had been a hard one for 
 "Jake." The fellow replied," Veil, I haf laid me down 
 a bar'l of goot fat woodchucks, an' a bar'l of goot fat 
 skunks, an' ef I can't lif better this winter as I did las' 
 I'd's Jief go to heaven's t' ! " 
 
 " Dick " was another character whose lean, angular 
 form and pleasant features I vividly remember. He, 
 too, was a man without learning, but what he lacked 
 in education he made up by showing the seeming use- 
 lessness of it to himself, through his most ludicrous 
 stammering. It was his custom to visit neighboring 
 villages with a handcart. This was his only means 
 of conveying supplies to a large family of children, at 
 stated periods, and it also generally carried a liberal 
 quantity of fiery fluid, which he used, not to lubricate 
 
 the axles of his cart, 
 but his throat, very 
 frequently. At one 
 time, when on his 
 homeward journey, he 
 was overtaken by two 
 of his neighbors, farm- 
 ers, who were driving 
 a spirited pair of 
 horses, and he was in- 
 vited to fasten his cart 
 to the rearof the wagon 
 and to get into the 
 cart, which he seemed 
 glad to do. After jog- 
 ging along for a mile 
 or two, the farmers, 
 occupying a seat side 
 by side in the front of 
 the wagon, conceived 
 the idea of treating " Dick " to a little variety of 
 locomotion. There was a short turn in the road a little 
 distance ahead, and they whipped up and soon brought 
 he horses into a 2.47 gait. As they reached the bend 
 in the road, both horses on a run, "Dick" was seated 
 in the bottom of his cart, a hand grasping each side of 
 it, toes straight up and face very small compared with 
 the size of his eyes. One wheel of the cart was strain- 
 ing every joint in its endeavor to keep up with the 
 wagon and co-operate in sustaining the weight which 
 belonged to its mate, which was whirling in mid-air; 
 while " Dick " shouted, " D-d-d-d-d-d-" — but they had 
 rounded the curve, and the cart had assumed its 
 
 //h 
 
 ' Gentlemen, we must have less order 
 
 * D-d-d-donH drive so fast 
 
 natural position before " Dick " 
 had time to say " Don't drive so 
 fast!" 
 
 Jack P was one whose 
 
 English seemed to be at variance 
 with those of our college professors, 
 and he was wont to use words 
 which had no meaning, or which 
 he did not know the significance of. 
 Because of his readiness to freely 
 express his opinions he was elected 
 constable at a town meeting, and 
 the " house " becoming rather bois- 
 terous. Jack was called upon by the 
 moderator to preserve order, where- 
 upon he mounted a seat and shout- 
 ed, " Now see here, boys, we must 
 have less order ! " In relating an 
 incident connected with his do- 
 mestic affairs. Jack said, " My wife 
 has got the immaterial for a new 
 
 dress and four dozen buttons 
 that she is going to extribute 
 all over the front." 
 
 People who reside in rural 
 districts are not less favored 
 in their inclinations to dab- 
 ble in a little law than those 
 who are locate,d in the cities, 
 and I am reminded of Mr. 
 
 S , a thrifty farmer, living 
 
 one time on the under-moun- 
 tain road, who had been sued 
 for some imaginable or petty 
 offence, by neighbors less 
 favored in the accumulation 
 of this world's goods, and 
 the case was to be tried at 
 
 B , a distance of ten miles. 
 
 On the morning of the trial 
 
 Mr. S called upon the 
 
 neighbor in question, the plaintiff, and inquired if. he 
 had secured conveyance to the seat of justice, for him- 
 self and witnesses, which he learned were the wife, 
 three or four . grown-up daughters and a son. Upon 
 
 being informed that they expected to walk, Mr.-S , 
 
 the defendant, being a man of kindly disposition, 
 courteously offered them the privilege and pleasure of 
 a ride with him behind a pair of fine dapple-greys, an 
 offer which was quickly accepted ! 'After breakfast 
 Mr. S— ^ harnessed his horses to the farm wagon and 
 drove over after the litigant family. As most of the 
 party were women he insisted that it would be unbe- 
 coming to ride without seats, and he thei-efore suggest- 
 ed that each member bring a chair 
 and place it in the wagon, which 
 was accordingly done, and the 
 happy family enjoyed, probably, 
 their first ride for years. When 
 
 B was reached, the case was 
 
 called, and as Mr. S had no 
 
 witnesses, the case was decided 
 against him, through simple pre- 
 ponderance of evidence. After 
 transacting some other business he 
 went to the place where his horses 
 were tied, and found the plaintiff- 
 neighbor and all his witnesses — 
 the family — cosily seated and im- 
 patiently waiting for the homeward 
 ride. This was something like 
 " riding a free horse to death," and 
 
 whether Mr. S so decided or 
 
 not, a limit had been reached in his 
 good nature, his manner had chang- 
 ed since morning, and he sternly 
 ordered each member of the family 
 to get out of the wagon, take out 
 his chair and walk home, which — 
 as they could do no better^ it is 
 heedless to say they did, carrying 
 their chairs with them. 
 
 George S. Whitbeck. • 
 
 TAKING ANOTHER GOHVETANCE UOUE 
 
I GO 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 APPROACHING^ EGREMOST FROM THE SOUTH 
 
 de-lis, which lends its patrician grace to these poor surroundings with 
 true French adaptability, and patiently bears its emigrant name of 
 flower-de-luce. The men are already in the fields, but the women turn 
 from their early work to look at you through the open doors, and the 
 children, with sun-bleached hair and bare feet, peep and peer at you as 
 you pass. Soon a.11 sight of human habitation disappears and you enter 
 the shade of great oaks and chestnuts ; the mountain begins to enfold 
 you, and here you will do well to send the wagon forward to await you 
 at a spring half-way up the ravine, and, staying till it is out of hearing, 
 walk on in the enchanted solitude to which it will leave you. The 
 great walls of forest rise on either hand; far below on the left, the 
 brook whose waters originally carved this huge cleft in the hillside, 
 tinkles and plashes over its stony path; looking across, the dark 
 pines, stern amid the summer trees whose soft value they accentuate, 
 " Fledge the wild ridged mountains steep by steep," and looking back 
 the wide horizon to the northeast begins to gleam through the large 
 
 HAKMON POND, NEAR SCENE OF SHATS FIGHT 
 
 A VIEW AT EGREMONT 
 
 /% HMl, 
 
 - • i 
 
 I « 
 
 ftfe&^ik^SA. 
 
 THE BL'SINBSS CENTER, SOUTH EGREMONT 
 
 VIEW NEAR THE MOUNT EVRKETT HOUSE 
 
 portals, with its tender azure shades of distance, so relieved by the vigorous 
 foreground as to seem almost as if they belonged to another planet. All 
 around is luxuriant foliage. Between the ferns and vines and mosses on the 
 ground, and the stately growth of maple and beech, chestnut, hickory, elm 
 and oak overhead is the endless 
 profusion of rich, intermingled un- 
 dergrowth that catches and reflects, 
 with myriad forms and shades of 
 verdure, the flickering light that 
 
 A MOUNTAIN CLIMB 
 
 (Continued from page 97) 
 (kalmia latifolia) is in blossom. In 
 an open wagon, with strong horses, 
 and starting soon after sunrise, so as 
 to taste the first delicious freshness of 
 the day and see the unwonted revela- 
 tions of the slant early rays from the 
 east, you drive six or seven miles 
 through a lovely country to Guilder 
 Hollow, where the long mountain road 
 begins to climb steadily upward 
 through a wooded ravine. At first 
 there are a few houses by the,wayside, 
 small cabins with each its pa^ch of 
 oats and corn and potatoes, its strag- 
 gling orchard and its scanty garden, 
 where, nevertheless, you are sure to 
 see a few sunflowers, a rosebush or 
 two, and perhaps a tuft of the fleur- 1 
 
 VIEW FROM THE ACADEMY. SOUTH EGREMONT 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 lOI 
 
 Sky Farm, the picturesque old house where the Goodale sisters nourished 
 their young poetic dreams, and wrote "Apple-blossoms." This part of the 
 mountain is the township, for it cannot be called the village of Mount Wash- 
 ington, and it is difficult to conceive a less attractive district. Raised 
 two thousand 
 feet from the 
 sea, the crests 
 around it look 
 like low hills, 
 andit is simply 
 a very dull bit 
 of country. 
 Yet, as a base 
 for fine excur- 
 sions on every 
 side, and on ac- 
 count of its re- 
 markably pure 
 and invigorat- 
 
 A HOUSE WITH A HISTORY 
 
 THE OLD ACAT^EUY 
 
 '^LOOKlNG SOUTH BKI.OW I-'ACTORT, SOUTH EGKEMOST 
 
 falls through 
 
 the green roof 
 
 above. Along 
 
 the path, and 
 
 far in the deep 
 
 recesses of the 
 
 forest, shine 
 
 the splendid 
 
 blossoms of 
 
 the laurel in 
 
 pink or white 
 
 masses, some- 
 times sheeting 
 
 a whole hill- 
 side with rosy 
 
 foam under 
 
 the tall trees, 
 and then tempting you close at hand with magnificent globed 
 clusters of beautiful flowers and vase-shaped buds, set in a frame 
 of what Bryant called — 
 
 " The laurel's fair, Imperial leaf." 
 The dewy freshness of morning i§ upon everything, the sweet breath of the woods bears 
 ineffable ecstasy to the sense, and the tonic of the upland air begins to brace each nerve. The 
 
 wayside spring is soon 
 reached, and a draught 
 of its delicious water 
 prepares man and 
 beast for the toil be- 
 yond. 
 
 Two or three miles 
 more of moderate as- 
 cent through the forest 
 bring the traveler to a 
 broad piece of table- 
 land, where houses 
 and farms reappear. 
 The first of these is 
 
 THE JIOUNT EVERETT HOCPE 
 
 DISTBTCT SCHOOL 
 
 AN AUTUMN DAY ON MAIN STREET 
 
 I A ', «^** 
 
 ,^^^:!*! 
 
 VIEW NEAE THE BUSINESS CENTER 
 
 THB AXLE FACTORY 
 
102 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 LOOKING NORTH FROM THE IRON BRIDGE, SOUTH EGREMOKT 
 
 MAIN STI:KET AND ROAD TO HILLSDALE, NORTH EGREMONT 
 
 ing atmosphere, it draws a crowd of sjum- 
 mer boarders, and the old farmhouses 
 swarm with people in big hats and carry- 
 ing long walking sticks. For two or three 
 miles you drive through this very uninter- 
 esting region, seeing indeed the Dome be- 
 fore you, but deprived of all its majesty, 
 it looking merely Tike a big rocky hill. 
 The sun begins to be hot, and you would 
 begin to fancy yourself tired, were it not 
 for the astonishing energy which you in- 
 spire with every breath of the wonderful 
 air. Suddenly you turn through bars 
 into the very worst road you ever saw, all 
 rocks and holes, and you jolt and pitch 
 through the woods for a couple of miles, 
 till a grassy glade invites you to rest, and 
 
 Tl 
 
 MAIN STREET, NORTH JIGREMONT 
 
 through the whole length of Berkshire 
 to Greylock and the mountains of Ver- 
 mont. On the east is the fertile Hous- 
 atonic valley, with villages set along 
 the banks of its winding river, and roll- 
 ing hills beyond. To the south, with the 
 beautiful Salisbury lakes for a fore- 
 ground, the eye ranges far over quiet 
 Connecticut, while looking westward the 
 ample valley of the Hudson unrolls its 
 luxuriance, bounded by the delicate sky- 
 line of the Catskills, on whose pale-blue 
 front the Mountain house shows like a 
 white speck, and on the river below, gleam- 
 ing here and there through the distance, 
 you may perhaps distinguish the smoke of 
 a passing stearnboat. TTie Adirondacks 
 
 Rapt into still communion that 
 transcends 
 
 The imperfect offices of prayer 
 and praise, 
 
 His mind was a thanksgiving: 
 to the power 
 
 That made him ; it was bless- 
 edness and love I " 
 
 Taghkonic is three 
 thousand feet above tide 
 water, and two thousand 
 three hundred feet higher 
 than Shefifield. From its 
 isolated position, it com- 
 mands a larger tract of 
 country than many loftier 
 summits. You look north 
 
 BAPTIST CHURCH 
 
 
 MONDAY IN NORTH EGREMONT 
 
 " Half the world is in the tubs, 
 Or on the lines adrying." 
 
 to unpack the timely baskets which have lain perdue all this while in the wagon. Never 
 did luncheon taste so good as this woodland feast, and it gives you courage in good 
 time, for now begins the tug of war. . The horses are tethered, all impediments left be- 
 hind, and you set your breast to a steep, narrow path, twisting among rocks, where you 
 use your hands about as much as your feet. It is called half a mile to the summit, but 
 by the time you get there you will vow you have scrambled two miles, and every joint 
 will have had a share in the work. There is little or no view on the way, because it runs 
 through a thick growth of low birches at first, and higher up, is shut in by scrub oak and 
 dwarfed pines, but near the top there is one glorious burst of vision from a jutting crag 
 to the east, and when, hurrying on, you stand upon the bare rocks of the highest point, 
 and see the immense horizon on every side and the far-spread glory of the firmament 
 above, all fatigue is forgotten, sensation is lost, and your whole soul is lifted up in awe 
 and reverent joy. You are alone, though in a crowd, and feel admitted to the secrets of 
 eternal life. 
 
 Wordsworth has given voice to stich emotion — 
 
 " In such access of 'mind, in such high hour 
 Of visitation from the living God, 
 Tho't was not ; in enjoyment it expired. 
 No thanks he breathed, he proffered no request ; 
 
 loom farther north, and the Sha- 
 wangunk mountains show faint 
 and low down the valley. You are 
 too high and everything is too re- 
 mote for picturesque effect, but for 
 the grand, uplifting sense of vast 
 infinitude and for the exhilarating 
 thrill that runs through the veins of 
 the true mountain lover on reach- 
 ing a commanding height, few 
 places are better than the solitary 
 crest of Taghkonic. 
 
 Mary E. Dewey. 
 
 METHODIST CHURCH 
 
 How various his employments, whom 
 
 the world 
 Calls idle, and who justly in return 
 Esteems that world a busy idler to 
 Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his 
 
 pen, 
 Delightful industry enjoyed at home. 
 And Nature in her cultivated trim, 
 Dress'd to his taste, inviting him 
 
 abroad. 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 103 
 
 THE LINE OF BBAUTr IK THE HIGHWAY — ALPORD 
 
 NOT "TO THE MANOR BORN" 
 
 A Mount Washington boy, who years ago drove teams for the city boarders in that town, and 
 showed them about generally over that wonderfully picturesque region, tells many funny stories 
 of his experiences with those whose lives were mostly spent within sight only of the brick and 
 stone walls of the metropolis. Once he noticed that a party in his charge were very much 
 attracted by the antics of a rampant bull in a pasture on their route, and he had little difficulty 
 in overhearing remarks of more than ordinary interest, it may be imagined, to a country youth : 
 
 " Mamma," said a young lady, after a long study of the ferocious animal, " is that a bull ?" 
 
 "Mamma" adjusted her eyeglasses, and after a long, critical stare at his Taurian majesty, 
 said, with an agonizing drawl, " N-0-0, my deah, that is a gentleman cow ! " 
 
 The coachman of one of the New York parties was a handsome, sturdy Irishman, "right 
 
 ABIT OF WOODLAND — ALFOBD 
 
 ALONG THE SEEHOKK — ALFOKD 
 
 A GLIMPSE BT THE ROADSIDE 
 
 from Cork." He was a fine specimen of athletic manhood, and one day, walking 
 out with our country boy, he proposed a swim in the river whose banks they were 
 resting upon. " I have na had a shwim since I left Cork," said Pat. No sooner 
 proposed than both were divesting themselves of their clothes, but the Irishman 
 was soonest at the water and striking for the opposite shore, with magnificent, 
 powerful strokes. Soon, however, out of the stillness of the early summer evening, 
 came the croak of a gigantic bullfrog. It was a loud, blatant bellow for one of 
 this species, and commonplace as it might" have been to the boy, to the man 
 
 IN TOWN— ALFORD 
 
 COMING INTO THE TOWN 
 
 from Cork — the land 
 where St. Patrick laid 
 out the frogs and 
 snakes so many years 
 ago — it was something 
 new and startling. 
 The boy, telling the 
 story, says that the 
 Irishman turned end 
 over end in his fright 
 and hurry to get 
 back to the shore he 
 started from. As soon 
 as he recovered his 
 breath, he inquired, 
 
 THEjCNION CHURCH 
 
104 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 heavy and glossy — and she bought it before sh^ was married, for a field bedstead. 
 You know what they called field bedsteads, and she had to keep it years and 
 years before she could get the bedstead, and at last it began to crack in the 
 folds, and then she had to make it up. In the same drawer with that was a 
 very nice bedquilt, pieced all of new pieces, in a very curious way, and 
 she kept that a great many years before she could get money enough to buy the 
 cotton and lining. I remember that it was quite an event when at last it was 
 made up. Then in the drawer above was my sister Sally's clothes. (Sally died, 
 you know.) Her dresses (and shoes all fitted to the shape of her feet) were there. 
 She had a very pretty foot, and I remember that she had a pair of morocco shoes. 
 That was a wonderful thing then. My mother kept her infants' wardrobes there, 
 too. Her last babies had more things, I think, than we older ones. Henry 
 [Senator Henry Laurens Dawes] had some very pretty dresses. One was pink 
 — they had colored dresses more then than now — pink trimmed with a green 
 
 ON ROAD FKOM ALFORD TO SOUTH EGREMOST 
 
 they make them of pine, 
 with a little veneer. My 
 father made those doors 
 with his own hands, and 
 they were the only ones 
 which we had for years, 
 and 1 remember distinctly 
 what my mother kept in 
 them, years and years 
 ago. In one drawer was a 
 piece of copperplate 
 folded up — copperplate 
 was a kind of calico, 
 
 ON THE WAT TO ALFOED 
 
 TOWN .HALLjiALFORD 
 
 " Me bye, phat was that croaked 
 at me?" The youngster told him it 
 was only a frog, and that it could not 
 harm him. 
 
 "Och! but the dirthy baste — catch 
 me bathin' in the same water with him. 
 Ohone ! Oh, no, oh, no ! " 
 
 Considering the probability of 
 Patrick's fellowship with or con- 
 tiguity to the wharf rats the last time 
 he bathed near the Cork docks, the 
 change of scene and companionship 
 was suggestive, but tastes vary the 
 world over. 
 
 WHAT WAS IN GRAND- 
 MOTHER'S CHEST 
 
 We sat the other evening in grand- 
 ma's room, close by the large chest of 
 drawers, which had been grandma's 
 mother's. In an idle moment I had 
 been brushing up the brasses with a 
 handkerchief, and that I suppose led 
 grandma to recall the following details: 
 
 " That chest of drawers were your grandmother's mother's, my child. They 
 are better than any you can find now — cherry clear through^- solid cherry. Now 
 
 OLD APi'LE TREES 
 
 cord. Well, that copperplate, when at 
 last she had made it up, she could buy 
 nothing to trim the scallops with. It 
 had very rich colors — green was one, 
 I think. Well, you know Becky 
 Richardson — D wight Richardson's 
 daughter — she got to taking opium, 
 and the doctor supplied her with it for 
 a great many years, and at.last she was 
 heavily in his debt, and he told her 
 that if there was any work my mother 
 wanted done, that she could do, she 
 might do it, and so my mother had 
 her make some fringe to trim the 
 scallops with. She could make fringe 
 in a very curious way. My mother 
 got some yarn and colored it green. 
 First she made it yellow with smart- 
 weed and then she dipped it in the 
 blue dye and that made green, you 
 know. Blue and yellow make green, 
 and out of that Becky made the fringe. 
 It was about — so wide, and my mother 
 sewed it on, and it looked very nicely. 
 These were some of the things that 
 (Continued on page 106) 
 
 
 OUBVBD IS THE LINE 0F|BEAUTY "' 
 
 A.LFOKD POST-OPFICB 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 105 
 
 A POTATO FORTUNE 
 
 A STORY FOR.YOUNC; FOLKS 
 
 Rob Granger was not lazy. No, but when the sun 
 
 was hot, and across the fields he could see the cool, 
 
 tree-shaded river border, he did not like to have a big 
 
 fork put in his hands and be told he must go to dig 
 
 ging potatoes. 
 
 A potato field is at best so hot and dry! The 
 
 shrivelled tops are disagreeable to the touch and every 
 
 time the soil is dug into, a cloud of dust rises. It is 
 
 hard enough to go at it in the 
 
 morning, harder to take the 
 
 work up again when dinner has J 
 
 been eaten, and hardest of all to 
 
 stick to it through the long hours 
 
 of the afternoon. But Rob 
 
 knew he had to do the work 
 
 whether he liked it or not. 
 
 In the story books he had 
 
 read of the way people dug and 
 
 dug until they found gold. But 
 
 that potato field seemed a very 
 
 unlikely place for such happen- 
 ings, and then these lucky ones 
 
 were always told beforehand 
 
 about the matter and were 
 
 watched over by some good 
 
 fairy ; besides Rob was twelve 
 
 years old and he didn't believe 
 
 that kind of stories any more. 
 
 He knew that when he had dug 
 
 two rows he must go and pick 
 
 up the potatoes he had thrown 
 
 out in a straggling row along 
 
 the furrow. 
 
 First he must pick out the 
 
 good ones, then go batk for the 
 
 poorer ones. After that the 
 
 next two rows must be dug and 
 
 picked up ; and then there were 
 
 other rows, beyond those, 
 
 stretching away clean across 
 
 the field. 
 
 Rob had thought out several 
 
 fine ideas of how he could em- 
 ploy himself were he rid of this 
 
 work. He had thought how it 
 
 would seem on the' cool piazza, 
 
 and how it would seem in the 
 
 border of the woods or on the 
 
 logs out in the river. Then the 
 
 bright thought came — he would 
 
 make believe he was having a 
 
 fine time digging potatoes. He 
 
 would say that every potato was 
 
 something precious and a field 
 
 of potatoes meant a fortune. 
 Rob had always imagined it 
 
 must be a fine thing to have lots 
 
 of money. So now he made him- 
 self think he was raking it in 
 
 every time his fork went into 
 the ground and was pulled forth 
 again. Every time he turned 
 out a potato he made believe it 
 was a piece of his fortune 
 brought to the surface, and 
 every one he picked up he called a " something " 
 hoarded away or put in the bank. And the bigger the 
 the potato was the bigger was its value in his make- 
 believe. 
 
 Before he knew it his eyes were glistening, and as 
 he bent to his work he forgot how hard it was. To 
 his mind this was a whole field of riches, and if he 
 only unearthed them, he might have them all. 
 
 Then he imagined the end come, and he was say- 
 ing to his mother, just as returning sailors did, " I am 
 now a rich man. You needn't work any more, little 
 mother. Just sit down on the piazza and read. Don't 
 sew and don't think of kitchen work. Your servants 
 
 shall attend to that. And, mother, I made all this 
 money on afield of potatoes." 
 
 Over the field he went, forking the treasures from 
 the ground, and the rows became fewer, and his bags 
 of wealth became many and full. Truly, he could feel 
 himself a rich man. 
 
 He was a banker; his bank the field; hiswealththe 
 bags of potatoes on every hand and his increase made 
 him very happy. 
 
 Then quick the fork would come down into the 
 ground, deep driven enough to bring up a whole hill 
 of potatoes at a time in response to his vigorous pull. 
 
 When at the close of the hot harvest day, night fell 
 upon the potato field and a hungry boy sat down at 
 supper, father and mother said to him even more than 
 his imagination had made them say. And at bed- 
 time, it was a tired boy who laid himself down and fell 
 into the perfect sleep he had so well earned. 
 
 What more priceless possession have even the 
 wealthiest at a day's end ? 
 
 M. A. Ryan. 
 
 A CONTENTED MIND 
 
 BETTER THAN GKEAT RICHES 
 
 The river border, the edge of the woods, the ham- 
 mock on the piazza, that had been the sirens of Rob's 
 early day were faded away before this pleasure of 
 getting rich. 
 
 Rob was strong enough and earnest enough to keep 
 up his practical play, and between thoughts there 
 stole over him a gladness that he was making so much 
 progress in getting the potatoes ready for market. 
 Father would say, " You did well, Rob," and mother 
 would give the father's words a happy echo, and he 
 would say — to himself — " I am a rich man " — and to 
 the boys at school — " I dug more potatoes than ever 
 did a boy in the district, the last day off from school." 
 
 A Summer Morning in Berkshire. — The morn- 
 ing came up in clouds, the clouds grew to mist, and 
 the mist rolled out of the valley, 
 and hung, rugged and wild, upon 
 the mountain side. All the trees 
 do clap their hands in the merry 
 wind that now, unburdened of 
 its moisture, runs nimbly through 
 the sunny air. We open the 
 front door, and sit upon its 
 threshold. We look out under 
 the maple trees that shade the 
 yard, over fields, across to the 
 mountain sides, that now stand 
 in the freshest, deepest green. 
 We take our book, and holding 
 it with folded hands behind us, 
 we walk, with uncovered head, 
 up and down the road before 
 the house, beneath the trembling 
 shadows which the maples cast 
 westward — shadows that play 
 upon the ground in gold and 
 dark, as the small wind opens 
 and shuts the spaces of the trees 
 to the sunlight ! This is perfect 
 rest. The ear is full of birds' 
 notes, of insects' hum, of the 
 barn-yard clack of hens and 
 peeping chickens; the eye is 
 full of noble, outlined hills, of 
 meadow-growing trees, of grass 
 glancing with light shot from a 
 million dewdrops, and of the 
 great heavenly arch, unstained 
 with cloud, from side to side 
 without a note or film; filled 
 with silent, golden ether, which 
 surely descends on such a morn- 
 ing as this from the very hills of 
 heaven. Angels have flown 
 through it, and exhaled their 
 joys, as flowers leave their per- 
 fume in the evening air.— " The 
 Star Papers}'' 
 
 AUTUMN 
 
 When the maple turns to crimson 
 And the sassafras to gold ; 
 
 When the gentian's in the meadow 
 And the aster's on the wold ; 
 
 When the moon is lapped in vapor 
 And the night is frosty cold ; 
 
 When the chestnut burrs are opened 
 And the acorns drop like hail, 
 
 And the drowsy air is startled 
 With the thumping of the flail — 
 
 With the drumming of the partridge 
 And the whistle of the quail ; 
 
 Through the rustlingwoods I wander, 
 Through the jewels of the year, 
 
 From the yellow uplands calling, 
 Seeking her that is still dear ; 
 
 She is near me in the autumn, 
 Nature, the beautiful, is near 
 
 The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns ; 
 The low'ring eye, the petulance, the frown, 
 And sullen sadness that o'ershade, distort, 
 And mar the face of beauty, when no cause 
 For such immeasurable woe appears, 
 These Flora banishes, and gives the fair 
 Sweet smiles and bloom less transient than her own. 
 
 Covifey. 
 
io6 
 
 (CONTINUEt) FROM PAGE 104) 
 
 my mother kept in her drawers, 
 and I can remember now just how 
 they looked, years and years ago." 
 c. D. N. 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 QUIET, SLyMBROUS SHEF- 
 FIELD 
 
 Aella Greene thus writes of the 
 beautiful town of Sheffield: 
 
 The uneasy spirit of this mad 
 age has not yet entered every New 
 England village, to the driving out 
 of the spirit of calmness and con- 
 tent. And one of these thus far 
 spared the uprest oi the times is 
 the southernmost town of Berk- 
 shire. This fact, beautiful in the 
 history of Sheffield, seems evident 
 
 SHAKER MILLS, WEST STOCKBRIDGE 
 
 as coming from the teeming, war- 
 ring outer world, one enters the 
 quiet central village of the old 
 town, and prepared for serenity by 
 the sweetness and calmness of 
 Lenox, Stockbridge and Barring- 
 ton, through which he has jour- 
 neyed, saunters along the wide and 
 well-shaded principal street, drink- 
 ing in the slumbrousness that per- 
 vades the old elm-bordered aisle. 
 And, meditating on the peaceful 
 life of the people and the fragrant 
 memories of that lover of nature 
 and of humanity, the Unitarian 
 divine. Rev. Dr. Orville Dewey, 
 the visitor continues in his course 
 to the tree that is so large and so 
 well proportioned that in a town 
 full of elms it is known as "the" 
 Sheffield elm. Worship at this 
 shrine over, the traveler, with an 
 
 SOUTH END OF THE TOWN 
 
 CENTRE SCHOOL-HOUSE 
 
 a 
 
 SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE MINING DISTRICT 
 
 ON ROAD TO GREAT EAKRINGTON 
 
 eyer growing con- 
 sciousness of the, wel- 
 come that this elm and 
 other elms, and other 
 trees, wave him, and 
 the consciousness ;th at 
 ■ ^ - -^ ■■_„| - ^j^ rvti— E K ' '-m ^^ needs the humaniz- 
 %, JBHBK^ i^ "^<* \' % ^"S of this spirit of 
 
 calmness, retraces his 
 steps to the hospitable 
 home of a friend, or 
 theinviting village inn. 
 The jaunt at morn- 
 
 'I I iM»Hliff^irt1iliiill>^ ["""^r. ''"^' ^^°^^ ^^^ country 
 
 roadways, out from 
 
 the village, gives views 
 of farms of considera- 
 ble fertility, and of 
 some that, truth to tell, have a light soil which is barren in spots. 
 Sheffield is, on the whole, a good grazing town, and dairying is 
 quite a thing with the farmers, as witness the thousands and 
 
 TO VVN HALL 
 
 thousands of quarts of milk shipped every week by 
 daily installments to the great markets of Gotham. 
 
 There's music in the sighing of a reed ; 
 There's music in the gushing of a rill ; 
 There's music in all things, if men had ears ; 
 Their earth is but an echo of the spheres. 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
 
 Byron. 
 
 RAILWAY STATION 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 107 
 
 DOWN HILL TO WEST STOGKBRIDGE TOWN 
 
 UAIN STREET FROM WATERING PLACE 
 
 RICHMOND REMINISCENCES 
 
 Rev. David Perry was the parson of Richmond for nearly fifty years. Like 
 Michael Balwhidder of Scottish fame, "he was a vehement thrasher of the Word, 
 making the chaff and vain babblings of unbelievers fly from his hand." But the 
 parson's opposite neighbor and parishioner was an avowed unbeliever. At that 
 time there were strolling people traveling through the country who had no money 
 to pay for "putting up at the tavern." They stopped at houses for food and a 
 night's lodging. The parson's opposite neighbor was quite a close man, and when 
 
 'I 
 
 these people begged a shelter for the night he invariably asked, " Be. you the Lord's 
 poor, or the Devil's poor ? " The strangers would naturally reply, " We hope we 
 are the Lord's poor." "Cross right over on the other side, then," the neighbor 
 would reply in a quaint way, " the parson lives there ; he keeps the Lord's poor." 
 
 _ . A century 
 
 a^o Richmond 
 was one of the 
 leading towns 
 of the county 
 and took first 
 premiums in a 
 nptable way at 
 the " cattle 
 shows " and 
 C9unty fairs." 
 An old settler 
 told of seeing 
 one hundred 
 iOxen yoked to- 
 gether and 
 chained in a 
 
 CAPT. JACOB NORTH 
 
 FROM THE DEPOT BRIDGE, WEST STOGKBRIDGE 
 
 ON THE WILLIAMS RIVER 
 
 THE IRON UINES 
 
 KNTEKING \\'i:?T STitCKBRIDGE 
 
io8 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 AV 
 
 1 
 
 '#■ 
 
 VIEW NEAE THE QEPOT, RICHMUND 
 
 long proqession, going from Richmond ^o the " Fair." Nowhere else but in 
 Richmond could one hundred such fine oxen be found. The first Leghorn 
 bonnet ever seen at the county fair was made by a young girl in Richmond, 
 who cut the Leghorn grass in the swamp, bleached it in the sun and braided it 
 into a bonnet, and not a girl in the whole town knew of her enterprise until they 
 saw it on exhibition at the fair. The committee on premiums awarded her five 
 
 , dollars for her handiwork. 
 
 There was a noted weaver 
 woman, living on one of the 
 bleak hill-tops, who designed 
 intricate patterns for her 
 linen and woolen manufac- 
 tures. The workings of her 
 loom were so much admired, 
 that women came, not only 
 from the adjacent towns to 
 get their coverlets and 
 tablecloths woven ; but from 
 Albany and Hartford, as well. 
 Married women, however, 
 spem to have had but little 
 identity of their own at that 
 age of the town. In turning 
 over an old church manual of Richmond, we 
 find in the list of the membership wives 
 recorded after this manner: "The wife' 
 of Nathan Cogswell," "The wife of Dr. 
 Crocker," "The wife of Erastus Row- 
 ley." As some of the husbands of these 
 women were non-professors, it seemed 
 quite a novel way of recording the mem. 
 bership. 
 
 The parson pastured his cows on Perry's 
 Peak, and there being a large number of 
 " olive branches " in the way of boys in the 
 parson's family, they took turns in driving 
 the cows to and from pasture, the distance 
 being so great that it was quite a journey, 
 morning and evening. 
 
 p. 
 
 BELOW THE DAM, RICHMOND 
 
 d»«.< 
 
 VIEW FROM OFFICE OF RICHMOND FUKNACT! 
 
 SOME MINERS' HOMES 
 
 . ,.^„^_ 
 
 • V ' 
 
 :/ 
 
 '* 
 
 A WINTER FORD 
 
 1 
 
 ByRNING pHABCOAL 
 
 ORE BEDS AND ENGINE HOUSE, RJCItMOND FURNACE 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 109 
 
 CONGRBGATIONAT. CHIIBCH AND TOWN HALL 
 
 A Laconic Lawyer. — Shays' rebellioa engendered a vast amount of 
 ill feeling. It was a war of neighbor against neighbor and family against 
 family — a civil war on a limited scale. In the personal animosities which 
 attended the rebellion, a horse belonging to a friend of the government 
 was shot and killed by his neighbor, a Shays sympathizer. From this arose 
 a suit for damages brought by the former, against the latter. The Shays 
 man was known to be guilty ; but the difficulty was to prove the fact. The 
 
 case came up for hearing be- 
 fore a justice of the peace and 
 Major William King appeared 
 as counsel to defend the Shays 
 man. It was proved beyond 
 a doubt that the defendant at 
 the, time of the killing had 
 been seen within half a mile 
 of the pasture in which the 
 horse was kept, with a gun in 
 his hands, and that he was 
 heard to hurrah lustily for 
 Shays. The evidence was 
 not very conclusive as to his 
 guilt, but the counsel for the 
 plaintiff laid great stress upon 
 it, and made a labored and 
 lengthy argument. Rising to re- 
 ply. Major King, in his laconic 
 way, addressed the court: 
 " May it please your Honor, 
 the question is simply this : 
 Whether or not hurrahing for 
 Shays will kill a horse at half a 
 mile," and resumed his seat. 
 The defendant was acquitted. 
 
 UBTHODIST GBUBGH 
 
 STEVEN'S OLEH 
 
 RICHMOND FUENAGE 
 
 THE SGHOOL-HOUSE 
 
 THE MINSTREL WINDS 
 They lay 
 
 Their wild hands on the leafless boughs, 
 Which heave 
 
 In slow-drawn sighs, till all the forest-harp 
 Wails o'er the buried autumn and lets loose 
 The sea-like music of eternity. 
 
 POST-OFPIGB AND 9TORB 
 
 O Nature, how in every charm supreme ! 
 
 Whose votaries feed on raptures ever new ! 
 Oh, for the voice and fire of seraphim, 
 
 To sing thy glories, with devotion due I 
 
 Blest be the day 1 'scaped the wrangling crew, 
 From Pyrrho's maze, and Epicurus' sty ; 
 
 And held high converse with the God-like few. 
 Who to the enraptured heart, and ear and eye. 
 Teach Beauty, Virtue, Truth and Love, and 
 Melody. 
 
 Beaitie. 
 
 E4ILWAT STATION 
 
 Scenes must be beautiful which daily view'd 
 Please daily, and whose novelty survives 
 Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years 
 
 Cawper. 
 
 AN OLD H0G3B 
 
no 
 
 PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 THE MONTHS 
 
 VERSES BY M. A. RYAN 
 ILLUSTRATED BY CLIFTON JOHNSON 
 
 J" 
 
 J^ 
 
 -**"^ 
 
 
 ^s^d 
 
 ^kjmf 
 
 ^fe^ 
 
 Z^M 
 
 JMJi 
 
 Bleak are New England's Old Hillsides 
 
 And winds blow fierce in wrath 
 Delaying still the glad spring-tides, 
 Yet giving time for last sleigh rides 
 Along each country path. 
 
 '■i> /^ 
 
 Clear is the air to the ringing 
 
 Of the^ first of the year's twelve strokes. 
 The wind o'er the white fields bringing 
 Sounds of the wood ax swinging 
 
 Courage and strength invokes. 
 
 Soft warm rains the wild flowers know, 
 
 Sent from low gray skies ; 
 Streains swell broad in onward flow, 
 On willow limbs new leaf buds grow, 
 
 Harsh; winds become mild sighs. 
 
 What though the brooks are all fettered 
 By the bonds of the Frost King bold? 
 
 What care has the life snow-sheltered — 
 
 A covering not to be bettered 
 While winter continues its hold ? 
 
 
 t 
 
 -SET 
 
 In orchard lanes are blossoms white; 
 
 Fair earth says, " List, child, play; - 
 For the world is bright 
 All day, all night 
 
 When the year clock rings out May." 
 
PICTURESQUE BERKSHIRE 
 
 III 
 
 t8ti#«s!» 
 
 A gleam of gold in the grasses 
 
 Where the daisies love to grow ; 
 And roses, whose short life passes 
 Where the bee his honey amasses 
 On the hillsides all aglow. 
 
 Then Earth has its fullest and ripest days 
 
 Brief rest between summer and fall; 
 And yet with a boding of end of ways, 
 For old Earth's fullness never stays, 
 But ever must follow Queen Nature's call. 
 
 Time of harvest now draws nigh, 
 
 The grains to ripeness grow. 
 And through the golden fields of rye 
 The reaper goes in rich July 
 And lays the tall heads low. 
 
 Color glories where green leaves grew, 
 
 And ripe year's fruitage all. 
 Trees spread gay banners, and 'tis true, 
 These days of splendor have their due 
 
 For nuture spent from bud to fall. 
 
 KOVEMBEK 
 
 Once more tell the Puritan story 
 Of the trials of the forefather's days. 
 
 In peace and in plenty we glory. 
 
 While the maize guards the hillsides hoary, 
 And prepare for the Thanksgiving praise. 
 
 DEGBSIBER 
 
 Sound long the note of December, 
 
 Last of the twelve-stroked chime. 
 
 Christmas glories long to remember 
 
 Are out-borne on this fading ember. 
 
 And the year yields up to time. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 AUGUST 
 
 The torrid thunderstorm comes on, 
 
 Bred in the languorous skies. 
 With flashing eye and sullen tone 
 It rushes on, bursts forth, is gone. 
 And a freshened earth behind it lies. 
 
INDEX TO TEXT 
 
 EDITORIAL 
 
 An Interesting Document, . 
 
 Introductory 
 
 Our Artists and Other Helpers, 
 The Picturesque Series, 
 The Southern Sentinel, 
 
 CONTRIBUTED 
 
 A Curious Old Book for Children, 
 Esthetic Stockbridge, .... 
 
 A Hailstorm in Berkshire, 
 
 /. M. L. Babcock, 
 A Hillside Farm. A Poem, 
 
 Laura Sanderson, 
 Amid the Wild Flowers, 
 
 Mrs. D. H. R. Goodale, 
 Among the Berkshire Hills, 
 
 Frederic Allison Tupper, 
 A Mountain Climb, Mary E. Dewey, 
 
 A Notable Berkshire Town, 
 
 6'. B. Quigley, 
 An Unlucky Tea Party, .... 
 A Potato Fortune, M. A. Ryan, 
 
 A Thanksgiving Incident of Stockbridge, 
 Susan Teall Perry, 
 Berkshire so _ Bonn y, Anon, 
 
 Brook and Pond Life, Walter Harrison, 
 
 36 
 
 34 
 
 17 
 77 
 ■57 
 
 98 
 97 
 
 36 
 14 
 
 105 
 
 33 
 98 
 
 45 
 
 Curious Epitaphs, 
 
 Does Farming Pay? Henry S. Goodale, 
 Falls of the Bash Bish, C. P. D. 
 
 Fox-Hunting in Berkshire, Albert Hardy 
 Gus Barnes et als, Aellq Greene. 
 
 Not "to the Manor Born," 
 
 Old Bolivar, 
 
 Picturesque Lee, Rev. L. S. Rowland, 
 Quiet, Slumbrous Sheffield, 
 Recollections of Lenox, Albert Hardy. 
 Reminiscences of Sandisfield, . 
 Richmond Reminiscences, P. 
 
 Sam — A Poem with a History, 
 
 Albert Hardy. 
 Singular Occurrences in Sheffield, 
 Some Peculiar Characters, 
 
 George S. Whitbeck. 
 Some Reminiscences, .... 
 Some Southern Berkshire Notabilities, 
 
 Clark W. Bryan. 
 Song to Berkshire, Dora Read Goodale. 
 The Bash-a-Bish, Laura Sanderson 
 
 The Hopkins-Searles Mansion, 
 The Longing Hour, 
 
 Elaine Goodale Eastman. 
 The Little Schoolgirl of 1820, 
 
 Susan Teal Perry. 
 The Old Court-house, Henry L. Dawes. 
 
 FAGB 
 84 
 
 95 
 98 
 
 60 
 
 50 
 103 
 
 44 
 
 41 
 
 io5 
 
 9? 
 
 72 
 
 107 
 
 51 
 71 
 
 99 
 51 
 
 92 
 66 
 98 
 31 
 
 92 
 
 13 
 15 
 
 The Ride About the County, 
 
 H. T. Oatman. 
 
 . Lenox, Stockbridge and Great Barfington, 
 
 Washington, Lee, Becket and Tyringham, 
 
 Otis, Sandisfield, New Marlboro, and 
 
 Slieffield, 
 
 Monterey, Mount Washington, Alford, 
 West Stockbridge, Richmond and Egre- 
 
 mont, 
 
 Vacations in Berkshire, 
 
 Wm. Wilberforce Newton, 
 What the Farmer Reads, 
 
 Clementina D. Nahmer, 
 What was in Grandmother's Chest, 
 
 C. D. N., 
 
 SELECTED 
 
 Beecher on Berkshire, 
 
 Green River, 
 
 Haying, 
 
 Monument Mountain, 
 
 Rain Upon the Roof, 
 
 The Crow Hill School, 
 
 The Good Stockbridge Indians, 
 
 The Mountains in October, 
 
 The Two Villages, Rose Ten 
 
 20 
 
 53 
 
 63 
 
 79 
 
 47 
 
 55 
 
 104 
 
 
 40 
 
 Bryant, 
 
 45 
 
 Beecher, 
 
 77 
 
 Bryant, 
 
 4a 
 
 Kinney, 
 
 79 
 
 Anon, 
 
 80 
 
 
 33 
 
 . 
 
 44 
 
 y Cooke, 
 
 85 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Frontispiece, A Pleasure Party Returning 
 from "the Dome," R. Lionel DeLisser. 
 
 BY TOWNS AND VILLAGES 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Alford, 
 
 103-105 
 
 Becket, .;.... 
 
 '. 51-54 
 
 Egremont, 
 
 100-102 
 
 North Egremont, 
 
 102 
 
 South Egremont, .... 
 
 100, 101 
 
 Great Barrington, .... 
 
 30-50 
 
 Housatonic, 
 
 47-50 
 
 Van Deusenville 
 
 45 
 
 Lee 
 
 59-68 
 
 North Lee, . . . . 
 
 64 
 
 South Lee, 
 
 62, 65, 66 
 
 Lenox 
 
 6-i8 
 
 Lenoxdale, 
 
 14-16 
 
 Marlboro, 
 
 80-84 
 
 Campbell's Falls, and Lake Buel, . 
 
 84 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Hartsville 80 
 
 Mill River, 82, 83 
 
 Southneld, 81, 82 
 
 Monterey, 76 
 
 Mount Washington 91-99 
 
 Bash Bish and Sage's Ravine, . . , 96-98 
 
 Sky Farm, 92 
 
 Otis . 74, 75 
 
 Otis Falls, . . • ■ • 75 
 
 West Otis, ... . . 75 
 
 Richmond, . 108, 109 
 
 Sandisfield, ... ... 77-79 
 
 Montville, .... . . 79 
 
 New Boston, . 78, 79 
 
 Sheffield, 85-90 
 
 Ashley Falls go 
 
 Stockbridge, 1^-29 
 
 Glendale, 27 
 
 Tyringham, 69-73 
 
 Washington 55, 56 
 
 West Stockbridge, jo6, 107 
 
 GENERAL ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Potato Fortune, 
 
 Drawings by Clifton Johnson, 105 
 Does Farming Pay? 
 
 Sketches by Walter Cox, 95 
 Sam — A Poem with a History, 
 
 Illustrations by R. Lionel DeLisser, 5 1 
 The Months, 
 
 Drawings by Clifton Johnson, 110,111 
 The Sphinx Above the Clouds, 
 
 By Wm. L. Maclean, 40 
 Wash Drawings, - 
 
 By R. Lionel DeLisser, 
 
 A Happy Family, 55 
 
 Early Morning, go 
 
 Evening, g^ 
 
 The Meeting 89 
 
 Waiting 3^ 
 
 Wild Flowers, 
 
 Illustrations by Frederick Knab, 57, 58 
 
 Clare W. Betan CoMPANr, Printers, Spetngfibld, Mass.