| PAGE | ||
| Brandt Lake, Adirondacks | [Frontispiece] | |
| Monument to Jonathan Edwards, Stockbridge,Mass. | [256] | |
| Old Fort Ticonderoga | [290] | |
| Watkins Glen | [362] | |
| In the Thousand Islands, St. Lawrence | [412] | |
| Chaudière Falls, St. Lawrence | [450] | |
| Montcalm's Headquarters, Quebec | [474] | |
A GLIMPSE OF THE BERKSHIRE HILLS.
XI.
A GLIMPSE OF THE BERKSHIRE HILLS.
Berkshire Magnificence—Taghkanic Range—Housatonic River—Autumnal Forest Tints—Old Graylock—Fitchburg Railroad—Hoosac Mountain and Tunnel—Williamstown—Williams College—North Adams—Fort Massachusetts—Adams—Lanesboro—Pittsfield—Heart of Berkshire—The Color-Bearer—Latimer Fugitive Slave Case—Old Clock on the Stairs—Pontoosuc Lake—Ononta Lake—Berry Pond—Lily Bowl—Ope of Promise—Lenox—Fanny Kemble—Henry Ward Beecher—Mount Ephraim—Yokun-town—Stockbridge Bowl—Lake Mahkeenac—Nathaniel Hawthorne—House of the Seven Gables—Oliver Wendell Holmes—Lanier Hill—Laurel Lake—Lee—Stockbridge—Field Hill—John Sergeant—Stockbridge Indians—Jonathan Edwards—Edwards Hall—Sedgwick Family and Tombs—Theodore Sedgwick—Catherine Maria Sedgwick—Monument Mountain—The Pulpit—Ice Glen—Great Barrington—William Cullen Bryant—The Minister's Wooing—Kellogg Terrace—Mrs. Hopkins-Searles—Sheffield—Mount Everett—Mount Washington—Shays' Rebellion—Boston Corner—Salisbury—Winterberg—Bash-Bish Falls—Housatonic Great Falls—Litchfield—Bantam Lake—Birthplace of the Beechers—Wolcott House—Wolcottville—John Brown—Danbury—Hat-making—General Wooster—Ansonia—Derby—Isaac Hull—Robert G. Ingersoll's Tribute—Berkshire Hills and Homes.
BERKSHIRE MAGNIFICENCE.
In ascending the Hudson River, its eastern hill-border for many miles was the blue and distant Taghkanic range, which encloses the attractive region of Berkshire. When the Indians from the Hudson Valley climbed over those hills they found to the eastward a beautiful stream, which they called the Housatonic, the "River beyond the Mountains." This picturesque river rises in the Berkshire hills, and flowing for one hundred and fifty miles southward by a winding course through Massachusetts and Connecticut, finally empties into Long Island Sound. Berkshire is the western county of Massachusetts, a region of exquisite loveliness that has no peer in New England, covering a surface about fifty miles long, extending entirely across the State, and about twenty miles wide. Two mountain ranges bound the intermediate valley, and these, with their outcroppings, make the noted Berkshire hills that have drawn the warmest praises from the greatest American poets and authors. Longfellow, Whittier, Bryant, Hawthorne, Beecher and many others have written their song and story, which are interwoven with our best literature. It is a region of mountain peaks and lakes, of lovely vales and delicious views, and the exhilarating air and pure waters, combined with the exquisite scenery, have made it constantly attractive. Beecher early wrote that it "is yet to be as celebrated as the Lake District of England, or the hill-country of Palestine." One writer tells of the "holiday-hills lifting their wreathed and crowned heads in the resplendent days of autumn;" another describes it as "a region of hill and valley, mountain and lake, beautiful rivers and laughing brooks." Miss Sedgwick, who journeyed thither on the railroad up the Westfield Valley from the Connecticut River, wrote, "We have entered Berkshire by a road far superior to the Appian Way. On every side are rich valleys and smiling hillsides, and, deep-set in their hollows, lovely lakes sparkle like gems." Fanny Kemble long lived at Lenox, in one of the most beautiful parts of the district, and she wished to be buried in its churchyard on the hill, saying, "I will not rise to trouble anyone if they will let me sleep here. I will only ask to be permitted once in a while to raise my head and look out upon the glorious scene."
To these Berkshire hills the visitors go to see the brilliant autumnal tints of the American forests in their greatest perfection. When copious autumn rains have made the foliage luxuriant, much will remain vigorous after parts have been turned by frosts. This puts green into the Berkshire panorama to enhance the olives of the birch, the grayish pinks of the ash, the scarlets of the maple, the deep reds of the oak and the bright yellows of the poplar. When in such a combination, these make a magnificent contrast of brilliant leaf-coloring, and while it lasts, the mantle of purple and gold, of bright flame and resplendent green, with the almost dazzling yellows that cover the autumnal mountain slopes, give one of the richest feasts of color ever seen. This magnificence of the Berkshire autumn coloring inspired Beecher to write, "Have the evening clouds, suffused with sunset, dropped down and become fixed into solid forms? Have the rainbows that followed autumn storms faded upon the mountains and left their mantles there? What a mighty chorus of colors do the trees roll down the valleys, up the hillsides, and over the mountains!" From Williamstown to Salisbury the region stretches, the Taghkanic range bounding it on the west, and the Hoosac Mountain on the east. The northern guardian is double-peaked Old Graylock, the monarch of the Berkshire hills, in the Taghkanic range, the scarred surfaces, exposed in huge bare places far up their sides, showing the white marble formation of these hills.
WILLIAMSTOWN TO PITTSFIELD.