USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Picturesque Hampshire : a supplement to the quarter-centennial-journal > Part 6
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COLE'S MEADOW.
PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
25
before it is too late. It is but fifteen minutes walk from the city hall and only a few steps from one of the principal thoroughfares of the city. On the south side of the river a magnificent expanse of wood and meadow is spread out; this is the prop- erty of the state, and here the hospital patients take their daily exercise with attendants, a partial route of their walk sbowing in the picture called "Paradise Panels."
Back to our carriage and "old Dobbin" again, we start for a ride through the famous meadows and by the banks of the Connecticut river; along shore we see piles of drift-wood which would be wel- comed, Oh! how gladly, by the wretched poor of the metropolis,
THE SLOUGH HILL CUT.
railroad ent and are not long in reaching a far- famed point of view-Elizabeth Rock, but a rod or two south of the city stone crushing works. Here " old Dobbin " must again be tied and we can walk up through the pasture lot to the rocks above. No more magnificent scene of this kind was ever spread before an artist- and many an artist has labored with it. Almost at our feet the great river winds about the Hadley peninsula and the railroads and graceful country roads stretch away to the north, south and west. No one knows from whom this point of view took its name, but tradition has handed it down.
"Get up, old Dobbin," - once
Mount Nonotuck.
THE MOUNT TOM RANGE.
Mount Tom.
could they reach them-wood in profusion, to be had for the taking away. Then crossing the river, by the ferry, we come to the canoe club-house of the Wish-ton-Wish, at Hockanum. greatly improv- ed during the past summer. We probably cannot get a quorum of the boys for a repetition of the "decorative figure," but we can see one or more of them almost any hour of the day, sporting in the water, as much at home there as in the boat. The lumber company's mills loom np in the distance a mile below, and the wire rope ferry and ferryman's shanty are sharply outlined against the horizon and the water, while a club member comes send- ding along toward us rapidly in one of the modern river craft-a canoe with light sail added. Once, over these waters, friends, came the old fall boat, loaded with provisions or a miscellaneous cargo of goods generally, to Northampton, being worked up the Mill river even, by poling, to near the foot of Pleasant street, where it discharged its cargo, taken aboard at Hartford. But first the canal, then steam cars, cleared out the old fall boat, which would be unable now to get beyond the mouth of Mill river any way. Were it the spring of the year and a time of unusual freshet we should like to show our friends a peculiar scene on the Connecti- eut river, but as it is we shall have to content ourselves with re- ferring them to the picture of it and taking up our carriage-ride back to the city. Then going north, up King street, we pass over the picturesque Slough hill
PROMENADE PLATFORM ON MT. NONOTUCK.
MOUNTAIN AND MEADOW .- MOUNT HOLYOKE.
ON THE ROAD TO MT. TOM STATION FROM EASTHAMPTON.
26
PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
THE ROAD UP THE MOUNTAIN.
NEAR MT. TOM STATION.
more, and take us to the camp ground of Laurel park. This is but a mile farther up the road, towards Hatfield, but still in the city. Here the Methodist people hold their annual meetings in Angust, preceded in July by the Connecticut Val- ley Chautauqua Assembly, now an established institution of the times. The exercises last sev- eral days and the features are too familiar to need repetition here. Sulfiee it to say that the enter- prise has thoroughly proved its usefulness and with each succeeding year is more popular. Lau- rel park is a most beautiful ground and is being more improved every season. The managers should and probably will soon add good boating facilities on the river near by, and then little will be needed to complete the list of attractions.
In the rear of the camp- ground lies a quaint little ham- let, also in the limits of the city, called "Cole's Meadow." There are hardly more than half a dozen honses here, but the place has been the home for many years of a few odd, contented old German families. It form- ed a little world in itself, no regular highway condneting, but a rough, little-used road through the woods leading to it, and there shut in, as it were from the busy outside world, the sturdy German fathers of the family tilled the farm and reaped the meadow grain and grass, while the women picked berries and peddled them in the town, their peculiar, character- istically honest and sober faces being familiar to nearly all Northampton housekeepers.
GROVE AT THE FOOT OF MT. NONOTUCK.
Only our friends with us in the carriage, who have driven to this curious little settlement, can see the pretty road which winds down the hill to the right, near which the meadow spreads, in the picture. The place looks like a deserted hamlet now; some few descendants of the original inhabitants are still there, but the voices of the old German father and mother are stilled forever and quiet in death, and the grove below the hill, to the left, no longer echoes to the joyous shonts and songs of the young men and maidens. They have become Americans, grown up to more sedate and sober ways and moved away to rear children under the restraints of closer neighborhoods. Cole's Meadow is only a pleasant memory to those who saw it in its palmy days, observed its quaint family life and enjoyed that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin.
Coming back to the center of the city we wish to give our friends a view of moun- tain and meadow, before we start for Mt. Nonotuck, our next objective point. The view from the foot of High street is about the best in the city, taking in, as it does, both ranges of mountains. It should be remembered that Mount Tom is the farthest elevation on the right of the picture of the range of that name, and this is several hun- dred feet higher than Mt. Nonotuck, at the left, where the mountain house is situated. Mt. Nonotnek is not so high as Holyoke, but Tom is higher than either. Their sev- eral heights are; Tom, 1214 feet ; Holyoke, 954; Nonotuek, 852.
RUINS AND BROOK NEAR SMITH'S FERRY.
THE OX-BOW IN 1810 AND 1890, AS VIEWED FROM MT. HOLYOKE,
As we pass through the meadoy s we notice how abruptly both ranges rise from them. This is the only exense for calling them mountains, for the hills in the western part of the county, which we shall visit later, are considerably higher. As we cross the short wooden bridge over the "ox-bow" waters, we can hardly avoid noticing the suggestive scene made by so many telegraph poles outlined against the mountain-side. The river is said to have once pushed its way through the two mountain ranges, and now the instruments of business follow it. Our artist's view of the
BARGAINS AT NOURSE & Co. CLOTHIERS. UNDER WINDSOR HO
ADVERTISING BY THE ROAD-SIDE,
27
PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
"ox-bow" in 1840-90 gives an idea how the locality has changed. The ox-bow waters are still, where once they formed the main chan- nel of the river. In these quiet waters the famous muskalonge, weighing over twenty pounds, are some- times caught. Just beyond the station to the right, we strike the Mt. Tom road to Easthampton, but, as we wish to visit the mountain, we turn off at a point short- ly before we reach the situation pictured by our artist, who took the view comming from the opposite direction. Mount Tom grove is but a few steps from this road and is much frequented every season by picnic parties. The open ground shown in the pic- ture is used for ball and other games. Now, wind- ing up this beautiful moun- tain road, we can go all the way to the summit with "old Dobbin," and the new platform at the mountain
SMITH'S FERRY.
house will give us room enough to promenade and enjoy the scene as long as we please. The attractions of this eminence and Mt. Holyoke have often been described, and as we wish to leave our friends to find out some things for them- selves, we will not amplify upon them.
A drive to Smith's Ferry will naturally follow our return down the mountain, and between Mt. Tom Sta- tion and Smith's Ferry, if we keep onr eyes open, we shall discover very speedily hints of the picturesque on the right hand side of the road. The ruins of an old mill stand a little back from the highway, and the scene is one for a painter. A brook rolls and tumbles along and finally under this
" LOOKOUT" SHOOTING RANGE.
OVERLOOKING " BAY STATE" FROM THE BLUFF.
arched bridge, and then another pretty water effect is to be observed below, on the left of the roadway. Smith's Ferry is one of the stations where South Hadley college girls take the trains, and in order to get the best view of this little farming station we should visit the grounds of the Northampton shooting club- "Lookout Range. " We shall only find the elnb there on Wednesdays, but our artist has given us a picture
'BITS" NEAR BAY STATE.
28
PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
work. In the village of Leeds, one of the best views obtainable is that chosen by our artist, from Quigley hill. Quite a large part (the western) does not, however, show, in
of them taken on the last "Fourth of July, " when they were getting up their appetites for a clam-bake. The last scene taken by our artist is below Smith's Ferry near Holyoke, and shows another curious use of the highway -- this for the purpose of advertising. It is in a sense picturesque, gives variety to our pages, and our friends with us in the carriage will therefore readily see why we added it to our collection.
But we have gone to the extreme sonthern limits of the town and county in this longitude. Let us return to the eity and drive to the west side. On the way to the thriving manufacturing vil- lage of Bay State we shall, if we keep a watchful eye, strike the little bits of picturesque effect along the banks of the Mill river, so daintily portrayed by Miss Lathrop's pen and ink. The view --- of Bay State given in these pages is out of our road and was taken from the high bluff of Mill river, south- east of the village. A fine distant view of Florence may be obtained, as we drive along, from Baker hill, if we will but drive the horse a little out of the so-called " back road. "
What shall we say of Florence, which we require little time in reaching ? Northampton has drawn its best talent, of late years from this beautiful village, but this we have not space to descant upon, and it has
A GLIMPSE OF FLORENCE FROM BAKER HILL.
this picture. Silk and emery wheel manufacture sustain the life of this lively little village.
It is but a short drive to Roberts Meadow, a charming western suburb of the eity. On the way thither we shall see the lower reservoir of the water works, while the new one is farther up the stream called the Roberts Meadow brook. This district comprises several fair-sized farms. but there are not many houses. These few show evidence of thrift in their owners, however. and there is a schoolhouse near by. The most picturesque object in the hamlet is the old Moody tavern, now used as a residenee by the family of Eli A. Sylvester.
We may as well drive out "Lonetown " way, so that we can say we have been there, but we do not believe that our friends will wish to stop. The little chapel on this bleak plain looks lonesome, as our pen and ink artist has it. and we may as well push on to Lond- ville, take a glance there and then "right about" for home. This little bridge, high over the stream near Loudville, with Saw-mill hills in the back- ground, is about the only pie- turesqne object hereabouts, but that is well worth turning the camera upon, if one has such an instrument with him, as we had when we visited the scene once before.
And now our "Drive About Town " is finished and we will return to the eenter of the " Meadow City, " take a rest and a look at the great sur- rounding country panorama, be fore we take out "Old Dobbin " again-next time to the very western confines of the old coun- ty itself.
been often written about. If you will ascend Cosmian hall tower with us, you will see spread out before you a thriv- ing, compact village, which might well be a town in itself. It is a model community ; its people have had constantly before them the incentive of high and noble example, in the lives of Burleigh, Lilly, Hill, Bond and many others. A free church, library, press and kindergarten are some of these men's monuments, and "their works do live after them." The Lilly library was but recently dedicated, and the view of house and grounds shown by the artist in these pages, will be appreciated by many. One of the interest- ing features of the village is the monument in front of the Catholic church, erected to the memory of the late Father Callery, a priest much beloved by his parishioners. As we have some time to spare and it is on our way to Horse Mountain, which is our next point of interest, let us drive around by Lawyer Bond's "Herdsdale" farm. Here is a handsome herd of Holstein-Friesian cattle, a Dutel stock famous for their great yield of milk. Our artist was happy in securing his picture here at the best moment.
HERDSDALE FARM.
We have not the time to go over Horse Mountain today, and it is not necessary, but we wish to give our friend just a glimpse of the region. The scene as we move up the gentle ascent is very captivating to the artistic eye; neat homesteads border the road - way ; RESIDENCE OF THE LATE A. T. LILLV. here the little red school-house of the district comes in view, here a eider-mill, and there a small deserted house. It is an easy ascent all the way and a line view is obtained before the descent into Haydenville's " Mountain street, " so called, but as this is a "drive about town, " we must finish up Northampton first before wandering far ontside. We are now turned back, and bound for Leeds. On our way back we may as well glance into "Lovers' Lane, " not far from the brush shop in Florence. What tales this none too secluded path might tell if it could speak of the soft foot-falls over its confines !
A TEMPLE OF FREE SPEECH.
Cook's dam at Leeds is an interesting picture. This struc- ture was built chiefly to furnish power for generating electric light for the Nonotuck silk mills, and is an excellent piece of
THE LILLY LIBRARY.
29
PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
LOVERS' LANE AT FLORENCE.
EdwardEverett's Tribute to Northampton.
EXTRACTS FROM THE ADDRESS OF HON. EDWARD EVERETT AT THE DINNER OF THE H. F. & H. AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, OCT. 7, 1852.
* * * * But notwithstanding this, Sir, I must say, for me there is and always has been an indescribable charm in rural nature; in these fields loaded with the promise of the spring or the bonnties of harvest; these pastures alive with flocks and herds; these broad meadows and woodlands hung with the variegated drapery of autumn, to which your secretary allnded, each tree with its peculiar tint, scarlet and orange and violet and gold, as the hand divine has touched with the same pencil oak or elm or maple or beech ; these stately avenues of elms and trim rows of maple and the quiet villages reposing in their shade; the single farm-honses scattered by the road-side; the village school-house and the village spire ; and in this part of New England the queen of all her rivers, now meandering through allu- vial plains, now sweeping boldly around the base of majestic hills, now dashing over rocky barriers or forcing its way through mountain passes; and all this made donbly grateful and soothing by the rapid transi- tion which the railways enable us to make, from the burning pavement and bewildering din of the thronged street, to the soft green and sacred rest of some pleasant country town.
But this, Sir, is not all. I have long known North- ampton. I used to come here in my younger days to see my friends Cogswell and Bancroft at Round Hill, and in their refined and congenial society, to enjoy your scenery and admire the fertility of meadow and upland, and hill and forest. But the emotions excited in my mind at Northampton do not rest with the qualification of a taste for the useful or beautiful. There is that in your scenery which addresses a higher principle, the highest in our nature. I witnessed it in all its power, this morning, as I drove in an open carriage with the Governor and Lieutenant Governor through your mag- nificent meadows. We passed first through a sort of vaponry sea wbich seemed to surge over the face of the
ASCENDING HORSE MOUNTAIN.
plain and as it melted into air we saw at a distance wreath after wreath of silvery mist moving slowly np the side of the hill. It seemed as if nature with its clouds of incense was doing homage to the mountain majesty of Holyoke, sparkling as he was with a diadem of dew drops and robed in the purple of the morn. I felt as if man, the rational worshiper, were bound to unite in vocal strains of adoration, with the silent anthems of plain and stream and hill, and I was ready to repeat the lovely words which Milton puts into the months of our first parents :
" Ye mists and exhalations that now rise From vale or streaming lake, dusky or grey,
Till the sun paints your fleecy skirts with gold,
In honor to the world's great An- thor, rise ;
Whether to deck with elonds the uncolored sky,
Or wet the thirsty earth with fall- ing showers,
Rising or falling still advance the praise. "
DESERTED HOUSE ON HORSE MOUNTAIN.
VILLAGE OF LEEDS FROM QUIGLEY HILL.
MAGNIFICENCE OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.
Many pens have labored to deseribe the beauties of the Connectieut valley, and it would be almost superfluous for us to attempt the task, and then why should we when strangers have done so much better than its inhabitants can ? Those who have not yet seen the valley and who see this book will be more impressed also by the testimony of other visitors who can look upon our scenery with impartial eye and sober judgment and we wish here to call upon one such to witness. We do not recollect to have seen anywhere a tribute to our beautiful valley which for glowing phrase and eloquent, long sustained periods, can snrpass the praise given by Dr. Timothy Dwight, the President of Yale college, who visited this vicinity in 1820. It is the same country today, seventy years later, that it was when Dr. Dwight saw it, but if anything made more beautiful by the hand of man. But it was the natural configuration and "lay of the land" which charmed the president of Yale col- lege and few inhabitants of this magnificent valley have ever seen his tribute, as the book which contains it is ont of print and few copies are in existence, but as "praise from Sir Hubert is praise indeed," and the editor of this work desires all the fortification he can obtain from high anthority, it is appended, as follows :
"In the Connecticut valley, north of Mts. Tom and Holyoke, expands a bason about twenty miles long from the north-east to the south-west, and about fifteen miles wide in
COOK'S DAM, LEEDS.
30
PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
the opposite direction, limited on the western side of the river by Mount Tom on the south and the Green monn- tains running in a circuitous direction on the western and northern border, and on the eastern by a semi-ellipsis, formed of Mt. Holyoke, a part of the Lyme range, and Mt. Toby, a commanding emi- nence, which shoots ont as a spur near the Connectient river. Between the last men- tioned height and the Green
FLORENCE, LOOKING SOUTH AND NORTH.
mountains rises on the western margin of the river the Sugar-Loaf, a fine abrupt cone, the termination of Deer- field mountain, with a noble vista on each side, opening into distant regions gradually withdrawing from the sight. In this bason lie the townships of Northampton, Southampton, Easthampton, Westhampton, Hatfield, Williamsburg and Whately on the west, and Hadley, Amherst, Leverett and Sunderland on the east side of the river. A great number of others are presented on the summits of the mountains and subjacent hills.
"But the most exquisite scenery of the whole land- scape is formed by the river and its extended margin of beautiful intervals. The river turns four times to the east and three times to the west, within twelve miles, and within that distance makes a prog- ress of twenty-four. It is generally one- fourth of a mile wide, and its banks are beautifully alternated with a fringing of shrubs, green lawns and lofty trees. The intervals, which in this view border it in continual succession, are fields containing from five hundred to five thousand acres, formed like terraced gardens, and rising, as they recede from it by regular gradation. These fields are
distributed into an immense multitude of lots, separated only by imaginary lines, and devoted to all the various cultivations of the climate. Meadows are here seen con- taining from five to five hundred acres, interspersed with beautiful and lofty forest trees rising everywhere at little distances, and at times with orchards, of consid- erable extent, and covered with exquisite verdure. Here spread, also, vast expansions of arable ground, in which the different lots exactly resemble garden-beds, distinguishable from each other only by the different kinds of vegetation, and exhibiting all its varied hues, from the dark green of the maize to the brilliant gold of the barley. One range of these lots is separated from another by a straight road, running, like an alley, from
one to two or three miles in length, with here and there a brook, or mill stream, winding through the whole. A perfect neatness and brilliancy is every- where diffused, without a neg- lected spot to tarnish the lustre, or excite a wish in the mind for a higher finish. All these ob- jects united present here a col- lection of beanties, to which I know no parallel. When the eye traces this majestic stream, meandering with a singular course through these delightful fields, wandering in one place five miles to gain one, and in another four miles to gain sev- enty yards, enclosing almost immediately beneath, an island of twenty acres, exquisite in its form and verdure and adorned on the northern end with a beautiful grove; forcing its way between these mountains, exhibiting itself like a vast canal six or eight miles below them and occasionally reappearing at greater and greater distances in its passage to the ocean; when it marks the sprightly towns, which rise upon its banks, and the numerons churches, which gem the whole landscape in its neighborhood ; when it explores the lofty forests, widely contrasted with the rich scene of cultivation, which it has just examined, and presenting all the varie- ties of woodland vegetation ; when it ascends higher, and marks the perpetually varying and undulating arches of the hills, the points and crowns of the nearer and detached mountains, and the long con- tinted ranges of the most distant ones; particularly of the Green
MONUMENT TO A FAITHFUL PRIEST.
Mountains, receding north- ward beyond the reach of the eye ; when last of all it fastens upon the Monadnock in the north-east, and in the north- west upon Saddle mountain, ascending, each, at a distance of fifty miles in dim and misty grandeur, far above all the other objects in view: it will be difficult not to say, that with these exquisite varieties of beauty and grandeur the relish for landscape is filled ; neither a wish for higher perfection, nor an idea of what it is, remaining in the mind."
The new drop curtain of the Hollis street theatre in Boston, represents a scene on the Con- nectient river near Sonth Had- ley, and our readers will hard- ly question the taste of the de- signer or artist.
AN ARTIST'S OPINION OF THE VALLEY.
Artist John P. Davis, a contemporary of Elbridge Kingsley, sends ns the following brief but expressive opinion of the Connecticut Valley :
What a field for inspiration ! Here is the Connecticut valley, a broad allu vial basin, wherein thousands of vernal floods have brought and deposited the rich soil of northern highlands; this, seamed and dimpled with many a fan- tastie cicatrice of the flood's caprice, overgrown with tanglewood of trees and elambering vines, with opens of meadow land, in variegated green, sloping
FLORENCE, LOOKING EAST AND WEST
31
PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE.
gradually towards the shining river, a silver baldrie, fringed with osier and water maples. Round about are the sociable hills. They are de- scribed as "galloping off ;" not so; they gallop on, rather, and huddle round each lowland landscape, detaining the morning mist to give its mirage-like effect to the sunrise, while, like an illumined ban- ner, they hold above the twilight vales the last rays of the sun.
Where you see the grove-like masses of elm trees are the towns, thickly scattered, only recog- nizable by the musical far sounds of their indus- tries, the luxuriousness of their trees, an occasional white gable and the heavenward directing spires.
Then, beside the classic spirit that haunts the scenes of the Wept of the Wisk-ton-Wish, Elsie Venner and Kathrina, there is, everywhere perva- ding the far including scene, that sombre, myste- rious air of tragic tradition, associating all natural
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