Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
Bordering this famous Green are the churches and public buildings of
Pittsfield, while not far away a spacious and comfortable mansion is
pointed out which for many years was the summer home of Longfellow,
and the place where he found "The Old Clock on the Stairs"--the clock
is said to still remain in the house. The Pittsfield streets lead out
in every direction to lovely scenes on mountain slopes or the banks of
lakes. The Agassiz Association for the study of natural history has
its headquarters in Pittsfield, there being a thousand local chapters
in various parts of the world. This pleasant region was the Indian
domain of Pontoosuc, "the haunt of the winter deer," and this is the
name of one of the prettiest adjacent lakes just north of the town on
the Williamstown road. Ononta is another of exquisite contour, west of
the town, a romantic lakelet elevated eighteen hundred feet, which
gives Pittsfield its water supply, and has an attractive park upon its
shores. On the mountain to the northwest is Berry Pond, its margin of
silvery sand strewn with delicate fibrous mica and snowy quartz. Here,
in various directions, are the "Opes," as the beautiful vista views
are called, along the vales opening through and among the hills. One
of these, to the southward, overlooks the lakelet of the "Lily Bowl."
Here lived Herman Melville, the rover of the seas, when he wrote his
sea-novels. The chief of these vales is to the northwest of
Pittsfield, the "Ope of Promise," giving a view over the "Promised
Land." We are told that this tract was named with grim Yankee humor,
because the original grant of the title to the land was "long
promised, long delayed."
LENOX.
A fine road, with exquisite views, leads a few miles southward to
Lenox, the "gem among the mountains," as Professor Silliman called it,
standing upon a high ridge at twelve hundred feet elevation, and
rising far above the general floor of the valley, the mountain ridges
bounding it upon either hand, being about five miles apart, and having
pleasant intervales between. There is a population of about three
thousand, but summer and autumn sojourners greatly enlarge this, when
throngs of happy pilgrims from the large cities come here, most of
them having their own villas. The crests and slopes of the hills round
about Lenox are crowned by mansions, many of them costly and imposing,
adding to the charms of the landscape. At the head of the main street,
the highest point of the village, stands the old Puritan
Congregational Church, with its little white wooden belfry and a view
all around the compass. This primitive church recalls many memories of
the good old times, before fashion sought out Lenox and worshipped at
its shrine:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account