Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
"They had rigid manners and homespun breeches
In the good old times;
They hunted Indians and hung up witches
In the good old times;
They toiled and moiled from sun to sun,
And they counted sinful all kinds of fun,
And they went to meeting armed with a gun,
In the good old times."
Far to the northward, seen from this old church, beyond many swelling
knolls and ridges, rises Old Graylock, looking like a recumbent
elephant, as the clouds overhang its twin rounded peaks, thirty miles
away. From the church door, facing the south and looking over and
beyond the village, there is such a panorama that even without the
devotion of the inspired Psalmist, one might prefer to stand in the
door of the Lord's house rather than dwell in tent, tabernacle or
mansion. This glorious view is over two valleys, one on either hand,
their bordering ridges covered with the fairest foliage. To the
distant southwest, where the Housatonic Valley stretches away in
winding courses, the stream flowing in wayward fashion across the
view, there are many ridgy hills, finally fading into the horizon
beyond the Connecticut boundary. The immediate hillside is covered
with the churchyard graves, and then slopes down into the village,
with its surrounding galaxy of villas, among which little lakes glint
in the sunlight. It is no wonder that Fanny Kemble, who lived here at
intervals for many years, desired to be buried at this church door,
for she could not have found a fairer resting-place, though Henry Ward
Beecher, another summer sojourner, in his enthusiasm expressed the
hope that in her life to come she would "behold one so much fairer
that this scenic beauty shall fade to a shadow."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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