DOMESTIC SCENEKY OF NEW ENGLAND. xi 



of cornels, viburnums, and whortleberry-bushes, you should 

 visit one of these places to see the most beautiful display of 

 autumnal wood-scenery. 



Whatever course you may take, you will arrive occasionally 

 at a railroad station ; but the new village suddenly built upon 

 any such point is without peculiar attractions. Some of the 

 houses are models of elegance, but they are like all others in 

 the busy world. These new villages are the cosmopolitan 

 parts of New England, displaying models of perfection in 

 ornate art, and exposing to your observation only what may 

 be seen in every new city. Their scenery is not what the 

 picturesque eye is looking for, and fails to represent the special 

 features of this part of the country. The glare, the art, the 

 taste, fashion, and ostentation apparent in the new houses in 

 these new places are ornamental patches upon the landscape, 

 and are not peculiar to New England. 



The old roads in the Northeastern States, except the turn- 

 pikes, were never " laid out." They are but the widening of 

 paths made by pedestrians going from one house to another, or 

 of the cartways of the pioneer farmer and woodman. They 

 are generally somewhat elevated, unless they are carried over 

 a plain. They are situated a little above the base of the hills 

 and eminences which they encircle, to avoid the wet grounds 

 and the entanglements of vines and shrubbery that crowd the 

 borders of all the lowlands. All along the course of these 

 primitive roads are constantly rising to view plain farm- 

 houses, with their barns and barnyards, their wells with cross- 

 poles, their woodsheds, their workshops, and their few domes- 

 tic animals. Many of these houses were originally painted 

 red, with white facings. Some were without paint, except 

 their white borders, neatly contrasted with the dark stone- 

 color of the wooden walls. The houses are generally set back 

 a few rods from the highway and shaded by elms. They are 

 not enclosed, and the wide slope between the house and the 

 road is grazed by the farmer's cattle. 



In the rear of the house is a cartway leading between two 

 irregular rows of hickories, oaks, butternuts, and wild-cherry- 



