AT NATURAL BRIDGE 211 



bite taken, I bought a season ticket of ad- 

 mission to the "glen," and went down the 

 path and a flight of steps, amid a flock of 

 trilling goldfinches and past a row of lordly 

 arbor-vitse trees, to the brook, and up the 

 bank of the brook to the famous bridge. 

 Of this, considered by itself, I shall attempt 

 no description. The material facts are, in 

 the language of the guidebook, that it is " a 

 huge monolithic arch, 215 feet high, 100 

 feet wide, and 90 feet in span, crossing the 

 ravine of Cedar Brook." Magnificent as it 

 is, there is, for me at least, not much to say 

 concerning it, or concerning my sensations 

 in the presence of it. Not that it disap- 

 pointed me. On the contrary, it was from 

 the first more imposing than I had expected 

 to find it. I loved to look at it, from one 

 side and from the other, from beneath and 

 from above. I walked under it and over it 

 (on the public highway, for it is a bridge 

 not only in name, but in fact) many times, 

 by sunlight and by moonlight, and should 

 be glad to do the same many times more ; 

 but perhaps my taste is peculiar ; at all 

 events, such " wonders of nature " do not 

 charm me or wear with me like a beautiful 



