Circumvention of <Bre\>locfe. 61 



of Berkshire's best ; and that is saying much. The 

 little side-paths, beaten hard with recent showers, 

 were smooth as roadways in a park. The grade 

 through Lanesboro and part of New Ashford, though 

 rising slightly, was easy always, and often varied 

 by little slopes and plunges, long enough for coast- 

 ing, with its exhilarating relief. Quiet homesteads 

 and comfortable farmhouses gave a sense of com- 

 panionship, though few people appeared anywhere 

 about them. The rugged foothills of the Grey- 

 lock range began to look quite near and neigh- 

 bourly, but set us to wondering if our way were not 

 tending toward hard climbing, when the direction to 

 take the "second turn to the left and first to the 

 right " swung us away from these laborious-looking 

 regions. The road did what all sensible roads do ; it 

 slid around the shoulders of the hills and glanced off 

 from their precipitousness till it found a brook. Then 

 it ran where the brook guided, and took all the easy 

 grades, the cool ravines, the broad meadows. 



And we who followed the road were refreshed 

 continually by the gurgle and the ripple and the 

 lapping and the dashing of the stream, hidden most 

 of the time, sometimes far below us, sometimes 

 above, now on one side, then on the other, till the 

 little hamlet of New Ashford suddenly materialised 

 out of the woods. We had a pang as we passed by 

 this ghost of New England's old village life. It was 

 such a bygone village. It was so lonesome in its 

 grey and weather-beaten isolation. It was so for- 



