Planting Shade Trees 359 



burden in the beginning upon their own shoulders by selling 

 the example themselves, and by most zealously urging all 

 others to follow. 



The villages of New England, looking at their sylvan 

 charms, are as beautiful as any in the world. Their archi- 

 tecture is simple and unpretending - - often, indeed, meagre 

 and unworthy of notice. The houses are surrounded by 

 inclosures full of trees and shrubs, with space enough to 

 afford comfort, and ornament enough to denote taste. But 

 the main street of the village is an avenue of elms, positively 

 delightful to behold. Always wide, the overarching boughs 

 form an aisle more grand and beautiful than that of any 

 old Gothic cathedral. Not content, indeed, with one ave- 

 nue, some of these villages have, in their wide, single street, 

 three lines of trees, forming a double avenue, of which any 

 grand old palace abroad might well be proud. Would that 

 those of our readers whose souls are callous to the charms 

 of the lights and shadows that bedeck these bewitching 

 rural towns and villages, would forthwith set out on a 

 pilgrimage to such places as Northampton, Springfield, New 

 Haven, Pittsfield, Stockbridge, Woodbury, and the like. 



When we contrast with these lovely resting places for the 

 eye, embowered with avenues of elms, gracefully drooping 

 like fountains of falling water, or sugar maples swelling and 

 towering up like finely formed antique vases, some of the 

 uncared for towns and villages in our own state, we are 

 almost forced to believe that the famous common schools of 

 New England teach the aesthetics of art, and that the beauty 

 of shade trees is the care of especial professorships. Homer 

 and Virgil, Cicero, Manilus, and Tully, shades of the great 

 Greeks and Romans! - - our citizens have named towns after 

 you, but the places that bear your names scarcely hold 

 leafy trees enough to renew the fading laurels round your 

 heads! - -while the direct descendants of stern Puritans, 

 who had a holy horror of things ornamental, who cropped 

 their hair, and made penalties for indulgences in fine linen, 

 live in villages overshadowed by the very spirit of rural 

 elegance! 



