110 



^i)t Jarmcr's itlont()Iij bisitor. 



comfiienceiiienl of the road lias the work nt both 

 ends of this ledge heen |iiirsued : the deepest 

 point of excavation in the rock is thirty-two feet. 

 By the time this is completed, will the entire road 

 be finished through the whole distance to Con- 

 necticut river. From the point of the ridge west, 

 ut the highest elevation of the road between the 

 rivers, nearly a level is preserved for over twenty 

 miles. At the mouth of the Mascotny pond In 

 the village of East Lebanon, the fall westward 

 commences : in this distance fourteen bridges 

 change the road as many times from one to the 

 other side of the stream. In the distance of sev- 

 en miles last before reuohinfr Connecticut river 

 the fall westward to be encountered exceeds four 

 hundred feet, and the maximum of highest grade 

 is fifty feet to the mile. 



The Vermont Central road is connected with 

 this Northern road by a bridge across the Con- 

 necticut, from which it pursues Its course up 

 White river. Tlie present sununcr the whole 

 force has been thrown upon the easterly end of 

 the railroad through Vermont. To Northfield, 

 more than half the distance across the Stale, will 

 the road be completed so soon as it shall be fin- 

 islied through New Hampshire for receiving the 

 cars, probably by the first of January next. 



The inhabitants upon Connecticut river can 

 scarcely realize that prolialily within the next six 

 months will the teniplation (or nndtiplied travel 

 be presented of passing with ease in three to four 

 hours from the capital of the State to the line of 

 Vermont. Summer or winter is that distance 

 scarcely ever passed now in less time than twelve 

 hours: often through all but impassable snow 

 banks or in mud to the wheel hubs does it require 

 as many as twenty-four horns sometimes of dan- 

 gerous travel to perform tlie distance. In cold 

 weather how great the suffering to the invalid or 

 delicate female in<luced to encounter the task 

 from the anticipation of the enjoyment of fireside 

 friends at a distance from home. In the hot 

 weather of the night of July 7, tlie chill damp 

 of the vapors upon the heiijlits, the nncerlain 

 plunge from them in the dark down the steep 

 track of the road into the valleys between at the 

 mercy of the triple pair of horses guided by a 

 single hand — was more romantic but less pleas- 

 ant to the traveller at the outside top than the 

 colder but more secure eiisconcement in buffido 

 robes of a bleak and snowy winter's night. Four 

 for one will be the travel upon the railroad re- 

 ducing the expense periiaps one half and the 

 time fourfold, when the Nurllii;rn railroad shall 

 be completed. 



From four in the afiernuoii of Wednesday to 

 four o'clock in the morning of 'I'hursday, dozing 

 in duliious noddiug, sleepless yol sleeping some- 

 times while many Umes tossed out of all propri- 

 ety of silling, was laUen up in the travel from 

 Franklin to Norwich, on the west hank of the 

 Connecticut opposite lo Dartmouth College on the 

 New Hampshire side. The (irst fifteen miles of 

 daylight only gave us to si e as liir as Wilmoi, 

 newer than the elder towns made from parts of 

 two others in a region then as uil.l as tlie fast- 

 nesses now existing between the mountains of 

 Grafton and Coos. The stage road was over the 

 old second New Hampshire turnpike ; and when 

 that was built In the year 180:5, fourteen miles 

 beyond and six miles on this side of the distance 

 was then an entire lurcst without inhabitants. 

 The late Maj. (j!en. Eliphalct Gay thru made a 

 first opening in Wilmot in that part of the wild- 

 erness track taken fro n New I^onilon, removing 

 from the settled part of ihut town down further 



south. About thisopeiilng by the father of Wil- 

 mot and several years its only representative In 

 the legislature, appeared more rocks than soil : 

 the late professor Dana, in describing the hard- 

 ness of this soil, gave it the name of Hardscrabble, 

 where the Inhabitants weie represented as shoot- 

 ing with powder and gun their seed peas and 

 beans into the ground. Hard as was and contin- 

 ues to be this soil, from Its settlers less than fifty 

 years ago, have been born and reared within its 

 limits numerous beauteous daughters and hardy 

 and Intelligent sons. Passing along one of the 

 upper sources of the Blackwater stream over the 

 rocks in which the water tumbles as above the 

 travelled road pathway which might be easily 

 submerged simply by changing the course of the 

 waters, a stranger traveller expressed the wonder 

 that any one should settle down upon such land 

 when the vast level fertile prairie lan<ls of the 

 west without a disturbing rock or pebble in the 

 way offered so great temptation. We who had 

 seen this same perhaps roughest opening in the 

 Granite State some thirty years before, and could 

 better contrast the value which improvement had 

 made upon the land — we, who now saw a great 

 burden of grass and beautiftil honeysuckle pas- 

 turage, interspersed with fields of cultivated 

 grains and vegetifbles, felt renewed attachment 

 to these hills which blossomed as the rose, and 

 were even disposed to contest the jioint whether, 

 after all, the steady settlers of Wilmot who had 

 pursued the " even tenor of their way," had not 

 fared quite as well as had the majority of those 

 who had gone where a better and more easy 

 prospect of fertility had especially invited. 



\Vinding our way up the stream through the 

 remaining forest to the higher level of the tame- 

 rack flat of considerable extent from which the 

 waters might be made to run to either river, our 

 remaining journey shut out the prospect of the 

 eye to all the beauties of a luxuriant season for 

 the night. The mind could catch no new enthu- 

 siasm from a view of the thriving and continued 

 village of Enfield and the soiilh side of its silvery 

 lake, the beauty ofatrueta^le for agricultural im- 

 proveme-it as exhibited in the three tulles passage 

 through the three Shaker families of that fine 

 town, lying along as the crescent of a new tnoon 

 share of a most magnificent amphitheatre looked 

 upon in the distance from a higher elevation. 



Neither Enfield, nor Lebanon, nor even yet 

 Hanover gave enough of light in our passage to 

 afford us any aid in a new description. Vermont 

 and Norwich, passing the bridge across the Con- 

 necticut, broke upon ns with the growth of corn- 

 fields (en days and a fortnight in advance of the 

 growth of those we had left the day previous 

 upon the Merrimack. 'J'he cold easterly and 

 UDitbeasterly winds coming along u|) the coast in 

 many seasons check the vegetation upon the sea- 

 board, lilowiug upon tlie land the fiirce and se- 

 verity of these easterly winds lessen as they ex- 

 t(!iid towards the interior. By and by, when far 

 enough amclior.ited until meeting an equal at- 

 mosphere, the wind changes first lo the north 

 veering about slill liirther west, m.iking a milder 

 state of wealher the firther you advance west. 

 A view of the growing vegetation more than two 

 hundred miles from the seaboard confirms the 

 idea that in that distance as early vegetation ex- 

 ists at the extreme north-west as at the south- 

 east point of a line extending in that direction. 



There is no finer country in the llnite<l States 

 of America, whether He consider the soil and lis 

 productions or the cliarmiiig and neat villages all 

 along either of its banks in the distance of two 



hundred miles, than the valley of the Connecti 

 cut. Our journey to this river was for the insig- 

 nificant purpose of reading In the presence of 

 practised and severely trained scholars the hasty 

 work of some eight hours, drawn by the hand 

 who had studied the fiice of nature more in the 

 fields than in hooks, and whose opinions in a 

 green old age have become confirmed more per- 

 haps from the pride of presumption than from 

 the more sure deductions of the conventional 

 rides of method and exact science. 



Twenty years before we had attended the ex- 

 hibition of Partridge's military school at Norwich, 

 then in the zenith of its iisefiilness and popular- 

 ity from the indefatigable activity and labor of its 

 founder, who was at ihal day one of tlie most sci- 

 entific and talented military men and scholars of 

 the country. The Interest which he then threw 

 over the great battles of the greatest warrior of 

 the age by lectures descriptive of the positions 

 and manoeuvrings of conflicting arinids at Maren- 

 go, at Jena and at AVaterloo had "Ot yet passed 

 from the memory on the return of a sight of the 

 old loiration. Alden Partridge dad then erected, 

 from his own resources and tlie contributions of 

 bis neighbors, the large brirk edifice which yet 

 remains with its rooms for recitation and study: 

 to these he subseqiiPiitly added another large and 

 expensive brick structure lor a commons board- 

 ing house. These iiionuments of his enterprise 

 yet remain: the nuister spirit was not there, al- 

 though the bachelor instructor until late in life 

 had his representatives in two charming boys of 

 eight and ten years, the sons of an interesting 

 wife who remained at the location of his jiroper- 

 ty, while he as a yet temporary matter was ab- 

 sent in the duty of president of a college in the 

 State of Pennsylvania. It is to the credit of the 

 system of instruction Introduced at Norwich by 

 this gentleman, that, without extra donations and 

 funds, it has lasted more than a quarter of a cen- 

 tury. A snccissor and piijiil of Capt. Partridge, 

 Gen. Ransom, has well and credibly sustained it. 

 Having accepted a military appointment, within 

 the last year the esprit i\u corps of the military 

 part of the University departed with him in the 

 persons ol several active young gentlemen to 

 Mexico. Mr. Butler, who takes the place of Gen. 

 Ransom, as president of the University, presented 

 In a baccalaureate address to the young gentle- 

 men while conferring the degrees evidences of 

 genius and intellect such as would do honor to 

 the highest Institutions of our country. The eight 

 orations of the grailualing class were specimena 

 of deep thought and research as well as beauty 

 of composition, with nothing common-place or 

 indifferent — such as made us more and more 

 doubtful of the value of onr own hasty proiluc- 

 lion, which was liiriied fioin the commencement 

 of the examination on the first day to the close 

 of the wliole (exhibition on the second day. We felt 

 not a little alleviation of our suspicions of de- 

 merit, wheii.leaviiig Norwich ne.xt morning, there 

 was placed in our hands the following vote of the 

 trustees, which, on more inatuie thought, we have 

 deeincil to be evidence neither one way (.r the 

 other that onr performance came up to the ex- 

 pectations of the assemblage of gentlemen and 

 brilliant gathering of ladies who came, and had 

 the patience to sit and hear lis more than an hour 

 with the thermometer ranging between !)(i aii'l 

 100 degrees of Fahrenheit : 



JVorwkh Universili/, My 8, 1847. 

 In Board of 'J'lusUes, 



Resolved, Tliat the thanks of this Board be 

 presented to Hon. Isaac Mill I'orihe viiy alileand 

 highly interesiing address this day delivereil,Hnd 



