"The birds sing in the branches." 



famous in New Enjrlaiul. 



lOO feet at the Centre, on the brow of Dolbier hill ; Hubbardston and 

 Westminster, 200 feet below, and Ashburnham on the east, where the 



villages are, 200 feet below, while Fitch- 

 burg, twelve miles away, lies 700 feet below. 

 Gardner has many pleasant drives 

 through the woods within and beyond her 

 l)orders, and the .stranger may safely take 

 an}' road, confident that he will find beauties 

 on every side ; dark woods inviting him to 

 their cool rece.sses ; silvery streams reflect- 

 ing the enchantments of the sylvan shades 

 on their banks ; flowers in profiision on 

 either hand, in all the colors of the rain- 

 bow ; and from every hill-top views rivall- 

 ing in magnificence the choicest and most 

 For not even from famous Rounil Hill, 

 in Northampton, looking down upon the wide Connecticut meadows, 

 with the ribbon of the river winding through them, nor from the Berk- 

 shire Hills around the Lenox bowl, nor from the Blue Hills of Milton, 

 half lost in soft haze from the ocean, are there afforded such glorious 

 and exten.sive views of hills, woods, lakes and mountains — the peculiar 

 charm of the New England landscape — as those from our own Gard- 

 ner hills. 



Each drive has its special charm, however ; one because of a par- 

 ticular view, another because the haunt of a rare 

 wild flower that grows nowhere else, and others 

 because of the .stories of the deserted ' ' cellar- 

 holes" by the way, marking the sites of ancient 

 home.steads. 



The drives around Gardner are beautiful 

 because the.}- are through a country still left to 

 nature, where the brush by the roadside screens 

 the fields, and the woods have not .seen tlu 

 woodman's axe for a generation. Every yedi 

 sees .some great tract of woodland despoiled ot 

 its royal crown, but every year also sees old 

 sprout lots become full-grown woods, that hicU 

 the heavens from us as we eagerly seek their 

 depths. Even before the trees grow large enough 

 to choke to death the berry bu.shes they invited 

 in their .struggling youth, we rejoice with them in their coming glory 



Tomb of Rev. Jonathan Osgood, 



'I'hc I'irst Settled Minister. 



