BOSTON TO ALBANY, 117 



notice informs passers-by that this being no thorough- 

 fare, trespassing will not be tolerated, and there is 

 none. When the concerts are in full blast, people 

 gather in the walks and drives only. AVhole rows of 

 little street Arabs may be seen on these occasions, 

 drawn up with their little bare toes touching the very 

 edge of the precious grass. The open music house is 

 always left full of chairs, which no one steals^ nay, 

 which no one uses. The entrance to the Court House is 

 filled with blooming plants. No child, no dog even, 

 is ill-bred enough to break one. 



But the peculiarities of the people, the beauty of 

 the dwellings, the magnificence of the equipages, the 

 tide of fashionable life which pours in, summer and 

 fall, a//, ALL is forgotten as, from some point of van- 

 tage, the spectator takes in the beauty surrounding 

 him. "On the west sweep the Taconics, in that 

 majestic curve, whose grace travelers, familiar with the 

 mountain scenery of both hemispheres, pronounce un- 

 equaled. On the east the Hoosacs stretch their un- 

 broken battlements, with white villages at their feet, 

 and, if the sunlight favors, paths of mingled lawn and 

 wood, enticing to their summits; while from the 

 south, 'Greylock, cloud-girdled on his purple throne" 

 looks grandly across the valley to the giant heights, 

 keeping watch and ward over the pass where the 

 mountains throw wide their everlasting gates, to let 

 the winding Housatouic flow peacefully toward the 

 sea." 



Thus, in taking leave of Massachusetts, I looked 

 back to the starting-point, and thought with pleasure 

 of the many beautiful links in the chain connecting 

 Boston with Pittsfield, none more beautiful than the 



