200 



MIDDLESEX FELLS. 



The location and character of Middlesex Pells are well de- 

 scribed by Mr. Sylvester Baxter : — 



" Something like five miles northerly from Boston lies a great tract 

 of country, all stony hills and table-lands, almost uninhabited, and of 

 wonderful picturesqueness, and wild, rugged beauty. It is within the 

 limits of the towns of Maiden [now a city], Medford [Melrose], 

 Stoneham, and Winchester ; and its heart is that most beautiful of 

 Boston's suburban lakes, Spot Pond, which lies high up among the hills. 

 The limits of this region are defined with great clearness, especially 

 on the south and east, a line of steep hills and ledges rising abruptly 

 from the broad plain that borders the Mystic River, almost as level as 

 a floor, and forming its southern boundary, while on the east the ledges 

 start with still greater steepness out of the long valley of meadow-land 

 through which the Boston and Maine Railroad passes. ... Its west- 

 ern margin is formed by the valley through which run the Lowell 

 Railroad and its Stoneham branch, and its northern by the houses and 

 fields of Stoneham. . . . The nature of this region cannot be better 

 characterized than by the application of the old Saxon designation 

 fells, — a common enough word in England, meaning a tract of wild 

 stone hills, corresponding to the German word felsen." J 



During the past few years efforts have been made by Mr. 

 Wright and others to secure the preservation of this region as 

 a Natural Park or Forest Preserve. The territory embraces 

 about 4,000 acres, including 500 of water reservoirs. The 

 owners number 1-50, and the assessed valuation is between 

 1300,000 and $350,000, including buildings valued at about 

 $70,000. The limits, as marked upon the map, are arbitrary, 

 having been drawn by Mr. Wright and others so as to include 

 the water-sheds of the reservoirs, the chief hills, and all the 

 wooded and rocky land lying between the settled portions of 

 the five towns. Much of the region is now covered by brush ; 

 but there are many fine groves of pine and hemlock, and 

 hundreds of acres covered with oak, birch, maple, hickory, 

 cedar, etc. The whole region is well adapted to the growth of 

 white pine. 



A "Chronological Account of the Middlesex Pells Move- 

 ment " was given in the " Boston Evening Transcript," Nov. 



1 Boston Herald Supplement, Dec. 6, 1879. See also Transcript, Nov. 15, 

 1880, answer to query 3,106. 



