154
Peterborough, New Hampshire.
1898.
July 5 to
Aug. 15
(No. 2)
  Ben Mere farm (now belonging to Mr. German L. Day,
a typical but unusually intelligent New England farmer) lies
three miles east of the village of Peterborough and about
a mile from the western base of Pack Monadnock mountain.
The house (built four years ago) stands on the crest of a
knoll at an elevation, it is said, of 1400 feet above
the sea. Excepting towards the east, where the Pack
Monadnock range rises against the sky, the view is very
extended with "Grand" Monadnock lying directly to the
westward some twelve miles off and the horizon line
to the south and south-west from twenty to thirty miles
distant.
  Immediately about the house are open grassy fields
divided by old stone walls fringed with trees and
half-concealed by thickets of viburnum, cornels, black alders
and high blueberry bushes. To the north the land
slopes gently to the edge of Cunningham Pond (about
150 yards distant); to the south and west it descends
steeply into a broad, winding valley down which
flows a rapid [delete], ice cold[/delete] trout brook.
  About one half of the country to be seen from
our hill top is wooded and many of the farms
which constitute the remaining half are abandoned - or
at least neglected - and fast growing up to trees or
bushes. The woods are almost wholly "second growth"
but many of the trees are of fair size and nearly
all are sturdy and vigorous-looking. Evergreens form
a much larger proportion of the trees than is often
the case in Massachusetts. The woodland soil is everywhere
a deep, rich leaf mould and ferns, club mosses, trailing arbutus
and other lowly plants flourish in great profusion.