“ A Railroad Beautiful" 
to conceal the station, in the view from the 
town, rather than to emphasize its presence. 
This is interestingly illustrated again at 
Woodland, w here the picture has been taken 
at a distance sufficient to show the relative 
loneliness ot the station’s site, and yet its 
half concealment behind the beautifying 
bushes. The little pond to the right of the 
station is on the company’s property, some¬ 
what nearer than the 
photograph suggests, 
and the planting close 
around its borders 
makes it, as the second 
picture shows, a charm¬ 
ing natural feature. 
A winter view of this 
illustrates how the 
Boston and Albany 
system ot real land¬ 
scape gardening, as 
distinguished from 
mere floriculture, 
invites beauty all the 
year around. 
Riverside is unique 
among all the Circuit 
stations as being at a 
higher instead of lower 
level than the town ; 
and beautiful views 
may be obtained from 
it. 11 is fortunate also 
in the possession ot 
some large trees, and 
though the four-track main line becomes here 
a portion of the Circuit—now turned back 
toward Boston—the illustration shows how 
ineffectual has been the heavier travel and 
increased railroad importance to destroy the 
esthetic charm of the treatment adopted. 
Next comes Auburndale, with a station 
whose surroundings vie with those of Chest¬ 
nut Hill in beauty. The Japanese ivy has 
covered the stone walls with green. The 
carriage road, divided by a cluster of shrubs, 
passes here also under a porte cocKere , but 
one less striking than the bold stone arch at 
Chestnut Hill, and less pretty than the 
natural arch of bush and tree through which 
the footpath comes down to the station 
grounds. But here again there are large 
trees, and masses of syringa were in bloom 
AN APPROACH TO DALTON STATION 
when I was there, and the flagged walk 
curves in picturesque indolence, while the 
tool-house—lor which utilitarian structure 
the section ol the road seems here to find a 
need—has been put apart from the station 
in a most inconspicuous corner of the 
grounds, and then has been hidden with 
foliage. 
Beyond Auburndale come the Newtons, 
and then a few other 
stations before the big 
city is reached again ; 
but they present no 
characteristics that 
have not been noted 
already, and it is suffi¬ 
cient that they maintain 
the high standard 
which has been set for 
them by the rest ol 
the Circuit. I n passing 
through the Newtons 
the depressed tracks 
occupy a shallow cut 
that has been lined for 
a long way with 
masonry, and so offers 
no opportunity for 
gardening effects. But 
there is a gain in sub¬ 
stantialness of aspect, 
and certainly no loss 
in neatness, so that 
“ the railroad beauti- 
ful ” has penetrated 
far into greater Boston, and its tracks have 
multiplied into a broad series, before so rare 
and notable a phrase as this becomes a 
misnomer. And in the other direction, in the 
long course westward across the state, many 
a station, notably those at Chatham and at 
Dalton, are reminders that the ideal has not 
been forgotten or laid aside. 
Now that the Boston and Albany has been 
absorbed in the greater system of the New 
York Central, it is to be hoped that its good 
and lovely example will bear fruit in far ex¬ 
tensions of “ the railroad beautiful.” Such 
a result would have an even national import¬ 
ance, changing the face of the country “as 
seen from a car window,” and carrying its 
influence very far. 
Charles Mulford Robinson. 
570 
