758 
FOREST AND STREAM 
It’s Always Fair Weather When Good Fellows Get Together—Even Without a Stein on the Table! 
An Ideal Vermont Paradise for the Hunter and Angler 
N IGHT is closing down upon the moun¬ 
tains. Seated by an old fashioned fire¬ 
place, patterned after those in vogue a 
century ago, we are watching the fire shadows 
play in weird phantasy about the room. The 
glow of the huge back logs form the only il¬ 
lumination to-night of this hunting lodge on the 
verge of a Vermont wilderness. How cheerful 
it is! What a contrast to life in town or city! 
Richardson Lodge is the ideal paradise of the 
hunter and the angler alike, and its owner, 
George Richardson, is ohe of those whole- 
souled, genial hosts, who has spent a life-time 
in close touch with nature and her surround¬ 
ings, and who built this great, roomy hunting 
lodge, at the foot of Mount Bromley, that he 
might the better entertain his friends, among 
whom he numbers some of the most eminent 
men of the country, who came here for recrea¬ 
tion and to get into touch with the great heart 
of nature, and view with delight the marvelous 
scenery, which from this point spreads away, a 
glorious panorama, mile upon mile, mountains 
rising above mountains, as far as the eye can 
see, sweeping a horizon of more than seventy 
miles, and embracing in the view seventeen town¬ 
ships, four counties and two states. The scen¬ 
ery is Alpine in its magnificence, bearing out 
most notably the description in contrast: 
Alps on Alps still rise, 
The lofty home where storms and eagles 
On their pinions roam. 
Still round their heights 
The magic colors fly. 
Of morn and eve imprinted 
On the sky. 
By William H. Spear. 
A sunrise viewed from the porch of Richard¬ 
son Lodge has set into ecstacies some of the 
most noted artists and poets of the nation, and 
eminent painters who have seen the view have 
lost themselves in contemplation of its charms 
and have repeatedly declared it a picture to which 
no brush of painter or pencil of artist can do 
justice. It simply carries one far away from 
self. It is awe-inspiring. 
More than seventy-five years ago the timbers 
of this quaint lodge were laid, but recent years 
have modernized its external appearance. From 
its broad piazza it is no unusual sight to see 
wild deer feeding within a stone throw of the 
building, but they are never fired upon from 
there. It is a rule of the lodge that deer upon 
the premises are immune from injury, even iri 
the hunting season, and the rule is kept in¬ 
violate. 
One can but note in entering Richardson 
Lodge the quaintness of its furnishings. Sim¬ 
plicity rules in all things. The furniture is made 
of yellow birch, cut upon the mountain close 
by, selected for its natural contour and adapt¬ 
ability for the pieces of furniture to be made. 
It is noted in the chairs, the tables, the stands, 
the settees and even the bedsteads. Of these lat¬ 
ter there are six, each capable of accommodat¬ 
ing two people. They are in the upper part of 
the building, which is partitioned into three 
large rooms, each room having a dormer win¬ 
dow, looking toward the sunrise and the splen¬ 
did view across the valley, to the tiers upon 
tiers of mountains beyond. 
A spacious kitchen adjoins the main rooms 
and these comprise a sitting room, a hallway 
and a large dining-room, each furnished with 
homemade rustic furniture, with the yellow bark 
of the birch still upon it, as shown in the pic¬ 
tures of the porch and interior of the lodge 
shown herewith. 
It is in the cozy living room, however, with 
its broad and roomy fireplace, where, as twilight 
shadows come, and the fire-lit back logs glow, 
that real comfort comes to one, and the cares of 
life are forgotten and one lives in close touch 
with the ideal. 
Bromley Mountain, towering high above the 
lodge, is a primitive wilderness. Eight hun¬ 
dred acres of this great mountain tract, owned 
by M. J. Hapgood, of Peru, Vt., was deeded by 
him to the state of Vermont as a free gift res¬ 
ervation, with the proviso that not a stick of 
timber shall ever be cut upon it. hut for all 
eternity it shall remain as it now is. a primeval 
forest, the home of the black bear, the bob-cat, 
the deer, and innumerable bird and mammal 
life. Hapgood is another of those nature lov¬ 
ers which the soil of the Green Mountain state 
seems to rear so prolificly. He owns the great¬ 
er part of this region. He is a member of 
the Vermont Legislature, a man of broad phil¬ 
anthropy, and a most ardent champion of every¬ 
thing that conserves nature and the Nature Folk. 
Along several of the runways of this moun- 
