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CHAPTER VII.

In Windham county such changes seen.-Black mountain.-Road on West river.-Cascade.-Defile.-Newfane hill.-Its former appearance.-Deserted state.-Contrast.-Judges and Lawyers. -New county seat.-Fayetteville.-Changes.-Their advantages.-Evils.-Uplands.-Their use.-Northern positions and exposure.-A family burnt in Newfane.-Hardy occupiers of exposed northern positions.-Hardihood a general trait.—Contributing to it, their early troubles.-Their aversion to effeminacy.-Illustrated by examples.-The character of the first settlers.-Settled principally from Connecticut.-Reproaches answered.-Testimony of Hillhouse to this trait of character.

THIS Course of things is seen, among other places in Windham county. Newfane has long been the shire town. In the early period of the jurisdiction proper of Vermont, and for several years, the courts were held alternately at Westminster and Marlboro. It is about fourteen miles from Brattleboro; and the road runs along the right bank of West river. Passing by several interval farms near the mouth of that river; rich by being overflowed; in a high state of cultivation; and presenting a fine appearance, you come into the neighborhood of Black mountain, in Dummerston, on the left bank. The river washes the base of this mountain, which rises from the

water almost perpendicularly several hundred feet, and opens to the south in the form of a horse shoe,' and thus the cavity has borne the appellation, time immemorial, the shoe of the mountain.' Its appearance as you pass along on the opposite bank, is bold and majestic ; granite rocks piled one upon another; with evergreens and stinted shrubbery but poorly covering its surface, give it a dark and sombre hue. It seems like one of nature's castles; from which writers of fiction have tried to copy; and make the strong hold of some fair one to be hunted out and carried off by her lover, some knight errant. But the river is too fleet to admit of escape by water craft, his prize being let down poetically from the lofty eminence; and success if at all, must come by the way of the heel.'

But it serves a more substantial purpose, abounding as it does in durable and everlasting, so to speak, materials for the purposes of building, and fences and canal locks. It stands yet proof against the purpose of the energetic Hillhouse of Connecticut, who, with DeWitt Clinton, making his exploring tour, to extend the New Haven and Northampton canal to Vermont, said "he wanted to prepare the way for the removal of Black mountain to New Orleans." On the other hand also, opposite this, skirting the road, is a corresponding hill of less altitude, somewhat cleared and improved as grazing ground, and remarkable for a beautiful cascade; a small stream of water rushing from its summit, and descending over the rocks and precipices; and threatening to dash into the traveler's face, glides under his feet

through an aqueduct into the river. So lightly does it make its way, and so hard its bed, that little, or no channel has it cut, but seems to dart down upon the surface, its waters foaming and glittering in the falling rays of the sun, it becomes a striking and pleasing spectacle.

Passing along to the northwest part of the town, you come to the narrow defile, made by the river on the north; and an almost inaccessible mound on the south, leaving only a very narrow passway, which by one of the leaders in the early difficulties of this state, was called "the valley of the shadow of death." So steep and high is the hill; and the road so narrow, that for two or three months of the winter, the rays of the sun scarcely fall upon you for a mile, any part of the day. This luminary so bountiful of his beams, and exhaustless, deals them out here so sparingly, and lets you have light by measure of small dimensions.

You now leave the river; and after going three miles on ascending ground, come to the former seat of the county, a lofty, conical summit, overlooking not a small part of the surrounding country. Here was once the strong hold, the citadel of justice and judgment for Windham county. Here once stood the court-house and jail; surrounded by hotels, and stores; and mechanic's shops; attorney's offices, and neat, hospitable dwellings. Here stood also, the sanctuary on the very pinnacle; and near it the county academy and parsonage house. But these are now gone; the court-house, the jail, the merchants' establishments, the business shops; the hotel;

the commodious houses and the house of God itself; and you see a mere desolation and waste compared with what it once was. The academic building stands, but deserted, dilapidated; the old tavern stand is there; but no longer clustered with the shivering crowds of December court. The winds whistle unheeded; the northern blast finds few dwellings there to rack; and fewer occupants to waken from their midnight slumbers, clinging to their bed posts. The clear ice can glisten in the wintry sun unmolested by calks and ashes; and without witnessing the prostration of many a human frame; and the falling of "justice in the streets."

No longer do crowds repair hither to enjoy the beauties and refreshing breezes of this spot, as they used to do, at the June and August courts. Its surface pressed by the feet of the substantial yeomanry of the country; and fashionable visitants; the supreme judges of Vermont, and members of the bar with their wives often; and various other spectators, in the sultry month of August, enjoying the delightful scenery and cooling winds from the neighboring hills, is felt by them no longer. Here as the sun was declining, the business of the day finished, in the shade of their houses, on the green grass, were often tea parties, indulging in social conversation; in glee and merriment. The stern, inflexible judge, and eloquent lawyer relaxed their brows; and related many a transaction of past times; gave and received many at stroke of wit and humor. Here once stood a Robinson, a Tyler and a Harrington, of the supreme court; and a Knowlton and a Duncan of the county. Here in elo

quent strains were as advocates, a Bradley, an Elliot, Blake, Stark, Hall, Hunt, Field and others, whose tongues are silent, and who heed not the changes that have come over this hill of justice. Others live, ornaments of their profession, who can recall to mind past scenes here witnessed, "like the music of carol, pleasant but mournful to the soul."

But this was a desertion of choice, and not necessity; not to a condition of less, but more eligibility, if to a lower station; not to one less protected and safe, but of more easy access. In a northeasterly direction, two miles down the declivity in a beautiful vale, you find the county seat revived Phoenix-like, much improved. Several of the most valuable buildings were taken down and rebuilt on this ground, and retain almost their former appearance.

The public buildings have indeed been much enlarged and are of more elegant structure. Two neat houses of worship; and other public buildings, with many elegant private dwelling houses; stores, offices, and shops of mechanics, cluster round the public edifices, and form a beautiful situation protected by adjacent hills from the piercing winds of winter. In the summer, its fertile, well cultivated fields; and its level even surface, and spacious common on which you can plant your foot with the horizon and stand perpendicularly to it without bracing, you find one of the pleasantest villages in Vermont. You thus become not only reconciled, but pleased with the change. In Fayetteville you have a fair specimen of the villages which now abound in this state in