The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-17 00:00:00

AN ENGLISH EMIGRANT.

. Grace Greenwood' is at present, or recently was, in
Colorado, and wrote as follows to the New York Times, from
Maniton, in Septernber :

" We lately spent two delightful days in Bergun's
Park, which beautiful retreat lies about 1,000 feet
higher than Manton, and is reached by a charming
drive of 17 or 18 miles up the wild Ute Pass. We
were the guests of Mr. Thornton, an English gentle-
man of good family, and a graduate of Cambridge,
but quite content with this rough, secluded life, and
proud to be a ranchman. All the English younger
sons who do not go into the Church or the army come
to Colorado. Well may this particular ranchman he
proud; for the ranch which be owns, in partnership
with his friend, Dr. Bell, is fit for a royal domain. It
ia royally grand and beautiful, and, though so high up,
is largely under cultivation, yielding the best of wheat,
oats, barley, and all varieties of vegetables, while for
grazing purposes it is unsurpassed. Nothing can be
lovelier, more still and peaceful, than this magnificent
ranch, lapped on the mountain elopes, and set
about with primeval pine forests. Through it runs a
clear trout stream, fringed with willows, and low-lying
meadows and rolling uplands are almost alike green
and flowery. It is a vast amphitheatre—mostly wild,
of course, yet haaa strangely pastoral and home-like
aspect. It remilalls one of the 'Happy Valley of
Ramelaa 'in its sublime seclusion. The scene has all
the purity of atmosphere, all the sombre inspiration of
the mountain; all the tranquility and coziness of the
valley land. We found the brilliant noon-day hot,
even here, but the nights were deliciously cool and
balmy. Heaven came graciously down to us, since we
had come to meet it half way, and bathed our tired
bodies and weary spirits in divine coolness and peace.
Bergun's Park contains some of those curious and im-
posing monumental rocks of red sandstone which are
such a marked feature in this region. They are of a
peculiarly weird character, and full of grotesqueforms
and faces, such as we find about old cathedrals. Indeed
some one has named the largest of them 'the devil's
ministers.' Though theranch is apparently closed in/ex-
cept on the side of the great pass, down which you look
till Pike's Peak seems to block the way and to compel
the morning to climb over him, a ride or drive of a
few miles brings one to mountain points whence views
of surpassing loveliness and grandeur can be obtained.
We visited the finest of these points one morning, the
last mile or so of the drive our road being made for us
by our host, who proved himself a magnificent wood-
man, swinging his axe like a very Cceur de Lion, and
three of his guests, who all valiantly fought their way
or worked their passage, one English officer of mighty
mould bearing off good-sized trees with the jaunty air
of a young Hercules swinging his club. That was a
Royal program for us, driving leisurely over the road
so gallantly opened for us, seeing the wild young pines
and cottonwoods that disputed our passage falling on
every side. Mr. Thornton has within the past year
erected a new ranch-house, roomy an pleasant, with
on fireplace as spacious as the one in that grand
o feudal hall of Warwick Cattle, and also three
rd
cottages for visitors. One of these, however, is de-
signed for private use during a portion of the
year, being the forest lodge of a wealthy English
lady. It is :marvel of rustic comfort and pic-
turesqueness. This was assigned to us, and we had
rare delight in it. Each evening, after watching out
the sunset, which paid its last salute to Pike's Peak,
we left the pleasant veranda for the large sitting-room
or hall, where we gathered about a flaming, fragrant,
open fire, and told stories and 'laughed at little jests,'
and, in short, were happy and glorious, with the larger
part of the human race far below as. It is good to
get above the world. I cannot too highly recommend
this charming mountain retreat to invalids who can
do without, and ought to do without, the excitements
of a fashionable watering-place; to mothers with
delicate children; to students, who can take with them
the goodly company of books ,to artists, seeking quiet
studies; and to sportsmen, eager for deerstalking and
bearhunting. There are no wild creatures on the
settled part of the ranch, but off on the mountain sides
andat certain points on the creek, where they come to
drink, by cautious hunting you will always find them.
Sometimes they find you. Children fond of pets can
have them here—docile colts, frisky calves and lamba,
pigs, chickens, dogs, cats, and kittens in bewildering
and bewitching variety. One family of five little cat
sisters were especially hospitable and social towards us,
coming up the hill to our cottage, to divert us and eat
up the fresh milk brought to our doors for us in the
morning. They were chaperoned by their grandam;
their mamma, we are told, being quite worn down by
maternal duties, had gone for a restful visit to another
'outfit,' on a distant part of the ranch, leaving the
children to be weaned by her good old mother. In
their devotion to us the pretty inconstants quite for-
sook our host, whose special pets they were. He said
he had more than once waked in the morning to find
that all five had invaded his room, and brought grandma,
and were lying on his pillow, or snuggled doge under his
chin—a necklace of cats. To fully enjoy Bergun's
Park, visitors should take saddle horses, in order to
explore in all directions the fragrant forests of spruce
and pine—almost as clear of unsightly brush and
undergrowth as English woodlands. But they also
thrive who only rest and eat. The ranch-house table
boasts delightful English cooking—light, snowy bread,
delicious butter, juicy beef, tender mutton, game in
season, freshleggs and vegetables, abundance of milk
and rich cream, such as the lower world has forgotten
since it has gone up so. And, to crown all, the prices
of board, with lodging, in those royal log cottages, are
much lower than at lower hotels. I hope that another
season a host of happy tourists will find out for them-
selves this mountain haunt of loveliness and health—
this darling retreat of nature, so far and so fair—this
glorious little epitome of Colorado.'