The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-08-15
THE BRYANT CENTENNIAL.
Cummington and the Bryant Estate-How
to Get to the yiilage-Programme of the
Exercises-A Place of Interesting Associ-
ations.

Cummington, Mass, August IA
rms village, where the celebration
commemorating the hundredth anniver-
sary OF the birth of Bryant is SOON to
ltake place, is town of only 800 inhabi.
ltants, perched on the highest hills OF
Western Massachusetts, in the county oil
Hampshire, which rivals in beauty and
sttractiveness it's neigh Dor, more famous
berkshire, writes G. D. N. to the New York
Evening Post. The town is bisected by
| the pebbly Westfield River, which Uses
IN the hills to the northwest, it's western
half rising sharply from the valley and
merging into Remington Hill, which
is the second highest elevation in the
western part of the state. A recent
writer tells of one who, descending the
mountain in early morning, was accus-
toned to meet the aged poet ascending
to watch the sun rising over the high
range of eastern hills and reddening the
sides of Saddleball, which lies in the
northwest, and at whose base from a
lower elevation a faint spiral of smoke
shows the locality of the central shaft
VI huOSdS tuuu6l, bW6Hby iullcS away.
below Remington are the Bryant homes
steads, and still further down, in the
corner of an apple orchard simple
granite shaft marks the spot where on
November 3, 1874, was born William
Cullen Bryant.
When the poet was very young, his
father, DR.. Peter Bryant. moved to the
properly, now called the Bryant place,
where his boyhood was chiefly spent.
A part of the old house was purchased
by Mitchell Dawes, and in it a few
years later WAS born Henry L. Dawes,
recently United States Senator. Return
ing to Cummington in 1865, Mr.. Bryant,
the poet, purchased the old homestead,
which had passed out OF the hands of the
family, and remodelled the house for
a summer residence. The little l. which
was the office of Dr.. Peter Bryant, and
where 'Thanatopsis' WAS written had
heen sold and moved down into the
valley, where it now stands. the squalid
cottage ofian old negro, but new one
precisely like it was built and converted
into little library, where later the
odyssey was translated. The main
building was raised one story, the older
part being now OH the second floor. Al
the rear of the house flows between
mosscovered stones
the little rill that from the springs
~ JohdOI SlOfCs ItS OIlu&b,
III the grove that lies to the south by
the borders of the shady wood for which
was written the Inscription for the en-
trance to a wood.p are found the little
yellow violets which "peep from last
years leaves beneath, and on its borders
grow the fringed gentian, "colored with
heavens own blue.n
A bove the Bryant homestead is : the
upper place." which was the residence of
the poets maternal grandfather, Eben-
eyer Smell. This he also purchased and
fitted up with new house and farm build
ings for his oldest daughter, Mrs. Good
win. Around both are apple and pear
orchards, and from them is seen mag
nifcent sweep of @rock-ribbed hills,n
With green forest patches of cultivated
ground and old stone walls everywhere
marking the boundaries of fields, with
now and then cluster of farm build
ings half hidden by shade-trees.
At the lower place. Mr.. Bryant
spent the August and September Of the
last eleven years of his life, enjoying his
leisure moments roaming over the fields
and by the shores of the shallow brooks.
making pilgriniages every year to favor
tie spots-to a wood 70 d shaded with
the largest trees, to Roaring Brook,
which tumbles down rocky chasm for
a mile or more, or over to the Plainfield
oillos Az N0yo bCAOlC aC Ado pre-
pared for college under the tuition of
Moses Hallock. In the same little town
and under the same master, John Brown
of Osawatome spent short six months
in early manhood.
Beyond 1Plainefild is Ashfield, where
George William Curtis spent the sum-
mers of his later years. Farther to the
south beyond Goshen, is beautiful Cues
terrified on the very top of the ridge of
hills, with Monadnock rising on one side
and Greylock, distant cone, upon the
other. Here the Rev. John White Chad
wick has a summer home. Worthington,
also resort in summer, and Peru and
Windsor, bleaker and mo1e countrified,
complete the semi-circle of hills which
surround Cummington.
The nearest railroad IS a small branch
burg, twelve miles away and its is
reached by stage, which leaves Chm
mington at seven in the morning and
returns at six in the evening or later.
Another stage goes west to Dalton on
the Boston and Albany Road, seventeen
miles distant. Both routes are billy ;,
but are well keI aud afford good views.
The return stage from Dalton leaves the
depot between twelve and one P. M,
and Williamsburg between two and three
FIN. Persons intending to attend the
celebration on August 16, would do
we'll to engage Accommodations as early as
posi- BILE, as the prospect is that every
available horse will be pressed into.se
vice to carry guests over the mountain :,
and every room will be full to overflow
ing.
The exercises at the grove on the Bry-
ant estate will begin at ten in the morn
ing, and with an interval for luncheon
will continue until four. P. M At the
first session will be the principal ad-
dress by Mr.. Edwin R. Brown of Elmwood,
and the reading of the "Rivuletn and
"A Monody' by Mr.. John H. Bryant. A
collation. will be served by tbs ladies of
the town for the speakers and invited
guests. The remainder of the multitude
are expe CITE to provide for themselves,
and will find many beautiful spots on
which to spread their luncheons. After
dinner there will be speeches from many
noted men. among them the Rev. John
Chadwick. Prof. Charles Eliot Norton,
President, G. Stanley Hall, Charles
Dudley Warner, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
and George W. Gable. 1t only the wealth
er is propitious, the success of the cele-
bration is assured.
GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY.