Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-11-06
IAN ARTISTS PARADISE"


The EnvIabIe Fame TO which a West
River Valley Town has Come, or IL
Coming, All Unknown TO It's Neigh
bors.
Everybody who has seen, in summer
time, our neighboring village Of Towns
bend, seventeen miles up the West river
valley, knows that it has a natural beauty
of location, rugged but rarely quiet and
peaceful, all its own. But IL has been left
for PARKWAY city Of the Northwest to send
us the news that the town is the summer
abode of a considerable group of artists,
and that the "TownsheRd SCHOOL, of
painters may yet be a rival of the famous
school of Barbizon, in France. A writer
in the Minneapolis Journal tells about it:
"With the growth of the art sentiment
in America and the gradual incubation of
love of art, there is a laudable tendency
to the formation of little groups of artists
who enjoy a common beauty spot in some
retired nook where they spend large part
of the year in getting inspiration for their
work and hints from nature for their pencil
and brush. These groups are forming in
the same way as the artists gathered at
Barbizon in France and at Newlyn in Eng
land. Newlyn, situated at Landsend, re-
mote from civilization, mere cluster of
picturesque old houses without street, and,
most important of all, without a tavern,
has for many years been happy haven for
English artists. The absence of a tavern
or hotel keeps the tourist at a distance
and leaves the artists undisturbed in their
! enjoyment Of the beauties Of Newlyn and
its environment.
"In respect TO the requirements of ar
| l..
a place as Newlyn, and there, unnoticed
and unsuspected, eight or ten of the best
! known American artists have spent their
summers for many years past, forming a
| group, which, in time to come, will doubt
| less be referred TO as the Townshend
school or group in American painting.
"a Minneapoltan who has recently re-
turned from this artists retreat in the
| heart of the Green Mountains, is so de-
| lighted with the ancient village and its
beautiful and romantic mountain setting
that he feels certain that any band of ar
lists of ability cannot long linger there
without giving 10 the world something
worthy of American art. AS not a few
of the New England families now settled in
Minneapolis have their ancestral seats in
this part of Vermont, few words about
| Townshend will not be without interest.
THE little village is located not far from
Newfane, the county seat Of Windham
county, which takes up the southeastern
corner of the state, its eastern boundary
being formed by the waters of the Con-
necticut river. II Is reached from the
noisy, busy outside world by narrow
gauge branch of the Central Vermont
railroad, which twists its way up the val
ley of the picturesque West river from
Brattleboro, where that mountain stream
joins the Connecticut. Twenty miles from
anywhere, Townshend has slept on its
| little plateau between the West river and
its atiiuent, Mountain brook, almost ever
since the hardy Puritans from Massachu-
sets began to invade the mountain wilder
ness after the close of the French and In
dian wars.
behind the village, across Mountain
brook, rise Peaked mountain, and still be-
hind that Murdoch mountain. In front
the village looks down on the swift flowing
West river, 200 feet below, winding in and
out at the foot of the mountains. Open
ings in this range here and there afford
enhancing vistas of distant mountains and
hills. Through one cleft in the mountain
wall Mt Simpson, lying % miles away to
the west, can be plainly discerned.
"Many, in fact the majority, of the
walls and the ruins of deserted dwellings.
These are the marks of ancient mountain
farms which have been abandoned in the
last half century. The first settlers, fear
ing the valley frosts, located their farms
on top OF the high mountains. In later
years their more lndolent descendants con-
cluded that early frosts were not half so
much to be feared as the perpetual climb
ing up and down the mountains to reach
the main roads and the means of trans
portation. When this idea had fully dawn
ed upon the mountaineers' minds they be-
gan general emigration to the valleys
and the foothills, moving villages as well
as farmhouses, and converting their noun
tain farms into pastures. Some of these
farms have since grown up to timber. This
second growth in various stages dotted
with old walls and ruins here and there,
together with more or less open ground
and some original forest growths, combine
TO make most enhancing prospect, which
ever way the eye wanders. In the autumn
the glorious colorlng of the foliage of the
naples, of the sugar bushes, the elms,
birches, the old mountain apple orchards
and hickory trees fill the country side with
a splendid abundance of fascinating color
Then, too, there is the beauty of the 'mow-
ings, as the Vermonters call the meadows,
and the beautiful mountain streams flow
ing over gravel or boulder beds.
"Townshend itself is collection of
houses built around a square. Several
years ago the single hotel burned down and
has never been replaced. In consequence
the rare tourist who might wander up from
Brattleboro, 20 miles away, does not stop
at Townshend, but continues on his way
TO Londonderry, where the little narrow
gauge road ends at the foot of the noun
tain range 1t has not yet attempted to
cross. The artists who come to this drowsy
spot occupy rooms in the villagers houses
and become identified with the community.
There they spend their summer in quiet
content gathering the material which may
yet make them and Townshend famous"