The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-06-26
Villages Offer Variety of
Attractions to Sum-
mer Travellers

lllGI 1IdV6lGIS
In the annual recreation number of
the Springfield Sunday Union of June
Is writer who has visited the West
River valley and become impressed
with its charms tells of them as fol
lows:
In the old days when a young mar
ried man asked his friends that ster-
eotyped question, Where will | spend
my vacation!" there always would be
/ some tacetious acquaintance who would
! chirrup: Take the missus and drive
a cant through the Green mountains"
! BY cart they meant anything drawn
/ by one horse-a buggy, dog-cart or
sulky. 1t sounded good, bu5 nine men
! out OF ten would prefer walking to
| humping over gravel roads in any con
/ traption coming under the classification
of cart"
However, suggest to the perplexed
| young husband of modern times that
! he take the family fiivver and hop up
through the West River valley in south
ern Vermont" and he might take you
up. What is more, if he did he would
return at the end of the conventional
two weeks and fall on your neck in
| futile effort to express his gratitude
The West River valley was designed
partially for that sort of thing-so it
would seem. The roads are hard gravel,
well cared for after every rain storm.
curried and groomed to a point where
they have all of the smoothness of tar
bound macadam without any of the
disadvantages of the latter that come
with long, persistent wear. In the val
ley itself the hills are easy to negotiate,
there are but few bad turns, against
which the driver is warned by ju-
dieiously placed signs, which also holds
true of the few railroad crossings one
encounters IN trip say as far as
South Londonderry.
Valley Begins at BrattIebOro
The West River valley can be cIassed
as one of the most delightful bits of
hill country in New England. 1t offers
Wild mountainous scenery, interspersed
with pastoral touches of farm and
meadowland, and a succession of de-
Hghtful little villages, thu queen of
Windham county, and boyhood home of
Eugene Field.
The West River similar in character
to the upper reaches of the Westfeld,
the Swift or the Ware rivers, winds
picturesquely almost the entire length
OF the valley, and as for mountains the
landscape IS strewn with them from
one end to the other.
Then, off the beaten paths are such
delightful little villages as West Wards
borO and Windham, and the original
mOmtain-top site of Newfane, 10 reach
which the modern knight of the road is
called upon to traverse highways lead
ing through some of the most '~htful
scenery IN any part of New England.
The latter statement is no eXaggera-
ton Windham county as a whole,
coupling the West River valley towns
with those that rest upin higher lands,
is picturesque in the extreme, and the
vacationist who negotiates its hills
and valleys in a small =ear.-especially
Is going to take back something more
lasting than wayside souvenirs when
the two weeks are up, and business
routine calls once more.
The West River valley begins lust
step north of the center of Brattleboro.
and from the moment the autoist passes
| the Brattlehoro Retreat and sails out
| through the beautiful river bottom
| meadows on the way to Dummerston
| his attention is engaged continuously
until he emerges once more. 1t is hills
/ and valley, valley and hills through
| out its full length, and the scenery
/ is of so changing q character that not
| an inch of it can be termed mOn0tonous.
| The river winds and twists, first Il few
| hundred feet below the road, now al
most level with it. Here there are fields
/ on one side with the river on the other;
q short distance beyond the rough hills
ascend precipitately from the very edge
of the road. while down their sides rush
brooks which apparently never run dry.
And everywhere the roads are good,
wide enough for two machines to pass
! without crowding one or another into
the river. If the vacationlsts care for
spring WatGr-and they are virtually
unanimous in that resDect-evrTY half
mile or so offers a spring which would
be worth "A fortune near a large city.
And if one desires to collect the where
withal for a wayside luncheon any one
Of score of farm houses can furnish
the best possible ingredients.
Newfane Attractive Village
1t is less than an hours run from
Brattleboro to NeWfane, but to the
average person it takes much more
than an hour to get through the town
The reason for this is its surprising
attractions. The present town of New
fame is nearly century old. The old
Jail. now equipped with modern cells
and all that sort of thing. has history
almost as interesting as the beautiful
little white court house. whose dome
on the common.
The old Jail still shows the honorable
scars and patchwork, that mark where
old time prisoners chiseled and pried
their way to the outer air and freedom.
The sheriff continues to run hotel in
one end of the jail building, and the
model prisoner invariably is sent out at
) o'clock STANDARD timel to drive in
the iaiPs two cows, and perhaps re-
bellious calf
The court house does not operate in
tho summer months, but the key may
be had by calling on the sheriff. and
-. 4 4 10 IL g.F