i-ts7H fe 
 
Class 
 
 BookZIESS 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 
 
Lenox 
 
American 
 
 Summer 
 
 Resorts 
 
 The North Shore. By Robert 
 Grant. 
 With Illustrations by W. T. Smed- 
 LEY. 
 
 Newport. By W. C. Brownell. 
 With Illustrations by W. S. Van- 
 derbilt Allen. 
 
 Bar Harbor. By F. Marion Craw- 
 ford. 
 With Illustrations by C. S. Rein- 
 hart. 
 
 Lenox. By George A. Hibbard. 
 
 With Illustrations by W. S. Van- 
 derbilt Allen. 
 
 *_£* Each i2mo. Cloth. Price, 75 cents 
 
WW§///iM/J/ii/////i/MM 
 
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 One of the Drives 
 
AMERICAN SUMMER RESORTS 
 
 LENOX 
 
 GEORGE A. HIBBARD 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BT 
 
 W. S. VANDERBILT ALLEN 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK MDCCCXCVI 
 

 Copyright, jSqj, iSqb, by 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 One of the Drives . 
 
 Sedgiuick Hall 
 
 Congregational Church, Lenox 
 
 A Court-yard 
 
 One of the "Places" 
 
 A Model Farm Building 
 
 Forming the Flower Parade 
 
 Boating on Stockbridge Bowl 
 
 Curtis's .... 
 
 The Post-office, Sunday Morning 's Mail 
 
 The Episcopal Church 
 
 Page 
 Frontispiece 
 
 5 
 
 21 
 
 27 
 
 33 
 39 
 45 
 5i 
 
LENOX 
 
 ^HAT artless lady who has been 
 * known to the world for such a 
 long time because of her famous wonder 
 as to how it happened that large rivers 
 always ran past large towns, and who com- 
 mented favorably upon such an advan- 
 tageous arrangement of things, might have 
 wondered as to the " why " of Lenox. 
 She might have wondered, perhaps, but it 
 would almost seem that, in this case, in 
 spite of her engaging intellectual misad- 
 justments, she must have put the horse 
 before the cart, and announced that Lenox 
 " was " for the simple reason that nature 
 had fitted it so to be. Granted literally 
 the "premises," the hills and the lakes, 
 and the place that has grown up, is, as it 
 were, an inevitable logical conclusion. 
 
Lenox There are many who do not care for the 
 mountains, and there are many who do 
 not willingly seek the sea, and to these 
 Lenox offers a perfect mean. 
 
 There is a number of other reasons for 
 the continuance and the permanence of Le- 
 nox, but it is safe to say that its " first 
 cause " was, or that its cc first causes " 
 were, the changing country, the woods 
 with the frequent, fragrant clumps of pine, 
 and the sky across which the clouds drifted 
 so serenely day after day. Of Newport, 
 of Bar Harbor, of the North Shore, 
 and of Lenox, the last is the only one 
 without the sea, and this, of course, is 
 the chief characteristic in which it differs 
 from the others, and, with such a difference, 
 the dissimilarity must be very great. 
 Where the sea is there is unrest, and at 
 all the others it is impossible to escape 
 the consciousness of the ever-changing, 
 all-absorbing ocean. But at Lenox that 
 disturbing element is wholly absent, and 
 there is, above all else, a sense of peace 
 and calm that is missing at the first three. 
 
Indeed, it may be written that the first and Lenox 
 the lasting impression made by Lenox is 
 one of quietness and rest, and there are 
 other reasons for this besides the absence 
 of the luring and troubling waste of waters. 
 Lenox, almost more than any of the 
 other three places, seems to have the air of 
 having always c< been." Newport may be 
 as old, but the Newport that is now 
 known — the characteristic Newport — 
 seems much newer, for Lenox in some 
 mysterious way has gathered up some- 
 thing of the old life, and has carried it on 
 and made it a part of the new, and this 
 feeling of continuation certainly tends to 
 make it the reposeful abiding place it is. 
 Lenox, as Mr. Henry James says in his 
 " Life of Hawthorne," has " suffered the 
 process of lionization," but it has more 
 gently or more skillfully shaded into what 
 it is now than the rest which have left 
 more behind. One does not think of it 
 as having been " discovered " as Bar Har- 
 bor was discovered, well within the mem- 
 ory of even the middle-aged diner-out. 
 
 3 
 
Lenox Society was represented, and gracefully 
 represented, at Lenox, years ago in many 
 a great, white, elm-shaded house. It 
 seems that there never can have been any- 
 thing crude about it at any time. The 
 famous Bar Harbor story of the " summer 
 boarder " who asked his landlord if he 
 should put his boots outside his door, and 
 was promptly informed that there was not 
 the slightest danger that " anybody would 
 tech 'em," is a tale that could never con- 
 ceivably have been told of Lenox. 
 
 The Berkshire seems always to have 
 been civilized, and indeed it is an old 
 country. The ancient houses and the 
 good roads prove this — those good Berk- 
 shire roads to which we Americans can 
 always turn with assurance, when taunted 
 by our English friends — as our English 
 friends will sometimes taunt us — with the 
 condition of our common highways. And 
 indeed these Lenox roads are blessings 
 that must be appreciated by anyone who 
 has driven much in other parts of the 
 country. The relief that is afforded by 
 
 4 
 
Sedgwick 
 Hall 
 
the knowledge that before him lie miles Le 
 of firm, sure ways, is very comfortable, and 
 freedom from constant thought of his 
 horses, enables him to enjoy the more 
 fully the glorious country that rolls about 
 him. And what a land it is ! It would 
 seem that no fault could be found with the 
 Berkshire scenery, and the only fault ever 
 found with it that came within the notice 
 of the writer, was one of surfeit rather than 
 of any lack of satisfaction. But if there is 
 any difficulty with the Berkshire landscape, 
 it is in the number of its brooks. Two, 
 three, or half a dozen are all very well, 
 but when, in effect, they seem endless, and 
 everyone apparently more delightful than 
 the others, it is different. You start into 
 quick enthusiasm at the sight of the first, 
 tumbling clear and cool over its rocky bed 
 — here in quiet pools catching reflected 
 gleams of color — there breaking over 
 scattered rocks into flaky foam. You are 
 charmed by the second and decidedly 
 interested in the third. But you cannot 
 keep it up. Power of admiration is al- 
 
 7 
 
Lenox most lost and your superlatives quite ex- 
 hausted. There was once upon a time, an 
 impressionable but easily wearied mortal, 
 who was heard to remark, after he had 
 been taken for a Berkshire drive, that he 
 was "blase on brooks. " 
 
 But though the Berkshires are often 
 called, in a general way, Lenox, still 
 Lenox is by no manner of means the 
 Berkshires. Lenox is something quite 
 separate and independent and different. 
 It is a distinct locality and the centre of 
 the life round about. Lenox was a place 
 of considerable importance before it be- 
 came a place of great importance, but of 
 an importance of a different kind. It was 
 a very distinguished, self-respecting New 
 England village before it became the 
 " smart " place, with more or less " swag- 
 ger " attributes, that it is to-day. The 
 traditions, however, of its former state 
 still abide, and influence and color its 
 present condition. The Congregational 
 Church was a good deal of a building for 
 the New England of the latter part of the 
 
 8 
 
Ac6 
 
 ^tCATi^VL": 
 
 \ ; . > Jit tn- tfl 
 
 
 flMS 
 
 OF: 
 
 Jr 
 
 % 
 
last century, though it is a " far cry " from Lenox 
 it to the latest palace-cottage ; but the 
 older still exists, at least holds its own, 
 and will not be put down. Indeed it may 
 be said that Lenox — the village — is old, 
 and that what is new, lies, for the most 
 part, about it. Along the wide main 
 street there are many houses in which 
 dwell the temporary sojourners ; but they 
 are almost all of an earlier date, or have 
 been made over to fit modern require- 
 ments. 
 
 When approaching from the north, as 
 the visitor generally approaches Lenox, it 
 it is only after he has driven through the 
 wide main street, after the actual village 
 is passed, that there comes the first full 
 realization of all that has made the place 
 what it is. There may have been glimpses 
 along the Pittsfield road of roofs and por- 
 ticos, but nothing to give any idea of the 
 glories to follow. The chief memory of 
 this approach to Lenox will be of a gate- 
 way standing at the beginning of a grass- 
 grown drive that turns aside from the main 
 
 ii 
 
Lenox highway. There are flanking supports 
 against which the weeds bend and over 
 which the boughs droop, and through the 
 iron traceries of the gate itself there appears 
 a dark verdancy that is melancholy and 
 impressive. It is a gateway that offers 
 great suggestion of possible romance. 
 The imagination may wander through it 
 into all sorts of things, and if it has no 
 history it ought to have one, and anybody 
 who has been properly brought up upon 
 solid English fiction of the country-family 
 sort, with lots of ghosts in it, will at once 
 proceed to make one after his own heart. 
 But this gateway is almost all that is in 
 the least unkempt about Lenox, and it is 
 perhaps for this reason that it has hung, 
 as the writer has discovered, in the mem- 
 ories of many others besides himself. 
 
 All in Lenox is tended, trim, and tidy. 
 The usual neatness of a New England 
 village is apparent everywhere, and more 
 too, for there are park-like innovations in 
 the way of care that are lacking in many 
 other Massachusetts townlets. And this 
 
 12 
 
ft# 
 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
guarded regard for appearance is still an- Len °x 
 other thing that gives Lenox its air of re- 
 pose, to come back to the quality to which 
 one must be always returning who speaks 
 of Lenox at all. There are other streets 
 than the one main street — streets running 
 from it at various slanting angles, and on 
 some of them the first country houses 
 begin. But it is when you go a little 
 farther into the open toward the south and 
 west that the largest " places " are to be 
 found. And large is the word that best 
 describes them. They are large — larger 
 in reality or in seeming, than the other 
 " villas " of other places. Great structures 
 they are, of wood and of stone, ornate and 
 severe, Queen Anne — although Queen 
 Anne may at last be said to be dead — 
 colonial and, so to speak, composite — re- 
 miniscent, but all of them evidently pearls 
 of price, and many the results of an im- 
 mense expenditure. Crassus is under- 
 stood to have said with a fine scorn, that 
 he alone could be called rich who could 
 support an army ; but for practical modern 
 
 r 5 
 
Lenox purposes the construction and mainten- 
 ance of one of these great Lenox abodes 
 might well be taken by the richest of the 
 Romans as a test, and even as a rather 
 severe standard of wealth. There are not 
 only two or three, but there is a consider- 
 able number of them, and that number is 
 growing every year. The land which 
 once was valued for its possibilities in 
 raising potatoes, holds quite a different 
 price when its worth is determined by its 
 adaptability for raising palaces. There 
 are strange stories of the sudden apprecia- 
 tion in price of old farms all through this 
 part of the country, but there are no more 
 marvellous tales told anywhere than those 
 recounted of the advance of Lenox real 
 estate. Tens have been used as multi- 
 pliers, and now almost all the best land is 
 "out of the market. " 
 
 There are two lakes — the Stockbridge 
 Bowl, or Lake Mackeenac, and Laurel 
 Lake — about which the country houses 
 are chiefly gathered ; but it is on the east 
 side of the Bowl, and up and down and 
 
 16 
 
around its ends, that perhaps the largest Lenox 
 and finest are to be found. There are 
 others between the Bowl and Laurel Lake, 
 and all around the latter, but then there 
 are country houses everywhere in this 
 land — on nearly every good spot, and 
 sometimes, so anxious are people for 
 "places," on spots that are not so good. 
 The new-comer is shown these, one after 
 another, with the mention of some familiar 
 contemporaneous name, and gradually he 
 becomes very much mixed up, or else the 
 houses do, and, in retrospect, he sees 
 vague conglomerate shapes never dreamt 
 of by any respectable architect, or, if so 
 dreamt, then in a nightmare in which the 
 forte cochere of one millionaire is put upon 
 the spreading wing of another, and the 
 stack of chimneys from the dwelling of 
 this magnate upon the sloping roofs of 
 that. He asks is this the place of So- 
 and-So only to be told that it is the cot- 
 tage of Some-One-Else, and it requires 
 days before he can get them sorted out. 
 Then how proud he is, and how glibly, 
 
 *9 
 
Lenox by way of testing his information, he 
 hastens to inform his informant, with 
 still a slight questioning inflection, it is 
 true, but with almost a tone of proprietor- 
 ship. 
 
 But in connection with " places," there 
 is one experience that is peculiar and in a 
 measure significant. It is very distinctly 
 within the memory of the writer that, hav- 
 ing been driven, one gray afternoon, along 
 miles of road that lie around and among 
 the well-kept grounds that surround many 
 a great country house, and after having 
 had these costly structures, as it were, pa- 
 raded before his eyes, he was driven along 
 a road that ran upon the crest of a hill, on 
 one side of which were fields that extended 
 down a sharp declivity. Between the 
 fence and the beginning of the descent 
 there was a small plateau, on which the 
 weeds waved in the freshening evening 
 breeze. There, in the field, was what at 
 first appeared hardly more than a some- 
 what pronounced inequality in the ground, 
 It was only upon looking more closely 
 
A Model 
 
 Farm 
 
 Building 
 
that it was possible to discover a number Len °* 
 of stones arranged in what seemed irregu- 
 lar heaps. They were moss-covered, and 
 the grass had grown up so tall and thick 
 that they could hardly be distinguished at 
 all. "That was Hawthorne's house," he 
 was told. It was noticeable that the in- 
 terest with which this ragged remnant of 
 an abode was indicated, differed but little 
 in its expression from the manner and tone 
 with which some great villa had been 
 brought to notice. And, indeed, that sad 
 little cairn is one of the "show places" of 
 Lenox, as much as any proud residence 
 on the shore of either lake. It may be 
 that this is because of our pathetic Amer- 
 ican craving for anything picturesque — 
 that feeling that leads us to make the most 
 of the slightest Revolutionary relic, and 
 feel the pulse of our emotions as we gaze 
 upon any vestige of a scarcely vanished 
 past. It may be because of this, but it is 
 true that even in this so-called materialis- 
 tic age, and in this place where materialism 
 may be said to offer one of its finest and 
 
 2 3 
 
Lenox most luxurious displays, the remains of 
 the " small red house " are, and long will 
 be, distinguishable and distinguished. 
 
 Hawthorne came to Lenox in 1850, 
 and remained there only until the autumn 
 of 1 85 1, and there is hardly anything of 
 the charm of age, or long continuance in 
 place, to give his presence there its still 
 abiding influence. But he lived there ; 
 there wrote " The House of the Seven 
 Gables," and there imparted to the place 
 an enduring interest that has something 
 of the charm peculiar to himself. Fred- 
 rika Bremer, writing from the New World, 
 and from Lenox at the time when the 
 Hawthornes were there, speaks of the 
 prospect from the small dwelling : " Im- 
 mediately in front of Hawthorne's house 
 lies one of those small, clear lakes, with its 
 sombre margin of forest which characterize 
 this district, and Hawthorne seems greatly 
 to enjoy the view of it and the wildly 
 wooded country. " She adds, after spend- 
 ing an evening at the house : " His amia- 
 ble wife is inexpressibly happy to see him 
 
 24 
 
so happy here. A smile, a word, conveys Lenox 
 more to her than long speeches from other 
 people. She reads his very soul, — and 
 c he is the best of husbands.' ' 
 
 It was about 1833 that Mrs. Kemble 
 brought herself and her fame to the Berk- 
 shires, and became very directly associated 
 with Lenox in the minds of all. She came 
 there first for a visit — and she stayed, off 
 and on, for thirty years — stayed on as 
 many another has stayed, who at first had 
 no such intention. 
 
 Mrs. Kemble always felt about Lenox 
 very strongly, and wrote about it very 
 warmly. Again, to quote Mr. James, al- 
 though the words are not from the book 
 mentioned before: "Late in life she 
 looked upon this region as an Arcadia, a 
 happy valley, a land of woods and waters 
 and upright souls. ,, A description that 
 she has given conveys an excellent idea of 
 a characteristic Lenox scene. Writing 
 from New York in 1838, she says : " Im- 
 mediately sloping before me, the green 
 hillside, on the summit of which stands 
 
 *5 
 
Lenox the house I am inhabiting, sinks softly 
 down to a small valley filled with a rich, 
 thick wood, in the centre of which a little 
 jewel-like lake lies dreaming. Beyond this 
 valley the hills rise one above another to 
 the horizon, where they scoop the sky 
 with a broken, irregular outline, that the 
 eye dwells on with ever new delight, as its 
 colors glow and vary with the ascending or 
 descending sunlight and all the shadowy 
 procession of the clouds. In one direc- 
 tion, this undulating line of distance is 
 overtopped by a considerable mountain, 
 with a fine jagged crest, and ever since 
 early morning troops of clouds, and wan- 
 dering showers of rain, and the all-prevail- 
 ing sunbeams have chased each other over 
 the wooded slopes, and down into the 
 dark hollow where the lake lies sleeping, 
 making a pageant far finer than the one 
 Prospero raised for Ferdinand and Mi- 
 randa on his desert island." 
 
 There are drives about Lenox — -drives 
 without end and in all directions, but there 
 is no " drive." That is, there is no place 
 
 26 
 
where " society " gathers with its equi- 
 pages, for purposes of display, and where 
 is held, as is so often the case in other 
 places all the world over, a sort of informal 
 " dress parade." There is no spot where 
 you can go with the absolute certainty of 
 seeing " every one," or where you can as- 
 certain from day to day how " everybody" 
 is looking, or who happens to be with 
 whom — or who doesn't. In localities 
 where society gathers there is usually such 
 a " drive," and a daily appearance in it is 
 something of a necessity, but Lenox does 
 not seem to suffer from the lack of it. 
 
 There is a great deal of driving, but it 
 is done all over, for there is no direction 
 in which there are not good roads, and 
 hardly one where there are not good 
 views. You may meet the smartest sort 
 of a trap spinning along through some se- 
 cluded wood, or making its way over the 
 spur of some remote hill. There are all 
 kinds of vehicles, from the most stately 
 coach to the tiniest village cart in which 
 children drive a pony hardly larger than a 
 
 29 
 
 Lenox 
 
Lenox dog and quite as reliable ; and it is safe to 
 say that driving rather than riding is the 
 feature of the place. There is a great deal 
 of riding, but it is rather of the park order, 
 and not of that steady, business-like, soul- 
 absorbing sort that is to be found where 
 more cc cross-country " work is possible. 
 With the broken and often precipitous 
 nature of the land there is little chance for 
 " P°PP m g " over a fence and having a run 
 on the grass, and equestrians generally 
 keep sedately along the roads. This con- 
 dition of things naturally has for result the 
 displacement of " horse " from the proud 
 and commanding position it generally 
 holds as a subject for conversation. You 
 do talk horse and you do hear horse 
 talked at Lenox, for where now, even if 
 one so desired, is it possible to escape it ? 
 But it is not with the detail and variety 
 and vigor with which the subject is treated 
 at Hempstead, say, or in the Genesee Val- 
 ley — or even at Newport. 
 
 And just as there is no particularly 
 recognized " drive " in which society must 
 
 3° 
 
show itself, so there seems to be no speci- Lenox 
 fied " hour " at which the display should 
 come off. Society may be found abroad, 
 as it may be everywhere else, in the after- 
 noon — in the late afternoon — but there is 
 no compulsion about this, and " all 
 Lenox " is rarely seen together anywhere 
 or at any time. One must not forget, 
 however, one manifestation of " horse " — 
 although " horse " is subordinate — that is 
 or was quite peculiar to Lenox. Its an- 
 nual "Flower Parade " has been tried else- 
 where but with what was only a very mild 
 success when it was not a dismal failure. 
 At Lenox there seem to have been some 
 constituent qualities that have enabled this 
 ceremony literally to flourish for a number 
 of years, although now it certainly shows 
 signs of a declining vogue. 
 
 There is a great deal of walking, for the 
 country is most admirably fitted for it, and 
 the grounds of the greater number of the 
 big places are not forbidden to the world. 
 It is very pleasant to stroll leisurely along 
 the spring floor of yielding needles under 
 
 31 
 
Lenox the spreading pine-woods, and to breathe 
 the cool, aromatic air ; and it is very 
 pleasant, when you have convinced your- 
 self that you are tired, to sit upon some 
 stone about which the moss has disposed 
 itself with wonderful effectiveness, and 
 watch one of the multitudinous brown 
 brooks go tumbling past. But this is not 
 the walking in which the enthusiasts 
 usually indulge. They are off for tramps 
 " over the hills and far away," and talk of 
 miles covered and the number of minutes 
 in which they have been done. 
 
 It formerly could have been said that, 
 on the water, Lenox did not disport itself 
 at all. The larger of the Lakes — the 
 Stockbridge Bowl — is not really large 
 enough for sailing, and it was seldom that 
 even a rowboat was seen upon it. Of 
 course people went upon the lakes, but it 
 was not a practice that formed an essen- 
 tial part of the Lenox life. The creation 
 of the Mackeenac Boat Club and the erec- 
 tion of the boathouse are quite recent 
 affairs. Now there is much more done in 
 
 32 
 
Boating on 
 Stockbridge 
 Boivl 
 
the way of boating than there once was, Lemx 
 but, still, Lenox cannot be said to be 
 aquatic. 
 
 The peculiar time of the "Lenox sea- 
 son," in great measure, prescribes the con- 
 ditions of its life. The people who have 
 gone to Europe in May, returned in July 
 for a stay at Bar Harbor that may extend 
 into the first week of August, and then 
 have hurried on to Newport, generally 
 bring up in Lenox in late September and 
 early October. That is the proper man- 
 ner in which to end the summer ; and, as 
 everyone knows, Lenox in the early 
 autumn is at its gayest. Much happens 
 during the earlier months, and there are 
 very many charming people there who do 
 delightful things, but it is in September 
 and October that the cc crowd " comes and 
 every one " rushes " more or less madly 
 for a short time. All the resources ot 
 society are drawn upon to the utmost and 
 all its powers put in play. Then there 
 are teas and dinners and small dances and 
 large balls 3 as well as all the miscellaneous 
 
 35 
 
Lenox amusements of the gay world, from pic- 
 nics to private theatricals. In October it 
 is no longer summer, and there is much 
 that is not done outdoors. Indeed, there 
 is more indoor entertainment than out in 
 Lenox in the season, and with the early 
 evenings you drive to a dinner with some- 
 thing of the feeling of the town. 
 
 There are often rainy days, and what 
 days they are in a huge country-house, 
 with a large and active house-party ! The 
 rain beats against the panes, but it beats 
 a lively tattoo for mustering jollity. There 
 is laughter indoors and there are many 
 devices for passing the time. A house- 
 party is the mother of invention, and the 
 schemes that can be devised by a dozen 
 bright young people, thrown together for 
 even a short time, are very various. There 
 are games and " parlor tricks " without 
 end, and always those skirmishings of boy 
 or girl, or man and woman, that happens 
 just now in the English language to be 
 called " flirtation " — not such a very old 
 word, and one at the making of which 
 
 36 
 
Lord Chesterfield says he assisted person- 
 ally, as it " dropped from the most beau- 
 tiful mouth in the world " — the mouth, 
 it may be presumed, of " beautiful Molly 
 Lepell." 
 
 " House-parties " are not confined, it is 
 true, to Lenox, but the great size of the 
 houses there makes them very common 
 and very constant, and it was at Lenox, as 
 much, if not more than anywhere else, 
 that the practice of bringing a lot of peo- 
 ple under the same roof, — a practice taken 
 from the other side, and with the changing 
 conditions of American society now accli- 
 matized or naturalized — at first found fit- 
 ting opportunity for introduction. 
 
 As Lenox has no prescribed "drive" 
 nor " hour," so it has no central and ac- 
 knowledged gathering place. It has no 
 Casino and no Kebo Valley Club. But 
 such places are not really needed. In 
 Lenox the season is much shorter than at 
 either Newport or Bar Harbor, and the 
 time is well filled up with private enter- 
 tainments. Indeed, it is sometimes rather 
 
 37 
 
Lenox too well filled up, and the pleasure of see- 
 ing the place must be foregone for the de- 
 lights of seeing the people. It is often 
 very gay, the people seem anxious to 
 make the best of what must be the last of 
 the country before they " go to town." 
 
 The question of <c cottage " life or "ho- 
 tel " life has never agitated Lenox, because 
 of a rather peculiar condition of affairs. 
 The huge caravansaries that are continu- 
 ally springing up elsewhere have never 
 appeared here. There is one hotel and 
 only one — and this, in great measure, is an 
 institution, and has become an important 
 part of Lenox. Its fame is not by any 
 means local. "Curtis's" is known not only 
 in this country but has been mentioned in 
 others. It is a big, old structure rising 
 on the main street at the very centre of 
 things, across the way from its only possi- 
 ble rival in general consideration, the post- 
 office, of which more must be said presently. 
 Of late years it has received an addition — 
 a wing in which is the dining-room ; and 
 there may be found at the breakfast hour 
 
 38 
 

 Curtis' I 
 
 
many who are well known in clubland and 
 ballroomdom. There, are single men, the 
 " overflow of house-parties," and there, 
 are the heads of families living in cottages 
 rented near by, who come to the hotel for 
 the meals of the day, which generally are 
 not supplied with the houses. And there, 
 are matrons and maids and fresh young 
 children who would certainly disprove the 
 objection to their kind made long ago by 
 the Germans, that they never satisfy the 
 aesthetic. There are generally to be found, 
 as the season draws toward its close, the 
 emissaries of other countries who have 
 been the rounds and who are now com- 
 pleting the summer before returning to 
 Washington. 
 
 Almost every one whom " one knows" 
 has been there ; and it is curious to bring 
 " Curtis's " to the recollection of some 
 woman no longer young and to see how 
 quickly the name vivifies many glimmer- 
 ing memories. It was there that Such 
 and Such a one was first met, and such 
 and such a thing was once done ; and, if 
 
 41 
 
you will seek a little farther, you may find 
 that the spot is dear to her for other 
 memories, and that as often as not some 
 love-affair has been played out about and 
 within those walls of which she still thinks 
 tenderly. It is difficult not to be personal, 
 and in this one case it is perhaps permis- 
 sible to be so. The host has so much to 
 do with the fame of the hostelry, that as 
 a public character, it may be possible to 
 speak of him without too great indiscre- 
 tion. It was once the fortune of the 
 writer to assist at an interview between a 
 very celebrated and distinguished person- 
 age indeed and the potentate of Curtis's, 
 and surely, the graciousness of royalty was 
 never better manifested than in the meet- 
 ing of these powers. 
 
 Across the street, or, more accurately, 
 at an angle on a near corner, stands, as 
 has been said, the only real competitor of 
 " Curtis's" for popular consideration. It 
 also is an " institution," and holds a po- 
 sition of singular importance. There, 
 sooner or later, you seem always to "bring 
 
 42 
 
up," and twice and even thrice in a day Lenox 
 you may find yourself at this point of in- 
 terest. Every one goes there, and there, 
 at one time or another between morning 
 and evening, you may be pretty sure of 
 meeting every one you know. The char- 
 acter of a " post-office " is really lost, and 
 the place has become almost a resort of 
 society. If it be quite safe to say so, it 
 partakes of the nature of a " social ex- 
 change," and is a cross between a " Ca- 
 sino " and, in its informality of access and 
 general sociability, of the " country store." 
 One who once tarried in Lenox — after 
 having been taken to the post-office three 
 times in one day where he saw many part- 
 ings and meetings and heard many matters 
 thoroughly discussed — was heard to re- 
 mark that he considered the office of post- 
 master in Lenox the most desirable social 
 position in the United States, and an- 
 nounced his intention, as he was naturally 
 of a gregarious disposition, of immediately 
 applying for the position. 
 
 It is at Sunday noon that the post-office 
 
 43 
 
Lenox appears in all its glory. When church is 
 over, the greater number of worshippers 
 seem to turn in the direction of the small 
 low building on the corner ; and so large 
 is the throng making way thither that, at 
 Lenox, there really is a regular weekly 
 "church parade." On the sidewalk, be- 
 fore the mail is opened, and while it is 
 being distributed, there is often quite a 
 crowd, and conversation is most lively and 
 interesting. There, you may hear all that 
 has been and much that is going to be, 
 and from this informal congress you may 
 come away a thoroughly informed person, 
 wholly supplied with all the knowledge 
 that will be necessary for use in the social 
 world for the following week at least. 
 There are other centres in other places 
 that may be of equal consequence in the 
 life of those dwelling in them, but in 
 Lenox it is safe to say that all roads lead 
 to the post-office, and that it has a focal 
 value that is not often found. 
 
 There is a club at Lenox, a regular 
 "man's" club ; and it is a very delightful, 
 
 44 
 
The 
 
 Post -office, 
 Sunday 
 Morning' s 
 Mail 
 
although not a very large affair. You go Lenox 
 to it and hear of it, but there is a quiet- 
 ness about it that gives it a charm that 
 many clubs lack. The spirit of Lenox 
 life seems even to have influenced it, and 
 there you find a dignified seclusion and a 
 leisurely restfulness that, to say the least, 
 are unusual and very delightful. It is an 
 idyl of club life, and quite different from 
 its counterpart of the town. Indeed, all 
 through Lenox there is a strange mingling 
 of the sylvan and the urban. You may 
 have the pleasures and relaxations of the 
 country, but you need not necessarily be 
 uncomfortable ; and you are not obliged to 
 abandon the perfected resources of civiliza- 
 tion while enjoying them. As in a good 
 specimen of landscape gardening there are 
 often simplicity and a simulated wildness, 
 so in the formalities of Lenox life there 
 are always refreshing bits and surprises of 
 nature, and much is gained by the con- 
 trasts. 
 
 Lenox never seems to have passed 
 through any uncertain or tentative state. 
 
 47 
 
Lenox Progress has not been so sudden or so 
 sensational as in several other popular 
 " resorts," but it has been very steady, and 
 to-day Lenox is more popular and famous 
 than at any other time in its history. And 
 it is pretty safe to say that its glory will 
 never decrease. It is too firmly estab- 
 lished in the regard of many to make it 
 likely that there will be any lessening in 
 the number or fervor of its devotees 
 Then, too, with so much there already, it 
 is almost a necessary consequence that 
 there should be more. With so much al- 
 ready " put into the country ' it seems 
 certain that more will continually be ex- 
 pended, and that where there are so many 
 "vested interests " nothing can ever really 
 be disturbed. But there are interests that 
 more firmly than any pecuniary ones must 
 make Lenox a lasting reality. It has a 
 place in the minds and hearts of hundreds 
 who have known it, and there are few who 
 have once felt its subtle charm who have 
 been able or have cared to escape its 
 gently coercive power. 
 
 4 8 
 
Much as has been done for Lenox in Lenox 
 the way of added attractions, there is one 
 thing that it has done for itself, or rather 
 that nature has done for it, that has given 
 it a particular name and fame. A long 
 time ago people used to send to their 
 friends abroad particularly brilliant speci- 
 mens of our gorgeous autumn foliage, and 
 were rewarded by the expressions of aston- 
 ment and admiration with which such gifts 
 from the New World were received. The 
 friends probably thought such splendor a 
 very natural part of our savage crudeness, 
 but they were pleased nevertheless with 
 such attractive curiosities, and our Amer- 
 can autumn leaves acquired a wide repu- 
 tation and came to be considered one of 
 the peculiar native products of the country. 
 Of all places in which to seek examples of 
 them it has long been conceded that Lenox 
 is the best. 
 
 Indeed it is highly probable that, in 
 some measure, the time of the Lenox 
 season has been determined by this fact. 
 People early fell into the habit of making 
 
 49 
 
Lenox pilgrimages to see the " autumn coloring," 
 and though they go now to the Berkshires 
 for many other reasons, they always watch 
 the foliage and talk about it. And so im- 
 portant is it, that one of the recognized 
 subjects of conversation is the degree of 
 brilliancy that the leaves may have attained 
 in any particular year, and one says that 
 the coloring is " poor this year " or cc good 
 this year," as one might speak of a crop 
 or a vintage. And it is worth seeing and 
 talking about. There is nothing quite 
 like it, and, for the time being, our stern 
 Northern woods seem to take on a certain 
 tropical splendor and equatorial profusion. 
 Often the change from summer's quieter 
 array to the autumn's splendid garniture 
 comes gradually and, day by day, one 
 sees the dark woods soften into something 
 gayer. The places where shadows, in 
 the strong morning sunshine, lay coldly 
 blue, become a redder purple, and the 
 greens a vivid yellow. But it is when the 
 change comes suddenly that the great 
 harlequin shift is made with the most 
 
 5^ 
 
The 
 
 Episcopal 
 
 Church 
 
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 z£\ 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 .- 
 
 
astonishing effect. Then, almost in a Le ' 
 night, the hills assume a new aspect, and 
 you arise in the morning in a new world. 
 After a sharp frost, the trees glow with 
 scarlet and crimson, and the leaves spin- 
 ning at the end of a branch gleam, where 
 the light shows through them, with a ruby 
 brightness. The whole country-side, is 
 afire, and the forest ablaze in every direc- 
 tion. Then, it is possible to walk through 
 rattling drifts of piled-up crispness, and 
 there is a mild exhilaration, not quite like 
 anything else, in driving before your feet 
 the shifting heaps of fallen leaves. 
 
 But it is the color that is all important 
 — a revel of hue and dye — a carousal of 
 tint and tone ; and with the maple and 
 sumach to lead, the results are gorgeous 
 and bewildering. There is nothing hesi- 
 tating or doubtful in the effect. There is 
 a vivid frankness about it that makes all a 
 continual surprise. Accustomed as our 
 eyes are to the quieter and sadder tones of 
 the landscape painters of other lands, if it 
 were not for its royal magnificence, we 
 
 53 
 
might think it tawdry and even vulgar. 
 But there is a certain imperial power in 
 the display that justifies itself — that im- 
 presses and controls us, and makes the 
 pageant the triumph of the year. It is 
 with such a setting that the life of Lenox 
 is mounted; and with such a transforma- 
 tion scene in the Berkshire Hills that the 
 shifting high-comedy drama of American 
 summer society existence comes to its 
 brilliant end. 
 
 54 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 078 719 A O 
 
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