The Berkshire Hills

From Vermont upon the north to Connecticut upon the south, and for 50 miles along the eastern border of New York, extends Berkshire, the most western county of Massachusetts. It is a region of hill and valley, of lake and stream, of woodland farm and field.

"Its beauty is world renowned." The pens of Bryant and Catherine Sedgwick early made it their favorite theme, and in later years Holmes and Longfellow, Hawthorne, Melville and Thoreau have invested it with their genius. Within its limits lie countless scenes of both storied and unsung loveliness.

"Bounding the valley on the north from innumerable points of view, the double peaks of Greylock rise majestically three thousand five hundred feet into the air, the mountain summit of the Commonwealth. Along its western borders, in curves of marvelous grace, lie the dome-like hills of the Taconic range. Less graceful in outline, but even more romantic, with broken and precipitous ascents, wild glens and tumbling brooks, the Hoosacs shut out the world upon the east. Within this mountain walled amphitheatre lies cradled the upland valley of the Housatonic, with its fertile farms, its mansion homes and frequent villages."

"If the traveler seeks some object for a day's or a week's wonder, some tremendous cataract or 'heaven-piercing Cordillera,' he must seek it elsewhere. But if he asks a retreat among wild and picturesque scenery, adorned by much that is pleasant and refined in his city life, but far removed from it's heat and turmoil; where nature ennobles by her greatness but never chills a frown, he may find it all amid the varied beauty of the Berkshire Hills." 

From "Taghconic," by J.E.A. Smith