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HARPER'S

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE

NO. XXVI.--JULY, 1852.--VOL. V.




[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW.]

THE ARMORY AT SPRINGFIELD

BY JACOB ABBOTT


SPRINGFIELD.

The Connecticut river flows through the State of Massachusetts, from
north to south, on a line about half way between the middle of the
State and its western boundary. The valley through which the river
flows, which perhaps the stream itself has formed, is broad and
fertile, and it presents, in the summer months of the year, one widely
extended scene of inexpressible verdure and beauty. The river meanders
through a region of broad and luxuriant meadows which are overflowed
and enriched by an annual inundation. These meadows extend sometimes
for miles on either side of the stream, and are adorned here and there
with rural villages, built wherever there is a little elevation of
land--sufficient to render human habitations secure. The broad and
beautiful valley is bounded on either hand by an elevated and
undulating country, with streams, mills, farms, villages, forests, and
now and then a towering mountain, to vary and embellish the landscape.
In some cases a sort of spur or projection from the upland country
projects into the valley, forming a mountain summit there, from which
the most magnificent views are obtained of the beauty and fertility of
the surrounding scene.

There are three principal towns upon the banks of the Connecticut
within the Massachusetts lines: Greenfield on the north--where the
river enters into Massachusetts from between New Hampshire and
Vermont--Northampton at the centre, and Springfield on the south.
These towns are all built at points where the upland approaches near
to the river. Thus at Springfield the land rises by a gentle ascent
from near the bank of the stream to a spacious and beautiful plain
which overlooks the valley. The town is built upon this declivity. It
is so enveloped in trees that from a distance it appears simply like a
grove with cupolas and spires rising above the masses of forest
foliage; but to one