Southward from Lenox is the outer elevated rim of the "Stockbridge
Bowl," a deep basin among the hills, and one can look down within this
grand amphitheatre upon Lake Mahkeenac nestling there, with the rocky
and chaotic top of the distant Monument Mountain closing the view
beyond. There are attractive villas perched upon all the knolls and
terraces surrounding this famous "Bowl," and one modest older mansion
overlooks it among so much modern magnificence--Nathaniel Hawthorne's
"House of the Seven Gables," the remains of which are still shown.
Here he lived for a few years in a quaint little red wooden house,
looking as if built in bits, and having a glorious view for miles away
across the lake. Mrs. Hawthorne once described this house in a letter
to her mother as "the reddest little thing, which looks like the
smallest of ten-foot houses." Nearby is the farm where he got milk,
the route to which he called the "milky-way." They have named the road
leading out from Lenox to this house, in his honor, "Hawthorne
Street." The view over the lake from its back windows was so
enchanting that he was very proud of it, and Mrs. Hawthorne records
that one day Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who then lived near
Pittsfield, rode down to make a call. They insisted on his coming in
"to get a peep at the lake through the boudoir window," while
Hawthorne himself held the doctor's horse at the door. The humorist,
on returning, acknowledged the kindness with a pleasantry, saying, "Is
there another man in all America that ever had such honor as to have
the author of 'The Scarlet Letter' hold his horse?"
The rides around the "Stockbridge Bowl" are delicious. Over the hills
they go, up and down the terraces widely encircling the grand basin,
now under arching canopies of elms, then through the forest, past
little lakelets, with fascinating views in all directions, and always
having the placid lake for a central gem down in the "Bowl." There are
villas on all the points of vantage--red-topped and white-topped--the
princely palaces of wealthy bankers and merchants. One of the most
noted of these villas on Lanier Hill, high above the "Bowl" and the
surrounding vales, gives opportunity to overlook several lakes, and
study the rock-ribbed structure of the charming region, thrust up in
crags and layers of white marble. The walls and stonework of the
buildings are chiefly white, contrasting prettily with the foliage and
greensward. Here is seen the Laurel Lake, and beyond is the village of
Lee, nestling in the deep valley along the winding Housatonic, its
tall white church spire rising among the trees, yet far down among the
surrounding hills. All the adjacent slopes are covered with villas,
and the marble-quarries and paper-mills have made the town's fortune.
There are about four thousand people, and the Lee quarries are among
the most noted in America. The pure white marble, cut out of deep
fissures alongside the Housatonic, has built many famous structures,
including the two largest buildings in the country, the Capitol at
Washington and the Philadelphia City Hall, and also St. Patrick's
Cathedral in New York. Lee was named in the Revolution, after "Light
Horse Harry" of Virginia.