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| Hamilton House, as seen from Vaughan Woods |
By rights, I should be showing the Sudbury River tonight. Due to two technical glitches, I can show neither of the two rivers that star in this blog. Instead -- and in keeping with my theme of abundance -- I show my photo of the Salmon Falls River.
The Hamilton House dates from an era of American cornucopia, when Berwick, Maine, was bigger than Boston. The colonists were exporting the trunks of gigantic trees to the Old Country and other consumers of lumber, masts, and firewood. The river was the highway for commerce, defence of the colony, civil rebellion, trysts, and fishin'. Read more about that era and this exact place in The Tory Lover, by Sarah Orne Jewett.
Vaughan Woods lies along the Salmon Falls river on the Maine side. The property was pasturage for the Hamilton House farm animals, but when Jewett bought the place at the end of the 19th Century she ordered that this section be left fallow. Left to its native inclinations, it regrew its piney woods. Deep, dark and criss-crossed with unobtrusively manicured walking and horseback riding trails, this jewel of a state park is a joy today and a link to the past.
