m Sunset
Hill. It is quite English, is it not? this passion for quiet, refined
country life, which attacks all the summer revelers at certain periods
in the season, and sends them in troops to Richfield or Lenox or some
other peaceful retreat, with their simple apparel bestowed in modest
fourstory trunks. Come, gentle shepherdesses, come, sweet youths in
white flannel, let us tread a measure on the greensward, let us wander
down the lane, let us pass under the festoons of the hop-vines, let us
saunter in the paths of sentiment, that lead to love in a cottage and a
house in town.

Every watering-place has a character of its own, and those who have
given little thought to this are surprised at the endless variety in the
American resorts. But what is even more surprising is the influence
that these places have upon the people that frequent them, who appear to
change their characters with their surroundings. One woman in her season
plays many parts, dashing in one place, reserved in another, now gay
and active, now listless and sentimental, not at all the same woman at
Newport that she is in the Adirondack camps, one thing at Bar Harbor and
quite another at Saratoga or at Richfield. Different tastes, to be sure,
are suited at different resorts, but fashion sends a steady procession
of the same people on the round of all.

The charm of Richfield Springs is in the character of the landscape. It
is a limestone region of gentle slopes and fine lines; and although
it is elevated, the general character is refined rather than bold,
the fertile valleys in pleasing irregularity falling away from rounded
wooded hills in a manner to produce the impression of peace and repose.
The lay of the land is such that an elevation of a few hundred feet
gives a most extensive prospect, a view of meadows and upland pastures,
of lakes and ponds, of forests hanging in dark masses on the limestone
summits, of fields of wheat and hops, and of distant mountain ranges. It
is scenery that one grows to love, and that responds to one's every mood
in variety and beauty. In a whole summer the pedestrian will not exhaust
the inspiring views, and the drives through the gracious land, over
hills, round the lakes, by woods and farms, increase in interest as one
knows them better. The habitues of the place, year after year, are at a
loss for words to convey their peaceful satisfaction.

In this smiling country lies the pretty village of Richfield, the
rural c