ed on Springfield Hill, and overlook the Connecticut valley at
a commanding elevation. The heavier operations of the armory are carried
on in another part of the city, about a mile distant, in buildings known
as the water-shops. These are situated upon a small stream which flows
into the Connecticut River at this point.

The armory-grounds on the hill cover an area of seventy-two acres, and
are surrounded, with the exception of a small square detached from the
main grounds, by an ornamental iron fence, nine feet in height. These
grounds are exceedingly beautiful, and present every variety of
landscape. A beautiful slope to the south and west, covered with
luxuriant verdure, and crowned with groves of deciduous trees and
evergreens, affords the eye peculiar gratification. The grounds combine
also the useful with the ornamental, supplying hay enough to feed a
score of horses belonging to the establishment.

There are fifteen buildings used in the manufacture of muskets at the
works on the hill, and about the same number occupied as residences by
the various officers and head-clerks of the armory. Some of the
buildings are spacious and elegant in their construction, particularly
the quarters of the commanding officer, and the arsenal, and are
arranged in a picturesque and symmetrical manner within the square. The
grounds are shaded by ornamental trees, and the dwellings are adorned
with gardens and shrubbery. Broad and neatly kept walks, some gravelled
and others paved, bordered by finely clipped hedges, extend across the
green or along the line of the buildings, opening charming vistas in
every direction. Four venerable pieces of artillery, all betokening
great age, if not service, standing in the centre of the square, furnish
the only outward and visible show of the military character of this
immense establishment.

The principal building, as regards size and architectural beauty, is the
arsenal, which is two hundred feet long by seventy wide, and three
stories high,--each story being sufficiently capacious to contain one
hundred thousand muskets. The muskets, when stored in this arsenal, are
arranged in racks, set up for the purpose, along the immense halls,
where they stand upright in rows of glittering steel, and so closely
resemble the pipes of an organ that the propriety of Longfellow's simile
suggests itself at once to every observer:--

"This is the arsenal. From floor to ceiling,
Like a huge organ,