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Hills.
The hill commanding the widest prospect, and most visited by pleasure parties, is “
Pine Hill,” in the north-east part of the town, near
Spot Pond.
As part of the low range of hills, called the “Rocks,” which runs east and west, and nearly marks the northern boundary of the town, it is the highest.
It was covered with as dense a forest as its thin soil on the rock could sustain.
In early time the wood was burned.
When the army was stationed neear us, in 1775-6, the wood was cut off, in part, for its supply.
After then it grew and within twenty years has been a thick wood again.
Recently the whole hill has been denuded, and much of its poetry lost.
The earth looks best with its beard.
The eminence — which commands a view of
Chelsea and
Boston Harbor on the east;
Boston,
Roxbury, and
Cambridge, on the south; Brighton,
Watertown, and
West Cambridge track of woodland on the north — has on its summit a flat rock, called “
Lover's Rock;” on of those register-surfaces where a young gentleman, with a hammer and nail, could engrave the initials of two namess provokingly near each together.
The view from this hill, so diversified and grand, fills the eye with pleasure, and the mind with thought.
“
Pasture Hill,” on which
Dr. Swan's summer-house, in his garden, now stands, is of the eastern and southern scenery above noticed.
The hill is mostly rock, and will afford, in coming years, a most magnificent site for costly houses.
The next highest and most interesting spot, on the north side of the river, is “
Mystic Mount,” in West Medford, near the
Brooks Schoolhouse.
It is owned by the town, and commands much the same view as
Pine Hill, only at a lower angle.
To some of us who have kept it for more than half a century, as our favorite look-out, it has charms indescribably dear, and we regard it somewhat as we do an ancient member of a family.
Its neighbor, “
Rock Hill,” on the border of the river, is a barren rock, so high as to overlook the houses situated at the east, and to afford a most delightful view of
West Cambridge.
“Walnut tree
Hill,” on the south side of the river, was once covered with walnut-trees.
The Tufts College on its top enjoys perhaps an unparalleled site.
From the roof of
