William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 2

[321]

Chapter 31: the Workman's Paradise.

Vermont, in which St. Johnsbury nestles, is a New England State, which in its origin and population had very little to do with Old England. The names are French. Vermont is derived from the Green Mountain of our idiom; St. Johnsbury from Monsieur St. Jean de Crevecoeur, once a fussy little French consul in New York.

Eye of man has seldom rested on natural loveliness more perfect than the scenery amidst which St. Johnsbury stands. On passing White River Junction, a spot which recalls a favourite nook in the Neckar valley, we push into a gorge of singular beauty; a reach of the Connecticut River, lying under high and wooded hills, of various form and more than metallic brightness. Oak and chestnut, pine and maple, clothe the slopes. White houses lie about you; some in secret places, utterly alone