Alban Hills

“ The wine of the Alban hills is famous in modern as in ancient times, but will not as a rule bear exportation. The forests of the Alban hills and near the coast produce much charcoal and light timber, while the Sabine and Volscian hills have been largely deforested and are now bare limestone rocks. Much of the labour in the winter and spring is furnished by peasants who come down from the Volscian and Hernican mountains, and from Abruzzi, and occupy sometimes caves, but more often the straw or wicker huts which are so characteristic a feature of the Campagna. ”

“ Albany is a terminus of the New York Central & Hudson River, the Delaware & Hudson and the West Shore railways, and is also served by the Boston & Maine railway, by the Erie and Champlain canals (being a terminus of each) , by steamboat lines on the Hudson river and by several inter-urban electric railways connecting with neighbouring cities.
Albany is attractively situated on a series of hills rising sharply from the river. The older portions of the city are reminiscent of Dutch colonial days, and some fine specimens of the Dutch and later colonial architecture are still standing. ”

“ Only a man who in his youth has come at last in sight of some great city he had dreamed of all his life and longed to see, can enter into Rolf's feelings as they swept around the big bend, and Albany—Albany, hove in view. Albany, the first chartered city of the United States; Albany, the capital of all the Empire State; Albany, the thriving metropolis with nearly six thousand living human souls; Albany with its State House, beautiful and dignified, looking down the mighty Hudson highway that led to the open sea. ”

“ Thus Albany is a real capital,—a typical Southern county town, the centre of the life of ten thousand souls; their point of contact with the outer world, their centre of news and gossip, their market for buying and selling, borrowing and lending, their fountain of justice and law. Once upon a time we knew country life so well and city life so little, that we illustrated city life as that of a closely crowded country district. ”

“ In the afternoon, blue and purple in the far distance, we saw the glorious range of the mighty Catskill Mountains, forming one unbroken series of snow-capped domes, hiding in their deep recesses many of Nature's grandest secrets. The evening was closing in as the steamer passed under the swinging arch of the bridge at Albany, the chief town of New York State.
Albany is chiefly remarkable for its very fine Capitol, which has been in process of building since 1871, and is still far from finished, though it has already cost an enormous sum. ”

“ We left Schenectady at nine o'clock, taking the Troy road as far as Latham's Corners, then to the right into Albany.
We reached the city at half-past ten. Albany is not a convenient place for automobiles. There are no special stations for the storing of machines, and the stables are most inaccessible on account of the hills and steep approaches.
CHAPTER ELEVEN THE VALLEY OF LEBANON THE SICK TURKEY It was four o'clock, next day, when we left Albany, going down Green Street and crossing the long bridge, taking the straight road over the ridges for Pittsfield. ”

“ Passed through New Albany, Ind., a little village inhabited by tavernkeepers and mechanics. Traveled to Miller's, a distance of six miles over the knobs. Country very much broken. Some steep hills and sugar-loaf knobs. The woods being on fire, a scene truly sublime presented itself at night. The lands indifferent. Weather warm and dry. Passed many travelers bound to the west, and met three or four wagons with families returning from the promised land. Slept in a house without glass in the windows and no fastenings to the doors. The inhabitants impudent and lazy beyond example. ”

“ Julia, these are moments of awful romance; how the soul longs for the consolations of friendship. Albany is one of the most picturesque places in the world; situated most delightfully on the banks of the Hudson, which here meanders in sylvan beauty through meadows of ever-green and desert islands. Words are wanting to paint the melancholy beauties of the ride to Schenectady, through gloomy forests, where the silvery pine waves in solemn grandeur to the sighings of Eolus, while Boreas threatens in vain their firm-rooted trunks. ”

“ Dale, Mr. Clint, three soldiers, and Nakina (a native of King George's Sound) left Albany. They walked through the cleared parts of the settlement, and entered the bush and woodlands to the north. Soon they struck a native path leading over the higher lands, which they followed until they were confronted by the King River. They crossed and resumed their journey on the other side, and a north by east course was made over hills, by large lakes, and through voiceless valleys, until they reached the eastern slopes of Porrong-u-rup. ”

“ Albans.
Winter Green is on the N.W. confines of Knebworth Park, about 1 mile from the church and 2 miles from the station (G.N.R.) . The neighbourhood is on high ground.
Woodend (31⁄2 miles S.W. from Westmill Station, G.E.R.) has a numerous population, but is, I believe, a hamlet in Ardeley parish. The modern Chapel of St. Alban the Martyr is built largely of small stones, and has a S. porch. Walkern Park is 3⁄4 mile S.W.
Woodhall (11⁄2 mile N.N.E. from Hatfield) is a scattered hamlet between Stanborough and Hatfield Hyde. Two farms and several cottages bear the name. ”

“ Alban’s Road, Kensington, one may still find the family name Oliff which, like Ayliffe and Iliffe, is the same as alif, aleph, or alpha, the letter “a” the first or the beginning.
Panku, the great giant of the universe, is entitled by the Chinese the first of Beings or the Beginning, and it is claimed by the Christian Church that St. Alban was the first of British martyrs. Eastward of Kensington Gardens is St. Alban’s Place and also Albany, generally, but incorrectly termed “The Albany”. ”

“ The distance from Springfield to Albany is eighty-one miles. The above villages have a neat and comfortable appearance, and the fields were in a good state of cultivation. Upon our arrival at Schoodie the night was just setting in, but unfortunately we were lighted by a burning house upon an eminence not far off. At the village of Greenbush, near Albany, we crossed the Hudson or North river in a horse-boat, and upon our arrival in the city took lodgings at Cruttenden’s boarding-house, on an eminence near the capitol or state-house.
Albany contains about fifteen thousand inhabitants. ”

“ We Butte smoke-eaters do not get our fruit that way. Albany is supplied with a woolen mill and flour mills, an iron foundry, and is an important railway center, besides considerable shipping being done on the river. It is no dream that the citizens of Albany are the most sociable, happy, and contented people that I have had the pleasure of meeting on the continent, and the town is a paradise for any one wishing to make a life-long home. ”

“ Albany is an old town, said to contain near forty thousand inhabitants: its streets are very irregular, narrow and crooked: the widest is State street, graced with a large, splendid State House. State Houses, you know, are very fine buildings—here, office holders and office seekers, meet for debate, wise men to enact good laws, which many of the people, by-the-by, take special care not to observe. ”

“ Albany is the second city in the State of New York, in population, wealth, and commerce. It stands on the west bank of the Hudson, and about one hundred and forty-five miles from New York by the river, and near the head of sloop navigation. It is built just over the pitch of an extensive plain, lying between the Mohawk and the Hudson, and has very much the look of a city sliding down hill.
The history of Albany is not very definite, touching its first settlement. The probability seems, that, in 1614, the Dutch erected a fort and trading-house on an island just below the city ”

“ Alban's is not only an old town, but an old-fashioned one; and it will be doing it no injustice to confess that, as towns now go, it does strike the visitor as somewhat behind the age. The straw plaiting, it is true, keeps the hands of its young women and its children busy ”

“ The private houses of Albany are built, many of them, very expensively; and the city is remarkable for its hospitality.
CROW NEST, FROM BULL HILL, WEST POINT.
It is true of the Hudson, as of all other rivers, that, to be seen to advantage, it should form the middle, not the foreground of the picture. Those who go to Albany by steam have something the same idea of the scenery of West Point, that an inside passenger may have of the effect of the Brighton coach at top-speed. ”

“ Above Albany the pine-tree begins to appear, mixed with the fir, along the river-banks. The groves of timber are more scattering, and the country more level and open. Except the ash, maple, alder, and willow of the river-bottoms, there is little forest; but the isolated trees of pine, fir, and oak which beautify the plains are of the handsomest proportions.
Corvallis, a dozen miles above Albany, on the west side of the river, is about the same age with it. ”

“ In the rolling tide of spreading Clyde There sits an isle of high degree, And a town of fame whose princely name Should grace the Lass of Albany. But there's a youth, a witless youth, That fills the place where she should be; We'll send him o'er to his native shore, And bring our ain sweet Albany. Alas the day, and woe the day, A false usurper wan the gree, Who now commands the towers and lands— The royal right of Albany. We'll daily pray, we'll nightly pray, On bended knees most fervently, The time may come, with pipe an' drum We'll welcome hame fair Albany. ”

“ When the sky is lowering, they usually take in sail going along this part of the river.
About four o’clock in the morning of the fourth of July we reached Albany, the place of our destination, one hundred and sixty miles distant from New York.
Albany is a city, and contains about eleven hundred houses; the number however is increasing fast, particularly since the removal of the state government from New York. In the old part of the town the streets are very narrow and the houses are frightful ”

“ The scenery along the shores is diversified and beautiful, and no more charming place of call could be found for the ocean mail steamers, which anchor there regularly every fortnight. The little town of Albany is situated upon the rising boulders of granite at the head of the sound; but its isolated position has told against the prosperity of the place. The harbour has been aptly stated to be the front gate of the colony, with a blank wall behind it. That blank wall consists of the long tract of dismal country lying between Albany and Perth ”

“ From one bushel they get twelve sometimes; if the soil be good, they get twenty bushels. If their crop amounts only to ten bushels from one, they think it very trifling. The inhabitants of the country round Albany, are Dutch and Germans. The Germans live in several great villages, and sow great [246] quantities of wheat, which is brought to Albany; and from thence they send many yachts laden with flour to New York. The wheat-flour from Albany is reckoned the best in all North America, except that from Sopus or King’s Town, a place between Albany and New York. ”

“ As for any riding in the parks or streets in Albany for pleasure, it is quite impossible. The only possible runs are direct from Albany out to some neighboring town and back, and of these the run to Newtonville, Latham Corners, Centre, and Watervliet is the best. ”

“ Alban's shrine.
33. In 1451 Abbot John of Wheathampstead, though over eighty years of age, was re-elected. Soon after his election he gave his church a "pair of organs," surpassing all others in England in size, tone, and workmanship.
In 1455 the Wars of the Roses began with the first battle of St. Albans (May 23rd) , fought to the east of the town. In this the White Rose party were victorious; the King was taken prisoner and lodged for the night in the Abbey. The victorious army plundered the town, but the Abbot by sending out plenty of wine and food saved his monastery. ”

“ Albans’ very bulk is impressive, and, to the distant view, softened as it is by the smoke of the town chimneys, not unlovely, despite that long outline which rivals Winchester’s great span; and though the crudities of the wealthy architectural amateur are insistent at close quarters they are fortunately lost in great measure from a distance. For where bygone abbots strove so greatly to build in ages past, it is happily difficult for one man to largely alter the outline of their work. ”

“ We are pleased to pay this tribute to Albany, where we met some very congenial people. There is no place in the interior of Oregon where the stranger is more likely to be pleased with his surroundings than here.
There are also many pleasant drives and resorts about Albany, and a fine view of that beautiful group of snow-peaks, the Three Sisters. Although there is much level prairie, there are also buttes and ridges so disposed about the valley as to give a charming variety to an otherwise monotonous landscape. ”

“ Great pains have been taken to have the streets well paved and lighted. Here are four places for public worship, and an hospital. Albany is in summer time a very disagreeable place; it stands in a low situation, just on the margin of the river, which runs very slowly here, and towards the evening often exhales clouds of vapours; immediately behind the town, likewise, is a large sand bank, that prevents a free circulation of air, while at the same time it 272powerfully reflects the rays of the sun, which shines in full force upon it the whole day. ”