There are handsome churches, Gothic and others, and a court-house
and an academy; the court-house having a marble front. There is a small
wall in the centre of the town, and in the centre of the Mall rises an
elm of the loftiest and straightest stem that ever I beheld, without a
branch or leaf upon it till it has soared seventy or perhaps a hundred
feet into the air. The top branches unfortunately have been shattered
somehow or other, so that it does not cast a broad shade; probably they
were broken by their own ponderous foliage. The central square of
Pittsfield presents all the bustle of a thriving village,--the farmers of
the vicinity in light wagons, sulkies, or on horseback; stages at the
door of the Berkshire Hotel, under the stoop of which sit or lounge the
guests, stage-people, and idlers, observing or assisting in the arrivals
and departures. Huge trunks and bandboxes unladed and laded. The
courtesy shown to ladies in aiding them to alight, in a shower, under
umbrellas. The dull looks of passengers, who have driven all night,
scarcely brightened by the excitement of arriving at a new place.
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