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by some notable person, followed a prayer of thanks for the ingathering of the
harvest. The procession formed at the Amherst house, an inspiring band leading the
way, while mounted escorts with a military hint in their dress and style curveted
hither and thither about it. The plowing match was of intense interest, held
just West of the church on the Hadley road. Draft matches were held on the West
side of the common, now the front of the Pi Upsilon property,. The exhibition
of horses included the entire space of the common and the main st. Luke Sweetser
, Edward Dickinson and Seth Nims were, always ^invariably owners of fine horses and one would
always note the style of the two latter, as they drove through the streets,
sitting very straight, erect, ? taut, and the high showy heads of their steeds
refusing the senseless deck? or a careless hand. I always turned to look after
these horsemen, wherever they passed me in the street. If not irreverent I should
I should exclaim, "Where are the chariots and the horsemen thereof?" ^{in these latter days?}
Something of strong chivalric stuff must have been departed from a man who can
relinquish a live breathing horse, drawing on and stimulating his vitality, for a
pondrous, ill smelling machine that tears ^through the sweet hill and dale about us as if
Satan himself was let loose. What would dear Goerge [sic] Herbert say to it all?