COVER STORY
Renaissance man
William Cullen Bryant Homestead, Cummington
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MORE INFORMATION
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Owned by the Trustees of Reservations, the homestead is on Bryant Road, off Route 112 south from Route 9. It is open Friday-Sunday, 1-5 p.m., through Labor Day; weekends only through Columbus Day. Admission is $5; under 12 free. The 195-acres of pristine countryside where Bryant drew inspiration for his poems (and meandered 10-15 miles every afternoon) are open daily at no charge for picnicking, hiking, and bird-watching. 413-634-2244 or visit www.thetrustees.org. (Get directions).
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The popular Berkshire attractions are close by, but you're unlikely to encounter much tourist traffic on remote Route 112 on the way to the William Cullen Bryant Homestead in Cummington. A famous 19th-century poet and influential New York newspaper editor during the Civil War era, Bryant today is as obscure as his hometown. But you'll get to know him well by taking a guided tour of this rambling, white clapboard house set in the rustic hills where he lived as a boy and spent the last 12 summers of his life. It was built in 1785 by Bryant's grandfather.
Bryant was ahead of his time when it came to recycling and exercise. He redesigned two fireplaces, one with parts of the original front door, the other with a box-shaped, Brittany bed from France. Thanks to the "thump sound," his family always knew when the great scribe woke up. That was Bryant pole vaulting over his bed, one of his "daily dozen" exercise routines. His wooden dumbbells are at the foot of his bed today and the rod he used for push-ups in the closet door.
Then there were his mental exercises. He spoke seven languages fluently. His Victorian study looks the way he left it when he translated "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" just before his death at age 84 in 1878. A frequent traveler, he crossed the Sahara on camel and spent 18 months in Turkey. In the third-floor servants wing, the Turkish Room displays souvenirs from his journey there, including three pairs of red slippers and a striped silk robe with maroon hat that he is wearing in an accompanying photograph. A "game room" features a wooden jigsaw puzzle and a multi-game board for ring-toss, miniature 10-pin bowling, and a form of billiards called pockets.
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