As a budding genealogist, I have depended upon this text for invaluable leads on my families and some of the history of early Hampton, NH. I have discovered a few mistakes here and there, but having access to so many more sources, I have been able to substantiate them. I give Mr. Dow and all those who took the time, many kudos for at least attempting to set history down. It boggles one's mind to think just how terribly tedious and self isolating this task was. I am descended from many of the original settlers of Hampton ie Clifford, Dow, Griffin, Hilliard, Tilton, Moulton, Brown, not to mention my favorite; Reverend Stephen Batchelder and his nemesis, Reverned Timothy Dalton.

Color Sgt Buffum did a workmanlike job. He captured the movement history, but also the life and times of the soldiers in his unit. His sections on their ties with home, their actions under fire, and the magnificent accounts of the historical events they witnessed makes this a good research source.

Rather than being a dry account, with names, dates, places, and actions, this was an account of morals, urges, fears, hopes, loves, and the full spectrum of emotions of the infantry soldier in his many duties at war. One cannot read the section on music and the soldier without a surge of emotion. The section entitled "boxes" draws an "awwwwwww" and a shared feeling of the love bond with home that was the lifeline for many.

The history was there: Sheridan and the Opequan, the procession of Jeff Davis on his way to prison (I stood on the corner from which the author saw this.), the guard duty in D.C., and along the Potomac with Moseby raiding their supplies. There are the expected tables of wounds and casualties. He wrote some of the personal histories of some of the officers and men.

If you want a Civil War book that takes you there, this is it. -CW3 John Buffum, Great Great Grandson-

The woodland trail descriptions contained in "Nature Walks" are excellent and very well detailed. My only major complaint with the book is that the directions given to arrive at the base locations are NOT accurate. I have used this guide on two trails and both times I found street names to be wrong, and measurements to be off greatly. The book does not differ between dirt and paved roads, so bring the book, but also bring a map. On a more positive note, I felt my hiking experience was greatly enhanced by the information in the book.

I used this book to help me with a Social Studies prodject onThe Colony of New Hampshire, and found the book very helpful. Thisbook covers all topics, including some of the government, and lots of information on the natives in this area. Fradin focuses on the natives and their culture before the English settlers came over. Even their forms of houses and how they got their food. She also gives information about when the settlers came over, and the founder of the actual colony. It tells you what the religion was like and how the church was treated and repected by colony members. This is also a good refrence on how the natives and English got along in New Hampshire, in the 1600's, what the natives helped the English with , and how the English helped the natives. It describes how the settlers grew their food, and what they grew, and others information on regular household life. All in all I found this book very helpful, and I urge others interested in Nw Hampshires founding to read it.

If you're interested in this sort of thing as I am this book could be of great value however the price is unreal. I have a CD that does much the same for the entire country at a third the price of one state however this book is MUCH more accurate and shows county boundaries that only occured for as little as three days. The CD is also easier to use. That said I'll likely ask for the book as one of those Christmas presents I wouldn't buy for myself.

It is a tricky thing to adapt columns written with a particular region in mind into a book with a national audience -- a special trick, perhaps, when a kind of gardening calendar is retained to organize the text. Henry Homeyer's practical "reflections and observations" may seem most germane to gardeners in New England, but if you know enough to place his experience in your own climate, you will find plenty to interest you.

What I like best about this book are the pieces that transcend zones entirely, such as a report of his visit to White House gardens and his interview with Jamaica Kincaid. Discreet illustrations (block prints, a few black and white photos, and a few drawings) add to the text. And there is an excellent index, something which alas can no longer be taken for granted in gardening books.

Despite my misgivings about how serviceable some of these essays are beyond New England, Henry Homeyer's plain and personal prose reminded me of the great American garden writer, Henry Mitchell. I think Mitchell would not be unhappy to find this book on a shelf alongside his own.

The Appalachian Mountain Club is a New England Based hiking organization, that has blazed and hiked trails repeatedly through the Northeast part of the country. This expertise is evident in this guide, which covers southern New Hampshire most notably Mount Monadnock (the most hiked mountain in the world behind Fuji) and Mount Cardigan.

Precise routes, historical interest and ways to avoid heavy foot traffic are mentioned here. The best part is the foldout map with Monadnock on the front and Cardigan on the back. You will never get a more detailed trail map.

This is truly the quintessential guide for anyone who wants to hike this region of New Hampshire....I also recommend the other guide books for the state. Really excellent, comprehensive.

Donald Hall is a writer beautifully tangent to and cognizant of the New England spine we all wish to immulate in our thoughts of the 'old American spirit', a spirit too seemingly on the wane at present -even on 4th of July celebrations this year. His most recent collection of short stories , WILLOW TEMPLE , was my introduction to this Whitmanesque, Robert Frost-like wonder boy of observation. In returning to his early work in the Nonpariel Books reissue of STRING TOO SHORT TO BE SAVED one wonders why he has remained in the background, and hasn't found the wide audience he deserves.

"STRING..." is a series of short stories of Hall's recollections of spending his summers with his beloved grandparents in New Hampshire. All phases of farming and maturing from a small child to a young adult are addressed in a wholly readable, poetic, illuminating fashion. Hall knows how to describe nature as well as anyone writing today. He also revives an appreciation for his roots that we could all study as journeys toward finding ourselves. "To be without history is to be forgotten" he writes."My grandfather did not know the maiden names of either of his grandmothers. I thought that to be forgotten must be the worst fate of all." Hall invites us to accompany him on his memories of haying, picking blueberries, visiting the odd group of people who have become indelible American daguerreotypes for him. "The farm was a form: not a set of rules on the wall, but like the symmetry of winter and summer, or like the balance of day and night over the year, June against December. My grandfather lived by the form all his life, and my summers on the farm were my glimpse of it."

Simple gifts, these. And the simplicity of Donald Hall's writing is what makes it so readable and so memorable. The book stands solidly on its own as a definitive New England memoir. In this new reissue there is an added Epilog which traces Hall's return to his Hew Hapshire memories and farm after many life changes. This Epilogue is worth the price of the book. If only this edition weren't tainted by the crudely inappropriate pen and ink pictures imposed on the pages of each new chapter. But that is the only unnecessary clutter in this otherwise tender book.

I use this guide frequently to plan short vacations around the Connecticut River Valley. It provides a good balance of description of the land and river; a well-chosen set of sights to see, including many that are off the beaten path; and reliable reviews of inns. The idea of centering a guidebook on a river valley appeals to me. A trustworthy source of information.

I love to meander along back roads, and I've found this atlas to be far superior to the street level maps found in the Arrow Atlas of the same region. Several small towns, such as Sandown or Danville NH are not included in Arrow at all, and when I've found them in other atlases, they are segmented, attached to other towns, and spread across several pages. The Universal Atlas includes all of the towns in the region (no matter how small) shows the entire town on one page, and when it needs two pages, it makes sure you can open the book to see the whole map without flipping pages (which can be a bit of a driving hazard).

I've also found this atlas to be up-to-date on new roads and communities within small towns. I highly recommend this atlas over any other for the southern region of NH>