“It was a radiant October day. Connecticut suggested an  outrageous show-off,  the low hills overflowing with autumnal brilliance, eruptions of golden leaves, friezes of crimson, the pines maintaining their sober greenness amid the blaze-like sentinels.

“All this last glory of the growing season was nevertheless contained, neat, firmly – for centuries now – under control: This was New England.’’

From the novel A Stolen Past (1985), by John Knowles (1926-2001)