Subdue and beautify

Old post card showing "White Village,'' aka Lower Waterford, on the Connecticut River and in Vermont's "Northeast Kingdom.''

“As for the wilderness, they {the Puritans} saw it as something to be ‘subdued,’  on the assumption that anything not immediately useful to man was inherently evil. The Indians who lived there had no real claim to it {the Puritans claimed}. ‘They ramble over much land,’ wrote {Boston founder John} Winthrop, ‘without title or property.’

“However they acquired their rights of possession, the new owners demonstrated an instinctive feeling for beauty in planning their towns in harmony with the land, and a sense of stewardship that abides in many communities to this day. Here in Lower Waterford, Vermont, known as White Village {because most of the buildings are painted white} the meetinghouse {church} and the library stand together as living links with the past.’’

-- From “Light From a Meetinghouse Window,’’ an essay by Paul Brooks, in the book Arthur Griffin’s New England: The Four Seasons, With Original Essays by 51 Famous Authors.