roadscape

an excerpt from the "dunwich horror", edited to show approach to and through dunwich.

''when a traveller in north central massachusetts takes the wrong fork at the junction of the aylesbury pile just beyond dean's corners he comes upon a lonely and curious country. the ground gets higher, and the brier-bordered stone walls press closer and closer against the ruts of the dusty, curving road. ...

''when a rise in the road brings the mountins in view above the deep woods, the feeling of strange uneasiness is increased. the summits are too rounded and symettrical to give a sense of comfort and naturalness ...

''gorges and ravines of problematical depth intersect the way, and the crude wooden bridges always seem of dubious saftey. when the road dips again there are stretches of marsh land that one instinctively dislikes, ...

''as the hills draw nearer, one heeds their wooded sides more than their stone-crowned tops. those sides loom up so darkly precipitously that one wishes they would keep their distance, but there is no road by which to escape them. across a covered bridge one sees a small village huddled between the stream and the vertical slope of round mountain, ...

''one dreads to trust the tenebrous tunnel of the bridge, yet there is no way to avoid it. once across it is hard to prevent the impression of a faint, malign odour about the village street, as of the massed mould and decay of centuries. it is always a relief to get clear of the place, and to follow the narrow road around the base of the hills and across the level country beyond till it rejoins the aylesbury pike. afterward one sometimes learns that one has been through dunwich.''

h.p.lovecraft, the dunwich horror.