Mount Washington, the leading feature of the scene, ... rises in all his majesty, and with his contemporary patriots, Adams, Jefferson, Munroe [sic], bounds the view at the North. On either hand, subordinate mountains and ledges slope, or abruptly descend to the fertile plain that borders the Saco, stretching many miles southward, rich in varying tints of green fields and meadows, and beautifully interspersed with groves and scattered trees of graceful form and deepest verdure ... where every possible shade of green is harmoniously mingled.