I wanted to visit the coast and get some sea air, so I headed for Old Saybrook, which is slightly inland, and discovered a good area for a walk. I was now in a much more densely populated area than I have seen since I left Rhode Island, and this walk was more like West Wirral, say Caldy Hill, with expensive houses scattered round the edge, like this one. But is was not really hilly and there were no good views. I still enjoyed the walk on a lovely autumn day.

As with other coasts I have visited, it is very indented. The various peninsulas and small islands are connected by bridges and causeways like this one. All the coast I saw was very low lying, and I doubt it will be habitable in a few decades as sea level rises. However at present it is viewed as very desirable, property is very expensive, and access to the coast is severely limited. Fishermen have been completely squeezed out, though there were a couple of men angling from the causeway.

This is looking out to sea from the same causeway, the only place I could find to park on the entire coast I visited.

This is the Katherine Hepburn Arts Center in Old Saybrook. She was their most famous ever inhabitant.

This is Old Saybrook’s shopping street, with parking at an angle to the kerb. I stopped at a diner for lunch and when I returned to my car there was a large pick-up on either side. Reversing out was difficult, so I was very slow, and was aware that a line of cars was building behind me. Only after I got straightened out did I realise that the driver at the head of the queue was a policeman, who wanted to turn right a few feet ahead of me. Probably why no-one hooted their horn at me. It is quite an upmarket area, though less so than actually on the coast.

I decided to go for another walk at the weekend and to explore the far north west of Connecticut as I did so. I went to the White Memorial Conservation Center near Litchfield. This is an area of 4,000 acres of woodland, fields, ponds and streams, with an active farm and three camping grounds. It also has a small museum.

The extremely wealthy White family owned Whitehall, a house with some land. Just before WW1 Alain White and his sister May bought land all around as a memorial to their parents, and in 1913 they set up the White Memorial Foundation, which still runs it all.

These gate posts are at one of the original entrances to Whitehall, and there are others on carriage drives leading to where the house was. The original large house has gone, but a smaller one on the same site houses a natural history museum and educational centre. Lots more stuffed animals in semi-natural settings. They declare that no animals are killed for the exhibits, they use road kill and any other corpses that they are given.

There are several large ponds, and many excellent paths though the woodland.

You can walk all the way round this pond (which is large) on a boardwalk.

Because the climate is so dry, it is rarely slippery but it crosses a lot of bog.

I spent a long time watching these swans from a small bridge.

There were lots of people about, but the area is so large that I could easily get away from them. There is a large population to the south and east of Litchfield. This is a very wealthy area, and I did not manage to find anywhere to stop to take photographs of the villages I passed through.

The weather wasn’t particularly good, and the next two days were murky to say the least, so I used them to visit the state capital, Hartford. As usual, this is not the largest city in the state, but it is quite sizeable. It was originally an engineering centre, and then became post-industrial, but it seems to be recovering quite well now.

When Connecticut was a colony, its legislature met alternately in Hartford and New Haven, so they both had state houses. Neither wanted to give theirs up, so this continued for some time after Independence.

The smallest building in this photo is the 1792 State House, now a museum. Note that Hartford is large enough to have bus services.

This was the original Senate Chamber, with plenty of space for spectators.

The Representatives Chamber, which has a balcony for spectators

Originally the golden dome was topped by this metal lady. As has happened at other State Houses, the statue did not survive up high for long due to the winds.

The other room open to the public was an old Museum of Curiosities, which was very Victorian.

A double headed calf

A boar who needed a dentist when young

Collection of shells

There were quite a lot of other oddities on display.

Eventually New Haven conceded defeat and a large new State House (called the State Capitol) opened in 1880 on slightly higher ground.

Some care has been taken and this photo was taken from Bushell Park which is in front of it.

Looking the other way, you can see some of the modern skyscrapers that house the new jobs in town. Their tops were in the clouds that day.

Labelled ‘The Genius of Connecticut’

This is the Representatives Chamber. The Senate Chamber was not open.

There was nothing else of interest as all the portraits etc are in the State Library across the road.

This was much more interesting, as it contains a small museum of Hartford and the State archives.

This is the original Constitution of the state as granted in 1639 by Charles I. It was originally called ‘Fundamental Orders’, and they insisted that the King must agree it, so this is signed by Charles I. What amused me was that in the first couple of lines he describes himself as ‘King of France’ among a long list of titles. I think Louis XIII might have had a different view on the matter.

Being strict Puritans, the document insists that the Governor must be ‘ a member of an approved Congregation’.

During the War of Independence they feared that the document would be destroyed, so it was hidden in a hole in an oak tree, now known as the Charter Oak. The frame is made of wood from the Charter Oak.

There are a couple of rooms used as a museum of the history of Hartford. As I mentioned earlier it concentrated on engineering.

One industry was ‘small arms’, mainly the Colt company. There were several cabinets like this one. They were also had Pratt & Whitney who moved into aerospace and other air related manufacturers, as well as small domestic appliances. I am not sure what goes on in the new skyscrapers.

A lot of work had gone into this quilt. I think each little piece commemorates a man who died during the Civil War.

The actual library was just like any library of law books, but I was invited to inspect the archives.

There was a large area like this. Mainly they were just records of the various districts within Connecticut. I looked at some 1880 accounts for New Haven, and they were just like old Hoylake UDC accounts I have looked at in Wirral Archives.

However I cannot imagine either Wirral or Cheshire Archives just letting a compete stranger wander unaccompanied among their storage! There was no security check on entering the building at all, and no requirement to sign in (or out), though at the State Capitol I did go through a metal detector.

The next day I returned to Hartford to learn about a couple of its literary connections.

This is a house that Samuel Clemens (a.k.a Mark Twain) designed and lived in from 1874 to 1891, and where he raised his family and wrote his best known books. He left after his wife and a favourite daughter died too young.

For copyright reasons, photography is not allowed inside the house. It has been restored as far as possible to be as it was when the Clemens family lived there. It is very dark and Victorian.

This area of Hartford was known as Nook Farm, and when it was developed for housing a stipulation for purchasers was that they must be Abolitionists. Nowadays it is surrounded by houses and roads, but originally there were grass slopes down to a river (now underground) and orchards beyond.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, moved in next door. This house was a speculative build by the developer. She often dined with the Clemens’.

Again it is very Victorian, but with a lighter touch. Apparently she was not the slightest bit interested in household matters.

This was her bedroom, and our guide to the house.

The guide, of east asian origin, was an excellent choice, as the guides are expected to get the visitors to discuss and think hard about slavery. She was obviously neutral herself. There were only three of us on the tour that day, me and a gay couple in their 40s from south Maine, so we found it difficult to have any disagreements relating to slavery.

They were worthwhile visits, and a little out of the ordinary.

The weather perked up for my final day in Connecticut, so I went for yet another walk. This was along a lowish ridge, not far from the copper mine. I did an ‘out and back’ on a small part of a very long route.

As most of the leaves were down, there were views on both sides most of the time.

I did not realise I was on a ‘summit’ until I spotted this marker.

There were several specific view points, and even a wild camping area. It was reminiscent of the Sandstone Trail where it heads towards Frodsham. But instead of a heavily industrialised valley, I was looking across mainly woods.

They don’t show very well, but there are clearings, houses, farms and even light industry scattered throughout this view. It was never quiet as I could hear leaf blowers / suckers in gardens down below most of the time. It was also on a flight path from Bradley International Airport, and a plane went overhead about every half hour.

The cliff dropped sheer for over a hundred feet in several places.

A lovely walk, making the most of my last opportunity as I moved to Boston the following day, where I returned my hire car.

On my travels, whenever I was near a town of a size to have industry or offices, there have been car parks labelled ‘Park & Ride’. Generally these are very small and there is no sign of any buses ever visiting them. They are for people to self organise car shares. Around Hartford they do get visited by buses and are rather larger.