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Show j The Connecticut River rolls past Sunderland, Mass, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts. Potato and tobacco fields abound, as does the autumn foliage. I arise! Leaf-watche- rs Its time in foliage-fancyin- g New England by Horace Suit on MOUNT HERMON, Mass. - When it comes to autumn, take a leaf from the Pioneer Valley. Preferably a gold one, considering the price of that commodity today. Here, along the banks of the Connecticut River that pours out of New Hampshire and Vermont, the leaves are in splendid display in the fall from Springfield north to the border. There the river in a big bend, splits the handsome campuses of Northfield and Mount Hermon, the venerable preparatory schools that have joined together to make a co-eseat of learning. Learning is a large industry in the Pioneer Valley, but then so is coaxing produce out of the rich alluvial soil of the riverside lands The town names suggest Mount Holyoke at Holyoke, colleges of great repute just north of Springfield, lovely, green Amherst, a New England town of picture beauty which Amherst College shares with the giant University of Massachusetts and with Hampshire College. HAMPSHIRE, AN EXPERIMENTAL venture three miles south of the Amherst Village Green, sits on 550 acres of farm and woodland, all turning gold and red, russet and yellow. Hampshire is a creation of the other seats of learning in the neighborhood Amherst, Smith and the University of Massachusetts and is the baby of them all, going back only to 1970. of academia were not the first The double-domresidents here. There were the dinosaurs, many of whose tracks have been found in the Pioneer Valley. (Amhersts Pratt Museum displays some awesome bones.) Zillions of years later came the Indians. Nimpuck and Nonotuck Indians encamped hereabouts, keeping the feisty Mohawks away. The first white settlers in Amherst drifted over from Hadley towards the end of the 1700s. Amherst Academy, which was established in 1814, occupied a site that is now a parking lot. It adjoins Kim Toys take-ou- t Chinese food where you can slosh down an egg roll with Tsingtao beer imported from the Peoples Republic. NEXT DOOR, THE Amherst Cinema revives old i'' d es l celluloids like the Marx Brothers in Horsefeathers, and other intellectual fare Emily Dickinson was an early enrollee at the academy, and her home is still on view, a red brick structure a few blocks from the Village Green on Main St. Now a faculty residence, it is open on Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m. and at other times by appointment. Noah Webster was a supporter of Amherst College which was founded in 1821. Having finished his spelling book in 1783, a volume that was ultimately to accumulate sales of 70 million copies, he bought land and a house in Amherst and became town moderator, a trustee of the church and an active educator. IN 1822 HE SOLD the house and began to travel abroad while working on his famed American dictionary. The garden of Websters house is now the a spirited inn that site of omelets stuffed with spinach, serves three-eg- g mushrooms and Swiss cheese; pecan waffles, and, of course, a Websters plate (sliced filet with crabmeat and asparagus, covered with Hollandaise). Noah might have been horrified. As an alternative try Judies around the comer, s famous for big as croquet balls, and its half-finishe- d Plumbleys-on-the-commo- pop-over- self-name- d Well-Fe- d sandwiches. Sample: roast beef on bread, with imported (from Philadelphia?) spiced cream cheese, crisp bacon, marinated mushrooms and onion rounds. More formally, the Lord Jeffery Inn, on the Village Green, serves dinner by candlelight, but it is the only place Ive stayed at where the hostess told me to go someplace else for breakfast because the service was so slow THERE COULD SCARCELY be a more beautiful autumn vista in the nation than Amhersts Memorial Field where the campus falls away to a huge valley floor below, sprinkled with playing fields, the mountains rising in the background On the terrace a huge disk is engraved with the names of the college Mounds of thinly-slice- d men who died in two world wars. Besides looking at leaves, an autumnal exercise for foliage fanciers, the Pioneer Valley is a mine for antiquers. A dealer's association publishes a leaflet listing over 42 members from communities stretched between Amherst and Whateley. Primitives, pewter, art glass and country furniture are among the specialties. One can tour by car, by bus, or even by boat. A cruise of the Connecticut River sails on through the end of October aboard the Quinnetukut II which is what the Indians called the Nutmeg State. Tickets can be obtained from the Northfield Mountain Recreation and Environment Center off Route 63. Interested cruisers can write RR I, Box 377, Northfield, Mass. 01360 for reservations. IF YOURE A BICYCLER, the UMass Press puts out a book that can be used by recreational cyclists and experienced riders alike. Maps are included and n not the least of the sights is the campus of UMass itself studded with daring architecture and with 25,000 students. Never content, the early settlers were forever pushing northward, a migration that didnt suit the French or the Indians. The village at Deerfield was invaded on the famed night of Feb. 29, 1704, by a band of Indians and French. Those English settlers who were not killed outright were taken on a forced march to Canada, many of them falling on the wayside. Today Deerfield village occupies one measured mile of antiquity just off Route 91. The houses are in splendid preservation and many of them are marked with tablets and signs. Each of them extracts an admission charge ranging from a dollar for a look at Hall Tavern to $2.50 for Asa Stebbins place, the first brick house in town. THE DEERFIELD INN, popular with families of in Deerfield Academy boys, is supposed to May of 1980, but from the looks of things, dont bet on it. The Inn burned half way down last winter. It was the last time they had a hot time in the old town since the night the French and Indians whooped it up. The Salt Lake super-moder- d re-op- - ... rSf) 21, 1979 H I7 |