A Description Of The Town Of Berkeley With A History Of The University Of California Presenting The Natural And Acquired Advantages Of A Most Attrac PDF Download

Excerpt from A Description of the Town of Berkeley: With a History of the University of California; Presenting the Natural and Acquired Advantages of a Most Attractive Place of Residence The town of Berkeley lies on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, facing the Golden Gate. Behind it are the gentle acclivities of the coast range, broken by canons which reach far into its solitudes. The spires and mansions of the metropolis of the Pacific Coast rise in the distance. The ocean, which laps into the land between headlands and islands bristling with cannon, breaks softly along its meadows; the cold sea-winds are agreeably attempered before they reach it; the damp fogs touch it with their sun-gilt fringes, and, scarcely knowing whether to-smile or frown, hang in picturesque gloom about its hilltops. Seen from San Francisco on a bright spring afternoon, Berkeley seems a gray, ribbon-like strip, drawn close in between the water and the hills. More nearly observed, it expands into a broad slope, or tilted plain, with a rise so gradual that, in crossing it, one attains a considerable elevation before he is aware that he has left the level of the ocean. Hence, it has height without the effort of ascent, and those desirable accidents of height, pure air, and an ample prospect which includes plain, valley, mountain, inlet, island, and nearly every other incidental feature of earth, water, and atmosphere, considered essential to fine landscape. This natural panorama of San Francisco Bay and the adjacent hills is specially remarkable for a refined variety of outline and color, but the noblest effects are not wanting. The praise may seem extravagant, but it is not unmerited. It will bear emphatic repetition. It is within easy proof that the locality unites in itself more elements of grace and beauty, of ease and comfort, of city refinement and rural convenience, than any suburban town elsewhere on the continent. It has cheap and easy transit. A perfectly equipped railroad, and a line of ferryboats unsurpassed in size and speed, bring it within an hour's ride of San Francisco, a length of passage that will soon be shortened nearly one-half by changes and improvements already begun. Every characteristic advantage of the city is, therefore, placed at the disposal of the resident of Berkeley - shops, commercial facilities, theatres, churches, concerts, lectures, hotels, parks, and social gatherings. The city's active life is closely joined with the needful repose of the country. The educational advantages of the town are complete, having the elementary school at the base, and at the summit the State University, whose curriculum is adequate to the best culture of the time. Between these extremes are grammar schools, high schools, and private schools, intellectual advancement being so graduated that the pupil who begins his course of study in small-clothes may arrive at the dignity of a doctor's gown, without having left the family fireside. If this is not a royal road to learning, it is something akin to it. It removes every undesirable obstacle from the pathway of science. It supplies every essential and incentive to high cultivation except mental force and physical energy. It permits the domestic circle to remain unbroken till the mind and character are fully prepared to cope with the rough experiences of the world. Amid these surroundings it is not difficult to make a home in the best sense of the term. The society is that of a university town, whose influence is great, and constantly extending. The climate is the perfection of the coast climate of California. The soil is a dark loam, rich, friable, and generously responsive to the attentions of the horticulturist. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com