Last House on the Road: Excursions Into a Rural Past

Beyond the abandoned farmhouse, the road petered into woods-just the place the author and his wife, Grace, were seeking. As they reclaimed the 200-year-old house in Washington, N.H., they felt a continuity with previous owners who had lived and farmed there. Here Jager (Eighty Acres: Elegy for a Family Farm) explores the landscape and the New England rural past. He restores the original hearthstone of his house, which was removed during late-19th century ``improvements.'' He moves from past to present, with portraits of daily life in the town-a church fair, town meeting, presidential primary, deer hunting-and captures the essence of New England small-town life. Some chapters were originally published in Harper's, the New York Times, Country Life and other journals. (Oct.)