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Oft She Visits LbNA #3450

Owner:BlackA
Plant date:Aug 29, 2001
Location: 392 Montague Road
City:Wendell
County:Franklin
State:Massachusetts
Boxes:1
Found by: Nairon
Last found:Jun 30, 2021
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFOFFFFFF
Last edited:Sep 21, 2015
Originally planted by Bonnie Sennott, AKA, Bonita. In 2008 this box was adopted by BlackA.

Oft She Visits" Letterbox
ESTABLISHED: August 29, 2001
CLUE DIFFICULTY: Easy
TERRAIN: Easy/Moderate

This letterbox is dedicated to my friend Jay Bernfeld, viola da gambist and director of the CD Fantasy in Blue (music of Purcell and Gershwin), on which mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham and the ensemble Fuoco e Cenere perform this Purcell aria, from Act II of the opera Dido and Aeneas. Fantasy in Blue was released in 2001 on the ATMA label. (For more information visit ATMA's Web site at http://www.atmaclassique.com/anglais/fiche_disque.asp?ID=ACD22253. You haven't lived until you've heard Gershwin's "Sweet and Lowdown" performed by four viols and a recorder!)

The aria, sung by Dido's attendant, tells the story of Acteon, who was turned into a deer by the goddess Diana after he accidentally discovered her bathing in the woods. Acteon, who had been a fearless hunter, fled in terror from his own hounds, who chased and killed him.

"Oft She Visits"
Music by Henry Purcell
Libretto by Nahum Tate

Oft she visits this lov'd mountain,
Oft she bathes her in this fountain,
Here Acteon met his fate;
Pursued by his own hounds,
and after mortal wounds
Discovered too late.
Here Acteon met his fate.

To find the "Oft She Visits" Letterbox, continue on the Loop Trail. The next section of the trail is not as frequently marked and leads you through the wide spaces of a cool pine forest. Keep going, with the pond still to your right. Eventually you will exit the pine forest and enter a denser, mixed-growth woods closer to the pond. When you come to a fork stay right, on blue. Keep going until you come to two large boulders directly on the right side of the trail (west) that have trees with very striking exposed roots growing over them. Stop. Go 24 steps up the path where it joins another path. Go left, off the blue path for 13 steps. Look right at two boulders nestled under a group of hemlocks. The unlucky Acteon rests in a crevice on the SE side of these two low-lying stones. This box is "all original". Check out log book #1, it is letterboxing history.

To finish your hike, taking care not to disturb Diana at her bath, continue on the trail, crossing over the plank bridge. The trail climbs uphill a bit and is now marked with white blazes (the pond is still on your right). After 10-15 minutes of hiking on this white-blazed trail, you will enter a large grassy picnic area, from which you'll see you're nearly back where you began.