dertook the development of what has since become known as the
"Peterborough idea" and before MacDowell's death had actually
established, in a modest way, a Colony for Creative Artists.

LIFE IN THE COLONY

In an article in the North American Review, Edwin Arlington
Robinson writes: "It is practically impossible for me to say,
even to myself, just what there is about this place that compels
a man to work out the best that there is in him and to be
discontented if he fails to do so. The abrupt and somewhat
humiliating sense of isolation, liberty, and opportunity which
overtakes one each morning has something to do with it, but this
sense of opportunity does not in itself explain everything ...
The MacDowell Colony is in all probabilities about the worst
place in which to conceal one's lack of a creative faculty."

There is nothing camp-like about the place either in appearance
or in manner of life. There are comfortable living houses for the
men and women with all the conveniences of running water,
electric light, and telephone. A common dining room is in Colony
Hall. Here good wholesome food is served as it would be in any
well-managed household. This much for the creature comforts. For
the other and the more important side of Colony life there are
fifteen individual studios scattered here and there through the
woods.

The daily routine of life in the Colony is somewhat as follows:
After breakfast there is a quick scattering of the residents as
each one hurries off to his studio. It may be recalled here what
an important place MacDowell's Log Cabin plays in this scheme,
and how the idea has been to reproduce for as many people as
might be in the Colony conditions similar to those MacDowell
enjoyed--a comfortable home and an isolated workshop. Each one of
the fifteen studios is out of sound and sight of the others. In
order that the writer or painter may not be disturbed by the
sound of a piano, the composers' studios are as isolated as
possible. All the studios have open fireplaces and pleasant
verandahs and are furnished simply but always attractively. Each
studio has been planned for its own particular site. Some are
hidden in the woods, some command views of Monadnock or East
Mountain, and some long vistas through the trees.

In order that the working day may be long and uninterrupted, at
noon a basket lunch is left at each studio. Dinner is the time
for relaxation and social intercourse. Long pleasant e