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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN IMPACT FINANCE

Sustainability Rating Agencies

vs Credit Rating Agencies
The Battle to Serve the Mainstream Investor
Daniel Cash
 Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance

Series Editor
Mario La Torre, Facoltà di Economia, Dept Management,
Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
The Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance series provides a valuable scien-
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Impact finance and related topics. It includes studies in the social, polit-
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of impact finance and socially responsible investment, including policy
issues, financial instruments, markets and clients, standards, regulations
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 Daniel Cash

Sustainability Rating
Agencies vs Credit
Rating Agencies
The Battle to Serve the Mainstream Investor
Daniel Cash
Aston University
Birmingham, UK

ISSN 2662-5105 ISSN 2662-5113 (electronic)

Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance
ISBN 978-3-030-71692-9 ISBN 978-3-030-71693-6 (eBook)
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 Contents

1 Introduction 1
2 The ‘Mainstreaming’ of Responsible Investment 5
2.1 Definitional Complexity and the Origins
of the Movement 6
2.2 ‘Mainstreamisation’ and ESG Integration 15
2.3 Constraints on a Concept 21
2.4 The Reality of an Ideal 25
3 The Sustainability Rating Industry 33
3.1 The Development of the Corporate Sustainability
System Industry: A ‘Chaotic Universe’ 35
3.1.1 CDP Climate, Water, and Forest Scores 38
3.1.2 RobecoSAM 39
3.1.3 Sustainalytics 39
3.1.4 MSCI ESG Ratings 39
3.1.5 Bloomberg (ESG Scores) 40
3.1.6 ISS-Oekom 40
3.1.7 FTSE Russell ESG Ratings 41
3.1.8 EcoVadis 41
3.1.9 Thomson Reuters ESG Scores 42
3.1.10 Vigeo-Eiris 42
3.1.11 Standard Ethics 43
3.2 Methodologies in Focus 43

v
vi CONTENTS

3.2.1 Sustainalytics 44
3.2.2 MSCI ESG Scores 46
3.3 Problems Affecting the CSS Universe 50
4 The Credit Rating Agencies 59
4.1 The Credit Rating Picture 60
4.1.1 The Trajectory of a Binding Relationship 61
4.2 The Credit Rating Agencies and ESG 69
4.2.1 The Principles for Responsible Investment 71
4.2.2 S&P’s Reaction to the Investor Base 77
4.2.3 Moody’s Reaction to the Investor Base 79
4.2.4 Fitch Ratings’ Reaction to the Investor Base 81
4.3 The Credit Rating Agencies Continue to Move Forward 83
5 ‘An Undercurrent of Need’: Understanding
the Dynamics of the Responsible Rating Relationship 89
5.1 Institutional Investor Supremacy 90
5.2 The Need for Standardisationn 95
5.3 Signalling 97
5.4 The Relevance of the Natural Oligopoly 103
6 Who Will Triumph? 111
6.1 Standard Setting at the Global Level 112
6.2 The U.S. Experience 116
6.3 The European Experience 122
6.4 ‘To the Victor Go the Spoils’ 130
6.4.1 One Last Attempt at Standardisation? 130
6.4.2 What the Sustainability Environment Means
for the CSS and Credit Rating Industries 134
7 Conclusion 143

Index 147
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

In reading the title of this book, you would be forgiven for thinking
‘what battle?’ The ESG rating agencies, and the credit rating agencies,
are two different industries. Though colloquially adjoined by the concept
of rating, they serve two different purposes. The credit rating agencies
serve to assess the creditworthiness of an entity and if ESG issues are of
material relevance, then they should be considering those issues as well
as financial issues. The ESG rating agencies exist to consider the sustain-
ability of an entity, and then rate/rank it accordingly. In the light of
the potential ‘mainstreamisation’ of the sustainable investor movement,
there is increasing business being sent the way of the ESG rating agen-
cies. However, there have since been a number of research endeavours
that have identified key flaws in the delivery of those ESG-related ratings,
which is calling into question the suitability of those agencies to meet this
new demand.
The notion of a ‘battle’ between these two industries to serve this new
mainstream investor base is not widely considered, but it has been identi-
fied. An interesting article in the Financial Times in 2019, entitled ‘credit
rating agencies join battle for ESG supremacy’ suggested that:

A flurry of dealmaking has begun among firms that provide companies with
environmental, social and governance ratings, fed by increasing demand for
the data among investors and regulators. The sector has traditionally been
dominated by index providers such as MSCI and a handful of specialist

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2021
D. Cash, Sustainability Rating Agencies vs Credit Rating Agencies,
Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71693-6_1
2 D. CASH

firms, such as Sustainalytics. Now Moody’s and S&P Global, two of the
big three credit rating agencies, are elbowing their way in, offering separate
ESG scores on companies in addition to their traditional assessments of
creditworthiness.1

The article continued by discussing how the market for ESG information
is growing all the time, and that the credit rating agencies are well aware
of this. Whilst a number of aspects would need to be added to the credit
rating agencies’ offerings, it was very much suggested that the two indus-
tries would come into contact at some point for the lucrative rewards that
awaited them for adjoining to the movement of sustainable investment.
It is always wise to write a book like this, as if the reader is uninitiated
with the world of credit ratings, because it is a somewhat niche element
of the financial sector even though its impact came to light massively in
the Financial Crisis. Nevertheless, this article in the FT made me wonder
of what may affect that battle, and how it would play out—that is what
this book is built on. In order to examine these questions further, we
shall embark upon a journey that considers the development of the ‘main-
streamisation’ of the concept of sustainable investment, the histories and
trajectories of the two industries, the underlying dynamics of the rating
relationship, and then after reviewing the regulatory developments in the
area of non-financial informational disclosure, we shall conclude with an
assessment of who is likely to win this ‘battle’ that has been predicted.
The mainstreamisation of the concept of investing in a responsible
and sustainable way is well under way. It is a direct response to the
Financial Crisis and the actions of market participants who prioritised
short-termism and an apparently blind faith in third-party verifiers of
credit risk. The movement aims to force investors to consider elements
of ESG—Environmental, Social, and Governance factors—into their deci-
sion making, which has the hope of forcing issuers to rise to the challenge
also attached to it. The movement has been progressing, but is hitting
snags along the way not that the leading investors are starting to turn
their attention to it. On significant snag is the flow of information. From
the issuers, investors want higher quality information. From the third-
parties like ESG rating agencies and credit rating agencies, the investors
want that higher quality information to be as standardised as possible,
so that performance over industries and regions can be compared. As we
shall see, there have been a number of initiatives developed that want
to bring these requests to fruition, but they are also finding significant
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

problems along the way. Now, with the E.U. and the U.S. taking very
different approaches, there is even more divergence on the global scene
and divergence is precisely what the investors do not want.
To assist with these issues, the ESG rating agencies and credit rating
agencies are being challenged by a variety of initiatives to step up and
provide solutions. Global initiatives like the Principles for Responsible
Investment (PRI) have aligned themselves with the credit rating agen-
cies to encourage them to a. increase their dialogue with investors and
then b. provide more of what the investors require. This is underway and
as we shall see in Chapter 3, the credit rating agencies are purposively
and decisively turning their attention towards this nascent but potentially
lucrative market. For the ESG rating agencies, their relatively younger
market is attempting to cope with the pressures that come with serving
the mainstream, and it is running into difficulties. How they handle the
pressure that is building in the market for them will fundamentally deter-
mine the future of their industry, because the presence of much bigger
market players suggests that if they do not get it right, their industry will
not survive to tell the story. Therefore, in Chapter 2, we shall look at
the industry, clear up some terminological problems in the literature, and
then seek to understand better the chances of the industry overcoming
the difficulties that have been identified.
In Chapter 4, we shall embark upon a really deep excavation of the
‘rating dynamic’ as I call it. Whether in relation to the ESG rating agency
dynamic or the credit rating dynamic, there are fundamental truths that
affect the balance between the parties and to have a hope of predicting
who may prevail out of this prophesied battle it is important to know
how that dynamic works. There are key elements, such as the need to
‘signal’, reduce competitive pressures, and extract the benefits from an
oligopolistic model that need to be considered, and we shall do that.
This leads us to the final chapter which will first present the regula-
tory and cultural developments in both the U.S. and the E.U. These
two entities have been chosen because one is the home of the majority
of these rating entities, and the other is attempting to lead the world
in issues of sustainability and also disclosure. Other entities are worth
mentioning of course, like China, but their relationships with the credit
rating entities are much newer, less developed, and impacted by a whole
host of different issues (like political models, etc.) Once that is estab-
lished, we shall consider some private initiatives before then concluding
4 D. CASH

with analysing some potential scenarios that may take effect, and then
decide which is the more likely to come to pass.
The ESG rating agencies are under pressure, and the credit rating agen-
cies are joyfully adding to it. The rewards for aligning oneself to this
market could be momentous, and the market knows it. The trajectory
of the two industries has been stark recently, with the ESG rating agen-
cies needing to defend their practices and the potential of forthcoming
regulatory frameworks for the first time in their history, whilst the credit
rating agencies have consolidated since the Crisis and are going ‘full steam
ahead’ towards this new and exciting marketplace for them. However,
they themselves are constrained, and these constraints are constantly on
the mind of the rating agencies, i.e. liability. The credit rating agencies
are acutely aware of any potential liability that they are exposed to, and
that fear is real in this new market given that they will have to espouse
their opinion more than they usually do. But, for the ESG rating agen-
cies, the prospect of the market or a region cracking the code on either
a. increasing the informational flow in the market, or better still b. stan-
dardising the disclosure of that information, provide it with a glimmer of
hope that they can develop their own credit rating industry-like trajec-
tory and become powerhouses themselves. The next few years will really
bring these two contrasting developments into focus and, potentially, into
conflict. What we need to do is consider how that may look, why it will
be, and what the outcome may be.

Note
1. Billy Nauman, ‘Credit Rating Agencies Join Battle for ESG Supremacy’
(2019) Financial Times (Sept 17). https://www.ft.com/content/59f
60306-d671-11e9-8367-807ebd53ab77 (accessed 04/01/2021).
 CHAPTER 2

The ‘Mainstreaming’ of Responsible

Investment

The Financial Crisis, an event which defined the lives of so many, is righty
seen as an incredibly negative moment in recent history. Livelihoods were
ruined, economies crashed, and large swathes of society have been living
with the financial repercussions ever since. Furthermore, the era was to
become a seedbed for a political revolution that saw Donald Trump
elected to the Office of President of the U.S., whilst on the other side of
the Atlantic Ocean the British electorate decided to leave the European
Union. Infighting within the E.U. sprouted in the wake of the upheaval,
with populist governments springing up in places like Hungary. Now, the
E.U. is pursuing a less-is-more approach as the bloc enters unchartered
territory with its authority on the line. In the East, China continues to flex
its political muscles in the region, backed by an ever-growing economy
and an expansive foreign policy that has seen the Belt-and-Road initia-
tive continue to grow. Political hot potatoes like the governance of Hong
Kong have been handled in an authoritarian manner, all amidst a global
trade war with the U.S. In the U.S., the country has been gripped by
social upheaval in the wake of a number of high-profile killings of black
men and women at the hands of police. Then, almost a century after the
outbreak of the so-called Spanish Flu, the world has been engulfed by
the COVID-19 ‘Coronavirus’. This virus has led to the world, essentially,
being ‘locked down’ with the consequence being that economic, political,
and overarching social divisions and problems have become heightened

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 5

Switzerland AG 2021
D. Cash, Sustainability Rating Agencies vs Credit Rating Agencies,
Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71693-6_2
6 D. CASH

for all to see. However, the Financial Crisis did initiate a movement that
has continued at a rapid pace and is beginning to impact upon the ‘main-
stream’ financial arena; that movement was to make modern finance more
‘responsible’.
Making modern finance more ‘responsible’ arguably makes sense in the
wake of what I have described above. Seeking to make modern finance
consider more than just the potential financial return from their actions,
or seeking to expand the time horizons that are considered in financial
circles, simply makes a lot of sense when we consider what caused the
Financial Crisis. However, and unsurprisingly, things are not that simple.
When I say ‘financial arena’, what do I mean? Are there particular targets
for this movement, or is the aim to change the wider culture? When I
say that an aim is to increase the time horizons which are considered,
then how long should one aim for? How long is material for effec-
tive decisions to be made for financial entities? If the aim is to make
modern finance consider more than just the potential return, then what
should they consider? Should said considerations be externally mandated,
or should financial entities be allowed to develop their own understanding
of what should be considered? Would allowing financial entities to choose,
be the most efficient approach, and would those entities even want that
freedom? As you can clearly see, this issue is extraordinarily complex. Even
more so, what if the aim was not even agreed upon! What if we did not
even have a standardised definition for the movement we want to develop?
Unfortunately, this is absolutely the case. As it is not my intention to
contribute to that complexity, I would like to digress for a moment and
look at the importance of clarifying, definitionally, what we are looking at
in this book.

2.1 Definitional Complexity

and the Origins of the Movement
The history of investing for a reason other than purely for financial gain
is a long and storied one. We will look more at this history in the next
subsection, but there are a few definitions that get used in the liter-
ature and wider financial arena that may confuse. For example, there
appears to be a consistent and common interconnecting usage of the
terms ‘Socially Responsible Investment’ and ‘Responsible Investment’.
Furthermore, there are many occasions were ‘sustainable finance’ is used,
 2 THE ‘MAINSTREAMING’ OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT 7

and then occasions were ‘responsible finance’ is used to describe the move-
ment we are concerned with in this book. There are a variety of reasons
for this and, for better or worse, this issue is probably emblematic of the
anchor that is holding the movement back (relatively speaking). Krosinsky
and Robins explain this neatly when they say that:

…it’s necessary to provide some guidance on the terminology used in

this book. Over the past 30 years, a range of terms, notably “social”,
“ethical”, “green”, “responsible”, “socially responsible” and “sustainable”,
have been used to describe the merging practice of incorporating extra-
financial factors within investment decision-making. One woman’s “ethical
investing” is another man’s “socially responsible investing”, and one firm’s
“responsible investing” is another manager’s “sustainable investing”. On
reflection, this embarrassment of semantic richness is perhaps understand-
able for a rapidly evolving approach, where the final form has yet to be
settled. In such a fluid field, we are all well aware of the dangers of false
precision.1

Ballestero et al. discuss how ‘SRI, also known as ethical investing, respon-
sible investing, green investing, impact investing or sustainable investing,
shares with conventional investing the top priority given to financial prof-
itability, while considering in additional social, ethical or environmental
parameters’.2 Yet, Hebb tells us that ‘responsible investing has always
had a broad mandate. Put simply, it is a long-term sustainable investment
strategy that values environmental, social, and governance factors in the
public equities portfolios of investors concerned with the long term risks
that ESG considerations may pose’.3 One includes the ‘S’ of ‘socially’,
whilst one drops it; but is this important? Cullis et al. state that:

The terms ethical and socially responsible (and, more commonly nowadays,
sustainable) are labels regularly attached to a range of enterprises; it is
important to ask what these terms mean (besides indicating that the activity
is generally a good thing). Social Responsibility is the favoured term… there
more troublesome label of ethical having been dropped. But could this
legitimisation of SRI as part of “third way” politics lead to a watering down
of the ethical brew? CSR has formed a broad agenda where businesses are
asked to improve their social, environmental, and local economic impact
and consider how businesses affect society at large in terms of human
rights, social cohesion, fair trade, and corruption. If anything, the notion
of sustainability is even more vague and ell-embracing.4
8 D. CASH

The authors continue by stating that ‘it seems that the popularity of what
we might now best refer to as SRI (the internationally most favoured
label) is set to continue to rise, given its increased visibility to institu-
tional investors and because around 70 percent of individual investors
feel they ought to be investing ethically even if they are not doing so at
present’.5 It is tempting to agree with them, that SRI is the most favoured
label, but there is no definitive evidence for this. Actually, I would argue
that Responsible Investment is the most agreed-upon term, solely because
of the popularity and the acceptance of the PRI, otherwise known as
the Principles for Responsible Investment, which is a UN-backed global
initiative that has over 1000 of the world’s leading investors and finan-
cial entities as partners (we shall be introduced to the PRI in much more
detail shortly). Yet, as ever, there are major issues with these definitions
so far. One is that the PRI, in spite of their primacy, have been criticised
for being a ‘misleading indicator’ because ‘the reality is that PRI signa-
tories commit only to behaving in accordance with a set of principles for
responsible investment, a commitment that falls well short of integrating
ESG considerations into all of their investment decisions’.6 The second
issue is an issue I have with the focus of the definitions of socially respon-
sible investment, or responsible investment, is that it is merely focused
on the actions of the investor. Whilst it is absolutely understandable that
the investor has been identified as being the lynchpin in the develop-
ment of the movement (which I agree with), the definition does not take
into account, directly, the role of those investors invest in. Perhaps I am
splitting hairs and that, in reality, the act of the investor taking a ‘respon-
sible approach’ to their investing, i.e. considering more than just financial
performance, and/or a longer time-horizon, has the effect of forcing the
issuer to alter their processes as well. I digress. Potentially, on that basis, it
may be more appropriate to talk of ‘sustainable finance’ because, as Miles
describes:

Although there is no comprehensive definition, the concept of sustainable

finance encompasses the lending and investment activities of private equity
financiers and institutional investors, as well as entities from the public
sector such as the World Bank and multilateral development banks. At its
broadest, sustainable finance refers to the “mainstreaming of environmental
and socio-economic criteria into lending, investment and other financial
services”. The NGO community tends to interpret it as requiring more
 2 THE ‘MAINSTREAMING’ OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT 9

innate changes in approach, such as deep-rooted commitment to social and

environmental responsibility, transparency, accountability, and precaution.7

Rather than complicate the issue any further, it may be best to focus on
the broader objective of the movement, whether funnelled through the
investor or not, and Robins gives us a clear definition upon which we can
build when he says that ‘part of the essence of contemporary sustainable
investing is the realisation that investors need to understand, measure,
and promote superior financial and non-financial performance’.8
Just a moment ago, we saw the criticism of the PRI in that it does
not force its signatories to integrate a concept known as ‘ESG’ more into
their financial processes, but what does that all mean? ‘ESG’ stands for
environment, social, and governance and relates to aspects that should
be considered when decided on, say, investment opportunities. Examples
may include the impact a business has upon the climate (for the ‘E’),
the business’ position with regard to modern slavery, or its record on
employee-related issues (for the ‘S’), or the strength and consistency of
its Board and internal management structure (for the ‘G’). However, we
can see an issue in my describing of ‘ESG’, because for the ‘S’ I mentioned
the imagined business’ approach to modern slavery; what if there are
(and there predominantly are in the developed world) strict regulations
governing the exploitation of people? Abiding by those rules, and making
sure the company proactively and efficiently declares such adherence, may
fall under the ‘G’overnance aspect too. The variety and multiplicity of the
world and everything in it mean that ESG, as a concept, is a really good
starting point but, in reality, it needs to be contextualised and understood
on a variety of levels, all the time.
Nevertheless, even if that definitional complexity is somehow resolved,
how the concept of ESG came to be, and how it is applied, simply
continues the complexity. Let us start with a simple question. So far, we
have seen many explanations and definitions of the movement of encour-
aging financial players to think about and, moreover, start to act upon
the premise that one can participate in the market and think of some-
thing else other than financial return. We have also seen that the emphasis
has been placed upon the ‘investor’. However, who is this investor? What
is their position? Understanding this means we may be able to ascertain
what they want from the interaction and, perhaps more crucially, what
they can do. To deviate for one moment, in the wake of the Wall Street
Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression, the focus was on
10 D. CASH

protecting the so-called retail investor—the woman or man who partic-

ipated in the marketplace—because they were deemed to require such
protection in the face of a corporate curtain that they quite often fell
victim to. Modern corporate law across the world has been built on that
premise. However, as Coffee insightfully describes ‘…that is the past. The
era in which retail investors “owned” companies or moved the trading
markets is long gone and “deader than disco”. Today, retail investors
account for only a modest minority of the ownership of large, publicly
traded companies and probably only between 2 and 4% of the trading
in NYSE-listed companies. Stock ownership is now dominated by insti-
tutional investors, who are increasingly diversified and often indexed’.9
Whilst there may be cultural stimuli that alter that ratio between jurisdic-
tions, it is likely to be representative of the modern western world. We will
look at this fascinating development in much more detail in Chapter 4,
but there are so many questions that this understanding rightly raises,
like what does that diversified approach mean to the act of considering
something other than financial return (?), are institutional investors legally
allowed to consider something else other than financial return (?), and
what does that mean for the interaction between investor and company?
The last question is particularly relevant when we understand that there
are now three major institutional investors—the so-called Big Three of
BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard—who between them, by them-
selves, and with the help of smaller players (who will often just follow
the market leaders), have the capability to force a company to take partic-
ular actions, if not apply the heaviest of pressure to a Board of a public
company. Whilst these questions are fascinatingly important, for us at this
stage of the chapter, the main question to ask is what does this concentra-
tion and market position mean for the investing options available to the
larger investment players?
There are a variety of investing options within the world of ‘responsible
investment’. Our focus in this book is on the ‘mainstreaming’ of the move-
ment and, in that sense, there is a preferred approach and for a particular
reason. However, to understand why that approach is favoured, we must
understand the other approaches and the development of them. The
concept of investing and partaking in financial action for anything other
than financial gain, and in whatever ratio, i.e. how much one does in rela-
tion to how much they gain, is unsurprisingly rooted in religious history.
The Catholic Church forbade loans with interest attached in the Middle
Ages,10 which was an approach that had been appropriated from the
 2 THE ‘MAINSTREAMING’ OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT 11

Islamic world.11 Ballestero et al. rightly discuss how the Catholic Church,
in forbidding the attachment of interest (with Emperor Charlemagne, for
example, declaring in the eighth century that the practice was illegal), ‘not
only financed social investment with their income, but also canalised a
significant flow of rents to hospitals, nursing homes and schools’.12 What
the authors do not mention is that this process was about societal control,
and directly led to the development of Protestantism led by Martin
Luther—the Church became, in essence, the only corporation in the
market—13 but I digress. In other examples of religiously-inspired invest-
ment practices, the Quakers were well known to advise their members to
invest with a social criteria in mind, particularly based around concepts of
peace, brotherhood, and solidarity; this is known to have inspired similar
ideals across Italy, Spain, and other European countries in the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries. Moving forward, the Quakers were a
component of ‘ethical investors’ that inhabited the British investing scene
(collectively known as ‘Church Investors’), with the ‘Church’ developing
investment portfolios that had specific ethical constraints on what could
be invested in, and what could not. Their approach then (and which
continues to be the case) was one of exclusion or, as we would say today,
the application of a ‘negative screen’, i.e. certain stocks could not be
invested in, usually the so-called sin stocks like alcohol, tobacco, defence,
and gambling-related stocks. Whilst the UK has been a pioneer in certain
areas—such as the development of the ethical research service EIRIS in
1983 (more on them in the next chapter)—the so-called quiet period
between the Second World War and the 1980s represents the seedbed
for what has subsequently developed. For example, the first ethical fund
developed in Europe was the Asnvar Aktiefond Sverige fund in Sweden in
1965, created by the Swedish Church, but the Vietnam War really became
the catalyst of what was to come. In response to a massive groundswell of
negative sentiment towards both the war itself, but particularly how it was
conducted, American students began to push for change and focused on
the companies that supported the war—divestment in associated compa-
nies became commonplace. The same approach was taken against South
Africa for its implementation of the Apartheid system. In the modern era,
now private enterprises started to have more of an impact too, with enti-
ties such as Triodos in the Netherlands, or Banca Etica in Italy, taking an
active role on the commitment to social and financial returns.
However, the 1980s and the decades that followed saw the first glob-
alised efforts to take action within the ‘responsible finance’ diaspora. A
12 D. CASH

number of UN Conferences were put together to focus on multina-

tional responses to issues stemming from human impact upon the climate,
starting with the UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972,
held in Stockholm. In 1992, the UN Conference on Environment and
Development was held in Rio de Janeiro, with the World Summit on
Sustainable Development being held in Johannesburg in 2002. Ten years
later, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development was held in Rio
de Janeiro, again, in 2012 with the most recent being held in New York,
labelled the UN Sustainable Development Summit in 2015. You can see
from the above that, at a certain point, the concept of ‘sustainable devel-
opment’ becomes central to the mission of the globalised entity. That
concept was popularised and defined by the so-called Brundtland Report,
which was a report developed by the World Commission on Environment
and Development in 1987, led by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro
Harlem Brundtland. The Commission declared that sustainable finance
‘is finance that meets the social, environmental, and livelihood needs of
the present generation without compromising the ability of future gener-
ations to meet their own needs and that creates a fair balance between
societies in the north and the south’.14 What the Commission did was
to place the responsibility squarely at the feet of ‘finance’ as an industry.
However, as Weber notes, ‘a general strategy as to how the financial sector
might contribute to sustainable development is missing’.15
The consequences of not having a defined and agreed-upon strategy
in place were brutally witnessed during the Financial Crisis of 2007/08.
With developed economies grinding to a halt, all on the basis of short-
termism, increased financialisation, and ultimately the development of the
concept of financial entities being ‘too-big-to-fail’, the potential of that
era being a turning point emerged. Hebb talks of the Financial Crisis
revealing:

the critical need for greater oversight of today’s financial markets. In the
aftermath of the Financial Crisis institutional investors are increasingly real-
ising that while much of this oversight will occur through government
regulation, increasingly large institutional investors are being called upon
to provide this type of active engagement and ownership in our capital
markets. The result is not the institutional investor “socialism” envisioned
by Peter Drucker, but rather a reconfigured capitalism crafted by these
enormous financial pools. Many institutional investors are using their influ-
ence to engage and in some cases aggressively challenge the management
 2 THE ‘MAINSTREAMING’ OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT 13

of corporations in order to improve the environmental, social and gover-

nance (ESG) standards of the firms in which they invest. Such activity,
known as responsible investment (RI), seeks long-term shareholder value
for future beneficiaries.16

Thus, the Financial Crisis became a ‘trigger’17 that initiated a sea-change

in direction within the financial markets. Now, the focus was on how
to make the financial arena are more longer-termed and more contrib-
utory affair. To that end, the market had, and still has, a number of
options available to them. Krosinsky and Purdom helpfully categorise
these options into what they label as the ‘seven tribes’ of responsible
investment.18 In no particular order, they are:

• ‘Values First’—this approach is the one based upon religious values,

traditionally. The common approach within this ‘tribe’ is to apply
negative screens to exclude investment opportunities that do not fit
into one’s ‘value-driven’ mandate, like ‘sin’ stocks.
• ‘Value First’—this approach involved ‘using ESG as among primary
considerations’ when investing, although it is different to ‘ESG inte-
gration’ as we shall see below. The sentiment here is that investors
will invest for financial return, but use methods which can have an
additional societal effect.
• Community/Impact—the focus for this approach is on intention-
ality. ‘Impact Investing’ is a phrase coined by the Rockefeller
Foundation and this explains the sentiment, in that it is often
a Foundation/charitable endeavour designed to improve a given
community or people.
• Thematic Investing—this approach involves focusing on a particular
sector within which one will invest, with something like renewable
energy or electric vehicle production being an example amongst
many.
• Engagement/Advocacy—this approach involved shareholders
actively engaging with both companies and policymakers on an array
of issues that can have ‘positive externalities’, like compensation,
tax, regulation, and so on. The authors note how such engagement
is rarely publicised, so as to encourage further engagement with the
target.
• Norms-based Screening—this approach entails using an external,
and often global standard as a minimum for investment. This has
14 D. CASH

been explained as ‘investing that excludes companies (or government

debt) from a portfolio on account of any failure by the issuer to meet
internationally accepted norms such as the UN Global Compact, the
Kyoto Protocol or the UN Declaration of Human Rights, etc’.19
• ESG Integration—conducted by analysts, asset managers, and
investors, this approach involved utilising ESG data from internal but
often third-party informational providers to enrich the investment
decision-making process.

It is interesting to note that the scholars champion the ‘value-first’

approach as the approach which could have the largest societal impact,
but admit themselves that ‘interest in factoring ESG considerations into
investment itself is at record levels’. This is because, as the scholars
continue, ‘arguably, the first waves of socially responsible investing
were implemented too soon, were at times too politically focused, and
attempted to use poor to non-existent data…’. What is interesting here
are two things in particular. First, the development of ‘ESG’ and its main-
stream usage, theoretically speaking, was developed to gently persuade an
extremely hesitant financial sector. The financial sector was comfortable
with the concept of analysing and integrating data that was concerned
with the governance of the entities they were investing in/exposed to,
but as Coffee tells us, ‘to bring SRI investing into the mainstream, some-
thing had to be done… conceptually, they “rebranded” SRI investing and
converted it into ESG investing by asserting that consideration of the
“governance factors” associated with public corporations would enable
the fiduciary to identify superior investment and enhance risk-adjusted
return’. He continues by stating that ‘necessity is often the mother of
invention, and the modest claim advanced is merely that the need to
calm the fears of risk averse trustees best explains the addition of “gov-
ernance” factors to environmental and social ones in order to convert
SRI into ESG’.20 We shall examine the legal consequences that must be
considered for investment managers in institutional investors who, as we
know, essentially are the modern-day market later in Chapter 4, but this
idea of lawyers changing the definitional landscape to allow risk-averse
managers to partake in investment opportunities makes sense. The second
aspect that is interesting is that, as you will hopefully agree once you
finish reading this book, the environment that prevented the ‘first waves’
of socially responsible investment from taking hold still exist today; the
 2 THE ‘MAINSTREAMING’ OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT 15

terminology may have been altered to please the risk-averse, but the envi-
ronment has not changed at all. What do I mean by this? Well, I am
foreshadowing a lot of the book here, but the concept of the implemen-
tation of SRI being too politically focused is massively relevant today,
with the E.U. trying to force the concept on the market and the U.S.
forcing the market to reject the principle. The construct of what we are
discussing in this book has, arguably, been implemented well before the
necessary infrastructure has been established, with a clear example being
the target of this book—third-party informational providers. If the market
was poor then and the result was that poor data was being utilised to
no positive effect, then we shall see in this book that nothing has really
changed; the Sustainability Rating Agencies, and the Credit Rating Agen-
cies, are both a. being massively criticised for a lack of informational value
in their products, and b. simultaneously complaining of the lack of nutri-
tious information available within the marketplace with which they could
make informed decisions with. Changing the definition does not change
the reality.

2.2 ‘Mainstreamisation’ and ESG Integration

Nevertheless, the integration of ESG into the investment processes of
large investment vehicles is becoming the dominant approach for the
‘mainstreamisation’21 of the concept of responsible investment. As we
saw earlier from Coffee, the emphasis since the Financial Crisis has been
on finding a new form of finance that is both a. practicable for, and palat-
able to the financial marketplace, and b. allows for the development of the
sustainable agenda. In truth, the previous sentence is essentially the classic
battle that we are seeing at present, and there are many hurdles to clear
before the two aspects are synergistically brought together. However, that
has not stopped the juggernaut from moving forward. Lubin and Esty
consider this move as a ‘megatrend’. They qualify this view on the basis
that, over the past decade or so, such issues as those categorised under
ESG have encroached upon all areas of business so that they now focus
on creating ‘value for customers, shareholders, and other stakeholders’.22
Speaking specifically about the ‘E’ component, they note how the geopo-
litical climate is changing because rising powers like China and India have
intensified competition for natural resources, whilst ‘externalities’ such
as carbon dioxide emissions and water usage are increasingly becoming
more ‘material’ to businesses the world over. The growth of the concept
16 D. CASH

of ESG and its incorporation into the investment decision-making process

has been substantial, and one need not look for long for arguments that
suggest it will soon become the standard approach, even against conven-
tional return-only investment approaches; PwC predict, for example, that
ESG-based funds in Europe will triple by 2025 to be worth more than
e7.6tn.23
Pinney et al. suggest, interestingly, that there are several factors that are
driving the development of ESG integration within mainstream invest-
ment practices. The first they note is the increase in female and millennial
investors, who are becoming more active in the decisions regarding how
the investment process is undertaken.24 There are a number of reasons
as to the proliferation of female investors and their growing impact on
the investing process, with the growth of female investment managers
and business leaders being suggested as an important component. Subse-
quently, it has also been suggested that women may be more risk-averse
than their male counterparts, which means investment managers either a.
pursuing their investment, or b. under close scrutiny from their investor
base, are having to signal to their investor base that they are consid-
ering more elements in order to potentially reduce the riskiness of the
procedure.25 A second major contributor is the growing realisation that
‘ESG is a viable way to increase alpha and manage risk across their port-
folios’. The third is that there has been a marked growth is what the
scholars call multi-stakeholder initiatives (like the PRI) established with
the aim of resolving inherent hurdles that exist in the mainstreaming of
the concept. The last element the scholars identify is the development of
new technologies designed to streamline the process and make it more
efficient. They discuss how advances in AI and data science have allowed
for the development of sophisticated algorithms that allow for a number
of approaches to be taken; one example cited is ‘smart-scraping’, which
is an automated process whereby machine learning technologies allow for
company reports to be ‘scraped’ for any relevant ESG-related information
and then fed into the larger quantitative processes. Whilst the growth is
impressive, it is perhaps worth returning to the sentiment that started the
chapter and asks what is it exactly that is growing? You have read so far
phrases such as ‘ESG integration’, ‘responsible investing’, and ‘value-first
investing’, but what is the context to all of this?
The reality is that the market will only be dictated to as far as it is
willing to listen. This is problematic for traditionalists who believe that the
ethos of sustainability should be enforced; those traditionalists are finding
 2 THE ‘MAINSTREAMING’ OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT 17

that the reality of the situation is much different to the idealised versions
of potential events that they have been hoping for. Again, the following
is foreshadowing a much more detailed analysis that we will undertake in
Chapter 4, but the concept of enforcing this sustainability agenda must
be done through regulators. What we are seeing currently is regulators
having to realise that it is the market that gets what it wants, not onlookers
or theorists. For example, Revelli argues that ‘to return to the heart of the
game, ethics must play a leading role in the change of financial practices,
including at the investment level. The principle is to reintegrate finance
within ethics, not ethics within finance’.26 Is Revelli wrong in his procla-
mation? Whether one agrees or not, the reality is that finance is only
interested in integrating non-financial considerations into its practices as
long as they are ‘material’. Interestingly, Revelli questions whether this is
because of intent, or because the change is simply too radical an idea for
the traditionalist or conventional economists. In discussing the literature
on the topic of SRI, he notes that ‘the vast majority of published research
in this area describes empirical testing of SRI data with the sole purpose
of demonstrating whether SRI is profitable and less risky than conven-
tional investments’. This is a fascinating question, because the implication
is that economic theory and academe is actively seeking to kowtow to
‘finance’, rather than objectively assess the validity of the approach. Or, is
it the case that the world just understands that finance, with its traditions,
will be unlikely to adopt a new approach if it is not framed within param-
eters that they understand? Traditionally, the sole purpose of the investor
and the corporation has been to generate profit, so placing that at the
very centre of the conversation with regard to responsible finance may
be the best approach. It is all very debatable. For Revelli, he is emphatic
when he states that the vast amount of research into the validity of respon-
sible finance is based upon the theoretical foundation that emanated from
the Chicago School and neoliberal theory, whose most famous propo-
nent Friedman argued, in 1970, that ‘corporate social responsibility’ (as
the concept of taking financial action for any reason other than financial
return was known then) was a constraint on the profit maximisation of
the corporation, which should be its most cherished purpose.27
Returning to the concept of ‘materiality’, it has been noted in the liter-
ature that, traditionally, anything ESG-related has been regarded as being
an ‘externality’. Now however, there is an ever-growing body of research
that suggests that integrating ESG considerations into one’s practice can
reduce one’s risk, and even add value over time, although there is research
18 D. CASH

that also paints a less positive picture of the evolution of non-financial

data and its importance.28 This research that purports to demonstrate
the potential of ESG integration labels this phenomenon the ‘business
case’,29 which perhaps backs Revelli’s argument. The ‘business case’ was
perhaps enshrined at the turn of the century, when banks began to create
internal departments that we tasked with providing responsible finance-
related data; this is particularly relevant as banks like Unibanco in Brazil,
and the global HSBC, added these offerings to their sell-side brokerages
so that they were not exposing the universe of their investor base to such
considerations, not just ‘responsible investors’.30
ESG integration has been described as consisting of taking certain
ESG criteria into account in conventional financial management, ‘or
making ESG available to all management teams, or encouraging coop-
eration between financial and non-financial analysts’, Furthermore, ‘ESG
integration practices cover large amounts of assets under management
but are less restrictive than SRI’, which has led to the practice being
labelled as more ‘inclusionary’ than other approaches such as the ‘best-in-
class’ or ‘best-effort’ approaches.31 The PRI explain how the integration
of ESG may take place, when they affirm that it may include practi-
tioners: analysing ESG information generally; identifying material finan-
cial and ESG factors; assessing the potential impact of material factors on
economic, country, sector, or company performance; and making invest-
ment decisions that include considerations of all material factors. What
we can deduct here is that it is all rather vague, and that may be inten-
tional to allow for the greatest amount of flexibility for practitioners.
Furthermore, the PRI detail for us what ESG integration does not entail,
including: prohibiting investment in certain sectors, countries, or compa-
nies; ignoring traditional risk factors, like interest risk; analysing every
ESG issue affecting a company/issuer; having every investment deci-
sion affected by ESG issues; making major changes to one’s investment
processes; and sacrificing returns for one’s portfolio.32 We can see here
the concept of potentially kowtowing to the world of finance in plain
sight, which is why the PRI have been criticised. We shall look at these
criticisms and constraints of the mainstreaming of ESG in the next subsec-
tion, but the argument that the integration of ESG into the investment
process is still very much a ‘subjective’33 exercise is probably extremely
difficult to argue against. Nevertheless, the PRI continue describing the
practical application of the concept, and from different standpoints. For
 2 THE ‘MAINSTREAMING’ OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT 19

buy-side and sell-side brokers, ESG information is fed into their abso-
lute valuation models. This means that both ESG and traditional financial
factors affect their valuation of companies and helps to accurately adjust
aspects such as future revenue growth rates, future operating costs, future
capital expenditures, and so on. In fixed income, the focus on the cred-
itworthiness of the issuer, which is all an investor will/should/does care
about in reality. The PRI make the interesting observation that ESG inte-
gration helps an investor understand not only an entity’s ability to repay
outstanding debt, but in the case of countries especially, an entity’s will-
ingness to repay debt; sovereign debt is big business, and at the time
of writing a number of poorer countries are struggling to service their
debts on account of the COVID-19 pandemic and are faced with the
tragic decision of either servicing their debt and preserving their access
to the capital markets, or defaulting, subsequently becoming locked out
of the capital markets, all to redirect the resources to their healthcare
infrastructures.
There are also different forms that ESG integration can take. Wild
notes how ESG integration can take a qualitative form whereby analysts
consider ESG issues and factor those in, subjectively, to the in-depth
analysis of a company’s strengths and weaknesses. There is also a more
quantitative form, where statistical data and rankings are injected into
financial models. There are issues with this, as we shall see throughout
the book, in terms of the reliability, timeliness, and nutritional value of
ESG-related information, but the quantitative model is something that
strongly interests analysts and is a main component of what they need
from the process. As we saw earlier, the proliferation of AI and machine
learning technologies are increasingly helping the all-important quantita-
tive data component develop into a process which is genuinely helpful for
investment strategies.
All of this development is geared towards one endpoint: to find what
is material. Materiality is a key component for the mainstreaming of the
concept, and rightly or wrongly is how everything is being framed so that
as many conventional investors can turn the page. Surveys of the market-
place have been emphatic in declaring that materiality is the main concern
of investors, and that ESG information will happily be factored in as long
as it is relevant, and can potentially affect the reduction of risk.34 Investors
will likely take a twofold approach to considering what is material. First,
they will examine a range of factors that may impact upon the issuer
or investable opportunity, but may do this on a sector-specific base on
20 D. CASH

the basis of efficiency and cost-efficiency. They will likely consider aspects
that affect the rate of growth (via future revenue generation), associated
costs, and any associated risks (perhaps through the governance of the
company, etc.) It is usual that the three or four most impactful issues will
be considered. Then, second, is the analysis of the associated timeframes.
As Wild notes, ‘it is important to clarify in which time frame these factors
have the most significant impact’.35 ESG issues usually play out over a
longer time period than finance is usually accustomed to dealing with,
mostly more than three years. We can see, therefore, that the longer the
timeframe, the more subjective things become and, admittedly, the more
riskier things become. Wild concludes by arguing that whilst the returns
on this approach may not necessarily be better than, say, the ‘best-in-class’
approach, it does allow investors to claim the middle ground between
concentrating on returns, but still focusing on sustainability. We shall see
that, in the U.S. in particular, this divergence has been promoted as a key
issue in the cultural, political, and legal senses.
Perhaps unsurprisingly however, the concept of ‘materiality’ is rooted
in the development that Coffee described for us earlier. The attachment
of the ‘E’ and the ‘S’ to the conventional ‘G’ is confirmed when we
look at what investors consider to be the most material element from
ESG as a broad concept. It should not be surprising that Governance
has been consistently ranked as being, generally, of most importance
for investors.36 Furthermore, global surveys have revealed that ‘global-
isation and corporate governance’ were amongst the most material for
fund managers, although increasingly elements such as water usage and
clean water, climate change, and environmental management were being
actively considered alongside the ‘G’. Additionally, Terrorism is playing a
factor in deliberations.37
Materiality, then, is either the connecting philosophy that can change
mainstream investing processes for the better, or an indication of the
financing of ethical investment, which reduces the impact of the ethical
investing cause. It is likely the case that without the blinkered focus on
materiality, the investing arena would not be anywhere near where they
currently are in terms of turning the corner away from the short-sighted
return-focused position they were in even just a decade ago. However,
the remarkable subjectivity that is not only being suggested, but actively
promoted as an acceptable approach to turning this corner, does indeed
raise questions as to how much ‘finance’ has actually changed. It has been
 2 THE ‘MAINSTREAMING’ OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT 21

noted in the literature that whilst the rate of ESG ‘noise’ in the market-
place is rapidly increasing, the rate of actual change in investment practice
is negligible.38 That may indeed be a generalism, but if we accept even
the potential of it being true, then it is hardly surprising. What has been
requested in not a slight alteration in investment practices, but a change
in culture; the fear is that the market is paying lip-service to the ideal, but
operating as usual. This leads to ask whether it is because of a reluctance
to change, or the existence of too many hurdles in reality?

2.3 Constraints on a Concept

The mainstreaming of the concept of investing in a way that was not
purely concerned with financial return was always going to be difficult.
From the starting point, there have been problems both on the philo-
sophical and practical sides of the equation. This was to be expected, but
the question becomes how entrenched these problems are and, crucially,
what can be done to resolve them. Some of the identified problems can
be resolved with organisational alterations, but some are deep-rooted; for
those problems, how does one change a culture when there is no leader
or leadership structure in place? Even more so, can there be a leader, or
a standard setter in such an environment?
Conventional economic and financial theory has been and continues
to be dismissive of the concept of considering anything else other than
financial metrics. One of the key concerns, which we know is particularly
relevant to the mainstream financial arena as it is currently constituted,
is that integrating ESG and considering any of the other approaches
may harm diversification. Classical SRI naturally harms diversification by
potentially excluding some investment opportunities from the range of
options available. However, whilst it is rarely noted in the literature,
can ESG integration said to be doing the same? It has been champi-
oned as the amalgamation of sustainable ideas and financial fundamentals,
but would genuinely considering non-financial information impact upon
the array of options available. What if, say, the ‘S’ concerns surrounding
Saudi Arabia and its Human Rights record, its foreign wars, or repressive
government indicated that investing in its flagship Aramco company was
not an optimal option? What about the ‘E’-based concerns regarding the
company being one of the largest private CO2 producers on the planet?
With the recent (partial) floating of this giant company, that conundrum
was a real one. The result was that its shares surged on launching, and
22 D. CASH

have continued to do well. We can infer that, when push comes to shove,
financial opportunity will trump sustainability-related foresight. Perhaps
the flexibility and subjectivity that seems to have been implanted within
the mainstream-version of the concept allows for this, but the question
becomes then what is the impact of the movement really?
Not only has this phenomenon been identified—Krosinsky argues that
this incongruency is ‘perhaps the most important battleground…’39 —but
it has been given an appropriate label. Butz and Laville have called it the
‘materiality gap’, and Robins explains that this means ‘the tendency of SRI
investors to address ESG issues only to the extent that they are financially
material…’40 One of the arguments that this phenomenon generates is
that the mainstreaming of the concept means that the concept has lost its
‘critical edge’. Robins, citing Hawken, discusses an uncomfortable reality
for responsible investment champions in that ‘striving to attain the highest
rate of financial return is a direct cause of social injustice and environ-
mental degradation as it consistently leads to externalisation of costs on
the environment, the future, workers, and others’.41 Similarly, Revelli tells
us that ‘for most funds the logic of SRI is, particularly in the context of
ESG integration, to promote financial screening and then select compa-
nies considered to be most profitable and less risky from a financial point
of view. Ethics is thus pushed into the background, resulting in the selec-
tion of the most virtuous companies among the best financially (not the
most virtuous in the entire investment universe)’.42 It is for this reason
that modern-day ‘responsible investment’ has been heavily criticised for
being incongruent; it has even been argued that funds and investors inap-
propriately, or even deceitfully, deploy whatever term is most appropriate
for the marketplace (SRI, RI, ESG) and, upon inspection, their invest-
ment criteria does not replicate the sentiment. Similarly, it has even been
suggested that some firms are merely ‘providing a product which is in
demand’, which clearly indicates that the ethos of the movement is not
being followed.43 Other research has similarly found that investors are, to
some extent, saying one thing and doing another,44 which is precisely why
initiatives like the PRI are being criticised for not doing more to enforce
better behaviour.45 There have been calls for asset managers to do much
more,46 but there could be an equally valid suggestion that individual
investors should do more. Do those who hold pensions with pension
funds really scrutinise their asset managers’ approaches, and their adher-
ence to what they signal they are doing? In reality, this is the consequence
of dispersed ownership and an increasingly institutionalised landscape.
Another random document with
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declined going into the house, and took our books under the trees
just across the way. A shower came up, and as we ran for shelter,
we saw our carriage unprotected; no man was to be seen, so we
drew it into an open shed, and there stayed until the sun shone
again.
We went through Franklin and Boscawen to Fisherville, where we
saw a pleasant-looking hotel. We had driven twenty-six miles, and
thought best to stop there. We were hungry and our supper was fit
for a king. We went to bed in Fisherville, but got up in Contoocook,
we were told. What’s in a name? A five-miles’ drive after breakfast
brought us to Concord, where we passed several hours very
delightfully with friends. In the afternoon, despite remonstrances and
threatening showers, we started for Goffstown over Dunbarton hills.
We remembered that drive very well; but the peculiar cloud phases
made all new, and disclosed the Green Mountains in the sunlight
beyond the clouds like a vision of the heavenly city. We left the
carriage once, ran to the top of a knoll and mounted a stone wall.
The view was enchanting, but in the midst of our rapture great drops
of rain began to fall, and we were back in our carriage, the boot up
and waterproofs unstrapped just in time for a brisk shower. As we
passed an aged native, radiant in brass buttons, we asked him some
questions about the mountains, but he knew nothing of them, which
reminded us of the reply a woman made whom a friend asked if
those distant peaks were the White Mountains. “I don’t know; I
haven’t seen nothin’ of ’em since I’ve been here.”
Shower followed shower, and we decided to spend the night in
Dunbarton. A few houses, a church, a little common, and a hotel
labeled “Printing Office,” seemed to comprise the town, but there
must be something more somewhere, judging from The Snowflake
given us, which was the brightest local paper we ever saw, and our
landlord was editor. We went through his printing establishment with
much interest. We saw no hotel register, but as we were leaving, the
landlady came with a slip of paper and a pencil, and asked us to
write our names. After our return home we received copies of The
Snowflake containing an item, every statement of which was actually
correct, and yet we were entirely unconscious of having been
“interviewed” as to our travels.
It is said thirty-seven towns can be seen from Dunbarton; and our
own Wachusett, Ascutney in Vermont and Moosilauke in New
Hampshire were easily distinguished. We fortified ourselves with the
fresh air and pleasant memories of the heights; then asked
directions for Shirley Hill and the “Devil’s Pulpit,” in Bedford, near
Goffstown, having replenished our lunch basket, and Charlie’s also,
for there was no provision for Christian travelers near that sanctuary.
Shirley Hill commands a very pretty view of Manchester; and of the
“Pulpit” some one has said, “That of all wild, weird spots consecrated
to his majesty, perhaps none offer bolder outlines for the pencil of a
Dore than this rocky chasm, the ‘Devil’s Pulpit’. No famous locality
among the White Mountains offers a sight so original, grand and
impressive as this rocky shrine.” And then the writer describes in
detail the stone pulpit, the devil’s chamber, the rickety stairs, the
bottomless wells, the huge wash-basin and a punch bowl, lined with
soft green moss, and the separate apartments with rocky, grotesque
walls and carpets of twisting and writhing roots of trees. An
enterprising farmer has cut a rough road to this wonderful spot, a
half-mile from the highway, and by paying twenty-five cents toll we
were admitted “beyond the gates” and saw no living person until our
return. The same enterprise that built the road had left its mark at the
“Pulpit.” Cribs for horses were placed between trees, and a large crib
in the shape of a rough house, with tables and benches, served as a
dining-room for visitors. Every stick and stone was labeled with as
much care and precision as the bottles in a drug store, and there
was no doubt which was the “Devil’s Pulpit” and which the “Lovers’
Retreat.” It was a fearfully hot place, but that did not surprise us, for
we naturally expect heat and discomfort in the precincts of his
majesty. We unharnessed Charlie, and after exploring the gorge
thoroughly and emptying our lunch basket, we sat in the carriage
and read until we were so nearly dissolved by the heat that we
feared losing our identity, and made preparations to leave. It was an
assurance that we had returned to this world when the gate keeper
directed us to Milford and said we would go by the house where
Horace Greeley was born. He pointed out the house and we thought
we saw it; but as we did not agree afterward, we simply say we have
passed the birthplace of Horace Greeley.
It was nearly dark when we got to Milford, and we rather dreaded the
night at that old hotel, where we had been twice before. The exterior
was as unattractive as ever, but we were happily surprised to find
wonderful transformation going on inside, and we recognized in the
new proprietor one of the little boys we used to play with in our early
school days. We were very hospitably received and entertained, and
the tempting viands, so well served in the new, cheery dining-room,
were worthy of any first-class hotel. Our horse was well groomed,
carriage shining like new, and the only return permitted—hearty
thanks.
“There is no place like home,” and yet it is with a little regret that we
start on our last day’s drive. A never-ending carriage journey might
become wearisome, but we have never had one long enough to
satisfy us yet. As we drove through Brookline and crossed the
invisible State line to Townsend, then to Fitchburg and Leominster,
we summed up all the good things of our three week’s wanderings
and concluded nothing was lacking. Perfect health, fine weather and
three hundred and fifty miles’ driving among the hills! What more
could we ask? Oh! we forgot Charlie’s days of affliction! But
experiences add to the interest when all is over.
 CHAPTER V.
CONNECTICUT, WITH SIDE TRIP TO NEW JERSEY.
Early in the afternoon of one of the hottest days in August, Charlie
and our cosy phaeton stood at the door waiting for us, and we had
with us our bags, wraps, umbrellas, books, the lunch basket, and
never-used weapon. “A place for everything and everything in its
place,” is verified in that phaeton, and in little time all were stowed
away, and we were off on our thirteenth annual drive.
We had expected that our drive must be omitted this year, and so
suddenly did we decide to go, that, to save trying to plan, we turned
towards Barre, where we spent the first night of our first journey,
thirteen years ago. It proved a pleasant beginning, for when we got
up among the hills of Princeton the air was cool and refreshing. We
drove very leisurely, and it was quite dark when we found our way to
the hotel.
After supper we began our geography lesson for the morrow. We
had two questions to answer—“Shall we drive on towards the
western part of the state, and visit some of the lovely spots among
the Berkshire Hills, which we did not see when we drove there some
summers ago?” or, “Shall we take a new direction, and turn
southward?” After much deliberation, for Berkshire is like a magnet,
we decided to gratify the friends who are always asking why we have
never driven into Connecticut.
Our lesson having been disposed of, we slept soundly and awoke
reconciled to a wandering in Connecticut, only we wished we knew
the places of interest or had some reason for going to one place
rather than another. The wish was soon gratified by a friend we met
before leaving Barre, who spoke very enthusiastically of Tolland, as
she recalled a visit there many years ago. This was enough for us;
we had a connecting link with somebody, and took direction
accordingly.
We rested Charlie at Ware, after our morning drive. We remembered
the pleasant driving in this vicinity, but towards Palmer it was new to
us. The thunder was muttering all the afternoon, and it was our good
fortune to find ourselves in a comfortable hotel at Palmer an hour
earlier than we usually stop, for we had only reached our room when
the rain fell in sheets, and the lightning flashed at random.
Palmer is so associated with the Boston and Albany railroad, that it
seemed as if only the spirit of opposition could prompt us to take a
short cut to Hartford without paying our respects to Springfield; but
we declare independence of railroads when we have our phaeton,
and as we “did” Springfield so thoroughly a few years ago, we did
not diverge, but aimed straight for Connecticut.
The morning was bright and fresh after the shower, and we left
Palmer early, with a little book sounding the praises of Connecticut,
handed us by the clerk, which proved quite useful. We drove on
through Monson, but before we got to Stafford Springs, where we
intended to stop, we came to a place too tempting to be passed by—
such a pretty rocky hillside, with inviting nooks under the trees, and a
barn just opposite, where very likely Charlie could be cared for.
“Oh, yes!” a woman said, when we asked her. “Leave your horse tied
there, and——will take care of him when he comes to dinner.” The
rocky hillside was also granted us, and we took our wraps and lunch
basket and prepared for a two-hours’ rest.
The time passed only too quickly, and on we drove, but saw no place
in Stafford Springs that made us regret our pretty camp; the time for
repentance had not come. “Seven miles to Tolland,” we were told,
and if we remember aright it was up hill all the way. Why have we
always heard people say “down” to Connecticut? Seriously, that is
one reason we never drove there before. “Up” to New Hampshire
and Vermont sounds so much cooler and nicer. We wondered then,
and the farther we drove the more we wondered, until one day we
spoke of it, and a man said—“Why, did you come to Connecticut
expecting to find anything but hills?”
We like hills, and were very glad to find it was “up” to Tolland. When
we entered its one broad street, on a sort of plateau, and saw all
Tolland at a glance, we exclaimed, “Just the place we want for
Sunday!” And when we were cosily fixed in a corner parlor bedroom
on the first floor of a hotel, something like the old “Camperdown” on
Lake Memphremagog, we were confirmed in our first impression,
and felt perfectly happy. Comfort and an abundance of good things
was the aim of the kindly proprietor. We sat at the supper table,
happy in thinking all was well, perhaps, unconsciously rejoicing; for it
was just at this stage of our journey last year that Charlie became so
lame, not from rheumatism, strained cords, etc., as they said, but
from sand under his shoe. That was our first unpleasant experience,
and a second was at hand; for as we came from the dining-room, a
man was waiting to tell us our horse was very sick. We hurried to the
stable yard, where he lay in great distress, refusing to stand up.
What could have happened to him? Surely, that generous farmer at
whose place we “camped” must have over-fed him when he was
warm. Now we repented in good earnest, but little good that did
Charlie. The proprietor was as thoughtful of our horse as of us, and
sent a man to walk him about. We followed on and pitied him as he
was kept moving, despite every effort he made to drop upon the
green grass. After a time he seemed a little better, and the man took
him back to the stable. We could not feel easy and went to see him
again, and finally took him ourselves and led him up and down
Tolland street for an hour or more (we could not have done that in
Springfield), answering many inquiries from the people we met. By-
and-by he began to steal nibbles at the grass and to give evidence of
feeling better, and when we took him back to his stall we were
assured he would be all right in the morning.
We arose early, for Sunday, for we could not wait to know if he was
well again. His call as we entered the stable told us our second
disagreeable experience was at an end. Now we began the day;
read, breakfasted, went to the little church around the corner, wrote
letters, walked and enjoyed every hour in that restful place, where it
is said no one locks the doors, for thieves do not break through nor
steal there. Perhaps it is because of the peculiarly moral atmosphere
that the county jail is located there. At any rate, even the man who
was hostler during the day and convict at night won our kindly
remembrance.
Monday morning, bright and early, we started for Hartford. Of course
there are many things of interest between Tolland and Hartford, but
they belong to every traveler, and we are only telling our own
experience. We asked at a hotel in Hartford if we could have our
horse cared for there, and were told we could by taking him around
to the stable; so we “took him round.” We then took a walk, instead
of stopping at the hotel as we had intended. After our walk we
thought we would call on a friend visiting in the city, but it occurred to
us that we were hardly presentable, for our dusters were not fresh,
and we could not take them off, for then the revolver would show,
and we had no place to leave them unless we “took them round” to
the stable, too. This matter settled, we wandered about again, and
followed some people into what we thought might be a church
service, to find ourselves at an art exhibition. Next we spied a park,
and strolling through we came to the new capitol building, which we
examined from top to bottom.
Somebody we had met somewhere had suggested our spending a
night at New Britain, which was just enough off the main route to
New Haven to send us on a wrong turn now and then. Our attention
was held that afternoon in turn by pretty scenery, chickens, wrong
roads and crows. The last-mentioned were having a regular “drill.”
We saw in the distance a hill, black—as we thought—with burnt
stumps; but soon a section of these stumps was lifted into mid-air,
and it was not until this had been repeated several times that we
could realize that the entire hill was alive with crows. At regular
intervals, and in the most systematic order, section after section
sailed aloft as one bird, each section taking the same course—first
towards the north, then with a graceful turn stretching in line towards
the south, at a certain point wheeling about to the north again, and
gradually mounting higher and higher until lost to sight in the
distance.
There was no such systematic order observed in the “best” room,
which was given us at a hotel in New Britain, and after such a lesson
from the crows we could not forbear making a few changes, so that
the pretty, old-fashioned desk should not interfere with the wardrobe
door, and the bureau and wash-stand should not quarrel for a place
only large enough for one of them, when vacant places were
pleading for an occupant. Our supper was good, and our room had
quite a “best” look after its re-arrangement. It rained all night, and we
waited awhile in the morning thinking it would clear away “before
eleven,” but there was seemingly no end to the clearing-up showers,
and we had to brave it. We do not mind rain, usually, but we were not
accustomed to the red mud, and it did not seem so clean as our
home mud. We had driven thirty miles the day before, and twenty-
eight more were between us and New Haven. We were at last on our
way with “sides on and boot up,” and a constantly increasing quantity
of red mud attaching itself to the phaeton. We stopped at Meriden
two hours, and were very courteously received at a hotel there. The
afternoon was bright and sunny, and the drive of eighteen miles very
delightful. We entered New Haven by State street just at dusk with
our terra-cotta equipage, and drove direct to the post office, so sure
of letters that, when we found there were none, we hardly knew what
to do next. While waiting for letters, and for Charlie to rest, we
decided to take a peep at New York. The best of care was promised
for Charlie at a hotel, our letters were to be brought to the house,
and bags and wraps were locked up safely.
About nine o’clock we went to the boat, which was to leave at
midnight. The evening passed pleasantly, and we did not fully realize
the undesirable location of the best stateroom we could get until we
were under way, when the fog horn sounded directly before our
window, and the heat from the boiler, which we could almost touch,
increased too much for comfort the temperature of an August night.
Sleep was impossible, and we amused ourselves by counting
between the fog alarms and opening the window to let in fresh
instalments of “boiling air.” The intervals lengthened, and finally,
when we had counted four hundred and heard no fog horn, we
looked out to find it was bright starlight, and returned to our berths
for a brief nap.
We landed at Pier 25, East River, just as the electric lights on
Brooklyn Bridge were disappearing like stars in the sunlight. At
seven we breakfasted on board the boat, and as we proposed
spending the day with a friend thirty miles out in New Jersey, our
next move was to find our way to Liberty street, North River. We did
not need a carriage, and might never get there if we attempted to go
by cars, so we concluded a morning walk would do us good. We
crossed the ferry to Jersey City, and were entertained by a company
of men “drilling,” and a company of young men and maidens dressed
up in their best for an excursion somewhere, until the nine o’clock
train was announced. An hour or more took us to Plainfield, where
the day was given up to visiting in good earnest. We enjoyed it all so
much that we were easily persuaded to spend the night.
At ten o’clock next morning we took the train for New York, where we
made a call, did a little shopping, walked over Brooklyn Bridge, and
spent the night with friends in the city. It rained the next day, and as
there was nothing to do we did nothing, and enjoyed it all the
morning. After luncheon we found our way to the boat again, and at
three o’clock were off for New Haven. It was a pleasant sail, in spite
of the showers, and we sat on deck all the way, enjoying everything,
and wondering how many letters we should have, and if Charlie was
all right. We were due at New Haven at eight o’clock in the evening,
and before nine we were at the hotel and had fled to our room,
wondering what it meant by our receiving no letters.
We requested everything to be in readiness for us directly after
breakfast next morning—Charlie shod, the terra-cotta covering
removed from our phaeton, axles oiled, etc. We lost no time on our
way to the post office. As we gave our names slowly and distinctly at
the delivery box, that no mistake might be made, out came the
letters—one, two, three, four—one remailed from Hartford. As the
young man handed out the last, he said, “Please have your mail
directed to street and number after this.” “We have no street and
number, sir, we are tramps,” we replied. “Why was not our mail put
into the hotel box?” No satisfactory explanation was offered, but
when we got to the carriage and looked over our letters, none was
needed. Evidently they had not stayed in the office long enough to
get into anybody’s box. They had traveled from pillar to post, had
been opened and reopened, and scribbled over and over in an effort
to find an owner for them.
All was well when our letters were written, so we had only to decide
on the pleasantest route homeward. A friend in New York wished us
to visit Old Lyme, which was made so interesting in Harper’s a year
or two ago. This was directly in our course if we followed the advice
to go to New London before turning north. Charlie was at his best,
and we drove thirty miles through towns and villages along the coast,
stopping two hours at Guilford, and spending the night at Westbrook,
a “sort of Rumney,” our diary record says, only on the coast instead
of up among the mountains. The recollection uppermost in our mind
is, that everybody’s blinds were closed, which gave a gloomy look to
every town we passed through that day.
We felt a little constrained in Connecticut on Sundays, and thought
we should stay in Westbrook quietly until Monday morning; but after
breakfast, which we shared with the apparently very happy family,
the father asked if he should “hitch up” for us. We said not then, but
as it was so pleasant perhaps we might drive on a few miles in the
afternoon. He told us we should have to “ferry” the Connecticut at
Saybrook, but he “guessed our horse wouldn’t mind.” Our old black
Charlie was never happier than when crossing the Connecticut
without any effort on his part; but this Charlie has entirely different
ideas, and if we had known we could not cross by bridge as we did
at Hartford we should have deferred Old Lyme until another time. But
it was too late now, and we would not mar our lovely afternoon drive
by anticipating trouble. Rivers have to be crossed; and we
philosophically concluded “Do not cross a bridge until you get to it” is
equally applicable to a ferry. Five miles lay between us and the
Connecticut River, and we gave ourselves up to quiet enjoyment as
if ferries were unknown, until we reached Saybrook, when we had to
inquire the way. A few twists and turns brought us to the steep pitch
which led to the river, and at first sight of the old scow, with big
flapping sail, Charlie’s ears told us what he thought about it. With
some coaxing he went down the pitch, but at the foot were fishing
nets hung up on a frame, and he persistently refused to go farther.
We were yet a little distance from the shore, and the scow was still
farther away at the end of a sort of pier built out into the river. We got
out and tried to comfort Charlie, who was already much frightened;
and yet this was nothing to what was before him. What should we
do? If it had not been Sunday, there might have been other horses to
cross, and he will follow where he will not go alone. But it was
Sunday, and no one was in sight but the man and boy on the scow,
and a man sufficiently interested in us to hang over a rail on the
embankment above watching us very closely. Perhaps he thought it
was wicked to help people on Sunday. At any rate, he did not offer,
and we did not ask, assistance. One of us took Charlie by the bit,
and trusted he would amuse himself dancing, while the other ran
ahead to the scow to see what could be done. The small boy and
barefooted old man did not look very encouraging, but we still had
faith there was a way to cross rivers that must be crossed. We told
our dilemma, and said, “What will you do with him?”
“Oh! he’ll come along; we never have any trouble.”
“No,” we said, “he won’t come along, and we shall be upset in the
river if we attempt driving him on this pier.”
We walked back towards the carriage, the old man saying, “I get all
sorts of horses across, and can this one if he don’t pull back. If he
does, of course I can’t do anything with him.”
This was small comfort, for we knew that that was just what he would
do. We asked about unharnessing him, but the old man objected.
We knew Charlie too well, however, and did not care to see our
phaeton and contents rolling over into the river. Our courage waning
a little at this point, we asked how far we should have to go to find a
bridge. “Oh, clear to Hartford! sixty miles!” When Charlie was
unharnessed, the old man took him by the bit, and said to one of us,
“Now you take the whip, and if he pulls back, strike him. Boy, you
take the carriage.” This was simply impossible without help. It was a
grand chance for our one spectator, but without doubt he believed in
woman’s right to push if not to vote, so we pushed, and a good push
it had to be, too. We did not envy those bare feet so near Charlie’s
uncertain steps, but the constant tingling of the whip so diverted him,
and warned him of a heavier stroke if he diverged from his straight
and narrow way, that he kept his head turned that side, and before
he knew it he was on the scow and had never seen the flapping sail.
His head was then tied with a rope. The phaeton followed with more
difficulty, but less anxiety. When that was secured, our voyage
began, and it seemed never-ending; for in spite of all the caressing
and comforting assurances, Charlie placed his fore legs close
together and trembled just like a leaf as the little sailboats flitted
before his eyes. Then came the “chug” into the sand as we landed. A
kindly old man left his horse to help us harness, and five minutes
after we were off, Charlie was foamy white, and looked as if he had
swum the Atlantic.
We did not find the hotel at Old Lyme attractive, and had plenty of
time to drive farther; but, after all the trouble we had taken to get to
the place, we did not leave it without taking a look at the quaint old
town, its rocky pastures and cosy nooks so lovely in illustrated
magazines.
“Yes,” we said, “this is pretty; but, after all, where is the spot to be
found that cannot be made interesting by the ready pen and
sketching pencil of one who has eyes to see all there is to see in this
lovely world?”
Nothing could be more delightful than the crooked ten miles from Old
Lyme to Niantic. If you look at the map, and see all the little bays that
make the coast so rugged, you can imagine how we twisted about to
follow what is called the shore road. We say “called,” for most of the
shore and river roads we have ever driven over from Connecticut to
Canada are out of sight of water. A few glorious exceptions come to
mind, like the four miles on the border of Willoughby Lake in
Vermont, the Broad Brook drive near Brattleboro and seven miles by
Newfound Lake in New Hampshire. It was up and down, and now
when “up” we could catch a glimpse of the Sound dotted over with
white sails, and when “down” we found such flower-fields as would
rival the boldest attempts at fancy gardening—the cardinal flower,
golden-rod, white everlasting and blue daisies in richest profusion.
We met the family wagons jogging along home from church, and the
young men and maidens were taking the “short cut” along the well-
worn footpath over the hills, with their books in hand, that lovely
Sunday afternoon; but where the church or homes could be we
wondered, for we saw neither. We knew nothing of Niantic, and were
surprised to find it quite a little seaside resort. It was early evening,
and it was very pleasant to have brilliantly lighted hotels in place of
the dark woody hollows we had been through the last half-hour. We
drove to the end of the street, passing all the hotels, and then
returned to the first one we saw, as the most desirable for us. It was
located close by the water, and our window overlooked the Sound.
Uniformed men were all about, and we soon learned that it was the
foreshadowing of muster. We slept well with the salt breezes blowing
upon us, and after breakfast we followed the rest of the people to the
garden which separated the house from the railroad station, and for
a half-hour sat on a fence, surrounded by tall sunflowers, to see the
infantry and cavalry as they emerged from the cars. “Quite
aesthetic,” one of the boys in blue remarked. We do not go to
muster, but as muster came to us we made the most of it, and
watched with interest the mounted men of authority as they gave
their orders to the men, who looked as if they would like to change
places with them and prance about, instead of doing the drudgery.
The morning hours were too precious for driving to be spent among
sunflowers and soldiers, and we got down from the fence and went
in search of the landlord. He gave us directions for getting to New
London when everything was ready, and we found that what we
thought was the end of the street was the beginning of our way, and
a queer way it was, too. No wonder we were asked if our horse was
afraid of the cars, for apparently the railroad was the only highway,
as the water came up quite close on either side. “Surely this must be
wrong,” we said; “there is no road here.” Although we had been told
to follow the railroad, we did not propose to drive into the ocean,
unless it was the thing to do. We turned off to the left but were sent
back by a woman who looked as if we knew little if we did not know
that was the only way to New London. Not satisfied, we stopped a
man. “Yes, that is the way,” he said. “But it looks as if we should
drive right into the ocean.” “I know it,” he replied, “and it will look
more so as you go on, and if the tide was in you would.” Luckily for
us the tide was not in, for even then the space was so small between
the water and the railroad that Charlie needed as much diversion
with the whip as in ferrying the Connecticut. Next came a little
bridge, and as we paid the toll, which was larger than the bridge, we
asked if it was for keeping the road we had just come over in repair.
“Yes, it is washed twice a day.” We asked if the ocean got the fees,
and drove on.
It was only six miles to New London, and it was too early to stop
there for dinner, and it would be too late to wait until we got to
Norwich; so, after driving about the principal streets for a half-hour,
we filled our lunch basket and got some oats, trusting to find a place
to “camp.” Just at the right time to halt we came to a village church
on a little hill, all by itself, and we took possession of the “grounds,”
put Charlie into one of the sheds, taking refuge ourselves in the
shadow of a stone wall. We hung our shawls over the wall, for the
wind blew cool through the chinks, spread the blanket on the ground,
and gave ourselves up to comfort and books. The lofty ceiling of our
temporary parlor was tinted blue, and the spacious walls were
adorned with lovely pictures, for our little hill was higher than we
realized. We had taken the river road, and we knew that by rail from
New London to Norwich we followed the river very closely; but this
was, like most “river” roads, over the hills.
We reluctantly left our luxurious quarters and journeyed on to
Norwich. We had found on our map a town beyond Norwich which
we thought would serve us for the night; but when we inquired about
hotels there, people looked as if they had never heard of the place,
and in fact there was none by that name. We were advised to go to
Jewett City. After a little experience we learned that in many cases
towns on the map are but names, and if we wanted to find the places
where all business interests centred, we must look for a “city” or
“ville” in small italics touching the railroad. Niantic was an “italic”
resort. This lesson learned, we had no difficulty. The hotel at Jewett
City looked as if it would blow over, and if it had we think our room
would have landed on the railroad; but the breezes were gentle, and
we had a safe and restful night after our thirty-miles’ drive.
We were directed next morning via one “ville” to another “ville,” and
the delightful recollections of our “sky” parlor tempted us to try
camping again, and we got another bag of oats. We had not driven
far before we came to the largest lily pond we ever saw, and a
railroad ran right through it. It looked as if we could step down the
gravel bank and get all the lilies we wanted. We tied Charlie by the
roadside, and ran to the railroad bank to find they were just
provokingly beyond our reach. A company of men were working on
the road, and one said, “I would send one of my men to get you
some; but a train is due in ten minutes, and these rails must be laid.”
His kindly words softened our disappointment, and we went back to
the carriage. It seemed as if there was no end to the pond, and
surely there was an endless supply of lilies, but we knew that the
stray ones so close to the shore were only waiting to entice
somebody over shoes, and perhaps more, in water, and we passed
them by. We camped on a stone wall under a tree, a spot so
perfectly adapted to our convenience that it developed the heretofore
latent talent of our “special artist,” and a dainty little picture is ever
reminding us of our pleasant stay there. We spent the night at
Putnam, and as a matter of course, we went for oats just before
leaving, as if we had always traveled that way, instead of its being an
entirely new feature. A pine grove invited us this time, with a house
near by where we bought milk, and we stopped for a half-hour again
in the afternoon, by a bewitching little brook, and made ourselves
comfortable with our books among the rocks and ferns, for it was a
very hot day. Our drive that day took us through Webster and Oxford
and brought us to Millbury for the night. Our remembrance of that
night is not so pleasant as we could wish, and we are going again
some time to get a better impression.
The next day was one of the hottest of the season, and we availed
ourselves of the early morning to drive to North Grafton, where we
had a chatty visit with a friend. We dreaded to begin our last twenty-
five miles, for it would be so hard for Charlie in the heat. We delayed
as long as we dared, then braved it. We drove very leisurely to
Worcester, and made one or two calls, then took the old road over
the hill as we left the city towards home. We seemed to be above the
heat and dust, and had one of the most charming drives of our whole
journey. We are so familiar with the road that we did not mind
prolonging our drive into the evening, with a full moon to illumine our
way. The seven miles from Sterling to Leominster were so pleasant
we made them last as long as possible. The moon was unclouded
and it seemed almost as light as day; the air was soft and we did not
need the lightest wrap. We enjoyed just that perfect comfort one
dreads to have disturbed. But all things have an end, it is said, and
our pleasant journey ended about nine o’clock that evening, but it
was close on to the “wee sma’ hours” before the “doings” in our
absence were all talked over with the friends who welcomed us
home.
This story, written out in a week of Fridays, on the way to Symphony
Rehearsals, will assure you that a phaeton trip loses none of its
charms for us by many repetitions.
 CHAPTER VI.
DIXVILLE NOTCH AND OLD ORCHARD.
A Colorado friend recently sent us a paper with an interesting
account of “Two Women in a Buggy—How two Denver ladies drove
five hundred miles through the Rockies.” Now, “Two Ladies in a
Phaeton,” and “How they drove six hundred miles through, beyond
and around the White Mountains,” would be laid aside as hardly
worth reading, compared with the adventures of two women driving
through the “Rockies;” but, for actual experience, we think almost
everybody would prefer ours. We all like ease, comfort and smooth
ways, and yet disasters and discomfort have a wonderful charm
somehow in print. Our two weeks’ drive in Connecticut last year
seemed small to us, but we have been asked many times if it was
not the best journey we ever had, and as many times we have
discovered that the opinion was based on the hard time we had
crossing the Connecticut by ferry, the one unpleasant incident of the
whole trip. Now if we could tell you of hair-breadth escapes passing
“sixers and eighters” on the edge of precipices, and about sleeping
in a garret reached by a ladder, shared by a boy in a cot at that; or
better yet, how one day, when we were driving along on level ground
chatting pleasantly, we suddenly found ourselves in a “prayerful
attitude” and the horse disappearing with the forward wheels, the
humiliating result being that the buggy had to be taken to pieces, and
packed into a Norwegian’s wagon and we and it transported to the
next town for repairs—if we could tell you such things like the Denver
ladies, we should be sure you would not doubt our last was our best
journey. How we are to convince you of that fact, for fact it is, when
we did not even cross a ferry, is a puzzle.
Before we really begin our story we will tell you one or two notable
differences between the Denver tourists and ourselves. They took
their “best” bonnets and gowns, and such “bibbity bobbities” as “no
woman, even were she going to an uninhabited desert, would think
she could do without;” bedding and household utensils, too, so of
course had baggage strapped on the back of the buggy, and they
had a pail underneath, filled, “woman fashion, with everything, which
suffered in the overturns,” but, will you believe it, they had no
revolver! Were they to meet us, they would never suspect we were
fellow travelers, unless the slight “hump” under the blanket or duster
should give them an inkling that we had more “things” than were
essential for a morning’s drive. Helpless and innocent as we look we
could warrant “sure cure” to a horse whatever ill might befall him,
and we could “show fire” if necessary. The last need not have been
mentioned, however, for like the Denver tourists, we can testify that
we receive everywhere the “truest and kindest courtesy.”
You may remember that one of the peculiar features of our journeys
is that we never know where we are going, but last summer we
thought we would be like other people, and make plans. As a result
we assured our friends we were going straight to Mt. Washington via
the Crawford Notch, but, as Mr. Hale has a way of saying in his
stories, “we did not go there at all.” Why we did not fulfil so honest an
intention we will reveal to you later.
We started in good faith, Tuesday, July 7, driving along the familiar
way through Lunenburg and Townsend Harbor, crossing the invisible
State line as we entered Brookline, and spending the night, as we
have often done, at the little hotel in Milford, N. H., journeying next
day to Hooksett, via Amherst, Bedford and Manchester. Nothing
eventful occurred except the inauguration of our sketchbook, a thing
of peculiar interest to us, as neither of us knew anything of
sketching. The book itself is worthy of mention, as it is the only copy
we have ever seen. It has attractive form and binding, and is called
“Summer Gleanings.” There is a page for each day of the summer
months, with a charming, and so often apt, quotation under each
date. The pages are divided into three sections, one for “Jottings by
the Way,” one for a “Pencil Sketch,—not for exact imitation, but what
it suggests,” and a third for “Pressed Flowers.” As it was a gift, and
of no use but for the purpose for which it was intended, we decided it
must be taken along, although one said it would be “awfully in the
way.”
We enjoyed camping at noon by the roadside so much last summer,
when the hotels were scarce, that we planned to make that the rule
of this journey, and not the exception. We thought the hour after
luncheon, while Charlie was resting, would be just the time to try to
sketch. Our first “camp” was under a large tree, just before we
crossed into New Hampshire. We looked about for something to
sketch, and a few attempts convinced us that, being ignorant of even
the first rules of perspective, our subjects must be selected with
reference to our ability, regardless of our taste. We went to work on a
pair of bars—or a gate, rather—in the stone wall opposite. We were
quite elated with our success, and next undertook a shed. After this
feat, we gathered a few little white clovers, which we pressed in our
writing tablet, made a few comments in the “jotting” column, and the
“Summer Gleanings” began to mean something.
We cannot tell you all we enjoyed and experienced with that little
book. It was like opening the room which had “a hundred doors,
each opening into a room with another hundred,” especially at night,
when our brains, fascinated and yet weary with the great effort spent
on small accomplishment, and the finger nerves sensitive with
working over unruly stems and petals, we only increased a
thousandfold the pastime of the day by pressing whole fields of
flowers, and attempting such sketching as was never thought of
except in dreamland. A word or two about the quotations, then you
may imagine the rest. What could be more apt for the first day of our
journey than Shelley’s
“Away, away from men and towns
To the wild wood and the downs,”
or, as we came in sight of the “White Hills,” Whittier’s
“Once more, O mountains, unveil
Your brows and lay your cloudy mantles by.”
and
 “O more than others blest is he
Who walks the earth with eyes to see,
Who finds the hieroglyphics clear
Which God has written everywhere,”

as we journey along the Connecticut. Especially apt were the lines

by Charles Cotton, when we had driven several miles out of our way
to spend Sunday in Rumney, because we remembered the place so
pleasantly:
“Oh, how happy here’s our leisure!
Oh, how innocent our pleasure!
O ye valleys! O ye mountains!
O ye groves and crystal fountains!
How I love at liberty
By turns to come and visit ye!”
Once more, as we drove along the Saco—
“All, all, is beautiful.
What if earth be but the shadow of heaven.”
If you think we are writing up a book instead of a journey, let us tell
you that the book cannot be left out if the journey is to be truly
chronicled, for it was never out of mind, being constantly in sight, nor
was it any trouble. In this respect, too, we fared better than the
Denver ladies, for they were real artists, and never had any comfort
after the first day, for their “oils” would not dry, even when they
pinned them up around the buggy.
We should have been miserable if we had stayed in Hooksett all the
time we have been telling you about the sketch book, but we were
off early in the morning for Concord, and as we drove into the city,
Charlie knew better than we which turn to take to find the welcome
which always awaits us. The clouds were very black when we left
our friends at four o’clock, feeling we must go a few miles farther that
day; and when we had driven a mile or two a sudden turn in the road
revealed to us “cyclonic” symptoms. We saw an open shed, and