The Hudson Highlands are both a place of retreat and the setting for Augustus Landor’s return to professional life. Around Buttermilk Falls, the hills offer him solitude; on a walk toward West Point, that quiet is interrupted by a sound from the north, drawing him toward the United States Military Academy at West Point and the West Point affair.

Setting and Seclusion

Landor’s walk takes place in the hills surrounding Buttermilk Falls, a small town whose scale shapes its close-knit character. From this settled landscape he can climb into the Highlands, leaving the town behind for a solitary route through the hills. The setting offers distance from his work, though not a lasting escape from it: he reflects that a career follows a person even into the Highlands, behind books, ciphers, or walking sticks.

The Walk Toward West Point

On October 26, 1830, Landor sets out on his usual walk later than usual, heading toward Shadrach’s Heel, a granite promontory. As he climbs, a French horn sounds from miles to the north. The interruption makes the landscape a point of transition: Landor is alone in the hills, but the sound reaches him from the direction of the matter that will occupy him professionally.

The Highlands and the Academy

The Hudson River has a clarifying effect on Landor during the final climb to the West Point bluff. From there, the United States Military Academy at West Point appears through its surrounding woods. His view takes in Cozzens' Hotel, the ruins of Fort Putnam above it, the higher tree-covered hills, and the sky. The ascent connects the secluded hills around Buttermilk Falls with the Academy’s commanding landscape, and Landor feels prepared to face what awaits him.

Narrative Significance

The Highlands frame Landor’s attempted separation from his career and the limits of that retreat. At the beginning of his professional involvement in the West Point affair, the hills first provide solitude, then become the route by which he approaches the Academy. Their narrative function rests on this contrast: a landscape spacious enough for withdrawal, yet close enough to the source of the coming investigation for its call to reach him.