Sherborn is a very small town with a very old pedigree. It was settled in the 1650s, incorporated in 1674, and it was only a few years old when it was caught up in King Philip's War, the vicious conflict between New England colonists and the Native peoples that devastated frontier towns in 1675 and 1676. The scars of that time are gone from the landscape, but the town still has the compact, thoughtful air of a place that has been looking after itself for a long time, with a green, a library and a few white houses around the meeting place.
Next door lies Natick, and the two together tell a bigger story. In 1651 the minister John Eliot founded a community at Natick for Native Americans who had converted to Christianity, one of the so-called praying towns, and there he translated the Bible into the Massachusett language. It was printed in Cambridge in 1663, and is regarded as the first complete Bible printed in North America. The story is not a simple one, since the praying towns were disrupted and the people were later interned during the war, but it is a vivid reminder that this quiet country has a layered past.
The riding here is relaxed and rural. The roads wind through woods and across meadows, past stone walls, old orchards and farm stands, and the Charles River slides under a few of the bridges. There is little traffic during the week, and the speed limits are low, so the pace is leisurely. The hazards are cyclists, horse riders and dog walkers, and sand and leaves on the corners. Everything is shaded in summer, which keeps the road cool and sometimes damp.
Sherborn has few services and no real commercial strip. Natick and Framingham, both about five or six kilometres away, are the places to fill up and eat, and they have everything from diners to chain restaurants. Natick Center has a pleasant old square, and the Framingham side has a few good places for breakfast. A quiet weekend morning in October, with mist on the river and leaves on the road, is a good time for this ride.