“Say the words ‘New England,’ and one person will think of a white church spire and a village green; another will see a covered  bridge or the Vermont hills in autumn; and still another will conjure up a farm along the Connecticut River. For me, the words evoke the sounds and smells of the sea, and the storms and fogs that make life along the New England coast a good deal like living on an actual ship, subject to the whims of the weather.’’

Nathaniel Benchley, in “The Sea,’’ in New England: The Four Seasons.