Peterborough allows for fine browsing, with a clutch of art galleries, bookstores, antiques shops, and boutiques well above the level of the usual mass-market trinkets. Also worth visiting here is the Sharon Arts Center (tel. 603/924-7256 or 603/924-2787), with a great selection of eclectic local crafts (pottery, glasswork, paintings, and ironwork). In addition to the spacious, attractive gallery in Depot Square, there is also now one at 30 Grove St.
The archipelago of three dozen or so villages surrounding Peterborough and the city of Keene (20 miles to the west on Rte. 101) has a strongly traditional New England demeanor; you half expect to hear town criers wandering through, offering the day's news. Exploring these villages by car (or bike) can easily take up a pleasant day or two.
Both redoubtable Yankee magazine and the Old Farmer's Almanac, which have perhaps shaped the public's image of New England more than any other publications, are published in the unassuming town of Dublin to the west of Peterborough.
Fitzwilliam, about 16 miles southwest of Peterborough at the intersection of Route 12 and Route 119, is presided over by the columned Fitzwilliam Inn and home to several antiques stores. The village features a triangular green with a Civil War obelisk (dedicated to "soldiers who died for their country in the rebellion of 1861"); a cast-iron Victorian fountain; some wonderful Greek Revival homes facing the green; and an impressively columned 1817 church that's been the town hall since 1858.
Hancock is picture-postcard-perfect New England village with a quiet street of early homes. Settled in 1764, it was renamed in 1779 after the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. A former cotton-farming center, Hancock is also home to an eponymous inn, one of the oldest operating inns in the region.
Francestown, incorporated in 1752, is rife with remarkable Federal homes, and it also has a general store, an inviting library, and an 1801 meetinghouse. Until 1891, when the local quarry closed, Francestown was famed for producing some of the finest soapstone in the world.
Jaffrey Center (west of Jaffrey, a separate town) is an aristocratic roadside village all but hidden in the maples and filled with notable homes and small, tidy barns. Nearby Troy is the antidote for the primness of many area villages; tucked in a river valley, it's a place where you get a sense of the heady days of the Industrial Revolution, since local industry still hums along in a river mill. Pickup trucks abound here.
Between Rindge and Jaffrey, on Cathedral Road (look for signs along Rte. 124) is the unique Cathedral of the Pines (tel. 603/899-3300; www.cathedralpines.com). This outdoor "cathedral" is set on an open knoll amid a stately grove of swaying pines, with views toward Mount Monadnock. It's a quietly spectacular spot, with wooden benches, fieldstone altars, and pulpits. The cathedral was built by the parents of Lt. Sanderson Sloane, a bomber crewman who died in World War II. Guided tours are available, and there are midday organ performances from Tuesday through Thursday in summer, weather permitting. The site is open daily from May through October, 9am to 5pm; donations are encouraged. A gift shop sells souvenirs, but pets are not allowed.
