PREFACE.

THE Author of the following pages is a New Englander. He was born on the banks of one of her beautiful rivers, and was nurtured among her mountains. He boasts his deseent direct from one of those stern old Puritans who chartered the Mayflower, and much of his childhood was spent on the very homestead, where the good man pitched his tent, and cleared his land. Like many of her sons indeed, he has, in riper years, wandered over sundry parts of the world, and has seen and known much of its excellence and beauty; but he has always returned to the "rude and rocky shore" of New England, with new love for her homes and her institutions,―new respect for her hardy sons. He is willing to confess that all his predilections are for New England; that although “ Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, are better than all" her streams, he loves them not as well; that he would live upon her barren soil, and die there among his kindred.

His opportunities of knowing her inhabitants have not been small, for it has been his lot to have resided in each one of her States, and to have seen every condition,-ranks there are none,-of her population, and he rejoices in the belief, that, among the thousand caricatures of her hardy yeomanry which have filled the world, he has been able to paint one faithful

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picture, of those he loves as brethren. His description of manners is of what he has seen, and his delineations of character are of those, who have been his neighbors and acquaintanThere are many, whose memories will bear testimony to the faithfulness with which he has endeavored to transfer to paper an outline of that beautiful scenery, which is spread all over her hill-sides and river banks, and rich cultivated meadows; and not a few will follow him, through her homesteads, and into her cottages, with the awakened feelings of a glad and hardy boyhood.

Five of the Sketches" have already appeared in the Knickerbocker, and the author would do injustice to his own feelings, did he not gratefully acknowledge the high, and certainly undeserved, encomiums they have gained from the Editors of Public Journals, and the favorable reception they have met from the community. He hopes only in conclusion, that he may not have written anything which will alarm the grave, or weary the gay; and having said thus much, he makes his most respectful adieu.

Dec. 13th, 1841.