INTRODUCTION. THE Author has ventured to appear before his readers in a new form in the present work, and can only hope that the fare he has provided will prove acceptable. Having won as much praise, as a rural sketcher, as might satisfy any one possessing even more than a moderate share of ambition, he trusts that he shall not be found fault with, for having placed a few figures in the fore-ground of his landscape. In writing this work, the author has fulfilled one of his boyish wishes: for it was long a |