THE PREFACE. MOST OF THE VARIOUS sketches contained in the following pages have appeared, from time to time, during the past ten or twelve years, in the columns of a local newspaper. On the wish of more than one perhaps too kind and too indulgent friend, the author has ventured to throw them together in their present form. Of their literary shortcomings he is sufficiently aware. But the "Rambles" may serve, perhaps, in the absence of better things, as a medium for recording, however imperfectly, some topographical features undergoing rapid change-some historical facts in association with the places visited-some "Recollection" of events which may amuse if not instruct some account of "manners and customs" fast passing away for ever. The "Roamings" into a wider field across the Channel enabled him to diversify his subjects, while they filled him with pleasant memories of one of the loveliest spots in Her Majesty's dominions-a spot rapidly becoming more |