"For having my method by the end, Till at length it came to be, For size, the bigness which you see!" If I were to give the history of my troubles or profits in the publishing of my three books, it might startle some and discourage others. The Annals went off heavily, and allowed a profit equal to the pay of a copyist, if I had used such a help; and the two books of Historical Tales produced nothing for authorship. It had been a pity, indeed, if their readers had not been obliged or benefited, since their author was not. I have deemed it my duty, in many cases, to support my facts with the names of the credible relators. Not that they alone mentioned them to me, for it was my practice to confirm surprising facts by concurrent testimony, so far as the things told were susceptible of being known to others. Several authorities too, deemed awkward or indelicate to introduce into the printed text, may be found in their connexion, in the original MS. Annals, in the City Library, and in the Historical Society. There is another remark concerning names which might be appropriately mentioned here, as showing that I was aware that names and personalities are sometimes too sensitive to bear the touch. Yet I found it needful to retain them in general, and especially in my MS., as my necessary proofs and vouchers, in case of dispute or reference. Some that I designed only in initials, the inadvertency of the printer sometimes retained. In other cases, the names were sanctioned by the informants or persons themselves—and finally, as an imposing reason, some names occasionally became a necessary appendage to the story. Searching for some of these facts was like seeking for the "living among the dead." Only a few of the very aged, as by accident, had preserved their memory. And very often, persons equally old, or even older, dwelling on the spot of interest or inquiry, knew nothing, or nearly nothing, about it. The comparative intelligence of different men of equal ages was often very dissimilar. To exemplify this, I have only to say, that not one aged man in fifty, now in Philadelphia, could tell me where was "Guest's Blue Anchor tavern, in Budd's long row"-nor the "Barbadoes lot,"-nor the "Swamp," nor the adjoining "Society hill,"-nor "Bathsheba's bath and bower," the "Schuylkill baptisterion," the "old Hospital," Hudson's orchard,"-" Penny-pot landing,"-" Penn's cottage," the "Swedes' house,"-and many other things spoken of in these pages. I came at them by reading ancient papers, and then, by recalling forgotten things to their memories, their minds were enabled to seize on long forgotten facts. Sometimes, when I have asked ancient persons to tell me what they knew of antiquity, such would seem to have nothing to relate: all seemed a blank to them. But when I have transported myself back to the cotemporaneous occur rences of their youth, and warmed their imaginations with recitals, with which they were once familiar, I have been rewarded, by receiving many of the lively images of things which my conversation had generated. Without vanity, I may say that I have often made my company agreeable to the aged, and have seen them quickened to many emotions younger than their common feelings or their years. On other occasions I have visited such as were past sensibility,-the body enfeebled and the memory decayed; I laboured in vain to revive the expiring spark of life. They were looking for their " appointed change," and this not unwisely engrossed all their thoughts. Finally, earlier questions might have been more successful, and any thing later than my attempt would have been absolutely fatal! What I rescued was "trembling on the lips of narrative old age," or "tumbling piece-meal into the tomb." My regret is, that some of those of whom, or from whom, I write, will scarcely stay to have the chance of reading some of these pages. I might perhaps pertinently hint at my being fully aware of occasional repetition of facts in substance, though not in language,-this necessarily occurred occasionally from the design of making given chapters more complete on given subjects. In connexion with the foregoing, it may not be inappropriate to add, that many of the little histories of places and things set down in this book have been often since used in substance, by publishers and orators, as a part or parcel of their own explorations and insight into the past,-not even hinting at the source whence derived. It gives me no offence, since I wished them to be known,-but it is but justice to myself to here suggest, in self-protection, that I came not at them, from their discoveries and researches, but as the results of my own industry. With some I shall doubtless need an apology for the little estimation in which they may regard some of my collections; I am con tent to say, I have only written for kindred minds. Such affections as mine have had precedents enough in feeling minds; for instance, "the oak," immortalized by Cowper's muse, became so precious that the owner, the Marquis of Northampton, to keep it from its frequent pious thefts, was obliged to enclose it by a strong fence, and to affix to it a notice of prohibition. The chair in which the poet Thomson composed, is exhibited at his commemorative festivals. How many pious thefts have been made upon Shakspeare's mulberry tree; and cups made from that, and from the "royal oak,” have sold at great prices. Learned doctors still deem it an honour to shroud themselves in Rabelais' old cloak at Montpelier. The taking of the sword of Frederick the Great, by Buonaparte, from Berlin to Paris, while it shows his estimate of relics, is treated by Scott and the world as a heinous offence to all other men. Of all such things, says Edgeworth, and truly too, "we contemplate such with deep curiosity, because they are full of local impressions, and by the aid of these we create the ideal presence." They connect the hear and the imagination with the past. We may take as another evidence of the appreciation of relics, the fact of the late proceedings of congress, upon receiving from the heirs of Washington, the gift of his sword and the cane of Doctor Franklin-called "two most interesting and valuable relics connected with the past history of our country," and saying of them, that "associations are linked in adamant with their names, and with those sacred symbols of our golden age." The sword was a plain hanger, with a green hilt and silver guard, inade at Fishkill, in 1757,-the same which he had worn first as colonel in the Virginia service in Forbes' campaign, and afterwards through the whole period of the Revolutionary war. Among the encouragements to such reminiscences, I may mention such evidence as results from public celebrations of fetes intended to revive and cherish such recollections. They prove to me that my anticipations from such records as the present have not been vain. Already have the semi-historical sketches of Irving's muse, in this way, given rise to a drama, in which is portrayed the costumes and manners of the primitive Knickerbockers. The prologue to his "Rip Van Winkle" has some sentiments to my taste and to my future expectations of what may be hereafter set forth in poetry, painting, or romance, to arrest the attention of modern Philadelphians, to what were the primitive manners of their forefathers. The poet thus speaks, to wit: "In scenes of yore endear'd by classic tales The comic muse with smiles of rapture hails; Since the publication of my former edition, my friend, William Dunlap, Esq., of New York, while stirring up his recollections of the past, at my suggestion and for my use, found that he could compile enough to make a work for himself in my way, viz., his History of New York for schools and youth; and afterwards, as his mind expanded with his theme, he felt impelled to bring out his large work, the General History of New York State. Thus every way, the fund of historical truth is increased. J. R. Broadhead, Esq., also is procuring state papers, &c., in Holland, for a future publication. The Annals of Portsmouth, Lewis' History of Lynn, Gibbs' Collections of Salem, and Davis' Notices of Plymouth, are such works as we wish to see multiplied in our country. So also is Johnson's Early Notices of Salem, N. J. Such works furnish occasions for imaginative works and tales, such as we have already seen deduced from my Annals, in the story of "Meredith, or the Meschianza," and in "a Tale of Blackbeard, the Pirate." Our country has been described abroad, and perhaps conceived of at home, says Flint, as sterile of moral interest. "We have, it is said, no monuments, no ruins, none of the colossal remains of temples, and baronial castles, and monkish towers, nothing to connect the heart and the imagination with the past, none of the dim recollections of the gone-by, to associate the past with the future." But although we have not the solemn and sombre remains of the past, as the remains of the handy work of man, we have every thing in the contemplation of the future. For when our thoughts have traversed rivers a thousand leagues in length, when we have seen the ascending steamboat breasting the mantling surge, or seen her along our opening canals, gleaming through the verdure of the trees, we have imagined the happy multitudes that from those shores shall contemplate their scenery in ages to come, in times when we shall have "strutted through life's poor play," and "been no more!" As our desires conspire with our feelings in wishing to promote and excite a love of the study of the past, we purpose herein to add a few of such articles as have most ably sustained the arguments which we wish to enforce-viz.: Walter Scott had early habits of antiquarian study. He dwelt with fondness on the rude figures of the olden time. Blackwood's Magazine says that anecdotes of men and things will have a charm as long as man has curiosity. "Hudibras (says Dr. Johnson) is one of those compositions of which a nation may justly boast, [mark the reason,] as the images which it exhibits are domestic, the sentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the strain of diction original and peculiar." Hutton, speaking of Birmingham, says, "while the historian only collects matter of the day, the antiquarian brings his treasures from remote time-calls things back into existence which were past—collects the dust of perished matter, remoulds the figure and stamps the past with a kind of immortality,-by his recreative power." Blackwood's Magazine says, "things that may appear trifling now, when present and familiar, may become very different, when they are read after the accession of a totally different set of manners. They are the materials from which alone a graphic and interesting history of the period can be formed. With what delight do we read the glowing pictures in Ivanhoe, and the Crusaders, in Quentin. Durward, and Kenilworth, of the manners, customs and habits of those periods!" "Instructed by the antiquarian times, The author of Scott's Memoirs (George Allen) presents many facts to prove how very much the readers and admirers of Scott are indebted, for their interest in his writings, to his affection for talking with, and gathering up, the recollections of "the ancient crones and gaffers. When a young man, Scott was wont to make frequent journeys into the country, among strangers, going from house to house, with his boy George, and particularly seeking out the residences of the old people, with whom he delighted to enter into conversation, and exciting them to dilate upon the reminiscences of their youth. Finally, says his biographer, "all who know his works must feel how much of their amusement they owe to his gypsy strolls." All this he did too from his innate love of antiquity; and not merely from the design of drawing pictures of common life for books, —for it was earlier than the time of his career of authorship. These facts are worth consideration. Hannah More, in writing to Mrs. Gwatkins, on the occasion of her first visit to London, says "I have rambled through the immediate shades of Twickenham; I have trodden the haunts of the swan of the Thames."-" I could not be honest for the life of me; from the grotto I stole two bits of stones; from the garden a sprig of laurel and from one of the bed chambers a pen; because the house had been Pope's." On another occasion, speaking of her visit to Kent, where had once dwelt Sir Philip Sidney, and Sacharissa, she says, "I pleased myself with the thought, that the immense oaks and enormous beeches, which had once shaded them, now shade me." [This last is the very thought I have expressed in passing the woods to Harrisburg, and thinking they were the same trees which had shaded the aborigines, now so wasted and expelled.] The Edinburgh Review, in discussing the leading objects of history, says, "the perfect historian is he in whose work the character and spirit of an age is exhibited in miniature; by judicious selections, rejections and arrangement, he gives to truth those attractions, which have been usurped by fiction. He considers no anecdote, no peculiarity of manner, no familiarity of saying, as too insignificant for his notice, which is not too insignificant to illustrate the operations of laws, religion, and of education, and to mark the progress of the human mind. Men must be made intimately known to us, by appropriate images presented in every line. Sir Walter Scott has succeeded to illustrate history, by using up those fragments of truth which historians have scornfully thrown behind them, in a manner which may well excite their envy. A truly great historian would reclaim those materials which the novelist has appropriated; society should be shown from the highest to the lowest. Instruction derived from history thus written would be of a vivid and practical character. It would be received by the imagination as well as by the reason. An intimate knowledge of the DOMESTIC history of nations is therefore absolutely necessary." [I have aimed at this last.] Hone's "Every Day Book," which I have only lately seen, is an expensive and embellished work, published in 1827, in London, got |