Book Description

Excerpt from Little Pilgrimages; Among Old New England Inns: Bring an Account of Little Journeys to Various Quaint Inns and Hostelries of Colonial New England A book on Old New England Inns needs no elaborate justification. Few of us are so dull of soul that our pulses are not quickened and our imaginations stirred as we pass, at a country four-corners, a deserted house and rambling barn of unmistakable tavern de scent. There it stands, in its sombre and often disreputable coat of weather-stained shingles, mournful reminder of a fragrant time that is now no more, mute witness to the truth of the familiar plaint that bygone days were what these are not. Always one is eager to know the story of such a house and to te people its empty rooms, in fancy at least, with those who once made merry there. Be cause I have so often shared that wish I am happy to offer here some slight additions to available truth and tradition concerning these relics of the past, acknowledging, as I do so, deep indebtedness to Mrs. Alice Morse Earle's Stage Coach and Tavern Days and to Mr. Edward Field's suggestive b60kon The Colonial Tavern. Town histories too numerous to name, Miss Elizabeth Ward's Old Times in Shrewsbury, Rev. T. Frank Waters's Ipswich volume, Currier's Ould N ewbury, the valuable files of the New England Magazine and the carefully compiled works of the late Samuel Adams Drake have also been frequently consulted. But especially do I feel very deep and real gratitude to the many friends all over New England who have contributed, by their interest and kindliness, to the material for this book; and, in particular, I wish to thank the Rhode Island Historical Society, through whose courtesy half a dozen of the plates published in Field's Rhode Island. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.