PREFACE. 



THE NOTES AND SKETCHES of which the present small 

 volume consists have not been written upon any systematic 

 plan. The nucleus of the whole was a paper read several 

 years ago before an audience of decent country folks, who, 

 it was thought, might listen with some interest to matters 

 connected with the social and industrial life of those who 

 had preceded them, and lived under conditions as to occu- 

 pation and the daily round of duty, corresponding as nearly 

 as might be with their own. The object in view then met 

 with at least the'amount of success that had been expected ; 

 and the paper with variations or rather, perhaps, part of it 

 with additions was, at intervals, repeated to other similar 

 audiences. And thus the essay grew in bulk. The style is 

 admittedly not altogether that which would have been 

 adopted had publication been in view at the outset, the 

 paper having been shaped mainly to suit the original pur- 

 pose for which the materials were gathered. The sources 

 of information were various, and are generally indicated 

 in the text. Of the books chiefly consulted a list has been 

 given in the Appendix (1) in preference to an excessive 

 multiplication of foot notes. And it occasionally happens 



