INTRODUCTION 



The absence of all outside accounts of 

 Rowland's works make a more complete 

 sketch of his life impossible, and our imagi- 

 nation alone can fill in the blanks. We 

 must, then, fancy the old squire in his scarlet 

 cape, riding-rod in hand, walking down the 

 Golden Valley from the White House to 

 New Court (some three miles) to overlook the 

 raising of the sluices and the marshalling of 

 his " Mechanicalls " to dinner, or, as one can 

 well fancy, reading the Riot Act to the unruly, 

 and intermeddling with kindly officiousness 

 in the private matters of his people. Or in 

 later days, too old now for the walk down and 

 up the valley, dictating his " Long experienced 

 Water-workes " to his admiring amanuensis, 

 interrupted now and then by his masterful 

 helpmate or his dearly loved children ; and 

 so slips the time away, till first the book 

 and then the life draws to an end, and 

 Rowland Vaughan sleeps with his fathers, 

 and of him all that remains to us is this 

 little pamphlet. 



XXXll 



