VJ FOREWORD 



Adams, the "old man eloquent," tarrying a 

 night or a meal on his way to New York or 

 Washington. Daniel Webster was a frequent 

 and welcome visitor ; Jenny Lind spent a couple 

 of hours here, and to a select gathering sang 

 her "Home, Sweet Home" as only she could 

 sing it; here Ole Bull with his weird violin 

 woke the softest echoes, and they linger yet; 

 Louis Kossuth here met friends and received 

 aid for his suffering Hungary; here came our 

 own poets, Longfellow, and Whittier, and 

 Bryant, and Holmes, and Poe, and oft wrote a 

 verse; James Fennimore Cooper, the novelist; 

 Washington Allston and Thomas Cole, artists ; 

 Henry Ward Beecher, America's greatest 

 preacher, spent a Sabbath here one August and 

 preached with great power ; and so many other 

 great men and women came and left their im- 

 press. Those were rare occasions for the 

 townsfolk, full of social delight and memorable 

 as events. We need not detail more, but the 

 records are in several volumes and full oi 

 quaint marks and quotations and notes, and 

 may be consulted at any time. 



