name on the binding, the present story is not one of the number;
and perhaps the perfect liberty enjoyed by the reader under such
circumstances--to like or dislike independent of critics, to cut
every leaf, or skip a dozen chapters at a time without fear of
reproach--will incline him to an amiable mood. It is to be hoped
so; it will be unfortunate if, among many agreeable summer
excursions both on terra firma and in the regions of fancy, the
hour passed at Longbridge should prove a tedious one: in such a
case the fault will belong entirely to the writer of the
narrative, for there are certainly some very pleasant and very
worthy people among the good folk of Longbridge.

---------, August, 1845.



ELINOR WYLLYS.

CHAPTER I,

"Enter the house, pr'ythee."--
ROGERS.

{Samuel Rogers (English poet, 1763-1855), "Italy: Genevra" line
19. Samuel Rogers befriended James Fenimore Cooper and his family
during their visits to England in 1826-33}

HAD there been a predecessor of Mr. Downing in the country, some
five-and-twenty year since, to criticise Wyllys-Roof, the home of
our friend Elinor, his good taste would no doubt have suggested