Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by

HURD AND HOUGHTON,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of

New York

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY

H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

IT has always fallen to the lot of Royal

Families to have their historians and chroniclers, but to Farmers and plain Country People never. We have graceful descriptions of the Alhambra, as well as the history of Hampton Court, Pitti Palace, the Kremlin, and the famous Halls of the Montezumas; but few or no pens are put to service on behalf of the Farm-house, the Homestead, and the Rustic Cottage.

Much has been written and read, too, of the Boulevards and Rotten Row, of the Strand and the Corso; but little enough of quiet country roads, sequestered green lanes, carttracks through the woods, and winding footpaths across the pasture-lands.