PUBLIC LIBRARY 168377 ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1838, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. PRESS OF GEO. H. BROWN, PREFACE. IN offering the present volume to the public the writer has been much influenced by the favorable judgment of individuals, for whom he has the highest respect, upon those portions which appeared in the Christian Register in 1836-7. He has been told they were worthy of being issued in a collected form. May it prove so. They have been revised with considerable care, and many alterations and additions made. The original form of 'Letters' in the Sketch of the Vineyard it was thought best to preserve. A good deal of the present volume, beside the Memoirs at the close, has not before seen the light, but he trusts that what has been annexed will not be unacceptable to his readers. He has aimed at candor and truth in the narration of facts and the description of scenes. The writer does not profess to be a great traveller ever at home, and what he has written has been thrown off hastily in the intervals of professional labour. His object has been to add something to the enjoyment, if not the improvement of his readers, and, to accomplish this end, he has been willing to expose himself to the charge of an itch for authorship. To those who have been over the same routes, it may be pleasing to have their recollections revived. To those who have not, the following pages may serve, at least, as hints and directions. SAMUEL ADAMS DEVENS. CONTENTS. Attached to Massachusetts. Routes to the Vineyard. Domes- tic Animals. Enterprize of the Inhabitants. Saturday Bap- tists. Houses, etc. of the Inhabitants. Character of the in- Nervous Peculiarities-Religious Excitement. An Incident. Rev. Joseph Thaxter. Chaplain's Commission. Extracts from his Sermons. His Industry. Simplicity of Life. Dr. Beecher. Anecdotes. Benevolence and Success as a Gardiner. Hallowell. Augusta. Bangor, its climate character of the Inhabitants. A sermon long enough in all conscience. Religious Meetings. Eastward in a Packet. An uncomfortable night. Gloucester its beauty seen from Penobscot Bey. The old and trusty Pilot. Castine Light. Castine its Sabbath stillness -Climate- Churches. Forts. Count of Castine. The Fort par excellence, View from the Rampart. View from the Islands and the Heights of Brook- |