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[Illustration: Copyright, 1891, by A. S. Burbank.

_Frontispiece._ PLYMOUTH IN 1622.]




                        American Historic Towns

                            HISTORIC TOWNS

                                  OF

                              NEW ENGLAND

                               Edited by

                            LYMAN P. POWELL

                              Illustrated

                          G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
                           NEW YORK & LONDON
                        The Knickerbocker Press
                                 1898


                            COPYRIGHT, 1898
                                  BY
                          G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
                  Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London

                   The Knickerbocker Press, New York

[Illustration]




PREFACE


In July, 1893, while the first Summer Meeting of the American Society
for the Extension of University Teaching was in session at the
University of Pennsylvania, I conducted the students, in trips taken
from week to week, to historic spots in Philadelphia, the battle-fields
of the Brandywine and of Germantown, and to the site of the winter camp
at Valley Forge. The experiment was brought to the attention of Dr.
Albert Shaw, and at his instance I made a plea through the pages of _The
American Monthly Review of Reviews_, October, 1893, for the revival of
the mediæval pilgrimage, and for its adaptation to educational and
patriotic uses. After pointing out some of the advantages of visits paid
under competent guidance and with reverent spirit to spots made sacred
by high thinking and self-forgetful living, I suggested a ten days’
pilgrimage in the footsteps of George Washington.

