For the stories woven into our talk I make no further claim than that they have come to me from a variety of sources—personal observation, dinner-table gossip, old letters and diaries, and local tradition. A few, which seemed rather too vague in detail, I have tried to verify. My ardor for research, however, was dampened by the discovery of from two to a dozen versions of every occurrence, so that I have been driven to accepting those which appeared most probable or most picturesque, falling back upon the plea of the Last Minstrel:
“I cannot tell how the truth may be;
I say the tale as ’twas said to me.”
And now, let us be off!
F. E. L.
Washington, D.C.,
August 1, 1915.