Elinor Wyllys, vol 1 | Page 4

happens in
such cases, her book will be found free from exaggerations of every
sort; and will be more likely to be well received by persons of her own
class, than by those who are less familiar with its advantages.
Imagination, feeling, sound principles, and good taste, are all to be
found in this book, though in what degree, the public will necessarily
decide for itself.

J. FENIMORE COOPER.
Philadelphia, Oct. 8, 1845.

PREFACE
IT will be well, perhaps, that the reader bear in mind, while running
over the following pages, that many passing observations, many trifles,
which naturally find their way into any sketch of social life, refer
chiefly to things and notions in favour some ten years since; a period
which is certainly not beyond the memory of man, but very possibly
beyond the clear recollection of some young lady reader, just within her
teens. New opinions, new ideas, new fashions have appeared among us
since then, and made their way perceptibly. Twenty years' possession
constitutes a legal title, if we may believe the lawyers; but a single
season is often sufficient for a new fancy--fancies of a serious nature
too, sometimes--to take full possession of the public mind, and assume
arbitrary control of the premises for the time being, at least.
It will be more honest to confess, at once, before the reader undertakes
the first chapter, that the tale now before him is a first appearance in
print--a first appearance, too, of one who, even now that the formidable
step is taken, feels little disposed to envy the honours of authorship.
Writing may be a very pleasant pastime; but printing seems to have
many disagreeable consequences attending every stage of the process;
and yet, after all, reading is often the most irksome task of the three. In
this last case, however, the remedy is generally easy; one may throw
aside the volume, and abuse the author. If there are books which MUST
be read, stupid or not, owing to the claim of some great 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 many
improvements, not only in the house itself, but also in the grounds
which surrounded it. The building had been erected long before the first
Tudor cottage was transported, Loretto-like, across the Atlantic, and
was even anterior to the days of Grecian porticoes. It was a comfortable,
sensible-looking place, however, such as were planned some eighty or
a hundred years since, by men who had fortune enough to do as they
pleased, and education enough to be quite superior to all pretension.
The house was a low, irregular, wooden building, of ample size for the
tastes and habits of its inmates, with broad piazzas, which not only
increased its dimensions, but added greatly to the comfort and pleasure
of the family by whom it was occupied.
{"Downing" = Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852), noted
American rural architect and landscape gardener; "Loretto-like" = after
Loreto, in Italy, where, according to tradition, a brick Holy House was

miraculously conveyed through the air by angels in 1294}
The grounds were of the simplest kind. The lawn which surrounded the
house was merely a better sort of meadow, from which the stones and
briars had been removed with more care than usual, and which, on
account of its position, received the attention of one additional mowing
in the course of the summer. A fine wood, of a natural growth,
approached quite near to the house on the northern side, partially
sheltering it in that direction, while an avenue of weeping elms led
from the gate to the principal entrance, and a row of locusts, planted at
equal distances, lined the low, rude stone wall which shut out