[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. The suggestion took root in the public mind. Leading journals commended the idea. New England people, already acquainted with the thought of local historical excursions, hailed the proposed pilgrimage with enthusiasm. Men and women from a score of States avowed their eagerness to make the experiment; and at the close of the University Extension Summer Meeting of July, 1894, in which I had lectured on American history, I found myself conducting for the University Extension Society a pilgrimage, starting from Philadelphia, to Hartford, Boston, Cambridge, Lexington, Concord, Salem, Plymouth, Newburg, West Point, Tarrytown, Tappan, New York, Princeton, and Trenton.