E-text prepared by Mary Meehan and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/horseshoerobinso00kennrich HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON. A Tale of the Tory Ascendency. by JOHN P. KENNEDY Author of "Swallow Barn," "Rob of the Bowl," Etc. "I say the tale as 't was said to me."--Lay of the Last Minstrel Revised Edition. New York G. P. Putnam's Sons 182 Fifth Avenue 1876 Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1852, by George P. Putnam, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. To WASHINGTON IRVING, Esq. DEAR IRVING:-- With some little misgiving upon the score of having wasted time and paper both, which might have been better employed, I feel a real consolation in turning to you, as having, by your success, furnished our idle craft an argument to justify our vocation. You have convinced our wise ones at home that a man may sometimes write a volume without losing his character--and have shown to the incredulous abroad, that an American book may be richly worth the reading. In grateful acknowledgment of these services, as well as to indulge the expression of a sincere private regard, I have ventured to inscribe your name upon the front of the imperfect work which is now submitted to the public. Very truly, yours, &c., JOHN P. KENNEDY. BALTIMORE, _May 1, 1885_. INTRODUCTION