Produced by Roberta Staehlin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) ROB OF THE BOWL: A LEGEND OF ST. INIGOE'S. BY THE AUTHOR OF "SWALLOW BARN," "HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON," &c. _Daniel._ Quot homines tot sententiae. _Martin._ And what is that? _Daniel._ 'Tis Greek, and argues difference of opinion. _John Woodvil._ IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA: LEA & BLANCHARD. SUCCESSORS TO CAREY & CO. 1838. Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1838, by LEA & BLANCHARD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. I. ASHMEAD AND CO., PRINTERS. PREFACE. The tale related in the following pages refers to a period in the history of Maryland, which has heretofore been involved in great obscurity,--many of the most important records connected with it having been lost to public inspection in forgotten repositories, where they have crumbled away under the touch of time. To the persevering research of the accomplished Librarian of the State--a gentleman whose dauntless, antiquarian zeal and liberal scholarship are only surpassed by the enlightened judgment with which he discharges the functions of his office--we are indebted for the rescue of the remnant of these memorials of by-gone days, from the oblivion to which the carelessness of former generations had consigned them. Many were irrecoverable; and it was the fate of the gentleman referred to, to see them fall into dust at the moment that the long estranged light first glanced upon them.