Produced by David Garcia, Eric Eldred, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. [Illustration: Concord Elms, on Main Street.] SKETCHES FROM CONCORD AND APPLEDORE CONCORD THIRTY YEARS AGO; NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE; LOUISA M. ALCOTT; RALPH WALDO EMERSON; MATTHEW ARNOLD; DAVID A. WASSON; WENDELL PHILLIPS; APPLEDORE AND ITS VISITORS; JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER BY FRANK PRESTON STEARNS TO A JACQUEMINOT ROSE. CONTENTS. PREFACE CONCORD THIRTY-ODD YEARS AGO HAWTHORNE LOUISA M. ALCOTT EMERSON HIMSELF MATTHEW ARNOLD'S LECTURE DAVID A. WASSON WENDELL PHILLIPS APPLEDORE AND THE LAIGHTONS WHITTIER ILLUSTRATIONS. CONCORD ELMS, ON MAIN STREET THE CONCORD RIVER, NEAR BATTLE GROUND HAWTHORNE, AFTER AN ENGRAVING FROM THE PAINTING BY C. G. THOMPSON THE OLD MANSE, RESIDENCE OF DR. RIPLEY LOUISA ALCOTT, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1868 THE ALCOTT HOUSE KING'S BUST OF EMERSON, MODELLED IN 1854 AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM MATTHEW ARNOLD DAVID A. WASSON IN 1878, FROM A PORTRAIT BY HIS SON GEORGE WENDELL PHILLIPS AS HE APPEARED BEFORE THE PHI BETA KAPPA TWILIGHT AT THE ISLES OF SHOALS CELIA THAXTER, PHOTOGRAPHED BY MISS ANNIE RICHARDS IN 1890 WHITTIER'S HOUSE AT AMESBURY JOHN G. WHITTIER IN HIS SEVENTY-SECOND YEAR, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMPSON THE MERRIMAC RIVER, NEAR AMESBURY, BY MOONLIGHT PREFACE. A volume of reminiscences is commonly the last book that an author publishes, if indeed he does not leave the task to his literary administrator. There are not wanting, however, instances to the contrary; and in the present case my object is more especially to attract public attention to the lives and works of two distinguished men, one of whom has hitherto been little appreciated, and the other, as it seems to me, greatly misunderstood. My position in regard to David A. Wasson has already been challenged, but I have faith that it will endure the test of time. If these pages shall also succeed in restoring to Wendell Phillips a portion of the fame which he lost by the wayward course of his declining years, they will not have been written in vain. The other characters that I have brought upon this stage are such as both the writer and the public have long taken an interest in. To the few living personages who have been introduced, I would apologize, and excuse myself on the ground that the picture would be imperfect without them. SKETCHES FROM CONCORD AND APPLEDORE CONCORD THIRTY YEARS AGO.