"RECOLLECTIONS OF A NEW-ENGLAND HOUSEKEEPER." "Me thinketh it accordant to reson Of eche of hem, so as it seemed to me; NEW-YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF STREET. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. 4376 9.27 Gift Tappan Presb. Assie. PREFACE. THE "SOUTHERN MATRON" was penned in the same spirit, and with the same object, as the "New-England Housekeeper"-to present as exact a picture as possible of local habits and manners. Every part, except the "love-passages," is founded in events of actual occurrence. Should it be thought that the views of human life in the two works, as has been suggested in private, have too much sunshine about them, I can only reply, that, to have made different descriptions, I must have resorted to imagination instead of fact, as far as my personal observation is concerned. Perhaps, had I examined the details of the police-courts for my Northern sketch, or the registry of the magistrate-freeholders for my Southern, I might have found gloomier scenes; but they would not have been such as Clarissa Packard and Cornelia Wilton would recognise in their daily experi ence. Some apology may be necessary, as a matter of taste, for the frequent introduction of the negro dialect; but the careful reader will perceive that it has only been done when essential to the development of individual character. |