Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/11



PREFACE

The triad of volumes dealing with the older American Historic Towns along or near the eastern coast is now complete. The three volumes, like the chapters of which they are composed, have their inevitable limitations. While neither in historical value nor in literary quality has it proved practicable to secure a uniformity of standard, editor and contributors have done the best they could, and they now feel assured that the series has proved its right to exist. It is quickening interest in our historic towns, bringing to light important facts, picturing for the patriotic reader who may not be free to make personal visits the places he would visit if he could, and making clear to him many things he would not be likely to learn in the towns themselves, however long a stay he might be free to make.