PREFACE. THE object of this volume is to direct attention to the noble landscapes that lie along the routes by which the White Mountains are now approached by tourists,-many of which are still unknown to travellers; to help persons appreciate landscape more adequately; and to associate with the principal scenes poetic passages which illustrate, either the permanent character of the views, or some peculiar aspects in which the author of the book has seen them. Where so many landscapes are described in detail, there cannot fail to be sameness and repetition. It would have been more to the author's mind to arrange the volume by subjects instead of by districts, and to treat the scenery under the heads of rivers, passes, ridges, peaks, &c. But it was found that such a distribution and treatment, although it might have given the book more artistic unity, would have made it less valuable on the whole, than to construct it as a guide to particular landscapes, and a stimulant to the enjoyment of them. If the volume shall be found to have any value apart from the illustrations, it will, no doubt, be chiefly due to the poetic quotations that are interwoven with the text. Great care has been used to make them pertinent to the particular scenes with which they are brought into connection. The best poetry in which mountain scenery has been reflected is not found in separate lyrics or descriptions, but is incidental to poems of larger mould and purpose. No collection has been made for mountain tourists such as sea-side visitors may command in the admirable "Thalatta," edited by Mr. Higginson. One cannot carry a poetic library on a journey among the hills. And the author believes that he has done a service to travellers, and supplied a need that is often confessed, by interweaving with his own inadequate prose, passages from Bryant, Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, and Percival, that interpret the scenery of our highlands, and by culling fragments, of ten equally applicable, from Wordsworth, Scott, Tennyson, Goethe, Shelley, and Byron. The aim has been so to introduce the poetic selections, that instead of being mere additions and ornaments, they shall continue and complete the description attempted, or embody the predominant sentiment of the landscape. The author acknowledges the important assistance in many instances derived from Rev. Benjamin Willey's "Incidents of White Mountain History;" and all readers will confess a large indebtedness to Professor Edward Tuckerman, for the very valuable chapters he has communicated on the exploration and botany of the White Hills. It is to be regretted that the unexpected bulk of the volume has prevented the publication of a list of the plants of the mountain region, which was to have been printed as an appendix. BOSTON, October 20, 1859. |