New-York tribune., 1896-12-27
OLD NEWE ENGLAND.
THE EARLY DAYS OF 4 QUAINT CON
NECTICUT TOWN.
OLD HOUSES OF THE ANTIENT TOWN OF
NORWICH l6G0-lSO. With Maps stratons
Portraits and Genealogies. BY Mary f.. Perkins
Quarto pp xviii, 621. Norwich. 1876.

NORWICH l66o-1s3. With Maps. Illustrations
Quarto, pp xviii. 62l. Norwich. 1885.
1t is an old literary superstition that the raw
material Of history. as historical facts are COM
monty called is somehow dnnterestng. even tire
some until 1t has passed through the refining
hands o. an author. Sapient critics will draw
the most elaborate distinctions between the his
tOrian and the patient person who brings him
the stuff Of his volume. To some extent the
idea is sound. Obviously a masterpiece of
ordination is more precious than impene
trabe mass Of facts however useful in them
selves the latter may be- But this beautiful vol
ume by Mrs. Perkins reminds us that the raw
material aforesaid can be rendered fascinating
without being turned into history at all She
has simply essayed TO give an account Of the
old houses Of Norwich their owners and occU
pants from the settlement OF the town to the
year 1900" In the preparation Of this survey
she passes from house TO house Systematically
and yet with a discursiveness in matters OF
anecdote and genealogical investigat tion, which
makes her in the long run the author Of q gath
ering Of separate monographs. each monograph
being in other words. chapter. If they are in
terdependent in any degree 1t is due to per-
vasive sentiment which hangs about Norwich
as 1t does about old Cambridge; one may not
describe Il. but its presence Is hardly less tangi-
bic to the stranger than to the heirs of It's ira
diticns
Those traditions descend from the year 1850
when a number of the inhabitants Of Sayb-ook
obtained permission from the General Court at
Hartford to establish a formal settlement at
Mohegan. which would appear to have been the
name derived from the Indians who transferred
no Inn a WI To no
tlement was enrolled as a legal township in
1862 but before that time the name had been
changed to Norwich. Mrs. Perkins gives her
reader free choice between two hypothesis as
to the motive which led to the departure OF
some thrty-fve families from Saybrook to the
new place. In President Stiles's diary II is said
that the founders Of Norwich were driven from
Saybrook by the immense crowds Of crows and
blackbirds which infested the fields In May and
June" This seems less plausible than the theory
that the region was favorable to settlement and
attracted the families from Saybrook Offering
1, good speculation. The term may seem little
removed in spirit from the familiar conception OF
forefathers. but it Is really accurate Men
quite shrewd In those days as they are
to-day. and they might well have established
Norwich for no better reason than that then
thought the site a good one. likely TO prove fer
tile. DeslCeS DelnB CeHbHtluly piaceQ. In the list
OF founders given in this book appear names like
Huntington or Bliss Reynolds. which have
ever since been important in local history. They
signifed in the Connecticut of the seventeenth
centuryVa solidity which seems to have clung to
Norwich to this day 1t has always been a beau
tful town. bat its attractions have never ex-
ceCdod he dgnfed measure OF centre OF grave
virtues and careful, see.hly manners. 1t was not
until about the middle of the eighteenth century
that carpets were introduced and the wood cary
er's art was lavished upon the adornment Of
stairways. ceilings and wainscoted walls. Then
when more luxurious taste began TO develop. II
gave to the highly docorous inhabitants besides
large windows with square panes. in place OF
the small windows with diamond panes Of an
earlier day. all the handsome furniture which Is
to-day treasured by discerning Americans as
among the most artistic relics OF the Colonial
era 1t gave them the tall clocks, the richly
wrought chairs and cabinets. which offer such a
curious contrast In their ornate magnhcence to
the chaste lines of our old Colonial architecture
Mrs. Perkins notes that as portraits in oil and
colored prints came In the old earthen and wood
en- ware OF the settlement went out, and china
conspicuous In the stately old cupboards
with silver ousting the once highly respectable