Preface

THIS is not a history. It is not a guide-book. It is not an encyclopedia. It is nothing more ambitious than the title would indicate: a stroll about Washington with my arm through my reader’s, and a bit of friendly chat by the way. Mr. Hornby, sketch-book in hand, will accompany us, to give permanence to our impressions here and there.

First, we will take a general look at the city and recall some of the more interesting incidents connected with its century and a quarter of growth. Next, we will walk at our leisure through its public places and try to people them in imagination with the figures which once were so much in evidence there.

For the stories woven into our talk I make no further claim than that they have come to me from a variety of sources—personal observation, dinner-table gossip, old letters and diaries, and local tradition. A few, which seemed rather too vague in detail, I have tried to verify. My ardor for research, however, was dampened by the discovery of from two to a dozen versions of every occurrence, so that I have been driven to accepting those which appeared most probable or most picturesque, falling back upon the plea of the Last Minstrel:
“I cannot tell how the truth may be;
I say the tale as ’twas said to me.”

And now, let us be off!

F. E. L.

Washington, D.C.,
August 1, 1915.