THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, MANCHESTER: CORPORATION STREET. BRIGHTON: WESTERN ROAD. BO THE scenes of the following narrative are laid in a part of England with which the writer was familiar in his boyhood and youth, and of which he had a vivid remembrance when the story was written, many years ago. The ironworks referred to in the opening and other chapters had been but recently discontinued when he was a child, and his description of them some time afterwards is derived from personal recollection. The dramatis personæ of the story, as well as the various localities sketched, are pretty faithful representations. The latter may still be traceable; and as to the actors in the drama, many of them were known to the writer by repute, and others, both among the gentry and peasantry, are portraitures of persons who were living in his boyhood: others, though fictitious, are intended to be characteristic of the inhabitants of that part of the country, at that particular era. The John Heywood of the story, is not a fictitious character. At the time of which the story treats, and when that part of |