It is but so much grass; so much dirt, where a succession of people have
dwelt too little to make it really their own. But I have found a
pleasure that I had no conception of before, in reading some of the
English local histories."
"It is not a usual course of reading for a transitory visitor," said
Hammond. "What could induce you to undertake it?"
"Simply the wish, so common and natural with Americans," said Middleton--
"the wish to find out something about my kindred--the local origin of my
own family."
"You do not show your wisdom in this," said his visitor. "America had
better recognize the fact that it has nothing to do with England, and
look upon itself as other nations and people do, as existing on its own
hook. I never heard of any people looking back to the country of their
remote origin in the way the Anglo-Americans do. For instance, England
is made up of many alien races, German, Danish, Norman, and what not: it
has received large, accessions of population at a later date than the
settlement of the United States. Yet these families melt into the great
homogeneous mass of Englishmen, and look back no more to any other
country. There are in this vicinity many descendants of the French
Huguenots; but they care no more for France than for Timbuctoo, reckoning
themselves only Englishmen, as if they were descendants of the aboriginal
Britons.
Pages:
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270