Without doubt it had its squabbles, its turmoils, its excitements.

We smile at the old town--its limitations, its inconveniences, its _naivetes_.

But perhaps, in these years of storm, and stress, and heartache, we envy more than a little.

It is not merely the architectural story that the old maps, prints, diaries tell; in them we can find an age that is gone, catch fleeting glimpses of people long since dust to dust, look at past manners, fashions, pleasures and contrast them with our own.
But to begin with the old map.

The lettering beneath conveys the information that it was prepared for the City in 1819-1820 by John Randel, Jr., and that it shows the farms superimposed upon the Commissioner's map of 1811.