Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR:
PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF HIS FAMILY,
[BY WILLgAI I-I. Y. }IACKETT.
IN offering to the public the second and concluding volume of
the " Rambles about Portsmouth," it has been thought appropriate to accompany it with a sketch of the life and character of
the Author. This idea was suggested by the circumstance that
the finishing of this volume and the close of his life were contemporaneous. This volume not only comprises his last work;
but his last days, so far as his failing strength would allow,
were occupied and solaced by a careful revision and preparation of it for the press.
CHARLES WARREN BREWSTER was born September 13, 1802, in
Portsmouth, in the house on Islington Street, a few rods north of
that in which he died. He was the son of Samuel and Mary
(Ham) Brewster, and a descendant of Elder William Brewster,
who came over in the Mayflower.
Few have exemplified better than Mr. Brewster, in life and
conversation, the principles and character of his distinguished ancestor. Few have ever more fully embraced, and lived by, those
precepts-religious and political-which made Elder Brewster
and his associates exiles from home, and the founders of a great
nation. Few have more firmly and successfully shaped for
themselves a life and character independent of surrounding circumstances. So much did his life spring out of inward principles, that
he was to some extent unmoved by the enterprises and fashions of
the times in which he lived and labored. It was, perhaps, owing
to this circumstance that his life was what is usually regarded as
an uneventful one. Although it was one of ceaseless and systematic toil, it was wanting in that restless and expansive activity
which have made or marred so many fortunes. He always had
his home in one and the same spot,-rarely went abroad; and
this turn of mind, in connection with the regularity required and
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