The day of appreciation of a work like this is never at the time when it is issued. The labor of research and compilation must be in a measure a labor of love. The apparent unimportance of our contribution to the public may, after all, exist only in appearance. Few prominent public men claim Ludlow as their birthplace, nor does the town seek, like seven cities of old, to rest her fame on the reputation of some ungrateful son. This is but a quiet little neighborhood, occupying a humble position in the grand old Commonwealth. But while the town has been unsung by bard, or unwritten by annalist, or unknown to the greater events of busy humanity, she may, from these very reasons, argue an individuality which is worthy of note. Her life is not merely memoir or public history, but is unique in possessing few of those features which so largely enter into the pic ture of towns farther famed.