way,
no person at all acquainted with the nature of such writings need be
told. "As well might a traveler presume to claim the fee-simple of all
the country which he has surveyed, as a historian and geographer
expect to preclude those who come after him from making a proper use
of his labors. If the former writers have seen accurately and related
faithfully, the latter ought to have the resemblance of declaring the
same facts, with that variety only which nature has enstamped upon the
distinct elaborations of every individual mind.... As works of this
sort become multiplied, voluminous, and detailed, it becomes a duty to
literature to abstract, abridge, and give, in synoptical views, the
information that is spread through numerous volumes."

Touching the matter gleaned from other books, I claim the sole merit
of being a laborious and faithful compiler. In some instances, where
the thoughts could not be better or more briefly expressed, the words
of the original authors may have been used.

Where this has been done I have, whenever possible, made, in my
footnotes or text, frank and ample avowal of the sources from which I
have obtained the particular information presented. This has not
always been possible for the reason that I could not name, if
disposed, all the sources from which I have sought and obtained
information. Many of the references thus secured have undergone a
process of sifting and, if I may coin the couplet, confirmatory
handling which, at the last, rendered some unrecognizable and their
origin untraceable.

The only publication of a strictly local color unearthed during my
research was Taylor's _Memoir of Loudoun_, a small book, or more
properly a pamphlet, of only 29 pages, dealing principally with the
County's geology, geography, and climate. It was written to accompany
the map of Loudoun County, drawn by Yardley Taylor, surveyor; and was
published by Thomas Reynolds, of Leesburg, in 1853.

I wish to refer specially to the grateful acknowledgment that is due
Arthur Keith's _Geology of the Catoctin Belt_ and Carter's and Lyman's
_Soil Survey of the Leesburg Area_, two Government publications,
published respectively by the United States Geological Survey and
Department of Agriculture, and containing a fund of useful information
relating to the geology, soils, and geography of about two-thirds of
the area of Loudoun. Of course these works have been the sources to
which I have chiefly repaired for in