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Matrimonial infelicities. Gray, Barry, (1826–1886).
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BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

  • My Married Life at Hillside. FOURTH EDITION NOW READY.

ALSO, IN PRESS, TO BE PUBLISHED IN DECEMBER,

  • My Summer in the Country, AND
  • Out of Town, BEING RURAL EPISODES. BY BARRY GRAY.

MATRIMONIAL INFELICITIES, WITH AN OCCASIONAL FELICITY, BY WAY OF CONTRAST. BY AN IRRITABLE MAN. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, AS BEING PERTINENT TO THE SUBJECT, MY NEIGHBORS, AND DOWN IN THE VALLEY.

BY

BARRY GRAY.

NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. BOSTON: E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY.

1865.
page: v[View Page v]

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by ROBERT BARRY COFFIN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

DEDICATORY LETTER TO SANDFORD R. GIFFORD, N. A.

MY DEAR S. R. G.:

To you, one of my oldest and most valued friends, the playmate of my boyhood, the companion of my manhood, whose society has ever been to me a source of more than ordinary enjoyment; and, during these latter years, in the contemplation of whose pictures—the reflex of nature in her most charming moods—I have experienced unqualified delight, I dedicate, with much satisfaction, this little volume of "Matrimonial Infelicities"; trusting, however, that the experiences therein set forth by an "Irritable Man" may not deter you from entering the arena of married life, and, under your own grape-vine and apple-tree, presiding as pater familias.

Your disposition—like my own—is so essentially different from the irritable individual's who wrote these sketches, that I am satisfied the best life—that of a married man's—which this world can afford, would fully compensate you for leaving your bachelorhood behind you, and taking your place among the Benedicts. And, although the gratification I now experience of gathering my bachelor friends around my mahogany, would be lost, if you, and other artist companions whom I might name, page: vi-vii (Table of Contents) [View Page vi-vii (Table of Contents) ] were to marry, yet I would be willing to forego even that pleasure, and with it the hope I have long entertained of one day in the future beholding in our circle a bachelor of three-score years, provided you and they would follow the worthy example I have set you.

If you should for a moment believe that the following infelicities are the usual accompaniments of marriage, I beg leave to state that, so far as my own experience goes, it is utterly at variance with such record.

In conclusion, I desire to express the hope that we both may live, still united by the same bond of friendship, as many years in the future as we have in the past, which would bring us each to a hale old age.

I remain, with regard and esteem, your friend of many years,

BARRY GRAY.

FORDHAM, N. Y., July 25th, 1865.

CONTENTS.

page: viii-ix (Table of Contents) [View Page viii-ix (Table of Contents) ]

MY NEIGHBORS.

DOWN IN THE VALLEY.

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