The Region where the Grays and Carys lived lies too far from the centres of modern progress to be laid down on any may that will be accessible. And, as " he who mats an undiscovered country may place what boundaries he will," it need only he said, that it lies in the South, somewhere in that vague region partly in one of the old Southern States and partly in the yet vaguer land of Memory. It will be spoken of in this story, as Dr. Cary, General Legaie, and the other people who used to live there in old tunes, spoke of it, in warm affection, as, "the old County,; or, "the Red Rock section," or just, "My country, sir." It was a goodly land in those old times a volling country, lying at the foot of the blue mountain-spurs, with forests and fields; rich meadows filled with fat cattle; watered by streams, sparkling and bubbling over rocks, or winding under willows and sycamores, to where the hills melted away in the low, alluvial lands, where the sea once washed and still left its memory and its name.
The people of that section were the product of a... (from preface)