Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

Moreover, the reader may be disappointed because he finds so little concerning Harvard College, and the military occupation of Cambridge, at the commencement of the Revolutionary War; but the facts stated on pages 365 (note) and 408 are believed to justify the omission. The almost entire absence of legendary lore may be regretted; but it should be considered, that while it may have been my misfortune, it was not my fault, that I was not born in Cambridge, and that I had no opportunity in the first thirty years of my life to gather the local traditions, which so deeply impress the youthful mind, and which tinge the facts of history with such a brilliant, though often a deceptive light. If lack of vigor and sprightliness be regarded as a serious fault of style, I may plead in extenuation, that although many of my materials were gathered long ago, I was obliged by other engagements, literary as well as secular, to postpone their final arrangement for publication, until impaired health and the infirmities of age became uncomfortably manifest.