Boston: Wells and Lilly, 1824. Two volumes, 12mo, 20 cm. pp 306, [2]; 276. Two binder's blanks front and rear of each volume. Bound with old marbled boards, new brown leather spines with paper labels, new floral endpapers. Text pages untrimmed. Externally fine, internally VG, clean & unworn, with light foxing and yellowing, some corner creases in Volume I. Watters p. 260. No copies located on AMICUS. Cheney was one of a pair of liberal American women who emigrated to Montreal with their husbands and concerned themselves with the education of Canadian children. Eliza Cushing and Harriet Vaughan Cheney, along with another American emigrée Eleanor H. Lay, founded "The Snow Drop" (1847-53), a Canadian monthly for children. The sisters also contributed to the "Literary Garland". "HARRIET V. CHENEY is a native of Massachusetts. Her love of literature was developed in childhood, probably owing much to the influence of her mother's taste and genius, who was author of one of the earliest American novels, 'The Coquette, or History of Eliza Wharton.' Soon after she left school, she wrote, in conjunction with her sister, 'The Sunday School, or Village Sketches.'" Her next work was "A Peep at the Pilgrims," which was republished in London. "The Rivals of Acadia" was the next; and then for a number of years her time was devoted to her family. The death of her husband led her again to literary exertions; and she wrote "Sketches from the life of Christ," and "Confessions of an Early Martyr," and afterward wrote largely for a magazine in Canada, to which region she removed". - American Biographical Library. "Perhaps the best and most detailed of the early 19th century novels of the Puritans [and] probably the best novel of its kind until `Standish of Standish.'"--Scribner, American Historical Novels 16. Rare.