Earliest Reformed Church in Lancaster County. The early history of Lancaster county gathers around its ancient churches. In colonial days, far more than at pre- sent, the church was the centre of so- cial life; and those who would study that life in its more recent develop- ments should not fail to

Lancaster Book Plates. Many years ago a friendly book- binder gave me several engraved labels which he had taken from the cast-off covers of ancient books. They were too pretty, he said, to be thrown away, but he did not know what to do with them. Most of these labels, besides the name of some

man who was undoubt- edly one of the most brilliant scholars that ever lived in Lancaster. For the additional biographical material that has come to hand we are chiefly in- debted to the researches of Miss Mar- tha B. Clark and Samuel H. Ranck. The present writer in this instance lays ho claim to

RUSTIC ART IN LANCASTER COUNTY. It affords me pleasure to exhibit to the Lancaster County Historical So- ciety certain broadsides and specimens of early pen-work, which represent a type of art that has almost, if not en- tirely, passed away. The history of the fine arts, we know, has been minutely

prepared a full account, which has recently appeared in a prominent magazine and is also pre- served in a permanent vol- ume. There is, however, an earlier account, written by his wife in the form of letters to an intimate friend in Lancaster, and it is this which I take pleasure in presenting on the

Jean Bart, According to the early records of Lancaster county, Bart township, one of the richest and most important of the whole series, was organized in the spring of 1744. The information at hand is very meagre; but it may be regarded as a curious fact that even the origin of its name cannot now