After the close of the war, the family returned to their former home in Westchester, and Paulding was educated at the village school -- a log house nearly two miles distant from his residence. Here he received all the education he ever obtained from tuition. On arriving at manhood in 180U he removed to New York City, staying at first with Washington Irving's brother, William, who had married Paulding's sister. His first attempts in literature were his contributions to the Salina<iundi i)apers. At the beginning of the War of 1812 he published a clever satire on the policy of England toward America with the title of" The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan" which was reprinted in one of the English journals.
Following this was " The Lay of the Scottish Fiddle," a parody of the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," in which he satirized the predatory warfare of the British on the Chesapeake Bay, and described the burning and sacking of Havre-de-Grace at the mouth of the Sus- ([uehanna by Admiral Cockburn's fleet. It was republished in London in handsome style with a complimentary preface and provoked a fierce review from the London Quarterlij. He next j)ublished " The United States and England," a strong defense of this country against the strictures of the Quarterbj, which attracted the notice of President Madison. In 1815 he ])ublished his "Letters From the South by a Northern Man," written after a visit to Virginia, and in 1818 his principal poetical work " The Backwoodsman." He next