164 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



and printer. The publication to which I refer was 

 the " County Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen 

 of Great Britain and Ireland" a work which has 

 found its way into the houses of thousands of the 

 nobility and gentry of this country. The task 

 assigned to him was one very congenial to the 

 author, for he had always had a taste for genealogy 

 and family history, and his memory was such that 

 there were few families of note in this country that 

 he could not tell you something about. His old 

 friend Sir Bernard Burke showed great interest in 

 the publication of the volumes ; for many years he 

 and my father were in frequent correspondence on 

 matters and tastes that were common to both. The 

 custom, too, of sending presentation copies of their 

 own works to each other was kept up for many 

 years. In the first instance the " County Seats" 

 came out in half-crown quarto numbers, and for 

 some time the progress it made with the public was 

 but slow. When a sufficient number of parts had 

 been published, two large and handsomely bound 

 volumes were issued ; then, after an interval, two 

 more ; and again, after another interval, two further 

 volumes, making six in all. For some time the 

 course of the progress of the work did not appear 

 to run quite smoothly, the publisher being changed 

 more than once, while the title also underwent 

 alteration. It is not easy to assign an adequate 

 reason for the comparatively slow progress of the 

 sale of the work in its earlier stages, but that it was 

 not in the right hands for attaining success was 



