PREFACE 



me under obligations that I can never hope to 

 repay. 



If this — my first book — is fortunate enough to 

 meet with a favourable reception, I hope I have 

 made it sufficiently clear to whom the credit will 

 be due, and, should it fail, the unhappy result must 

 be attributed to the blundering of the scribe. 



LowTHORPE, New Malden, 

 Surrey. 



