PREFATORY 



' When a writer, whether of poetry or prose, first 

 addresses the pubhc, he has generally something to 

 offer which relates to himself or his work, and which 

 he considers as a necessary prelude to the work itself, 

 lo prepare his readers for the entertainment or the 

 instruction they may expect to receive, for one of these 

 every man who publishes must suppose he affords. 

 This the act itself implies ; and in proportion to his 

 conviction of this fact must be his teeling of the 

 difficulty in which he has placed himself: the difficulty 

 consists in reconciling the implied presumption of the 

 undertaking, whether to please or to instruct mankind, 

 with the diffidence and modesty of an untried candidate 

 for fame or favour.' — Crabbe's Preface to 'Tales of 

 the Hall' 



The above quotation seems so exactly to express 

 the situation in which I find myself placed, that I have 

 selected it in preference to any words of my own by 

 way of prefatory apology for the following pages, in 

 the production of which I am actuated by the twofold 

 desire to entertain and instruct those who may per- 

 chance peruse them. I desire to amuse those whom I 

 should not presume to instruct, viz., those who are, or 



