PREFACE. 
Tue following Notes were, with but few 
exceptions, written originally without any 
view to publication, being merely jottings of 
matters from time to time occurring to my 
notice, recollections of which I wished to 
preserve for my own amusement. When it 
was afterwards suggested to me that some 
leisure hours might be employed in render- 
ing them presentable to others, I thought it 
better—while it was certainly easier—to leave 
them generally as they had grown up under 
my hand, rather than to attempt a more con- 
nected arrangement, or even to reduce them 
to anything like order. This I trust will be 
considered a sufficient excuse for the abrupt 
and desultory form in which they are now 
offered to the Public. 
b 
