APOLOGIES. 



27 



Excuse, amiable reader, this lengthy and egotistical 

 preface to a volume of adventure. Do not think that 

 I would invert the moral of the Frog-fable, by showing 

 that what is death to you, may become fun to me. As we 

 are to be companions — not to say friends — -for an hour 

 or two, I must put you in possession of certain facts, 

 trivial in themselves, and all unworthy of record, yet 

 so far valuable, that they may enable us to understand 

 each other. Au reste, to quote the ballad so much ad- 

 mired by the Authoress of " Our Village " : — 



" The Pindar of Wakefield is my style, 

 And what I list I write ; 

 Whilom a clerk of Oxenford, 

 But now — a banished wight." 



