EDITOR’S PREFACE. 
The manuscripts of Col. William Byrd, of Westover, the father of the last 
proprietor of the same name, of different dates from 1728 to 1736, are con- 
tained in a large folio volume bound in parchment, which has been- carefully 
preserved in his family, until recently placed in the hands of the editor. The 
whole is in the hand-writing of a copyist, but written evidently under the 
immediate direction of its author, as there are numerous corrections, inter- 
lineations, and more considerable additions, in his own hand-writing. The 
book was doubtless copied exactly from the author’s earliest draught on loose 
sheets, which were afterwards destroyed, as useless. At any rate, this old 
volume is the only copy in existence. The Historical Society of Virginia 
obtained the consent of the proprietor of the manuscripts to have them 
copied, with a view to publication. But the operations of that society ceased 
before the publication had been commenced, and when only one of the seve- 
ral manuscripts had been copied. It was one of the latest acts of the last 
proprietor, George E. Harrison, Esq., of Brandon, to place at our disposal 
this highly valued work of his distinguished and talented ancestor, with per- 
mission to publish any portion, or the whole of the contents, provided the 
manuscript volume itself should be preserved uninjured, and afterwards re- 
stored to the owner. The better to secure the latter object, the copy of the 
part made for the use of the Historical Society, has also been placed in our 
hands by the directors. 
The manuscripts offer abundant internal evidence that they were written 
merely for the amusement of the author, and for the perusal of his family 
and friends, and not with any view to their being printed. This adds much 
to their other and important value. For there prevails throughout, as in the 
private letters of an accomplished writer, a carelessness in the mode of ex- 
pression, and a manifest freedom from all restraint, which together serve to 
render subjects pleasing and interesting, that, however worthy of consider- 
ation, would be dry and tedious if the writer had sought for the applause, or 
feared the censure, of the reading public. The author was a man “too 
proud to be vain,” and who neither cared for, nor thought of seeking, public 
applause for his writings. The influence of that first feeling, and its results, 
naturally operated on his children and later descendants, to deter them also 
from publishing the manuscripts ; and this course, besides being in con- 
formity with the writer’s intention, was perhaps deemed the more proper, 
because of his great freedom of expression, and of censure, often tinctured 
by his strong “ church and state” principles and prejudices, and which might 
have given offence to some of the individuals or classes who were the sub- 
jects of his free remarks. But at this late time, there no longer remains, if 
there existed before, any reason for withholding these interesting writings 
front the public. And there is no free expression of even the prejudiced affd 
erroneous opinions of the writer, which, to an intelligent and liberal-minded 
reader, would now give offence. Col. Byrd was a true and worthy inheritor 
of the opinions and feelings of the old cavaliers of Virginia ; and it is because 
from such a source, as well as being designed at first as private and confi- 
dential, that his writings should be now considered. 
