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EARL HARCOURT.

MY LORD,

SLENDER as my pre

tenfions are to public favor, I have the greater reason to shelter myself under a distinguished patronage.

YOUR Lordship's fanction of my labors will be a powerful recommendation; the true tafte which

you

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you are well known to poffefs in the fine arts, and to which you have contributed fo many elegant fpecimens, emboldens me, however otherwife diffident; and prompts me to hope that my attempt may not prove altogether unworthy of the public eye.

AMIDST the many elegant scenes displayed on the banks of the river Thames, few are more defervedly celebrated than those which your Lordship enjoys; and which receive additional recommendation from the condefcenfion with which they are rendered acceffible.

PLAIN

PLAIN and unadorned language, raised scarce above the ftyle of common narrative, may, perhaps, fall fhort of the dignity of the fubject; but to have aimed at one more luxuriant, by blending the fimplicity of profe with the fanciful ornaments of poetic diction, would have been ftill farther remote from the true province of this work, which, profeffing to hold up the most faithful mirror to nature, takes as little license with the pencil as the pen.

I FLATTER myself, your Lordship will not difapprove the frequent references to antiquity. The fubject, rich as it is, would have wanted

wanted intereft without them; and

your partiality to that fource of information will befides give farther fanction to my pursuit.

PREFACE.

ENCOURAGED by the

very favorable reception which the public has given to a Picturesque Illuftration of a Tour on the Continent, the author of this work has been induced to gratify a wifh long fince formed, of attempting to difplay the rich scenery of his own country, a country where nature and art are so happily combined, as to adorn and fertilize even its remotest parts,

VOL. I.

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and