CHELTENHAM MAIL BAG; OR, Letters from Gloucestershire. EDITED BY PETER QUINCE, THE YOUNGER. "Moi donc qui connois peu Phébus et ses douceurs "Moi, la plume a la main, je gourmand les vices BOILEAU, Discours au Roi. "Les lettres et les pensées sur divers sujets que je publie aujourdhui DE STAEL. LONDON: JOHN WARREN, OLD BOND STREET. MDCCCXX. PREFACE. If it were at all necessary for me, and I rejoice that it is not, to account for the way in which the following Letters came into my possession, I think I could as satisfactorily acquit myself of any fraudulent or irreverent practices, in obtaining them, as any of my cotemporaries, not even with the exception of the witty and learned Editor of the FUDGES,-THOMAS BROWN the younger. I have merely availed myself of an opportunity, which may never again occur to me at least—and have accordingly, with all Editorial diligence and accuracy, prepared for the public eye, some certain Epistles, which, partly through negligence-partly through accident, and a little through good fortune, (for one's luck-penny must not be forgotten,) have fallen under my surveillance. It is merely essential for me to state, that as I have betrayed no confidence-neither have I compromised any gentlemanly feeling, in obtaining the porte-feuille, from which my present Selection is made and which contains an immense quantity of manuscripts, no less interesting and important, "to those whom t may concern."-Whether the success of my present attempt, at restoring those documents to their right possessors (which is my principal inducement to publish them,) may lead me to the disclosure of any others, I am not prepared to say-I shall only observe, that when the packet, which contained the Letters in question, came into my hands, it was not padlocked;-when I looked to PREFACE. the letters, they were not sealed;-neither were they 66 marked "Private" nor Confidential;"-the blanks in the names were not even filled up,-and there was no probability of their ever reaching their destination, but by the course I now adopt, whereby many an anxious doubt of faith preserved-of friendship unshaken-of love untired-and of esteem unchanged, may be at once removed.-If a few secrets should escape,or, a few little uneasy thoughts spring out like the plagues from Pandora's box, they will still leave hope behind-at least, the hope that though a passing smile may be excited at the expense of some fashionable folly, no sting may for a moment, wound an honest bosom, nor PETER QUINCE the younger have cause to lament the publication of– “One line which dying he should wish to blot.”— As for myself, as the Editor of this selection, were |