AND ITS TRIBUTARIES; OR, RAMBLES AMONG THE RIVERS. BY CHARLES MACKAY, AUTHOR OF "THE HOPE OF THE WORLD," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. HOTHE BIBL LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 1840. PREFACE. THE banks of our river abound with scenes which are hallowed by the recollections of history, romance, and poetry; and to recal these recollections in the very spots where the events occurred, to jog his reader's memory, and to act the part of a gossiping, not a prosy, fellow traveller, has been the design of the author in the following pages. He hopes that in the prosecution of this design, if he be not found learned, he will not be considered dull. He may have dwelt upon familiar things; but the man whose object is to remind, rather than to instruct to suggest what may have been forgotten, rather than to tell what is new, could not well do otherwise. In a work of this kind, complete accuracy is unattainable; but the author has endeavoured to be as near to it as the most diligent and untiring research could bring him. Those who VOL. I. b are acquainted with similar studies, and who know the immense number of volumes that are often to be consulted upon some trivial point, will make allowances for any occasional lapses which they may discover; and those who do not know, because they have never tried how difficult it is to be exact amid a great variety of subjects and of authorities, will accept this as an excuse if they should light upon any omission, taking the author's word for it, that he has striven hard to be accurate. In conclusion, he can only say with the accomplished author of the "Pleasures of Memory," in the introduction to his "Italy," ""That wherever he came, he could not but remember, nor is he conscious of having slept over any ground that had been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue." The author takes this opportunity of making his acknowledgments to Mr. J. Gilbert, the artist, and Mr. T. Gilks, the engraver, for their elegant designs for the frontispieces of these volumes, and for the charming wood engravings that are so liberally interspersed. AUGUST 19th, 1840. |