PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE THIRD EDITION.

IN sending forth a third edition of this book in little more than six months from its first publication, I would express my gratitude to those friends, public as well as private, who have noticed or reviewed it. Some suggestions which have been made have enabled me to correct mistakes into which I had inadvertently fallen. The general appreciation of the character which the work was intended to portray has been my reward for some labour and many anxious hours.

C. C. H.

Clifton, 31st January, 1859.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE SECOND EDITION.

THE following fragment of autobiography was dictated by Mrs. SchimmelPenninck during the last three years of her life, when the act of writing was distasteful and burdensome to her. It received neither subsequent addition nor alteration from its Author.

She did not live to make those corrections which every such work requires, and the reader's indulgence is claimed for faults of composition arising from these circumstances.

In compiling the memoir of Mrs. SchimmelPenninck's life, the utmost pains have been taken to procure materials with a view to continue the detail from the period when the autobiography of her early years concludes. But in this there was only partial success. Of a considerable part of her married life, the Editor has failed in obtaining any record; but from about the year 1835 materials abound. Especially are they rich in letters. So many have been kindly placed at the disposal of the Editor, that the only

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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

difficulty has been in the selection. Many of the letters which follow have been chosen as especially exhibiting the character of the writer, and her views on many interesting topics largely discussed in the present day.

The Editor gladly takes the opportunity afforded by a second edition to introduce several additional letters on subjects not hitherto touched upon, a wish to that effect having been very generally expressed.

A new edition of the Memoirs of Port Royal, and some unpublished writings of Mrs. Schimmel Penninck's, are in course of preparation for the press, and will follow the present volume as soon as possible. They will consist of the following series: -

SELECT MEMOIRS OF PORT ROYAL, 3 vols.

THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY, 1 vol.

ESSAYS ON THE TEMPERAMENTS, ON GOTHIC AND GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE, AND OTHER SUBJECTS, 1 vol.

All these works are published in pursuance of the Author's testamentary directions.

Clifton, October 29, 1858.

C. C. H.