A Journal of Travels in England, Holland, and Scotland

iv

I wrote at the time, and on the spot, and was rarely a day behind my date; my information was derived almost wholly from personal observation, and conversation; beyond the itineraries and guides of the country, I had little leisure to consult books, and none at all to copy or amend what I had written; and I felt the less disposition to do it as I was writing to a brother, who, in the communication of the journal, was restricted to a small circle of friends.

Of course, I wrote with a degree of freedom which made it unpleasant to me to learn, that it had been found impossible to confine the manuscripts within the limits prescribed, and, when I returned, I was informed that they had been perused by many of my acquaintance, and their friends. It now became impossible for me to refuse the loan of them to others, and, in this way, their existence became so generally known, that their publication was talked of as a matter of course. I uniformly declined to listen to any proposition on the subject, as it had been my determination from the first to withhold the work from the press.

But, a good while after my return, an application was made to me under circumstances so peculiar, that I was compelled to take it into consideration. After perusing the manuscripts, with reference to this object, consulting literary friends, and deliberating, a long time, I consented, not without much anxiety, to at

tempt the difficult task of preparing them for publica. tion. It was difficult, because the public, not my friends, were now to be my judges, and because it was scarcely possible to preserve the spirit and freedom which had interested the latter, without violating the decorum which was due to the former, and to many respectable individuals, whose names appeared in my journal.

With a design to preserve this medium, the whole has been written anew. Additions, omissions, and alterations have been made, but they have been as few as possible, and it has undergone so little mutation, either in form or substance, that the spirit and character of the work remain essentially unchanged; how far it has been rendered more fit for the pub. lic eye, those, who have perused the original volumes, during a period of more than three years that have elapsed, since their completion, will be best able to judge.

Perhaps, I ought to apologize for interweaving in the journal, so much of my own personal history, and for introducing so many of my own remarks and reflections, but, these things were so combined with the very tissue of the work, that it would have been impossible to have withdrawn them, without destroying, completely, the texture of the fabric.

1*

The apology implied, in this simple unvárnished tale, I am sensible, is very trite, and by many will be regarded as inadmissible.

However this may be, I have discharged a duty by telling the truth; what I have said will be believed in my native State, where the principal facts are well known.

BENJAMIN SILLIMÄN.

Yale College, (Connecticut) August 28, 1809.