PREFACE
_ MY DEAR LORD,
The writer of a book which copies the manners and language of Queen Anne‘s time, must not omit the Dedication to the Patron； and I ask leave to inscribe this volume to your Lordship, for the sake of the great kindness and friendship which I owe to you and yours.
My volume will reach you when the Author is on his voyage to a country where your name is as well known as here. Wherever I am, I shall gratefully regard you； and shall not be the less welcomed in America because I am,
Your obliged friend and servant,
W. M. THACKERAY.
LONDON, October 18, 1852.
PREFACE.
THE ESMONDS OF VIRGINIA.
The estate of Castlewood, in Virginia, which was given to our ancestors by King Charles the First, as some return for the sacrifices made in his Majesty‘s cause by the Esmond family, lies in Westmoreland county, between the rivers Potomac and Rappahannock, and was once as great as an English Principality, though in the early times its revenues were but small. Indee

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