[Gutenberg 49508] • Arrows of the Chace, vol. 1/2 / being a collection of scattered letters published chiefly in the daily newspapers 1840-1880

Excerpt from Arrows of the Chace, Vol. 1: Being a Collection of Scattered Letters Published Chiefly in the Daily Newspapers, 1840-1880; Honorary Student of Christ Church, and Hnorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford

My good Editor insists that this book must have an Author's Preface; and insists further that it shall not contain compliments to him on the editorship. I must leave, therefore, any readers who care for the book, and comprehend the trouble that has been spent on it, to pay him their own compliments, as the successive service of his notes may call for them; but my obedience to his order, not in itself easy to me, doubles the difficulty I have in doing what nevertheless, I am resolved to do - pay, that is to say, several extremely fine compliments to myself, upon the quality of the text.

For of course I have read none of these letters since they were first printed: of half of them I had forgotten the contents, of some, the existence; all come fresh to me; and here in Rouen, where I thought nothing could possibly have kept me from drawing all I could of the remnants of the old town, I find myself, instead, lying in bed in the morning, reading these remnants of my old self - and that with much contentment and thankful applause.