IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TAKEN FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES BY JOHN ASHTON AUTHOR OF 'CHAP-BOOKS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY' ETC. PREFACE. FROM the time of Dean Swift downwards to our own days many Political Histories of the Reign of Queen Anne have been written, but its Social Life we have been left to gather mainly from the efforts of novelists, who have been more or less conscientious, according to their knowledge, in placing it before us. No doubt the drudgery of the work, the wading through all the newspapers, and reading all the literature of the time, has deterred many from attempting what, in its execution, has proved a very pleasant task; for in doing it, one has got to be thoroughly identified with the age-its habits and customswhich, being taken from the very words of the people, then living, writing for living people, who could contradict their statements, if false or exaggerated, a charm was lent to the task, which fully compensated for its labour. All history, unless it is contemporary, must necessarily, if honest, be a compilation, and my idea is, that it should honestly be avowed as such, and the authorities given for all facts; and this I have done, even at the risk of proving wearisome. In compiling it, my task has been similar to one who, having a necklace of old beads, finds it broken, and the beads scattered hither and thither. His business, naturally, is to gather them 81891 |