LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
Byron
Documents Biography Criticism
Fifty Years’ Recollections, Literary and Personal
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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‣ Preface
Vol. I Contents
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Vol. II Contents
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Vol. III Contents
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
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FIFTY YEARS’ RECOLLECTIONS,

LITERARY AND PERSONAL.



WITH



OBSERVATIONS ON MEN AND THINGS.



BY CYRUS REDDING.


“Relations of matter of fact have a value from their substance, as much as from their form, and the variety of events is seldom without entertainment or instruction, how indifferently soever the tale is told.”—Sir Wm. Temple.



IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.



LONDON:
CHARLES J. SKEET, PUBLISHER,
10, KING WILLIAM STREET,
CHARING CROSS.
1858.
LONDON:
Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street.
TO


OF TEDDESLEY,

LORD-LIEUTENANT OF THE COUNTY OF STAFFORD,

THESE PAGES ARE INSCRIBED,

BY HIS LORDSHIP’S OFTEN OBLIGED

AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,

CYRUS REDDING.
TO THE READER.


“It was observed by Gray the poet,” says Horace Walpole, “that if any man were to form a book of what he had seen and heard himself, it must, in whatever hands, prove an useful and entertaining one.” The difficulty is in recalling at will records so voluminous. We can retain but a small portion of what we have seen and heard. The new things of to-day fling back into oblivion those of yesterday, memory only retaining, worthy or not of retention, those which chance to make the deeper impression.

The Author confesses that in the present volumes he has been unable, except in two or three instances, to have recourse to anything documentary. That which presented itself to his mind as he proceeded, he has given in the order in which it arose.

In relation to individual character, he has disregarded everything but his own impression of the truth, from
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what he had himself observed. He has avoided, except in cases where it was unavoidable, any mention of existing cotemporaries. Of the dead he has spoken freely, in no way distorting facts in relation to them, on the principle of justice to the living. From whom are the last to draw lessons of utility but from preceding examples? Had he dealt freely with existing persons, keeping to the truth, he might be justly suspected of flattering some, and of wounding, perhaps unjustly, the sensitiveness of others. In the one case, he would be suspected of ill motives, in the other of pandering to the idle curiosity of the multitude.

There are many names of high consideration mentioned in these pages; many belonging to history in other countries, as well as our own. The Author wishes they were more amply treated of, since if they are little acknowledged here by the present generation, they will not fail to be recalled by posterity in its review of an age less devoted to high pursuits or lofty thinking than that which preceded, except with a few more elevated spirits in the mighty aggregation.

A work thus written off-hand must be taken only for what it pretends to be, a rememembrancer of men and things, incidentally presenting themselves to the mind of the writer during half a century of desultory action.


London, November 20, 1857.
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