curate
knowledge, I must here express my cordial thanks to the Hon. Mrs.
Douglass, to whose assistance much of the interest which will be found
in the life of Charles Radcliffe is justly due.

I have also to acknowledge the kindness of Mons. Amedee Pichot, from
whose interesting work I have derived great pleasure and profit; and to
Madame Colmache, for her inquiries in the Biblotheque du Roi, for
original papers relating to the subject. To W. E. Aytoun, Esq., of
Edinburgh, I beg also to express my acknowledgments for his aid in
supplying me with some curious information regarding the Duke of Perth.
The kindness with which my researches, in every direction, have been
met, has added to my task a degree of gratification, which now causes
its close to be regarded with something almost like regret.

One advantage to be gained by the late publication of this third volume,
is the criticism of friends on the two former ones. Amid many errors, I
have been admonished, by my kind adviser and critic, Charles Kirkpatrick
Sharpe, Esq., of having erred in accepting the common authorities in
regard to the celebrated and unfortunate Lady Grange. Whatever were the
sorrows of that lady, her faults and the provocation she gave to her
irritated husband, were, it appears, fully equal to her misfortunes.
Since the story of Lady Grange is not strictly connected with my
subject, I have only referred to it incidentally. At some future time,
the singular narrative of her fate may afford me a subject of further
investigation.

I beg to correct a mistake into which I had fallen, in the first volume,
respecting those letters relating to the Earl of Mar, for which I am
indebted, to Alexander Macdonald, Esq. These, a distinct collection from
that with which I was favoured by James Gibson Craig, Esq., were copied
about twelve years ago, from the papers then in the possession of Lady
Frances Erskine. They have since passed into the possession of the
present Earl of Mar.

An interesting letter in the Appendix of this work, will be found
relative to the social state of the Chevalier St. George, at Rome. For
permission to publish this I am indebted to the valued friendship of my
brother-in-law, Samuel Coltman, Esq., in whose possession it is, having
been bequeathed, with other MSS. to his mother, by the well-known Joseph
Spence, author of the "Anecdotes", and of other works.

LONDON,
_28th March, 1846._

CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLU