The Project Gutenberg eBook, George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life,
Edited by E. S. Roscoe and Helen Clergue

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Title: George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life

Editor: E. S. Roscoe and Helen Clergue

Release Date: September 5, 2005 [eBook #16661]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE SELWYN: HIS LETTERS AND HIS
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GEORGE SELWYN: HIS LETTERS AND HIS LIFE

Edited by

E. S. ROSCOE AND HELEN CLERGUE

London
T. Fisher Unwin
Paternoster Square

1899

PREFACE

IN the histories and memoirs of the eighteenth century the name of
George Selwyn often occurs. The letters which he received have
afforded frequent and valuable material to the student of the reign
of George the Third. A large number of these were published by the
late Mr. Jesse in the four volumes entitled "George Selwyn and his
Contemporaries." Except, however, that Selwyn was regarded as the
first humourist of his time, little was known about him, for
scarcely any letters which he wrote had until recently been found.
But in the Fifteenth Report of the Historical Manuscript Commission
there were printed, amongst a mass of other material, more than two
hundred letters from his untiring pen which had been preserved at
Castle Howard. No one who has had an opportunity of examining the
originals can fail to recognise the skill and labour with which the
Castle Howard correspondence of Selwyn--wanting in most instances
the date of the year--was arranged by Mr. Kirk on behalf of the
Commission.

A correspondence, however, which illustrates vividly phases of an
interesting and important period of English history, appeared to be
deserving of presentation to the public in a separate volume, and
with the explanations necessary to make the allusions in it fully
understood.

A selection has therefore, in the following pages, been made from
the Castle Howard letters. The aim of the editors has been to choose
those which appeared most interesting and representative, and to
place them in definite groups, supplementing them with such a
narrative, remarks, and notes a