causes of many
important national events. How little of the personal history of the
Aristocracy is generally known, and yet how full of amusement is the
subject! Almost every eminent family has some event connected with its
rise or greatness, some curious tradition interwoven with its annals, or
some calamity casting a gloom over the brilliancy of its achievements,
which cannot fail to attract the attention of that sphere of society to
which this work more particularly refers, and must equally interest the
general reader, with whom, in this country, the records of the higher
classes have always possessed a peculiar attraction. The anecdotes of
the Aristocracy here recorded go far to show that there are more marvels
in real life than in the creations of fiction. Let the reader seek
romance in whatever book, and at whatever period he may, yet nought will
he find to surpass the unexaggerated reality here unfolded.

"Mr. Burke has here given us the most curious incidents, the most
stirring tales, and the most remarkable circumstances connected with the
histories, public and private, of our noble houses and aristocratic
families, and has put them into a shape which will preserve them in the
library, and render them the favourite study of those who are interested
in the romance of real life. These stories, with all the reality of
established fact, read with as much spirit as the tales of Boccaccio, and
are as full of strange matter for reflection, and amazement."--_Britannia._

"Two of the most interesting volumes that have ever issued from the
press. There are no less than one hundred and twenty-three of the most
stirring and captivating family episodes we ever remember to have
perused. The 'Anecdotes of the Aristocracy' will be read from the palace
to the hamlet; and no one can rise from these volumes without deriving a
useful knowledge of some chapter of family history, each connected with
one or other of the great houses of the kingdom."--_British Army
Despatch._

"We cannot estimate too highly the interest of Mr. Burke's entertaining
and instructive work. For the curious nature of the details, the
extraordinary anecdotes related, the strange scenes described, it would
be difficult to find a parallel for it. It will be read by every
one."--_Sunday Times._

* * * * *

COMPLETION OF THE
LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND.
BY AGNES STRICKLAND.

DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO HER MAJESTY.