PREFACE.

THESE letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu are selected from the edition of W. Moy Thomas, which is based on Lord Wharncliffe's edition of 1837, printed mainly from the original letters. In selecting, the editor has had in view, first, the literary attractiveness of the letters; secondly, the light they throw on Lady Mary's personality; thirdly, their value as free-hand pictures of the time. Comments and notes of the previous editors, Mr. Thomas or Lord Wharncliffe, may be distinguished by their initials.

It is needless to say that no pretensions to scholarship are made by this little volume. I have sometimes found it necessary to omit portions of letters, but I have not presumed to chasten Lady Mary's style, any more than I have ventured to alter her eighteenth-century grammar.

September, 1890.

O. T.