ABSTRACT
This ‘Prefatory Memoir’ acts as a prologue to Thelwall’s 1801 Poems Chiefly Written in Retirement. In the Memoir he shares, in a highly sentimental and intimate language, his experiences from youth to the end of his time as a farmer at Llys Wen in Wales. This Memoir signals the end of one phase of his life: it should be seen as part of the process of metamorphosis and transformation he refers to in his correspondence. Thelwall’s public career commenced at the debating society at Coachmaker’s Hall; a seminary where Dallas, Garrow, and several others, who have since figured at the bar, may be said to have taken, their oratorical degrees. Thelwall was principally influenced by the wild and picturesque scenery of the neighbourhood. Circumstances arose that made it necessary for Thelwall to take the active management of the farm into his own hand.
