ABSTRACT
Some reasons, which are not necessary to be developed in the following pages, made me wish to take a little excursion from Danbury in the course of last autumn. A generous Public having supplied the means, I hired a one-horse chaise, and taking with me my whole family, consisting of my maid Betty and my favourite old tabby cat, set out for Brighton. 17 I there heard a narrative which made a very deep impression upon my mind; and, as the communicativeness of my disposition will not allow me to conceal any thing which I imagine capable / of conveying instruction, or even innocent amusement, to that worthy set of beings, whom, in common with my sister authors, I term candid readers, I have determined to prefer publishing the History of the Countess of Monteith to a particular description of my own travels. To this resolution I may, perhaps, have been influenced by a culpable degree of modesty. The public, no doubt, are very anxious to know how many miles a day Betty and I journeyed; at what inns we stopped, and what we had for supper. Could not a florid description bestow some springs of fame on the chalky cliffs of Dunstable? Might not the horrors of Woburn sands be rendered more gloomy by a convenient whirlwind, hurrying into the air the arid soil? Is there no old decayed manor house, where I could call forth the ‘sheeted dead to squeak and gibber;’ or, supposing we / were benighted on Finchley-common, could either Rhætian or Carpathian Alps fix a more appropriate station for the haunts of a banditti? Though in a former publication I have unwarily announced my age and order, Betty, for aught the world knows, may be young and beautiful; nay, she may be an orphan foundling, the heiress of some distinguished family; and I may, if I chuse, after a long series of adventures, unite her in the hymeneal bond with some all-accomplished youth, who had previously rescued us from the robbers after a most bloody engagement. I begin to suspect that I have chosen the less 9promising, or rather the less lucrative plan; but I entreat my readers to believe, that it is not because I want powers for the terrific and the romantic, that I continue to pursue the moral and the probable. 18 Something must be allowed to my desire / of supporting that character of firmness ascribed to my sisterhood, and which, though it simply consists in chusing to have our own way, the wits are apt to call pertinacity. I will also candidly own, that, since the superior station in this walk is already occupied by real genius, I have too much prudence to enter into a competition, where I shall be sure to meet with a defeat; and too much pride to enlist among a herd of servile imitators, who mistake confusion for description, and fancy that what is horribly impossible, must be interesting and grand. But, as my days of dotage are not far distant, if lady Monteith should be unfortunate in her appeal for attention, I and Betty may appear upon the scene; even my cat too may be introduced in an episode. I have seen a subject equally unpromising worked up to an astonishing effect, and really admired by readers / who had been some years out of the nursery: – But, instead of terrifying the world with a denunciation of what I may do, let me hasten to fulfil my present promise.
