PREFACE
The greater part of the accompanying work appeared some six years ago in a local newspaper.
Since then I have been frequently urged to republish the papers in a completed form, but up to
the present time, other duties and absence from
England, have prevented me from doing so.
I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to
"Faulkner's History of Kensington,"
to Princess
Marie Liectenstein's "
Holland House
," to Sir
Charles Otto Trevelyan's "Life and Letters of
Lord
Macaulay
," and above all to Leigh Hunt's
"Old Court Suburb."
From the ast work I have borrowed less directly
than from the others, but I feel that were it not
for the taste for the subject which the perusal of
this book infused into me when I first read it some
years ago, the present work would never have appeared. Indeed, no small portion of my object will
have been obtained should these random jottings
induce any of my readers who have not yet done
so to turn to these standard authorities for themselves.
R. WEIR BROWN.
Kensington, W.
