V. Mohun Appears For The Last Time In This History
Chapter VII. I Visit Castlewood Once More
Chapter VIII. I Travel To France And Bring Home A Portrait Of Rigaud
Chapter IX. The Original Of The Portrait Comes To England
Chapter X. We Entertain A Very Distinguished Guest At Kensington
Chapter XI. Our Guest Quits Us As Not Being Hospitable Enough
Chapter XII. A Great Scheme, And Who Balked It
Chapter XIII. August 1st, 1714
The English Humourists Of The Eighteenth Century
Lecture The Second. Congreve And Addison
Lecture The Fourth. Prior, Gay, And Pope
Lecture The Fifth. Hogarth, Smollett, And Fielding
Lecture The Sixth. Sterne And Goldsmith
Sketches Of Manners, Morals, Court And Town Life
The History Of Henry Esmond, Esq.
THE HISTORY OF
HENRY ESMOND, ESQ.
A COLONEL IN THE SERVICE OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN ANNE
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF
Servetur ad imum
Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet
[First edition in three volumes, 1852. Revised edition, 1858]
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Dedication.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
WILLIAM BINGHAM, LORD ASHBURTON
My Dear Lord,
The writer of a book which copies the manners and language of Queen Anne's time, must not omit the Dedication to the Patron; and I ask leave to inscribe this volume to your lordship, for the sake of the great kindness and friendship which I owe to you and yours.
My volume will reach you when the Author is on his voyage to a country where your name is as well known as here. Wherever I am, I shall gratefully regard you; and shall not be the less welcomed in America because I am
Your obliged friend and servant,
W. M. THACKERAY.
London, October 18, 1852.
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Preface. The Esmonds Of Virginia
The estate of Castlewood, in Virginia, which was given to our ancestors by King Charles the First, as some return for the sacrifices made in his Majesty's cause by the Esmond family, lies in Westmoreland county, between the rivers Potomac and Rappahannoc, and was once as great as an English Principality, though in the early times its revenues were but small. Indeed, for near eighty years after our forefathers possessed them, our plantations were in the hands of factors, who enriched themselves one after another, though a few scores of hogsheads of tobacco were all the produce that, for long after the Restoration, our family received from their Virginian estates.
My dear and honoured father, Colonel Henry Esmond, whose history, written by himself, is contained in the accompanying volume, came to Virginia in the year 1718, built his house of Castlewood, and here permanently settled. After a long stormy life in England, he passed the remainder of his many years in peace and honour in this country; how beloved and respected by all his fellow citizens, how inexpressibly dear to his family, I need not say. His whole life was a benefit to all who were connected with him. He gave the best example, the best advice, the most bounteous hospitality to his friends; the tenderest care to his dependants; and bestowed on those of his immediate family such a blessing of fatherly love and protection, as can never be thought of, by us at least, without veneration and thankfulness; and my son's children, whether established here in our Republick, or at home in the always beloved mother country, from which our late quarrel hath separated us, may surely be proud to be descended from one who in all ways was so truly noble.
My dear mother died in 1736,
