DEDICATION.
TO HER GRACE
ELIZABETH,
DUCHESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND:
IN HER OWN RIGHT
BARONESS PERCY, LUCY, POYNINGS, FITZ-PAYNE, BRYAN, and LATIMER.
MADAM,
YOUR Grace's taste for travelling, as well as for every elegant refinement of life, encourages me to hope, that the following sheets will be so fortunate as to attract your eye, in the silent retirement of some vacant hour. They contain the description of a country dear to every Briton, and as dear particularly to your Grace, for being the birth-place of a great Princess, whose eminent virtues adorn the throne of these realms, and captivate the affections of a brave and loyal people. They contain the out-lines of courts not unworthy of your curiosity; where, amidst all the splendid embellishments of Society, truth, honour, and sincerity, are still the prevailing principles of a numerous and ancient nobility. And here a way fairly opens itself before me, to draw a parallel between the august theatre where your Grace acts so shining a part, and those foreign courts, whose characters I have been so happy as to observe and admire. But the talk is too arduous. Were I to attempt to describe the ornaments of the British court, I might place your Grace in the foremost rank, and expatiate on the past glories of your renowned ancestors, whose virtues, as well as large possessions, you happily inherit: I might endeavour to paint those conjugal perfections, which endear you to your truly noble and generous consort, and render you a complete model of domestic felicity: I might extol your splendor and magnificence, by which you Support the dignity and name of the Great Percies: I might delineate your goodness, your affability, your generosity, your -. But the confideration of your delicacy stops my pen; and I am apprehensive of offending, when I only mean to court your patronage. My ambition is satisfied; the ambition of sheltering these papers under your auspicious name, and of being permitted, thus publicly, to declare the profound veneration and esteem with which I have the honour to subscribe myself,
MADAM,
YOUR GRACE'S
MOST HUMBLE,
MOST DEVOTED, AND
MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT,
Gray's Inn,
Feb. 20, 1768..
THO. NUGENT.
ELIZABETH,
DUCHESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND:
IN HER OWN RIGHT
BARONESS PERCY, LUCY, POYNINGS, FITZ-PAYNE, BRYAN, and LATIMER.
MADAM,
YOUR Grace's taste for travelling, as well as for every elegant refinement of life, encourages me to hope, that the following sheets will be so fortunate as to attract your eye, in the silent retirement of some vacant hour. They contain the description of a country dear to every Briton, and as dear particularly to your Grace, for being the birth-place of a great Princess, whose eminent virtues adorn the throne of these realms, and captivate the affections of a brave and loyal people. They contain the out-lines of courts not unworthy of your curiosity; where, amidst all the splendid embellishments of Society, truth, honour, and sincerity, are still the prevailing principles of a numerous and ancient nobility. And here a way fairly opens itself before me, to draw a parallel between the august theatre where your Grace acts so shining a part, and those foreign courts, whose characters I have been so happy as to observe and admire. But the talk is too arduous. Were I to attempt to describe the ornaments of the British court, I might place your Grace in the foremost rank, and expatiate on the past glories of your renowned ancestors, whose virtues, as well as large possessions, you happily inherit: I might endeavour to paint those conjugal perfections, which endear you to your truly noble and generous consort, and render you a complete model of domestic felicity: I might extol your splendor and magnificence, by which you Support the dignity and name of the Great Percies: I might delineate your goodness, your affability, your generosity, your -. But the confideration of your delicacy stops my pen; and I am apprehensive of offending, when I only mean to court your patronage. My ambition is satisfied; the ambition of sheltering these papers under your auspicious name, and of being permitted, thus publicly, to declare the profound veneration and esteem with which I have the honour to subscribe myself,
MADAM,
YOUR GRACE'S
MOST HUMBLE,
MOST DEVOTED, AND
MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT,
Gray's Inn,
Feb. 20, 1768..
THO. NUGENT.
Dieses Kapitel ist Teil des Buches TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. Vol. 1