Page:A View of the State of Ireland - 1809.djvu/297

TO THE READER. tongue, th' one so rare, that scarcely five in five hundred can skill thereof, th'other so hard, that it asketh continuance in the Land, of more y cares then I had moneths to spare about this husines, my speciall meaning was to gather so much as I thought the civil! subjects could bee content to reade, and withall to give a light to the learned Antiquaries of this Countrcy birth, who may hereafter at good leisure supply the want of this foundation, and poll is h the stone rough hewed to their hand. Notwithstanding as naked and simple as it is, it could never have growne to any proportion in such post-haste, except I had entered into such familiar societie, and daylie tabletalke with the worshipfull Esquire Iames Stanihurst? Recorder of Dublin. VVho beside all curtesie of Hospitality, and a thousand loving tames not here to be recited, both by word and written monuments, and by the benefit of his owne Library, nourished most effectually mine endeavour. It remaineth that I request my countrymen to bend their good liking to my goodwill, and the English of Ireland to favour the memory of their noble auncestors, both twaine to deliver me from all undue and wrong suspitions, howsoever the priviledge of an history hath tempered mine hike with sweet or sowre