Page:The Wentworth Papers 1715-1739.djvu/14

 VI PREFACE.

the copies he preserved of a few of his own letters have assisted me a Httle in tracing out his careeer.

In transcribing the letters the original spelling has been preserved as closely as possible ; the exceptions have been only in the cases of the abbreviations of words in continual use, such as "y"" for "the," " y"' " for " them," which simply disfigure the page and render no assistance in estimatino; the character of the writer or the state of education at the time he lived. The methods of dating adopted by the different corre- spondents were, however, so various — some letters, being undated and endorsed by the recipient when abroad in countries where the New Style was in force, were especially difficult to arrange chronologically — that I thought it best to disregard entirely these pecu- liarities, and to date each letter according to the modern system in use in England since 1752.

It is with much pleasure that I acknowledge my many obligations to Mr. E. Maunde Thompson, Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, and to his courteous assistants in the Department, for the kind help afforded me during my examination of these Papers.

J. J. c.

London : November, 1882.

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