OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: COMPRIZING Biographical Memoirs or WILLIAM BOWYER, PRINTER, F. S. A. AND MANY OF HIS LEARNED FRIENDS; AN INCIDENTAL VIEW OF THE PROGRESS AND ADVANCEMENT OF LITERATURE IN THIS KINGDOM DURING THE LAST CENTURY; AND BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTES OF A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF EMINENT WRITERS AND INGENIOUS ARTISTS. BY JOHN NICHOLS, F. S. A. VOLUME IX. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY NICHOLS, SON, AND BENTLEY, AT CICERO'S HEAD, RED-LION-PASSAGE, FLEET-STREET. 1815. ADVERTISEMENT. THE NINTH Volume of "Literary Anecdotes" is presented to the Publick, with a confidence arising from the extraordinary indulgence with which the former Volumes have been received. Nothing but that reception could have induced me to persevere in researches attended with anxious solicitude and considerable personal labour*. But In June 1812, I had relinquished every idea of extending this Work beyond the period included in the Sixth Volume; and, with such views, had actually compiled and printed several sheets. I soon perceived the absolute necessity of extending my plan; the INDEX alone, which was completed in May 1813, having grown to a moderate-sized Volume. The materials indeed for continuing the Work, many of them communicated by Scholars of distinguished eminence, were so numerous, that an Eighth Volume was almost imperceptibly completed by St. George's-day 1814. And now, with the sincerest respect and gratitude, I proceed to * See the progress of such an undertaking, vol. III. p. 297. + See the Preface to vol. I. p. xiii. redeem |