FAULTS, in the following Work, I readily allow, there are many, many;
but, flatter myself, those who are best able to discover, will be most
ready to pardon them. Tours or Journals, are now hackneyed subjects; and
though this may be considered as a trite apology, and (if I may so
express myself) an Author’s loop-hole, yet I can most truly assert, the
present Observations were by no means at first, ever intended to be
scanned by the public eye; but merely for my own private amusement, as a
memento, to have access to, when I wished to breathe delight from
Recollection’s power; my Remarks, therefore, were only such as any
Traveller, an admirer of Nature, would with a pencil briefly put down;
and I must beg leave again to repeat, I had not then the most distant
thought of appearing at the bar of the Public: on my return, I naturally
placed my Observations in a more connected form; and _some time
afterwards_, accidentally conversing with my Bookseller, on the romantic
beauties of Wales, and shewing him a few of my Notes, was persuaded to
prepare them for the press; in consequence of which, I am now embarking
on the literary ocean; and, as a candid behaviour ought to be preferred
to all other considerations, before I sail on my cruize, beg leave to
declare, that it is not the intention of the following sheets, either to
rival the lively and impressive descriptions of a WYNDHAM or a WARNER,—to
contend with the literary and historical anecdotes of a PENNANT,—or to
equal the mineralogical studies of an AIKIN: and here I candidly
acknowledge, when attempting a description of Monmouthshire, I found
myself not a little intimidated, by the intended, and anxiously expected
publication of that county, by a Gentleman, {x} highly classed in the
literary world, for many celebrated productions; conscious of my own
inability to do ample justice to that picturesque county, and
particularly the rich scenery of the Wye, when it is already in such able
hands: I beg from true respect and esteem, to apply to him the following
passage:
Oh, while along the stream of time, thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame.
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,
Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?