This Volume is submitted to the Public with all that diffidence which
ought to attend the publication of Verses, many of which were written
in the gay and happy era of boyhood, and others in subsequent periods
of maturer life, as a relief from more arduous pursuits.
They lay no pretensions to the depth and solidity of the effusions of
the Muse in her elevated flights; they are the few wild notes of the
simple shepherd, and do not even affect to imitate the rich cadence of
the scientific musician.
If the Author might, without the imputation of vanity, select for them
a place in the Temple of Poetry, he would endeavour to class them in
that niche which is appropriated for the reception of the light and
playful _Vers de Societé_.
Should the Reader find them but little worthy of his approval, he will
not have reason at the same time to condemn their prolixity: their
brevity will, at least in some degree, atone for their want of fire and
fancy.
It is thought proper to state that some of the following Poems have
appeared before at various times, in a fugitive shape; and that the
Poetry in the Author’s Tours is here collected.