TO THE READER. DR. DORAN'S last book demands a word of introduction. For fourteen years the genial Author carried on in the pages of the Athenæum that charming series of papers which dealt annually with the locality selected for the approaching meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Last year, with the kind concurrence of the Proprietors of the Athenæum, it was determined that these papers-so brimful of pleasant chatty interest and antiquarian lore-should be collected and republished. Accordingly the Author set about their revision. After finishing London in the Jacobite Times he took a short holiday, and on returning to town completed his task. On the second day of January—then in his usual happy spirits, and apparently in his usual health —he called on the printer, and with his own hand delivered the packet containing all the corrections in the contents of this volume. |