ΤΟ

HENRY BANKES, ESQ. M.P.

SIR,

ALTHOUGH I have not the honour to be personally known to you, allow me to submit the following Tale to your notice, and to solicit for it your sanction.

The interesting scenes I have endeavoured to describe have been familiar to you from an early age; and the beautiful Ruin which occupies so important a place in the narrative, has been in the possession of your ancestors, and yourself, for nearly two hundred years. May it continue to descend to your posterity through numerous generations, a singular and picturesque monument of former days.

Many revolving seasons have passed since I wandered, in all the ardour of youthful enthusiasm, within its dilapidated walls, associating with these venerable remains the