PREFACE

ix

or biographic, of which I have made use in the following
pages. The Rev. James Leakey of Chilhampton, for
instance, whose father was an intimate friend of the subject
of this memoir, has given me his reminiscences; and
Dr. Harper of Bath, whose large collection includes four of
J. R. Smith’s prints in unique states, with rare inscriptions,
Mr. Bruton, Mr. Douglas Heath, and Mr. Chambers, are
among these valuable country correspondents.
Mr. J. Hull, of the Prints and Drawings Departments
of the British Museum, in the indices, and Mr. Emery
Walker (of Messrs. Walker and Cockerill), in the photo-
graphic reproductions, have given me loyal and invaluable
help ; the printers and engravers have co-operated with
what appears to me most satisfactory result; and the
publishers have spared neither trouble nor expense in the
production of a book which, however successful, must, by
the very nature of the work, repay them more in reputa-
tion than in pecuniary profit.
I have availed myself of John Chaloner Smith’s
admirable Catalogue of engraved portraits, but I have
supplemented it, so far as it related to the subject of this
memoir, with nearly 700 alterations and additions, every
one of which has, except when specially stated to the
contrary, been personally verified before inclusion.
Was my last book worthy of the encouragement and
help I received ?—Will my present one satisfy those kind
and unexacting friends and acquaintances to whom, as I
have shown, it owes so much of its value ? These are,
nevertheless, questions I cannot but ask myself. To write
a worthy biography of a man who has been dead nearly
a century, who left no diary, no papers, whose con-
temporary memoirs were so scanty, whose family, sunk
into insignificance, has been so difficult to trace, has not
proved an easy task, nor one that I have accomplished
entirely to my own satisfaction.