Preface

When the Editor was requested to compile this Memoir, he could not forget his scanty leisure, and his limited acquaintance with Lady Colquhoun. But the invitation of her family, the belief that a near relative of his own, now no more, would have responded to it with all the eagerness of his fervent nature, and the hope that such a narrative might be blessed to the reproduction of similar characters, at length induced him to make the attempt.

In the prosecution of his undertaking, the Compiler has felt both the lack and the excess of materials. To the affectionate diligence of a family who cannot revere too devotedly the memory of such a parent, and who have kindly put at his disposal all Remains and Recollections likely to illustrate her history, he is indebted for documents which might easily expand this memorial fourfold. On the other hand, many most valuable portions of her Ladyship’s correspondence are gone beyond recal. One series of her letters perished in a conflagration; another was lost at sea; and many have disappeared as they passed into hands less careful than theirs who first received them. And, precious as is her Diary, having been kept for uses entirely personal, it contains few singular or extrinsic incidents. The difficulty of selection has been great. Many references are omitted which would have been peculiarly gratifying to relatives and friends; and many passages, in themselves so edifying, that their suppression caused a pang at the moment, and still leaves a misgiving. But, in a printed book, as in a public address, the writer well knows that the most venal fault is brevity; and his only grief will be, if, in trying to earn that pleasant censure, he has failed to do justice to one whose rare excellence merited a copious record and a more skiKul biographer.

London., Avtgiist 10, 1849.