Produced by ppcunningham from the library of San Francisco State University Transcriber's Note: This is a faithful transcription of the original 1796 printing of this novel. All archaic words, alternative spellings, and inconsistencies of grammatical form and fashion, have been preserved. * * * * * BUNGAY CASTLE: A NOVEL. BY MRS. BONHOTE. Author of the Parental Monitor, &c. _In Two Volumes_ Astonished at the voice he stood amaz'd, And all around with inward horror gaz'd. ADDISON. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR WILLIAM LANE, AT THE Minerva Press LEADENHALL-STREET. M.DCC.XCVI. FRONTISPIECE [Illustration: Drawing of Bungay Castle] BUNGAY CASTLE TO THE MOST NOBLE CHARLES DUKE OF NORFOLK, WHOSE URBANITY AND PHILANTHROPY MUST EVER REFLECT ADDITIONAL HONOURS ON THE NAME OF HOWARD; BY WHOSE NOBLE FAMILY BUNGAY CASTLE WAS POSSESSED FOR MANY CENTURIES; THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY HIS GRACE'S MOST OBEDIENT, AND VERY HUMBLE SERVANT, ELIZ. BONHOTE. Bungay, 1797. INTRODUCTION. Castle-Building appears to have been the passion of all ages; while some have been raising their fabrics on the most solid and lasting foundations, others have been forming them in the air, where the structure has been erected with infinitely less trouble, as their own invention led them to wish, and very pleasant, no doubt, was the delusion of the moment. It is now the prevailing taste to read wonderful tales of wonderful castles; to recall them from the [* Missing words here ] ages, and represent them as the novelist finds most suitable to the circumstances of his tale. In times like these, every book that serves to amuse the mind, and withdraw the attention from scenes of real distress, without inflaming the passions, or corrupting the heart, must surely be as acceptable to the reader as it may have been found pleasant to the writer, and should exempt the latter from the severity of criticism. Under the influence of this opinion, the Author of the following sheets has been tempted to send them into the world. She might, indeed, to evade the danger of having her work condemned, pretend to have found it in some recess of her favourite ruins, or to have discovered it artfully concealed in the bottom of an old chest, in so defaced and mutilated a condition, as to have rendered it a very difficult and laborious task to collect the fragments and modernize the language: but the writer of these pages has not been so fortunate; and, had she attempted to assert so marvellous a circumstance, she could not have expected any miss of fifteen would have been credulous enough to believe her.