Produced by Lark Speyer, Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net OLLA PODRIDA BY CAPTAIN MARRYAT [Illustration] LONDON J. M. DENT AND CO. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND CO. MDCCCXCVI Contents THE MONK OF SEVILLE 1 _Metropolitan Magazine_, 1833. THE GIPSY 85 _Metropolitan Magazine_, 1834. ILL-WILL 159 _New Monthly Magazine_, 1837. HOW TO WRITE A FASHIONABLE NOVEL 179 _Metropolitan Magazine_, 1833. HOW TO WRITE A BOOK OF TRAVELS 200 _Metropolitan Magazine_ 1833, 1834. HOW TO WRITE A ROMANCE 214 _Metropolitan Magazine_, 1835. S.W. AND BY W. 3/4 W. 225 THE SKY-BLUE DOMINO 243 _New Monthly Magazine_, 1837. MODERN TOWN HOUSES 260 _New Monthly Magazine_, 1837. THE WAY TO BE HAPPY 275 THE LEGEND OF THE BELL ROCK 282 MOONSHINE 293 THE FAIRY'S WAND 313 _New Monthly Magazine_, 1840. A RENCONTRE 328 Prefatory Note This edition of _Olla Podrida_ does not include the "Diary on the Continent" which appeared first in the _Metropolitan Magazine_ 1835-1836 as "The Diary of a _Blase_" continued in the _New Monthly Magazine_ 1837, 1838, as "Confessions and opinions of Ralph the Restless." Marryat himself described the "Diary" as "very good magazine stuff," and it has no fitting place in an edition of his novels, from which the "Diary in America" is also excluded. The space thus created is occupied by "The Gipsy," "The Fairy's Wand," and "A Rencontre," which I have ventured to print here in spite the author's protest,[A] that the original edition of _Olla Podrida_ contained all the miscellaneous matter contributed by him to periodicals that he wished to acknowledge as his writing. The statement may be regarded as a challenge to his editors to produce something worthy; and I certainly consider that the "Gipsy" is superior to some of his fragments, and may be paired, as a comedy, with "The Monk of Seville," as a tragedy. [Footnote A: Preface to first edition of O.P. printed below.] But I have not attempted any systematic search for scraps. "The Fairy's Wand" was published in the same year as, and probably later than, _Olla Podrida_ itself, and need not therefore be "considered as disavowed and rejected" by him. "A Rencontre" was always reprinted and acknowledged by its author, being, for no ostensible reason, bound up with _Joseph Rushbrook, or The Poacher_, 1841.