I have only to add, chiefly from the preface to the former edition, that my object in this volume has been to present to the reader a view of the Rural Life of England at the present period, as seen in all classes and all parts of the country. For this purpose I have not merely depended upon my acquaintance with rural life, which has been that of a great portion of my own life from boyhood, but I have literally travelled, and a great deal of it on foot, from the Land’s-End to the Tweed, penetrating into the retirements, and witnessing the domestic life of the country in primitive seclusions and under rustic roofs. If the mountains and valleys, the fair plains and sea-coasts, the halls and farm-houses, the granges, and cottages of shepherds, miners, peasants, or fishermen, be visited in this volume with a tenth part of the enjoyment with which I have visited them in their reality, it must be a delightful book indeed; for no moments of my existence have been more deliciously spent, than those in which I have wandered from spot to spot of this happy and beautiful island, surveying its ancient monuments, and its present living men and manners. The embellishments of this volume are both designed and engraved by Samuel Williams: the only exceptions being, that I am indebted to our accomplished friend the late Miss Twamley of Birmingham, now Mrs. Meredith, of Australia, for the sketch on the title-page; for those of the Charcoal-burner’s Hut, and Morgan Lewis’s last View of the Fairies, to our excellent young friend Miss Tregellis, of Neath Abbey; that of Purkiss’s Hut, New Forest, to Mrs. Southey; and to the amiable family of the late FATHER OF MODERN WOOD-ENGRAVING--the unrivalled THOMAS BEWICK, for the Otter-Hunt, at page 302, and the Street-Scene at page 324 of this work, left at his death by that eminent artist unpublished. Both pieces will be found characteristic of the hand from which they come; and the Street-Scene, in particular, is full of those happy satirical sallies which give such piquancy to many of his productions. W. H. _West-end Cottage, Esher, Surrey, April 16th, 1840._ LIST OF EMBELLISHMENTS.