side, the printed papers and books on another; while I carefully collected the manuscript poems, and letters, and every thing which appeared to be of a literary nature, or to have any relation to the Aston family, into a heap by themselves. When I had got completely through the contents of the trunk, I returned into it, all that I considered as useless, at least for my purpose. I carried the books, and printed papers, to the library, and put by the rest for further examination. The reader will judge of the vast mass of papers I bad to wade through, and of the extent of my labour, and perseverance, when I inform him, that I was almost continually occupied for about ten days, from breakfast to dinner, and frequently an hour or more before breakfast, and another in the evening, before I beheld the bottom of the trunk. Such is the history of my search after manuscripts at Tixall, and such was the success with which that search Was attended.
IV. The whole of the manuscripts thus discovered, naturally fell into three classes: 1. The State Papers of Sir Walter Aston; 2. The Poetry; 3. the Letters, and other papers, which seemed to have any relation to the private history of the Aston family. My attention was first, and principally attracted, to the poems, and letters. They were altogether an unexpected discovery; they were likely to be more interesting in themselves, and were more suited to the bent of my genius, and to the train of my favourite studies, than a diplomatic correspondence, or a collection of state papers. On examining the poetry, I found, as it was natural to expect, that it was of very unequal merit; but I still thought, on a more attentive perusal, that there were many pieces worthy of preservation. My first business, therefore, was to select these, and then to transcribe them. After this operation, I had the pleasure to find that I still had a sufficient
number of poems to form a volume; and it then became my study
b
