Bart, of Firle, in Sussex, and the second wife of the third Lord Aston. I have therefore entitled this Third Division, "Poems collected by the Right Honourable Lady Aston."[1]
The poems in the Fourth, and Last Division, consist of such pieces, as I found totally unconnected with each other, and written on backs of letters, or other scraps of paper. These, for want of a better designation, I have entitled "Miscellaneous Poems."[2] I have prefixed to them, a "Pindaric Ode," by Dryden; two small poems, by Sir Richard Fanshawe; one, by Sidney Godolphin; and one by Waller: all of which I found in the old trunk, and which, I believe, are now published for the first time. Of these "Miscellaneous Poems," it is evident, that many were written by individuals of the Aston family, and their friends; while others have been collected from a variety of volumes. Wherever I have been able to discover them, I have pointed it out in the Notes.
With regard to the internal arrangement of the poems, in each Division, I have endeavoured to dispose them in such a manner, as that too many of the same sort, and cast, should not occur together; but that the reader should be led, by a pleasing interchange of subject, and style,
happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.[3]
Having thus related in what manner these poems were discovered,
and explained the order which I have thought proper to
