TOGETHER WITH THE ENTIRE EVIDENCE OF THE PERSONS To which are added, FAC SIMILES OF THE BANNS, AND REGISTER EXTRACTED FROM THE PARISH BOOKS OF BERKELEY. To the whole is prefixed, A SKETCH OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE on the EARL OF BERKELEY'S PEDIGREE IN THE YEAR 1799. LONDON: PRINTED FOR SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES, WASHBOURN, GLOUCESTER; MUNDAY AND SLATER, OXFORD; London: Printed by Law and Gilbert, St. John's-square; J. G. Barnard, Snow-hill; and C. Squire, Furnival's-Inn-Court, Holborn. PREFACE. IF" the proper study of Mankind is Man," aš a writer not less acute than elegant has observed, it is presumed that a greater diversity of incident, manners, and character has seldom presented itself than is to be found in the following pages. They exhibit a moral delineation of society in the opposite extremes of high and low life, of fashion and rusticity, and of course pourtray a contrast proportionably striking; from which, while amusement is derived, instruction is in a manner forced upon the reader, without the fatigue of study or investigation. In such sketches of real life and manners as are contained in these pages, those circumstances and events, which, any otherwise attested, would appear romantic, are found to be real; the surprize thus created is agreeable, the information genuine, and the effects of the whole not less pleasing than permanent. A parallel to the Earl of Berkeley may be found in the gallant gay Lotharios of the present and other times, who have never made any scruples as to equality of birth, or plebeian connections, when the gratification of their passions was the object in view. Not so with Lady Berkeley; for, abating the imprudence of suffering herself, in the first instance, to be seduced by the possessor of a carriage and a coronet; Pamela herself could not afford a more perfect pattern of unblemished |