With respect to the Notes which I have added, as Editor of the present
volume, in correction or illustration of Aubrey's observations, I am
alone responsible.* It would have been easy to have increased their
number; for every page of the original text is full of matter
suggestive of reflection and comment. I am aware that a more familiar
acquaintance with the present condition of Wiltshire would have
facilitated my task, and added greatly to the importance of these
notes. On this point indeed I might quote the remarks of Aubrey in his
preface, for they apply with equal force to myself; and, like him, I
cannot but regret that no "ingeniouse and publique-spirited young
Wiltshire man" has undertaken the task which I have thus imperfectly
performed.

* [These are enclosed within brackets [thus], and bear the initials
J. B. Some of the less important are marked by brackets only.]

In closing this address, and also in taking leave of the county of
Wilts, as regards my literary connection with it, I feel it to be at
once a duty and a pleasure to record my acknowledgments and thanks to
those persons who have kindly aided me on the present occasion. When I
commenced this undertaking I did not anticipate the labour it would
involve me in, and the consequent time it would demand, or I must have
declined the task; for I have been compelled to neglect a superior
obligation which I owe to a host of kind and generous friends who have
thought proper to pay me and literature a compliment in my old age, by
subscribing a large sum of money as a PUBLIC TESTIMONIAL. In return
for this, and to reciprocate the compliment, I have undertaken the
laborious and delicate task of writing an AUTO-BIOGRAPHY which will
narrate the chief incidents of my public life, and describe the