BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft, Written by Himself and continued to the time of his death, from his diary, notes, and other papers, were published in three volumes (6⅜ × 3⅞), London, 1816, printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-row, by J. M’Creery, Black Horse Court, Fleet Street. The division of the work is explained in Hazlitt’s Advertisement. Vol. I. contains Book I. (Mr Holcroft’s Narrative) and Book II.; Vol. II. contains Book III. and seven chapters of Book IV., in the last chapter of which Mr Holcroft’s Diary begins (June 22nd-July 18th, 1798); Vol. III. opens without any reference to a ‘Book’ and heads the conclusion of the Diary (July 19th, 1798–March 12th, 1799) ‘Chap. I.’ In the present edition it has seemed well to ignore this arbitrary ‘Chap. I.’ heading, to run the Diary straight on, and to head Chap. II. in the 3rd vol. Chap. VIII., thus completing Book IV. The remainder of Vol. III. after this chapter is occupied by Letters to and from the author.
It will be seen that a delay of six years took place between the date of Hazlitt’s Advertisement and the publication of the volumes. Mr W. C. Hazlitt writes: ‘These Memoirs were never, in spite of all the lapse of time, completely printed; only three volumes out of four were printed.’ Every endeavour to find this fourth volume has failed. The Memoirs were reprinted, abridged, in Longman’s ‘Travellers’ Library,’ 1852. The present issue reproduces the first edition.