TO
THE MOST NOBLE
THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE,
Etc. Etc. Etc.
My Lord Marquis,
Many reasons concur why I should feel ambitious to associate your name with the following production. To enumerate these would neither become my humility, nor be acceptable to your good taste. But there is one motive which, as it is the offspring of the heart, implanted there at a period when adulation was not dreamt of, I may be allowed to particularise,—I was born upon your estates—you are the landlord of that spot which imparted my earliest images—the first soarings of my fancy were derived from that scene—and to the native notes which I have lisped in that primitive and retired region, more than to the vaunted advantages of a subsequent collegiate career, am I beholden for the clue with which I have traversed the ancient world; and of which Envy herself must yet acknowledge, that I have here rectified the history in its very widest amplitude—as well sacred as profane.
It is to do honour to this clue in the eyes of the Mecænas of his age, and, under the auspices of his approval, to promote its revival, that I give utterance to this sentiment; and so, hoping that you will view it in this light, and not as the empty chaunt of a reprehensible egotism, I beg leave to subscribe myself, with the most profound consideration and respect,
My Lord Marquis,
Your Lordship’s most devoted
And most faithful, humble Servant,
Henry O’Brien.
London, September 1834.