то THE EARL OF WARWICK. MY LORD, THE very flattering approbation I received from your Lordship in the course of the prefent undertaking, has been no fmall incitement to my labours, and has induced me to pursue with confidence and alacrity, a work, in which the good opinion opinion of perfons of true tafte has ever been my first aim, and its attainment the completion of my wishes. THE exalted rank your Lordship justly holds in fociety, and the conspicuous, venerable, and dignified manfion you fo truly enjoy on the bank of that Avon, which forms fo leading a feature in its embellishments, would naturally fuggeft a wish to find in fuch a place protection and patronage: yet these circumftances, flattering as they are, were not the principal inducement to affix your name to this work. THE THE knowledge and taste you have displayed, both in the works of your own pencil, as well as the felection of those of the first masters in the different fchools of painting, give you a fuperior claim in appretiating the merits of others and more especially of a work like this, in which the contemplation of the beautiful scenery of our country, and an invariable attention to every production in the fine arts, with which it is enriched, form the principal and leading features. Prefuming, therefore, in fome degree, upon your Lordfhip's approbation of this volume, I venture to lay it before the Public, and PREFACE. THE Upper or Warwickshire Avon, though not equally famed for the nature and extent of its commerce, as for the many beautiful and elegant scenes difplayed on its banks, yet deservedly holds a pre-eminent rank amongst the leffer rivers, that so abundantly fertilize our luxuriant island. Had the vicinity of our Avon in its gentle and meandering course exhibited less of the picturefque, or of the magnificent fragments of antiquity, than it can in so many inftances justly boast, yet ftill, the honour it derives from having produced our immor |