Читать книгу The Letters of the Duke of Wellington to Miss J., 1834-1851 - Arthur Wellesley Wellington - Страница 1

The effort of the Editor throughout this volume has been to repress fancy rather than to exercise it. There has not been a word added to or taken from the letters of the Duke, even the occasional eccentricities of orthography and punctuation having been preserved.

The editing that was absolutely necessary to render coherent some of Miss J.'s lucubrations has been restricted to the excision of superfluous passages of Scripture that added nothing to the sense of the text, and the correction of the very erratic punctuation both of her diary and of the copies she has left of her own letters.

Miss J.'s copies of the Duke's epistles have been verified by comparison with the originals. In every case where the needful books and journals of reference were attainable, the Duke's statements in the letters of his comings and goings and occupations have been corroborated by contemporary data.

The particulars of Miss J.'s personal history have been derived from private family sources.

CHRISTINE TERHUNE HERRICK.

Brooklyn, March 18, 1889.