A TALE FOR THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. BY CHARLES FRANCIS TROWER. "It seemeth, that this word (hotchpot) is in English a pudding; for in this pudding is not commonly put one thing alone, but one thing with other things together."-LITTLETON, sect. 267. Hutspot is an old Saxon word, and signifieth so much as Litt! ton here speaks."-COKE upon Littleton, 177 a. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. M DCCC LII. 249.4.206. PREFACE. DEAR READER, LTHOUGH I would not write a mere higher ends than marrying and giv ing in marriage-nor a Sporting-tale alone, (though I love Stoddart, and Knox, and St. John), since we have nobler parts to play, than to be always killing birds, and beasts, and fishes;-nor of grave Politics alone, for then light readers, who are nine-tenths of all, would never care to read me-yet would I fain discourse, in part, of each, if I might thereby gain all to the moral of my Tale. Therefore have I wove a web of Love, seeking to enlist loving hearts. Therefore have I wove a web of Sports, trying to catch keen sportsmen. Therefore have I wove a web of sterner stuff, hoping to win sterner minds. And thence rightly my Tale is surnamed 'HUTSPOT '—a pudding. Yet hath my title, to those who will more closely company me, an esoteric aptitude. For, whereas the ingredients of a pudding, that had each, before such confection, a several essence of its own, straightway partake of the nature of that whereinto they are incorporatemerging their separate identities, and blending in a new result their divers excellences-so too is the moral of my tale an Union, nay more,—an Unity: a symphony of discordant instruments: an uniformity of multiform particulars: a confederation of antagonistic elements: a reconcilement of conflicting heresies. And such an Hutspot it is, dear Reader, which is now commended to your candid criticism, but not the less to your most indulgent consideration, by your loving friend THE AUTHOR. London, June, 1852. |