Excerpt from AEdes Hartwellianae: Or Notices of the Manor and Mansion of Hartwell My dear Lee, Few people will be more surprised than yourself, on opening these pages, at the miscellany here compounded. It is true you were informed that my object was to indite an account of the Hartwell Observatory; but it became impossible to draw that up without vivid recollections of a mansion in which the writer has passed so many - and he hopes useful - hours, and of an estate to which he has been so many years a trustee, under Act of Parliament. For obvious reasons this intention was not revealed to you; but the tenor of my inquiries, with the rummaging of old musty deeds, and the ransacking of all sorts of papers, might have betrayed that a favourite object was under treatment. Through all, the voluntary task is now worked out, and I submit the result to your judgment. You will find, it is trusted, though your documents have been pretty freely acted with, that I have strictly steered the course which lies between public or general interest and personal confidence; and that in no instance has the line of propriety been violated, or even strained beyond a proper latitude. With the exception of your own two lithographs of Egyptian stelae, the plates of this work are engraven from drawings expressly made by members of my family; who, having all, at various times, enjoyed the hospitalities of Hartwell House, were much interested in my undertaking. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."