-8 I undertook, at the request of John Murray, Esq., of
Albemarle Street, to arrange for publication some posthumous productions of the
late Mr. Joseph Strutt, distinguished as an artist and an antiquary, amongst
which was an unfinished romance, entitled »Queenhoo-Hall.« The scene of the tale
was laid in the reign of Henry VI., and the work was written to illustrate the
manners, customs, and language of the people of England during that period. The
extensive acquaintance which Mr. Strutt had acquired with such subjects in
compiling his laborious »Horda Angel Cynnan,« his »Royal and Ecclesiastical
Antiquities,« and his »Essay on the Sports and Pastimes of the People of
England,« had rendered him familiar with all the antiquarian lore necessary for
the purpose of composing the projected romance; and although the manuscript bore
the marks of hurry and incoherence natural to the first rough draught of the
author, it evinced (in my opinion) considerable powers of imagination.
    As the Work was unfinished I deemed it my duty, as Editor, to supply such a
hasty and inartificial conclusion as could be shaped out from the story, of
which Mr. Strutt had laid the foundation. This concluding chapter* is also added
to the present Introduction, for the reason already mentioned regarding the
preceding fragment. It was a step in my advance towards romantic composition;
and to preserve the traces of these is in a great measure the object of this
Essay.
    Queenhoo-Hall was not, however, very successful. I thought I was aware of
the reason, and supposed that, by rendering his language too ancient, and
displaying his antiquarian knowledge too liberally, the ingenious author had
raised up an obstacle to his own success. Every work designed for mere amusement
must be expressed in language easily comprehended; and when, as is sometimes the
case in Queenhoo-Hall, the author addresses himself exclusively to the
Antiquary, he must be content to be dismissed by the general reader with the
criticism of Mungo, in the Padlock, on the Mauritanian music, »What signifies me
hear, if me no understand?«
    I conceived it possible to avoid this error; and by rendering a similar work
more light and obvious to general comprehension, to escape the rock on which my
predecessor was shipwrecked. But I was, on the other hand, so far discouraged by
the indifferent reception of Mr. Strutt's romance, as to become satisfied that
the manners of the middle ages did not possess the interest which I had
conceived; and was led to form the opinion that a romance founded on