BARONESS PERCY, LUCY, POYNINGS, FITZ-PAYNE,
BRYAN, AND LATIMER.

MADAM,

HOSE writers, who solicit the protection of the noble and the great, are often exposed to censure by the impropriety of their addresses: a remark that will, perhaps, be too readily applied to him, who, having nothing better to offer than the rude songs of ancient minstrels, aspires to the patronage of the Countess of Northumberland, and hopes that the barbarous productions of unpolished ages can obtain the approbation or notice of her, who adorns courts by her presence, and diffuses elegance by her example.

But this impropriety, it is presumed, will disappear, when it is declared that these poems are presented to your Ladyship, not as labours of art, but as effusions of nature, showing the first efforts of ancient genius, and exhibiting the customs and

B

opinions of remote ages of ages that had been almost lost to memory, had not the gallant deeds of your illustrious ancestors preserved them from oblivion.

No active or comprehensive mind can forbear some attention to the reliques of antiquity. It is prompted by natural curiosity to survey the progress of life and manners, and to inquire by what gradations barbarity was civilized, grossness refined, and ignorance instructed; but this curiosity, Madam, must be stronger in those who, like your Ladyship, can remark in every period the influence of some great progenitor, and who still feel in their effects the transactions and events of distant centuries.

By such bonds, Madam, as I am now introducing to your presence, was the infancy of genius nurtured and advanced, by such were the minds of unlettered warriors softened and enlarged, by such was the memory of illustrious actions preserved and propagated, by such were the heroic deeds of the Earls of Northumberland sung at festivals in the hall of Alnwick; and those songs, which the bounty of your ancestors rewarded, now return to your Ladyship by a kind of hereditary right; and, I flatter myself, will find such reception as is usually shown to poets and historians, by those whose consciousness of merit makes it their interest to be long remembered.

I am,
Madam,

Your Ladyship's

Most humble,

And most devoted Servant,

THOMAS PERCY.*

[This dedication is prefixed to the first edition of the Reliques, (1765), the second edition (1767), and the third edition (1775).]

ΤΟ

ELIZABETH,

LATE DUCHESS AND COUNTESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND, IN HER OWN RIGHT BARONESS PERCY,

ETC. ETC. ETC.

WHO, BEING SOLE HEIRESS TO MANY GREAT FAMILIES OF OUR ANCIENT NOBILITY, EMPLOYED THE PRINCELY FORTUNE, AND SUSTAINED THE ILLUSTRIOUS HONOURS, WHICH SHE DERIVED FROM THEM,

THROUGH HER WHOLE LIFE WITH THE

AND

GREATEST DIGNITY, GENEROSITY, AND SPIRIT;
WHO FOR HER MANY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE VIRTUES
WILL EVER BE REMEMBERED AS ONE OF THE

FIRST CHARACTERS OF HER TIME, THIS
LITTLE WORK WAS ORIGINALLY

DEDICATED; AND, AS IT SOMETIMES AFFORDED HER
AMUSEMENT, AND WAS HIGHLY DISTINGUISHED
BY HER INDULGENT APPROBATION, IT IS
NOW, WITH THE UTMOST REGARD,
RESPECT, AND GRATITUDE, CONSECRATED
TO HER BELOVED AND HONOURED

MEMORY.*

[The Duchess of Northumberland died in the year 1776, and the above inscription appears in the fourth edition (1794) and the fifth edition (1812), besides many subsequent editions.]

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE FOURTH EDITION.*

WENTY years have near elapsed since the last edition of this work appeared. But, although it was sufficiently a favourite with the public, and had long been out of print, the original editor had no desire to revive it. More important pursuits had, as might be expected, engaged his attention; and the present edition would have remained unpublished, had he not yielded to the importunity of his friends, and accepted the humble offer of an editor in a nephew, to whom, it is feared, he will be found too partial.

These volumes are now restored to the public with such corrections and improvements as have occurred since the former impression; and the text in particular hath been emended in many passages by recurring to the old copies. The instances, being frequently trivial, are not always noted in the margin; but the alteration hath never been made without good reason; and especially in such pieces as were extracted from the folio manuscript so often mentioned in the following pages, where any variation

[Published in three volumes small octavo in 1794. "Printed by John Nichols for F. and C. Rivington."]