



Produced by Sam W. and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team at http://www.pgdp.net









       WINTERSLOW

  ESSAYS AND CHARACTERS
      WRITTEN THERE

           BY

     WILLIAM HAZLITT


      [Decoration]


         LONDON
     GRANT RICHARDS
   48 LEICESTER SQUARE
          1902




  The World's Classics

           XXV

      THE WORKS OF
  WILLIAM HAZLITT--III

       WINTERSLOW

  ESSAYS AND CHARACTERS
      WRITTEN THERE


_These Essays were first published collectively in the year
1839. In 'The World's Classics' they were first published in
1902._

Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. Constable




The World's Classics


  I.
  JANE EYRE. By Charlotte Bronte. [_Second Impression._

  II.
  THE ESSAYS OF ELIA. By Charles Lamb. [_Second Impression._

  III.
  THE POEMS OF ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, 1830-1858. [_Second
    Impression._

  IV.
  THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. By Oliver Goldsmith.

  V.
  TABLE-TALK: Essays on Men and Manners. By William Hazlitt.
    [_Second Impression._

  VI.
  ESSAYS. By Ralph Waldo Emerson. [_Second Impression._

  VII.
  THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN KEATS. [_Second Impression._

  VIII.
  OLIVER TWIST. By Charles Dickens.

  IX.
  THE INGOLDSBY LEGENDS. By Thomas Ingoldsby. [_Second
    Impression._

  X.
  WUTHERING HEIGHTS. By Emily Bronte.

  XI.
  ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. By Charles Darwin. [_Second
    Impression._

  XII.
  THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. By John Bunyan.

  XIII.
  ENGLISH SONGS AND BALLADS. Selected by T. W. H. Crosland.

  XIV.
  SHIRLEY. By Charlotte Bronte.

  XV.
  SKETCHES AND ESSAYS. By William Hazlitt.

  XVI.
  THE POEMS OF ROBERT HERRICK.

  XVII.
  ROBINSON CRUSOE. By Daniel Defoe.

  XVIII.
  HOMER'S ILIAD. Translated by Alexander Pope.

  XIX.
  SARTOR RESARTUS. By Thomas Carlyle.

  XX.
  GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. By Jonathan Swift.

  XXI.
  TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION. By Edgar Allan Poe.

  XXII.
  NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. By Gilbert White.

  XXIII.
  CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. By T. De Quincey.

  XXIV.
  BACON'S ESSAYS.

  XXV.
  WINTERSLOW. By William Hazlitt.

  XXVI.
  THE SCARLET LETTER. By Nathaniel Hawthorne.

  XXVII.
  LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. By Lord Macaulay.

  XXVIII.
  HENRY ESMOND. By W. M. Thackeray.

  XXIX.
  IVANHOE. By Sir Walter Scott.

  _Other volumes in preparation._

  Pott 8vo. Cloth, 1s. net. Leather, 2s. net.




PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1850


Winterslow is a village of Wiltshire, between Salisbury and Andover,
where my father, during a considerable portion of his life, spent
several months of each year, latterly, at an ancient inn on the Great
Western Road, called Winterslow Hut. One of his chief attractions
hither were the noble woods of Tytherleigh or Tudorleigh, round Norman
Court, the seat of Mr. Baring Wall, M.P., whose proffered kindness to
my father, on a critical occasion, was thoroughly appreciated by the
very sensitiveness which declined its acceptance, and will always be
gratefully remembered by myself. Another feature was Clarendon
Wood--whence the noble family of Clarendon derived their title--famous
besides for the Constitutions signed in the palace which once rose
proudly amongst its stately trees, but of which scarce a vestige
remains. In another direction, within easy distance, gloams
Stonehenge, visited by my father, less perhaps for its historical
associations than for its appeal to the imagination, the upright
stones seeming in the dim twilight, or in the drizzling mist, almost
continuous in the locality, so many spectre-Druids, moaning over the
past, and over their brethren prostrate about them. At no great
distance, in another direction