WILLIA M the IVth,

Duke of DEVONSHIRE,

&c. &c. &c.

My LORD,

T

HERE are a great many Families in the world, of whom nothing more can be faid, than what is recorded of fome of the Antediluvian Patriarchs, to wit, that they lived fo many years, and then died. That Writer pays but a wretched compliment to his Patron, who takes a vast deal of pains to trace out his pedigree from a long line of infignificant ancestors; or, perhaps, in order to embellish fo dry and barren a fubject, fets his inventive faculty at work, and attributes thofe virtues to them which their contemporaries were utter ftrangers to. The Compiler of the following Memoirs is under no neceffity of making use of fuch mean and defpicable artifices. The British Annals, as well as other pieces, afford matter enough to any one who shall attempt to give an account of the illuftrious Family of CAVENDISH, whose

private as well as public virtues have rendered them a bleffing to their country.

Others, indeed, have undertaken to write on the fame head; but then they have either fuperficially touched, or entirely paffed over, fuch incidents, as not only deferved to be had in eternal remembrance, but to be handed down to pofterity in the masterly stile of a Pliny. For this reason, I was induced to collect all the fcattered materials* I could poffibly meet with, and to place them in a regular feries, with fuch reflections interfperfed, as naturally occurred on the ftriking paffages of each particular Life. Though the Structure I' have raised from hence has no beauty nor elegancy to boast of, yet, at least it may claim the merit of strength and folidity, as it has truth for its basis. One of the principal motives for my engaging in a Work of this nature, may be feen in the hiftorical Account prefixed to the Genuine Life of Cardinal WOLSEY, written by your Grace's virtuous, and therefore truly noble, Anceftor, Sir WILLIAM CAVENDISH, of whofe Defcendants it may be justly faid, what, I believe, can be

It is humbly prefumed, that the picking up fuch materials may not be improperly compared to a hip-wreck, the planks of which (fays the great Lord Bacon) induftrious and wife men fnatch up, and preferve them from the deluge of Time.

faid of few Families, which have continued in an uninterrupted fucceffion for fo long a course of years, that there cannot be a fingle instance produced of any one of them who has degenerated from the bright example he set them.

How largely might I here expatiate on

those topics which feem peculiar to Dedications! This I could do, perhaps, with much better addrefs; and, I am fure, with far more truth, than fome I could mention. But we find by experience, that thefe Flowers of Rhetoric, which are fo lavishly bestowed, tho' at first they may please for their novelty, yet, like natural ones, they foon fade and become naufeous. This, in fhort, is no place for Panegyric; and indeed it would be a piece of impertinence to inform the Public, who, or what the Duke of DEVONSHIRE is. Let your Grace's own actions tell the world what you have been, and what it may still expect from one, who has already given us fo many fpecimens of his unshaken Loyalty and inflexible Patriotism; and I have fufficient reason, even now in the decline of life, to flatter myself, that I may live long enough to fee you give us a good many more.

I fhall, therefore, conclude with just intimating, that, as the following Performance

was

was intended not fo much to do honour to your Grace, as to excite others to an emulation of thofe Virtues which have rendered your Family more illuftrious than your splendid titles and ample fortune, I make no doubt but that, notwithstanding all its defects and inaccuracies, it will not be thought wholly unworthy of your Patronage. This I can affure your Grace, that nothing will give me a greater pleasure than to have an opportunity of expatiating on the fame fubject, or at least in collecting materials for those who will certainly undertake the like task when I am no more. In the interim, I beg that you will believe me to be, with the profoundest veneration,