In Praise of Ale

Guildhall Library has laid me under lasting obligations, as has also the late Mayor of Dorchester, Alfred Pope, Esq. Last, but not least, a tribute of thankfulness from every book- maker and reader at the British Museum is due to the officials of that noble Institution, from the Head of the Staff to the youngest member thereof. I have been a reader for many years, and have always received the greatest courtesy and assistance from all, and this is the more marked, inasmuch as I am scarcely known, in- dividually, even by name to any one of them. All the virtues of this book, therefore, do not belong to me, though, unquestionably, the faults do. Trusting, therefore, that the public and my friends will— " Be to its virtues very kind, And to its faults a little blind