HYDE NUGENT. A TALE OF FASHIONABLE LIFE. However we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost and won, SHAKSPEARE. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1827. PREFACE. IN presenting these volumes to the public, the author disclaims personality, particularly with regard to the character of Herbert. He was made a guardsman; why, the writer scarcely knows he might as appropriately have been put into any other corps, or have figured as a civilian; it is therefore to be hoped that no offence may be taken where none is meant. For his own part, the writer has never met with any thing but the brightest honour and the |