like one walking in a fog, I fancied I saw it at a distance, when I was surrounded with it. The work, with all its defects, has afforded me much amusement, and not a little labour: the pleasure of writing resembles that of travelling; many delightful scenes present themselves on the road; but there are also objects to create disgust, and it is attended with languor and fatigue.

However well-meant my poor endeavours my be, I do not expect to escape censure. To this I shall very patiently submit. All the favour that I desire from the reader is, that he will judge with the same candour with which I have written. I have attempted to act the part of an humble author; but have no kind of anxiety for fame. If I have an ambition for any thing, it is to be an honest man, and a good parish-priest; and in the next place, to have the honour to be esteemed,

SIR,

Your most obliged,

most grateful, and

most obedient humble Servant,

JAMES GRANGER.

PLAN OF THE CATALOGUE

OF

Engraved British Portraits,

WHICH ARE

FOLLOWED BY THEIR RESPECTIVE CHARACTERS."

In the following Catalogue, all portraits of such persons as flourished before the end of the reign of Henry the Seventh are thrown into one article. In the succeeding reigns, they are arranged in the following order:

CLASS I.-Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses, &c. of the Royal Family.

CLASS II.-Great Officers of State, and of the Household.

CLASS III.-Peers, ranked according to their precedence, and such Commoners as have titles of Peerage; namely, sons of Dukes, &c. and Irish Nobility.

CLASS IV.-Archbishops and Bishops, Dignitaries of the Church, and inferior Clergymen. To this Class are subjoined the Nonconforming Divines, and Priests of the Church of Rome.

The author, when he first entered upon this work, intended only to compile a Methodical Catalogue of British Heads; but he afterward extended his plan, and made it also a Biographical History.

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CLASS V.-Commoners who have borne great employments; namely, Secretaries of State, Privy-counsellors, Ambassadors, and such Members of the House of Commons as do not fall under other Classes.

CLASS VI.-Men of the Robe; including Chancellors, Judges, and all Lawyers.

CLASS VII.-Men of the Sword; all Officers of the Army and Navy.

CLASS VIII.-Sons of Peers without titles, Baronets, Knights, ordinary Gentlemen, and those who have enjoyed inferior civil Employments.

CLASS IX.-Physicians, Poets, and other ingenious Persons, who have distinguished themselves by their Writings.

CLASS X.-Painters, Artificers, Mechanics, and all of inferior Professions, not included in the other Classes.

CLASS XI-Ladies, and others, of the Female Sex, according to their Rank, &c.

CLASS XII.-Persons of both Sexes, chiefly of the lowest Order of the People, remarkable from only one circumstance in their Lives; namely, such as lived to a great Age, deformed Persons, Convicts, &c.

The following particulars have been observed:

1. To admit such foreigners as have been naturalized, or have enjoyed any place of dignity, or office, and also such foreign artists as have met with employment under the British government. *

* I look upon employment as a kind of naturalization of an artist.

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2. To place the persons in that reign, in which they were at the highest pitch of honour or preferment, if statesmen, or peers; or in which they may be supposed to have been in the full vigour of their understanding, if men of letters. But if the painter or engraver has given the date when a portrait was taken, or the age of a person may with any probability be concluded from the representation of him, then to place it in that period when it resembled him most.

3. If a person has been eminent in several reigns, or in different characters or employments, to place the descriptions of the prints of him in the several reigns and classes, or to refer from one reign and class to another.*

4. To mention, after the English heads, at the end of each reign, 1. Such foreign princes as were allied to the royal family. 2. Foreign princes, and others, who have been knights of the Garter. 3. Foreign princes, who have visited this kingdom. 4. Ambassadors and envoys who have resided here. 5. Foreigners who have been sojourners at either of our universities. 6. Foreigners, who have been fellows of the Royal Society. 7. Travellers of eminence who have been in England. Lastly, Such as do not fall under the above divisions.

It should here be observed, that the biographical part of the work is generally confined to those persons of whom there are engraved portraits; and that this takes in almost all characters of distinction, especially from the reign of Henry VIII. to the Revolution.

• It is in conformity with this rule that references to different reigns and classes are occasionally made in the course of the work.