Baptist Noel.--Borough School.--Rogers the Poet.--Stafford
House.--Ellesmere Collection of Paintings.--Lord John Russell.




INTRODUCTORY


The following letters were written by Mrs. Stowe for her own personal
friends, particularly the members of her own family, and mainly as the
transactions referred to in them occurred. During the tour in England
and Scotland, frequent allusions are made to public meetings held on her
account; but no report is made of the meetings, because that
information, was given fully in the newspapers sent to her friends with
the letters. Some knowledge of the general tone and spirit of the
meetings seems necessary, in order to put the readers of the letters in
as favorable a position to appreciate them as her friends were when they
were received. Such knowledge it is the object of this introductory
chapter to furnish.

One or two of the addresses at each of several meetings I have given,
and generally without alteration, as they appeared in the public
journals at the time. Only a very few could be published without
occupying altogether too much space; and those selected are for the most
part the shortest, and chosen mainly on account of their brevity. This
is certainly a surer method of giving a true idea, of the spirit which
actually pervaded the meetings than could be accomplished by any
selection of mere extracts from the several speeches. In that case,
there might be supposed to exist a temptation to garble and make unfair