ceremony I took the plough and he the whip. I mention this trivial
circumstance to shew the reader that I was obliged to fight my way into a
practical knowledge of agricultural pursuits; my father well knowing, from
experience, that there was no other method by which I could gain a
complete knowledge of farming, but by the manual performance of every
branch of the profession.

Before I proceed it will not be improper to observe that, in detailing the
events of my own life, I am confined to the strict limits which truth
imposes upon my pen; for if I wished either to exaggerate or to embellish
by any imaginary touches, such as may be admissible, and in fact such as
are indulged in, by the writers of common events, I should be liable to
immediate detection and exposure; because I am detailing circumstances
which, although they are long past, are still in the recollection of
numerous living witnesses. In fact, there is not an occurrence that I have
hitherto mentioned, but what is within the knowledge and the recollection
of many of those witnesses, and very many of the most important events
which I shall have to detail will be familiar to hundreds. On the other
hand, there are certainly many facts and anecdotes, which are only known
to myself and those immediately connected with them, and these, when I
arrive at them, will, I doubt not, be read with a lively interest by those
who are not yet in the secret how many public and private intrigues are
carried on and effected. All that I can promise is, that I will, to the
best of my knowledge and recollection, which I find no ways impaired by
imprisonment, record the truth; and should I, in my anxiety to speak the
truth, sometimes become dull, tiresome, or tedious, I must rely upon the
indulgence of the reader, to attribute it to my desire that the public
should be made acquainted with those circumstances which appear to me to
have materially contributed to the formation of that character which has
been so vilified, abused, and misrepresented, by the venal tools, and