An objedion may be made by fome, that no plates adorn
thefe volumes— engravings, except o f novel objeds, or
really illuftrative, and fuch, notwithftanding much exertion,
it was not my good fortune to procure, tend little to the
value of a work o f fcience. Two maps, prefumed more
requilite, have been conftruded from the beft materials.
The biography of the valued Author of the following
fheets, having been given by himfelf in his “ Literary Life,
to the commencement of the year 1 793) little remains for
me to add. T o that period his health and felicity had experienced
little interruption; the illnefs o f an amiable
daughter then began to embitter his days, and, after the moil
unremitting attention that parental fondnefs could didate,
he felt the cruel pang of feparation, on the firft of May
1794; this ihock his fpirits never completely recovered. In
the April of the enfuing year, the patella of the knee fnap-
ped, while defcending a flight o f fteps, an accident which
confined him long to his room, yet, notwithftanding his
advanced age, and the bones never again reuniting, he re-
« covered
covered fufficiently not only to walk without difficulty,
but to purfue his ufual exercife on horfeback.
The year 1796 gave to the world his “ Account of the
parifhes o f Whitford and Holywell.” The infirmities of
nature now began to fhew themfelves more evidently. The
lofs of a friend and neighbor, the worthy Sir Roger Mojiyn,
the fubfequent diftradions of the county of Flint by jarring
politics, the melancholy fituation of public affairs, the
progrefs of Gallic barbarifm, which threatened to overturn
all inftitutions focial and facred, operated too forcibly on a
mind of the acuteft feeling and moft exquiflte fenfibility.
Mental agitation affeded the corporeal fyftem; a difficulty
o f breathing, a cough, and other pulmonary affedions induced
him to apply for medical aid, and he received from
his friend Dr. Haygarth, then refldent at Chefter, all the
affiftance that art could give. Confiderable difcharges of
blood from the nofe increafed the alarming fymptoms; ftill
the energy o f his mind fuftained itfelf; he continued his
literary purfuits, and employed his leifure hours, during the
greateft