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ions agreeable to their own fentiments.
I now beg le^ve to fummit this eflay
towards a defcription of the mines in
Derbyfhire, &c. to the public infpedion:
confcious I am that the plainnefs of the
language' may not be well fuited to the
literary world, but I hope the candid reader
will excufe it, trufting it is the beft adapted
to explain the fubjedt on which I have
treated, and fully acknowledging my want
of abilities, as an author unaccuftomed to
compofition. I am afraid it is impoffible to
avoid tautology in giving a defcription of
mines and their concomitant circumftances,
and in my endeavours to render them more
eafily underftood, I may probably have had
recourfe to fome degree of repetition ; if fo,
it has been in order to explain my ideas
. with
with more precifion, my foie view being to
induce others to inveftigate this county
more minutely.
It was my intention to have given a
defcription of the mines in Cornwall and
the weft of England, and their produ&s ;
but being engaged in other purfuits, I muft
defer it until a more favourable opportunity.
CONTENTS.