Excerpt from Historical Sketches of the Reign of Queen Anne These sketches were written a number of years ago for the American magazine the Century, but the publication of them was long delayed, and it was found in the end that their length was too great to be consistent with the amount of illustrations, which are a great feature of that magazine. In these circumstances literature had to give way to art, and the papers were 'cut' as remorselessly, but much more cleverly, than Mr. Puff's play, the thread of the narratives being skilfully re tained, while all that an author prizes in the superfluous way of literary style or ornament was cleared away. In this succinct and concentrated form the Sketches of the Reign of Queen Anne have been reproduced in America in a handsome volume, which, were they important enough to tempt any critic, it might be amusing to compare with this present English edition, which con tains the chapters as they were written, untouched by the stern scissors of a transatlantic Fate - who perhaps might be found to be a deity benevolent to the reader. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.