Excerpt from The Diary of Frances Lady Shelley: 1787 1817 A few introductory words are all that I feel called upon to write. The author's fascinating personality is stamped on every page of a work, originally designed as a private memento of scenes and events that deeply impressed her. Lady Shelley could not of course have foreseen that, after a century of oblivion, these entries would be interesting to the world at large. If she had contemplated publicity, much of that spontaneity of expression, and impulsive enthusiasm - which form their chief charm - would have been curbed; and these pen-and-ink sketches of celebrated personages would have been discreetly withheld. But whatever personal reasons there may have been against publi cation during the lifetime Of the persons concerned, are now removed; and, so far as I can judge, there is scarcely a word to which their descendants could reasonably object. 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.