The Stuart writer and gardener John Evelyn (1620 1706), whose two-volume Sylva is also reissued in this series, kept a diary from the age of eleven, and in the 1680s began to compile this memoir from his records. It was first published in 1818 in an edition by the antiquarian William Bray; this three-volume version of 1906 was edited by Austin Dobson (1840 1921), the author and poet who also wrote the volume on Henry Fielding in the 'English Men of Letters' series, among many other literary biographies. In an extensive preface, Dobson explains his reasons for revisiting a work which had...

The author of this work, written in 1700 1 but not published until the nineteenth century, is sometimes confused with his later namesake, the antiquarian Richard Gough (1735 1809), though they are not in fact related. Richard Gough of Myddle in Shropshire (baptised 1635, died 1723) was a farmer and also acted as a land steward. This book on the history of his parish and the families living in it was not apparently intended for publication. However, more than one copy was made, as a version that does not match the text presented here was privately printed in 1834: this version was published in...

Joseph Harris (1704-64) was equally distinguished as an astronomer and as an expert on coinage. From a humble background, he came to the attention of Edmond Halley, the Astronomer Royal. He spent some time making astronomical observations in South America and the West Indies, and familiarised himself with marine navigational practice, proposing improvements to measuring equipment and publishing a very popular instructional work on the uses of globes and orreries. He later observed the 1761 transit of Venus from Wales. Harris entered the Royal Mint in 1736, and became the King's Assay Master...

One of the most popular Victorian writers, Samuel Smiles (1812 1904) made his name in 1859 with the original self-improvement manual, Self-Help. His highly successful multi-volume Lives of the Engineers contained biographies of men who had, like him, achieved greatness not through privilege but through hard work. In this 1867 book, Smiles examines the part played in British society and economic life by the Protestants who either left France to escape religious persecution or were expelled after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The appeal of the topic to Smiles probably lay in...

This two-volume autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone, completed after his death by his son, was published in Washington in 1826.

This two-volume autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone, completed after his death by his son, was published in Washington in 1826.