CASTLE RACKRENT; AN HIBERNIAN TALE. TAKEN FROM FACTS, AND FROM THE MANNERS OF THE IRISH SQUIRES, BEFORE THE YEAR 1732. BY MARIA EDGEWORTH, AUTHOR OF PRACTICAL EDUCATION, LETTERS FOR LITERARY LADIES, THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT, &c. THE FOURTH EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, By H. Bryer, Bridge-Street, Blackfriars. 1804. PREFACE. THE HE prevailing taste of the Public for anecdote, has been censured and ridiculed by critics, who aspire to the character of superior wisdom: but if we consider it in a proper point of view, this taste is an incontestible proof of the good sense and profoundly philosophic temper of the present times. Of the numbers who study, or at least who read history, how few derive any advantage from their labours! A 2 |