This is a book about the thoughts, feelings, and behaviour of
the men and women who lived in Regency England rather than
yet another book about 'Regency' style in building and the fine
arts (although that comes into it). 'Regency' is a term which
has a legitimate application to English life for some few years
after the official term of the Regency came to an end in 1820,
and I have accepted the hang-over quite freely, drawing the
line firmly with the accession of Queen Victoria, who was born
in 1819.

The authors to whose works I am chiefly indebted are
recorded in the reading-lists at the foot of each chapter, and my
special thanks are due to my wife who ransacked them on my
behalf at a time when ill-health prevented my reading much.
Without her assistance I could not have fulfilled my engagement
with my publisher. But I alone am responsible for the book's
opinions, and its errors and limitations.

This is a period especially rich in literary sources, and
anyone who writes its history must pay tribute to Jane Austen
and George Borrow, William Hazlitt and S. T. Coleridge,
William Cobbett and Samuel Bamford, among others. Some
of them, like Borrow, wrote when the Regency was over, but
it was the time of their youth, and they always remained its
sons and daughters. It will be plain how great is my own debt
also to such authorities of the present century as Humphry
House, Sir John Summerson, Sir Harold Nicolson, and Lesley
Blanch.

I would like to thank Mr Peter Kemmis Betty of Messrs
Batsford for his expert and devoted handling of the problems
of illustration.

R. J. W.

Elmdon
Spring 1963

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