



Produced by David Widger





GRYLL GRANGE

By Thomas Love Peacock

[Illustration: Minuet de la Cour 009-177]

[Illustration: Titlepage]

GRYLL GRANGE

BY

THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK

ILLUSTRATED BY F. H. TOWNSEND

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY GEORGE SAINTSBURY

London

MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.

NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO.

1896




INTRODUCTION

_Gryll Grange_, the last and mellowest fruit from Peacock's tree, was,
like most mellow fruit, not matured hastily. In saying this I do not
refer to the long period--exactly a generation in the conventional
sense--which intervened between _Crotchet Castle_ of 1831 and this of
1861. For we know as a matter of fact, from the preface to the 1856
edition of _Melincourt_, that Peacock was planning _Gryll Grange_ at
a time considerably nearer to, but still some years from, its actual
publication.

There might perhaps have been room for fear lest such a proceeding, on
the part of a man of seventy-five who was living in retirement, should
result in an ill-digest