JOSEPH KINGHORN,

OF NORWICH:

A MEMOIR BY

MARTIN HOOD WILKIN,

WITH INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, PREFACE, ETC., BY

SIMON WILKIN, F.L.S.

NORWICH:

FLETCHER AND ALEXANDER;

LONDON: ARTHUR HALL & CO.

PREFACE.

Or all misnomers one of those most invariably in use is the word "preface." Instead of being previous-it is almost uniformly subsequent-labour; so in the present case, 400 pages of the work had passed through my hands when I was called upon to write "the preface." It was a dark, stormy afternoon, the ground covered with snow, when I addressed myself to the task of presenting to the reader a narrative of the origin, progress, and almost completion of the life of JOSEPH KINGHORN, of Norwich.

My revered friend, on his decease, had committed to my care some five thousand letters and notes, varying in character from the brief note of invitation to the folio sheet of closely written and closely thought theological, philological, or philosophical discussion. When first, after his departure, I entered his study, and sat down in his large arm-chair, I looked sorrowfully around upon the books which filled his shelves, and I found-just as he had left them-a mass of papers and letters at the end of his table; and, opposite to his chair, his writing materials, his common-place book, and some unanswered and unfinished letters. It seemed to me as if he had but just quitted the apartment, and might re-enter the next moment, with his tall figure and ample morning gown,