The Editor's Preface. The study of history is so advantageous, and at the same time so delightful, that it is no wonder it has been cultivated by the finest spirits in all ages. The history of kingdoms and empires, raises our admiration, by the solemnity, if I may so call it, of the images, and furnishes one of the noblest entertainments. But at the same time that it is so well suited to delight the imagination, it yet is not so apt touch and affect as the history of private men; the reason of which seems to be, that the personages in the former, are so far above the common level, that we consider ourselves, in some measure, as aliens to them; whereas those who act in a lower sphere are looked upon by us as a kind of relatives, from the similitude of conditions; where we are more intimately moved with whatever concerns them. But as there is a difference between the benefit which may be reaped from the histories of kingdoms, and those of private persons; so the advantage, which may accrue from particular histories themselves is no less considerable. The subjects of some of these are so trifling, and the manner in which they are writ, so unnatural, that they only impose upon the mind, and convey nothing substantial: while those of a superior kind, as they treat of persons whose lives have been remarkable for extraordinary circumstances; so they often serve as an excellent lesson to all who are desirous of avoiding those rocks on which others have split, and of meriting the highest character to which human nature can attain, that of wise men. That the following piece may justly be ranked among the latter, will, I believe, be readily granted by all judicious readers. It is the history of a man who was as remarkable for the uniterrupted calamities of his life, as his father for his continual successes. One, who though son to a man, that from an obscure condition, made his way to the throne, and maintained himself peaceably in it; was yet exposed to all the rigours of fortune; and so barbarously used by him who gave him birth, that he became one of the most inveterate enemies, and went over to King Charles II. If any man had a perfect knowledge of the world it is our author. Brought up, like another Lemuel, under a mother's eye, whose vast love for him, made her extremely solicitous to form his mind, and whose large experience, capacity, and understanding, enabled her to do it without any foreign assistance; the depravity of his fellow-creatures was strongly inculcated to him, at an age when others amuse themselves with trifles. The solitude he was brought up in, the excellent moral authors which his fond parent put into his hands, and the judicious comment she made upon them gave a peculiar bent to Mr. Cleveland's mind; so that when he came to enter upon the stage of the world, which he did with the utmost reluctance, it appeared to him in quite a different light, from what it does to the rest of men. But as the relation which he gives of his solitude is very extraordinary, and the employments of it instructive and entertaining; so when he leaves it, and comes to associate with mankind, he gives a just and natural description of the diffidence which is almost inseparable from the best and most ingenuous minds; a circumstance, which as it too often depresses them, so it may teach others, who labour under any difficulty that way, to set a proper value on their own talents; and not suffer themselves to be over-awed by the vain, the ignorant, and the noisy. The treachery he afterwards met with, points out to us, that we ought not to repose too great a confidence in any man, till we know him thoroughly; nor suffer ourselves to be deluded by a specious appearance of friendship. Hypocrisy, as it is a very odious vice, so it is the most apt to impose upon us; for the mask it puts on, is often so natural, and bears so great a resemblance to virtue, that the most wary sometimes mistake the one for the other. The passion he had for my lord Axminster's daughter, is of the chastest, and the same time the most beautiful kind. Struck before he was sensible of it, he has given so lively a picture of the rise and progress of it, that all who have ever been in love, must own it to be vastly tender and natural. The struggles he had with himself when he first knew his distemper, are so delicately described; and the resolution he had hitherto shewn in combating his inclinations, so great, that we may justly say of him with Adam in Milton, -------- -------------------------Only weak/Against the charm of beauty's powerful glance. His going over to King Charles II. and the particulars he gives of Oliver's private history are very curious, and have till now been a secret. Possibly some may doubt the veracity of them, from Oliver's specious indifference to the fair sex, and the silence of historians on that head. But whoever considers his deep dissimulation, and the strong reasons he had to conceal his amours, will not wonder at their being known hitherto only to the parties concerned. If any one should accuse him of drawing his father's character in too odious colours, he must call to mind the principles he had imbibed in his infant years, and the inhuman treatment he met with from him. That he agrees in this particular with the most celebrated English historians is well known. My lord Claredon, among others, says, "That he attempted those things which no good man durst have ventured on-----No man, (says his lordship,) with more wickedness ever attempted any thing, or brought to pass what he desired more wickedly.' An objection may be made to Oliver's being mentioned as Speaker of the House of Commons; since we do not find any such circumstance . This I myself hinted to some persons of distinction, who assured me, that they knew, by undoubted tradition, that Oliver had been nominated to this employment by several members upon a particular view; but that he declined it, from a sense of his incapacity (notwithstanding his other great talents,) to fill it with honour. The reader will very possibly be desirous of knowing how these papers came into my hands. To satisfy his curiousity, I am to inform him, that they were given me by Mr. Cleveland, the author's son, a person advanced in years, who spent the greatest part of his life in foreign countries, and lives now in King-Street, Westminster. I first got acquainted with him about three years ago at Montpelier. His good sense, experience, and affability, gave me a very advantageous idea of him; which with some unexpected favours he afterwards indulged me, made me very desirous of cultivating his friendship. After some stay in this city we returned to Paris, where we lodged in the same house. There he first shewed me his father's papers, which gave me so much pleasure and satisfaction, that I was very urgent with him to have them printed, persuaded that they would be, a very acceptable present to the public. The only objection he made to my proposal, was, the confused method in which they were writ, and the difficult task it would be to digest them in such a manner, as might make them worthy of appearing in the world; especially as he was engaged in a tedious law suit, which took up the greatest part of his time. This I obviated by a modest offer of my service, which my good friend accepted; and an ingenious French gentleman, who understands the English tongue perfectly well, agreeing to share with me in it, we methodized it in the manner in which it is now published, without altering a single circumstance in the whole work. After we had finished it, Mr. Cleveland was pleased to give us his approbation of the whole, and returning to England with me, he consented readily to its publication. Some surprising incidents which we meet with in the following sheets, may perhaps incline some readers to doubt the truth of them. But how many famous authors have been accused of writing untruths, which afterwards have found to be matters of fact? Pliny, the naturalist, suffered long under this aspersion; and the travels of Sir John Chardin were considered in the same light by multitudes; till several persons of undoubted credit, who have since visited the same countries, assure us of his veracity. We might extend this observation to numberless instances, if it were necessary. The things about which Mr. Cleveland writes, did not happen so many years ago but that there are persons now living who remember them. That the lord Axminster suffered under great misfortunes is well known; not to mention that our author agrees in a great many particulars with the most authentic historians; a circumstance which adds not little weight to his testimony in general.  The cave of Romney-hole is well known to be of a prodigious extent. If it should be asked, how the several recesses of it came not to be discovered before, I answer, that possibly no one was ever reduced to the same necessity of hiding himself in it, as the lord Axminster and Mr. Cleveland; a circumstance which might prompt them to pierce further into it, than any other person had done before. Camden speaking of the famous peak in Derbyshire, says, Sub hoc specus sive subterraneus meatus----magno hiatu pater, multiplicesque recessus habet. Wockley-hole, under Mendip-hills near Wells in Somersetshire, is a vast cavern, containing spacious apartments, stone-walls, labyrinths, &c. The cave near Ryegate in Surrey, the retreat of the barons in the reign of King John, where we still see the hall in which they sat in council, is affirmed by the inhibitants to have run four miles under ground, and to have been stopt up not long since by the falling in of the earth. The relations which Mr. Bridge, half-brother to our author, gives of the colony from Rochel, which settled near the island of St. Helena, is curious and surprising. But are we to wonder that those people concealed themselves so carefully from the rest of the world? Harrassed by a dreadful siege, in which they suffered the extremes of misery, they well might pant after some asylum, there to live in full liberty, and enjoy a freedom of thinking agreeable to the dictates of their religion; and having found such a one, what could be more natural than for them to wish to live in it for ever, secluded from all commerce with the rest of their fellow creatures. If notwithstanding what has been said, the reader should still suspect the truth of some particulars, I yet am persuaded he will not think his time mispent in the perusal of this work; since, besides the agreeable turn of the incidents; the many solid and masterly reflections which are scattered up and down the work, afford a most useful instruction to all who are desirous of it. Telemachus is well known to be a fictitious piece, but what book was ever more entertaining, or abounds with finer precepts for the conduct of life? As I have been absent some years from my native country, possibly the expression may not, in some few places, be altogether so correct as it ought to have been, for which reason I must desire the judicious reader's indulgence. The Editor.