I have often been surprised, that among the many descriptions which ingenious writers have given of places and people comparatively insignificant, no complete and systematic account has yet been written of the Fashionable World. It is true, that our poets and caricaturists have honoured this people with a great share of their notice, and many particulars, not a little edifying, have been made known, through the medium of their admirable publications. It is also true, that our prose-writers have occasionally cast a very pertinent glance over this fairy ground. Some of these latter have even gone so far, as to write absolute treatises upon certain parts of the Fashionable character. Mrs. More, for example, has delineated the religion, and Lord Chesterfield the morals, of this singular people with the greatest exactness and precision. Nor would it be just to overlook the very acceptable labours of those writers who, in their Court-calendars and Court-almanacks, bring us acquainted, from time to time, with the modes of dress which prevail in the Fashionable World, and the names of its most distinguished inhabitants. But after all that has been done, towards exhibiting the manners, and unfolding the character, of this splendid community, much remains to be done: for though certain details have been well enough handled, yet I repeat, that a complete and systematic account of the Fashionable World, is still a desideratum in Cosmography.

I am far from pretending to either the ability or the design of supplying this deficiency. The utmost that I propose to myself, is to bring more particulars into a group, than former writers have done; and to exhibit an outline, upon which others of more enlarged experience may improve. It seems to me of great importance to the interests of society, that its members should be known to each other: and of this I am persuaded, that if there be one description of people, the knowledge of whose genuine character would be more edifying to mankind than another, it is—the people of Fashion.