PREFACE
TO
THE BIOGRAPHICAL EDITION 

While my husband and Mr.  Henley were engaged in writing plays in
Bournemouth they made a number of titles, hoping to use them in
the future.  Dramatic composition was not what my husband
preferred, but the torrent of Mr.  Henley's enthusiasm swept him
off his feet.  However, after several plays had been finished,
and his health seriously impaired by his endeavours to keep up
with Mr.  Henley, play writing was abandoned forever, and my
husband returned to his legitimate vocation.  Having added one of
the titles, The Hanging Judge, to the list of projected plays,
now thrown aside, and emboldened by my husband's offer to give me
any help needed, I concluded to try and write it myself. 

As I wanted a trial scene in the Old Bailey, I chose the period
of 1700 for my purpose; but being shamefully ignorant of my
subject, and my husband confessing to little more knowledge than
I possessed, a London bookseller was commissioned to send us