"The Cock and Anchor: a Chronicle of Old Dublin City," was first published in Dublin in three volumes in 1845, with the joint imprints of William Curry, Junior, & Co., Dublin; Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, London; and Fraser & Co., Edinburgh. There is no author's name on the title-page of the original edition. The work has not since been reprinted under the title of "The Cock and Anchor;" but some years after its first appearance my father made several alterations (most of which are adhered to in the present edition) in the story, and it was re-issued in the Select Library of Fiction under the title of "Morley Court."
The novel has been out of print for a long period, and I have decided to republish it now under its original and proper title. I have made no changes in such dates as are mentioned here and there in the course of the narrative, but the reader should bear in mind that this "Chronicle of Old Dublin City" was written fifty years ago.
Brinsley Sheridan Le Fanu.