From the title page: "comprising the Diary, the Table Talk and a Garland of Miscellanea by Samuel Marchbanks but enlarged (to include a Biographical Introduction and Copious Notes calculated to remove all Difficulties caused by the passing of Time and to offer the Wisdom, not to speak of the Whimsicality of this astonishing man to the Modern Public, in the most convenient form) by his long-suffering friend, Robertson Davies"