The opening of Preface
IN recent years the study of the human race has been prosecuted in many directions, and the range of the historic view has been much extended. Researches have been made in the departments of anthropology, ethnology, philology, archæology, and craniology, and thus a great body of materials, more or less valuable for historical purposes, has been collected. It is the special function of the historian to discriminate and estimate the value of such materials.
Fifteen years have elapsed since the issue of the first volume of the present work. Since then there has been much investigation into prehistoric subjects, many ancient structures within the limited area to which this work is specially devoted, having been carefully examined; while, by the publication of the series of Exchequer Rolls, Burgh Records, and other important documents, the materials relating to the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, have been rendered more accessible. In preparing this volume for a new edition, I have found it necessary to recast and rewrite the whole. Two new sections have been added to the Introduction, while most of the others have been much enlarged. About one-fourth of the volume is new.