EDITOR'S PREFACE.

MOST of these Tracts were (as Archbishop Tenison remarks in his preface), Letters in reply to enquiries addressed to the author, by various, and some very eminent correspondents. The second, " Of Garlands, &c.," was written to Evelyn, as I find from his own handwriting, in the margin of his copy of the original edition. On the same authority (probably from the information of Sir Thomas himself), we learn that the greater number were addressed to Sir Nicholas Bacon. See MS. Note in first page. The ninth, " Of Artificial Hills," was in reply to Sir William Dugdale.

Such enquiries he delighted to satisfy; and the immense stores of information amassed during a long life of curious reading, and inquisitive research, eminently qualified him for resolving questions on subjects the most dissimilar. Scarcely any could be brought before him, upon which he could not bring to bear the results of reiterated experiments, or of an extensive acquaintance with the most singular and recondite literature; and, where these treasures failed him, there remained the inexhaustible resources of his own matchless fancy.

The first and second Tracts have been collated with MS. Sloan. No. 1841; the eighth, tenth, and eleventh, with Nos. 1827 and 1839: the thirteenth with No. 1874; the twelfth with MS. Rawlinson, No. 58, in the Bodleian-and all the others with MS. Sloan. No. 1827. Whatever discrepancies seemed of sufficient importance have been preserved in

notes.

The second edition were published with the folio edition of his works, in 1686; and none have since been reprinted,

except Museum Clausum, which, with Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend, were published in a neat 18mo. volume, by Mr. Crossley, of Manchester.

For the sake of keeping distinct the whole of the unpublished works, I have added to the Miscellany Tracts, his remarks on Iceland, together with some miscellaneous observations, which made their appearance in that ill-assorted collection, the Posthumous Works, in 1712.

THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER.

THE papers from which these Tracts were printed, were a while since, delivered to me by those worthy persons, the lady and son of the excellent author. He himself gave no charge concerning his manuscripts, either for the suppressing or the publishing of them. Yet, seeing he had procured transcripts of them, and had kept those copies by him, it seemeth probable, that he designed them for public use.

Thus much of his intention being presumed, and many who had tasted of the fruits of his former studies being covetous of more of the like kind; also these Tracts having been perused and much approved of by some judicious and learned men; I was not unwilling to be instrumental in fitting them for the press.

To this end, I selected them out of many disordered papers, and disposed them into such a method as they seemed capable of; beginning first with plants, going on to animals, proceeding farther to things relating to men, and concluding with matters of a various nature.

Concerning the plants, I did, on purpose, forbear to range them (as some advised) according to their tribes and families; because, by so doing, I should have represented that as a studied and formal work, which is but a collection of occasional essays. And, indeed, both this Tract, and those which follow, were rather the diversions than the labours of his pen: and, because he did, as it were, drop down his thoughts of a sudden, in those little spaces of vacancy which he snatched from those very many occasions which gave him hourly interruption. If there appears, here and there, any incorrectness in the style, a small degree of candour sufficeth to excuse it.

If there be any such errors in the words, I am sure the

press has not made them fewer: but I do not hold myself obliged to answer for that which I could not perfectly govern. However, the matter is not of any great moment: such errors will not mislead a learned reader; and he who is not such in some competent degree, is not a fit peruser of these letters. Such these Tracts are; but, for the persons to whom they were written, I cannot well learn their names from those few obscure marks which the author has set at the beginning of them. And these essays being letters, as many as take offence at some few familiar things which the author hath mixed with them, find fault with decency. Men are not wont to set down oracles in every line they write to their acquaintance.

There still remain other brief discourses written by this most learned and ingenious author. Those, also, may come forth, when some of his friends shall have sufficient leisure; and at such due distance from these Tracts, that they may follow rather than stifle them.

Amongst these manuscripts there is one which gives a brief account of all the monuments of the cathedral of Norwich. It was written merely for private use: and the relations of the author expect such justice from those into whose hands some imperfect copies of it are fallen, that, without their consent first obtained, they forbear the publishing of it.

The truth is, matter equal to the skill of the antiquary, was not there afforded: had a fit subject of that nature offered itself, he would scarce have been guilty of an oversight like to that of Ausonius, who, in the description of his native city of Bourdeaux, omitted the two famous antiquities of it, Palais de Tutele, and Palais de Galien.

Concerning the author himself, I choose to be silent, though I have had the happiness to have been, for some years, known to him. There is on foot a design of writing his life; and there are already some memorials collected by one of his ancient friends. Till that work be perfected, the reader may content himself with these present Tracts; all which commending themselves by their learning, curiosity, and brevity, if he be not pleased with them, he seemeth to me to be distempered with such a niceness of imagination, as no wise man is concerned to humour.

THOMAS TENISON.