Nor must I here forget to mention my obligation to the excellent library of Mr. Halliday of Glenthorne, the stores of which were ever hospitably open to me, when debarred from almost all others, in the seclusion of the loveliest but loneliest part of Devonshire.
I am far from professing to offer any result proportionate to such materials. To assimilate so vast and varied a mass into pure historical substance would require far more time and talent than I am able to command: I have, therefore, made the best selection in my power from these materials, and present the result to the reader. I hope that in most instances the letters I have introduced may be found to justify the deductions drawn from them.
I thought it necessary to say thus much for the authorities I have consulted. As the permanent value of these Volumes must depend upon the Original Documents that they contain, it seemed necessary to give some account of them.
I also wish to make the following observations on some other points. The first Volumes had passed through the Printers' hands before the appearance of Mr. Macaulay's great Work, which, I hope, will exculpate me from the charge of unacknowledged plagiarism in one or two instances, especially in the sketch I have endeavoured to make of Old London: my work was in autumn interrupted for some months, and ultimately very rapidly