or neglected. To these authors I have in general confined myself for all that concerns facts and original views of Alfred's life and actions; and a multitude of other writers have been consulted on particular subjects, whose names it is not necessary to enu
But it would have been highly culpable not to notice the valuable aid which has been derived from Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, Lappenberg's work on the same subject, and Spelman's old and quaint, but useful, Life of Alfred. I have taken the liberty of quoting, whenever it appeared necessary, from all these writers, but seldom or never, without affixing the name of the author quoted. If either of the two first, or Dr. Lingard, the nature of whose work would not allow him to devote more than a few pages to the reign of Alfred, should find that I have quoted them for the purpose of pointing out a supposed error, there is little doubt that their enlightened minds will approve rather than condemn such a mode of weighing authorities and contrasting opinions, when the discovery of truth, and not the propagation of a theory, is the object which has been kept in view.
It is perhaps superfluous to mention, what will occur to any one who reads a few pages of this volume, that I have preferred, wherever it was possible, to make the ancient Chroniclers tell their own story in their own words. This mode, which I have adopted in former books, has attracted much notice
The Life and Letters of Thomas à Becket, and the History of the Ancient Britons.