opening chapter was formed by drawing together the materials he possessed for a sketch of the English people at the opening of their long struggle with the invaders. But as the chapter drew towards its end his strength failed. The pages which now close it were the last words ever written by his hand-words written one morning in haste, for weakness had already drawn on so fast that when in weariness he at last laid down his pen he never again found strength even to read over the words he had set down.

But even then his work was not over. In this last extremity of weakness his mind still turned constantly to the story of his people. He would still hope, night by night, that on the coming day there might be some brief moment in which he could even yet dictate the thoughts that were shaping themselves in his mind-some larger account of the history of the English shires which was now taking form after long thinking, or some completer view of the rule of the Danish kings, or some insight of a more sure judgement and knowledge into the relations of the Norman Conquest. Many years before, listening to some light talk about the epitaphs which men might win, he had said half unconsciously, "I know what men will say of me: 'He died

learning;' "" and he made the passing word into a noble truth. "So long as he lived he strove to live worthily." By patient and laborious work, by reverence and singleness of purpose, by a long self-mastery, he had "earned diligently" his due reward in experience, knowledge, matured wisdom, a wider outlook, and a deeper insight. It was impossible for him not to know that his powers were only now coming to their full strength, and that his real work lay yet before him. "I have work to do that I know is good," he said when he heard he had only a few days to live. "I will try to win but one week more to write some part of it down." Another conquest than this however lay before him. It was as death drew nearer still that for the first time he said, "Now I am weary; I can work no more." Thus he laid down with uncomplaining patience the task he had taken up with unflinching courage. "God so granted it him." In those last days, as in his latest thoughts, the great love he bore his country was still as it had ever been the true inspiration of his life. The single aim that guided all his work till the end came, was the desire to quicken in others that eager sense which he himself had of how rich the inheritance of our fathers is with the promise of the future, and to

bring home to every Englishman some part of the beauty that kindled his own enthusiasm in the story, whether old or new, of the English People.

A very few words will explain the work which was left to me by my husband to do in preparing this volume for publication. In the earlier part of the book I have carried out the alterations in the order of subjects which had been decided on by him, and the first six chapters may be looked on as representing his final plan, save that some alterations would have been made in the first chapter, and some passages, such as the account of the shires, were not rewritten as he had intended. Chapters vii. and viii. were left in a wholly unfinished state, having been laid aside for consideration and revision. The materials for them had not even been drawn into any consecutive order, and I am responsible for the division and naming of these chapters, and in great part for the arrangement of the subjects.

The closing chapters (ix., x., xi.), which have been included in the book according to Mr. Green's later plan, stand on a different footing from the rest. They were written many years ago, I believe in 1875, and were then laid aside and never revised in any way. The materials for them existed partly

in a printed form, and partly in manuscript notes and papers, all alike written some years ago, and consisting merely of very rough and imperfect fragments hastily jotted down and then thrown aside. My work has been to draw these various parts together into a connected whole; and in order to carry on the unfinished tale to the Norman Conquest I have inserted some pages (pp. 567577) from the earlier History of the English People. These chapters then, wholly unrevised, and dealing with the history of the eleventh century in a partial way only, and under some of its aspects, must be looked on as incomplete outlines. It had been Mr. Green's hope to enrich them by a careful study of the social history of England during this period, and an indication of the kind of work that might have been done in this direction will be found in the passage (pp. 436-466) which describes London and the trading towns. This was part of his latest work last autumn, and has been inserted into the story of the reign of Cnut at his desire.

I have judged it best to print these closing chapters without any addition of reference or notes, save the few which I have been able to draw up from his own papers. Those who have read the Making of

England will understand that Mr. Green was accustomed to base his views on wide and full reading, and I have been unwilling to risk any system of notes which must inevitably have seemed to rest his conclusions on a foundation narrower than that of his own thought and reading. I have felt the less difficulty in adopting this course owing to the elaborate system of references for this period which Mr. Freeman has supplied to students.

The

I have been specially careful throughout the book to preserve the exact words of the writer, even in dealing with the unfinished manuscript notes. exceptions to this rule are the two paragraphs that open chapter ii., which I myself added at his own request, and the greater part of the paragraph on the custom of the feud at p. 278, which was left unfinished, and which I briefly concluded. The materials for the reign of Cnut were very imperfect, and occasionally, as in pp. 465-469, and again at the close of the chapter, I have been forced to make some expansions and alterations so as to form a consecutive and intelligible narrative. The character of Godwine on pp. 538-541 I have drawn up from some rough pencilled jottings on the margin of a paper, using the exact words I found, but shaping them into continuous sentences and a general order. The few