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PREFACE.

THE improved and improving state of that delightful old Town, Bury St. Edmund's, has long called for a concise illustration of its history, its antiquities, its great religious foundation, its ancient and modern celebrity. Such a volume, required not less for the accommodation of that influx of visitors with which Bury is occasionally honored, than for the use of the inhabitants, and for the general information of the public, will, it is hoped, be found in the present attempt.

The Rev. Dr. Yates's "History of Bury," a work of much importance to the learned and antiquarian reader, remains, it is to be lamented, in an unfinished state; and Mr. Gillingwater's production is out of print. The former, however, if complete, must have been regarded as too expensive, and as upon too large a scale, for general perusal; whilst the latter, though too diffuse and bulky for the casual visitant, and, from necessity, without any account of recent changes, was altogether inadequate to the wishes of those who were anxious for more extensive research.

As a portable guide through the Town of Bury and its environs, this volume will furnish all the requisite historical and descriptive information. One of its novel and not least interesting features is, a brief Account of the Principal Seats and Villages, within a Circuit of Eight Miles round the Town, with their respective Bearings and Distances. It is also the only work which contains a Complete

List of the numerous Benefactions, &c. which have, from time to time, been made to the Corporation, Parishes, Schools, &c. of Bury St. Edmund's.

For those who may be desirous of possessing a more comprehensive account, especially of the circumjacent Seats and Villages, an enlarged edition of this work is in preparation; which will embrace, besides considerable amplification in the descriptive parts, some ancient historical documents, and much curious matter, drawn from original sources, which have been obligingly opened to the Editor.

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