The annals of England: an epitome of English history [by W.E. Flaherty].

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

So many Histories of England already exist, that any fresh work of

that class may be reasonably required to offer some new feature to establish a claim on public notice. An endeavour has been made to provide this, by devoting a larger share of attention than is usually done to the history of our island before the Norman invasion, an event which by some writers seems to be considered as almost the beginning of authentic British history. They implicitly receive the necessarily hasty and imperfect statements of Cæsar as containing all that need be known of our earlier state; pervert a passage from Milton into an authority for dismissing the events of the six hundred years of Anglo-Saxon rule as "no more worthy of attention than the combats of crows and kites ;" and are content to see in the victors of Hastings and their iron institutions, the origin of all that is desirable in a state, and the only sources of our country's elevation.

In this work different views have been taken of these matters, and as they are based on the statements of the most nearly contemporary writers, they will perhaps be regarded as sound. The passages from Greek and Latin writers, accumulated with so much diligence by the Editors of our only National historical work a, afford most valuable corrections or elucidations of the statements of Cæsar; and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Anglo-Saxon Laws detail with minuteness and indisputable truth the state of our Anglo-Saxon commonwealth. These have been carefully analyzed, and the following pages contain a summary of their contents; while from Northern sources some brief notices have been drawn which may serve to correct the ordinary erroneous impressions regarding the Northmen, who had so great an influence on the fortunes of Britain for many centuries, and several of whose institutions still prevail among us.

Two highly important documents, Domesday Book and Magna Charta, will be found described as fully as the limits of the work would permit ; valuable corrections of various kinds, (particularly of dates,) and some facts hitherto little known, have been derived from the Close and the

"Monumenta Historica Britannica," of the historical publications since issued edited by Messrs. Petrie, Sharp, and by the Government, pp. 570-575.] Hardy. [See a notice of this work, and

Patent Rolls, from the Rolls of Parliament and Parliamentary Writs, but especially from the Statutes of the Realm; and, to meet in some measure a deficiency often felt in perusing history, brief biographies have been given of many eminent persons.

The Illustrations, mainly derived from the trustworthy sources of coins, great seals, and monuments, will be found to present a tolerably complete series of the portraits, arms, and devices of each ruler, and may indicate the importance of some acquaintance with heraldry as an aid to the study of history.

The work, as its name implies, is mainly devoted to the affairs of England, but notices are given at suitable times of the course of events in Scotland and the Isles, in Wales, and in Ireland; these are necessarily brief, but being drawn from the contemporary Annals, Chronicles, and Laws of each country, they may perhaps be sufficient to shew what degree of connexion formerly existed between the long independent and often hostile States which now happily unite to form the British Empire. Esto perpetua!

Since the above was written a volume of Oxford Essays has appeared, one of which, from the pen of Mr. Froude, is "On the best Means of teaching English History" the coincidence of its main recommendation with the plan that has been followed in this work is both remarkable and gratifying :

"We recommend," he says, ". . . . the study of the old Statute-book; in which, notwithstanding all that is thought and believed of the dependent position of Parliament, the true history of this English nation substantially lies buried, -a history, different indeed from any which has been

offered to us as such. Every thing of greatest consequence is to be found there. All great movements, political and religious, are treated of there; and all those questionable personal transactions which have appeared so perplexing are there. . . . We believe, for our own part, that, for a serviceable study of English History, the Statutes are as the skeleton is to the body; that in them is contained the bone and marrow of the whole matter, and around them as a sustaining and organising structure the flesh and colour of it can alone effectually gather itself."

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