mixon, Barnard, Henry, Hume, Smollett, and Sharon Turner, become, for the purposes of research, confessedly obsolete, not simply from their defective method, but as derived from a very imperfect acquaintance with the original manuscript sources. Of these and similar writers I have, accordingly, not considered it necessary to furnish any account. It will be understood, again, that manuscript sources do not come within the scope of my work. Investigations of such a character would be undertaken only by those who were themselves designing to write history, for whom the present volume is not intended. It has, accordingly, been deemed sufficient to give, at the conclusion of each chapter, some account of the best and most recent works on each period,—productions which now invariably represent research of the kind referred to and rarely fail to indicate the original manuscript authorities. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to add, that, in a manual like the present, the list of authorities is not exhaustive,—still less is it designed to represent the bibliography of our historical literature. But I hope that the amount of guidance offered will be found sufficient to enable the student to pursue his investigations of any period with comparatively little further assist ance. As regards the different editions of each author, as a rule, only the best is named; of this, in the case of all but the most recent writers, the title-page has generally been transcribed in full. It only remains for me to express my frequent indebtedness to Professor Gardiner, with whom I have the honour to be associated in the production of this volume, and by whose advice I have so often profited,especially in connexion with the period of which he possesses an almost unrivalled knowledge. My best thanks are also due to Richard Garnett, Esq., Superintendent of the British Museum Reading Room, for the unvarying courtesy and valuable suggestions with which he has often aided me in the prosecution of researches which could not fail, at times, to be somewhat perplexing and laborious. ccvi The following abbreviations have been used in referring to the publications of different societies and other works of a serial character. A. C. Abbotsford Club. Bann. C. Bannatyne Club. C. S. Camden Society. E. E. T. S. Early English Text Society. E. H. S. English Historical Society. Hardy, D. C. Hardy (Sir T. D.), Descriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland. M. H. B. Monumenta Historica Britannica. Migne, P. L. The Abbé Migne's Patrologia Latina. 207 INTRODUCTORY. INTRO DUCTORY Works on the Com parative Language. THE study of our national history gains greatly in interest, if pursued in conjunction with that of the growth and development of the English tongue. The student, accordingly, should not fail to acquire some knowledge of the leading facts which the science of lan- Study of guage may be regarded as having established with respect to the ethnic affinities of the English race. The work in which these facts have received their most elaborate exposition is perhaps that of M. PICTET,--Les Pictet. Origines Indo-Européennes, ou les Aryas Primitifs (2 pts., Paris, 1859-63),-in which the writer, in a series of minute verbal investigations, traces back the vocabulary of modern Aryan tongues, whether Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Teutonic, or Slavonic, to the common sources of the socalled Indo-European family of languages. The main results of his researches are given in outline in the fifth and sixth of professor MAX MÜLLER'S Lectures on the Science Max of Language (2 vols., Longmans, 1866). As surely,' says the latter writer, in summing up the historical lesson conveyed in the genealogical classification of languages as surely as the six Roman dialects point to an original home of Italian shepherds on the seven hills at Rome, the Aryan languages together point to an earlier 1 'No man can study political history worthily without learning a good deal about languages; no man can study language worthily without learning a good deal about political history.'-Freeman, Pref. to Hist. of the Norman Conquest, vol. v. Müller. INTRODUCTORY. Oliphant. Isaac Works on the Comparative History of Institutions. period of language, when the first ancestors of the Indians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Slaves, the Celts, and the Germans, were living together within the same enclosures and under the same roof' (i. 237). Mr. T. L. KINGSTON OLIPHANT'S Old and Middle English (Macmillan & Co., 1878) takes up the subject where it is left by the foregoing writers, and traces the history of the English language to the early part of the fourteenth century, by which time the language began to assume its final and classical form. Mr. Oliphant's treatment of his subject is especially valuable on account of the collateral illustration it affords of the political and social events of the time. Mr. ISAAC TAYLOR'S Words and Places (Macmillan & Co., 4th edit., 1879) abounds with interesting elucidations of the connexion between our local nomenclature and our national history. The comparative history of Institutions affords, like that of language, very valuable guidance in relation to our earlier history; and among these the institution of Property in Land, resting upon a primeval tenure of the soil by groups of men either actually or hypothetically united by blood relationship, is of foremost importance. In contrast to the history of Roman Law, as gradually growing up out of successive interpretations of the Twelve Tables, it offers a remarkable illustration of the political development of the Aryan race in countries unaffected by the influences of the Empire, and especially in those peopled by Sclavonic societies. 'It is one of the facts,' says Sir Henry Maine, with which the Western world will some day assuredly have to reckon, that the political ideas of so large a portion of the human race, and its ideas of property also, are inextricably bound up with the notions of family interdependency, of collective ownership, and of natural subjection to patriarchal power.' 1 Early History of Institutions, p. 3. |