PREFACE.

IN submitting the HISTORY OF GODMANCHESTER to the consideration of the Public, the Author is aware of the rashness with which he may be accused, in having endeavoured to give to a local history an interest beyond the precincts of the place to which it relates. In the announcement of this publication, he observed, that there is "no department of English Literature more interesting or more defective than local Topography. It embraces

In its sphere not only the origin and decay of cities and towns, but local customs, which render us familiar with the institutions and habits of our forefathers. It wrests from the abyss of time those incidents which through all succeeding ages might otherwise be forgotten, and puts upon record, events which gave origin to establishments and sciences, productive of, and essentially con

nected with, the present state and best interests of the kingdom. General Topography, comprehensive and varied in its nature, as well as difficult in elucidation, can give but a brief survey, as a map pourtrays but the sites and distances of places; and it is only where particular Histories or Descriptions of Towns have been written, that satisfactory knowledge can be obtained with respect to them. The scattered fragments of information diffused through antient and modern writers, constitute the materials of which connected Histories are formed, wherein the general reader, at but a trifling sacrifice of time and labour, may become thoroughly acquainted with the place of his birth, locality, or the internal antient and present state of his country. No History of the Town of Godmanchester has ever yet been published. Its antiquity as a probable British Settlement-its importance as a Roman Station, and subsequent Danish Encampment,its peculiarities in Tenure, as Antient Demesne,its celebrity for Agriculture, and its connection with the drainage of the county of Huntingdon and the navigation of the River Ouse, have hitherto been only incidentally alluded to and never fully demonstrated. These defects the Author has endeavoured

to remedy, by a laborious investigation into every circumstance immediately or remotely connected with the Town, and confidently hopes that to the Historian, Antiquarian, and general Reader, his work will prove an interesting specimen of local Topography, on a scale sufficiently extensive to comprehend all matters of importance incidental to his subject."

How far these objects have been attained it is for the public to judge. He may perhaps be charged with having been too minute or too diffuse in describing events which are purely local, and that the essential matter of the work might have been compressed within the limits of a few pages; a plan generally adopted in topographical descriptions. Such objections can only obtain with those who are wholly indifferent to the history of our country; and, to the enquiring mind, these imputed faults will constitute whatever merit the work possesses. Some apology may be considered due for the multitude of Notes inserted in the course of the work; but, as the duty of the Historian is to record facts, and to connect or apply them in time and place to useful purposes, no position has been advanced without stating the authority on which it was founded. It

must be conceded, that books are written for the instruction of those who are in pursuit of information, not those who are familiar with the subjects they illustrate clearness and precision ought not therefore to be considered presumptive; and the free use of notes has been adopted, to disencumber the text as much as possible from the authorities quoted, and illustrations thought necessary.

The various occupations of Godmanchester, and its institutions as a corporate town, have enabled the Author, by the freedom and fidelity with which they have been investigated and discussed, to make its History a comparative textbook relative to Parochial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities. He has not hesitated to avail himself of information from whatever source it could be derived, from books, from records, or from men. In the two former instances he has invariably acknowledged the sources from whence it has been extracted; but in the latter, his obligations have been too numerous to admit of individual enumeration. To E. MARTIN, of Godmanchester, H. T. BARRATT, of Huntingdon, and J. Fox, of Old Jewry, London, Esquires, he feels himself especially bound, to whom, and to all who have proffered or rendered

him assistance, in the course of his enquiries, he returns his sincere acknowledgments. To his Printer, Mr. TAYLOR, he also feels particularly obliged, for the care with which the work has been printed, much of which was required from the varieties of orthography contained in the quotations, in many instances occurring even in the same document.Lastly, to the Patrons of his work, the Author returns his respectful thanks, and trusts that on perusing The History of Godmanchester," they will not consider their patronage has been bestowed in vain.

GODMANCHESTER, Oct. 1, 1831.