THE GREAT GOVERNING FAMILIES OF ENGLAND BY JOHN LANGTON SANFORD AND MEREDITH TOWNSEND IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLXV 218. 2. 3. The Right of Translation is reserved Preface. In the compilation of these histories, the object has not been to produce a work of original research, or one based on unpublished or exclusive materials, but (while not neglecting to make use of any facts of this description which the Authors' own reading occasionally supplied) to subject rather the matter already existing in a more or less scattered form in printed books to the test of the accepted rules of historical evidence, and (with the limitations imposed by selection and condensation) to place before the general reader, in a popular form, the leading ascertained facts in the history of our Great Families in connection with the results of the latest researches into our national history. Such being the plan of the book, references to authorities, and acknowledgments of obligations to particular writers, were (except in rare cases) out of the question. For the justification of their judgment |