THE 4141861 WHITE HOODS: AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE. BY MRS. BRAY. Be brave then: for your captain is brave, There shall be no money: all shall eat And drink on my score; and I will apparel them SHAKSPEARE. A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED, WITH A GENERAL PREFACE, WRITTEN BY HERSELF. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. ΤΟ THE REVEREND EDWARD ATKYNS BRAY, MY DEAR AND HONOURED HUSBAND, WHO, IN THE MIDST OF HIS MORE SERIOUS STUDIES, GENERAL PREFACE. IN preparing a General Preface for a new edition of these Novels and Romances, I venture to retain the greater part of a former one, because it gives nearly all the information that I think would be of any interest to the reader, respecting the first five volumes of this series. The portion which follows (concerning the subsequent works, published since 1833) will be found to possess matter altogether new. Having said this, I proceed at once to the subject. When, in the year 1818, I was first on the Continent, and shared the pursuits of my lamented husband, Mr. C. Stothard, who was the companion of that journey, my attention was more particularly drawn to the remains of the genius and arts of the Middle Ages, in the cathedrals, churches, and domestic buildings with which the towns in Normandy and Britanny more especially abound. The monuments of the princes and heroes of chivalrous times, dilapidated as they were, from the havoc of the revolution; the scattered vestiges here and there found, of the libraries of desecrated monasteries; and the few illuminated manuscripts which are still preserved,-afforded a varied and never-failing source of interest; so that, besides a large collection of drawings (amongst which were copies of the whole of the Bayeux Tapestry by Mr. C. Stothard), we brought home some curious matter gleaned from those treasures, to which access was gained during a period of many months. All these papers, the fruits of our journey, both graphic and otherwise, referred to the ages of chivalry; and helped to throw light on the manners and customs of those most animating times. Aware, before we commenced our tour, that I was about travelling in Britanny (at that period new ground, being a province scarcely ever visited by the English), and that Britanny was the scene of many of Froissart's most lively and chivalrous narrations; I made myself well acquainted with his works, and frequently referred to the notes I had selected |