www ww

same chronicler gives of the pageant prepared for Henry's reception into London upon his return, which is followed by Lydgate's metrical account of it. Towards the end are added, The Roll of the peers, knights, and men-at-arms who were at Agincourt, from the Harleian MS. 782. The names of the French noblemen who were there slain and taken, from the same MS. A list of the retinue of Henry V. in his first voyage, from the unpublished collections for the Fœdera, in Sloane's MSS. No. 6400. A copy of the variations between the preceding Roll and a more accurate transcript in the College of Arms. An Itinerary of the Expedition. A copy of the Ordinances made by Richard the Second for the government of the army in 1386, from the Harleian MS. 1309, and which were evidently acted upon in 1415. Some valuable notes by Dr. Meyrick on the equipment of an army of that period, &c.; and an Index to the Roll.

All the extracts have been translated, and this apparently easy task has been attended with difficulties which those

was also to offer has grateful acknowtearmens for my essential kindnesses in facilitating his researches.

only can believe who have attempted to give a literal version of early chroniclers, whether from the French or Latin of the middle ages. Those difficulties are only alluded to, in extenuation of occasional ruggedness, and probably also, of occasional misconceptions in the translations.

To some, the rigid manner in which every authority is cited may wear the appearance of pedantry; but the subjoined passage from the Quarterly Review, the beauty of which is only exceeded by its justice, explains in far abler language than his own, the motives by which the author was actuated, and forms his best defence. "The intrinsic value of a History depends upon the extent and accuracy of research displayed in its compilation; that extent can only be marked, that accuracy can only be established, by copious references. Notes are indispensable to its existence; they are the guarantees for its trust-worthiness; they are the only measure which the reader possesses of the credulity or discrimination of the writer. Without them

he does not know whether he is depending on the assertions of a Dionysius or a Tacitus, and he may, for any thing he knows to the contrary, be reposing on the tales of the former that confidence which he perhaps would be willing to concede only to the philosophic narrative of the latter. The personal friends indeed of the historian may feel satisfied that he would advance nothing as matter of historic truth except what he had attentively examined and expressly believed; but what inference will all other persons draw from a history without note or reference? They will assuredly never rest their belief on its assertions; they will never receive its unsupported details as matter of strict and conclusive evidence." a

Of the style of this volume it would ill become its author to speak. It was his sole ambition to be correct and impartial: -his first object, to ascertain what was true; his second, to relate those truths in a plain and simple manner.