RECORDS AND RECORD SEARCHING A Guide to the Genealogist and Topographer BY WALTER RYE SECOND EDITION LONDON GEORGE ALLEN, 156, CHARING CROSS ROAD 1897 (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. I FEAR I shall be blamed by many for my temerity in printing what little I have learned during the last quarter of a century about the Public Records—especially by those who, being better qualified than I to undertake the task, have refrained from doing so, in the hope that some day they may bring out a perfect Handbook to such Records. That none of my critics in posse have taken the trouble to print such a work is my excuse for putting forward this very indifferent substitute for it. The facts are these: I had, from time to time, collected a mass of notes for my own use, and found that it was very inconvenient to refer to them in MS., so thought that if they were printed and well indexed1 it might help beginners, and save them some of the trouble and mental worry from which I suffered, when I was first let loose on the enormous mass of the Records in Fetter Lane and Bloomsbury. I am indebted to many friends for help in completing this little book, and very especially to my schoolfellow, Mr. R. Howlett,2 to Mr. Walford D. Selby, Dr. Jessopp,* Dr. Marshall (Rouge Croix),5 Mr. C. H. Athill 5 (Blue Mantle), Mr. A. R. Bax, and to others. That I must have made innumerable omissions and mistakes I know well enough; but I ask my readers to be merciful, and to send me, more in sorrow than in anger, their corrections and additions. If they will all 1 I am not going to apologise for my Index, for it is the only good part of my book, being adapted to the meanest capacity. 2 Now F.S.A. 3 Since dead, to the great loss of all Record Students. 4 Now the Rev. Canon Jessopp. 5 Now F.S.A. |