The Publication Committee are sure that the Members of the 

 Club will accept their apologies for the diminished size of the 

 present volume and for its late appearance. 



The former is due to the greatly enhanced price of printing 

 and paper which has caused this volume to be more costly in 

 production than were those of double the size which were 

 issued eight or ten years ago. 



For the same reason the number of illustrations is limited. 

 Those descriptive of the ancient building on the Kingston Lacy 

 Estate have been added at the cost of the Hon. Editor. 



The Printing of a valuable but lengthy paper by Canon 

 Mayo on "Abbot Bere's Survey of the Marnhull Estate" has 

 been unavoidably postponed until things are more normal, 

 partly for financial reasons, but also because, under present 

 conditions, the printers felt unable to face the Latin. 



Owing to the shortness of staff at the printing office, the 

 publication of this volume is again late. There is, however, 

 every reason to hope that Vol. XL. will be issued before many 

 months are over, and that Vol. XLI, will appear some time 

 during the Summer of next year, 



