Vlll PREFACE. 



I cannot take leave of a work in which is recorded the results of 

 the labour of many years without an expression of gratitude for 

 the happy hours and pleasurable associations that labour has be- 

 gotten. Old friendships have ripened, and new ones have grown, 

 over the graves of the ancient dead ; nor can I look back to any 

 part of my life with less of regret or greater satisfaction than that 

 which has been passed in an endeavour to revive, in however faint 

 a form it may be, the almost forgotten past. 



WILLIAM GREENWELL. 



DURHAM, 



October, 1877. 



