ROBERT POCOCK. 21 



by making it the subject of the first county history ; and 

 in his time a general collection of the antiquities of 

 the kingdom was comprised into a thin quarto in 

 Latin by his contemporary Camden. Not long after 

 these authors, all that was then thought worthy of 

 notice among the monuments of Britain was given by 

 Weaver, in a folio ; and it was not, I believe, till the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century that any town or 

 even city was judged capable of affording sufficient 

 materials for a distinct publication ; but whether from 

 the accumulation of recorded and interesting events 

 respecting places and families, which are not now, as 

 formerly (before the invention of printing), soon hurried 

 into oblivion, or from the growing taste for a know- 

 ledge of men and manners in past ages, or probably 

 from both these causes, aided by an increasing popula- 

 tion, which renders what was once a narrow theatre of 

 action now complex and diversified ; whether from 

 all or either of these causes, it is certain that a single 

 town, parish, the smallest village or meanest family 

 may afford documents worth relating for the benefit of 

 future generations/'' &c. 



******** 



(< No apology is needed for offering in this separate 

 form memoirs of the family of Tufton ; but it may be 

 necessary to premise on behalf of the execution of the 

 present work, that the occupations of a man who has 

 not the happiness to enjoy affluence and a peaceful re- 

 treat naturally stand in the way of study and research. 



" The writer nevertheless hopes that his labours will 

 not be found wholly uninteresting or useless. 



" He has availed himself of all sources of information 

 that were accessible to him, and has endeavoured to 



