246 ROBERT POCOCK. 



years since) for a paltry sum. A sum may fairly be 

 paltry, but ought the conduct of any parish officer to be 

 such ? No, they who are the guardians of the parish 

 should endeavour to maintain our trade and support 

 the poor within it, but not encourage foreigners, when 

 the work can be done equally cheap and masterly by 

 workmen within the parish. The above manuscripts 

 would have elucidated and added much to the history, 

 not only of the parishes but of the country, because 

 formerly there was the habit of depositing valuable 

 records in churches and religious houses, as a greater 

 security from whence it was presumed no sacrilegious 

 person would attempt to rob or disturb them. 

 " Tempora ! Mores ! 



" In this compilation, for compilation it may mostly 

 be called, the author has culled the sweets, and made 

 extracts in words, from those well skilled in the history 

 of the country, in preference to anything he could him- 

 self write or suggest, for if he had ventured to amend, 

 he should, in many instances, have failed altogether. 

 ' He will not pretend this collection is free from mis- 

 takes; no wise man will expect that, for he that copies 

 after others (as collectors of histories must do) cannot 

 always be sure he writes truth. Who is so careful (says 

 Camden) that, struggling with time in the foggy dark 

 sea of antiquity, he may not run upon rocks ? ' 



" The author thought to have found a treasure of 

 ecclesiastical information on looking into Bishop 

 Gibson's ' Camden's Britannia/ 2 vols. folio, but to 

 his surprise and disappointment the Rev. Prelate was 

 quite silent under the head of Dartford Nunnery. And 

 even the laborious Hasted has been very scanty, only 

 giving the name of one nun with a few prioresses ! 



