PREFACE 



ALTHOUGH some considerable amount of labour has been 

 expended in the past on the history and archaeology of Buck- 

 inghamshire, the only serious attempt to compile a complete 

 history of the county was made by George Lipscomb in The 

 History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham, published in four 

 volumes in 1847, some months after the death of its author. Perhaps 

 not quite equal to our best county histories, it is yet a work of great 

 value ; and taking into consideration the difficulties of access to records 

 at the time it was compiled it shows a praiseworthy industry on the 

 part of its compiler. In connection with the historians of the county 

 mention cannot be omitted of Browne Willis, although his claim to be 

 considered an historian is not confined to the county. As a Buckingham- 

 shire man his chief interests nevertheless lay in the county, and in 1755 

 he published his History and Antiquities of the T'own, Hundred and Deanery 

 of Buckingham, where, as in his other works, may be discerned the use of 

 original sources of information, the value of which, as the foundation of 

 all history, he was one of the first local historians to recognize. 



Owing to his intention of leaving the county, the Rev. F. W. 

 Ragg, M.A., has been unable to undertake the editorship of the 

 volumes of the VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY for Buckinghamshire, as 

 had been arranged, although with his local knowledge he has given 

 much valuable assistance. In like manner, by reason of his many 

 engagements, Mr. A. Heneage Cocks, M.A., F.S.A., was prevented 

 from fulfilling his promise of writing the article on Early Man. 



To his late colleague, Mr. H. A. Doubleday, the general editor 

 wishes to express his obligations for the revision of articles and work 

 on the VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY done up to the time of Mr. Double- 

 day's retirement. For the use of blocks for illustrations in this volume 

 the general editor has to thank Mr. A. Morley Davies, B.Sc., F.G.S., 

 the proprietors of the Home Counties Magazine, and the Council of the 

 Society of Antiquaries. 



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