PREFACE. xi 



appearance of being, as near as possible, in the state 

 in which it must have been in Mr. Ray's lifetime. 

 That the inhabitants of the village knew little of him, 

 and the people of the house had only heard that he 

 was a great traveller.' 



A writer whose name I forget observes, ' Where 

 is now the Greek, or the Roman, or the Goth, or the 

 Norman ? all gone down and mingled with the mass 

 of mankind. What imperial nation of antiquity has 

 retained its laws, or religion, or countenance ? The 

 grave has mixed them all in one great decay, and 

 other masters of empire have marched upon the soil 

 and trampled out their monuments.' 



Not many years ago a rich illuminated pedigree of 

 the ancient, but now forgotten and extinct, family of 

 Cufaude was discovered stopping the broken casement 

 of a miserable cottage at Basingstoke.* 



The following article is from No. 311 of that 

 amusing assemblage of literature, the Mirror : * In the 

 churchyard of Aldworth, near Newbury, is a yew-tree 

 which, according to the best information, is not less 

 than 800 years old. The girth of one part of the 



* ' Here's a fine revolution if we had the trick to see it.' 



Hamlet. 



