4 * APPENDIX 



Almost the only important exceptions are the manuscript Year 

 Books, which must be sought in other archives ; cf. pt. ii, ch. ii, 

 s. i of my text. It seemed wise, therefore, to concentrate my 

 efforts on the endeavor to make as complete as possible an 

 examination of these sources. 



The various classes of records and their contents have been 

 analyzed and described by competent authorities ; for example, 

 by Scargill-Bird in his invaluable Guide to the Public Records, 

 by Gross, in the excellent summaries preceding the different 

 sections of his Sources of Eng. Hist., or in less technical form 

 by Tout in the appendix to Polit. Hist, of Eng. Further, the 

 publications of the old Record Commission and the calendars 

 in the annual reports of the deputy keeper cover a wide field, 

 while the present official series of calendars and of lists and 

 indexes will eventually constitute a complete catalogue of the 

 documents in the Record Office. In the meantime many manu- 

 script lists available only on the spot are of great assistance 

 to the investigator. 



No general description of the material being needed, my 

 plan in the following pages is to give brief summaries of the 

 various classes of manuscript records important for my pur- 

 pose, with references to any portions that are in print, and to 

 note what proportion of each class has been included in my 

 search ; also to point out certain errors and inadequacies 

 in the official calendars and lists and to call attention to a 

 notable omission on the part of nearly all authorities of one 

 whole class of records essential for my subject. 



These summaries and critical comments will serve as intro- 

 ductions to the groups of documents and extracts from docu- 

 ments constituting the bulk of this appendix. Except in a 

 very few instances, these documents have not been hitherto 

 printed and have been selected from each important class of 

 records, the greater number being taken from those classes 

 that are least likely in the near future to be calendared or 

 printed. To these texts have been added certain lists and 

 tables based on the manuscript sources. 



