222 president's address. 



of the county ; and the first step should be the preparation of 

 a scheme, and the collection of materials for carrying it out. 



For me to comment in detail upon the various Histories of 

 Cornwall would be presumptuous and unnecessary. It has been 

 done by a gentleman far better qualified than I am for the task. 

 The late Mr. Davies-Grilbert, in the preface to his ' ' Parochial 

 History of Cornwall," published in 1837 in 4 vols. 8vo, gives a 

 brief bibliographical description of each of the then existing 

 Histories of the County. I must, however, crave permission to 

 call attention to an incident in illustration of the admonition, 

 which I ventured to give above, as to the necessity for an author 

 before using extracts made by a preceding writer, however 

 illustrious he may have been, to verify them. I conclude that 

 all here are acquainted, more or less, with that quaint, interest- 

 ing and most charming work, Carew's "Survey of Cornwall," 

 and they will probably recollect that the author has printed 

 pp. 39-53 (Ed. 1769) from the well-known " Eed Book of the 

 Exchequer," and other documents of the same character but of 

 later dates, the Returns of Knights' Fees in Cornwall down to 

 the 3rd Henry lY. Many years ago, however, when engaged 

 in a work on Cornwall, I referred to these Returns in Carew's 

 Survey ; I found them unintelligible, and on collating my copy 

 of Carew of 1769 with the originals in the Record Ofiice, I found 

 the printed book grossly inaccurate. The question then arose 

 as to the accuracy of the first edition of the Survey of 1602, and 

 upon examination I found that it agreed literally with that of 

 1769, and, moreover, that the last edition by Lord DeDunstanvill, 

 1811, possessed the same faults. I do not presume to say from 

 what cause this accident occurred. We all know that Carew 

 was an accomplished scholar, and I can only suppose that he 

 entrusted someone to make the transcripts for him who was 

 unable to read the documents, for it is inconceivable that they are 

 undetected printer's errors. But the still more remarkable fact is 

 that, in the various editions through which the work has passed 

 during close upon 300 years, the errors have been printed 

 literally as they stood in the Survey of 1602. We can only 

 conclude that Mr. Carew, being known to be a well qualified 

 author, subsequent writers trusted him and followed him into 

 the mire. This is a caution which all authors, if they regard 

 their own credit, would do well to observe, 



