VI PREFACE 



Pedigrees and the Geology, the Ecclesiology, and the every- 

 thing else, are dealt with by specialists in little volumes 

 devoted exclusively to one subject. A few years ago, one or 

 two ponderous tomes supplied a country gentleman with all 

 that was in print concerning his county, whereas nowadays 

 a whole bookcase is required to house the more portable 

 and numerous volumes that are in vogue.' 1 One such 

 volume is now presented to the reader by the Eev. H. A. 

 Macpherson on TJie Vertebrate Fauna of Lakeland. But 

 though this volume is a mere octavo of some six hundred 

 odd pages, its contents, in order to do justice to its own 

 special subject — The Vertebrate Fauna, are almost of as 

 catholic a character as the contents of the old County 

 Histories it and its fellows are destined to supersede. Thus 

 the bibliography of the subject, and the personality of the 

 various local writers thereon, have required much research, 

 and occupy a considerable portion of the Prolegomena. 

 Ancient charters, monastic records, parish registers and 

 accounts, have all of necessity been consulted : the valuable 

 results extracted thereon would seem to be as suitable to the 

 pages of the journal of an antiquarian society, as to a book 

 on natural history. But so it always is; one branch of 

 learning overlaps another, and the well-informed Lakeland 

 naturalist should be able to read mecliseval handwriting with 

 facility, to take part in a discussion on the age of the Bew- 

 castle Obelisk, and to blazon most of the local coats of 

 arms. 2 Further, he must have at his finger's ends The House 

 Books of Lord William Howard? and The History of 

 the Cumberland Fox Hounds ; it is hard to say what he 

 need not have learnt or read. Little wonder then that 



1 A History of Cumberland, by Richard S. Ferguson. London, Elliot 

 Stock, 1890. See the Preface. At the end is a classified list of works 

 relating to Cumberland. 



2 See infra, sub voce The Squirrel, p. 76. 



3 Published by the Surtees Society, vol. lxviii. 



