

PBEFACE 



No collection of books is more calculated to fill with amaze- 

 ment the mind of a visitor to the library that houses it, 

 than a collection of ' County Histories ' of the old-fashioned 

 type. The information contained between their massive 

 boards ranges over almost every branch of human know- 

 ledge : from pedigrees to ethnology ; from agricultural 

 statistics to heraldry and architecture ; and from natural 

 history of all sorts to family gossip. Dip into them where 

 one will, one can hardly fail to be amused and edified. 

 But let the reader beware of being bitten by a mania for the 

 formation of a library of ' County Histories : ' in these days 

 when the agents of wealthy libraries at Chicago and San 

 Francisco compete in the English book-market with the 

 buyers of County Histories, such books run to much gold, 

 as would-be purchasers of Mcolson and Burn's History and 

 Antiquities of Westmorland and Cumberland, or of Hutchin- 

 son's Cumberland speedily find. High, however, as are the 

 prices attained by the few copies that do come into the 

 market, the demand is not sufficient to induce publishers to 

 undertake the risk of reprinting or of publishing volumes of 

 so expensive a character. Unless the speculation is taken 

 up by a syndicate of antiquaries and patriotic persons, as is 

 now the case in the neighbouring county of Northumberland, 

 the time has gone past for producing a history of Cumber- 

 land, or of any county, on the old-fashioned lines and scale. 

 • The work is now sub-divided ; the Fauna and the Flora, the 



