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Excerpt from Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, to the End of the Reign of Henry VII, Vol. 1: From the Roman Period to the Norman Invasion; Part I
Besides, to make the work as complete as possible, I had decided to give - how wisely my readers must de termine not only some account of the writers to whom we are indebted for the materials of our early English his tory, but, so far as I could, a critical summary of the value of these materials. That task had never been attempted before, and was attended with considerable difficulties; for, to say nothing of the great number of the works being found only in manuscript, thus rendering the task of mastering their contents unusually irksome, I had to prosecute many researches, without a guide, in books, manuscripts, and libraries widely dispersed, and in some cases accessible only under vexatious restrictions, which added much to my labour. Besides, the line I had adopted was comparatively new; I could obtain but little assis tance from the labours of my predecessors in this field of historical criticism, nor did I think it fair to adopt their conclusions without going over the same ground in every instance myself.
Hence arose much of the delay that has occurred in the publication of this volume, and even that delay must have 'been greater but for the kind encouragement and valuable assistance of friends, who, With unexpected generosity, have either contributed the result of their own inquiries into early English history or bibliography, or have readily lent me their aid in other directions.
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