had a geographical connection with Surrey; 3dly, I had the
run of Mr. Drummond's library, and consulted there some 300 volumes for
my novel: so it was not an idle work though a rapid one; 4thly, I wanted
to show that though in a Popish age England's heart, and especially
Langton's, was Protestant, quite a precursor of Luther. As this book is
extant, at Lasham's, Guildford, I refer my readers to it. One curious
matter is that my ideal scenes have taken such hold upon my
neighbourhood that streams of tourists come constantly through Albury to
visit "The Silent Pool" and other sites of scenes invented by me, and
have thereby enriched our village inn and the flymen, as well as given
to us a new sort of fame. The book, so cheap in the Guildford edition,
was originally published by Hurst & Blackett in 2 vols., illustrated by
Cousins: that edition is very scarce now.

The tragedy at the "Silent Pool" and the _Auto-da-fe_ are perhaps the
most dramatic scenes in the book,--as the Robin Hood gathering in Combe
Valley is the most picturesque.

* * * * *

I quote a few particulars from one of my diaries. "This book tended to
clear my brain of sundry fancies and pictures, as only the writing of
another book could do _that_. Its seed is truly recorded in the first
chapter as to the two stone coffins still in the chancel of St.
Martha's. I began the book on November 26, 1857, and finished it in
exactly eight weeks, on January 21, 1858, reading for the work included.
In two months more it was printed by Hurst & Blackett. I intended it for
one full volume, but the publishers preferred to issue it in two scant
ones; it has since been reproduced by Lasham, Guildford, in one vol., at
one-and-sixpence; it was 14s. I consulted and partially read for it (as
I wanted accurate pictures of John's reign in England) the histories of
Tyrrell, Hollingshed, Hume, Poole, Markland, Thomson's Magna Charta,
James's Philip Augustus, Milman's Latin Christianity, Hallam's Middle
Ages, Maimbourg's Lives of the Popes, Ranke's Life of Innocent III.,
Maitland on the Dark Ages, Ritson's Life of Robin Hood, Salmon's,
Bray's, and Brayley's Surrey, Tupper's and Duncan's Guernsey, besides
the British and National and other Encyclopaedias and Dictionaries as
required. It was a work of hard and quick and fervid labour, not an idle
piece of mere brain-spinning, and it may be depended on for
archaeological accuracy in every detail. More