t, whereas in articles information is usually
compacted, in some books at least it has to be picked out from amidst a
mass of irrelevant particulars without any help from indices. If the
writer has at all succeeded in performing his office--which is to do for
the reader what, under other circumstances, he might have done for
himself--many weary hours will not have been spent in vain, and the
weariest are probably those devoted to the construction of an index,
with which this book, whatever its merits or defects, does not go
unprovided.

Mere general statements, however, will not suffice; there is the
personal side to be thought of. The great "Chronicles and Memorials"
series has been served by many competent editors, but by none more
competent than Messrs. Riley, Horwood, and Anstey, to whose
introductions and texts the writer is deeply indebted. Reeves' "History
of English Law" is not yet out of date; and Mr. E. F. Henderson's
"Select Documents of the Middle Ages" and the late Mr. Serjeant
Pulling's "Order of the Coif," though widely differing in scope, are
both extremely useful publications. Mr. Pollard's introduction to the
Clarendon Press selection of miracle plays contains the pith of that
interesting subject, and Miss Toulmin Smith's "York Plays" and Miss
Katherine Bates's "English Religious Drama" will be found valuable
guides. Perhaps the most realistic description of a miracle play is that
presented in a few pages of Morley's "English Writers," where the scene
lives before one. For supplementary details in this and other contexts,
the writer owes something to the industry of the late Dr. Brushfield,
who brought to bear on local documents the illumination of sound and
wide learning. A like tribute must be paid to the Rev. Dr. Cox, but
having regard to his long and growing list of important works, the
statement is a trifle ludicrous.

One of the best essays on mortuary rolls is that of the late Canon Raine
in an early Surtees Society volume, but the writer is specially indebted
to a contribution of the Rev. J. Hirst to the "Archaeological Journal."
The late Mr. Andre's article on vowesses, and Mr. Evelyn-White's
exhaustive account of the Boy-Bishop must be mentioned, and--lest I
forget--Dr. Cunningham's "History of English Commerce." The late Mr. F.
T. Elworthy's paper on Hugh Rhodes directed attention to the Children of
the Chapel, and Dom. H. F. Feasey led the way to the Lady Fast. Here and
often the writer h