Circumcision, which accords with the solar year of the Romans as
now restored; whilst others commenced with the Annunciation; a
custom which became very prevalent in honour of the Virgin Mary,
and was not formally abolished here till the year 1752; when the
Gregorian calendar, commonly called the New Style, was
substituted by Act of Parliament for the Dionysian. This
diversity of computation would alone occasion some confusion; but
in addition to this, the INDICTION, or cycle of fifteen years,
which is mentioned in the latter part of the "Saxon Chronicle",
was carried back three years before the vulgar aera, and
commenced in different places at four different periods of the
year! But it is very remarkable that, whatever was the
commencement of the year in the early part of the "Saxon
Chronicle", in the latter part the year invariably opens with
Midwinter-day or the Nativity. Gervase of Canterbury, whose
Latin chronicle ends in 1199, the aera of "legal" memory, had
formed a design, as he tells us, of regulating his chronology by
the Annunciation; but from an honest fear of falsifying dates he
abandoned his first intention, and acquiesced in the practice of
his predecessors; who for the most part, he says, began the new
year with the Nativity (35).

Having said thus much in illustration of the work itself, we must
necessarily be brief in our account of the present edition. It
was contemplated many years since, amidst a constant succession
of other occupations; but nothing was then projected beyond a
reprint of Gibson, substituting an English translation for the
Latin. The indulgence of the Saxon scholar is therefore
requested, if we have in the early part of the chronicle too
faithfully followed the received text. By some readers no
apology of this kind will be deemed necessary; but something may
be expected in extenuation of the delay which has retarded the
publication. The causes of that delay must be chiefly sought in
the nature of the work itself. New types were to be cast;
compositors to be instructed in a department entirely new to
them; manuscripts to be compared, collated, transcribed; the text
to be revised throughout; various readings of great intricacy to
be carefully presented, with considerable additions from
unpublished sources; for, however unimportant some may at first
sight appear, the most trivial may be of use. With such and
other difficulties before him, the editor has, nevertheless, been