6 volumes as Venetian Transcripts.' The few with which I became acquainted through my own exertions are quoted as Venetian MSS.' · Of less importance only than these authorities are the French despatches in the National Library at Paris or in the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Dutch despatches and the letters of Salvetti, the agent of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, copies of which are to be found in the British Museum. References to other MSS. in that collection will be found in their proper place. The recently acquired Nicholas Papers have already been of considerable service, and will probably be even more useful at a later period. It will be understood that where the name of a printed tract is followed by the letter E. and a number, the reference is to the press-mark of the Thomason tracts in the Museum. A number without the preceding letter is a reference to the press-mark of other tracts in the same library. Outside the walls of our two national repositories, I have, with considerable advantage, had access, through the kind permission of the Library Committee at Guildhall, to the records of the Common Council of the City of London. Something too has been gained from the Register House and the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. In the latter is to be found a full account of the proceedings of the Scottish Commissioners in London during the first months of 1641, which seems to have escaped the notice of Scottish antiquarians. Of a very different character are the Verney MSS. preserved at Claydon. After the close of 1639, when Mr. Bruce's selection, published by the Camden Society, ends, the correspondence of the Verney family deals less directly with public affairs, and there are therefore fewer extracts quoted from them in the latter part of these volumes than in the former. But it would be a great mistake to measure the historical value of this correspondence by the number of references to it in these pages. After reading such a mass of letters from men and women of very different characters and in various positions in society, the mind of an historian becomes saturated with the thoughts and ideas of the time, in a way which is most helpful to him, though he may not be making even a mental reference to the writers of the letters themselves, or to the subjects which interest them. Any regret that I have been unable to bring before my readers many of the topics of this most interesting correspondence, is qualified by the knowledge that Lady Verney is engaged upon a sketch of the lives of the early members of the family, drawn from those papers which she has herself so admirably arranged, and with the contents of which she is so familiarly acquainted. No words of mine could adequately express my feeling of the kindness with which I have been received at Claydon by her and by Sir Harry Verney, and of the liberality with which they regard their possession of these inestimable treasures as a trust committed to them for the benefit of all who know how to make use of them. In one quarter only have I found any difficulty in procuring access to MSS. of importance. I regret that Lord Fitzwilliam has not considered it to be consistent with his duty to allow me to see the Strafford correspondence preserved at Wentworth Woodhouse. It would not be becoming to enter into a criticism of modern writers, as the points at issue could only be made intelligible at far greater length than I have here at my disposal; but as it has been necessary in the interests of truth to speak clearly on the extreme carelessness of some of Mr. Forster's work, I should not like to be considered to be without sense of the high services rendered by him to students of this period of history, especially in quickening an intelligent interest in the events of the seventeenth century. Nor will it, I trust, be presumptuous in me to record my admiration of the thoroughness and accuracy of the work of Mr. Sanford and Professor Masson. I have thought it due to their high reputation to point out in every case the few inaccuracies in matters of fact which I have detected, excepting where the fault lay in their not having before them evidence which has been at my disposal. I have little doubt that if my work were subjected to as careful revision it would yield a far greater crop of errors. Unfortunately in the second, and part of the first, volume, I have no longer the benefit of Mr. Hamilton's calendar of the Domestic State Papers. Happily for me he had achieved the greater part of his work before I outstripped him in my lighter labours. After the opening of the Long Parliament the State Papers decrease in volume and interest. The map at the beginning of the second volume is founded on the lists published by Mr. Sanford in his Studies on the Great Rebellion.' The red lines denote not merely those who joined the King at the commencement of the Civil War, but also those who subsequently took his side. I have, however, allowed Sir Ralph Verney's name to remain with a blue line, as Mr. Sanford was certainly wrong in speaking of him as having at any time gone over to the King. He simply went into exile because he refused to take the Solemn League and Covenant. I cannot conclude without especially thanking Mr. Reginald Palgrave, who kindly consented to look over these volumes in proof, and whose great knowledge of the documents relating to the history of the time enabled him to supply me with most valuable corrections and suggestions. |