expreffed in very general terms. With this acknowlegement, the writer might be contented, and would perhaps with us to ftop: but, though merit may admit of a general allowance, even an author will infift on cenfure requiring a fpecification of faults; and as no performance is fo excellent that it could not have been better, if any critical friends fhould undertake to point out how it might have been improved, here begins the difagreeable part of the task: because fuch inftances, however fubordinate to general commendation, are often confidered as injurious to the writer; who, if he avails himfelf of this kind of information, is feldom cordially fatisfied with the advantage, Such, nevertheless, must be our line of conduct, on the prefent occafion.

Camden's Britannia is a work too long, and too well known, to have its merits now eftimated. As that celebrated antiquary wrote for the learned, who, in his time, were a felect few, he wrote, as moft writers of eminence then did, in a learned language but as our own vernacular tongue is now found worthy of conveying ufeful information to our countrymen, the public will undoubtedly accept with much pleasure, a modern translation of it by a confeffedly able hand. When we reflect, alfo, on the many topographical works, with which we have been fupplied, fince Camden's time, and particularly fince the laft English verfion of his Britannia by Bishop Gibson, and which have brought us better acquainted with the present state and antiquities of our native land; the acceffion of them to Camden's stock of materials, muft render fo rich a magazine doubly welcome! Thefe additions exceed the original work in quantity, especially in defcribing Scotland and Ireland; countries concerning which we were fcantily and ill-informed in the time of Camden. Mr. Gough explains his conduct with respect to the execution of his great tafk, in the following

terms:

In the prefent additions, after flating all that Leland faid before Camden, I have endeavoured to confine myfelf to the most friking circumftances of each place; and if I have given way to the difquifitions, it is only where I thought my great mafter would have done the fame. Without entering into the details of a county hiftorian, or adopting the mode of a modern writer of a defcription of England, I have endeavoured to do that for Mr. Camden, which Mr. Camden, in the fame circumftances, would have done for himself.'

It seems no part of Mr. Camden's plan to ftate the manufac tures or commercial improvements of each place. A formal catalogue of plants peculiar to each county was no more in his view than a lift of markets, fairs, or members of parliament. The firft of thefe articles, fo amazingly increafed fince Mr. Camden's time,

are

are fully enlarged upon in Dr. Campbell's excellent performance. The latter, fuggefted by Bifhop Gibfon, has, I truft, been in fome meafure fupplied by the help of fome young friends, who have exerted their utmoft diligence in collecting the plants peculiar to each county from books and the refearches of themselves and other botanists, who have multiplied fince Ray, in the fame proportion as the fcience has improved. As to the other articles, every common reader knows where to find them.

If it be objected that too large a portion of Leland is tranfcribed, let it be confid: red, that it is merely with a view to fhew where Mr. Camden borrowed from him. Should the fuppofed plagiariim by this comparifon be thought to turn out greater than even Brooke afferted, it is no reproach to Mr. Camden to have given fuch a form, arrangement, and drefs, to the fugitive notes of his great predeceffor, whofe noble defign a variety of accidents concuried to cut short. Leland was the Camden of his age; and had the reign of Henry VIII. been as favourable to literary or antiquarian refearches as that of his daughter, we might not have wanted Mr. Camden, or rather we fhould have had his genius under another name. How warmly Leland breathed the fame fpirit may be feen in his letters to Archbishop Cranmer, recommending his collections to his care. Not to repeat what I have elsewhere faid in praife of Leland, fuffice it to obferve, that the rapidity of reformation, however favourable to religion, gave a fatal wound to fuch kind of knowlege as Leland and Camden purfued. It is no mean praife for Mr. Camden that he filled up the outlines of Leland.

It was not till after the topography of Great Britain had received the public fanction, that I entertained the least thought of a new edition of Camden's Britannia, Though for twenty fummers I had amufed myfelf with taking topographical notes in various parts of England, and at lalt of Scotland; it was with no higher view than private information, or perhaps of communicating them to the public in fome fuch form as Dr. Stukeley's Itinerary, or that of the local antiquities of particular towns or districts. This it is hoped, will account for the imperfection in the editor's own additions to many parts of the work. As Mr. Camden's defcription was made from actual furvey, it is but reasonable to require the fame attention from the additional ones. But as both the difpofition and opportunity to indulge thefe inquiries have given place to a more domeftic life, I warn the reader not to com plain of a difappointment if he does not trace me in every part of the kingdom; and if I request him to content himself in many cafes with the refearches of others, though I will not offer fuch an infult to his difcernment, as to intrude on him the rude obfervations of

*The long lifts of rare Plants found in each county, might, in our opinion, have been omitted, to the faving of much room, without injury to the work; for great numbers of them are common plants not peculiar to the counties under which they are placed, as a comparison of the lifts will fhew,

every rambler, now the rage of travelling about Britain is become fo contagious, that every man who can write or read, makes a pocket Britannia for himfelf or others.

There is more caufe to be alarmed when I confider the requifites for the prefent undertaking, and for arranging the materials that have been communicated to the world during the laft fifty years. New and different lights have been thrown on our Roman antiquities, and fresh infcriptions and ftations have come forward; the contents of our libraries are better known, and many MSS. relating to our history and antiquities have been printed. Mr. Camden's prediction that a new age, a new race of men, would produce new difcoveries, has been fully verified; and to his immortal honour, he ftill fhines as the great luminary of our antiquities. Not to fet off the prefent improvements by an invidious comparifon with the affiftandes communicated to Bishop Gibfor, and recited in his preface, the British Topography would fhew the addition to the lift of books and treatifes on the antiquities of the three kingdoms fince his time. I muft however acknowlege my particular obligations to my learned and communicative friends in the following counties.

The Rev. Mr. Manning permitted the free ufe of his hiftory of Surrey, without fearing to anticipate a work which the public impatiently expects. The Rev. Mr. Price of the Bodleian library at Oxford, overlooked the defcription of that county; as did the late Sir John Cullum, Sir John Fenn, and the Rev. Mr. Thome of Caftle Rifing, thofe of Suffolk and Norfolk; Mr. Effex, and Mr. Cole, Cambridgeshire; John Wightwick, and Samuel Pipe Wolferftan, Efqrs. Staffordshire; the Rev. Mr. Afhby, Leicestershire. This laft county has been improved by the papers of the late Rev. Samuel Carte, vicar of St. Martin's, Leicester, and the affiduous refearches of my friend and printer, Mr. John Nichols. The minute books of the fociety of antiquaries of Spalding, by favour of Mr. Fairfax Johnfon, grandfon to the founder, and the papers of the Rev. Dr. Gordon, precentor of Lincoln, fapplied much new matter in Lincolnshire; Mr. Pegge, in Derbyshire; Shropshire is greatly indebted to the Rev. Mr. Francis Leighton, of Shrewsbury; Hereford to a MS. of the late Mr. Blount, of Orielton, communicated by Dr. Nafh. Mr. Pennant overlooked the northern counties of Wales, of which his printed defcription has furnished fo full an account; and Scotland owes much to his investigation. Yorkshire will bear ample teftimony to the friendly communications of Mr. Thomas Beckwith, who did not live to execute all his plans for the illuftration of that county, wherein I have been fomewhat affifted by John Charles Brooke, Eiq. Somerfet Herald. Durham has received much improvement from the united affiftance of Mr. George Allan of Darlington, Mr. William Hutchinfon of Bernard Čaftle, and John Cade, Efq. of Gainsford. Not to enlarge on a variety of leffer corrections, which have been occafionally received from others in the whole courfe of the work.

Scotland has been fo fully laid open in the courfe of a few late years, that one would think Mr. Camden's apology for his want of information

information from thence, or the prevailing tafte for illuftrating our national antiquities, had been carried into that kingdom. I muft again repeat my acknowlegements to Mr. George Paton of Edinburgh; and I received fome corrections from Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes.

If the fame difcoveries for Ireland are more confined, it is owing to the failure of the Philofophical Society, which had begun to illuftrate particular counties. I am obliged, however, for information, to feveral curious gentlemen of that kingdom; to John Cowper Walker, Efq; and to Mr. Wilfon of Dublin; to Mr. Beaufort, of Athy; to the Rev. Mr. Ledwich of Old Glas, Durrow, and to the Rev. Dr. Campbell, for an excellent comprehenfive view of the government of that kingdom, from the earliest times to the latest revolution in it.

It would ill become the prefent tranflator to pass any reflections on the refpectable name of his predeceffor in this arduous work. The republic of letters has great obligations to Bishop Gibfon. For if Camden first restored antiquity to Britain, and Britain to antiquity, his Lordship reftored Camden to himself, rescuing him from the confufion of that univerfal tranflator, Philemon Holland, and building on his latest and most improved edition a valuable fuperftructure. The vigorous and manly ftyle which obtained in the last age, and the beginning of this, wants the polish and correctness of the prefent time; fo that, without prefuming too much on the prefent tranflation, or infifting on what the Bifhop himself apologized for, that his was the work of feveral hands, one may fafely fay, the alterations of our language rendered a new tranflation neceffary. In a modern tranflation, it was not thought neceffary to retain Mr. Camden's explanation of peculiar terms and cuftoms for the ufe of foreigners. His ftyle, like that of moft of his cotemporaries, abounds with poetical terms and allufions, bordering a little on conceit. As far as language is concerned, it has been the tranflator's intention to make the Britannia an English claffic, calculated for every reader.

If I fhould be accufed of differing, not only from Bishop Gibfon, but from fome able judges of the prefent age, as to the mode of difpofing the additions to the prefent edition, I have but this apology, that as his lordship's additions incorporated with Mr. Camden's text, but with proper marks of diftinction, do not appear to me fo plain as to be difcerned at first fight by every reader, who is attending to these diftinctions; or yet not plain enough to diffigure the page or offend the eye; and certainly the text not left entire or feparate; fo the mode now adopted, by working up the defcription of each county anew, with as little repetition as poffible, prefents the reader with an uninterrupted narrative immediately following Mr. Camden's, without the perplexity of continual reference to long and diftant notes. Such little corrections, remarks, or references, as could not be brought into the above-mentioned plan, are thrown at the bottom of the page.

All the Bishop's additions, diftinguished by reference in Arabic numerals to his initial G. at the bottom of each page, are retained, except a very few, which are either uninteresting or erro

8

neous,

neous, and most of them are enlarged and new modelled. A few mif- tranflations, inftances of falfe English, trite obfervations, and falfe facts, are freely noticed at the bottom of the page.

Even Holland's additions, though decried by Mr. Camden, are retained. Mr. Camden's marginal notes are marked by t. t. Among these muft not be forgotten thofe marked MS. n. Gale, being made by the late Mr. Samuel Gale in the margin of his copy of the author's last edition, which has fallen into my hands. No reflection is intended on the editor, when I confefs myfelf difappointed by the latest edition of Bishop Gibion's translation, fince it is well known he undertook no more than to fee it through the press, and continue the noble defcents. His copy and papers are now in my hands.

After all that has been, or can be collected, toward forming a complete edition of the Britannia, much must be left to be corrected and fupplied by attentive infpection of judicious travellers, or natives in the feveral counties. Increase of wealth renders property fo fluctuating, that it can hardly be afcertained for a fucceffion of years. Increase of honours, a confequence of the foregoing caufe, will add names to the peerage, and titles to places now obfcure. Increase of cultivation makes rapid alterations in the face of the country. Old ftations are levelled by the plough; old mansionhoufes by modern refinement; and old titles revive in new families. Others may trace out many things barely hinted at here, and fettle many points which are unavoidably left dubious.

The errors of former editors ferve but to awaken a ftronger apprehenfion in the prefent: and if the great author could not fatisfy himself in his laft and completest edition, what fecurity is there for another editor's promife? If, in pointing out fuch errors, thofe of other antiquaries are alfo animadverted on, this it is hoped is. done with the candour due to refpectable names.

• Far from prefuming on an ability to correct the mistakes of preceding editors, it is not without the utmost diffidence I submit to the public eye the refult of twenty years journeying, and a longer term of reading and enquiry; the labour of leven years in tranflating and enlarging Mr. Camden's valuable work; and of nine more in attending this edition through the prefs. This laft term must apologize for the omiffion of events that happened during the progrefs of the prefs, and for appearances of anachroniim.

And now I caft myfelf on the candour of the public, who, if they are not fatisfied with the general apology which the extent and magnitude of the work fuggefts, muft kindly furnish me with a better. Senfible of innumerable imperfections which it was not in my power to obviate, if the cenfures they may provoke are aggravated by infult, the fevereft will only excite pity for their authors. But while I fubmit to, and folicit the correction of the liberal-minded and communicative antiquary, I profefs myfelf as fuperior to critics by profeffion, as to the meanness of thofe marauders, who by pilJaging my labours for the day's amufement of a fauntering traveller or a coffeehouse lounger, offer a greater violence to the profit of the bookfeller, than to the reputation of the editor.'

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