Remains, Historical and Literary, Connected with the Palatine Counties of ...

series of notices, but will find several gaps and lacunæ, which the Editor in his present state of infirmity is unable to fill up.

The study of our poetical Bibliography has made considerable progress of late years both at home and abroad. In our own country the continual succession of publishing Societies, from the early Shakespeare and Percy to the later Chaucer and Spenser, the private reprints of Mr. Halliwell, Mr. Collier, Mr. Grosart, Mr. Hazlitt and others, the very valuable publications of the Early Text Society, and the assistance afforded by the arts of photography and zincography, have all contributed largely to our knowledge of Bibliography and its kindred pursuits: and so also abroad, the formation of similar Societies, and the excellent reprints of early Poetry have added considerably to our information on these subjects, and created more diffused and wider interest in these studies.

Such is the nature and object of our present work, which we trust will excite the attention and notice not only of those who have the time at their disposal but also of those who are more fully engaged, the lovers of our early poetical literature, to follow out such pursuits. They will then become more deeply and intimately acquainted with the strong and clear powers of intellect with which our early poets were endued, the pure and simple tone of thought and feeling which often pervaded their effusions, and will learn more and more to value and esteem the rich harvest which their labours have garnered up for posterity.

The Compiler in common with the other Members of the CHETHAM SOCIETY, and more especially of the Editors of its publications, regrets the death of the valued and esteemed Printer of these works, whose loss they cannot easily hope to replace. Of superior attainments and acquirements in scholarship to the general body of printers, Mr. C. SIMMS was known and esteemed for his skill and strict attention to his duties, and his honorable conduct in business. We have already alluded in a former part of this Volume to his creditable translation into long syllable verse of a portion of Homer's Iliad; and he had also printed for private circulation among his friends a small but pleasing collection of Poems. We cannot close these few remarks on this subject more appropriately or truly than in the words of one who knew him intimately, and valued him as he deserved: "With a mind full of thought and information, with great geniality and kindness of disposition, Mr. Simms was a most agreeable companion, and had endeared himself to an extensive circle of friends. His habits were however domestic, and his great pleasure was to occupy himself, amidst his own family, in those intellectual pursuits which year by year brought with them their freightage of accumulated knowledge."

The Editor has again to acknowledge with grateful thanks the superintending care of the PRESIDENT in the revision of the sheets as they passed through the press, now more than ever needed since the decease of their excellent Printer, who was so careful in this portion of his

duties, and also more especially from the increasing defect in his own weak, failing eyesight.

The Editor has added a few fac-similes of some of the woodcuts in the original volumes here described. Their only merit is their fidelity, and their grotesque simplicity may perhaps amuse his readers.

If his life should be spared, he hopes to be able before long to print off the sixth part of the Collectanea AngloPoetica, the articles for which are all written.

The asterisk (*), inserted before some of the later articles in this volume, is placed to signify that the book described in it had been parted with before the article was written; and therefore that the Editor was unable to vouch for its perfect accuracy with the same fidelity which marked the other volumes.

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