THE ANNALS OF YORKSHIRE, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO 1852. COMPILED BY HENRY SCHROEDER. LEEDS: PUBLISHED BY GEORGE CROSBY. 1852. GENERAL PREFACE. Historians find an advantage in grouping together a variety of circumstances and incidents as to time, place, person, and event, irrespective of chronological order, both in the way of anticipation and resuscitation, with a view to prevent constant recurrence, as well as to dispose of all that may, and ought to be advanced, on the same subject; nor less, by such concentration, to produce the most correct and permanent impression on the mind of the reader. In doing this, however, it must not be forgotten, that an ulterior object is not unfrequently sought to be gained, in the establishment of certain favourite theories, whether in philosophy, politics, religion or morals,—the whole of the author's reasonings and deductions proceeding in that direction, and so giving a tinge to the general subject, more or less favourable-as in the case of Hume and Gibbon in reference to Christianity, agreeably to the prejudices and prepossessions respectively entertained. The Annalist, on the other hand, sustains, generally speaking, the character of a simple narrator of facts; appearing somewhat in the official capacity of a servant, while his annals assume the character of an index to history, pointing the finger, like a guide-post, to those facts and events which constitute the base on which the historian rears his superstructure,—allowing the reader to take his own impressions, to draw his own conclusions, to prosecute his own speculations, and to make what use of the materials offered, his better judgment shall suggest. |