Gen fib Sath 2-17-40 PREFACE ONLY a few words of Preface to this book are required. Leicestershire, despite Charnwood, Belvoir and the quiet beauty of the Wolds and the Rutland border, is not a tourist county; I have not written about it, therefore, in a tourist spirit, as though my main search were for the picturesque. I have rather gone about in the spirit of Leland, who is frequently quoted in the following pages, looking for historical and literary associations, interested in the old churches, castles, ruins and houses, and no less in the people who have lived in them, with eyes open for the leisurely enjoyment of any fine prospect and with time. enough-I travelled for the most part afoot-for idle gossip on the way. But I have also gone to the books-indeed, to many scores of books--for my information, and I hope that I have been successful in bringing together, from wide and varied sources, much scattered knowledge of the past that will be new to many of my readers. Local history is still sorely neglected. John Nichols' magnum opus on Leicestershire is practically unknown except to a few professed students or wealthy book-collectors; even the volumes of the new Victoria County History are rarely taken down from their shelves. I have not covered the whole ground of Leicestershire. I have picked my way, perhaps somewhat capriciously in places. That means many omissions, which may seem unwarrantable to those specially interested in the places omitted. But there are necessarily strict limits to the size of volumes in a series, and some parts of this book I have severely cut. I should also add that my journeyings in the county were undertaken four or five years ago, and it is quite possible that here and there things have changed in the meantime and some of the statements made are no longer strictly accurate in respect of the present moment. My thanks are due to all those authors who have gone over all or part of the ground before, and due acknowledgments are made in the text. Every topographer must take his good where he finds it; if he had recourse to "sources" to verify each statement made, his work would be endless, and I doubt if he would have the courage to begin. Among the later authors I owe special obligations to Messrs. Alfred Hervey and V. B. Crowther-Beynon for their "Little Guide" to Leicestershire, to numerous contributors to the Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society's Journal, and to Mr. George Farnham of Quorndon for valuable help given in relation especially to manorial history. But most my thanks are due to Mr. S. H. Skillington, himself a most zealous and enthusiastic antiquary, from whom few secrets of old Leicester history are hid, for constant and unfailing assistance while I was writing, and still more for generously reading my proofs and correcting my errors when the writing was done. November, 1925. J. B. F. |