the manners and
customs of our island in the reign of Henry VIII. and
Elizabeth "; and being the work of a contemporary observer
this is not too much to claim for it. Owing to the great scope
of this work, it is impossible to convey an impression of the
whole, which is best represented by means of selected examples
of the chronicler's method. Being the work of so many
different authors, the literary quality of the "Chronicles"
naturally varies; but the learning and research they show make
them an invaluable aid to the study of the manners and customs
of early England.

_I.--Master Holinshed to his Good Lord and Master, Sir William Brooke,
Knight_

Being earnestlie required, Right Honorable, of divers my freends, to set
down some breefe discourse of some of those things which I had observed
in the reading of manifold antiquities, I was at first verie loth to
yeeld to their desires. But, they pressing their irksome sute, I
condescended to it, and went in hand with the work, with hopes of good,
although no gaie success. In the process of this Booke, if your Honor
regard the substance of that which is here declared, I must needs
confess that it is none of mine owne; but if your lordship have
consideration of the barbarous composition shewed herein, that I may
boldlie claim and challenge for mine owne. Certes, I protest before God
and your Honor, that I never made any choise of stile, or words, neither
regarded to handle this Treatise in such precise order and method as
manie other would have done, thinking it sufficient, truelie and
plainelie to set forth such things as I minded to intreat of, rather
than with vain affectation of eloquence to paint out a rotten sepulchre,
a thing neither commendable in a writer, nor profitable to the reader.
But howsoever it be done, I have had an especial eye unto the truth of
things, and for the rest, I hope that this foule frizeled Treatise of
mine will prove a spur to others better learned to handle the self-same
argument, if in my life-time I doo not peruse it again.

_II.--Some Account of the Historie of Britaine_

As few or no nations can justlie boast themselves to have continued
sithence their countrie was first replenished, without anie mixture,
more or lesse, of forreine inhabitant mixture, more or lesse, of
forreine inhabitants; no more can this our Iland, whose manifold
commodities have oft allured sundrie princes a