Life In An Old English Town - A History Of Coventry From The Earliest Times

V Social fr. LIFE IN AN OLD ENGLISH TOWN A HISTORY OF COVENTRY FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL RECORDS BY MARY DORMER HARRIS SW fc AN SONNENSCHEIN CO. LIM NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN CO. LIM D 1898 BUTLI-R. TANNLU, Tim sr LWOOD PRINTI mr, WORKS, FROMC, AND LONDON, Abattem EEBATA p. 67 note 1, for Laud. MS. 290 533 read u Lamd. MS. 290. 553, p. 131 1. 9, for Calaitdon read Cdudon. p. 180 note 2 1. 1, for August read Augusti. 1. 2, for Angliefuit read Angliefuit p. 187 1. 11, for wail read way. p. 296 1. 28, for council read counsd. EDITORIAL PREFACE A New N introducing an old subject with, some Subject, variety of form, it is easy to be brief and at the same time clear, because the reader supplies from previous knowledge so much that is left unsaid but in stepping quite out of the beaten track nothing perhaps but actually treading the new path can make the goal that it is intended to reach plainly visible. It is not desirable that the whole object of a new series of books written on a new plan should be capable of being con densed into a few pages, this can be done only for subjects whose scope is already well defined, where there are and have been many previous books written on the same lines, though perhaps from slightly different points of view, and in which the only novelty to be looked for is in the style of writing and in the arrangement and amount of matter. Undoubted as is the influence of personality Personality. upon history, the attention directed to it has hitherto been rather one-sided the entire course of national life cannot be summed up in a few great names, and the attempt to do so is to confuse biography with history. This narrow view, besides ignoring othercauses, leads to the overrating of details, and since a cause must be found somewhere, personal character becomes every vi ii Editorial Preface thing. The stability of law that is seen in a large number of instances cannot be discovered by watching single lives, however exalted and history with no intention of discovering the condition of events becomes the sport of accident, resting in great measure for its interest on anecdote and rhetoric. The case is not much bettered by long accounts of acts of parliament, with sum maries of debates, and numbering of divisions, and more lives of statesmen, eminent and mediocre. The details of parliament no more than the details of biographies afford sufficient data for scientific observation, if the forces of the society that surround them are omitted. Neither does the addition of military detail help much in the comprehension of the course of events one battle is much like another except when treated by the profes sional soldier or sailor, or at all events in the light of professional books and victories or defeats depend upon something else besides the position of the ground or the plans of the moment. It has been reserved for a naval expert of another power to point this out to the multi tudinous writers of the history of the great naval power of the world. social Social questions are to-day taking the fore-Questions. most pj ace p u bii c interest the power behind the statesman is seen to be greater in controlling contemporary history than the eloquence or experience of any single man. We see this to be so now, and our knowledge of the present suggests the question whether it has not always been so and whether the life of society EditorialPreface ix though it has not had the same comparative weight, has not always been a more important factor than the life of the individual. The Social England series rests upon the The Social r England conviction that it is possible to make a suc-Senes. cessful attempt to give an account, not merely of politics and wars, but also of religion, com merce, art, literature, law, science, agriculture, and all that follows from their inclusion, and that without a due knowledge of the last we have no real explanation of any of the number...