PREFACE

ALTHOUGH some considerable amount of labour has been expended in the past on the history and archæology of Buckinghamshire, the only serious attempt to compile a complete history of the county was made by George Lipscomb in The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham, published in four volumes in 1847, some months after the death of its author. Perhaps not quite equal to our best county histories, it is yet a work of great value; and taking into consideration the difficulties of access to records at the time it was compiled it shows a praiseworthy industry on the part of its compiler. In connection with the historians of the county mention cannot be omitted of Browne Willis, although his claim to be considered an historian is not confined to the county. As a Buckinghamshire man his chief interests nevertheless lay in the county, and in 1755 he published his History and Antiquities of the Town, Hundred and Deanery of Buckingham, where, as in his other works, may be discerned the use of original sources of information, the value of which, as the foundation of all history, he was one of the first local historians to recognize.

Owing to his intention of leaving the county, the Rev. F. W. Ragg, M.A., has been unable to undertake the editorship of the volumes of the Victoria County History for Buckinghamshire, as had been arranged, although with his local knowledge he has given much valuable assistance. In like manner, by reason of his many engagements, Mr. A. Heneage Cocks, M.A., F.S.A., was prevented from fulfilling his promise of writing the article on Early Man.

To his late colleague, Mr. H. A. Doubleday, the general editor wishes to express his obligations for the revision of articles and work on the Victoria County History done up to the time of Mr. Doubleday's retirement. For the use of blocks for illustrations in this volume the general editor has to thank Mr. A. Morley Davies, B.Sc., F.G.S., the proprietors of the Home Counties Magazine, and the Council of the Society of Antiquaries.