EDITORIAL NOTE

Although numbered Four, the present volume is the seventh to be published of the Victoria History of Gloucestershire and the sixth since the revival of the Gloucestershire History in 1958. An outline of the structure and aims of the Victoria History as a whole, as also of its origin and progress, is included in the General Introduction (1970), and the arrangements by which the Gloucestershire County Council and the University of London collaborate to produce the Gloucestershire History are indicated in the Editorial Note to Gloucestershire, Volume Six. Once again it is the General Editor's pleasure to record the University's gratitude for the generosity displayed by the County Council.

The County Council's Recreation and Leisure Committee has continued to supervise the compilation of the Victoria History of Gloucestershire. Cllr. P. M. Robins was succeeded as chairman of that committee in 1985 by Cllr. K. J. S. Hammond, who was succeeded in the same year by Cllr. J. Bartlett.

The authors and editors of the volume, as of all similar volumes, have drawn widely on the help, information, and advice of many people and bodies, too numerous all to be mentioned here but named in the footnotes to the articles with which they helped. They are all most cordially thanked. Professor Clark's chapter on Early Modern Gloucester is based on research which was generously funded by the Economic and Social Science Research Council and for which valuable assistance in research was provided by Dr. P. Morgan and Dr. A. Foster. Mr. M. A. Handford generously made available notes on the Gloucester Journal for part of the 18th century, and Mr. A. Done his detailed notes of Gloucester references from the Gloucester Journal for the whole of the 19th century. Mr. B. C. Frith gave generous help on many aspects of Gloucester's history, and among others who helped with particular aspects were Mrs. Evelyn Christmas, Mr. A. H. Conway-Jones, Miss Susan Reynolds, Mr. J. F. Rhodes, curator of Gloucester Museum, Mr. P. J. G. Ripley, and Mr. H. R. T. Shackleton, chief executive of Gloucester City Council. For access to records in their possession grateful acknowledgement is made to the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester, whose librarian Canon D. C. St. V. Welander gave valuable help with the account of the cathedral, and to the archivist of the United Reformed Church provincial archives, Leamington Spa. The Gloucestershire County Record Office has continued to give its indispensable aid, and in thanking the County Archivist, Mr. D. J. H. Smith, and his staff it is appropriate to mention in particular Mrs. Margaret Richards, former senior cataloguer, for her knowledge and careful cataloguing of the Gloucester Borough Records. The extensive use of the material for the city in the Gloucestershire Collection has made the help of the Gloucester Divisional Library of the county library service even more important in the present volume than in previous ones, and the librarian, Mr. G. R. Hiatt, and his staff in the reference and local history sections are sincerely thanked.