... You have made such a valuable addition, not only to
English literature, but to English topography, by your
collection--for these popular traditions form, or ought to form, an
important feature in topographical history--that it is to be hoped
you will not stop with the present volumes."
The _second_ series of the "Traditions," consisting also of two volumes
(including twenty tales), uniform with the first, was published in 1831,
and met with similar success. Both series were reviewed in the most
cordial manner by the leading periodicals of the day; while they were
more than once quoted by Sir Walter Scott, who characterised the whole
as an elegant work. In the production of these tales, Mr Roby's practice
was to make himself master of the historical groundwork of the story,
and as far as possible of the manners and customs of the period, and
then to commence composition, with Fosbroke's _Encyclopedia of
Antiquities_ at hand, for accuracy of costume, &c. He always gave the
credit of his style, which the _Westminster Review_ termed "a very model
of good Saxon," to his native county, the force and energy of whose
dialect arises mainly from the prevalence of the Teutonic element.
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