A new version of
Camden, rectified by all the discoveries subsequent to his time;--that
which is found useless or erroneous left out, and the work enlightened
by new researches, entered into by a number of inquirers equal in all
respects to the task, and exerted over every part of the country, would
very much aid the cause of learning and the future progress of our
knowledge.
The following traditions, we would fain hope, will not be found quite
destitute of utility. They are some addition to our existing stock of
knowledge, either as illustrating English history, manners, and customs
now obsolete, or as a collection of legends, having truth for their
basis, however disfigured in their transmission through various
modifications of error, the natural obscurity arising from distance, and
the distorted media through which they must necessarily be viewed.
Perhaps a main source of this inaccuracy arises from the many and
heterogeneous uses to which the breakings up, the fragments of tradition
have been subjected and applied. Like those detached yet beautiful
remnants of antiquity, built up with other and absolutely worthless
materials in the rude structures of the barbarian by whom they have been
disfigured, traditions are generally presented to us torn from their
original connection with edifices once renowned for beauty and
magnificence.
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