Page:A View of the State of Ireland - 1809.djvu/295

 TO THE

LOVING READER.

my times of leisure from ordinary studies, I have since my first arrivall hither, enquired out antiquityes of the land, wherein being holpen by diverse friendly Gentlemen, I have given th' adventure to frame a Story, which I bring from the very first originall untill th' end of this last year e 1570. I follow these Authors, Giraldus Cambrensis, who devideth his ivorlce into two parts, from the first (which is stuffed with much impertinent matter) I borrow so much as serveth the turne directly, the second ivhich containeth two bookes, and discourseth the conquest of Henry Fitz Empresse, I abridge into one Chapter: where Cambrensis endeth, there beginneth a nameles Author, who in certaine short notes containeth a Chronologie until the yeare of Christ 1370. From thence to Henry the Eight, because nothing is extant orderly written, and the same is time beyond any mans memory, I scumble forward with such records as could be sought up, and am enforced to be the