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The of the Counties of England is a National Historic Survey which, under the direction of a large staff comprising the foremost students in science, history, and archæology, is designed to record the history of every county of England in detail. This work was, by gracious permission, dedicated to Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, who gave it her own name. It is the endeavour of all who are associated with the undertaking to make it a worthy and permanent monument to her memory.

Rich as every county of England is in materials for local history, there has hitherto been no attempt made to bring all these materials together into a coherent form.

Although from the seventeenth century down to quite recent times numerous county histories have been issued, they are very unequal in merit; the best of them are very rare and costly; most of them are imperfect, and many are now out of date. Moreover they were the work of one or two isolated scholars, who, however scholarly, could not possibly deal adequately with all the varied subjects which go to the making of a county history.