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PREFACE shires and Ireland by way of Chester, Liverpool, Formby, Preston, and Lancaster on the other.

Such is a brief outline of the causes and conditions which have made the Lancashire of to-day. To give some account of the race of men who utilized these natural conditions for the development of their native county, and of the gradual growth and ultimate result of their work, is one of the main purposes of this history. In this and in other directions the design and scope of The Victoria County Histories differ materially from any other county history hitherto published. The plan of execution is described in the general advertisement, and will be found to embrace natural history; pre-historic, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon remains; a topographical account of each parish, township, and manor; chapters on ecclesiastical history, architecture, agriculture, industries, social conditions, schools, sport, and family history. In dealing with the wide field of learning, the services of specialists in the various branches of knowledge here represented have been secured, with the object of placing upon record in a scientific and entirely original manner as much matter touching local history and its kindred subjects as may be contained in a work of limited size and cost. The chapters on pre-historic, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon remains are admittedly brief and fragmentary; but there is, unfortunately, no such interest or activity of research in these directions as to encourage the hope that greater light may be thrown locally upon these periods of history within the era of the present generation. In the department of natural history a great amount of work has been and is being done.

In the department of topography only one important history of the county has been written. In 1836 Edward Baines, M.P. for Leeds (1834—1841), published A History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster in four quarto volumes, a work which since then has been slightly enlarged, but not greatly improved, in an edition edited by John Harland, F.S.A., in two quarto volumes issued in 1868—1870, and another edition by James Croston, F.S.A., in five quarto volumes issued in 1888—1893. A more scholarly work dealing with a portion of north-east Lancashire is The History of the original Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe by Thomas Dunham Whitaker, LL.D., F.S.A., 1801. The same author also wrote An History of Richmondshire, two volumes, 1823, a work dealing with part of the ancient archdeaconry of Richmond, in which were formerly included the Lancashire hundreds of Lonsdale and Amounderness. In scope, however, this work can hardly be described as a topographical history, consisting merely of historical collections illustrated by engravings of local scenery painted by Turner.

Valuable collections of historical materials in the history of the XX