Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/21

 PREFACE 1 first historian of Leicestershire was William Burton, B.A., who began his work as early as 1597, but his Description of Leicestershire containing matters of antiquitye, historye, armorye, and genealogy, was not published till 1622. A second and revised edition was prepared, but owing to the Civil War and the death of Burton in 1645 ^ was not printed. In 1777 an enlarged and corrected edition was published, but the editing was carelessly performed and consequently the work shows little improvement upon the original edition. John Throsby, parish clerk of St. Martin's Church, Leicester, a good draughtsman and a careful collector of antiquarian notes, published in 1 777 his Memoirs of the Town and County of Leicester in six volumes. This was followed in 1789 by a volume entitled Select Views in Leicestershire from original drawings, and in the next year by a Supple- mentary Volume to the Leicestershire Views containing a Series of Excursions to the Villages and places of Note in that County. In 1791 he published The History and Antiquities of the Ancient Town of Leicester. He died in 1803. It is, however, to John Nichols, F.S.A., that we may well assign the title of the historian of Leicestershire. Nichols was the son of Edward Nichols, a baker of Islington, and was apprenticed to William Bowyer, the printer whose partner and biographer he afterwards became. He developed tastes for antiquarian research at an early age, but it was probably in consequence of his marriage with his second wife, Martha, daughter of William Green of Hinckley, in 1778, that lead to his interest in the county of Leicester. In 1795 he published the first two parts of The History and Antiquities of the Town and County of Leicester ; the second part of the fourth and last volume of his history was not completed till 1811. His work, as is stated on the title page, includes Burton's description of the county published in 1622, and the later collections of Thomas Staveley, Rev. Samuel Carte, Mr. Peck, and Sir Thomas Cave. He was assisted by Richard Gough and many local helpers, his acknowledgements to whom fill several pages of his preface. Nichols was a most careful and accurate compiler, and in genealogy and heraldry there are few county historians to compare to him ; in archae- ology and architecture, however, we cannot expect a standard higher than was set at the time. His work will always stand high among the best of the English county histories. xvii c