Preface

PREFACE.

The original purpose of this volume was to furnish the complete text of the so-called Register of the Grey Friars of London in Cotton MS. Vitellius F. IX. But the need for an Introduction dealing with their House and its history has led to the accumulation of other material so considerable as to make the adoption of a wider title expedient.

I am under a great debt to Mr. A. G. Little for much valuable advice and criticism, as well as for various notes. Dr. Philip Norman has kindly supplied me with some additional information as to the conduits and watersupply. To the courtesy of Dr. Norman Moore I owe the valuable material derived from The Repertory Book at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. To the article by the late Mr. E. B. S. Shepherd on "The Church of the Friars Minors in London," which appeared in The Archæological Journal in 1902, I must acknowledge a special obligation; it is his expert piecing together of the information contained in the first part of the Register that has restored for us the ground-plan of the Church. The skill with which Mr. H. W. Cribb has used the material which I put before him has led to a remarkable restoration of the plan of a great part of the other buildings.

C. L. KINGSFORD.

1st October, 1914.