His words seem to imply that he’d visited Colchester (as no doubt he had) and York, in his search for coins. His account “Of the Coines of England,” Chapter XXV., ends his Book II., the first of his Description of England.
This section[51] is longer than I meant it to be; and it doesn’t bring out the religious side of Harrison’s character. But I hope it leaves the reader with a kindly impression of the straightforward racy Radwinter parson and Windsor canon. A business-like, God-fearing, truth-seeking, learned, kind-hearted, and humorous fellow, he seems to me; a good gardener, an antiquarian and numismatist, a true lover of his country, a hater of shams, lazy lubbers, and evil-doers; a man that one likes to shake hands with, across the rift of 200 years that separates us.
F. J. FURNIVALL.
3 St. George’s Square, Primrose Hill,
London, N.W., 13th July, 1876.
EDITORIAL NOTE.
| “How easy dost thou take all England up: From forth this morsel of dead royalty——” |
No book is more quoted and less read than Holinshed’s Chronicles. Since the original editions of 1577 and 1587 (the latter an expansion of the former), the work has been but once republished. Early in this century a syndicate of the great London booksellers issued an expensive reprint, far more inaccessible to the general reader than are the folios of the time of Elizabeth. Even morsels of the work have never been attempted until the issue by the “New Shakspere Society,” a dozen years ago, of Dr. Furnivall’s careful condensed edition of Harrison’s introduction to Holinshed. Now Harrison is the genius of the whole performance. Holinshed is a hodge-podge of many men’s endeavours. Remarkable as may be the portions contributed by other men, that of Harrison can be said to be unique. William Harrison is the only man who has ever given a detailed description of England and the English. He had the assistance doubtless of many special informants, directly and indirectly, some of which assistance overloads his ancient utterances with superfluous matter. His own views however are a running rill of delight. When it was only an amputation of interjected details, my task was easy; and Dr. Furnivall (to whom is due all credit of initiative in the publication of the work, and who has kindly accorded valuable suggestions during the rather anxious and difficult process) had already cut off the greater portion of dead issue and dead tissue. The work of disjointing and then rejointing Harrison’s own discourse is not so agreeable. Even Harrison’s interlarding of his own book-learning in his own inimitable fashion is a rare frolic for the mirthful mind. Badly as I may have finally wriggled through the task, seamy as may be the patchwork, the solace remains that no scrap of Harrison’s text lacks its own individual interest. Not without reason may an extract from Holinshed be entitled a