A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BRITISH MUNICIPAL HISTORY INCLUDING GILDS AND PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION BY CHARLES GROSS, PH.D. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY NEW YORK LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. LONDON AND BOMBAY PREFACE. THIS HIS Bibliography comprises books, pamphlets, magazine articles, and papers of learned societies, relating wholly or in part to British municipal history; in other words, to the governmental or constitutional history of the boroughs of Great Britain, including gilds and parliamentary representation. Town histories which do not deal with any of these topics, purely topographical works, and parish histories are omitted.1 The Introduction gives a brief survey of the principal categories of sources (the public and local records and the town chronicles) and a critical account of the modern literature. Part I. contains the titles of the general authorities, while Part II. is devoted to works concerning particular towns. The notes appended to the titles in Part I. should be useful to students interested in the history of any particular borough, who are often inclined to neglect the public records and other general authorities; they will find all the references to a given town, in both parts of the book, indicated in the Index under the name of that town. An attempt has been made to give some estimate of the value and character of the most important books. This is a hazardous undertaking in a bibliography comprising so many 1 Some idea of the extent of the whole local literature relating to boroughs may be obtained from vol. iii. of Hyett and Bazeley's Manual of Gloucestershire Literature, in which 337 large octavo pages are devoted to Bristol. titles; but the brief critical notes, however fallible and incomplete, may prove helpful in guiding students through the labyrinth of material. The British Museum has the largest collection of works relating to municipal history, including many valuable manuscripts; but this collection is far from complete, lacking especially many privately printed books. In the Reliquary (1882, xxiii. 60), it is affirmed that the British Museum does not contain one tenth of the topographical literature of Great Britain. It would perhaps be nearer the truth to assert that it does not contain more than three quarters. Many local publications which are not in the British Museum, will be found, in London, in the Gildhall Library and in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries. Many histories of Scotch burghs are accessible only in Scotland, especially in the Advocates Library and in the Signet Library. The best American collections of British topographical literature are those in the Harvard College Library and the Boston Public Library. The preparation of this Bibliography was begun in 1886. A selection, entitled "A Classified List of Books relating to British Municipal History," was printed in 1891, in the "Bibliographical Contributions of the Library of Harvard University,” No. 43; and another selection, "Town Records of Great Britain," in the American Historical Review, 1896, ii. 191-200. It is unnecessary to rehearse the difficulties encountered in making this compilation, to enumerate the many libraries, public and private, which had to be visited, the numerous catalogues, bibliographies, periodicals, publications of learned societies, and other devious by-ways which had to be explored. Despite all this labor, I am conscious that the work is incomplete, especially as regards the pamphlet literature. What I |