Hv PREFACE. Planner in ■wliich the nionastick annalists compiled their his- tories. Character of the monastick annalists. allusions peculiar to each. If brought together they would form a valuable collection; but they would be out of place if mixed with the larger and more important chronicles in the present volumes. Enough has been already said as to the usual way in which the historian or chronicler of each monastery wrote his annals, — how he borrowed the similar volume from some neighbouring monastery, and copied it with additions from his own observation or other sources that he found to his hand ; how blindly at times he would copy from one even when he had another better autho- rity, which he perhaps was already using ; and how carelessly one portion of his work would be done, when he had no interest in the history, in comparison with the records of those times in which he or his monastery had taken a part. The curious preface to the Winchester chronicle, which the AYorcester annalist has copied and used, as if it were his own, in the present volume, p. 855, besides showing something of the motives which actuated the monasteries in preserving and continuing these annals, seems to give a caution that no one, except the regularly appointed historian of the house, is to ventm-e to add to the volume itself, though a paper (scedula) is to hang fi'om the book in which any one might enter the obits of illustrious men and anything of importance con- nected with the state of the kingdom. At the end of the year, " non quicunque voluerit, sed cui injunctum " fuerit," is to write in the volume as briefly as he can what he thinks of all this loose matter is truest and best to be handed down to posterity, and the old paper being removed, a new one for the next year is to be put in its place. If this practice was pursued in many monas- teries, it would account for the abrupt changes and varia- tion of styles which are so frequently observed. Professor Stubbs has weU pointed out, in his preface to the chronicle known under the name of Benedict of Peterborough (i. pp. xviii-xx.), the difference between
