A little book on a great subject, especially when that book is one
of a "series," is notoriously an object of literary distrust. For
the limitations thus imposed upon the writer are such as few men can
satisfactorily cope with, and he must needs ask the indulgence of his
readers for his painfully-felt shortcomings in dealing with the mass
of material which he has to manipulate. And more especially is this
the case when the volume which immediately precedes his in the series
is such a mine of erudition as the 'Celtic Britain' of Professor Rhys.

In the present work my object has been to give a readable sketch
of the historical growth and decay of Roman influence in Britain,
illustrated by the archaeology of the period, rather than a mainly
archaeological treatise with a bare outline of the history. The chief
authorities of which I have made use are thus those original classical
sources for the early history of our island, so carefully and ably
collected in the 'Monumenta Historica Britannica';[1] which, along
with Huebner's 'Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum[2],' must always be
the foundation of every work on Roman Britain. Amongst the many
other authorities consulted I must acknowledge my special debt to Mr.
Elton's 'Origins of English History'; and yet more to Mr. Haverfield's
invaluable publications in the 'Antiquary' and elsewhere, without
which to keep abreast of the incessant development of my subject by
the antiquarian spade-work now going on all over the land would be an
almost hopeless task.

EDWARD CONYBEARE.