LONDON:
Published for the Early English Text Society,
by Trübner & Co., 60, Paternoster Row.
MDCCCLXV.

HERTFORD:
Printed by Stephen Austin.




PREFACE.


The following Tract is now printed for the first time from the original
Manuscript in the old Royal Collection in the Library of the British
Museum (Bibl. Reg. 17 A. xi). It is written on paper, and consists of
forty-five leaves, the size of the pages being 5-3/4 in. by 3-3/4 in.
The dedication, the titles, and the last two lines, are written with a
different coloured ink from that employed in the body of the MS., and
appear to be in a different handwriting. It is probable that the tract
was copied for the author, but that he himself wrote the dedication to
the King.

The Manuscript is undated, and we have no means of ascertaining the
exact time when it was written; but from a passage in the dedication to
James I. of England, it is fair to infer that it was written shortly
after the visit of that monarch to Scotland, subsequent to his accession