them; manuscripts to be compared, collated, transcribed; the text
to be revised throughout; various readings of great intricacy to
be carefully presented, with considerable additions from
unpublished sources; for, however unimportant some may at first
sight appear, the most trivial may be of use. With such and
other difficulties before him, the editor has, nevertheless, been
blessed with health and leisure sufficient to overcome them; and
he may now say with Gervase the monk at the end of his first
chronicle,

"Finito libro reddatur gratia Christo." (36)

Of the translation it is enough to observe, that it is made as
literal as possible, with a view of rendering the original easy
to those who are at present unacquainted with the Saxon language.
By this method also the connection between the ancient and modern
language will be more obvious. The same method has been adopted
in an unpublished translation of Gibson's "Chronicle" by the late
Mr. Cough, now in the Bodleian Library. But the honour of having
printed the first literal version of the "Saxon Annals" was
reserved for a learned LADY, the Elstob of her age (37); whose
Work was finished in the year 1819. These translations, however,
do not interfere with that in the present edition; because they
contain nothing but what is found in the printed texts, and are
neither accompanied with the original, nor with any collation of
MSS.


ENDNOTES:
(1) Whatever was the origin of this title, by which it is now