Observations on Popular Antiquities of Great Britain V.2

THE great popularity of BRAND'S Work on the Customs and Provincial Antiquities of Great Britain having led to the demand for a new edition, it was thought advisable to attempt some more convenient arrangement of the matter. With this object, the most entertaining and popular portions have been inserted in the text, while the merely recondite and subordinate have been thrown into foot-notes. This plan will, it is hoped, render the work more acceptable to the general reader. Various articles and passages also, that did not before appear to be inserted in their proper places, have been transposed: the long notes, for example, which in the former edition were subjoined to the Author's preface, are now placed under the heads to which they particularly relate. A copious Index, to be given in the last volume, will at once obviate any inconvenience that might arise to those who have been accustomed to the previous arrangement. In some few instances, where foreign books of an accessible description have been extensively quoted, it has been thought advisable to adopt an English translation in preference; especially with regard to Naogeorgus, the English version1 of whose book is in reality the only one in which the reader of Brand is concerned. No information or amusement whatever, which is contained in any of the previous editions, has been omitted; but considerable additions have been made from every available source, and of these, some have never before appeared in print. Notwithstanding all the pains that have been taken, there will still remain many relics of the older superstitions entirely unnoticed by Brand and his editors.