A Handbook to Kent Records Containing a Summary Account of the Principal Classes of Historical Documents Relating to the County, and a Guide to Their Chief Places of Deposit Classic Reprint

Excerpt from A Handbook to Kent Records: Containing a Summary Account of the Principal Classes of Historical Documents Relating to the County, and a Guide to Their Chief Places of Deposit

One of the characteristics of the present age is the desire for accurate knowledge, not only in the exact sciences, but in every other branch of study to which it is in any way possible to apply a scientific method. Especially is this the case with regard to History. It has been said that this is an historical age, and, indeed, works that are called histories, but are not based on actual documentary evidence and contemporary sources, are no longer considered satisfactory. Nevertheless, the historian must possess the gift of imagination, Since no progress in any science is possible without it; but he must also have at his command authentic details with which he can reconstruct for the present time a living image of the past. And those authentic details must be sought among heaps of discoloured, musty and seemingly illegible parchments, sadly neglected in the years gone by, but now at last appreciated at their true value, which are stored in the Public Record Office, in our great libraries and in private possession up and down the country. To dig and delve among these Old documents, and to make known their contents, is a task which may make no widely popular appeal, but yet is one well worth doing, even though it bring no higher guerdon than the footnote of gratitude, as Professor Maitland called it, flung by the future historian, whose more valuable eyesight and time have been spared by these pioneer labours.

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