PREFACE.
In the Addenda will be found a few names which were necessarily or accidentally omitted in the body of the work, some imperfect or ill-arranged sketches rewritten, together with such errata as have caught the eye, and a few notes.
The Index, which includes cross references, directs the reader to all these notices, errata, and illustrations.
The small figures throughout refer to the list of Authorities. Those in parentheses indicate the volume, series, or date.
The writer is alone responsible for errors and shortcomings; but the work would certainly have been unworthy of any place as a book of reference except for the assistance so freely and generously accorded in many quarters.
My brother Richard Webb has been unwearied in his revision of the manuscript and proofs.
I have had the inestimable help of the Very Rev. William Reeves, D.D., Dean of Armagh, who has kindly read aver the greater part of the work in slips, and has enabled me to correct many errors and deficiencies. I need scarcely observe that no one possesses more comprehensive and exact knowledge of Irish history and biography than this distinguished scholar and antiquarian — knowledge that has been at the disposal of every writer upon Irish affairs for a third of a century.
The Rev. James Graves, Patrick W. Joyce, LL.D., John T. Gilbert, F.S.A., The Rev. William G. Carroll, William J. FitzPatrick, LL.D., Henry Dix Hutton, Edward D. Mapother, M.D., George Sigerson, M.D., and others, some of whom might object to seeing their names mentioned here, have ever been ready with information and counsel.
Most of the manuscript was prepared in the Library of the Royal Dublin Society, where I have had the advantage of William S. K'eogh's advice in the search for materials, and the help of his assistants, especially of two who have been connected with the Library during the whole period of my studies there.
I am likewise indebted for courtesy and aid to Thomas French, Assistant Librarian, in the Library of Trinity College; to Martin Haverty, Assistant Librarian, in the Library of the King's Inns; and to Edward Clibborn, in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy.
- Dublin, June, 1878.
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