Page:Seventeen lectures on the study of medieval and modern history and kindred subjects.djvu/391

But, although we grieve over personal and special losses, the work in which we are engaged goes on without flagging. The accumulation of historical literature since 1876, within and without our own particular, range, has been remarkable for extent and interest. I cannot attempt to enumerate even the more conspicuous additions to our store, and it would be invidious to make a selection except in reference to our own share in the work. The Government publications, however, I may say, continue to maintain and even increase their value and interest: Mr. Gairdner, who has succeeded to Mr. Brewer's position, is giving us annual instalments of the history of Henry VIII, full of extraordinary revelations: before the year 1900 it may be possible that some one of us, gifted with strength, sight and perseverance, may write a complete history of the most critical of all reigns. Mr. Rawson Gardiner, a man who should be claimed and must be reclaimed for Oxford, is working, like a great constructive historian as he is, at the next most critical epoch. Mr. Creighton, even more entirely our own, has given us a splendid instalment of a great work which places him at once in the forefront of our phalanx. Mr. Freeman has completed his History of the Norman Conquest by the addition of the History of William Rufus. Mr. Fyffe has begun what will be a standard book on later history. I myself have finished my contributions, in a third volume, to Constitutional History; have edited six stout volumes of Chronicles in the Rolls series; and in the Appendices to the Report of the Ecclesiastical Courts Commission have put together a mass of matter, which, whether or no it is worth the paper on which it is printed, is both true history and the result of hard work: of other designs, the accomplishment of which my removal from Oxford will probably prevent, I can scarcely speak: but I hope that I may find time to complete two or three things on which I have made considerable progress, a fourth volume of Councils, an edition of William of Malmesbury, a second series of Select Charters, and possibly a sketch of the Constitutional History of the Reformation. I am, as I warned you, running off into my own concerns. Mr. Tozer's beautiful edition of