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ought to be), ſome ingenious men might be admitted, to whom it might be inconvenient to ſubſcribe, and whoſe aſſiſtance would be very uſeful and deſireable. As ſoon as 1500l. or 2000l. Should be ſubſcribed, the, Committee might immediately be choſen, either by the perſonal election, or by proxy, or by the recommendatory letters of the ſubſcribers.
The Committee, when appointed, might elect their ſecretary, and proceed upon the work; and as they would ſoon engage, each in their reſpective departments the moſt able Hiſtorians, Antiquarians, Draughtſmen, Heralds, Botaniſts, Engravers, &c. &c. it ſeems probable, that a Hiſtory of a County, which has hitherto been conſidered as the labour of twenty or thirty years, might eaſily be effected within the ſhort period of three or four.
And even this period might be ſhortened, if the Country Gentlemen could be perſuaded, liberally to communicate abſtracts of their antient deeds and papers, or, at leaſt, ſuffer the Committee to employ proper perſons to make ſuch extraſcts from them, as might be neceſſary towards the perfeſtion of the work. It has been juſtly complained of in other counties, that papers of the utmoſt conſequence to their hiſtories, have, with an uſeleſs precaution, been timidly with-
