twentieth of the whole; and as the county may be taken, in reference to its population, as about one twenty-fifth part of the kingdom, it gives a percentage of eminent names considerably beyond the average—a result which, though one to be expected in the case of the "premier county," is none the less on that account satisfactory.
The names in the Catalogue are given, for the convenience of reference, in alphabetical order. They are subsequently given chronologically, taking the year of death as the determining figure, the date of birth not being in every case ascertainable. A very cursory examination of the List, with the description attached to the names, will show that it contains examples of men eminent in almost every department of human thought and activity—Antiquaries, Artists, Divines, Historians, Lawyers, Mathematicians and Men of Science, Poets and Dramatists, Statesmen, Politicians, Men of Letters, and Men of Business—of which it will be easy for the reader to compile the several Lists. The chief object has been to render such an analysis easy to the reader, by supplying the catalogue—which, and not the notices attached, should be regarded as the chief feature, as it has been the chief labour, of the work. The Biographies, indeed, have been added only for convenience, and to save the trouble of reference elsewhere, as they do not of course pretend to contain anything original. For this reason they have purposely been made brief, but bibliographical references have in every case been attached, for the sake of those
