PREFACE.
In the following pages will be found, it is believed, the names of all such Kentishmen (natives of the County) who have attained by distinction in Art, Science, Literature, and the like, or by personal merit of any kind, apart from social or territorial position, to anything like general celebrity beyond the bounds of their own county. The catalogue, whilst excluding living names, ranges over every period from the earliest down to the present time. The writer wishes it to be particularly understood that the contents are not a selection made on his own judgment; but an impartial sifting out of the names of all Kentishmen that have been deemed worthy of inclusion in the best and most comprehensive Biographical Collections. Should any name, therefore, be absent that in the opinion, of any one ought to appear, the responsilibity must lie with the Editors of those compilations not with the writer of this. In the Biographies in question, amongst about 20,000 names, some 4000 are those of Englishmen, and of these the "Men of Kent," as shown by our Catalogue, muster to the extent of 227. This is not absolutely a large number; but relatively it amounts to more than a
