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INTRODUCTION
good warrant may not be given. The fantastic graces of chivalry lay upon the surface of life, but beneath it was a half-savage population, fierce and animal, with little ruth or mercy. It was a raw, rude England, full of elemental passions, and redeemed only by elemental virtues. Such I have tried to draw it.
For good or bad, many books have gone to the building of this one. I look round my study table and I survey those which lie with me at the moment, before I happily disperse them for ever. I see La Croix's "Middle Ages," Oman's "Art of War," Rietstap's Armorial Général," De la Borderie's "Histoire de Bretagne," Dame Berners'"Boke of St. Albans," "The Chronicle of Jocelyn of Brakelond," "The Old Road," Hewitt's "Ancient Armour," Coussan's "Heraldry," Boutell's "Arms," Browne's "Chaucer's England," Cust's "Scenes of the Middle Ages," Jusserand's "Wayfaring Life," Ward's "Canterbury Pilgrims," Cornish's "Chivalry," Hastings' "British Archer," Strutt's "Sports," Johnes "Froissart," Hargrove's "Archery," Longman's "Edward III.," Wright's "Domestic Manners." With these and many others I have lived for months. If I have been unable to combine and transfer their effect the fault is mine.
ARTHUR COXAN DOYLE.
UNDERSHAW, October, 1906.
