Of the studies included in this book, three originally appeared, under the same titles, in Past and Present: Chapter 1 in xcviii (February, 1983), pp. 3–29; Chapter 6 in xlviii (August, 1970), pp. 3–78; and Chapter 7 in lx (August, 1973), pp. 49–83. Chapter 8 was (again under the same title) Past and Present Supplement no. 3 (1978). Of the other chapters, 2 and 3 first saw light as xxx (1966) and xxvii (1965) of the Borthwick Papers published by the University of York, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research. I am grateful to Dr W. J. Sheils, the General Editor, for permission to reproduce them. Chapter 4 was first printed in Northern History, i (1966), pp. 43–69, and my thanks are due to the Editor, Mr G. C. F. Forster, for permission to include it here. Chapter 5 originally appeared in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, new series, lxvi (1966), pp. 165–78. Again my grateful thanks are due to the Joint Editors, Messrs J. Hughes and B. C. Jones, for leave to republish.

I am also grateful to Mr R. C. Norris of Durham University Library for help given, during a particularly difficult period, in securing access to essential works of reference.