he was able, and from the internal evidence offered by his work, he clearly was desirous, to resort to the most authentic sources of information within his reach ; consequently, though his method of compilation is occasionally crude and defective in arrangement, much is to be found, especially in the latter portion of his work, which may be safely depended upon, and which is to be met with in no other of the Chronicles of those times. This high estimate of his authority appears to have been formed at an early period ; for we learn from Archbishop Nicolson,* on the authority of Pitts, that in the year 1291, Edward I. caused diligent search to be made in all the libraries of England for copies of his Annals, for the purpose, on their evidence, of adjusting the disputes as to the homage due to him from the crown of Scotland. In later times, Sir Henry Savillc, Selden, Archbishop Nicolson, and others of the learned, have concurred in bearing testimony to his diligence and fidelity as a historian, and, according to Leland, notwithstanding the censure in another place so undeservedly pronounced upon him, he is superior to all the chroniclers who preceded him. His Annals are his only work the genuineness of which is undisputed. \Tossius, however, asserts that he was the author of a History of the Kings of Northumbria, and a Life of Thomas à Becket. In his Annals, he enters fully into the disputes between king Henry and à Becket, and appears, though in a very guarded manner, to sympathize with the sufferings of that prelate, while at the same time he seems desirous to exculpate his royal master from the crime of having been accessary to his base assassination. The remarks which he makes upon the characters of the illustrious personages of his times are few and cautious; still, the prominence which he gives to certain circumstances * Brit. Hist. Library, pp. 59, 60. VUl PREFACE.