Foreword [by Venetia J. Newall]
Modern times have subsequently seen a reversal of the trend, but there was in the nineteenth century a strong reaction against an earlier tendency to idealise the Noble Savage.

Introduction
The wonder is in the truth of this today, more than three centuries after Thomas Fuller, who was for some years curate at Waltham Abby across the River Lea in Essex, wrote, and that Hertfordshire, one of the smallest English counties scarcely one day's journey on foot or a short ride from London and separated from it only by Middlesex, evolved and preserved its own customs and traditions.