DEDICATORY LETTER
TO
G. G. COULTON
My dear Coulton,
It is now almost nineteen years since I was thrown up at
Cambridge as a part of the refuse of war, and first entered your
lecture-room. There, during that memorable autumn, while our
troops were steadily advancing, I heard you speak of the Middle
Ages, and realised what they could reveal to a mind and imagina-
tion worthy of understanding them. Under your inspiring
guidance I turned to study one part of the medieval scene in
detail, and The Pastons and their England was the result; and
from that, in due time, I began the investigations which are the
subject of the present study.
But you do not need to be told that a busy University lecturer
and teacher has no longer the freedom of an ardent research
student, nor that my task has been interrupted again and again
since then. Indeed, I doubt if it would ever have been finished,
but for your constant inspiration and encouragement—an
encouragement not limited to my special studies alone. You will
remember how Lord Bryce speaks of J. R. Green's inspection
of some new town, "darting hither and thither through the
streets like a dog following a scent". That phrase of his has
frequently come to my mind, in our many travels together, as I
have watched you making a first survey of some new town. How
many times we have hastily dropped our bags at the first hotel;
and then, despite the call of the dinner-bell, at once you have
led us at a rapid pace through the streets, and with a quick
glance here and there, and at times a halt, have thrust aside the
modern additions, and have revealed the essentials of the me-
dieval town! Wherever we have been together, you have always
interpreted the medieval world for me as no one else can do,
and have encouraged me to see the past in the present, even in
Alpine chalet or French hamlet.