Some reference must be made to the Knights Bachelor, an increasing and important body of men of much repute, about whom the annual knightages do not furnish exact information. For the elucidation of their history, the columns of the London Gazette have been carefully searched and the dates and places of their knighthood extracted, information which it is believed, cannot be found concentrated in any other single volume. The memoirs are arranged lexicographically according to the surnames, the peers however have all been inserted under their titles, for the reason that their family names are not generally known to ordinary readers. To my father Mr. John Josias Arthur Boase and to my eldest brother the Rev. Charles William Boase, I am much indebted for their great kindness in conjointly defraying the cost of printing this work, which I claim, to be an important contribution to the English biography of the nineteenth century. My thanks are due to Mr. William Prideaux Courtney and to my brother Mr. George Clement Boase, joint authors of the Bibliotheca Cornubiensis, as well as to my before mentioned brother the Rev. C. W. Boase, for kindly reading proofs and supplying additional facts, while to Mr. Richard Bissell Prosser late of the Patent Office and to Mr. Ralph Thomas author of The Handbook of Fictitious Names, I am under an obligation for information about inventors and other persons. The Second Volume is in active preparation and will appear as soon as is possible, consistently with careful research. In a biographical work arranged alphabetically an Index is not a necessity, but it was thought that one might add value to the book. A general index was not practicable, as it would have been as extensive as the work itself, but an elaborate and carefully considered compilation of the more remarkable, curious and interesting matter in the volume, has been made for me by my brother Mr. G. C. Boase. Clergy lists, Law lists and Army and Navy lists being common, the names of persons belonging to those professions have not been included. The first important heading in the index is that of Actors followed by Actors’ Stage Names, a list probably unique, while Dancers, Singers and others have not been neglected. To Initialisms, Fancy Names, Changes of Names and Pseudonyms much attention has been given and the entries are very extensive. Fellows of the Royal Society, astronomers, explorers, physicians, surgeons, civil engineers, painters and sculptors are duly recorded, while sport is represented by masters of hounds, betting men, racing men, cricketers, pedestrians and pugilists. The names of the Knights Bachelor occupy considerable space, and the article London will be found very interesting. Some amount of additional information has been inserted in the Index, to which the reader is recommended to refer when using “Modern English Biography.” FREDERIC BOASE.