About eight years ago I applied to our Court for permission to search the Records, and my request being complied with, I devoted such spare time as I could secure from an engrossing occupation to the compilation of these Annals. The work has necessarily led to the burning of much midnight oil, because every extract and every line has been made _by my own pen_. The researches have extended to the examination of all, and the transcript of a considerable portion of thirteen lengthy Charters and sets of By-laws, as also to the entire perusal of about a hundred books of Records. In addition to this, there has been much labour expended at the British Museum, the Public Record Office, the Guildhall, and Somerset House. The material thus collected became so voluminous, that I experienced considerable difficulty in separating it into Subject Chapters, and also in deciding what to retain and what to reject; my endeavour in this respect having been to preserve all that is really interesting and curious, discarding dry legal passages, doubtful points, and wearisome repetitions. None but those who have had experience of the crabbed eccentric writing and contractions of former times (see some of the _fac-similes_ given) and of the abbreviated “Court hand” Latin in which Charters and other Records were penned, can have the least idea of the trouble and care required in their deciphering; but in this respect I have not spared pains in giving literal and accurate transcripts. In no case have I modernized the old spelling, or interfered with the quaintness of the original expressions; though all dates occurring between the 1st January and 24th March prior to the year 1752 (when “old style” was extinguished) have been rectified, and the “historical year,” according to our present computation, given; thus rendering the chronology systematic, and avoiding confusion and inaccuracy. It is a matter of the greatest regret, that whilst we possess some earlier records, our Court Minutes previous to 1551 are lost. It is conjectured that they must have been at the Hall in 1793 (as a partial list of Masters was then compiled), but all trace of them has now disappeared. Again, the Minutes from 1651-1689 are now missing, although they were at the Hall about forty years ago.