England In Tudor Times. An Account Of Its Social Life And Industries L.F. Salzman

Extract from the preface: IN this little book I have endeavoured to draw, as it were in miniature, a subject for which a far greater canvas, and a greater artist, would be insufficient. As the illuminators of the Middle Ages portrayed a battle within the bounds of an initial letter, setting a bare dozen of little figures to represent the conflicting hosts, but drawing those figures with care and such skill as they possessed, So have I set a few facts, a few quotations, a few comments to stand for the life of a great nation during a critical period of its history; nor have I spared pains in the composing of my picture, whatever errors the critical may find in the proportions and perspective of the drawing.
Within so small a compass any portrayal of the Tudor Age must be a bird’s-eye view; and such a view must vary with the bird who sees it. The hawk and the swallow see with their eyes spread below them, but in their brains the same panorama are very different visions. Others who cast their glance over Tudor England will form other pictures for themselves my endeavour has been to show in as lively colours as I can the picture that I see, dwelling less upon the more obvious and familiar aspects of the panorama than upon those not so familiar.
So far as I have made my picture clear and real I have achieved my end; and if I have persuaded some of my readers to go and look at the original for themselves, even though they then see it otherwise, I am content. The illustrations in this book have for the most part been selected from contemporary manuscripts and engravings in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Bodleian Library