WHEN the able author of this book asked me to write a Preface to a work on Hospitals, I replied that I must first see the sheets in proof. This was not due to any doubt of the ability of the writer, it was due to some doubt as to the adequacy of the material at her disposal. This doubt has been much more than removed. The mass of the material collected is remarkable. Still more remarkable is the evidence of the very large part played by Hospitals—in the widest senses of the word—in the social life of the people of this land in the earlier Middle Ages. For the fuller understanding of the social life of our ancestors, this book contributes information of the most luminous character. It will serve also as an example and pattern for young and earnest students of real history, the history of ordinary human beings rather than of generals and of kings. And it must be added that, although the division into numerous headings leads to frequent repetitions of the names and characters of institutions of the nature of Hospitals, it has the great advantage of reducing to order a mass of material which might under less careful treatment have had a chaotic appearance. As a book of reference for readers and writers, this treatise on the MediÆval Hospitals of England ought to hold a distinguished place.