Excerpt from The Place Names of Lancashire: Their Origin and History This book has taken nearly four years to bring to its present form. During this period I have been prevented by the some what exacting duties of teaching a large body of students, as well as by the claims of other literary work, from working continuously at the various problems connected with a study of place names, excepting during vacations. But for these causes this work might have been ready for the press perhaps two years ago. On the other hand so largo a subject as the Place Names of Lancashire might easily occupy the constant attention of a student for twenty years, so numerous, varied, and difficult are the problems which such an inquiry raises. I have felt drawn in two opposite directions. On the one hand was the temptation to continue adding illustrative material from the enormous mass of early records which is the glory and pride of this country, until the whole body of documents had been practically exploited to their utmost value, to search still further for early forms of Lancashire names, and to work yet longer at the origin of many names which are here left unexplained. On the other hand was the feeling that, in a work of this kind, to strive after completeness and perfection beyond a certain point is to pursue an alluring mirage which recedes further away as one thinks one has reached it, and the thought that it is perhaps more serviceable to knowledge to publish what is, after all, a not inconsiderable body of material, frankly confessing that many problems are still unsolved, that many early forms of names in other parts of England, which might have thrown light upon the origin of those which are our immediate concern, are still ungarnered from the pages of the documents which contain them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.