The history of the Bishopricfc of the province of Somerset, the seat of which was originally at Wells, transferred from thence to Bath, where for a short time it remained, and then carried back to Wells, from the time of Bishop Godwin, downwards, has been chiefly derived from three original sources.

The documents of which copies are here for the first time published have been for a very long time out of the proper keeping. I know not whether to regard this as a fortunate circumstance or the contrary. They may be said to lose something by it of their consequence, if not of their validity. But though this might be important were any of them to be propounded in the Courts as the basis of any claim of right, yet it cannot be said to affect their value as historical evidence, while in the documents themselves there is nothing to impeach their-authenticity, but rather every mark of genuineness which documents such as these can possess.