Margaret did not readily talk about herself or her work, and the preface that she had prepared for her book was short in the extreme. Had she lived to see the task completed I think I should have persuaded her to be a little more expansive about some of the technicalities, but not about her own contribution. Her translation of the German is at the heart of the work, but it was by no means the whole of her effort. She was never content to deal simply with the words, she was always determined to understand the author's ideas and the subject to which they referred. She did not translate literally, but she had an intuitive way of grasping whole thoughts and expressing them in natural English. Yet at the same time she would also take great care to confirm the accuracy of the result.

She took immense care also with quotations and references. Except for the rare cases where items proved to be unobtainable, all quotations, whether from Old French texts or from modern scholars were checked in minute detail against their originals, and the text printed here is that of those sources. Bibliographical details were similarly confirmed, and every reference traced to its source to confirm its accuracy. Margaret simply took all this for granted.

Even during the few months of her final illness she continued the work of revision.