Inventorium Sepulchrale - An Account Of Some Antiquities Dug An Account of Some Antiquities Dug Up at Gilton, Kingston, Sibertswold, Barfriston, Beakesbourne, Chartham, and Crundale, in the County of Kent, from A.d. 1757 to A.d. 1773

INVENTORIUM SEPULCHRALE - PREFACE - THE REV. BRSAN F AUSSE wrote the first part of his Journal of Escnvations, or fizveatoriztnz Sepulchrale, as he terms it, in the year 1757 and terminatecl it in the year 1773, a little inore than two years before his death, which happencc1 early in 1776. Upwarcls of three-quarters of a century have passed away since he finished the Escavations and the Journal and nearly a century has elapsed from the period when he con menced them. Last year, the manuscripts and the antiquities of which they are the history, passed illto the hands of Mr. Joseph RSayer of Liverpool, by purchase from the ekecutors of the Rev. Dr. Godfrey Faussett, the grandsoil of Bryan Faussett. Mr. Mayer lost no time in arranging and throwing open to the public his important acquisitions and he at once resolved on printing and illustrating the manuscripts with as little delay as possible. He felt that such a course was due both to himself and to the memory of Bryan Faussett due to himself, because he wished to shew that it was with no restrictive or selfish feeling he had purchased antiquities, which the public voice and the opinion of our most eminent antiquaries had declared to be of national importance and due to the memory of tlle long-departed discoverer, because his Journal proves him to have been a pains-taking and a truth-loving investigator, and a conscientious steward of the treasures he had brought to light. No one who rends his plain, clear, narrative of facts, daily recorded with cautious attention to the most minute circumstances, can doubt but that, had his life been spared, he would himself have published the result of his successful and praiseworthy labours. Indefault of this provision for his own fame, the manuscript account of his discoveries is a fortunate legacy for us, 110b, y Mr. Mayers liberality, inherit its advantages at the same time it enables us to give R h . Faussett credit and honour, aiid to place his name and deeds properly before thc world. But the vicissitudes to nrhich even valuable vritings are exposed, after the death of the author, are exemplified in the present instance, and shew that the ready services of the printing-press, the vates sacer of the man who has earned a reputation, cannot be dispensed with, without injury to the memory of the departed. As the researches of the Rev. Bryan Fanssett are now for the first time laid before the antiquarian world, I Iia e coilsidered it one of my duties as editor, to attempt to gratify that proper and laudable curiosity which always proinpts the reader to n islt o k11on7 something of the author whose work is before liim. His great-grandson, Mr. Tlloinas Godfrey Fanssett, has supplied some particulars, which will be found in the Appendix, KO. 1, and will be read vitli interest. To these I have added Nos. 2 to 7 from Nicholss lllustratio zs of the Literary Ilistot. y of the Ezj-hteentlh Century, a few letters, six of which shew Mr. Faussett to have been an intimate friend and correspondent of the well-known Dr. Ducarel, and afford some few details of biographical interest. No. 4 is pleasingly indicative of a m kind and sensitive heart, such as the family traditions have assigned him...