Excerpt from The Reliquary, Vol. 8: Quarterly Archæological Journal and Review; A Depository for Precious Relics Legendary, Biographical, and Historical; Illustrative of the Habits, Customs, and Pursuits, of Our Forefathers; 1867-8

Nine years ago, when I first projected 'f the reliquary, I announced my intention of making it not only a serial of local interest, but one which Shall be of real value and service to the general historian, the archaeologist, the biographer, the genealogist, the artist, and the topographer, and to men of science and letters in every walk Of life; and shall at the same time afford entertainment and instruction to every class of readers. I took Derbyshire, for many cogent reasons. As my centre, and through it determined upon illustrating as far as might be, the kingdom at large - I considered that county to be in fact but like a stone thrown in the water, and SO to become at once the centre and the cause Of constantly increasing and expanding circles. As time has gone on those circles have, year by year, and month by month, been increasing, until now at the close of my eighth volume, I find them touching the banks - the very confines Of the kingdom - ou every Slde, and embracing within their radius every county, and every nook and corner in our land. Derbyshire was, as I have said, the original groundwork of my design, but as time has gone on, and my plans have become more and more developed, the articles have illustrated every county in the kingdom, and thus my aim ultimately to make the reliquary the leading Archaeological Journal Of the day, has been to a large and satis factory extent carried out; and it is with no little pride and satisfaction that I point to the eight volumes now completed, as evidence of the faith with which I have kept my promises in the past, and as earnest Of what I trust in the future to do. Since the completion of my last volume the Gentleman's Magazine -the oldest and most venerable Of journals, and for an almost incredible time the only antiquarian magazine in existence - has changed its stately, dignified, and courtly dress of solid and substantial reading, for the daub and tinsel' of fiction and sensation. Sylvanus Urban, that delightful mythic personage, whose name is dear to every historian and every antiquary, has ceased to exist as Of Old, and has become but a subordinate of the lowest order where once be ruled supreme.

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