Sir Francis Palgrave (1788–1861) was a distinguished English historian, solicitor and antiquarian, now considered to be the founder of the Public Record Office. After his death, Palgrave's son Sir Inglis Palgrave edited his Collected Historical Works, which focus mostly on the Anglo-Norman and Middle Ages. Originally published in 1922, this eighth volume of the Collected Historical Works contains the text of Palgrave's two stories on life in the Middle Ages in England, 'The Merchant and the Friar' and 'Three Generations of an Imaginary Norfolk Family'. The volume is introduced by prolific historian A. Hamilton Thompson. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in medieval life or in Victorian historiography.