From the above statements, it would seem probable that this great collection of manuscripts was formed between 1630 and 1640,—the fatal year in which Dering began his vehement opposition to Laud, and constituted himself the adviser and leader of the restless and complaining in his county. It could hardly have been commenced before 1630, because no collector would have ungrudgingly "closed King John in a box and sent him away;" its formation could not have continued after 1640, because Sir Edward was then entirely abandoned to the all-absorbing politics of the day, taking an active and leading part on the side of the Parliamentarians,—far too active to leave him any the slightest leisure for attention to his literary pursuits. 
   The sources from which this collection was chiefly supplied, seem to have been the charter-chests of Christ Church and St. Augustine's, Canterbury,—the Muniment-room of Cobham,—and the stores of Dover Castle. The muniments of Sir Edward's own ancestral estates supplied also a large addition to his accumulations.¹
   Such was the great Surrenden Collection; for nearly two centuries it has been the constant resort of historians and topographers. It is cited by them again and again. Chartularies and Documents without end are referred to, which are no longer there; they have been abstracted, by one means or another, for many years. 
   ¹ Cade's insurrection, it is said, caused great havoc among the Canterbury Records. The Reformation, too, had a share in their further dispersion. As to Cobham, the cruel attainder of its lord, in the beginning of James I.'s reign, will readily account for the abstraction of its muniments while Dering was yet a child.
   It is important to note with exactness these dates and details, lest a charge of Illegitimate appropriation be laid upon our collector.
   Let us rather take up our motto, and (in the words of our great philosopher) regard with reverence the indefatigable diligence of Sir Edward Dering, by which these treasures, dispersed and unowned, long before he was born, " tanquam tabulas naufragii," have been rescued from the deluge of time, and preserved for our instruction.