_ _ denotes italic text;
= = denotes Old English script, which is also bold.
[=a] (etc.) denotes a macron (straight line over a vowel).
Macrons on vowels ([=a], [=e], [=i], [=o], [=u]) sometimes indicate
that 'n' has been omitted from the word. (Abbreviation in Mediæval
manuscripts).
[Sidenotes] in the original were printed on the edge of the pages, as
a type of index of the contents.
Elizabethan words and spellings have been retained (e.g. 'height' and
'heigth' are both used, sometimes in the same sentence;
'hight' = 'known as, called, etc.').
Only obvious printer's errors have been corrected, as when a letter
seems to have been inverted ('n' for 'u').
The letters 'u' and 'v' are mostly interchanged; as, e.g.,
"in haruest time" and "vnder a bridge".
If a word or name did not fit the context, it was researched, and
corrections made, if necessary.
There are a few printer's errors in this edition, which have been
checked using the online 1587 edition (which itself is not without
printing errors) as reference.
(http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/sceti/PrintedBooksnew/
index.cfm?TextID=holinshed_chronicle).
Also used were the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and online Middle
English and Anglo-Saxon Dictionaries, as well as online Wikipedia.
Some, but by no means all, of 'ee' has the first 'e' marked with an
acute accent. This is not consistent. Where the 'é' is obviously
missing from the scan, it has not been added to the text. This
inconsistency in spelling and accents is an integral part of some very
old books.
There are some instances of round brackets which have been opened and
not closed, or nested, with only one pair closed (or closed, without
having been opened). These have been retained as such.
Some placenames may have changed with the passage of time.
Some damaged or missing punctuation has been restored, but the
punctuation in the lists at the end of Description III is as it
appeared in the scans, and in the online edition.
There are a few instances of repeated word 'too'. These have been
retained, being probably the author's personal style:
'is too too plaine' 'being too too much' 'haue too too manie'. 'too
too lewd'