ou cannot piece it together. Some of us
whose fate it is to have to try and solve some of these genealogical
problems, and spend hours over a manorial descent, are inclined to
envy other writers who fill their pages _currente calamo_ and are
ignorant of the joys and disappointments of research work.

In the making of the history of England patient research and the
examination of documents are, of course, all-important. In the parish
chest, in the municipal charters and records, in court rolls, in the
muniment-rooms of guilds and city companies, of squire and noble, in
the Record Office, Pipe Rolls, Close Rolls, royal letters and papers,
etc., the real history of the country is contained. Masses of Rolls
and documents of all kinds have in these late years been arranged,
printed, and indexed, enabling the historical student to avail himself
of vast stores of information which were denied to the historian of an
earlier age, or could only be acquired by the expenditure of immense
toil.

Nevertheless, we have to deplore the disappearance of large numbers of
priceless manuscripts, the value of which was not recognized by their
custodians. Owing to the ignorance and carelessness of these keepers
of historic documents vast stores have been hopelessly lost or
destroyed, and have vanished with much else of the England that is
vanishing. We know of a Corporation--that of Abingdon, in Berkshire,
the oldest town in the royal county and anciently its most
important--which possessed an immense store of municipal archives.
These manuscript books would throw light upon the history of the
borough; but in their wisdom the members of the Corporation decided
that they should be sold for waste paper! A few gentlemen were deputed
to examine the papers in order to see if anything was worth
preserving. They spent a few hours on the task, which would have
required months for even a cursory inspection, and much expert
knowledge, which these gentlemen did not possess, and reported that
there was nothing in the documents of interest or importance, and the
books and papers were sold to a dealer. Happily a private gentleman
purchased the "waste paper," which remains in his hands, and was not
destroyed: but this example only shows the insecurity of much of the
material upon which local and municipal history depends.

Court rolls, valuable wills and deeds are often placed by noble owners
and squires in the custody of their solicitors. They repose in