ace whence their family came. It would not be the same thing if
they were to be referred to a dusty office in a distant town. Some
wise people say that all registers should be sent to London, to the
Record Office or the British Museum. That would be an impossibility.
The officials of those institutions would tremble at the thought, and
the glut of valuable books would make reference a toil that few could
undertake. The real solution of the difficulty is that county councils
should provide accommodation for all deeds and documents, that all
registers should be transcribed, that copies should be deposited in
the county council depository, and that the originals should still
remain in the parish chest where they have lain for three centuries
and a half.

CHAPTER XVIII

OLD CUSTOMS THAT ARE VANISHING

Many writers have mourned over the decay of our ancient customs which
the restlessness of modern life has effectually killed. New manners
are ever pushing out the old, and the lover of antiquity may perhaps
be pardoned if he prefers the more ancient modes. The death of the old
social customs which added such diversity to the lives of our
forefathers tends to render the countryman's life one continuous round
of labour unrelieved by pleasant pastime, and if innocent pleasures
are not indulged in, the tendency is to seek for gratification in
amusements that are not innocent or wholesome.

The causes of the decline and fall of many old customs are not far to
seek. Agricultural depression has killed many. The deserted farmsteads
no longer echo with the sounds of rural revelry; the cheerful
log-fires no longer glow in the farmer's kitchen; the harvest-home
song has died away; and "largess" no longer rewards the mummers and
the morris-dancers. Moreover, the labourer himself has changed; he has
lost his simplicity. His lot is far better than it was half a century
ago, and he no longer takes pleasure in the simple joys that delighted
his ancestors in days of yore. Railways and cheap excursions have made
him despise the old games and pastimes which once pleased his
unenlightened soul. The old labourer is dead, and his successor is a
very "up-to-date" person, who reads the newspapers and has his ideas
upon politics and social questions that would have startled his less
cultivated sire. The modern system of elementary education also has
much to do with the decay of old customs.

Still we have some left. We can only here reco