DRUM COVERS

Evening Star, Issue 20413, 19 February 1930, Page 7

DRUM COVERS

VALUABLE PAPERS USED Tho British Record Society, believing that many parchments and other documents of historical value are hidden away in solicitors' offices, stored in attics and cellars, and even serving as sides of toy drums, is launching a campaign for the better preservation of public and private documents. The romance of how sonic of the priceless documents in the British Museum .were obtained was described to a ' Daily Mail' reporter by Mr U. Flower, of the Manuscripts Department. Ho said: “ Recently 1 went to sro a man m the country who had unearthed from a cellar a bundle of documents which meant very little to' him. I went through them and found a letter from Matthew Prior, the poet (who died in 1721), and documents and letters signed by King William 111. and most of the statesmen of the Revolution period. The owner’s father attempted to burn (ho collection because of; the room it took up. Ho stuffed all the documents into a kitchen range and the chimney caught fire, with tho result that many wore pulled out again. They are now in the British Museum, Practically the only documentary evidence we have of Shakespeare, the man—in contrast to Shakespeare. tho writer—is in legal documents; his will and the evidence ho gave and signed in deposition form when ho gave evidence in a 1 caeo before the Court of Requests.”