“SCRAPS OF PAPER.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20786, 3 August 1929, Page 23

“SCRAPS OF PAPER.”

SOME VALUABLE RECORDS. THE DOOMESDAY BOOK. In a room of Royal richness, occupying the exact site of the old Rolls Chapel in Chancery lane, are original documents of the history of England in all ages set in the public view (writes Walter G. Bell in the Daily Telegraph). The Conqueror himself leads with the most renowned of all our national documents—the two volumes of Domesday Book, the great and the small. Eight and a-half centuries have passed over these parchment pages) but have not dimmed the clearness of that remarkable penmanship. Then there is the Papal Bull confirming King Henry VIII in the title bestowed by Leo X of “ Defender of the Faith,” the title from Rome that remains to this day in use by the Crown, though not as the donor intended. Leo X’s original Bull was appropriated by the great- collector and purloiner, Sir Robert Cotton, and was almost entirely destroyed in the fire at his library. WATERLOO DESPATCH.

These are but items among a thousand objects and papers that arrest attention in the permanent collections, wherein arc Wellington's Waterloo despatch; the Victory’s log, open at the entry, of Nelson’s death at Trafalgar; of more recent date and significance. the memorable “ Scrap of Paper” guaranteeing Belgian neutrality; and letters that our Kings and Queens, statesmen, warriors, and poets have written. Chaucer’s clear is seen, not in verse, hut upon a bill to supply stone and timber for the Royal works. And here, too, is the earliest signature extant of an English King, but few would guess correctly who that sovereign is—King Richard 11, the date 1386. A mere mark or a cross against the royal name suffices in ancient charters. A little more space having been made available amid the abundance, the Record Office Museum now gives a temporary exhibition of parchments and papers, which from time to time are changed. To-day these illustrate dip ferent clases of our national documents.* Patent Rolls, for instance, form a very important series. The earliest in existence is exposed' under glass, by King John in his third year, A.D. 1201-2. The entry at the top of the membrane is a summons to his nephew Arthur, the rightful heir to the English throne, to do homage. Despite a great age, the browned ink shows up well on a white skin. Last in this Same series, which is continuous over eight centuries, is Kin" George V's Proclamation dissolving the last Parliament on July 25, 1924.° ROLL OF THE PIPE. otilers now shown are membranes from the great roll of ti.« Pipe, actually the accounts of the mediaeval exchequer King Richard I (1193-4) ; plea roll of tn Court of Common Pleas, Henry VI (1433); Cartulary of Chertsey Abbey a p oloure( l pictorial map of the Thames-side abbey, showing the church, millhouse with water-wheel, and fishery weirs; and a manor roll of Earl’s Court.

The. Dc Veres, Earls of Oxford in a great histone line, held the manor of .Kensington, hence “Earl's Court” as area famihar nam ° ° f th ° Kensil, g ton