MAGNA CARTA

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23289, 27 August 1945, Page 3

MAGNA CARTA

Lacock Abbey Copy The British Museum has received a gift of the first importance in the shape of the famous Lacock Abbey copy of Henry lll.’s third reissue of Magna Carta. 1225, states the "London Times.” This document, which is one of only two extant originals, the other being preserved at Durham, shows Magna Carta in its final form, as it still remains on the Statute Book, and it completes the representation of the Charter in the national collection.

The museum already possesses the original Articles of the Barons and two of the four surviving originals of the Magna Carta of 1215 (the two others are at Lincoln and Salisbury); one of the museum copies, unfortunately badly damaged by fire in 1731. is unique in having the remains of the Great Seal attached. These three documents have always been popular exhibits in the entrance lobby of the Department of Manuscripts, and as soon as it becomes possible to restore the permanent exhibition the Lacock Abbey reissue will take its place bv the side of them; in the meantime it will be placed on temporary exhibition at Westminster Abbey before being incorporated in the museum collections. The Lacock Charter is a beautiful document in a remarkable state of preservation, with a nearly complete impression of the first Great Seal of Henry TH; the seal has the original green silk bag. and the document itself is protected by an apparently contemporary piece of white linen sewn to the top edge, which has, no doubt, helped materially in its preservation. It was from this copy that Sir William Blackstone printed the text in his edition of the Great Charter published in 1759. It is not known how it came to be preserved in Lacock Abbey; there is a contemporary, or almost contemporary, endorsement “Ex deposit© militum Wiltisir” (“Deposited by the Knights of Wiltshire"», ai d it may be its nossession was due to the foundress, Ela. Countess oi Salisbury hi her own right, land wife of William de Longsword. natural son of Henry 11.. who became I Earl of Salisbury on his marriage to her in 1198. He v/as Sheriff of Wiltshire from 1213 until his death in 1226. | and mav well hav»- received the docul ment as an official deposit; it is suggested that his widow- may have placed | it later for ■ «P-!v in I.ecock Abbey. I the ... 1'0,7