443a. ASHDOWN, C. H. British and foreign arms and London, 1909.

armour.

444. BOEHEIM, WENDELIN. Handbuch der Waffenkunde. Leipsic, 1890.

445. BRETT, E. J. A pictorial and descriptive record of the origin and development of arms and armour. London, 1894. 133 valuable plates.

446. DAY, T. A., and DINES, J. H. costume in England. London, [1853].

Illustrations of medieval pp. 24, and 19 plates.

447. *FAIRHOLT, F. W. Costume in England: a history of dress. London, 1846.-3rd edition, by H. A. Dillon, 2 vols., 1885. Vol. i. History. Vol. ii. Glossary.

447a. HEFNER-ALTENECK, J. H. DE. Costumes du moyen-âge chrétien. 3 vols. Frankfort, etc., 1840-54. 420 plates.

448. *HEWITT, JOHN. Ancient armour and weapons in Europe. 3 vols. Oxford, etc., 1855-60.

449. HILL, GEORGIANA. A history of English dress. 2 vols. London, 1893.

A popular handbook.

450. MARTIN, CHARLES. The civil costume in England, from the [Norman] conquest to the present time. London, 1842. 61 coloured plates.

451. MEYRICK, S. R. A critical inquiry into ancient armour, from the Norman conquest to the reign of Charles II. London, 1824; 2nd edition, 1842. 80 plates.

3 vols.

452. Engraved illustrations of ancient arms and 2 vols. London, 1830; reprinted, 1854.

armour.

A collection of 150 large plates, with a brief descriptive text by Joseph Skelton.

453. *PLANCHÉ, J. R. A cyclopædia of costume, including a general history of costumes [elaborately illustrated]. 2 vols. London, 1876-79.

Vol. i. Dictionary.

Vol. ii. History.

Planché also wrote a shorter History of British Costume, London, 1834; 3rd edition, 1874 (reprinted, 1881, 1900, 1907).

454. RACINET, AUGUSTE. Le costume historique. 6 vols. Paris, [1876]-88. 500 plates.

Bibliography, i. 141-65.

455. SHAW, HENRY. Dresses and decorations of the middle ages. 2 vols. London, 1843; reprinted, 1858. 94 valuable coloured plates.

456. STRUTT, JOSEPH. A complete view of the dress and habits of the people of England. 2 vols. London, 1796-99. -New edition, by J. R. Planché, 1842; 143 valuable coloured plates.

costume.

456a. [Various recent works.] D. C. Calthrop, English 4 vols. London, 1906.-R. C. Clephan, Defensive armour and weapons. London, 1900. [Not reliable.]-George Clinch, English costume. London, 1909. [A good short history.] -H. S. Cowper, The art of attack, a study in the development of weapons. Ulverston, 1906.-Herbert Druitt, A manual of costume as illustrated by monumental brasses. London, 1906. -Charles Ffoulkes, Armour and weapons. Oxford, 1909. pp. 112.-Ralph Payne-Gallwey, The crossbow. 1903; appendix, 1907. [Valuable.]

London, etc.,

CHAPTER III

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES

§ 12. PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE AND HISTORY OF PUBLIC RECORDS.

OWING mainly to the blessings of insularity and to the absence of violent domestic revolutions, the national archives of England are older, richer, more continuous, and more nearly complete than those of any other European nation. When we consider their neglect, migrations, and vicissitudes in modern times, it is indeed marvellous that so much has been spared. Before the thirteenth century there was probably no separate record office in England. The royal muniments were safeguarded with the regalia, money chests, and saintly relics in the various royal treasuries; and the exchequer buildings, together with the neighbouring chapter house of Westminster, continued to be the great repositories of fiscal and judicial records until the nineteenth century. Since the thirteenth century the Tower of London had been the chief repository for the chancery records, i.e. the enrolments of charters, patents, statutes, and many other documents that were drawn up under the supervision of the chancellor, the chief secretary of state for all departments. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries much of the chancellor's work was performed by the keeper of the rolls of chancery (later called master of the rolls) at the Rolls Chapel Office, where from 1 Richard III. most of the chancery records were permanently preserved. In modern times the State Paper Office and many other repositories were established. Hardy, in his Memoirs of Lord Langdale, ii. 112, 143, says that there were more than sixty such record offices in London before the reign of Victoria.

Prynne, in the dedication to his Breyia Parliamentaria Rediviva, laments that the records in the Tower had for many years by past layen buried in one confused chaos under corroding,

putrifying cobwebs, dust [and] filth;' and he tells us that he proceeded to 'rake up this dung-heap.' In the eighteenth century various parliamentary committees complained of the neglected condition of the public archives: see Nos. 485-6. In the year 1800 there was an exhaustive investigation of the subject (No. 487), which in the same year resulted in the creation of the first Record Commission of Great Britain, to provide for the better arrangement, preservation, and more convenient use of the said records.' New commissions were issued in 1806, 1817, 1821, 1825, and 1831; the sixth and last expired in 1837. During the thirty-seven years of their activity the commissioners spent much money in printing the records of England, Wales, and Scotland (see No. 538), but accomplished very little for their care and preservation. The editorial work of the publications was severely criticised; charges of corruption and jobbery were freely made and answered. Cooper, Nicolas, and Palgrave (Nos. 461, 476-8, 480, 2004) were particularly prominent in these acrimonious personal dissensions. See also Nos. 472, 488-9; and the pamphlets, magazines, etc., mentioned in Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual (No. 58), 2063-4, and in Thomas's Notes (No. 497), app. H, I. In 1836 a committee of the house of commons made an elaborate report on the affairs of the Record Commission (No. 488), calling attention to the unsafe and filthy condition of many valuable muniments. As a result of the recommendations contained in this report, the commission was allowed to expire in 1837, after having issued its general report (No. 489). In 1838 the Public Record Act, 1 & 2 Vict. c. 94, was passed, 'to establish one Record Office and a better custody, and to allow the free use of the said records.' It put the master of the rolls, Lord Langdale, in charge of all the public records, empowered the treasury to provide a suitable building for their custody, created a deputy keeper of the public records, who since 1840 has issued valuable annual reports (No. 491), and ordained that the term 'public records' should be taken to mean all rolls, records, writs, books, proceedings, decrees, warrants, accounts, papers, and documents whatsoever of a public nature belonging to His Majesty' (Pike, Public Records, 9). In 1856– 59 most of the ancient muniments were removed from their various repositories to the present Public Record Office, in Fetter Lane, where much attention has been devoted to their arrangement and preservation, and where investigators find the privilege of using the national records as free from restrictions as in any

other country of Europe. In October, 1910, a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire and report' as to the working of the Public Record Act, the arrangements now in operation for the collection, control, custody, and preservation of public records in England and Wales, the custody of local records of a public nature, the training of archivists, etc. Its first report was published in 1912.

There used to be separate collections of records for the various extraordinary, or palatine, jurisdictions in England, such as Durham, Lancashire, Cheshire, Cornwall, and Wales; but the archives of Cheshire and Wales were removed to the Public Record Office about sixty years ago, and those of Durham and the duchy of Lancaster about forty years ago (see No. 2296 and p. 546). Some of the records of the duchy of Cornwall are still in charge of the duchy office in London.

Ireland and Scotland have separate record offices. The Irish Record Commission (No. 490) was created in 1810 and expired in 1830. In 1867 provision was made for a general record repository at Dublin, and since 1869 the deputy keeper of the public records in Ireland has issued annual reports (No. 492). For the history of the records of Ireland, see No. 457.

There is no adequate history of the English records and their repositories. The best accounts will be found in the works of Edwards, Hall, and Thomas; see also Nos. 458, 462-8, 485-8. There is no book in English like Franz von Löher's Archivlehre, Grundzüge der Geschichte, Aufgaben, etc., unserer Archive, 1890; or like Langlois and Stein's Les Archives de l'Histoire de France (No. 471). The official guide to the public records is Scargill Bird's: No. 459. Rye (No. 310) gives much useful information. Many valuable calendars, lists, and indexes of records have been printed (see No. 473 and § 53), and many manuscript indexes are accessible in the Public Record Office.

457. ARCHIVIST. On the history, position, and treatment of the public records of Ireland. By an Irish archivist [J. T. Gilbert]. 2nd edition. London, 1864.

This is the 2nd edition of Record Revelations, etc., London, 1863. It is largely devoted to an attack upon James Morrin's Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls, 3 vols., Dublin, etc., 1861-63. In the preface to vol. i. of this Calendar there is a useful account of the history of Irish records and the Irish Record Commission.

458. [AYLOFFE, JOSEPH.] Calendars of the ancient charters, with an introduction giving some account of the state of the