836 On some Curiosities and Statistics of Parish Registers. 



yet as " Vos non vobis mellificatis/' so it is not for herself that she 

 does so, and her work, valueless in itself, may be turned, we know 

 not when, to profit. So I venture to despise the sneer of this anony- 

 mous writer, even as I lament the prejudice of a late Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, who once said in a speech before some " Working 

 Men's Mutual Laudation Society,'" that there was utility in every 

 branch of human knowledge except Heraldry. So clever a man as 

 the ex-member for Calne ought not to have said so foolish a thing, 



I have only in conclusion to express my thanks to my friend the 

 Rev. J. P. Hardy, of Wadham College, Oxford, for much valuable 

 help in the preparation of this paper : fco the Rectors of St. Peter's, 

 Cornhill and of St. Matthew's, Friday Street, and to the Vicar of 

 Westbury, all of whom I have already referred to by name, for 

 several most interesting papers and transcripts : and to the incum- 

 bents of the various churches which I have myself visited with a 

 view to search, for the permission which they have in every case 

 kindly accorded me. 



I need scarcely add that although perhaps not even the humblest 

 addition to contemporary local history is absolutely without value 

 yet I do not of course attribute any sort of importance to the statistics 

 of so small a population as those with which I am concerned, and 

 which, rather with a view of eliciting information of more moment, 

 and of encouraging researches in more fruitful fields, I have ventured 

 to lay before the Society. 



*' C'est peu, tres-pen, que j'a^grandis la domaine : 

 D'autres uu jour lui traceront des lois." 



w. c. p. 



