\ 
126 The Twenty-first General Meeting. 
bygone ages ; all of which were the objects of archeology. I will (con- 
tinued the President), illustrate what Imean. I saw the other day an 
old book called a Custumal, in the writing of an ancestor of the pre- 
sent Earl Spencer, relating to the manor of Wimbledon, which applies 
very much to what Iam saying. He formed a sort of archzological 
society by calling all his tenants together, and all the holders of 
land and property in the parish and district—and he commences the 
custumal thus. Henry VII. :— as 
‘‘Tnasmuch as the human mind is not able to remember everything (because 
if it were able, transcribing would be but waste of labour), and because writing 
frequently and properly brings back things to the memory (and by the weakness 
of the mind very often things fall away and become uncertain), I will compile 
those things on account of the customs of Wymbledon, so far used and lawfully 
obtained by the assistance of writing for perpetual remembrance in this work.” 
Amongst other things in this Custumal, it is stated that the tenants 
of the Manor ought to pay the Archbishop of Canterbury, on first 
coming into his archbishopric, £6 13s. 4d., for the purchase of a 
palfrey ; but it goes on to say that certain Archbishops had, and 
were accustomed to have on their first coming (although with com- 
plaining of the tenants), a certain gift from the tenants called 
saddlesilver, to wit, 10 marks; yet this is not done because the 
tenants assert that it was a sinister way at first [£6 15s. 4d. is stall 
paid]. The Earl seems from this custumal and some other old books 
to have carried out the maxim of Captain Cuttle in “ Dombey and 
22 66 
Son, 
when found make a note of,” though his illustrations are 
not always correct. In the Proverbs of Solomon you will find these 
words, “ May we never want a friend in need nor a bottle to give 
him,”—when found make a note of. There is a large tract of land 
near London called Wimbledon, that has been preserved in the 
family ever since, and this payment is made upon it, and has 
amounted to a considerable sum, although it does not tend to any 
great public benefit. What I mean to show is that archeology 
finds the materials for history ; and a proof of this is afforded im the _ | 
Museum. 
It has been frequently observed that archeology is a science which 
demands almost the labour of a whole life to gain a proficiency in, 
and it has been described as a language, without a grammar or 
