Cone^ess of Archtroloqifa! Societies iti Union with the 

 Society of Antiquaries. July yd, 1907. 



On a Scheme for Readering 

 THE CHARTERS AND MSS, 



IN THE 



Various Repositories available for 

 County Purposes. 



By Professor W. A. COPINQER. F.5.A. 



IN fulfilment of my promise to comply with the request of 

 the Congress (being unable to address them, as I should 

 have wished, in London), I proceed to place on paper a few 

 notes for consideration on the subject of the gathering 

 together in a series of volumes the substance of everything 

 relating to the particular county in the nature of an historical 

 or official character, dealing mainly with Charters, Records 

 and MSS. 



There are undoubtedly thousands of MSS. and documents 

 hidden away in our great collections unknown save through 

 official publications, and for all practical purposes beyond the 

 reach of those who have neither time nor opportunity of 

 wading through an enormous mass of irrelevant material. 



My thirty or forty years' experience of the study of County 

 History demonstrates that no satisfactory advance can be 

 made on the existing histories save by tapping the original 

 sources of authority, and that this cannot be done but by some 

 such scheme as I have carried out in the case of the County 



