36 Conversaszione. 
reposing for centuries in dust and cobwebs, or have been supply- 
ing dinner after dinner to successive generations of rats and mice. 
Still, it it impossible always to know where to draw the line between 
those deeds that are of importance to a title, and those that are 
not; and as the possessors of the documents cannot be expected to 
know where the line should be drawn, there is of course on the one 
hand, a natural hesitation in showing ancient documents; and 
there ought to be, on the other, a delicacy in asking for them. In 
a case like the one I am speaking of, the fear of any risk is cer- 
tainly very slight, where a family has disappeared a long time ago, 
and where the evidences refer so far back as to the Wars of the 
Roses. Still, the permission to see such a thing is a favour which 
those to whom it is allowed, are bound to acknowledge with grati- 
tude ; more especially when, as in this instance, it is made greater 
by the permission to carry the volume off and use it at leisure. For 
I need hardly say that, without such permission, the privilege 
granted would, in some cases, be no privilege at all. No person 
can possibly make much, in a few hours, of a large pile of illegible 
writing. He may take hasty extracts of names, and dates ; but with- 
out leisure for examination, he cannot give accurate statements, 
and without accurate statements, what is topography worth ? 
In the Register of which I am speaking, there were nearly 
1,300 deeds, some of very great length and curiosity, almost all in 
Latin and Norman-French, and engrossed in those crabbed and 
tortuous characters under which it has always been thought neces- 
sary to disguise the already mysterious meaning of legal documents. 
They related entirely to the estates of the Hungerford family. 
From the sources, then, which I have mentioned, by personal 
visits to many places, by collecting in the usual way from public 
records, wills, registers, and other similarly dark receptacles, which 
people of this peculiar taste are compelled to dive into, I have, I 
believe, succeeded in accumulating, pretty nearly, an account of the 
scattered estates, both in this and other counties, that, first and 
last, belonged to this family. The subject is one so much connected 
with Wiltshire, that I have no doubt, there are many gentlemen in 
this county, who must possess deeds and papers that would correct 
points of imperfection. I have brought my collections with me 
upon this occasion, partly for the purpose of enlisting public inter- 
est in my own favour, so far as to say that if any gentleman should 
hereafter meet with any documents relating to the Hungerford 
family, or any memorial of them, he may now know where such 
information will be acceptable; and I have also thought that 
on a matter which so thoroughly belongs to the history of the 
county, it was right to take this opportunity of making known 
what has been done, in order to save others the trouble of doing it 
again. 
"Of one thing I hope we shall all be convinced, after what I have 
EE 
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