ON THE CHARTERS OF CLEEVE ABBEY. 21 
The earliest which has come down to us is happily the 
charter of foundation, and furnishes us with the founder’s 
name, and the original possessions of the Abbey. 
It is printed in Dugdale,* with several otlıers from a 
Registrum formerly in the possession of Sir Hugh Wind- 
ham, one of the Judges of the Common Pleas in the year 
1677, but which appears now to be lost. It is not in the 
British Museum, or at the Tower, or in any other Depo- 
sitory which I have examined ; nor is it known what 
became of it after Dugdale most fortunately transcribed 
and printed its contents, and thereby perpetuated the in- 
formation which it contained. And let me remark in 
passing, that the present is an excellent example of the 
advantages derivable from gentlemen submitting their 
MSS., which they are often unable themselves to read, to 
the hands of others by whom that work may be performed. 
Many a valuable MS. has perished by the conjoint influ- 
ences of aceident, carelessness, and time, unknown and 
untranscribed, the information contained in which would 
be of the greatest possible value to all who are interested 
in the history and habits of their forefathers. It has 
often happened that the copy has been preserved, whilst 
the original has been suffered to remain in its insecure 
situation till damp or violence completed what time had 
unhappily begun. Societies like the one which I am 
addressing cannot exert a more beneficial influence than 
by indncing gentlemen who possess archxological trea- 
sures, of whatever kind, to make their stores known, and 
consequently used, understood, and appreciated as they 
deserve. 
* Monasticon Anglicanum, Ed. 1825, Vol. V., pp. 732, 733. 
