24 CHARTER OF PRIVILEGES. 



careful repair of the originals, which are now separately flattened, 

 docketed, and arranged, for convenience of reference. 



This operation caused me to visit the Public Record Ofiice 

 in London, where the charter was considered to be of sufficient 

 value to deserve a place among the public records which are 

 there preserved. I therefore placed it at the disposal of the 

 Master of the Rolls, who has accepted it as an addition to the 

 national collection : and I have the gratification of knowing 

 that any one who desires to see it will be able in future to do so 

 without difficulty. Those, however, who have not leisure for 

 such a pilgrimage may be satisfied by inspection of the exact 

 fac-simile, which I am enabled by Sir Henry James' process of 

 Photo-zincography to present, together with an extended trans- 

 cript and English translation, to our Library. 



The original Charter is well preserved, being beautifully 

 written with very good ink, the parchment being uninjured by 

 damp, and sufi"ering only from a very few small specks of rust 

 contracted from a tin box in which it was once deposited, and a 

 trifling rent which has now been repaired at the back. 



The great seal of Henry II is still attached to the parchment, 

 and though mutilated by the loss of its marginal legend on each 

 side, — a defect which may be excused after the lapse of more 

 than seven centuries, — it exhibits a sufficient portion of the two 

 designs which form the obverse and reverse of the seal, for the 

 purpose of its identification as the great seal of that monarch; 

 Henry being represented on one side as seated in his robes of 

 state with the emblems of sovereignty, and on the other side as 

 armed and on horseback, holding a drawn sword in his extended 

 right hand.* 



* The legend on the obverse was " + Henricus : Dei : Gratia : Eex : 

 Anglorum," surrounding his portrait as King of England ; and that of the 

 reverse, " + Henricus: Dux: Normannor : et Aqitannor: et. comes: Ande- 

 gavor," illustrative of his other chief dominions of Normandy, Aquetaine, 

 and Anjou. 



See Sandford's Genealogical History of the Kings of England, fo. 1677, 

 page 54 : — Series of Great Seals engraved by the process of Achille Collas ; 

 and appendix to Eeport on Public Eecords, fo. 180, plate xliv. 



The witness to this Charter, Bobert de Novo Burgo, is also witness to 2 

 other Charters of Hen : II to Beading Abbey, in the collection of the Duke 

 of Westminster, at Eaton Hall,— Archjeol : Journal, Vol. xx, pp. 294-296. 



