140 THE president's ADDRESS. 



But h.0 w is it now ? 



As a rule our Clerics, Clerks or Clergy, whether Parish. 

 Priests or Country Lawyers, are not necessarily taught even to 

 read the style of manuscript in which old Deeds and Eegisters 

 have been recorded. It often happens that when these 

 documents come into their hands they are neither able to copy 

 them accurately nor even to decipher them if the writings 

 happen to be a few hundreds of years old. Although the entries 

 may have been most carefully and beautifully scriven, it is not 

 the fashion for the parochial clergy to be able to read them 

 without great difficulty. 



Of course some can, having probably taught themselves to 

 do so. 



With regard to those who cannot, the fault is not theirs if 

 no regular system of instruction has been provided for making 

 them familiar with such writings. Several have lamented to me 

 their being unable to make out with certainty those portions of 

 their Eegisters which relate to Tudor times. 



Many solicitors likewise find themselves every now and 

 then obliged to forward charters or other documents to some 

 office in London for elucidation because they have not sufficiently 

 acquainted themselves with the varieties of the ancient hand. 



As for the parochial Clergy, their prevailing lack of 

 deciphering power would soon be met, if, in all Colleges and 

 Divinity Schools the students underwent a course of instruction 

 in reading and writing the beautiful characters formerly in use- 



Their general knowledge and scholarship, with very slight 

 aid, and some amount of practice in mastering contractions, 

 would quickly qualify them for reading the writings of the 

 Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Early-English and later Mediseval 

 periods, and they would find that the facility, when once 

 acquired, brings with it genuine pleasure. 



As a rule it may be stated that the older the document the 

 more legible is the style of the manuscript, for handwriting 

 deteriorated rapidly in this country after the time of the 

 scholarly Queen Elizabeth. Domesday-book and earlier writings 

 are now more easily read than many deeds drawn up in the 

 days of the Stuarts. 



