142 THE PKESIDENT'S ADDEESS. 



Several years ago I found in London an old Eegisfcer 

 belonging to a Cornish parish, and was fortunately enabled to 

 restore it to its rightful owners. It had long been lost sight of, 

 through having been borrowed by a churchwarden who died 

 whilst it was in his possession. His friends had afterwards 

 unwittingly removed, with his own books, the Eegister which 

 he held on loan. 



Apart from the accidents caused by fire and lending, some 

 of the old volumes are destroyed, from time to time, through 

 the carelessness of their custodians. On visiting one parish I 

 was informed that the Registers had been purposely burnt 

 because those in charge of them could not read them and 

 consequently regarded them as out of date. In another parish 

 I was told that a clothier had cut the parchment into strips to 

 serve as measures for his work. In some places damp is allowed 

 to rot the books, and no care is taken of detached fragments, 

 whilst the remains of the leaves (separated by decay and falling 

 into several pieces) are intermixed in utter confusion. 



Moreover, other records, not in pen and ink but inscribed 

 on stone, are as ruthlessly sacrificed. They, like the others, 

 may be of untold value, but this does not save them from being 

 irreparably injured or permanently lost. 



Frequently have I observed with regret the scant consider- 

 ation accorded to ordinary incised monuments. Almost always 

 when churches and burial grounds undergo renovation or 

 adornment some of these memorials are flung aside, or are 

 broken up, by the hand of the improver. Slate slabs especially 

 are treated as if of no importance, and sometimes freestone and 

 marble tablets also disappear. 



All must be aware that tomb-stones supply information 

 omitted from the registers, or no longer remaining in them if 

 ever inserted ; yet this seems to be unheeded. 



Too frequently, contractors and masons unhesitatingly 

 destroy lettered slabs even in defiance of architects' directions, 

 and seem persistently to evade the means adopted for the rescue 

 of such relics by those interested in them. 



