ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 7 



Students and compilers will find it to be of great 

 convenience to write their abstracts and transcripts upon 

 single sheets of paper — quarto or folio preferred — but, in 

 any case, of uniform size. An inch margin should be 

 left on the left hand side. Entries and passages relating 

 to different townships, families, or subjects should be 

 given on separate sheets, and the name of the township, 

 family, or subject in question should be written in the 

 top right hand corner. Reference to the volume and 

 page of the publication whence extracts are drawn 

 should invariably be given. 



From the information so collected and from the materials 

 thus conveniently arranged a history or account of the 

 township or parish to which any student has devoted, 

 his attention can afterwards be drawn up in a narrative 

 form by the compiler himself, or the collection can form 

 his contribution to the effort which is now being made 

 to complete the history of the whole county of North- 

 umberland. I have made my list of authorities as 

 comprehensive as possible, and all of them may not be 

 available or applicable in every case. The most pregnant 

 of them for historical information, and the first which 

 should be considered and extracted, are, I think, the 

 three record volumes contained in Part in, of the Rev. 

 John Hodgson's History of Northumberland. 



I should like to take this op))ortunity of adding a 

 few words as to the custody of local records. 



The value of the Public Record Office in London, of 

 the Department of MSS. in the British Museum, and of 

 the Historical Department of the General Register House 

 at Edinburgh, is fully appreciated by students, but the 

 desirability of establishing provincial and local record 

 offices, if realised by individuals, has not yet been 

 recognized by public authorities. 



On this head the following five propositions may be 

 laid down : — 



