542 



TEOPENELL MEMORANDA. 



I. — Notes upon a MS. m the possession of Majok J. M. 

 Benett-Stanfokd, of Pythouse. 



The printed text of the Tropenell Cartulary is as perfect as a 

 good scholar, working with infinite patience and industry at a task 

 he loved, could make it, while the Cartulary itself is the most 

 wonderful thing of its kind, for completeness and variety of interest, 

 that we possess. There was no little romance, moreover, attaching 

 to the book ; Awbrey had praised it ; we had all heard tell of it ; 

 but when at last it came to light again, and in the possession of the 

 antiquary of all others most fitted to edit it, the precious volume 

 had been missing for a century or more and had successfully eluded 

 the most diligent search. Upon the occasion of its reappearance, 

 it is pleasant to remember, the county responded admirably ; the 

 necessary subscription was raised ; and Mr. Silvester Davies had 

 the satisfaction of seeing the fruit of his long labours in the two 

 well-printed volumes, which it is to be hoped we properly ap- 

 preciate. Thus the recent announcement that a MS. existed with 

 transcripts of deeds relating to the Tropenell family other than 

 those entered in the Cartulary was something of an event, and it 

 seemed desirable to ascertain if possible tlie history of this new 

 MS. and the nature of its contents. The present owner of the 

 MS. readily welcomed the enquiry, and the following notes are the ' 

 result. 



The MS. (lately Phillipps, 164) consists of twenty-one sheets of 

 foolscap (eighty-four pages written on both sides), numbered con- 

 secut/ively and bound up; and there is nothing in the character of 

 the handwriting (which is not uniform) or the binding, inconsistent' 

 with the supposition that it is throughout a domestic product of 

 Sir Thomas Phillipps' establishment. It contains copies in extcnso 

 of a few documents and abstracts in English of a number of others, 

 but there is no account given in it of the source from which these 

 documents were derived. It may be reasonably conjectured that 



