The Society's 3ISS.—Chiseldon and Brayvot. 



39 



which looks no further than thirty years back for its " root 

 of title," that thanks to Lord Cairns' Act and possessory 

 titles, they need lumber their offices and muniment rooms no longer 

 with these parchments. One man burns them, another makes 

 them ingeniously serviceable as parchment ; enormous quantities 

 go to make drums, or are boiled down. True to his instincts the 

 man-of-law more cautiously hires cellars to store the parchments of 

 the estates he has recently marketed, against the time when they 

 can decently be otherwise disposed of. 



That is to say, the short title, or possessory title, are the direct 

 occasion of a greater daily destruction at the present moment of 

 j ancient MSS. than at any period since the Reformation. 



A society of antiquaries in possession of these facts will know 

 how to appreciate the intellectual interests, nay the courage, of the 

 late Mr. Richard Mullings, who collected the MSS. which by the 

 gift of Mr. John Mullings have now become available for research 

 purposes. In his lifetime Mr. Richard Mullings made many 

 generous gifts to the Society ; the whole collection is now ours. 

 All the documents in it have now been arranged, and stamped, and 

 > the next thing to be done is to present members with the infor- 

 r mation contained in them as speedily as possible. It is proposed, 

 : accordingly, to print them in the Magazine, parish by parish, as 

 fully as space will admit, and with such notes and additions as are 

 i readily available. The real work of illustration will, it is hoped, 

 -i be done by members themselves, for, valuable as they are, these 

 he .papers and parchments are only materials for history, awaiting 

 h their place. 



the 

 lea 



3 There is, to begin with, a small packet of papers relating to 

 :i: Chiseldon. This place may be considered as made up of (1) 

 •at Ohiseldon, (2) Burderop, (3) Hodson, (4) Badbury, and (5) 

 Draycot Foliot. The status of Draycot is no! very easy fco de- 

 jlfcerniine. Anciently a distinct parish, ii has long been treated Eoj 



