Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/184

 142 Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. informs me that there is a full discussion of the Leofric books in Nicholson's Early Musical MSS. in the Bodleian. I should be much obliged if anyone who has more time to devote to these points than I have, or the Librarian of the Cathedral Library, would compare the above list with the inventories of 1506 and 1327 or any other documents of the Cathedral Library. S^^ f>. I// J. F. Chanter. 115. Calendars of Devon and Cornwall Wills (IX., par. 53, p. 57.) — The first issues were revised by a member of the Council of the Devonshire Association ; the sub- sequent ones by the transcriber. It should be remembered that the very latest item copied from these old calendars (which is not necessarily the spelling in the document) was written more than a hundred years ago, when every man made his own spelling, and had been doing so time out of mind. Another important point, they were printed for the British Record Society in a county remote from the west, and although the transcriber wrote and still writes a hand so plain that no man, though printer, need err therein, it appeared that it was not without some typographical wrestling that many of these wild western place-names were finally set up. There was regret felt that it was not possible, especially at the com- mencement, to refer to original documents to correct obvious if ancient slips of the pen such as the repetition of the name Weymouth alluded to, and in transcribing subsequent calen- dars, the courteous officials, when it could be done without unduly interfering with public business, occasionally looked up and produced a document to settle a doubtful point. The transcriber also undertook to place a mark over every " U " to prevent it being printed as " N," a frequent misprint in topographical works, but the printer used his own discretion notwithstanding. Concerning Launceston I doubt whether the spelling of this place-name is really fixed even at this late date, for I read a sign post near that town inscribed " To Lanson." A gentleman described the first calendar issued (Prin- cipal Registry of the Bishop of Exeter) as useless, because it did not contain all the wills in the Exeter Registry, and remarked to the writer, who was busy