Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/503

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strongly advocate their retention by th Parish Councils, and by the incumbents -and churchwardens, respectively. I would however, suggest the advisability of more stringent measures being taken to ensure their preservation. This is a very importanl matter. Section 17, sub-sec. 9, of the Loca Government Act, 1894, provides :

" Every County Council shall from time to tim< inquire into the manner in which the public books writings, papers, and documents under the control of the parish council or parish meeting are kept with a view to the proper preservation thereof And shall make such orders as they think necessary for such preservation, and those orders shall be complied with by the parish council or parish meeting."

As far as I know this duty of the County Councils is generally considered to have been carried out by the periodical dispatch ol certain forms containing a series of questions concerning the documents. These are answered by the clerk and returned indue course for tabulation, and there the matter ends. Instead of this I would advise a triennial or septennial inspection by an expert whose duty it should be not only to compile a tabulated list, but also to report on the preservation and condition of the docu- ments. The County Councils could then easily enforce their orders and see that they were complied with.

In this parish we have a large number of documents and records which are in the custody of our Parish Council. We keep them in a strong iron box in the church vestry, of which our clerk holds the key. Two gentlemen, myself and another, have been appointed by the Council to inspect these documents annually, and to report whether or not they are intact and in proper condition. This I consider to be a very good plan it was adopted by the Council at my suggestion some years ago, and has worked well.

I do not know if it would be possible to put any machinery in motion whereby a report could be obtained in every diocese as 'to the present condition of the old parish registers. I certainly think these to be in much worse case than the documents and records under the care of the Parish Councils. Many of them need the attention of the bookbinder, and others have been hopelessly ruined through damp. Something might easily be done by those in authority to prevent future damage and loss, and it is certain there could be found in every rural deanery sufficient expert clergy to furnish periodical reports and recommendations con- cerning their state and condition. But

whatever steps may be taken towards this end, I trust the registers will always remain in the custody of the incumbent and church- wardens of the parish to which they belong.

At a Congress of Archaeological Societies, held in union with the Society of Antiquaries in 1899, I believe a resolution was passed asking the Government to appoint a royal commission to inquire into the subject of the better preservation and arrangement of public documents and records ; but whether anything further was done I am unable to say. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

PENNY WARES WANTED (10 th S. ii. 369). " Penny - friend " : a deceitful, interested friend (Jamieson). "Penny-father," a miserly person, a niggard. In the ancient statutes "penny " is used for all silver money ; hence "Ward penny," money paid to the sheriff and officers for maintaining watch and ward ; "Aver penny," money contributed towards the king's " Averages " or carriages, to be freed from that charge; "Hundred penny," a tax formerly raised in the hundred, by the sheriff; "Tithing penny," a customary duty paid to the sheriff by the tithing court.

" No penny no Paternoster/' a proverbial saying pay your money or you 11 get no prayers. In both Ray's and Heywood's collections.

"He thinks his penny silver." He has a ?pod opinion of himself or his property, all his geese are swans. " Alvira. Believe me, though she say she is fairest, I think my penny silver by her leave" (Greene and Lodge's ' Looking - Glass for London and England,' p. 123).

"A penny saved is twopence gained " (or 4 a penny saved is a penny got "). " Penny ind penny laid up will be many." "Who will not keep a penny shall never have many." J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

I have a newspaper extract of "penny readings" at Sandgatein January, 1866 :

The first of a series of Penny Readings, in con- icxion with the Sandgate Literary Institute, took ilace on Monday last in Mr. Valyer's Assembly looms (kindly lent for the occasion), the Rev. J. )'Arcy W. Preston in the chair. After the rev. hairman had given a slight sketch of the origin of >enny readings, their object, and why they were rst instituted, the entertainment commenced," &c.

R. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

WILLIAM III.'s CHARGERS AT THE BATTLE

F THE BOYNE (10 th S. ii. 321, 370). I should

ike to be permitted to say that I cannot

agree with MR. H. G HOPE in considering