Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/141

 i2s. vm. FEB. 6,i9Ho NOTES AND QUERIES. Ill OLD SONG WANTED. ' Framley Parsonage ' chap. xi. : "fLudovic," said Lady Lupton, " won't you give us another song ?".... "I have sung all that I knew, mother. There's Culpepper .... He has got to give us his dream how be ' dreamt that he dwelt in marble halls ! ' ' "I sang that -an hour ago," said the captain ...." But you certainly have not told us how ' your little lovers ame ! ' ' The dream about the " marble halls " is pretty well known ; but from what song oomes the allusion to the " little levers " ? J. C. ROGER MOMPESSON. Can any reader of 'N. & Q.' give me the name of the consti- tuency represented in Parliament by Roger Mompesson, cf Lincoln's Inn, about 1700 ? E. A. J. THE PACKEBSHIP OF LONDON. In June 1552 Sir John Thynne resigned his patent of the "Packership of London." What office would this represent ? Perhaps a reader of 'N. & Q.' can say if it is still in -existence ? R. B. REPRESENTATIVE COUNTY LIBRARIES, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. (12S. viii. 8, 34, 54, 76.) THE average Public Library and Public Librarian are not at all equipped to answer genealogical problems. May I make a few suggestions as to what a library should acquire before beginning to qualify to fulfil such a function ? It might then be found that to invest a locality with direct personal interests, via the study of genealogy, is the surest road to the attainment of whatever aims Public Libraries are generally supposed to possess. 1. Of course, copies of all the histories of the county in which the library is situate, of the County Visitation Pedigrees and of all local histories. 2. Copies of the Parish Registers from beginning to end, of all the Manorial Ccurt Rolls and of all the Monumental Inscriptions in all the churhes, churchyards and ceme- teries in the parish or town that the library represents. 3. Every original document, parchment, deed, &c., upon which it can lay hands, properly calendared and indexed, so that the list of its contents can be seen at a glance. 4. Complete copies of all the local Direc- tories, and before then, of the local Subsidy Rolls, Land Tax Assessments, Hearth Tax Assessments, Muster Rolls, Recusant Rolls and complete copies of the Census Returns of 1841 and 1851. 5. Then abstracts of all the wills of people connected with the place, of the pleadings and depositions in lawsuits, and of every loose deed or document which exists amongst the millions in the Public Record Office, the Probate and Diocesan Registries and in private hands. These to be arranged simply in order of date and type-written. I think that, this working material at hand for ready reference, PUBLIC LIBRARIAN might begin to be in a position to answer genealogical enquiries. It might cost a few thousand pounds for any single parish to acquire such a collection, and take a^few years to get together, and he himself would be all the better equipped with some years' experience of record searching outside his own library ; but until both possess these qualifications he cannot expect inquirers to contribute for special searches much towards the library funds, for they will assuredly be disappointed at the result. GEORGE SHERWOOD. 210 Strand, W.C.2. There is a fine collection of Norfolk items at the Norwich Public Library (Mr. Stephens). And the Lowestoft Public Lib- rary (Miss K. Durrant) contains a good selection of books on the twin counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, together with the interesting MSS. of Mr. William Blyth- Gerish, of Southtown, Great Yarmouth, relating to Norfolk Archseologv and Folk- lore. W. J. CHAMBERS. Clancarty, Regent Road, Lowastoft. County of Suffolk. The Ipswich Public Library contains a large collection of local books relating to Ipswich and the county generally. I believe the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology at Bury St. Edmunds pos- sesses a collection of books and MSS. The Public Library at Lowestoft also owns a good collection of local bocks, while as to those in private hands, Mr. Milner-Gibson-Cullum, D.L., Hardwick House, Bury St. Edmunds has a fine collection, and the library of Mr. F. A. Crisp at the Grove Park Press is a considerable one and rich in MSS., but now being dispersed. The collection of Mr. H. B. W. Wayman at Bloomsbury is rich in rare broadsides, Commonwealth quartos and MSS. J. HARVEY BLOOM, M.A.