Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/363

. xii. OCT. 31, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

355

Sir Henry Gott was High Sheriff of Buck inghamshire in the year 1774.

I shall be happy to give G. F. R. B. any further information in my power from deeds in my possession, which, however, do not give the date of Sir Henry Gott's marriage.

There is an obelisk in the grounds of the epileptic colony at Chalfont St. Peter, which is stated to have been erected in 1784 by Sir William Gott. In ' Murray's Guide to Buckinghamshire ' it is stated that this Sir William Gott was landscape gardener to George III., and that he erected the obelisk in commemoration of the fact that King George was in at the death of a stag on that spot. It seems probable that the person who erected the obelisk was either the Sir Henry above mentioned or William his son, who was certainly not a knight at the alleged date of its erection. H. A. HARBEN. .

Newlands, Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks.

FEES FQR SEARCHING PARISH EEGISTERS

(9 th S. x. 148, 394 ; xi. 130, 252, 453 ; xii. 58, 192, 317). As a rule the clergy readily per- mitted me to inspect their registers (to the end of the seventeenth century), church- wardens' accounts, and terriers. My method soon convinced them that mine was a prac- tised labour of love for a public purpose, and awakened their interest. One, who called my attention to the beautiful penmanship and long innings of the earliest incumbent or his clerk, was surprised to hear that the same writer had similarly transcribed the registers of a neighbouring parish, and the clergyman was thankful for the expla- nation. Another, on discovering that he and my wife were related, proudly vaunted the blood royal in their veins. He referred me to Burke's 'Royal Descents,' and a highly embellished pedigree in the hall of a county mansion, moreover to lands inherited from the man whose wife was undoubtedly of royal descent. My registers proved that this man died without issue surviving, that his two sisters were his coheiresses, and the will of his (the clergyman's) and my wife's ancestor confirmed it. Many such incidents cropped up.

In years long ago I have left home like Dr. Syntax, but on a different errand. For a fortnight at a stretch I have sallied forth in the morning, with an Ordnance map enlarged in my pocket, and have run through the registers of three parishes in one day, not knowing where I should put up my horse for the night. In those days the mounted traveller lodged free at a village inn. I should have waited on A VICAR or the REV. JOHN PICKFORD with no misgivings.

The former would have found me in agree- ment that " it is unsafe to leave the books with strangers." Having seen erasures, altera- tions, and mutilations, I always declined the responsibility of searching unless under supervision. If I thought household arrange- ments were interfered with, I have asked to renew my search on the following morning. I have declined invitations to lunch, on the score that time was too precious, and occa- sionally found the plea ineffectual. I am glad to read MR. PICKFORD'S mental vow. In two instances where I was well known I refused the offered loan of the oldest register books, on the ground that their evidence would be vitiated if it was known they had once been out of safe custody. In my wanderings I received most marked attention from clergymen of good family. I obtained many fees for the clergy, and laid scholars under greater obligations.

While I was searching the Gulval registers the vicar produced a bundle of old manu- scripts as an encumbrance he would be glad to get rid of if they were of any use to me. Having examined a few, I begged him to write which he did at once and offer them to the Principal Librarian, British Museum, on bhe strong recommendation of an old reader. They were the missing Gwavas manuscripts, relating to the Cornish language, quoted by Borlase, Pryce, Polwhele, and others, and Dronounced by Max Miiller most valuable. Prince L. Lucien Bonaparte would have given a large sum for them. On my second visit to jlulval the vicar said that but for me they would have been lost. They are Add. MS. 28,554 B.M. I also prevailed on a clergy- man's widow to present a much larger and more valuable set of MSS. to the British Museum.

It would be well to levy a special rate for transcribing our old registers for home use, and to deposit the originals in the Record Office or at Somerset House, to be accessible on payment of a moderate fee. H. H. D.

Perhaps you will allow me to add my pro- test to those already raised in your pages gainst the avaricious attitude still adopted

y a dwindling minority of our parochial clergy. Some few months ago I had occasion
 * o skim a certain Nottinghamshire register,
 * or the purpose of compiling the pedigree of

a prominent local family, for insertion in a lorthcoming local historical work. So far
 * rom the publication in question being a

profitable venture, it was recognized in ad- vance that it could only be produced at a considerable loss, as eventually proved to be the case. The incumbent of the parish in