Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/149

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

��79

��Paine lived at No. 77 ; and ten or twelve years ago one of the houses bore the inscription, " Here liv'd Dryden, y" poet, born 1631, died 1700."

The first great change to be made was in 1851, when the building of the new Record Office was commenced on the Rolls estate, to which the public records have been removed, and where they are easy of access. This important work was largely brought about by the Prince Consort, Lord Langdale, Sir Henry Cole, and the strong advocacy of The Athenaeum, whose contributors had found great difficulty in making historical researches among the State Papers at Carlton Ride. Lord Langdale was the first to commence the consolidation of the several offices by placing as many records as it would hold in the Riding School of Carlton House. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Cole was placed in charge of the building on the 25th of November, 1841. Lord Langdale strongly opposed the proposal to place the records in the Victoria Tower, then about to be built, and in a letter to the Treasury on the 4th of October, 1842, urged that the best and most convenient site for the Record Office would be on the Rolls estate. It was, however, not until the 8th of February, 1850, that his final appeal was successful. He was not spared to see the great work accom- plished for which he had fought so earnestly. He died on the 18th of April, 1851, and was buried in the Temple Church. The first stone of the new building was laid by Sir John Romilly on the 24th of May following.

In order that the new building in Fetter Lane should be tho- roughly fireproof, Mr. Cole, and Mr. Pennethorne the architect, consulted with Braidwood of the Fire Brigade, and we have as the result a stone building, fireproof, full of windows, and as strongly built as a fortress. Mr. Cole enthusiastically describes it as

' the repository of the Public Records of the nation in unbroken series dating from the Norman Conquest eight centuries ago. It is wonderful for a completeness in Europe, or even perhaps in the world, which is due to our insular position, and to English conservative instincts. These records tell an indisputable tale of English events, life, manners, justice, and property, to be preserved as long as England lasts."*

Sir Henry Cole's connexion with the Public Records dates from 1832, when he had charge of the Court of Augmentations a Court which Henry VIII. had established to look after the " augmentation" of his revenues arising from the dissolution of the monasteries. At the time of the fire which burnt down the Houses of Parliament on the 16th of October, 1834, the office, which adjoined the Houses, was threatened, and Cole, assisted by the Guards and policemen, removed the whole of the documents into St. Martin's Church.

��Record Office

the Prince

Consort.

��Henry Cole

placed in charge.

��He and Pennethorne

consult Braidwood.

��Assists in

removing

documents at

burningof the

Houses of

Parliament.

��* ' Fifty Years of Public Work of Sir Henry Cole, C.B.,' vol. i. p. ,32 (George Bell & Sons).

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