The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-03-17
THE MOST VALUABLE BOOK IN
 ENGLAND.
BY Iru SRAsp.

some of the mos; sQaAlid houses Tn Lon don. te,ter lane IS narrow and not particularly attractive thoroughfare that leads from Fleet street Ia HolhoTa. On the other Side ot Feuer lane from this splendid building IS a wretched. tumble down old house wi,h table, on tha, says; ''ln ,his house lived lShn Dryden :" l-e; Us hope tor the sake ot the poe, ,aa, the residence was in better repair then than |, IS now The great building cf stone with its pointed ,urrets and tall mullioned windows amids; sath incon- gruous surroundings IS the Record otflce. This great building IS hre-ptoof. and mus; have cost mint of money yet. im- mense as the sum mus, have been. there ts one volume within lts walls tha, could no, be boueh, for double the money. nor indeed for any amour, that might be named. The tirs; stone of the Record office was lAld Tn 1851. and |, was opened .n ISto. Many an old rookery ~as pulled down 10 make room for this temple ef mus,y records. and no doubt the resi- dcnocs of some of the friends of Mr. pYdens disappeared a, that tune. In fact. if we may believe a couplet. half ofwhioh was written by John himself, otws, ilved where the Record offiee now sta ads Dryden vas some~ hat h. k h toned in the selection ot h,S friends. and one day when 0,~Sy called. the serVAn, told hlm ,ha, Dryden had gone 10 breakfast sl;h the Earl ef Pembroke. Mex, morn ing when ot~ay called again he found that his friend had gone to breaki4s, with the Duke of Rockingham. ot~a, seemed r AnHAN,fs.f af h4s apA k~ :, door;
 Here isses Dry ten. pee, and ~il"
 When pfv 1en came back he wrote un- der II th.s line
 sWfRien ,hs os~se, oppasi;."
 i And then invited ot~ay over te breakfast When Otway saw hIs ilne linked ~ith an- other he go, offended. and turning on h,s heel sad that Dryden nigh, keep both hIs VII and his breakfasts All oi which soc. to show thA; these people were rather thin-Skinned
 lsu, 10 return 10 the Record once |, IS well known than al public documents n England were m the most inc<;ncabie confusion be lore they were removed to ,hls office. Not oniy that but they were scattered all over London, some al the Tower, some al the State Taper office. some a, Nanous government buildings. and no one knew exactly where any par ncutar thing .~as. had very good lllusta;lon oi how completely ali ihis IS changed. Sir ohn Pope Hennessey. who has lust been appointed Governor of the Aaur ,tias. IS getting out book that he IS anxious 10 see completed before he leaves England. 4 Agen,leman connected with the getting oli oi this work found It necessary 10 look up some documents of the time of Sir Walter Raleigh. He sad that fl l cared 10 see how old man kal- eagh used 10 do his bookkeeping migh, come along 50 went We entered the building where policeman stands guard. and walked down very long hall. \, the further end of this hall IS another man. whose duty II Is to.hnd out wha, your business IS, and from thence VIC wctc led through circular reading room. wi,h glass dome over Il :: the whole chamber bc.ng something like pocket edition of the reading room A, the British museum 4, every desk Sat silent men searching old mus,y records. The circular room was iined ~l,h books and man sa, m 4 kind of pulpit apparently to sec iha; neither the silence nor the rules of the room were broken From this room ~e went into d narrow hall and there waited until The attendant went forward and saw whether the guardian of Sir Walter Raleigh was disengaged. This hallway was also lined with books. those a, my elbow beng the records ofthe tune of one of the Richards 4, las, we were taken into the room a, the end of the hall. and here the maker of books told the keeper of books what was wanted. IL was one of the muster rolls Of Sir Walter a sort of pay roll n which the signs for s. q. were shown |; was proposed to introduce into Sii Johns book the symbols ioI pounds shilllngs and pence that were written n this muster roll. and the chances were that a special kind of type would have ta De cas, 10 do ihis. The gentleman n charge took from Us place small bo, aoou, the size and shape of a agar DON, and from ,his he selected a'paper scanning ,his paper a moment. he wrote on slip. and, rnglng bell, handed the shp to the man who appeared. While the servant was gone we had tune to look about this room, winch, mag ire, every. DStQy is H0t &iAOSC CQ ID CfklEI lt4Cte is good reason that he should be there There wAs A b,g square pillar in the cen Ire, and around ,hts pillar ~ere deeks al which several people were writing. T~o sides of the room were taken up ~iih ~sn- lows and desks, while the other two sides were lined with books and boxes. On a stand a, one corner of the room rested two glass eases something like ordinary square shop show eases. They were ar ranged wiih hinges and heavy paddock secured each oi them. In the larger ca se vas volume that looked like a great family Bible IL was bound ln black leather, and each ad Of the ooyei had around its edges a massive bar Of silver Al each corner was a sold silver block This vas the '' DooInsday Book com piled by the order of William the Con querer, and .s, believe, the only literary work he ever engaged in. This :s proba. bly the mos; valued of al the document. that England possesses, with the possible exception of the Magma Chara The