RESCUED FROM SCRAP HEAP

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 257, 13 January 1941, Page 8

RESCUED FROM SCRAP HEAP

Not all the paper found in the lumber-rooms up and doAvn the land find's its way to the pulp merchant. Some very valuable documents are turning up, thanks to the experts who are examining laAA'yers' accumulations before they are sold" as waste. One of these precious pieces has noAv found a permanent and hon? oured home in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, having last been recorded as seen by the 17th century antiquary, Sir AVilliam Dugdale, collecting material for his great Avork on his natiA r e Warwickshire. The document is a deed of the 12th century by Avhich William de Mandeville makes a grant to his brother Ernulph, of Kingham in Oxfordshire. Dugdale copied it, and Avlien, 50 years ago, Dr John Horace Round Avas Avriting his famous life of Geoffrey de Mandeville, the richest and most poAverful noble of King Stephen's reign, he had to rely on t i -s transcript because the original Avas missing. The deed is of special interest to students-of the language used in this country al the time it Avas Avritten, for it is the first legal document ltnmvn h;:vo been Avrittrn in French instead of Un - usual