Welsh Journals

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National Library, and the school managers were invited to deposit all expired log books therein. Some schools have preserved their log books from the day of their first opening, others have lost their earlier records. A periodic census of log books, both current and expired, would provide a safeguard against further loss. The Director of Education for Carmarthenshire, in June-July, 1939, took such a census of log books of Council schools under his jurisdiction by means of cyclo- styled questionnaires which required the head-teachers to furnish particulars both of the current log books and of earlier log books known to be in existence. Administrative convenience helps to centralize the custody of old log books, but the earlier volumes are rapidly passing out of the administrator's immediate sphere and are becoming increasingly more the concern of the student of education and of local history. In the absence at most local education offices of properly-equipped muniment rooms which can offer facilities to the ordinary student, the National Library is obviously an appropriate central repository for expired school log books. E. D. JONES. MANORIAL RECORDS. One result of the passing of the Law of Property Acts of 1922 and 1925 was that all manorial records were placed under the superintendence of the Master of the Rolls. Being empowered to make enquiries for the purpose of ascertaining that such documents are in safe custody and are being properly preserved, the Master accorded official recog- nition as Approved Depositories' to certain libraries and other institutions throughout England and Wales which, in his opinion, are in a position to provide the safe custody and the proper preservation which the law demands. The National Library is the largest of the Approved Depositories' in Wales, and houses at the present time some thousands of manorial records of varying types and ages. These, like the numerous other documents in the Library, are preserved under the most suitable conditions, while those which are in need of attention are skilfully renovated at the Library's private bindery. It was only fitting that the three gentlemen who have held the office of Master of the Rolls since the Library became an Approved Depository' should be invited to see these conditions for themselves, and it is gratifying to be able to record that each of them has availed himself of the opportunity. The late the Right Hon. Lord Hanworth paid a formal visit on May 21, 1932, and delivered an address on the custody of records to a gathering of owners and custodians of documents who had been invited to meet him. The visits of his successors, the Right Hon. Lord Wright and the Right Hon. Sir Wilfrid Greene, were of a more informal nature, the former taking place on July 18, 1936, and the latter on July 30, 1938. In anticipation of Lord Wright's visit A County List of Manorial Records and other manuscript material relating to the Manors and Lordships of Wales in the Library's custody was compiled, and specially bound copies of the two typescript volumes containing the List were presented to the Master of the Rolls during the proceedings. In these volumes the manors and lordships of each county are listed in alphabetical order, the variant forms of their names being also given. The documents relating to each manor are arranged in chronological order, with a brief description of each document, its date, and its location mark. The County List' is kept up to date by the constant addition of particulars of manorial records acquired from time to time since 1936. G. TlBBOTT.