The Commissioners of Works, or any local authorities within the meaning of the Act, have power (I) to acquire ancient monu ments by purchase; (2) to accept the ownership of an ancient monument under a deed of gift or a will; (3) to assume the guar dianship of any ancient monument offered to them by the owners.
Where the Commissioners or a local authority acquire or accept a monument they become the legal owners of the buildings and the land on which they stand. Where the Commissioners only assume guardianship, the ownership remains vested in the original owners, though the Commissioners or the local authority, as the case may be, have powers of control and maintenance over it as an ancient monument apart from the owner. The Commissioners of Works may, in the case of any monument of which they are not owners or where they are not guardians, issue a preservation order if the Ancient Monuments Board concerned reports to them that any monument which the Board consider to be of national importance is in danger of destruction, removal or damage from neglect. In very urgent cases the Commissioners may make such an order without receiving a report. A preservation order has effect only for eighteen months unless within that time the order has been confirmed by Parliament, and while it is in force the monument must not be demolished or removed, nor may any additions or alterations be made without the Commissioners' written consent. If no confirmation is made, no further order with regard to the monument can be made for five years. The Commissioners of Works are bound to afford public access to any monument of which they are the owners; but where they are only guardians the public are not entitled to access without the owner's consent, if the deed of guardianship so provides. Persons injuring or defacing any monument of which the Commissioners or a local authority are guardians or which is subject to a Preser vation Order, may, on summary conviction, be fined a sum not exceeding L5 and be ordered to repay the cost of repairing the damage, or imprisoned with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding one month.
Towards the making of a national inventory the first step taken was the appointment in 1908 of three royal commissions, for England, Scotland and Wales respectively, "to make an inventory of the ancient and historical monuments and constructions con nected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture, civiliza tion and conditions of life of the people from the earliest times" to the year 1700 in the case of England and 1707 in that of Scotland (for Wales no date is specified), and "to specify those which seem worthy of preservation." The Housing Town-plan
ning Act and the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act (both 1909), excepted the sites of ancient monuments or of other objects of historical interest from compulsory acquisition for the purposes of those Acts. The Finance Act of 1896 granted a qualified exemption from estate duty to pictures, prints, books, mss., works of art, scientific collections and other things not yield ing income, as appear to the Treasury to be of national, scientific or historic interest; this exemption only extends where such property is settled to be enjoyed in kind in succession by different persons; if the property is sold or is in the possession of a person competent to dispose of it, it becomes liable to estate duty. The Finance Act of 1909 extended the exemption to legacy and suc cession duty, removed the restriction to settled property and added "artistic" to "national and historic interest." Apart from the numerous national and local (usually county) archaeological societies whose proceedings contain invaluable accounts of practically every monument of interest throughout the kingdom, there are three societies directly formed with the object of monument preservation in its widest sense, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, founded in 1877, the Ancient Monuments Society, with headquarters at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, and the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, which was founded in 1895 with the object of generally promoting the preservation— and particularly the acquisition by gift or purchase—of places of historic interest or natural beauty and holding them in trust for the nation. The last-named was incorporated by the National Trust Act in 1907 and was by that Act empowered to acquire by gift, purchase or devise, sites and buildings to be held in per petuity for the benefit of the public. It possesses more than 150 properties, amounting to nearly 30,00o acres, and including 30 interesting buildings, among which are the Joiners' Hall at Salis bury, the Old Court House at Long Crendon (Bucks), the Cole ridge Cottage at Nether Stowey, and Duffield, Kanturk, Bodiam and Tattershall castles.