In the rolumina, or scapi, of the ancients, the writing was carried in equal columns, as in the pages of a book, along the length of the skin, but the inrolment in both sorts of our rolls is written across the width of the membrane. The rolls of the common law, after wealth, English was substituted; but soon after the Restqration, Latin was restored, and the records of the courts continued to be kept in Latin until the reign of George II. In certain branches of the exche quer, Latin continued in use until the abolition of the offices in very recent times. Many of our statutes from Edward I. to Henry V., and the principal part of the rolls of parliament, are written in Norman French. Petitions to parliament continued to be presented in Nor man French until the reign of Richard II., whose renunciation Of the crown is said to have been read before the estates of the realm at Westminster first in Latin and theri in English. After this period we find English often used in transactions between the people and government, a sure sign that the distinctions of Norman origin were nearly absorbed among the people at large.
Sir Francis Palgrave's edition of the Calendars and Inventories of tho Treasury of the Exchequer,' some of which were compiled as early as the 14th century, are extremely interesting in exhibiting the ancient modes in which records were preserved. No uniform system of arrangement seems to have been employed, but a different expedient was used for the preservation of nearly every separate document. Great numbers, judging from the quantity found in arranging the miscellaneous records of the queen's remembrancer of the exchequer, were kept in pouches or bags of leather, canvas, cordovan, and buck the time of Henry VIII., contain so many skins that they cease to be rolls, but become simply oblong books, and, unlike the early rolls of the same series, are exceedingly ill-adapted for preservation and inconvenient for use. There are many of these miscalled rolls of the reign of Charles II., which in shape, aize, and weight resemble the largest Cheshire cheese, often requiring two men to lift them from the rack. Membranes may be fastened together after the chancery fashion in any numbers, and yet remain a legitimate roll, though imposing much bodily Labour in the consultation. The land-tax com missioners' Act of 1 Geo. IV. extends, it is said, 900 feet when unrolled. Other records have the shape of books. Doomsday Book, called both ' llotulus ' and' Liber,' the oldest and most precious of our records, eonnting eight centuries as its age, and still iu the finest order, is a book ; and as occasions presented themselves for adopting this shape without infringing on ancient precedent, the far more accessible shape which we now call a " book " seems to have been employed.
A considerable part of the records of the courts of the surveyor general and augmentations, in the reign of Henry VIII., of wards and liveries, and requests, are made up as books. Other documents, those relating to fines, the Pedes Finium or Finales Concordhe; the writs of Dedimua Potestatem; and acknowledgments and certificates, writs of the several courts and returns, writs of summons and returns to parliament, inquisitionea post mortem, &c., &c., by tens and hundreds of thousands are filed, that is, each document is pierced through with a string or gut, and thus fastened together in a bundle.
The material on which the record is written is generally parchment, which, until the reign of Elizabeth, is extremely clear and well pre pared. From that period until the present, the parchment gradually deteriorates, and the worst specimens are furnished in the reigns of George IV. and William IV. The earliest record written on paper, known to the writer, is of the time of Edward II. It is one of a series entitled,' Papirus magiatriJohannis Guicardi contra-rotulatoris Magme Costumas in Castro Burdegalize, anno domini ccc°. These records are in the office of the queen's remembrancer of the exchequer. Tallies were records of wood. [TALLY.] The handwriting of the courts, commonly called court-hand, which had reached its perfection about the reign of our second Edward, differs materially from that employed in chartularies and monastic writings. As printing extended, it relaxed into all the opposites of uniformity, clearness, legibility. and beauty which it once possessed. Tho ink too lost its ancient indelibility ; and, like the parchment, both handwriting and ink are the lowest in character in the later times ; with equal care, venerable Domesday will outlive its degenerate descendants.
All the great series of our records, except those of parliament, are written in Latin, the spelling of which is much abbreviated. The reader who desires to be further informed on the subject may consult the collections of contractions which Mr. Hardy has inserted in the preface to his Close Rolls of King John,' and Mr. Hunter, in his preface to the ' Fines of Richard I. and John.' During the Common ram, a mode which is still used iu this depirtmeut of the exchequer. Them pouches, which fasten like m xlern reticules, are described by Agarde, who was keeper of the Treasury of the Exchequer, " as hang ing against the walls." The following drawing represents a leathern pouch containing the tallies and the account of the bailiff of the manor of Gravesend in the 37 and 38 of Edward III.