Education and the
increasing sobriety of the nation may deprive them of their more
objectionable features, and it would be a pity to prevent the rustic
from having some amusements which do not often fall to his lot, and to
forbid him from enjoying once a year "all the fun of the fair."
CHAPTER XVII
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF OLD DOCUMENTS
The history of England is enshrined in its ancient documents. Some of
it may be read in its stone walls and earthworks. The builders of our
churches stamped its story on their stones, and by the shape of arch
and design of window, by porch and doorway, tower and buttress you can
read the history of the building and tell its age and the dates of its
additions and alterations. Inscriptions, monuments, and brasses help
to fill in the details; but all would be in vain if we had no
documentary evidence, no deeds and charters, registers and wills, to
help us to build up the history of each town and monastery, castle and
manor. Even after the most careful searches in the Record Office and
the British Museum it is very difficult oftentimes to trace a manorial
descent. You spend time and labour, eyesight and midnight oil in
trying to discover missing links, and very often it is all in vain;
the chain remains broken, and you cannot piece it together.
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