early as the beginning of the fourteenth
century; but all the Registrars since that time,
with their progressively enormous incomes,
have not found it consistent with their
duty to have a list of these early Wills made;
for the first volume of calendars commences
with the Wills of 1526, and ends with those of
1561. It is a volume only in name. It has
no back; all the leaves are loose, and it is
brought in and thrown down to whomever
wishes to consult it as if it were a bale of
damaged goods out of a wreck. Like more of
the early indexes, the alphabetical arrangement
is not of surnames, but of Christian
names; so that the searcher has to run the
gauntlet down interminable columns of the
"Johns," "Thomases," "Jameses," and
"Jonathans" that bristle upon each page like
(as Leigh Hunt said of the " Smiths " in the
Directory) the iron railings along a London
street. This lump of almost useless leaves
has never been copied into a legible form
by any Registrar since it became unfit for
use. The income of the office even of Deputy
Registrar sometimes admits of the maintenance
of from six to a dozen race-horses, but
the expense of compiling paper calendars
could never be tolerated. To make indexes
of wills that have never been catalogued
would be quite out of the question; for
the Registrar charges his clients for the time
of his clerks in making searches, and it
was owned to Mr. Wallace that it would
take a year (at from one to two guineas per
day) to find any will dated before the year
1526.

The searching office of this Registry was,
like the others, inconvenient, small, and often
crowded. The policy of the clerks was, therefore,
to despatch the inquirers as fast as
possible, so as to ensure a rapid change of visitors
and a streaming influx of half-crowns. On the
second day of Mr. Wallace's search the trouble
he had given on the previous day for his money
was intelligibly hinted to him. He was broadly
told that he was "very much in the way;" for
room was so much required that some applicants
were plainly told that they must "come
again to-morrow." To others who had not
their inquiries ready cut and dried, in a
business form, and who threatened long
explanations respecting testators, a deaf ear
was turned, or a pretended search was made,
and they were told "there was no such will
in the place." A pleasant case occurred
on the second morning. An illiterate labourer
tried to make the officials understand that an
uncle of his wife had, he had heard, left him
a legacy, and "he wanted to know the rights
o' it." He gave the name and the exact date
of the death, and a clerk retired under
pretence of searching for the document. In a very
short time he returned with–––

"No such will in the place–––half-a-crown,
please."

"Half-a-croone? " said the countryman,
"Wat vor?"

"Half-a-crown!" repeated the clerk,

"Wat, vor telling me nought?"

"Half-a-crown! " was again let off with
a loud explosion, over the stiff embrasure
of white cravat.

"But darn me if oi pay 't," persisted the
expectant legatee.

"Half-a-crown!"

The countryman went on raising a storm
in the office, in midst of which the " Half-a-crown!"
minute guns were discharged with
severe regularity. At length, however, the
agriculturist was obliged to succumb, and
after a mighty effort to disinter the coin
from under a smock-frock, and out of the
depths of a huge pocket and a leather purse,
the poor man was obliged to produce and
pay over what was probably a fifth of his
week's earnings.

This circumstance having attracted Mr.
Wallace's attention and pity, he took a note
of the name of the testator; and, after the
inquirer had left, found it in the Calendar, and
by-and-by, by dint of a little manoeuvring, got
a sight of the will. In it he actually found
that the poor man had been left a small
legacy.

The extent to which similar practical
pleasantries are indulged in, it is impossible
to estimate. Many of the most cruel
wrongs inflicted and suffered in some
families, originate in the infinite varieties of
carelessness and neglect that pervade the
unimpeachable Ecclesiastical Registries of this
country.

Meanwhile Mr. William Wallace had been
actively employed in calling for wills and
paying out half-crowns. It was quite evident
from the calendars that no greater care was
taken of paper and parchment here than in the
other Registries. Several wills entered in
it, as having been once in the depository
wherever that was–––had against them the words
"wanting" and "lost." That ancient records
should in the course of centuries fall aside,
cannot be wondered at, even in a Registry,
which produces at present to its officers from
seven to ten thousand per annum; but what
excuse can there be for the loss of comparatively
modern ones? Certain wills were not
to be found of the years 1746; 1750; 1753;
and 1757.

Mr. Wallace soon found that in a place
where dropping half-crowns into the till
and doing as little as possible in return for
them, is considered the only legitimate business,
he was looked upon even at twenty-five
pounds per day as a sort of bad bargain,
who required a great deal too much for his
money. They could not coin fast enough by
Mr. William Wallace, and the Deputy-Registrar
indulged the office with his august presence
to inform him, that as he gave so much
trouble for the searches he was making, he
must pay, besides two-and-six-pence for every
future search, two guineas per diem for the
use of the office!