It may be thought that I have occupied too much space in giving bare lists of pieces of plate, but the shapes of some of the pieces are so good and the surface of old silver, when carefully tended, has such a beautiful texture that I believe it may be worth calling the attention of any interested in such things to some of our possessions of this kind. Only societies and families with continuous records dating from a distant past can show such collections. CHAPTER VII. THE COLLEGE AUDITORS. There is no reference in our earliest college statutes--those of 1552--to an Auditor, but the extant accounts show that the office existed from the foundation of the College in 1546. Definite regulations for the appointment were proposed in the draft statutes of 1554, and were embodied in the statutes of 1560. By these the auditor was made one of the statutable officers of the Society: the post was held for long periods, and it was not permissible to perform the duties by proxy. The statute in question was re-enacted in 1844. By the statutes of 1861 the office was made annual, and tenable only during pleasure. It remains annual under the present statutes, but a definite proviso was inserted in 1882 that it is not tenable by a fellow or officer of the House, and a clause was introduced providing for the appointment from among the fellows of an Assessor or Assessors who should be present during the audit. From the foundation of the College, its financial year ran from Michaelmas to Michaelmas, and the audit of each year was concluded in the following December. At first the annual honorarium of the auditor seems to have been £10 with an allowance of £2 for travelling expenses, stationery, etc., but before the end of the sixteenth century it had been reduced to £5, with an augmentation of £3. 6s. 8d. and some allowances. The form of the _declaratio computi_ was much as at present, and generally, with but small variations, it takes the form now stereotyped "and so the said A. B. Senior (or Junior) Bursar upon the foot of this his account for one whole year ending Michaelmas ... oweth unto the College the sum of...." In some cases, and notably in the seventeenth century, the sums include fractions of a penny, even as small as one thirty-second part thereof. Presumably the audit was always followed by a "feast," as still remains the custom.