Those who may be desirous of gaining some knowledge of the character or handwriting of ancient records, which can only be efficiently learnt by practice, are recommended to consult Wright’s “Court-Hand Restored.” It not only gives numerous alphabets and plates, illustrative of the different styles in vogue at different periods, but has valuable lists of abbreviations, of ancient place-names, and of debased Latin words that are only to be found in legal or monastic documents. Each of the earlier reigns appears to have had a set or uniform character of its own; but in the reign of Elizabeth and subsequently, this clerical mode seems to have been to a great extent abandoned, and each scribe to have written after his own fancy. It is hence very noticeable that, as was remarked by a late keeper of the Records, “the English records of the 16th and 17th centuries are in general more difficult to be read than the Latin records of preceding ages.” Civil or Domestic Architecture. Any British, Roman, Danish, or Anglo-Saxon remains that there may be in the parish, had, perhaps, better be described before the manorial history is given. Every earthwork, mound, or ancient roadway should be carefully noted. It is not possible to refer to any one, or even three or four, satisfactory books on such subjects. Fosbrooke’s “Encyclopædia of Antiquities” is out of date, but we know of no better compendious work of reference. The two volumes of Wright’s “Essays on Archæological Subjects,” will be found of much general use. Worsae’s “Primeval Antiquities of Denmark,” translated and applied to the illustration of similar remains in England, by W. J. Thoms, may be read with advantage, but with the recollection that the hard and fast “ages” of Danish antiquaries are, with greater knowledge, becoming exploded. But all description of civil or domestic architecture, of the Norman or subsequent periods, should be deferred until after the history of the manor has been written, because that history will very likely throw light on any such architectural remains. If there is a castle, or its relics, within the parish, the probability is considerable that it has already been well described by a county historian, or in one or other of the numerous journals of our Archæological societies. But it is equally probable that its history has not been thoroughly written, and special search should be made with that object at the P. R. O., beginning with the indexes to the printed calendars already enumerated. There is no one efficient volume treating of our mediæval castles that corresponds with Viollet-le-Duc’s “Military Architecture of the Middle Ages,” but a translation of this French work has been published by Parker, and it would be well to read either that or the original.