314 APPENDIX
in a memorial made about the year 1613, stated that there were then two sorts of papers in the State Paper Office, " those that have been long kept at Whitehall, and those brought from Salisbury House by himself since the Lord Treasurer's decease, which were far the greater in number." In spite of this transfer, however, a large quantity of papers must have been retained by the secretaries of the late Lord Treasurer ; and of these one portion is preserved at Hatfield, while the other forms the most important part of the Lansdowne MSS. at the British Museum.
The collection at Hatfield, which was pronounced by Mr. Brewer to be " perhaps the largest, certainly the most valuable, of any private collection in this kingdom," consists of upwards of 30,000 documents, the great majority of which are bound up in 210 large volumes. Many of these papers have been discovered in recent times through researches instituted by the second Marquess of Salisbury, and also by the late Marquess. The documents may be divided into two classes, the first of which comprises grants from the Crown, Privy Seals, and other Records of a strictly legal character, together with various illuminated manuscripts, theological treatises, rolls of genealogy, common-place books, plans, charts, etc. The second consists of manuscripts of a more directly historical nature, as State Papers, treaties, despatches, correspondence of public personages, and political memoranda. The Commissioners on Historical Manuscripts have expressed an opinion that the value and extent of the correspondence, " to which every person of any note at the time contributed, may be judged from the fact, that scarcely a day passes in any year from the accession of Edward VI. to the close of the century [and for many years beyond], which does not produce one or more letters connected with passing events, and generally from those whose rank and position
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