Curiosities Of The Search Room.*

CURIOSITIES OF THE SEARCH ROOM . *

" nnHIS is a most interesting book , ancl one which will have many attractions J- for those of us who have often amused themselves in searching for old wills in Doctors' Commons . That venerable search room is extinct , and a new one is set up at Somerset House . There were at one time 372 Ecclesiastical Courts in England and Wales where wills could be proved ; there are now 41 , and with London 42 . But a copy of all wills must be deposited in the London central office . In 1873 , there were 40 , 960 wills proved , concerning

property valued at £ 119 , 387 , 091 ; of these 15 , 711 wills were proved in London , and 25 , 249 wills in the country registries . As regards the antiquity of the wills , a great batch of original wills goes back to Edward V ., 1483 , but copies date a century earlier , from Richard II . It is impossible in our limited space to give even an idea of the amount of interest to be found in this very readable book , though it is perhaps a little too modern in its illustrations , as many of the modern wills given are very commonplace indeed . The history

ot wills is , however , per se , a very curious one , ancl a very sad one , though we cannot enlarge on it here . We give one or two eccentric wills , and we must ask our readers to find many more for themselves . The following seems to us—we may be too precisian for this easy going age— -really a profane will . A dissenting minister ( name properly not given ) bequeathed a sum of money to his chapel at St . Ives to provide ' six bibles every year , for which six men ancl six women were to throw dice on Whit Monday after a morning service

, the minister kneeling at the south end of the communion table ancl praying God to direct the luck to His glory . ' This is another truly eccentric will : A sailor requested his executors ' to pay to his wife one shilling , wherewith to buy hazel nuts , as she always preferred cracking nuts to mending stockings . ' Here is a proof of the spitefulness of wills . A German professor , who died at Berlin the beginning of this centuryentertaining a great dislike to his

, sole surviving relative , left all his property to him , but on the sole condition ' that he should always wear white linen clothes at all seasons of the year , and should wot swpplei"nent them in . winter by extra under garments . ' Lord Stafford left to his wife , Claude Charlotte de Gramont , daughter of the wellknown Grammont in King Charles II . ' s times , ' five-ancl-forty brass halfpence . ' Indeed , there is no end to selections we might make , but we must stop here ,