Record time
Sir: David Knowles (27 September) is too good a friend of the Public Record Office, and too much a stickler for evidence, to mind a reproof for being out of date. In his review of Professor G. R. Elton's, England 1200-1640 he suggested copies might be available `to the queue of frus- trated researchers who wait in the courtyard of the Public Record Office for a position within to fall vacant'.
Much has happened since the long hot summer of 1967. In May 1968 a new search room for fifty readers was opened by the PRO in the Land Registry Building in Lincoln's Inn Fields and in April this year a further search room, which will accom- modate another eighty readers, became available. A third room will be opened there when the need arises. Queues for seats indeed belong to the past.
The Lord Chancellor, answering a question from Lord Caccia in the House of Lords on 30 April last, said: 'Some newspapers gave considerable publicity to complaints at the time when there was a lack of facilities. I hope that the same newspapers will now give the same publicity to the existing facilities.' I trust, sir, that you will play your part to put the record straight.
N. 1. Williams Records Administration Officer, Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London, wc2
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