The Hertfordshire County Council has set an example to other
local bodies by taking proper care of its records and making them accessible. It has already published four volumes dealing with the county sessions rolls and with the St. Albans records. It now issues as a fifth volume a Calendar to the Hertford Sessions Books, 1619-57, compiled by Mr. W. Le Hardy (Hertford : Simson & Co., 10s.). Those who are concerned with social and economic history will find this calendar of exceptional value because it contains all the names mentioned and notes all the subjects. Thus we can definitely affirm that local life was undisturbed by the civil war, except that money had to be found for the maimed soldiers, and that partisans occasionally lost their tempers, called one another malig- nant," or broke some church windows. Before the war the King's sojourn at Theobald's was always a source of trouble. The Board of Green Cloth exercised the old right of purveyance and required the county to furnish provisions for the Royal household. Moreover, the hangers-on of the Court drank more than was good for them. These records are very human and very instructive.
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