V.—The Ancient Charters of Winchester

Extract

It was in the month of March 1884, I think, that the May or of Winchester, Mr. Thomas Stopher, asked me to look at some ancient documents which had been found put away in a garret over a solicitor's office in Winchester. The documents, when I went to the place, proved to be the long-lost Charters of the City. The discovery was one of some interest just then, when we citizens were all thinking of the approaching celebration of the seven-hundredth anniversary of the mayoralty, in the following month of July. The discovery, too, gave us a nearly complete series of charters from Henry II. to Henry VIII. inclusive, whereas the earliest charter previously known to be in existence was that of Queen Elizabeth, now exhibited in our museum.