_Smyth's MSS. relating to Gloucestershire_ (Vol. v., p. 512.).--A querist
writes to know where any of these may be seen.
The original manuscript (three vols. folio) was given to the library of the
College of Arms, through the hands of Sir Charles Young, by the Rev. R. W.
Huntley of Boxwell Court, about 1835, who became possessed of it by a
legacy from a descendant of Mr. Smyth. There is another copy in the
"Evidence Room," at Berkeley Castle; and another in the library of Smyth
Owen, Esq., a descendant from the author, at Condover Hall, Shropshire.
There is another copy in the possession of the Hon. Robert Berkeley at
Spetchley Park, Worcestershire. And an imperfect copy was sold at the sale
at Hill Court, Gloucester, in 1846. It was bought by a bookseller for Mr.
Pigott of Brockley; it was resold in 1849, but to whom I could never find
out. This last is also in three vols.; two of these match in the binding,
but the third does not: the leather of this odd vol. is thickly studded
with the _portcullis_. The imperfection of this set consists in being
_unfinished_ in many parts. Mr. Huntley's is considered the first copy of
that at the castle; and that at Condover was probably Mr. Smyth's own. The
Hill Court copy seems to be about the same date.
The _Abstracts and Extracts_ of these MSS. as published by Fosbroke in
1821, are but a tantalising meagre sample of the very rich store of
genealogical and historical information which the originals contain.