bogus address wrote:

> [social organization of eating in feudal households]
>
>>>You mentioned "The records of places like Knole, Hampton Court
>>>Palace, and some of the great religious houses will tell you this."
>>>I"m new to this. Could you tell me how I can find the records you
>>>cited, or similar records?
>>
>>Google for the historic places, then ring them up and ask them!
>
>
> Usually, no. Records like that tend to end up in major libraries (in
> Scotland, the National Library and Scottish Records Office both have
> lots of them). In the case of Hampton Court, it had a devastating
> fire a few years ago (from a senile royal dimwit forgetting a candle)
> and interesting records had better *not* have been stored there.

Most places like that have had someone about who could tell me the next
step - who to ask if they didn't have the stuff I wanted. National
Trust and English Heritage are usually very good about knowing where the
stuff is and who to ask for.
>
> Sometimes great houses come to an arrangement where a major library
> does their cataloguing for them. The National Library of Scotland
> holds the catalogue for the library of the Kers of Newbattle, so if
> you want to know what's in it, the NLS is the place to ask. Getting
> hold of the item then means going through the NLS to get the Kers to
> send it up with the next batch of requests, which are at three month
> intervals.
>
> I don't know of any major private library in Scotland where phoning
> up to ask would work directly.
>
> There are national registers of archives that act like a catalogue
> of catalogues. Librarians are paid to know about them, janitors at
> great houses aren't.

True, but if you ring the contact number of places like Penshurst Place,
Knole, Hever Castle, or wherever you don't get the janitor. You get
someone who can put you in touch with the folk who do know and point you
in the right direction. For example, I rang Hampton Court to ask about
something textile related, and was put through to The Royal School of
Needlework, who said, Ah, that's not us. You need to ring the V&A and
ask for So&So on extension blahblabla. She wasn't in her office, but
DID ring me back with exactly what I needed to know (an obscure point
about raw edge finishes on historic garments).

Start where the history happened and ring 'em and ask: if they don't
know what you want, they'll know a man/woman who does...
>
> ========> Email to "j-c" at this site; email to "bogus" will bounce <========
> Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760
> <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/purrhome.html> food intolerance data & recipes,
> Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files and CD-ROMs of Scottish music.
>


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