THE GREAT SEAL LOST
LORD ELDON, when Lord Chancellor, never went to bed a single night without having the Great Seal of England in his chamber. In the night of the 18Th of September, 1812, a fire broke out at Encombe, his seat, by which one wing of the house was destroyed. Speaking about this event towards the close of his life, with his niece Mrs. Forster, he said, “It really was a very pretty sight, for all the maids turned out of their beds, and they formed a line from the water to the fire-engine, handing the buckets; they looked very pretty, all in their shifts. My first care was the Great Seal; so, by way of securing it during the confusion, I buried it. The next morning, when I came to reflect, I could not remember the spot where I had put it: you never saw anything so ridiculous, as seeing the whole family down that walk, probing and digging till we found it.”
