Tattershall Castle Building Accounts, 1434-1446

The building accounts of Tattershall Castle are preserved in the manuscripts belonging to Lord De L’Isle and Dudley at Penshurst Place in Kent. They were first recognised by the Historical Manuscripts Commission and summarized in their 1925 report. A precise transcription was prepared in 1943. The abbreviations and contractions in the original Latin have been expanded in this edition. The English translation is of the expanded Latin text.
The following is the opening paragraph of W. Douglas Simpson’s Preface.
The publication of this work has been inordinately delayed. This is partly due to my own ill-health and partly to various mishaps, of which the most spectacular is perhaps unique in the record of such undertakings. My house was invaded by a monkey, escaped from a travelling circus a mile or more away: and, in the fracas consequent on efforts to recapture it, some of the transcripts were so badly damaged that they had to be re-written!
Adapted from the Preface and the Introduction