Gormbard had been working at the Mathom House for several weeks when Baldwin Foxtail called him up to his office. Master Foxtail had spent many days looking through his collection of old parchments and maps. Baldwin spent a good deal of his time searching these old records for any mention of famous Hobbits in the hope that any of their Mathoms were still in the possession of their descendants and that they maybe recovered so that all the Hobbits of The Shire could come and see them in the Mathom House.
Baldwin had been reading up on one of the Shires greatest moments the Battle of the Greenfields, all the Shires Hobbits knew the story of the battle against the Goblins and how Bullroarer Took lead the Hobbits to victory. The Shire still celebrated Bullroarers birthday each year. A Mathom that once belonged to Bullroarer himself was Baldwin's greatest wish and after reading through mountains of old records he had found a mention of a family of Hobbits that may have a piece of Bullroarers own armour that they had been given after the battle to repair, Baldwin had come to a dead end, an entire branch of the family was missing and Baldwin had no record within his library as to where they went.
Baldwin Foxtail needed Gormbard to help him search for this lost branch of the family. The only other place in the Shire that the records could lay would be the Thain's Library in Tuckborough.
Gormbard was given a pony for his journey with strict instructions not to let anyone know what he was looking for or why. Hobbits are notoriously nosey and nothing travels faster in the Shire than gossip. Gormbard avoided the main road to Tuckborough and went across the fields instead, winter was finally loosing its grip on the land and the trees were beginning to show signs of new green shoots, Gormbard made a mental note to come this way again on one of his days off as soon as the trees and flowers were in full bloom. The large hill of the Great Smials that was home to the present Thain of the Shire loomed into view and Gormbard tied up his pony outside. Once inside he was greeted by Pervinca Took and shown to the library.
Inside the dimly lit room there was not a single wall that was not covered by bookshelves. Some of the shelving was three times the height of a Hobbit and all of them were stuffed full of books. Gormbards heart sank; this was going to be far tougher than he had thought. Gormbard followed the little brass engraved signs that were attached to each of the shelves, skipping past the books on Farming, Law, Flora & Fauna, cooking, carpentry and mushroom growing until he found the shelves marked as “Family Trees”. Pulling out the small piece of paper Gormbard checked the title of the book he was looking for, the small neat handwriting of Baldwin Foxtail read “A Comprehensive History of the Brokenborings: It’s Lands, History and Peoples”.
Gormbard tucked it away and began scanning the shelves. It was then that he heard some faint whispers from the other side of the bookshelves. Moving aside a large book entitled “The Breeding of the Rare South Farthing Short Snout Pig” Gormbard peered through to see who it was. Despite Gormbard being informed that the Library rarely had visitors there in the next row of books was a group of three young, and quite attractive looking, Hobbit lasses. Gormbard did not dare get closer as he did not want to start making excuses as to why he was there if they spotted him. He continued to quietly search for his book, which he eventually found beneath a copy of “The History of the Frogmorton Frogsbottom family” by Enidd Frogsbottom. Curiosity however soon got the best of him and he once again peered through the books to listen in on the trio of Hobbits. They were continuing their search through the books, whilst munching on some delicious looking cakes, and they seemed to be looking, like Gormbard had been, through various books on old Hobbit families. Before he could discover anything else more Hobbits who were obviously friends of the first three entered the library. Gormbard had quickly blown out his candle so he had remained unseen. Tucking the book he came for into his backpack Gormbard slipped thought the shadows and out of the door. Collecting his pony from a nearby flowerbed Gormbard headed back to The Mathom House.
