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four months ago, the present Bishop Dr. Robert Clavering) making very considerable alterations in his palace, had some part of the west front (which extended most to the northward and was very ruinous) entirely taken down. In this demolished part stood the first stone which the ignorant workmen, not knowing it had any relation to the second, removed to another place, and set it up (without the square frame) over the grand arch of the Piazza. The second stone remains where it was first put up whole and entire with its square frame. "February 10.-Notice of four Roman urns dug up at March in beginning of November last by labourers in making the New Road from March to Wisbeach -four urns in all; in three were burnt bones, ashes, etc., and in fourth upwards of 400 Roman Denarii; the whole dated between the time of Augustus Triumvirate and the Emperor Commodus; intrinsic weight of each about 7d. or 7 d. sterling; the largest share in hands. of Rev. Mr. Snell, of Doddington, in whose parish they were found; he has two of the urns and a fragment of the third; that which contained the money is in possession of Mr. George Smith, of March.

"1731-2, March 15.-Silver seal, English,

found at Peterborough in February, 1731-2, by a labourer as he was digging up the rubbish of an old wall on the South Side of the Bishop's palace, having been formerly part of the old abbey. The seal itself is of silver, not the least bruised or defaced, and weighed about 3s. 2d. sterling. It is now in the possession of the Right Rev. Father in God Robert, Lord Bishop of Peterborough, being his Lordship's property as being found within his Lordship's demesnes. Seal within a cusped circle, the modern arms of Hereford on a sheld with SOVCHE EST CANTO

LOVE.

"1731, April 21.-Mr. White Kennet, Prebendary, presented to the Society five pieces of cast brass, supposed to be used by the ancient Romans in setting their Toils when they went an hunting, dug

On

up in the common fields of Eye in this County which was formerly part of the great forest of Arundel, as also the head of a Roman javelin used in hunting the wild boar found in the same place. June 9, 1731, order to present one of these to our Sister Society at Spalding. "November 17.-Dr. Stukely, Rector of All Saints', Stamford, proposed as an honourable member, and admitted on December 1.

"1732, June 14.-Rev. Mr. Snell sends description of the four urns found at March, one of which he presented with the burnt bones in it to the Society. "1732, July 5.-Rev. Mr. Neve submits Chronological Series of Abbots and Bishops of Peterborough.

"September 20.-Presented to Society a

piece of the left horn of a stag found in a place called Slipe river, 5 feet underground, between Low Burrow Fen and Burrough Great Fen, September 11, 1732. "November 8.-Secretary proposes that as time of evening prayers at the Cathedral is altered from 4 to 3, meetings of Society commence for winter season immediately after prayers.

"1733, February 14.-Communicated to the Society by the Secretary a fair MS. of the Charters of the Priory of Bishmede, in Bedfordshire, now in the Custody of William Gery, Esq.

"1733, May 19.-The Secretary gave an

account of a curious tesselated pavement discovered last week in Castor Churchyard by the sexton digging a grave for a poor woman. The squares were very small and of different colours and so intermixed as to form larger squares of more than a foot which run through the whole work. When washed and cleaned the colours appeared exceeding bright, but the whole pavement was so strongly cemented together that the sexton could get up no one piece of it without defacing it, and the coffin was afterwards layd upon it. I enquired then for some medalls or what they call Dormans, but as they were formerly found there in very great plenty, they are now but seldome to be met with.

"Castor was undoubtedly a Roman station, and, according to the best conjectures of the most learned Antiquaries was the Durobriva of Antoninus. It was certainly, as appears by the ruines, a city of large extent, and reached not only from the top of the Hill above the town, but down mill field and along the meadow by the river-side, where it was joyned by a large stone bridge to the camp on the other side at Chesterton, in Huntingdonshire. The Erming street or great portway northwards lay through it. "May 23.-Mr. John Clement communicated to the Society his collection of several remarkable epitaphs, ancient and modern, at the Minster Church and Churchyard of this city, not taken notice of by Gunton, Willis (B.), etc.

(To be continued.)

3297

Books in Chains.*

ONG before the days of printing, the custom of fastening books to their shelves or to desks with chains was

common throughout all Europe. This was done not only for the purpose of securing them from theft, but, as Mr. Blades points out, as a natural way of securing them for general use, so that one student should not be favoured above another by the loan of the volume from an indulgent librarian or custodian. The habit of chaining books in churches for the general use of the people was not an invention of the time of the Reformation, but existed long before that epoch, as can be abundantly proved; but the custom became much extended at that time owing to the respective injunctions about the Bible, Erasmus' Paraphrase, Jewell's Apology, and Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

The various libraries of our Universities seem to have been universally chained. So late as 1748, the Foreigner's Companion through the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford notices the inconvenience of chain

Books in Chains (being Nos. 2-5 of Biographical Miscellanies), by William Blades. Blades, East, and Blades; royal 8vo., illustrated.

ing books, and about this time their abolition began, so that by the end of the century very few chained collections remained. At King's College a man was paid £175., in 1777, for nine days' labour in taking the fetters off the volumes. There are, however, a few chained libraries still remaining in England. The largest of these is at the cathedral church of Hereford, and is the one genuine survival of an old monastic library. It consists of about 2,000 volumes, of which about 1,500 are chained. There are five complete bookcases, and the remains of two others. Each bookcase (of one of which we are enabled to give an engraving) is 9 feet 8 inches long, 8 feet high, and 2 feet 2 inches wide.

The catalogue, which is also chained, classifies the books, many of which are in manuscript, in eight divisions. Each chain is from three to four feet long, according to its position, so that every volume can be placed on the reading desk. In the centre of the chains are swivels, which are useful in preventing their entanglement. Among the rules of the library of King's College, Cambridge, in 1683, was this: "For the rendering his business about the library more easy, each person that makes use of any books in the said library is required to set them up again decently, without entangling the chains.'

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Hereford is also fortunate in possessing the latest as well as the oldest collection of chained books in the kingdom. In the vestry of All Saints' Church in that city is a library of 285 volumes, occupying three shelves along two sides of the vestry, all chained, which were bequeathed to the parish. as late as 1715. Twenty years ago, the vestry, to their shame be it spoken, sold the whole lot, chains and all, to a second-hand bookseller for £100. They were packed up and taken to London, but fortunately the Dean of Windsor rescued them and brought about their restoration just before they were shipped to America.

At Grantham Church, in the room over the south porch, which was formerly used as a chapel, is a collection of 268 books, of which seventy-four have the chains still attached to them; the collection was presented in 1598. At Wimborne Minster is another most interesting chained library in the chamber

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Although it is obvious that much pains, time, and research have been spent upon this highly interesting and valuable catalogue of chained books, there can be no doubt that the list of extant chained books can be considerably enlarged, and further notes supplied with regard to those that have disappeared. Mr. William Blades fully recognises this, and in order to improve the promised second edition invites help from all who have observed or have custody of such books. We cordially invite the readers of the Antiquary to respond to this invitation, by supplying information to our own pages or to the publishers of this tractate. The following is a list of the places given in these pages that have books now in chains or that have

recently lost them: Abingdon, Appleby, Arreton, Barber-Surgeons' Hall, Barcheston, Bingley, Bolton-in-the-Moor, Borden, Bowness-in-Windermere, Bridlington, Bristol, Bromsgrove, Canterbury, Cartmel, Cheddar, Chelsea, Chesterton, Chew Magna, Chirbury, Cirencester, Cumnor, Denchworth, Durnford, Easton-in-Gordano, East Winch, Ecclesfield, Frampton Cotterell, Gorton, Grantham, Great Durnford, Halesowen, Hanmer, Hereford (Cathedral and All Saints'), Hull, Impington, Kettering, Kidderminster, King's Lynn, Kinver, Lessingham, Leyland, Lincoln, Llanbadarn, London (All Hallows', Lombard Street; St. Andrew Undershaft, Leadenhall Street; St. Clement's, Eastcheap), Luton, Malvern, Mancetter, Manchester, Margate, Minster-in-Thanet, Montgomery Castle, Newport Pagnell, Northwold, Prestwich, Quatt, Rochester, Salford, Salisbury, Sittingbourne, Southampton, Standon, Stratford-on-Avon, Suckley, Tavistock, Turton, Walmsley, Wantage, Wells, Whissonsett, Whitchurch (Middlesex), Wiggenhall, Wigtoft, Wimborne, Windsor, Wisbeach, Wolverley, Wootton Wawen, Worcester, Wrington, and York.

Our own contribution to the subject of Books in Chains shall be taken exclusively from the county of Derby, which seems to have altogether escaped Mr. Blades' attention.

An entry in the old churchwardens' books of All Saints', Derby, of about the year 1525,

says:

These be the bokes in our lady Chapell tyed with chanes yt were gyffen to Alhaloes Church in Derby: Imprimis one Boke called summa summarum. Item A boke called Summa Raumundi.

Item Anoyer called pupilla occuli. Item Anoyer called the Sexte. Item A boke called Hugucyon. Item A boke called vitus patrum. Item Anoyer boke called pauls pistols. Item A boke called Januensis super evangeliis dominicalibus.

Item A grette fortuose.

Item Anoyer boke called legenda Aurea.*

"Paul's Pistols " was in all probability in English; if so, it is a remarkable instance of a chained part of the Bible in the vernacular previous to the Reformation.

In Breadsall church stands an old double reading-desk, with folding lids that can be fastened by a simple padlock at the top.f There are four volumes on each side, all secured with chains attached to the binding. The books are Jewell's Works, 1609; Burnet's Reformation, 2 vols., 1679 and 1681; Cave's History of the Fathers of the Church, 1683; Cave's Antiquitates Apostolicæ, 1684; Cave's History of the Primitive Fathers, 1687; A Collection of Cases to recover Dissenters, 1694; and Josephus' Works, translated by Roger L'Estrange, 1702.

At Egginton Church, a black-letter copy of Erasmus' Paraphrase is kept in the vestry, the binding of which shows traces of having

been chained.

In the upper chamber of the old vestry, on the north side of the chancel of Dronfield Church, is (or was in 1870) a 1569 copy of Jewell's Apology, with the chain still attached

to the cover.

Against the north side of the chancel arch of the church of Shirland is another copy of the Apology, dated 1609, on a small desk, to which it is attached by the original chain fastening.

This is taken from The Collegiate Church of All Saints', Derby, by Rev. Dr. Cox and Mr. W. H. St. John Hope (Bemrose), where this interesting list of books is fully annotated by Mr. Bradshaw, the late

University Librarian, Cambridge.

We are specially surprised that this has escaped Mr. Blades' notice, as drawings of it have been twice given, viz., in the 1856 volume of the Anastatic Draw ing Society, and in the 1866 volume of the Facsimile Society.

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