BOOKS CHAINED TO DESKS IN CHURCHES—OLD PAROCHIAL LIBRARIES.
(Vol. viii., p. 93.)
On a recent visit to Aberystwith, I walked to the mother church of Llanbadarn, a fine old building, which I was glad to find, since a former visit, was undergoing important repairs in its exterior. While inspecting the interior, I requested the clerk to show me into the vestry, and upon inquiring if the church possessed any black-letter Bible, Foxe's Martyrs, or any of those volumes which at the Reformation were chained to the desks or pews, he opened a case in the vestry, in which I was sorry to observe many volumes, not of that early date, but about a century and a half old, yet valuable in their day as well as at present, in a sad dilapidated state, arising from the dampness of the room, which is without a fire-place. Many of the volumes were the gift of a Doctor Fowle, with his autograph, stating that they were given as a lending library to the parishioners.
The present incumbent is the Rev. —— Hughes, a very excellent and zealous pastor, with the modern church in Aberystwith annexed, who should this narrative meet his eye, or be communicated to him, might be induced to make inquiries into the losses which had taken place, and prevent farther dilapidations and decay, in what was no doubt, once considered a valuable acquisition to the inhabitants of the parish.
Permit me to add, that in a room over the entrance porch of that venerable Saxon church St. Peter in the East, at Oxford, there is a large lending library for the use of the parishioners, largely contributed to by several of its recent and present zealous incumbent, and to which church so much has lately been done to remove former eye-sores, and to render it one of the most chastely decorated and best attended parish churches in the University.
J. M. G.
Worcester.
In an old MS. headed
"Articles, Conditions, and Covenants, upon which the Provost and other officers of King's College in Cambridge have admitted Michael Mills, Schollar of the said College, to be Keeper of the Publick Library of the said College."
the seventh and last article is—
"For the rendering his business about the library more easy, each person that makes use of any book or books in the said library, is required to sett 'em up again decently, without entangling the chains; by which is signified to all concerned that no person whatsoever, upon any pretence, is permitted to carry any book out of the library to their chambers, or any otherwise to be used as a private book, it being against the statutes of our college in yt case provided."
Under "Orders for regulating the publick library of King's College," Order IV.:
"All the fellows and scholars, and all other persons allowed the use of the library, shall carefully set up those they use in their proper place, without entangling the chains."
Michael Mills got King's in 1683.
T. H. L.
In the church of Wiggenhall, St. Mary the Virgin, the following books may be seen fastened by chains to a wooden desk in the chancel: Foxe's Book of Martyrs, in three volumes, chained to the same staple; the Book of Homilies; the Bible, with calendar in rubrics; and the works of Bishop Jewell, in one volume. The title-page is lost from all the above: in other respects they are in a fair state of preservation, considering their
antiquity, of which their characters being old English, is a sufficient proof.
W. B. D.
At a soirée recently held at Crosby Hall, there were exhibited by the churchwardens of St. Benet's, Gracechurch Street, Erasmus' Commentary on the Gospels in English, with the chains annexed, by which they were fastened in the church. There are two volumes, in good preservation, and black letter.
In Minster Church, near Margate, Kent, there is an oak cover to a Bible chained to a desk, temp. Henry VIII. The whole of the letter-press has been taken away (by small pieces at a time) by visitors to this beautiful Norman church.
J. W. Brown.
At Bromsgrove Church, Worcestershire, a copy of Bishop Jewel's Sermon on 1 Cor. ix. 16. (1609) is chained to a small lectern.
At Suckley Church, also in Worcestershire, there is a black-letter copy of the Homilies, 1578.
Cuthbert Bede, B.A.
There is a copy of Foxe's Monuments so chained in the chancel of Luton Church, Bedfordshire.
Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.