was not quite ready for presentation at the time. If the conjecture is correct (and there seems very little doubt that it is so), that this is the volume now in the possession of Captain Gaussen, of Brookmans Park—near Hatfield, it is no wonder that several years were occupied in its completion. One of the King’s attendants remarked at the time, it was the “gallantest greatest book in the world,” adding, “I never saw such paper before. I believe there is no book of this largeness to be seen in Christendom,” and as the Royal party were at this time making a somewhat hasty journey northwards on account of the disorders prevalent in the country, the book would have been a very unsuitable addition to their baggage. The writer can vouch for the fact that it is quite as much as a man can do to carry it comfortably across a room. It is magnificently bound in purple velvet, with the usual gilt stamping, chiefly in patterns made of small crowns. The measurements are 2 feet 5 inches by 1 foot 8 inches, and there are nearly 450 pages of the thickest paper, besides which every page is profusely illustrated by the pasting on of engravings, in the same manner as the other Gidding works.
The contents of this volume are, however, different
to any yet mentioned. The first part deals with “the whole law of God as it is delivered in the five Books of Moses” methodically distributed into three great classes—moral, ceremonial, and political—and each of these again subdivided into several heads, etc. There follows an “harmonical parallel between the types of the Old Testament and the Four Evangelists’ relations of our Lord and Saviour;” also a “discourse of the estate of the Jews,” by Dr. Jackson, “The destruction of Jerusalem,” and long extracts from a work entitled “Moses unveiled,” besides other matter.
The history of this book is very obscure. The account from which the above is taken concludes with these words, “This book hath been preserved at Gidding, and attends the happy hour to be delivered into the right owner’s hands.” This was probably written about 1653. The next piece of evidence is a note made in the book itself, that the Rev. J. Bourdillon bought it in the year 1776, but did not then know who had compiled it. There is then another break in its history, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when it was found walled up in a cupboard at the house now belonging to Captain Gaussen. But within the last few years the “gallant book” has had
another interesting and dangerous experience, as its home was burnt to the ground. The Concordance was, however, rescued from an untimely fate.
A somewhat similar volume, but much smaller, is to be seen in the library of St. John’s College, Oxford. It is dated 1640, and contains only the “Five Books of Moses,” treated in the same manner as that last described. There is good reason for saying that it was made for the Archbishop of Canterbury (Laud), and sent by him to Oxford. It is illustrated throughout, and is handsomely bound in purple velvet.
The late Bishop of Bath and Wells, Lord Arthur Hervey, had another specimen of Gidding handywork. It is one of the smaller volumes, containing only 66 pages, bound in leather, and with the usual style of engravings. It is a Harmony of the Four Gospels, and the different names, or book-plates, of the various owners show that it has been in the Hervey family from the first. The last line of the title page is as follows: “Done at Little Gidding, a.d. 1640, by Virginia Ferrar, age 12.” It would be interesting to know how much was actually “done” by this young lady. She was daughter of John Ferrar, and
sister of Nicholas Ferrar, junior, and was given her name “out of affection to the remembrance of the plantation of Virginia, and that they might daily have the memorial of it, as not to cease praying for the prosperity of it, and that looking upon her they might think upon both at once.” This book is now in the possession of Lord Bristol, at Ickworth, Bury St. Edmunds.
Mention has now been made of nine Concordances; and of the two that still remain to be noticed there is this interesting fact to be stated—that in all probability they were originally made for members of the family, and that until a few years ago they belonged to their descendants, who, for this very reason, regarded them with special affection. They are both Harmonies of the Four Gospels; one, dated 1640, is a small work, and belonged to Miss Heming, of Hillingdon, a descendant of a Mr. Mapletoft, who married one of the Miss Colletts, it is now in the possession of Colonel Garrat, Bishop’s Court, Exeter. The other is a somewhat larger book, now in the British Museum, recently in the possession of a Mr. Mapletoft Davis, living in New South Wales, who also had the four volumes of the “Exercises of the Little Academy” previously
described; all these works, and some other relics of the Ferrars, having passed on through different branches of the family to the late owner. An inscription in this Concordance is worthy of reproduction here; it runs as follows: “This was the book of my honoured aunt, Mrs. Mary Collet, compiled at Little Gidding by the direction of her uncle, Mr. N. Ferrar, and bound, I believe, by herself. It was given to me by my good and dear cousin, Mrs. Elizabeth Kestian. I give it to my son, and if he dies without issue, to my daughter Eliz. Gastrell, and I desire it may be preserved in my family as long as may be. There were never above two more of the form that I ever heard of—one was presented to Charles the First . . . the other to King Charles II., 1660, by John Ferrar, who is now owner of Little Gidding.—John Mapletoft, Jan., 1715.”