"Explicit liber qui vocatur speculū Xprīani, Sequitur exposicio oracionis dominice cū quodam bono notabili et septē capitalia vicia cū aliquibus ramis eorū."
Afterwards—
"Sequuntur monita de verbis beati Ysidori extracta ad instruendū hominē qualiter vicia valeat euitare et in bonis se debeat informare."
The whole concludes with this colophon:
"Jste Libellus impressus est ī opulentissima Ciuitate Londoniarum per me Willelmum de Machlinia ad instanciam necnon expensas Henrici Vrankenbergh mercatoris."
The author is said to be John Watton in the Catalogue of MSS. in England and Ireland, C.C.C., Oxon. n. clv. p. 53.
J. Eastwood.
Smyth's MSS. relating to Gloucestershire (Vol. v., p. 512.).—A querist writes to know where any of these may be seen.
The original manuscript (three vols. folio) was given to the library of the College of Arms, through the hands of Sir Charles Young, by the Rev. R. W. Huntley of Boxwell Court, about 1835, who became possessed of it by a legacy from a descendant of Mr. Smyth. There is another copy in the "Evidence Room," at Berkeley Castle; and another in the library of Smyth Owen, Esq., a descendant from the author, at Condover Hall, Shropshire. There is another copy in the possession of the Hon. Robert Berkeley at Spetchley Park, Worcestershire. And an imperfect copy was sold at the sale at Hill Court, Gloucester, in 1846. It was bought by a bookseller for Mr. Pigott of Brockley; it was resold in 1849, but to whom I could never find out. This last is also in three vols.; two of these match in the binding, but the third does not: the leather of this odd vol. is thickly studded with the portcullis. The imperfection of this set consists in being unfinished in many parts. Mr. Huntley's is considered the first copy of that at the castle; and that at Condover was probably Mr. Smyth's own. The Hill Court copy seems to be about the same date.
The Abstracts and Extracts of these MSS. as published by Fosbroke in 1821, are but a tantalising meagre sample of the very rich store of genealogical and historical information which the originals contain.