The permanent endowment of the Library was commenced by the Founder in this year, by the purchase, from Lord Norreys, of the manor of Hendons by Maidenhead, worth annually £91 10s.; to which he added 'certain tenements in London,' producing an annual rent of £40. From the former, now called Hindhay farm, in the parishes of Bray and Cookham, Berks, the Library receives an annual rent, at the present time, of about £220; the latter, which consisted of houses situated in Distaff Lane, were sold in 1853, and the produce invested in £3455 10s. 3 per cent. Consols.
The first book which came from the Stationers' Company, in pursuance of the Indenture made in Dec. 1610, was an anonymous catechetical work printed in this year by Felix Kingston for Thomas Man, entitled, 'Christian Religion substantially, methodicallie, plainlie, and profitablie treatised.' It is now numbered 4o R. 34 Th., and a note in Bodley's own handwriting records its presentation.
Twenty Arabic, Persian, and other MSS, were presented by — Pindar, Consul at Aleppo of the Company of English Merchants, whom Bodley three years previously had requested to procure such books[55].
Among other minor matters which called forth the care of Bodley, was the providing a bell for the purpose of giving notice when the Library was about to be closed. After it had been placed in the Library some accident appears to have happened to it, since we read in one of his letters to James[56], 'As touching the bell, I would have it cast again, and if my friends think it good, made somewhat better.' In 1655 a bell-rope was bought at the price of 1s. 4d. Of late years, however, the Founder's bell had altogether disappeared, and the fact of its very existence was unknown, while a small hand-bell, suggestive of a muffin-man, and, more recently, a hand-bell taken from a Chinese temple at Tien-tsin, and presented by Col. Rigaud, supplied its place. But in July, 1866, in the course of moving some boxes and rubbish buried under some stairs, a mouldy bell of considerable size was dragged to light, which proved to be the missing bell of the Founder. It was immediately put by the Librarian into the hands of Messrs. White, of Appleton, Berks, who fitted it with a frame and wheel; and now, restored to a conspicuous place in the great room, it daily thunders forth an unmistakeable signal for departure. Around it, in gold letters, runs the inscription:—'Sir Thomas Bodley gave this bell, 1611.' The bell-founder's initials, W. S., are accompanied by the device of a crown between three bells.
Another relic of Bodley's furniture is a massy iron chest, fastened with three locks, two of which are enormous padlocks, for the preservation of the moneys of the Library, of which the keys used to be in the custody of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors. This is now exhibited in the Picture Gallery, on account of the extreme
beauty of the ironwork of the locks, which covers in its intricate ramifications the whole of the inside of the lid. On the outside are painted the arms of the University (with the older motto 'Sapientiæ et Fælicitatis') and of Bodley.
[55] Hearne's Job. Glaston. ii. 637.
[56] Reliquiæ Bodl. p. 314.