10 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
when he visited Chester-le-Street, in that year.* In the manu- 
script closet was seen the valuable collection of MSS., part of 
the ancient library of the monastery, and containing admirable 
specimens of the art of illumination from the ninth century to 
the fifteenth.f 
About sixty members dined at Mrs. Hall’s in Silver Street, 
when fifteen new members were elected. 
Tor Seconp Mertine was held at Felton, on June 26th. 
The members assembled at the Acklington Station, and pro- 
ceeded, crossing the Coquet by a ferry, to the ruins of a small 
ecclesiastical building, now called Brainshaugh Chapel, and 
which is the old church of Guyzance. It is pleasantly situated 
on a piece of haugh land, bounded by the Coquet and wooded 
banks, and consists of a nave and chancel, both of small pro- 
* Among the vestments taken from the coffin of St. Cuthbert are several fragments of 
silk fabric, which are of an early date, and of apparently oriental manufacture. The 
pattern has certainly nothing of an Anglo-Saxon or medieval character about it, but bears 
a strong resemblance to eastern design. 
¢ Among the most valuable MSS. may be mentioned an imperfect copy of the Gospels 
[A. II. 17] of the 8th century, with illuminations of Irish character, and containing also a few 
pages of the gospel of St. Luke, in uncials, of a date not later than the early part of the 
sixth century ; a copy of the Gospels [A. II. 16], and of Cassiodorus on the Psalms [B. IT. 30], 
both traditionally said to be in the handwriting of the Venerable Beda, and both containing 
ornamentation of Anglo-Saxon character; a copy of the Vulgate [A. II. 4], of which only the 
second volume now remains, and which, among other MSS., was given by Bishop Carileph 
to the monastery, it contains many initial letters, formed of grotesque animals and foliage, 
of a particularly free and graceful kind; a copy of the Bible in four volumes, [A. II. 1] in 
the original stamped leather binding, given by Bishop Pudsey, and written probably about 
1170, this magnificent book has suffered greatly from most of the illuminations having been 
cut out, but enough remains to show its former splendour, at the beginning of Maccabees 
is a picture, which contains valuable illustrations of the armour and dress of the period; 
a copy of St. Paul’s epistles, [A. II. 19] given by the same prelate to the monastery, and 
probably written and illuminated by the same scribe and artist who produced the Bible; a 
Psalter, [A. II. 10] of a date about a hundred years later than the last MS., it contains 
many paintings of a very graceful and delicate character, of gcod design and drawing, and, 
in its innumerable initial letters, it shows a power over the pen, in the production of free hand 
drawing, which I have rarely, if ever, seen equalled ; a copy of the Bible [A. II. 2], of a date 
a little later than the Psa!ter, is full of very beautiful illuminations, rich in varied diapered 
back-grounds of excellent colour and pattern; a copy of the Decretals and other legal tracts, 
[C. I. 14,]j of the beginning of the fourteenth century, contains in its numerous initial letters 
designs of the most varied and artistic kind, three or four pages are filled with emblazoned 
heraldic coats, and it may, in some respects, be set down as the finest MS. in the collection. 
Berchorius Repertorium Morale, &c., [A. I. 17,18, 19,] a MS. written in 1395, has a few 
large flowing initial letters, by different artists, very rich in colour and design, but shewing 
a decline of taste in its too meretricious style, and ina want of theseverity of earlier work. 
