54 Malmesbury Ahhey in its Best Days. 



grieve me much to see. Afterwards I went to schoole to Mr. Lati- 

 mer at Leigh Delamer, the next parish, where was the like use of 

 covering of books. In my grandfather^s days the manuscripts flew 

 about like butterflies. All musick bookes, account bookes, copie 

 bookes, &c., were covered with old manuscripts, as wee cover them 

 now with blew or marbled paper : and the glovers at Malmesbury 

 made great havoc of them : and gloves no doubt were wrapped up 

 in many good pieces of antiquity. Before the late warres a world 

 of rare manuscripts perished hereabouts." 



After some years, Aubrey went back to Yatton Keynel to try and 

 see Parson Stump^s MSS. out of curiosity, where, he had seen some 

 in his childhood : but by that time they were lost and dispersed. 

 " His sons were gunners and soldiers, and had scoured their guns with 

 them : but he shewed me several old deeds granted by the Lords 

 Abbots with their seals annexed.'^ 



After an interval of some two centuries, I am the successor, at Leigh 

 Delamere, of that Mr. Latimer who covered his books with the spoils 

 of your abbey. I have not been guilty of the like profanation: on the 

 contrary, though no great runner after butterflies, I have contrived to 

 catch and save a few of that extinct species which old Aubrey speaks 

 of. [Several specimens were here exhibited.] Old as they are 

 and so roughly handled as they have been, you can still trace in 

 them remains of that imperishable gold lettering, and that calli- 

 graphy for which the work of the monks was so remarkable. 



It was the indefatigable John Leland, sometimes called the Father 

 of English Antiquaries, who exerted himself to rescue the remains 

 of Monastic Libraries. He obtained a Commission from the King 

 to visit all the monasteries, and take note of their contents. That 

 was the object of his famous tour. At the Dissolution, seeing the 

 destruction that was going on, he appealed to Secretary Thomas 

 Cromwell to preserve them, and suggested the propriety of sending 

 them to his Majesty's Library. But of anything further having 

 been done to carry out this idea, we have no account. 



Many years afterwards, too late to do much, an effort was made 

 for the preservation of these curiosities, in times when it could hardly 

 have been expected. During the wars between Charles and his 



