CHAINED BOOKS IN DORSET AND ELSEWHERE. 11 



wilfully deferred, or if it had been pawned or alienated, the 

 culprit would, ipso facto, be deprived of his Fellowship and 

 would cease to be a member of the Society. 



There were, generally speaking, two classes of books ; 

 those which were allowed to be taken away from the place 

 where they were usually deposited often a pledge being left 

 as a guarantee for their safe return and those which were 

 allowed to be studied in situ, being secured in their place 

 either by chains, or at least by strict regulations. Thus our 

 modern system of combining a lending library with a reference 

 department was anticipated. 



Libraries, using the term in the sense of buildings for the 

 repository of books, rather than that of mere collections of 

 books, whether in connection with Monasteries, Universities, 

 or Cathedrals, were for the most part built during the fifteenth 

 century. At Oxford a room for the reception of books 

 had been commenced as early as in 1320. It stood over a 

 vaulted chamber in the N.E. corner of St. Mary's (the 

 University Church) . Books, however, do not appear to have 

 been placed there until 1367. The Library was finally 

 established and furnished in 1409. 



In the building accounts of the Library at Exeter Cathedral 

 in 1412-3, are charges for chains for 191 books, not secured 

 before. 



In 1418, some books were bequeathed to York Cathedral 

 Library by the Treasurer, John de Newton, and were fastened 

 to the Library desks ; and in 1421 Ralph Lorimer, of 

 Conyngstrete, was paid 23s. Id. for making and mending 40 

 chains for these books. 



About the year 1444, when a special Library Room was 

 erected at Salisbury to cover the Eastern Cloister, one of the 

 Canons gave some books, on the inside cover of two of which, 

 in the handwriting of the period, is a note bidding that they 

 should be chained in the new library. 



It was not only in Monastic and University or in Cathedral 

 Libraries that books were carefully preserved ; but within 

 the Cathedrals themselves and in other Churches they were 



