76 ' ANNOTATION. 



nor were the monks unmindful of how much they 

 owed to these benefactors for this particular species 

 of gift, although those who gave them books usually 

 gave them ornaments for their church, and broad 

 lands for their support. We find the gifts of books 

 by the early Bishops chronicled in the Register of the 

 Abbey just spoken of. This is the Register which 

 contains the treatise on the Bishoprick of Somerset, 

 which I printed several years ago for the Camden 

 Society, in which is the long passage quoted frOm 

 Bishop Gryso, not before known to have been one of 

 our ante-Norman writers. It appears from the 

 Chronicle of Benefactors in the Register, that King 

 Athelstan gave the abbey Priston, Ayston, Olneston, 

 and Lincombe ; but nothing is said of any books 

 given by him ; so his claim to have been one who 

 enriched this library must rest on the testimony of 

 Leland. His anniversary was solemnly kept every 

 year on the return of the day on which he died, when 

 the table of the convent was more copiously served, 

 and one hundred persons were regaled by the cel- 

 larer. The anniversaries of King Edwy and King 

 Edgar were celebrated in the same manner. But the 

 Bishops were the great benefactors to the library, 

 and especially John de Villula, who, when he had 

 rebuilt the church, gave to it many ornaments and 

 the greater part of the library. So says the chro- 



