600 LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 



of the College, surmounted as usual by Cardinal Wolsey's liat ; and 

 below is the inscription, (Edes Christi, in Academia Oxoniensi. On 

 the plate has been written the word " duplicate," to show that the 

 book had passed out of the college collection honestly. — On the out- 

 side of my folio, stamped in gold very conspicuously, on both covers, 

 are the following arms : Azure : two bars erm. on a chief argent three • 

 suns proper: Crest: out of a ducal coronet or, a lion's head erased 

 gules, the erasure showing beneath the coronet, the motto : Meliora 

 spero. These, I find, by reference to Burke, are the arms of Otho 

 Nicholson, who is intimately connected with the history of Christ 

 Church Library. The building used as the library of Christ Church 

 had formerly been the chapel (dedicated to St. Lucia) of the Priory of 

 St. Frideswide. At the beginning of Kiiig James the First's reign, 

 its interior is described as being almost wholly bare and given up to 

 flies and spiders. At this time, however, Otho Nicholson, Esq., a 

 scholar of the college, and an examiner for the Court of Chancery, 

 gave £800 for the pui'pose of renovating the library, building, buying 

 books, and setting up cases and beiLches. The Earl of Dorset and 

 Viscount Lisle added donations of tv/enty minse (*? pounds; properly 

 a mina = £3 sterling) each towards the same object; John King, 

 Bishop of London, and Dr. Edwards, Chancellor of London, gave 

 £46 13s. 4d. William James, Bishop of Durham, gave £20; Earl 

 Clanricard, £30. Dr. Thomas White, Canon of Christ Church, 

 afterwards endowed the library with £6 a year, for the repair of old 

 books and the purchase of new. In the south wall of the library of 

 Christ Church there is to this day a tablet of black marble, bearing 

 the following inscription :— " Hospes, quisquis es, circumfer oculos. 

 Perantiqui et pramobilis hujus domicilii corpus intermortuum, foris, 

 intus refinxit ; unus impensis suis et nova donavit anima ; totius 

 quam vides exquisitse pulchritudinis, Otho Nicholson, armiger, 

 armarii istius literarii memorabilia instaurator. A Deo Librorum 

 Opulentia." (In the closing motto, the following letters are cut in 

 capitals, D, L, I, V, M, V, L, I. They give the date of the tablet ;' 

 added together they make 1612.) Nicholson did not confine his 

 benefactions to the University ; he promoted the convenience of the 

 town likewise, by bringing in, at a great expense, wholesome water 

 to Oxford, from Hinksey Hill, by a conduit. 



From the arms stamped on the covers of- the volume before us, 

 and from the date of the book, it is quite certain that this is one of 



