MERTON COLLEGE AND CANADA. 455 



trivance of a small pole or rod for the shifting of the volumes some 

 distance to the right or left along a slope for its reception when open, 

 while in front of the slope a rude bench is fixed for the accommoda- 

 tion of readers. 



The ponderous balustrades of the staircase leading up to the 

 Library, the amount of timber, or lumber as we should say, in the 

 heavy tables and stools placed here and there, the floor, the I'oof, 

 the plank employed in the carpentry of the cases and closets, all 

 indicate a period when wood was plentiful in the land. 



I expected to read in Antony k Wood an enthusiastic account of 

 Merton Library, but I was disappointed to find that he spoke of it 

 with no especial warmth. It may be that in his day, the libraries 

 of the other Colleges of the University all wore an aspect so like 

 that of Merton that, in his view, it possessed no peculiarity. He 

 chiefly bemoans certain plunderings that had taken place therein at 

 the period of the Reformation, and previously. 



However, after all, the internal arrangements of Merton Library 

 are late as compared with the date of the foundation of the College. 

 Notwithstanding the very quaint and antique look of everything 

 about it, most of the fittings, we are told, are of the time of James 

 the First. One would scarcely have imagined this, at first sight : 

 although, as we remember, two high, thinnish, wooden arches, some- 

 what of a triumphal character, near the head of the staircase, forming 

 an entrance, one of them to the north wing, the other to the east 

 wing of the Library, exhibited a style which was post-medis8val. 



But this nevertheless is certain, that the two spacious rooms whicli 

 now shelter the collection of books at Merton are the apartments 

 designed and built iza 1376, by Bishop Rede, of Chichester, one 

 hundred and twelve years after the foundation of the College ; and 

 that many of the volumes still to be seen here, in manuscript, of 

 course, are portions of the library presented to the College by the 

 same bishop, who had been a fellow there; and it may be perhaps 

 portions of the library of Walter de Merton himself. For it is 

 implied in the Statutes given to the College by Walter De Merton, 

 in 1270, that books were to be had within the walls of the building. 

 He orders, for example, that the Grammaticus of the house, the 

 Master of Grammar resident in the College, should have libroi-um 

 copia, a plentiful supply of books for his purposes, as well as alia 

 sibi necessaria. And for the reader at meal-time, he directs that 



