8 12 The Literary Treasures of Longleat. 



most carefully attended to, and were all, by the order of their present 

 owner, placed in proper hands in London, and now stand secure for 

 many generations to come. Not to weary you with too minute 

 detail, I will name a few of the most important among them. The 

 Bible in English, after the translation usually ascribed to John 

 Wiclif, 15th century; a large thick folio, pure vellum, 398 pages; 

 a fine and valuable MS. written in a plain Gothic hand, profusely 

 ornamented with initial letters in blue and minium. It contains 

 the whole of the Old and New Testaments, beginning with the 

 prefatory epistle of St. Jerome, addressed to " Brother Ambrose/'' 

 It once belonged to Sir Henry Spelman. " The Homilies of Origen 

 on the Old Testament/'' a very fine folio volume in vellum of 146 

 leaves. A Latin psalter of the fourteenth century with initial 

 letters. Another noble volume of the twelfth century, the works of 

 Zacharias of Chrysopolis. I need scarcely remind you that on the 

 breaking up of the monasteries the fine old MSS. which had been 

 written and preserved in their libraries met with very rough usage. 

 They were converted into covers of copy books, used for strong 

 backing in binding of printed books ; indeed for all sorts of purposes. 

 I have found several at Longleat scribbled over by persons trying 

 their pens or drawing caricatures. And in this particular volume of 

 Zacharias of Chrysopolis there is on one page a farm bailiff^s account 

 — "William Hayman's account for bullocks, 12 May, 35 Henry 

 VIII." Next is a " Liber Pontificalis 33 of thirteenth century, con- 

 taining the forms of certain services used in consecration of churches 

 or cemeteries, in the office of matrimony, benediction of rings, ap- 

 pointment of abbesses, and the like. " The Life of Christ/'' by 

 Bonaventure, Bishop of Albania and Cardinal, translated into 

 English by John Morton; fifteenth century. This is a very inter- 

 esting MS., in the quaintest English possible, and intended, as the 

 preface says, " for folk of simple understanding : children that haven 

 nede to be fedde with mylke of light doctrine, and not with sad meat 

 of great clergy and high contemplation." The spelling and words 

 are very curious. The teaching of St. John, it says, was given as 

 " treacle 33 against the venom of " dy verse heretykes ; 33 and instead 

 of being called the Redeemer, our Lord is spoken of as the ff agen- 



