MarcK 21, 1891. 



OUR COLUMNS. 



11 



in this book." This arrangement tends to show that there was at this time no 

 competent Library-keeper, and that the Deed of Settlement had practically become a dead 

 letter, as the original Trustees were no longer living, and the Trust had died out before 

 anyone thought of appointing successors. xVbout this date we meet with occasional entries 

 in the folio relating to books taken out and returned. From 1780 to 1800 Mr. Cave, Mr. 

 T. Orlebar Marsh, Mr. Leech, of Ravensden, and Mr. Belsham were the -only borrowers 

 (and returners) who entered their names; and from the latter date till 1823, when the 

 entries cease, there are only 14 records of books being taken out, and these relate, almost 

 exclusively, to then well-known inhabitants of Bedford — Mr. Crespin, Mr. Theed Pearse 

 (grandfather of our late respected Town Clerk), Mr. C. Bithrey, Rev. G. H. Bowers 

 (afterwards Dean of Manchester), Mr. Wing, Mr. Hankin (the historian of the Bedford 

 Charities), &:c. 



MR. THOS. FISHER. 



From 1813 till 1824 the books were under the care of the then Vicar, the Rev. 

 John Hemsted, A.M. In the Gentleman'' s Magazine, under date August 14, 1817, 

 the old Bedford Library is for the first time brought prominently under the notice of the 

 outside world by Mr. Thos. Fisher, the antiquary. Having somehow obtained a copy of 

 the Deed of Settlement, he draws public attention to its clauses, quoting them in full, and 

 pertinently asking for information about the books, " having lately learned that they have 

 been long since removed from the vestry room of St. John's Church, and that if they are 

 yet in being, they are completely out of sight and out of use." He goes on " to recom- 

 mend an inquiry as to their whereabouts, and urges the intelligent inhabitants of the 

 town of Bedford to exert themselves to recover them, and place them (together with such 

 additions as they maybe able to make to them) in a situation, where, by being accessible, they 

 will be useful to the town, and reflect honour on the parties concerned in their recovery." 

 It seems inconceivable that Mr. Fisher, who, from the nature of his pursuits, must have 

 been personally acquainted with most of the " bookish " and antiquarian people in the 

 town and county, could have been really so devoid of information on this subject as he 

 implies. He probably assumed ignorance in order to acquire more knowledge. Be this as 

 it may, no one taking the trouble to reply publicly to his communication, he addressed a 

 second letter to " Sylvanus Urban," dated December 13, 1817, announcing that he had at last 

 succeeded in discovering " that the books are not all disjDersed, as was apprehended, but 

 that a part of them still remain in a small room over the vestry of St. Paid's Church. The 

 apartment, however, in which they are now kept is so damp and imsuitable for the purpose 

 that they are in great danger of perishing in less than 20 years unless some change in 

 their custody takes place. They are also out of reach of every person whose ardour for 

 literary pursuits is not such as to dispose him to encounter whitewash, dirt, and cobwebs in 

 abundance, in ascending the narrow flight of stone steps leading to the apartment in which 

 they are deposited. The covers of some of the volumes have began to vegetate and show 

 an outer covering or surtout of w^hite mould, not as a defence against the weather, but as 

 an intimation that they have already caught cold, and a sure prognostication of the fate 

 which awaits them all if they continue where they are." After referring to the alienation 

 or theft of the Leiger Book of Newenham Prior}^, once in the Library, but then (and now) 

 in the British Museum, he urges the Trustees to remove the books into more commodious 

 and drier quarters, where they may be accessible to all the inhabitants of Bedford who 

 may wish to use them, and finally alludes to a project of establishing a Literary Society in 

 the town, recommended from the Press in the form of a poetical address to the Marquis of 



