10 



OUR COLUMNS. 



March 21, 1891. 



stories on the site of St. Paul's Square, was not yet demolished. Tlie front of the Swan 

 " Inn " — a hostehy very unlike the Swan " Hotel" which we know, — came nearly up to the 

 line of the street. A Maypole, which in 1714 was dressed in mourning by a Tory mob, 

 with the connivance of the local magistrates, during a riot following the conviction of the 

 notorious Dr. Sacheverell, was, with the pillory, one of the features of the High Street. 

 There was a Harper Grammar School standing near the site of the present building, on 

 the west side of St. Paul's Church, with the Chapel of Herne hard by, but though 

 " free," the number of scholars was presumably very limited. The trade of the town, due 

 then in no small measure to water communication, had not yet developed to the extent 

 that it did a few years subsequently, though wharves were becoming numerous on the 

 banks of the Ouse. 



THE FIRST SECOND HEMOVALS. 



Under the 3rd Clause of the Deed of Settlement, the Trustees had power " to remove 

 the books, shelves, Sec, to any other place in this town of Bedford if they find it incon- 

 venient to continue them in the vestry of St. John's." The Rev. Edward Bourne died 

 June 28, 1713, at the age of 72, but four or five years previous to this occurrence, a 

 proposal was set on foot for removing the Library from St. John's, probably because the 

 accommodation there was unsatisfactory or the situation not sufficiently central. 



From a document in the possession of the Vicar of St. Paul's, the Rev. L. Woodard, 

 which he has courteously allowed the writer to examine, it appears that in the year 1708 

 the Corporation of Bedford granted a lease for 40 years of a piece of ground on the south 

 side of St. Paul's Churchyard to the Rev. Thos. Franks, Archdeacon of Bedford, Ralph 

 Franks, official, and Mr John Goodhall, Registrar, " To build a public library and a public 

 fixed register office, and the library was kept there many years." This very interesting 

 circumstance has not, it is believed, been hitherto recorded in print, though the granting 

 of the lease is referred to in the minute book of the Corporation under the date 

 of 2nd December, 1708. On the expiration of the lease in 1748, the building 

 was let for a shop, and the books removed to St. Paul's Church. One would 

 like to knoM^ something about the history of the Library, during the period of 40 years, 

 after it was established in the new building, but not a syllable is forthcoming. The folio 

 volume, containing the abstract of the Deed of Settlement and occasionally other details re- 

 lating to the books, includes no reference whatever to them while they were here. Possibly 

 this silence, more eloquent than words, points to disuse and general neglect during a portion 

 of the dreary Georgian era ; yet it can hardly be conceived that a valuable Library, j^laced in 

 a new building in the centre of the town, should never be consulted even by those who a 

 few years before, made such strenuous and successful efforts to form it. A more probable 

 supposition is that the Librarian's ledger or entry book is lost, and that the folio volume 

 just referred to was not used for the purpose till a later period. Plowever this may be, we 

 now know that the books were, in the year 1748, removed to St. Paul's Church, but we 

 hear no more about them till 33 years later. There is a memorandum in the ancient folio, 

 under the date November 3, 1781, to the effect that Thomas Cave (an old Bedford name), 

 Thos. Orlebar Marsh, Rev. Mr. Cooper, of Poddington, William Smith, T. Doleman, and 

 Thos. Gregory, each agreed to " present Tom Friston, Clerk of the parish of St Pauls with 

 2s and 6d the feast of St Michael yearly, on condition that he keeps the room over the 

 vestry in which the books belonging to the Bedford Library clean (sic) and likewise 

 arrange the books in proper order, and desire that the subscribers who shall take any 

 books out of the Library enter the name or title of such book and subscribe his own name 



