MarcK 21, 1891. 



OUR COLUMNS. 



3 



enjoyed. In tlie south of the county ^^e go " through fields of excellent beans, 

 yielding a pleasant smell, but by their fragrancy spoiling the scent of dogs, to the 

 great regret of the hunters." Happy hunters, to hunt in June ! 



Fishermen, again, might note in Fuller's " Worthies," " I know the Silver Eels are 

 generally preferred and I could wish they loved men but as well as men love them that 

 I myself might be comprised in that desire " ; and also the Italian proverb, " Give 

 eels without wine to your enemies." Those who go out with the harriers may notice 

 that " these late years of oiu- civil wars have been very destructive unto them (hares), 

 and no wonder if no law has been given to hares when so little has been observed 

 toward men." Boys may like to know of willows that " The Twigges hereof are 

 Physick to drive out the folly of children" ; and distressed agriculturists or foresters 

 may note that " the profit by Willows will buy the Owner a Horse before that by 

 other Trees he will pay for his Saddle." Elsewhere we read " The Baylife of Bedford 

 is coming. This Proverb hath its originall in this, but its use in another County the 

 river Ouse running by is called the Baylife of Bedford, who swelling with rain, snow 

 water and tributary brooks in the winter and coming down on a sudden arrestcth 

 the He of Ely with an inundation." 



Among the well-known treasures of the Library are Fox's f John J Acts Monuments^ 

 Bunyan's copy, with his autograjDh ; also Le Livre Royal (^^Titten a..d. 1279), translated 

 from the French into English by Wm. Caxton a.d. 1484 and printed by him 1488. 

 In the cover is also a treasure much coveted by the British Museum, viz., two copies 

 of an Indulgence granted by Pope Sixtus lY. to all who would assist in opposing the 

 Turks at the siege of Rhodes, also printed by Caxton 1481. These tAvo copies are 

 pasted in to hide the boards of the cover. The Library also boasts some Missals and 

 an ancient English MS. of the Cursor Jluncli, S^'c, 4to, 1441. 



The number of papers and periodicals taken in is legion, and the Committee has an 

 anxious task at times to decide whether some gentleman while reading one paper has 

 " sat upon" two others, literally or metaphorically, and whether "Echo" should answer 

 to "Echo," or one of the evening "Stars" should fall from heaven. 



All shades of politics are represented, and collision in religious oj^inions is avoided 

 by a well-understood rule excluding Theological works except the Heavy Fathers, an 

 inheritance from the Old Library. As for Fiction, no one but the Librarian can 

 coimt the volumes. 



What would the University Extension Students do without the Library ? Here are 

 the Victorian Poets and works on the due understanding thereof, — so that he who runs 

 may read Browning, and may even solve the mysteries of Sordello. Now that Geology 

 is to the fore, a goodly array of fossils with mammoth's teeth are ready to sate the 

 appetites of those who desire not bread but a stone. As for Art, there are not only 

 the fine engravings on the walls, but Ruskin's Modern Painters, the much -prized 

 original edition, and the works of Hamerton ; while those of a more frivolous turn 

 can study character and costume in Vanity Fair. A propos of this, may we remind 

 the art student who cuts pictures out of the catalogue of the Salon and the enthusiast 

 who cuts out chess problems from the papers, that they may offend once too often. 

 They should read in the Law Report how the gentleman who forwarded his own 

 genealogical interests by tampering with a Harleian MS., is now studying the Vanity 

 of Human Wishes during two months' imprisonment. Verhum sap. 



