356 
An Old Book. 
The author was one of the thirty-five 
canons of the Augustinian order who 
formed the community of the Priory 
of St. Bartholomew. It appears that 
he was living in the reign of Henry II., 
during the priorate of Thomas, succes- 
sor to Raliere, the founder. Raliere 
died in 1143, Thomas in 1174. These 
dates, and those furnished by ecclesias- 
tical chronology of the popes mentioned 
in the work as donors of privileges to 
the priory, completely authenticate the 
period in which this pious canon wrote 
his history. 
As the first stone arrowhead picked 
up in the valley of the Somme pointed 
to the prehistoric harvest which has 
yielded such wonderful fruits, so this old 
manuscript survival of a stratum of hu- 
man life (not yet quite submerged) in 
monastic days points to some of the no- 
blest and holiest features of those grand 
old foundations to which the culture and 
civilization of Europe are so deeply in- 
debted. The incidental allusions which 
throw light on the conditions of life in 
London in the reign of Henry II. are 
of genuine historical interest. 
The editor thus sums up his re- 
searches respecting the author and his 
book : — 
“ It was composed in the Priory of 
St. Bartholomew, in West Smitlffielcl, be- 
tween the death of Prior Thomas and 
that of King Henry II., that is, between 
the years 1174 and 1189, and its author 
was an Augustinian canon of the priory. 
He wore a white rochet with a great 
black cloak and hood, like those upon the 
effigy on Rahere’s tomb, and he kept the 
canonical hours in the beautiful Norman 
church which is all that is now left of 
his beloved priory. He was as familiar 
with our hospital as we are, and the first 
reports of cases admitted into it are con- 
tained in his pages. Adwyne was the 
name of the first of these reported pa- 
tients, and he seems to have suffered 
from long-continued muscular debility, 
such as is sometimes seen in patients af- 
[September, 
ter a long-continued acute illness. The 
canon wrote in Latin, in a good twelfth- 
century style. He had read but little of 
the poets, but had St. Jerome’s version 
of the Bible at his finger ends. He 
uses its phrases on every possible occa- 
sion, and seems as much at home in the 
Minor Prophets as in the Psalms. 
“ It is only the Latin life which can 
have been composed in the reign of 
Henry 11. The English version, which 
contains a few amplifications, is proved 
by its language to be of later date, and 
since the existing Latin manuscript and 
the English were clearly written on 
parchment at the same period, the date 
of the English version fixes that of the 
manuscript as it stands. The language 
is Middle English, and the character 
that of about the year 1400. . . . This 
life of Raliere is now published in full 
for the first time. 1 have chosen the 
English version because it has an inter- 
est as an example of our prose literature 
soon after the time of Chaucer. In the 
text 1 have expanded the contractions, 
which are very few, and so often repeat- 
ed as to present no difficulties ; and I 
have otherwise printed the words exact- 
ly as they are in the manuscript, adding 
a few notes solely with a view to mak- 
ing the perusal easy to a general reader. 
There are very few words which are not 
easily intelligible when sound and not 
spelling is regarded.” 
Before giving a summary of this re- 
markable old book, we must not fail to 
recognize the care that has been be- 
stowed upon his work by the editor in 
expanding the contractions, supplying a 
glossary when needed, at the foot of 
each page, with the Latin equivalents of 
the archaic words, and in elucidating 
the text by chronological and other notes, 
all which aids give a literary value to the 
work in addition to its archaeological 
and historical interest. 
Book First begins like the Gospel of 
St. Luke : “ For as mooche that the me- 
ritory and notable operacyons of famose 
(Z 7 
