THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
294 
may at least give him credit for sincerity, oddly as his epitaph 
may read. 
The most notable provision in the Archbishop's will has 
yet to come. Following the example of his predecessor, Dr. 
Toby Mathew, who left his library to the city of Bristol, he gave 
“ unto the bayliffes and incorporation of Colchester all my librarie 
of books provided that they prepare a decent room to sett them 
up in, that the Clergie of the Town of Colchester and other 
Divines may have free access for the reading and studieing of 
them." 
Within six months the Council had ordered “ that the east 
end of the Chamber over the Red rowe, called the Dutch Bay 
Hall, was a convenient place, being repaired, to put the Library." 
Apparently it was four years before they appointed a Librarian, 
one William Hall, a barber, or more probably barber-surgeon, 
with a stipend of 40s. per annum, to be paid by the Chamberlain 
quarterly, provided he entered into a bond for £40, for making 
good such books as should be lost or wanting. 
The salary was not large, but it is a not uncommon illusion 
that the custody of books is in itself meat and drink ! Anyhow, 
sixteen years later, in a fit of praiseworthy economy, the salary 
was halved, and in 1653 the books were given into the custody 
of the Vicar of St. Peter's, with instructions to make a catalogue 
—presumably at his own charge. Morant's sarcasm at the 
expense of the puritan self-sufficiency of the Magistrates is some¬ 
what blunted when we find that the Royalist Corporation of 
1664 bundled the books out of the Red Row, which they let, 
and put them in the Grammar School, where they remained 
for nearly a century, exposed to all the chances and changes 
which can affect the life of books. Sad to say also, it was a 
Church and Tory Corporation that refused to find the funds 
necessary to bring to Colchester the fine library left them by 
Bishop Compton in Queen Anne’s reign. It was due to the 
munificence of Mr. Charles Gray, antiquary, bibliophile and 
philanthropist, that the Archbishop’s books were, in 1749, suitably 
housed in the Castle, whence they were removed to the Public 
Library, and placed in a fire proof room, in 1894. 
Lack of time prevents a detailed description of the library, 
but its contents justify the 17th century adage “ Clerus Anglie 
stupor mundi ”—Anglican learning is the wonder of the age ;— 
