direction of simplicity;
and to replace a single central bar by two lateral ones is a step towards
this, for under such conditions the addition or removal of a book would
entail less displacement. Further, it must be recognised that these cases,
whether extremely ancient or comparatively modern, differ in many
particulars from those to be met with elsewhere. They are lighter,
narrower and more elegant. Again, when the ground-plan of the library is
considered (fig. 81) it will be seen that their ends occupy nearly the
whole space between a pair of windows. In other examples of the
stall-system this is not the case.

The only explanation I have to offer for the whole difficulty is the
following. The library was constructed for the lectern-system, with
wall-spaces not more than 2 ft. wide, and was so fitted up. When books had
become numerous the western library was taken in hand, and the lecterns
altered into stalls, the single central bar being retained. At the same
time, in all probability, the dormers were inserted. It is remarkable that
these changes should not be recorded in the accounts, but possibly they
were carried out as the result of a special benefaction[336]. In 1623 the
stalls which had been placed in the west room, having been found
convenient, were copied for the south room.

I will in the next place briefly notice the distinctive points of the
other examples of the stall-system in Oxford.

At S. John Baptist's College the library was built in 1596, and we may
presume was fitted up soon afterwards, as Wood records numerous donations
of books in the years immediately succeeding, and the appointment of a
keeper to take charge of them in 1603[337]. This library, on the first
floor of the south side of the second quadrangle, is 112 feet long by 26
feet wide, with eight windows of two lights in each wall. The bookcases,
of which there are eight on each side between the windows, with a
half-case against the west wall, are rather larger than those at Corpus
Christi College, being 10 feet high, and 2 feet 6 inches wide. They have a
classical cornice and terminal pediment. The titles of the subjects are
painted at the tops of the stalls as at Merton College. A few traces of
chaining are still to be detected. The desks have not been altered. Each
is in two divisions, as at Corpus, separated by a central bracket, and it
has the slit to admit the chains. The long iron hinges are evidently
original. The seats resemble