e doubtful.

Was this library ever chained? A Walton's Polyglot, 1657, had evidently
been prepared for chaining, and in a novel fashion, the plate to carry the
chain being attached to the left-hand board close to the back of the
volume (fig. 86)--so that it was evidently set on the shelf in the
ordinary way, and not with the fore-edge turned to the spectator, as is
usual in chained libraries. But with this exception I could not discover
indications of the attachment of a plate on any of the volumes. If I am
right in concluding that the books in this library were never chained, the
cases are a curious instance of the maintenance of fashion. Dean Bathurst
ordered a bookcase, and it was supplied to him with all its fittings
complete, whether they were to be used or not.

[Illustration: Fig. 86. Ring for attachment of chain, Wells.]

My last example is from Durham Cathedral, where John Sudbury, dean from
1661 to 1684, fitted up the ancient Frater as a library. The room is about
115 feet long by 30 feet wide, with nine windows in each side-wall. Their
sills are ten feet from the ground.

The cases (fig. 87) are evidently the work of a carpenter who was
thoroughly conversant with the stall-system. They had originally two
shelves only above the desk, the entablature, now visible on the ends
only, being carried along the sides. The shelf below the desk is also
modern. These cases are ten feet apart, and between each pair, instead of
a reader's seat, is a dwarf bookcase terminating in a desk. Attached to it
on each side is a seat conveniently placed for a reader to use the desk on
the side of the principal case.

I have shewn that the stall-system made its appearance at Oxford early in
the sixteenth century, but I have not been able to discover who introduced
it. My own impression is that it was monastic in its origin; and I can
prove that it fits at least two monastic libraries exactly. This theory
will also explain the prevalence of such cases at Oxford, and their almost
total absence from Cambridge, where monastic influence was never exercised
to the same extent.

I will begin with Canterbury, where, as I mentioned above[343], the
library was over the Prior's Chapel. The construction of this chapel is
described as follows by Professor Willis:

Roger de S. Elphege, Prior from 1258 to 1263, completed
a chapel between the Dormitory and Infirmary.... The
style of its substructure shews that it was begun by his