gue made
in the time of Prior Henry of Eastry (1285-1331) enumerates 1850
volumes[348]. If we allow two feet and a half for every ten of these we
shall require 462 1/2 feet; or in other words we can arrange the whole
collection in 14 stalls, leaving 2 over for the additions which must have
been made in the interval between the middle of the 14th century and the
date of Brother Ingram's researches.

If the sketch here given of the probable aspect of the library at Christ
Church, Canterbury, be compared with the view of the library at Merton
College, Oxford (fig. 82), a fairly correct idea of a great conventual
library will be obtained. A very slight effort of imagination is needed to
make the necessary changes in the shelves, and to replace academic
students by Benedictine monks. Then, if we conceive the shelves to be
loaded with manuscripts, many of which were written in the early days of
the English Church, we shall be able to realise the feelings of Leland on
entering the library at Glastonbury:

I had hardly crossed the threshold when the mere sight
of books remarkable for their vast antiquity filled me
with awe, or I might almost say with bewilderment: so
that for a moment I could not move a step forward[349].

I propose in the next place to print a translation of the Introduction to
the catalogue[350] of the Benedictine Priory of S. Martin at Dover, which
was a cell to Canterbury made in 1389 by John Whytfeld. This catalogue
does not indicate the stall-system; in fact I am at a loss to define the
precise system which it does indicate. I print it in this place on account
of its internal interest, and the evidence which it affords of the care
taken in the last quarter of the fourteenth century to make books easily
accessible to scholars.

The present Register of the Library of the Priory of
Dover, compiled in the year of the Lord's Incarnation
1389 under the presidency of John Neunam prior and monk
of the said church, is separated into three main
divisions. The object is that the first part may supply
information to the precentor of the house concerning the
number of the books and the complete knowledge of them:
that the second part may stir up studious brethren to
eager and frequent reading: and that the third part may
point out the way to the speedy finding of individual
treatises by the scholars. Now although a brief special
preface is prefixed