Cambridge, in 1601, Mr Peter Shaw gave L5 towards the "cheyning and
desking of his bookes given to the newe liberarie[482]." In 1638-9, when a
new library was completed for the Barber Surgeons of London, L6. 18_s._
were spent on binding and chaining, as for instance:

Paid for 36 yards of chaine at 4_d._ the yard and 36
yards at 3_d._ the yard cometh to xxij_s._ vj_d._

Paid to the coppersmith for castinge 80 brasses to
fasten the chaines to the bookes--xiij_s._ iiij_d._[483]

Sir Matthew Hale, who died in 1676, directed in his will that certain
manuscripts should be given to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn:
"My desire," he said, "is that they be kept safe and also in remembrance
of me. They were fit to be bound in leather and chained and kept in
archives[484]." In the will of Matthew Scrivener, Rector of Haslingfield
in Cambridgeshire, dated 4 March, 1687, the following passage occurs: "I
give fifty pounds in trust for the use of the public Library [at
Cambridge], either by buying chains for the securing the books at present
therein contained, or for the increase of the number of them[485]." At
the church of S. Gatien at Tours it is recorded in 1718 that the library
which occupied one alley of the cloister was well stocked with
manuscripts, chained on desks, which stood both against the wall and in
the middle of the room[486]. Lastly, in 1815, John Fells, mariner, gave
L30 to found a theological library in the church of S. Peter, Liverpool.
"The books were originally fastened to open shelves in the vestry with
rods and chains[487]."

Towards the end of the eighteenth century the practice was finally
abandoned. At Eton College in 1719 it was "Order'd to take y^e Chains off
y^e Books in y^e Library, except y^e Founder's Manuscripts[488]"; at the
Bodleian Library, Oxford, the removal of them began in 1757[489]; at
King's College, Cambridge, the books were unchained in 1777[490]; at
Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1780[491]; and at Merton College in
1792[492].

In France the custom was evidently abandoned at a much earlier date, for
the authors of the _Voyage Litteraire_, who visited more than eight
hundred monasteries at the beginning of the eighteenth century, with the
special intention of examining their records and their libraries, rarely
allude to chaining, and when they do mention it, they use language which
implies that it was a curious old fashion, the maintenance of which
surprised the