place in some loosely-entered catalogue--and of the catalogues
themselves, the proportion still remaining must be small indeed. Under
these circumstances the following documents, which are now for the first
time printed, or even noticed, will be found to be of considerable
interest. The first is, in modern language, a Power of Attorney,
executed by the Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, appointing two of
the monks of his church to be his procurators for the purpose of
receiving from the convent of Anglesey, in Cambridgeshire[1], a book
which had been lent to the late Rector of Terrington. Its precise date
is uncertain, but it must be of about the middle of the thirteenth
century (1244-1254), as Nicholas Sandwich, the Prior of Christ Church,
was the second of four priors who presided between the years 1234 and
1274.

"N. Prior Ecclesiae Christi Cantuariensis discretis viris et
religiosis Domino Priori de Anglesheya et ejusdem loci sacro
conventui salutem in Domino. Cum sincera semper caritate
noverit faternitas vestra nos constiuisse fratres Gauterum de
Hatdfeld et Nicolaum de Grantebrigiense Ecclesiae nostrae monachos
latores precencium procuratores nostros ad exigendum et
recipiendum librum qui intitulatur. Johannes Crisestomus de
laude Apostoli. In quo etiam volumine continentur Hystoria vetus
Britonum quae Brutus appellatur et tractatus Roberti Episcopi
Herfordiae de compoto. Quae quondam accommodavimus Magistro
Laurentio de Sancto Nicholao tunc Rectori ecclesiae de Tyrenton.
Qui post decessum praefati Magistri L. penes vos morabatur et
actenus moratur. In cujus rei testimonium has litteras patentes
nostro sigillo signatas vobis transmittimus."

The contents of the book which is the subject of this special embassy
are of the character usually found to have formed the staple of monastic
libraries, though the particular treatises included in it are not
common.

In the Reverend Joseph Hunter's valuable treatise upon _English Monastic
Libraries_[2] occurs a notice of an indenture executed in A.D. 1343,
whereby the priory of Henton lent no less than twenty books to another
monastic establishment. The deed is described, but not printed. It will
be seen that the instrument we have given above is nearly a century
earlier; and the minute description of the book given in this document
supplies some very curious facts illustrative of the mode of putting
together anc