topped a couple of days at Rheims, and was astonished at the good
store of books the library owned. He "blamed the slothful carelessness
of modern times, which not only failed to imitate the literary activity
of the Fathers in making and writing books, but neither read nor
reverently treated the sacred manuscripts the care of the Fathers had
provided." His own conduct in this respect, both at Witham and Lincoln,
was far otherwise. He took pains about the library at each place. His
gifts to Lincoln were--(1) Two great volumes of sermons by the Catholic
doctors for the whole year. (2) A little book of the Father's Life with
a red covering. (3) A Psalter with a large gloss.{27} (4) A Homeliary in
stag's leather, beginning "_Erunt signa_." And (5) A Martyrology with
the text of the four Gospels. At Rheims, too, he also saw and worshipped
the vessel of holy oil, which was used for anointing the kings of
France. Then he made his way to the northern coast to St. Omer's Camp.
He would not put to sea at once lest he should fail of his Mass on Our
Lady's birthday. He had been unwell for some days with quartan fever,
and tried bleeding, but it did him no good. He could not eat, but was
obliged to go and lie down upon his small bed. He broke into violent
sweats, and for three days hardly tasted food. On the 7th of September
he would travel ten miles to Clercmaretz Abbey to keep the feast. He
slept in the infirmary, where two monks waited on him, but could get him
to eat nothing. He said there his last Mass but one, and still fasting
went back to St. Omers. He felt a good deal better after this, and went
on to Wissant, where he made the usual invocations to Our Lady and St.
Ann, and had a safe, swift passage, and immediately upon landing said
his last Mass, probably at St. Margaret's Church, in Dover. He never
missed a chance of saying Mass if he could, though it was not said daily
in his time. But he would not allow his chaplain to celebrate if he had
been lately bled, reproved him for the practice, and when he did it
again very sharply rebuked him.

From Dover he went to Canterbury, and prayed long and earnestly, first
at the Saviour altar and then at the tombs of the holy dead,{28} and
especially at the mausoleum of St. Thomas. The monastic flock (still
_sub judice_) led him forth with deep respect. The news spread that he
was ill, and the royal justiciaries and barons visited him and expressed
their sympathy and affection in crow