oyal Libraries in His Majesty's several Palaces, and may hereafter make
further additions thereto, Now His Majesty doth give and bequeath all
such additions, whether the same have been or may be made by and at the
cost of His Majesty's Privy Purse or otherwise unto and for the benefit
of His Majesty's successors, in order that the said Royal Libraries may
be transmitted entire.'

When on November 30th, 1834, the King signed this document, he made it
yet more emphatic by the autograph note: 'Approved and confirmed by me
the King, and I further declare that all the books, drawings, and plans
collected in all the palaces shall for ever continue Heirlooms to the
Crown and on no pretence whatever be alienated from the Crown.'

Thus explicitly protected from the fate which befell its two
predecessors, this third Royal Library throve and prospered under Queen
Victoria till it fills a handsome room at Windsor Castle. The few books
reserved by George IV. give it importance as an antiquarian collection;
but its development has been rather on historical and topographical than
on antiquarian lines, though it possesses sufficient fine bindings to
have supplied materials for a handsome volume of facsimiles by Mr.
Griggs, edited with introduction and descriptions by Mr. R. R. Holmes,
M.V.O., the King's Librarian at Windsor.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Sloane MSS. 555.]

[Footnote 2: Edwards, _Lives of the Founders of the British Museum_, p.
469.]

JOHN FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, 1459?-1535

John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was born at Beverley in Yorkshire, and
was the eldest son of Robert Fisher, a mercer of that town. The date of
his birth is uncertain, some of his biographers placing it as early as
1459, and others as late as 1469. He was educated in the school attached
to the collegiate church of his native place, and afterwards at Michael
House, Cambridge (now incorporated into Trinity College), of which he
became a Fellow in 1491, and Master in 1497. In 1501 he was elected
Vice-Chancellor, and in 1504 Chancellor of the University. The respect
in which Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the mother of Henry VII., held
him, induced her to appoint him her chaplain and confessor, and it was
principally through his exertions that the Countess's designs for
founding St. John's College, Cambridge, were carried out, Fisher himself
subsequently founding several fellowships, scholarships, and
lectureships in connection with t