strious students.[233]
Well might Egbert be proud of his librarian: the first, I believe upon
record, who has composed a catalogue[234] of books in Latin hexameter
verse: and full reluctantly, I ween, did this librarian take leave of
his _Cell_ stored with the choicest volumes--as we may judge from his
pathetic address to it, on quitting England for France! If I recollect
rightly, Mr. Turner's elegant translation[235] of it begins thus:

"O my lov'd cell, sweet dwelling of my soul,
Must I for ever say, dear spot, farewell?"

[Footnote 232: _Theatrum Chemicum_, proleg. sign. A. 3.
rect.]

[Footnote 233: _History of Great Britain_, vol. iv., pp. 32,
86. "Literatorum virorum fautor et Maecenas habebatur aetate
sua maximus ac doctissimus," says Bale: _Scrip. Brytan.
Illustr._, p. 109, edit. 1559. "Prae caeteris (says Lomeier)
insignem in colligendis illustrium virorum scriptis operam
dedit Egbertus Eboracensis archiepiscopus, &c.: qui
nobilissimam Eboraci bibliothecam instituit, cujus meminit
Alcuinis," &c. _De Bibliothecis_, p. 151. We are here
informed that the archbishop's library, together with the
cathedral of York, were accidentally burnt by fire in the
reign of Stephen.]

[Footnote 234: This curious catalogue is printed by Dr.
Henry, from Gale's _Rer. Anglicar. Scriptor. Vet._, tom. i.,
730. The entire works of Alcuin were printed at Paris, in
1617, folio: and again, at Ratisbon, in 1777, fol., 2 vols.
See Fournier's _Dict. Portat. de Bibliographie_, p. 12. Some
scarce separately-printed treatises of the same great man
are noticed in the first volume of the appendix to Bauer's
_Bibl. Libror. Rarior._, p. 44.]

[Footnote 235: _Anglo-Saxon History_, vol. ii., p. 355,
edit. 1808, 4to.]

Now, don't imagine, my dear Lisardo, that this anguish of heart
proceeded from his leaving behind all the woodbines, and apple-trees,
and singing birds, which were wont to gratify his senses near the
said cell, and which he could readily meet with in another clime!--No,
no: this monody is the genuine language of a bibliomaniac, upon being
compelled to take a long adieu of his choicest _book-treasures_,
stored in some secretly-cut recess of his hermitage; and of which
neither his patron, nor his illustrious predecessor, Bede, had ever
dreamt of the existence of copies! But it is time to think of Johannes
S