and thrifty life permitted me to
devote to the purpose."

The Rev. Joseph Hunter printed in 1831 a valuable Catalogue of the Library
of the Priory of Bretton in Yorkshire, and added to it some notices of the
Libraries belonging to other Religious Houses, in which he gives us a good
idea of the contents of these libraries. He writes, "On comparing the
Bretton Catalogue with that of other religious communities, we find the
libraries of the English monasteries composed of very similar materials.
They consisted of--

1. The Scriptures; and these always in an English or the
Latin version. A Greek or Hebrew Manuscript of the
Scriptures is not found in Leland's notes, or, I believe, in
any of the catalogues. In Wetstein's Catalogue of MSS. of
the New Testament, only one (Codex 59) is traced into the
hands of an English community of religious.

2. The Commentators.

3. The Fathers.

4. Services and Rituals of the Church.

5. Writers in the Theological Controversies of the Middle
Ages.

6. Moral and Devotional Writings.

7. Canon Law.

8. The Schoolmen.

9. Grammatical Writers.

10. Writers in Mathematics and Physics.

11. Medical Writers.

12. Collections of Epistles.

13. The Middle Age Poets and Romance-Writers.

14. The Latin Classics.

15. The Chronicles.

16. The Historical Writings of doubtful authority, commonly
called Legends.

Most of the manuscripts which composed the monastic libraries were
destroyed at the Reformation."

Humphry Plantagenet Duke of Gloucester, whose fame has been so lasting as
the 'good Duke Humphry,' was also a book-collector of renown; but most of
the old libraries we read about have left but little record of their
existence: thus the Common Library at Guildhall, founded by Dick
Whittington in 1420, and added to by John Carpenter, the Town Clerk of
London, has been entirely destroyed, the books having, in the first
instance, been carried away by Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset.

Although, as we have seen from Mr. Hunter's remarks, there was a
considerable amount of variety in the subjects of these manuscript
collections, we must still bear in mind that in a large number of
instances the contents of the libraries consisted of little more than
Breviaries and Service Books. It has been pointed out that this fact is
illustrated by the union of the offices of P