came under the charge of the following Librarians to the
Corporation for the periods stated: Mr. George Harper, 1862-76, Mr.
George Easter, 1877-1900, Mr. J. Geo. Tennant, 1901-11, and Mr. Geo. A.
Stephen, 1911-.

DONATION BOOK AND CATALOGUES.

The first reference in the Minute Book to a catalogue is under date 8th
June, 1657: "The library keeper this day brought in catalogues of the
books wch were affixed. Sixpence was ordered to bee given to a boy for
pasting up the Catalogues." It may perhaps be assumed that these
catalogues were written lists which were displayed in the Library.

At the meeting on Jan. 11th, 1657, an order was given for "a book
consisting of 3 qrs of thick venice paper, to be bound up to make a book
to contain Catalogues of the bookes in the library," and "Mr. Collinges
was desired to keep the office of library keeper untill the aforesaid
book be bought and the Catalogues made."

On Dec. 13th, 1658 "The library keeper brought in a paper book ruled
containing a Classicall and an alphabetical catalogue of all ye bookes in
the library" . . . "He further informed them that hee had laid out 3s for
paper and 4s. for ye ruling & binding ye said book, in all 7s wch is more
then he received 2s 10d. That he had procured 2 catalogues to be wrote
in it fairly, that for ye catalogue of Comentators it was begun & should
before ye next meeting be pfected by his own hand." This book has
fortunately been preserved, and is in good state. It is a folio volume,
measuring 13.5 by 9.5 inches, and is in three sections. The first
section is a classified catalogue of the books on the east side of the
Library, which were arranged in two groups of sizes, (1) Folio, divided
into ten classes, and (2) Quarto and Octavo, divided into four classes.
At first an attempt was made to classify the books according to subjects,
the classification of the folios being I Bibles; II and III Old
Commentaries, etc.; IVa Theology, IVb History; V Canon Law; VI The
Fathers; VII Lexicons, Dictionaries, etc.; VIII Reformation Commentaries;
IX Ecclesiastical History; X Miscellaneous. The four classes in the
quarto and octavo section were not grouped according to subjects. A
heading was started in the catalogue for a classification of the books on
the west side, but that part of the work was not done. The second
section is an author catalogue of the books with two columns, the numbers
in the first column denoting the class and those