invariably
the losers. A group of books (at Lambeth) was procured to be written by
a Canon of Lanthony when he was studying at Oxford (about 1415), and
given to the library of his priory.

We have digressed from the particular to the general. Returning to
individual libraries, let us glance at the Norwich Cathedral Priory. Of
this, again, we have no catalogue; it is a case in which press-marks and
names of owners are our guides. Norwich has a system of press-marks
consisting of a letter of the alphabet plus a Roman numeral: "N.
lxviii." The press-marks of several other houses consist of just the
same elements, but we can pick out that of Norwich by its size (not
large) and its position (top of the first leaf of text); also there is
usually added to it the name of the monk who procured it for the house,
Henry de Lakenham or W. Catton--someone whose surname is the name of a
Norfolk village. Over a hundred MSS. from Norwich are known to me, but
they are a very small fraction of the library, as is shown by the
numerals attached to the several class letters. Very few of them are as
old as the twelfth century; late twelfth and particularly early
fourteenth make up the bulk. I attribute this to the great fire of 1286,
and I take it that then the greater part of the priory books were
spoiled, and that energetic steps to refill the library were taken in
the years that followed. There are more Norwich books in the University
Library at Cambridge than anywhere else; it has not been proved, but I
do not much doubt, that most of them were given by the chapter to
Cambridge about 1574, at the suggestion of Dr. Andrew Perne, Master of
Peterhouse, who was a member of the cathedral body and an enthusiast for
the University Library.

Not very dissimilar was the action of Exeter Chapter, who in 1602 gave
over eighty of their MSS. to Sir Thomas Bodley's new library in Oxford,
Bodley's brother being then a Canon of Exeter; and not long after the
Canons of Worcester picked out a score of their MSS., for Dean
Williams's new library at Westminster Abbey. These, however, I believe
were never actually sent off. It is just as well, for the Westminster
MSS. were burnt in 1694. Of Bury St. Edmunds I have attempted to write
the history elsewhere, but it is not likely that many readers of this
book will be familiar with my former publication. The only catalogue we
have for this abbey is an early one (eleventh to twelfth century)
written on the fly-l