arrival the company
worked hard after breakfast 'for four hours by the water clock.' Suddenly
the door was thrown open, and in his uniform the head cook appeared and
solemnly warned them all that their meal was served, and that it was as
necessary to nourish the body as to stuff the mind with learning.

When the barbarians were established through Gaul and Italy the libraries
in the old country-houses must have been completely destroyed. Some faint
light of learning remained while Boethius 'trimmed the lamp with his
skilful hand'; some knowledge of the classics survived during the lives
of Cassiodorus and Isidore of Seville. Some of the original splendour may
have lingered at Rome, and perhaps in Ravenna. When Boethius was awaiting
his doom in the tower at Pavia, his mind reverted to the lettered ease of
his life before he had offended the fierce Theodoric. His philosophy
found comfort in thinking that all the valuable part of his books was
firmly imprinted on his soul; but he never ceased regretting the walls
inlaid with ivory and the shining painted windows in his old library at
Rome.

CHAPTER II.

IRELAND--NORTHUMBRIA.

The knowledge of books might almost have disappeared in the seventh
century, when the cloud of ignorance was darkest, but for a new and
remarkable development of learning in the Irish monasteries.

This development is of special interest to ourselves from the fact that
the church of Northumbria was long dependent on the Irish settlement at
Iona. The Anglians taught by Paulinus very soon relapsed into paganism,
and the second conversion of the North was due to the missionaries of the
school of St. Columba. The power of Rome was established at the Council
of Whitby; but in the days when Aidan preached at Lindisfarne the
Northumbrians were still in obedience to an Irish rule, and were
instructed and edified by the acts and lives of St. Patrick, of St.
Brigit, and the mighty Columba.

We shall quote some of the incidents recorded about the Irish books, a
few legends of Patrick and dim traditions from the days of Columba,
before noticing the rise of the English school.

The first mention of the Irish books seems to be contained in a passage
of AEthicus. The cosmography ascribed to that name has been traced to
very early times. It was long believed to have been written by St.
Jerome; but in its present form, at least, the work contains entries of a
much later date. The passage in which Irela