des poynte put off thomas cappe and
smote at his hede and cutte of his crowne that it honge by
like a dysche Than smote anothir at him and smote hit all of
than fill he downe to the grounde on his knees and elbowes
and seyde god into thy hondes I putte my cause and the
righte of holy churche and so deyde Than the iij knyghte
smote and his halfe stroke fell upon his clerkis arme that
helde thomas cross be fore him and so his swerde fill down
to the grounde and brake of the poynte and he seyde go we
hens he is dede. And when they were all at the dore goyng
robert broke wente a geyne and sette his fote to thomas
necke and thruste out the brayne upon the pauement Thus for
righte of holoye churche and the lawe of the londe thomas
toke his dethe." _The boke that is callid Festiuall_; 1486,
fol. sign. m. iij. These anecdotes, which are not to be
found in Lyttleton or Berrington, may probably be gratifying
to the curious.]

Although I wish to be as laconic as possible in my _Catalogue
Raisonne_ of libraries and of book-collectors, during the earlier
periods of our history, yet I must beg to remind you that some of the
nunneries and monasteries, about these times, contained rather
valuable collections of books: and indeed those of Glasgow,
Peterborough, and Glastonbury,[254] deserve to be particularly noticed
and commended. But I will push on with the personal history of
literature, or rather of the BIBLIOMANIA.

[Footnote 254: "I shall retire back to _Godstowe_, and, for
the farther reputation of the nunns there, shall observe
that they spent a great part of their time in reading good
books. There was a common library for their use well
furnished with books, many of which were English, and divers
of them historical. The lives of the holy men and women,
especially of the latter, were curiously written ON VELLUM,
and many ILLUMINATIONS appeared throughout, so as to draw
the nunns the more easily to follow their examples."
Hearne's edit. _Guil. Neubrig._, vol. ii., p. 768. Again he
says, "It is probable they (certain sentences) were written
in large letters, equal to the writing that we have in the
finest books of offices, the best of which were for the use
of the nunns, and for persons of distinction, and such as
had weak eyes; and many of them were finely covered, not