your custodyes, betwixt this and the feast of the birth of our Lord God next coming, to remayne in the said house of evidences amongst the rest of his Majesties records, as well for the use and benefitt of his Majestie as of his subjects as occasion shall require. Hereof fail not, as you will answer the contrarie at your perills: and that you and everie of you respectively take notice of this our current warrant being showen unto you, and a true coppie thereof being left with you. From Fullam house the 28th day of July, 1627.

Your very loving friend,

GUIL. LONDON."

"To my very loving friends, Sir Fra. Wortley, bart.; Sir Wm. Armyn, knt. and bart.; Sir Wm. Alford, knt.; Wm. Ingleby, esq.; Sir Hugh Cholmeley, knt.; Philip Constable, esq.; Thomas Walmesley, esq.; Roger Doddesworth ;

French; Pepper, gent.; Sir James Bellingham, knt.; and Sir Wm. Strickland, knt." The like warrants to the lord warden for the ledger book of Byland, and lord Falconberge for that at Newburgh in Yorkshire.

Three of our chief Yorkshire Antiquaries have been favoured with the use of this valuable book-Dodsworth, Drake, and Dr. Burton; the former, in addition to his copious selections, having also fortunately made that abstract of the Chartulary of Bolton Priory which will be found in the 144th volume of his Collections. A note written on the two-hundredth page, records that "Chartularium hoc antiquum, maximè venerandum, perticulatim in usu erat F. Drake, in compilando librum suum Historiæ et Antiquitatum Ecclesiæ Cath: et Civitatis Eboraci A. AE. C.M.DCC.XXXIV." The whole of Dr. Burton's articles in the Monasticon Eboracense, from page 159 to 173, were, with some trifling exceptions, compiled entirely from this manuscript, from which he also transcribed above three hundred instruments for the Appendix to the work, now remaining in the Library of Sir Talbot Constable at Burton Constable. Burton also, it must be remembered, was indebted to Sir John Ingilby for the use of the Register of Bridlington Priory, from which his article on that subject was drawn; and a Register of the Acts of the Chapter of Ripon.

A leaf from one of the Choir books of the Abbey, dating in the latter half of the twelfth century, will be found at the end of the volume. There are similar end-leaves in the Register of Fountains in the Cotton Library.

The volume of the Great Chartulary next in succession to the present, and containing the Charters under the letters K to M. is now in the Library of the late Sir Thomas Phillipps. Those required to complete the series have not, unfortunately, as yet been traced.

There was formerly another Chartulary of Fountains at Ripley Castle, of great value and importance, but when or why it was removed has not been ascertained. In the History of Meux Abbey in Holderness, published in the year 1655, in the first volume of the "Monasticon Anglicanum," page 797, the chapter headed "Fundationis et fundatorum historia," containing many facts not to be found elsewhere, is said to be taken "Ex registro de Fontibus penes Willielm. Ingleby, mil., an. 1630, fol. 10 a; and at the 799th page, the reference to "Genealogia Fundatoris" is, "Adhuc ex registro de Fontibus, fol. 19." These documents and references identify the volume with one which was given by Dr. Richard Rawlinson, in the last century, to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, where it is now known as Rawlinson MS. B., 449. It is of the quarto size, was written partly in the thirteenth and partly in the fourteenth centuries, and has formed part of a series of which there is another volume in the Library of University College, Oxford. Beside many memoranda and documents of a miscellaneous character-among which will be found a copy of the letter of Pope Benedict XII. to King Edward III., concerning the excesses of Louis of Bavaria, 13 Nov. 1338the Register contains transcripts of charters of endowment granted to the abbey in Aldborough near Masham, Baldersby, Eseby, Aisenby, Rainton, Catton, Skipton-on-Swale, Newton near Leeming, Rokesby, Pickhill, Ainderby, Melmerby, Brimham, Cayton, Ripley, Godewinescales, Stainley, Follifait, Bradley, Heaton, Eland, Fixby, Lindley, Morker, Dacre, and Nidderdale. On the first leaf is written, "Perlegit Richardus Gascoigne, 16 Octob. 1619. Iterum perlegit, 7 Septemb. 1620," so that, probably, the manuscript was lent by Mr. Ingilby to Gascoigne, along with the Chartulary of Fountains before mentioned.

It may not be inappropriately mentioned that a noble volume, supplementary to the Great Chartulary of Fountains, and of inestimable value-since it contains not only the Royal Grants and Papal Privileges to the house, but nearly all the Papal Bulls granted to the Cistercian Order—now remains in the Library of University College, Oxford, and very probably has once reposed with these kindred volumes at Ripley. On the back of the

sixty-eighth folio is written, in a beautifully clear and legible hand, "This booke cost forte Shillings; per me Thomas Ingleby, and on the back of the 47th, in the same hand, the date, 66 1614.' A gentleman of this name was then resident at Ripley. The fact, therefore, with the abundant evidence that exists to prove the anxiety of the Ingilbys to collect the scattered books of the abbey, renders it all but certain that it has been owned by a member of this house; as identification of the handwriting may hereafter prove. It is not known how the MS. came into the possession of the College.

"THE VALOR," ETC., OF FOUNTAINS. A Paper Roll, measur ing many yards in length, being the duplicate of a survey of certain estates of the dissolved monastery of Fountains, granted to Sir Richard Gresham 1st October, 1540, now preserved in the Public Record office, London. The upper part of the document, which has contained the title and the survey of the site of Fountains, and of Fountains park, is unfortunately wanting. The former may be supplied thus :

"FOUNTAUNCE NUPER MONASTERIUM IN COM. EBOR."

"The Valor of the Scite and Demanes, with the Graunges late in the occupation of the said late Monastery, and also the Valor of dyvers lordshipps, maners, landes, and tenements, whiche were parcell of the lands belonging to the same late Monasterie, with the valewe of the woods growing upon the same, all which Demanez and Graunges, with woods, be surveyed by Leonard Bekewith and Heugh Fuller, by vertue of letters missives, by the right honorable Sir Thomas Cromwell, knyght, lord Cromewell, and lord privy seale, datyd the ix day of Septembre, to the same Leonard Bekewith and Heugh Fuller, directed in that behalf, as hereafter ensuyth."

This Survey, collated with the duplicate in the Public Record Office, has been recently printed, by the kind permission of its owner, in the first volume of the "Memorials of the Abbey of St. Mary of Fountains," published by the Surtees Society, and copiously illustrated by notes.

Beside the kind of information usually derived from documents of this age and kind, the minuteness with which the survey was taken, will enable those acquainted with the districts described, to arrive at some very interesting agricultural statistics. Throughout the greater portion of the record, the name of the tenant of

each farm is stated, with the estimated measurement of every field, its state of tillage, and its value per acre. It is pleasing to find that after the subdivision of the property of these humane and liberal landlords, by Gresham and his heirs, no small portion of the estates were purchased by the hereditary savings of the tenants. The social utility of the dissolution of the Monasteries, in creating an independent middle-class, might be forcibly illustrated by this document.

THE OCTAVO VOLUME marked on the cover "23," appears, on a cursory examination, to contain the following MS. Tracts or Treatises.

1. Two leaves written in a hand so minute as to be all but unintelligible to the naked eye; being a fragment of a Treatise on Medicine, or a kind of Medical Dictionary, written probably in France or Italy, in the fourteenth century.

2. A Latin Grammar in 28 pages, and perfect. The name of the author, who seems to have been well acquainted with the work of Priscian, and quotes many of the Classical writers, does not apparently occur. It was probably composed in the 14th century, when this copy was written. It is not, I believe, included among the "Grammatici Veteres," published and collected by Elias Putchius in 1605.

3. A "Formulare" or collection of legal precedents chiefly relating to the conveyance of landed property, with "Regulæ or commentaries of great interest and importance, prepared by Simon de Oxenford. I am not, at present, aware when he flourished, but the present copy is the work of two scribes, and dates about the close of the 15th century. It is not quite perfect, ending abruptly at the foot of the 36th folio.

4. A treatise of 72 pages, written by one of the scribes of the preceding work, to which it would be difficult, without diligent examination, to give any particular name. Some idea of its

The

mystical character may however be derived from the opening words of a dedication or address" Victorioso principi potestates aerias debellanti domino C. dei gratia Navarri magnifico Campaniæ," &c., by "Johannes vocatus Lemovecensis." work consists, as regards its form and division, of 20 epistles from "Pharao rex Egipti Josepho Ebreo," and from Joseph to Pharoah—and probably was considered by the writer to be profound philosophy.

5. A copious and very interesting and valuable treatise to which no name is annexed, but, as it is concluded by the words

It

explicit Ovidius," it may have been known by that name. is, in fact, the heathen mythology moralized, though, "Paganism transmuted into popery would apply to some passages which may be found; and the publication of an English translation might not be without its use. The author, whose name has not yet occurred to me, appears, indeed, to have been duly sensible not only of the difficulties of his task, but of the objections which would be raised against it, and, in a curious preface, anticipates and endeavours to answer them, beginning with instances from the scriptures, and ending with the position that it is lawful, if a man can, to obtain oil out of a flint- oleum de saxo durissimo" —and that “ Fas est ab hoste doceri." The work is, however, of great consequence to those who would obtain a clear insight of the working of the theological mind upon an important subject, at a particular period. It is apparently quite perfect, and has been written at the latter end of the 15th century, by at least three different hands.

66

66

6. After a leaf from an astronomical work, follows a fragment of a work on Latin Prosody, probably part of a mediæval work on grammar, that may be identified. Some of the author's observations on the style and composition of the verses cited are very judicious. It has been written in the latter part of the 15th century, and occupies 11 pages; forming originally the conclusion of the book.

7. The process and sentence against certain Heretical Friars Minor of Italy, in 1354. Twenty-one pages, written at the time of the trial. Full of minute and remarkable details.

8. Sermons written in the 14th century, probably in Germany.

9. Eight pages of music, dating in the 15th century, conclude the volume. Two of the pieces are quite perfect-one of them a hymn to the Virgin Mary-and are quite translatable into the present form of musical text.

The endorsement of No. "23" on this volume, and "25" on the account book of Abbot Swynton, together with the handwriting in which the contents of each book have been noted about a century ago, have induced a conjecture that these, and other MSS. at Ripley, may have formed part of the collection which was delivered from one owner of Fountains to another, from the time of the Dissolution to that of Mr. Messenger of Cayton Hall, at whose sale, I am informed, the late Sir John Ingilby purchased some "ancient books." There is similar handwriting in the