interval of which we speak, and of which so little is in reality known.

It remains to say a few words of the Manuscript from which we print. The book belongs to the Dean and Chapter of Durham, and is manifestly, if not the original, in the hand writing of Reginald, its author, yet of a date not much later than his time. We subjoin a specimen of the hand-writing of Cap. xxI. p. 44, from which they who are conversant in matters of this kind, will come, we think, to the same conclusion. We may

anderaf mnamf
[pra plist. 9
m regimens fin ola
promone Bead Cuchbee. Teleftib regnado commphat.
led in ora Crete fae Mulia fecto modaunne disputado
Fordmar. Ha plmu regiminis ora disponine officia

poceflanf. fecaligh Tecla lua youngfraudis
opener

add that the marginal notices which we have occasionally inserted in brackets, and have sometimes given in foot-notes, are, except expressed to the contrary, in the same hand as the book itself, and it will also be observed that they are not explanatory but expletive, such additions, in fact, as an author might make in his manuscript before he sent it to the press: this fact might almost induce us to believe that we were in reality publishing Reginald's book from the very copy of his book which had received his corrections and emendations. The abstract of each chapter is written in red ink, and the initial letters, which are of a very unornamented character, are in the same colour. Of the only embellished letter in the whole book, the initial of Chapter CVII., in red ink, we have given a fac-simile in the beginning of

this Preface, which we have introduced in a manner somewhat novel, but which the occasion may justify. The book was purchased by the Chapter of the Executors of Dr. Christopher Hunter,* nearly a century ago, and it contains, in the hand-writing of that most laborious Antiquary, an index, partly at the beginning, and partly at the end, consisting of the rubric of each chapter, as far as he could read it; but in many instances he has fallen into mistakes, apparently from a defect of sight.

Before Dr. Hunter's time the volume had been in the possession of a person about the period of the Reformation, who has left in it manifest traces of his attachment to the old order of things. Opposite to the heading of almost every chapter he has affixed a +; the preamble of almost every chapter he has underlined with his pen; and he has added nota benes in abundance, with occasionally a marginal note, to which we have paid attention. this person a conjecture will be advanced by and by. The book may be considered of the duodecimo shape. The very humble binding which Dr. Hunter had given to it, and from which it had suffered here and there in the margin, has been removed. But one binder cannot restore the abscissions of another.

Of

The manuscript of Reginald of which we have spoken as the York MS., constitutes a portion of a volume belonging to the Dean and Chapter of York, xvI. 1. 2,† and appears to have been written in the earlier part of the

* See Nichols's Literary Anecdotes. Vol. VII. p. 282. The other tracts contained in the book are:

I. Ricardus Prior Hagustald. de statu et Episcopis Ecclesiæ Hagustald. [Printed in Twysden.]

thirteenth century. It is, however, imperfect both at the beginning and end, as will be seen from the note below.

There is in the British Museum [MSS. Harl. 4383] a copy of Reginald upon paper, of which we have made some use, in a much more modern hand-writing. With respect to this book we have been favoured with the following particulars by Mr. Stevenson, one of the Sub-Commissioners on the Public Records, and a Member of this

II. Sancti Eatæ Episcopi Hagustald. Vita. Fol. 10. III. Reliquiæ quæ in Ecclesiâ Dunelm. servantur. Fol. 13. [A list resembling this is printed in the Appendix to Smith's Bede.] IV. De avibus Sancti Cuthberti in Insulâ Farne.

V. De remissione peccatorum. Fol. 15.

Fol. 13. b.

VI. Libellus de Miraculis S. Cuthberti secundum Reginaldum de Coldingham. Fol. 16.

Incipit proëmium in subsequentem Libellum de virtutibus et miraculis Gloriosi Pontificis Cuthberti secundum Etheldredum Venerabilem Abbatem Rievallensis Ecclesiæ et Reginaldum Monachum de Coldingham, directum Priori et Conventui Ecclesiæ Dunelm. Sæpius multorum Sanctorum miracula, &c. The last chapter is Cap. xcv., p. 210. of our printed edition.

VII. De Episcopis Lindisfarnensis Ecclesiæ usque ad Eanbertum. A.D.854. Fol. 65. Incipit. "Anno ab incarnatione Domini DCXXV. Paulinus unus.”

VIII. Libellus de ortu S. Cuthberti de historiis Hybernensium excerptus et translatus, fol. 69.

IX. De Translatione corporis Sancti Cuthberti. [Printed in the ACTA BENEDICTINORUM.]

X. De statu Dunelmensis Ecclesiæ, &c., cum continuatione Gaufridi de Coldingham ad annum, 1239. [Printed in the ANGLIA SACRA.]

XI. Historia Ecclesiæ Dunelm. Continuatio Rob. de Graystanes. [Ibid.]

XII. Ricardi de Bury Episcopi Dunelm. Vita, Auctore Guillielmo de Chambre. [Ibid.]

Society, in reply to certain questions which were proposed to him :

"You are perfectly right as to the Harl, MS. being modern and on paper. I will put down without connexion the various memoranda which I notice respecting its age and history. On fol. 1. is written, "S' ThoTemp Baronet" Folio 98, on the lower margin of the Chapter treating "Qualiter quidam ex utero matris," &c. [Cap. XLVIII. of the following book] is written in the same hand as the body of the MS., but with different ink, "Nota de tumbâ Sancti Cuthberti infra claustrum ex antiquo, et etiam anno Christi 1514 ibidem renovata per Priorem Thomam Castell." Fol. 247, at the end of a treatise in English "On the troubles or temptacions at the houre of deth" is "Dompnus Willelmus Tode, anno Christi 1528,” in a hand a little later than the Reginald. On the last leaf of the MS., which is vellum, is 66 sum Willelmi hacfurth" in a hand of the middle of the sixteenth century, and below is written with lead, “Calamo Dompni Willielmi Tode iste libellus." The verb is illegible by having the Museum stamp put upon it, but it seems too short for scriptus est or exaratus est. At the bottom of the leaf is "Liber dompni Johannis Eyrsdon." The contractions are so different from those used in the sixteenth century, that I am half inclined to believe that we have here a fac-simile transcript of some early copy of Reginald, perhaps of your MS."

For particulars of William Tod, who was first a Monk and then a Prebendary of Durham, we refer to the accompanying volume of WILLS AND INVENTORIes, No. CCXII., p. 269, and are inclined to concur in the conjec

xviii

PREFATORIAL REMARKS.

ture that the copy of Reginald in the Museum was, in all probability, made by him from the very MS. from which we print, and that the more modern notes and marks which our MS. contains were made by his pen.

7. July, 1835.