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but he declined to interfere, and left the matter to the Lords. This did not mend the unfortunate gentleman's position, for they, after discussing the question of jurisdiction, whether the House of Commons had a right to proceed, shewed their good will to the Papists by raising the fine from £1,000 to £5,000. They further declared him an infamous person, whose testimony was never to be received in any court of justice, ordered him to be imprisoned for life, and to be whipped at the cart's tail from London Bridge to Westminster Hall, but the king, at the urgent request of the Prince of Wales, remitted the whipping.

Another Salopian, Richard Baxter, the eminent Nonconformist divine, was threatened with the pillory,1 by the brutal Judge Jeffreys, before whom he was tried in 1684, the charge against him really being for having expounded some passages of the New Testament in his paraphrase rather too strongly against the Roman religion, for which a prosecution was instituted against him as a seditious libeller of the Church of England bishops.

He asked for time :-Jeffreys. "I will not give him a minute's more time to save his life. Yonder stands Oates in the pillory, and says he suffers for the truth; and so says Baxter, but if Baxter did but stand on the other side of the pillory with him, I would say two of the greatest rogues and rascals in the kingdom stood there." He escaped the punishment of the pillory, but was found guilty, and fined £500, and bound to be of good behaviour for the space of seven years.

In the early part of the present century, the punishment of the pillory was rapidly decreasing in public favour, and it is therefore not surprising to find the legislature passing an Act of Parliament intituled "An act to abolish the punishment of the pillory except in certain cases." This Act (56 George III., cap. 138), after reciting that the punishment of the

1 Memoirs of Judge Jeffreys, by H. W. Woolrych, p. 179.

pillory had in many cases been found inexpedient, and not fully to answer the purpose for which it was intended, enacted in effect, that from and after that date, namely, July 2, 1816, judgment of the pillory should not be given against any person except for perjury, or subornation of perjury, and that in lieu thereof, it should be lawful to pass sentence of fine or imprisonment or both.

A punishment which had maintained the greatest popularity for hundreds of years, would naturally not become quite extinct without a severe struggle, but it was not long before the total abolition of the once favourite pillory became an accomplished fact.

On the 30th June, 1837, a short Act of Parliament (7 William IV., and 1 Vic., cap 23), was passed, whereby, in a few words, the punishment, the subject of this paper, was made illegal, any law, statute, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding.

That this wise step had not been taken before is a matter for regret.

The foregoing sketch is admittedly incomplete and imperfect, but it is hoped that the efforts of the writer to rescue from oblivion information relating to one of the most interesting of the obsolete methods of punishment have not been entirely in vain.

ON A LIBRARY OF CHAINED BOOKS AT

CHIRBURY.

WILLIAM WILDING, MONTGOMERY.

[Reprinted by permission from The Journal of the British Archæological Association, 1883.]

WE purpose to give a short account of a library now in the school-house of the parish of Chirbury, Shropshire, consisting of books which bear dates on their title-pages ranging from 1530 to about 1684, with a few words as to the man who is believed to be the founder of it. The books are 207 in number, and not only do they bear evident marks of having been "chained" (i.e., fastened by means of an iron chain attached to the upper and outer corner of the binding of each book), but some of such chains are found with them.

We purpose, first, to mention a few of the most curious and interesting of the books, and to call attention to the names and notes in manuscript which some of them contain, and which may possibly give a clue to their former owners; then to state what is known of the existence of a chained library within a short distance of Chirbury; and this more especially with a view to consider whether these books, or any of them, formed part of such library; then to describe the chains; and, lastly, to say a few words as to the man (once vicar of the parish) who is believed to have founded the Chirbury Library.

1. First, as to the books. They are for the most part theological, but some are of a secular character.

1. A black-letter folio copy of Chaucer, "printed by Adam Islip at the charges of Thomas Wight. Anno 1598." It has two prefaces: one addressed to the

VOL. VIII.

readers, and the other, by Francis Beaumont, "to his friend, T. S.", with a poetical dialogue between the author and the reader. It is dedicated to Sir Robert Cecil. Then follow the poet's life, "The Canterbury Tales", "The Romaunt of the Rose", the prose translation of "Boëthius de Consolatione", "The Bookes of Troilus", "Certaine Ballades"; and it ends with (what is to very many the most useful part of the book) "the hard words of Chaucer explained." It bears evidence not only of the chains which secured it, but a name, "Ed. Herbert", in manuscript (possibly the autograph of its former owner), and numerous manuscript marginal notes, evidently those of a reader who appreciated his author,

2. The next worth notice is a folio copy of Bishop Jewel's "Defense of his Apology." The title-page runs thus: "A Defense of the Apologie of the Churche of England, by John Jewel, Bishop of Salisburie. Imprinted at London, in the Fleete Street, at the sign of the Elephante, by Henry VVykes, anno 1570, 16 Junii, cum gratiâ," etc. The title-page bears the name, in manuscript, but nearly erased "George Herbert."

3. Another curious book is a volume of Lent sermons by a Spanish monk. It is without date, but dedicated thus: "To the two noble Knights, John Strangeways and Lewis Dive, in acknowledgment of his own true love and respect, Don Diego Prede dedicateth these his Indeavoures."

4. A book that bears not only names, but numerous manuscript notes, is an edition of Pliny's Natural History, of 1532. The names are, "Thos. Corbett. Libris Ed. Lewis." It is of this Edward Lewis of whom we shall have occasion to speak as the founder of the Library.

5. We then have a copy of Usher's Annals, " Annales Veteris Testamenti a primâ mundi origine deducti" (1650), with the name and a date in manuscript, "Henry Herbert, 1657, April ye 28"; and again, "Ex libris Hen. Herbert."

6. Among the theological, or quasi-theological, books, is one containing a series of sermons preached-some before the Lords, and some before the Commons-by Dr. Samuel Torshell and others.

There are several other volumes of sermons, preached before one or other of the Houses of Parliament. The only other book we would mention is a copy of Plutarch's Lives, in parallel Latin and Greek columns.

II. We will now speak of the chained library which is known to have existed at Montgomery Castle (from which Chirbury is three miles distant), and of a record of its having been placed there by a member of the family of Herbert; and of that family, by him who is best known, both by his character and writings, George Herbert, the poet and divine. In doing so, however, we may have occasion to question the entire accuracy of his biographer, Isaac Walton, when he speaks of the library in Montgomery Castle as having been "burnt by the late Rebels and so lost to posterity".

In almost the last paragraph of Walton's Life of Herbert, after mentioning the marriage of Herbert's widow to Sir Robert Cooke, of Highnam, he concludes "This Lady Cooke had preserved many of Mr. Herbert's private writings, but they and Highnam House were burnt together by the late Rebels, and so lost to posterity; and by them was also burnt or destroyed a choice library which Mr. Herbert had fastened with chains in a fit room in Montgomery Castle, being by him dedicated to the succeeding Herberts, who should become the owners of it."

It may not appear generous to doubt the entire accuracy of a statement such as this, made by one whose admiration of the character and works of George Herbert would, it may be thought, lead him to more than ordinary care when speaking of an incident such as this, although it involves mention of those towards whom he entertained very different feelings. But, to say the least, it is a singular fact that a collection of books, which had once been secured by chains, still exists

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