The windows were filled
with painted glass, and the rooms were lit at night with thirty
chandeliers and a great silver lamp. On entering the lowest room the
visitor saw a row of book-cases low enough to be used as desks or tables.
A few musical instruments lay about; one of the old lists tells us of a
lute, and guitars inlaid with ivory and enamel, and 'an old rebec' much
out of repair. There were 269 volumes in the book-cases. We will only
mention a few of the most remarkable. There was Queen Blanche's Bible in
red morocco, and another in white boards, Thomas Waley's rhymes from Ovid
with splendid miniatures, and Richard de Furnival's _Bestiaire d'Amour_.
One life of St. Louis stood in a '_chemise blanche_,' and another in
cloth of gold. St. Gregory and Sir John Mandeville were clothed in indigo
velvet. John of Salisbury had a silk coat and long girdle, and most of
the Arabians were in tawny silk ornamented with white roses and wreaths
of foliage. Some bindings are noticed as being in fine condition, and
others as being shabby or faded. The clasps are minutely described. They
would catch a visitor's eye as the books lay flat on the shelves: and we
suppose that the librarian intended to show the best way of knowing the
books apart rather than to dwell on their external attractions. The
Oxford fashion was to catalogue according to the last word on the first
leaf, or the first word over the page; but it was also a common custom to
distinguish important volumes by such names as _The Red Book of the
Exchequer_, or _The Black Book of Carnarvon_.
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