of this noted revolutionary character, have found a resting-place in this private collection. Governor Thomas Pownal's letter-book, and his own copy of his "Middle Colonies," filled with very interesting MS. notes by the author, and which he had evidently prepared for a new edition, are valuable documents; General Wolfe's Order-book while in America, closing with the "order of the day" for the attack on Quebec, in which memorable battle he lost his life.

Besides the American historical papers, and some portfolios of letters of distinguished men of all ages and countries, there is also a good number of Oriental manuscripts, many of which are exceedingly beautiful, and some rare and valuable, and many Livres d'Heures, and manuscripts in Latin of the early ages of the church, written and used within the walls of those venerable cloisters in which for so long a period all that was known of learning was centred. As curiosities of the early period of printed literature, are several massive folios in black letter, with large bosses and clamps, and heavy chains to secure them to the reading-desk, which present a singular contrast with the more delicate editions of more modern times, or even of the illuminated manuscripts which preceded their advent.

The owner of this collection has spent consider

able time in Europe and Eastern countries, and made extensive journeys to various parts of the world, in which a large proportion of his books have been collected; they are, in the main, well bound, with some handsome specimens of well-known workmen, but are not particularly remarkable on account of their covers. Those in this city now occupy a temporary position, and consequently are not easily examined by any other hand than the owner's.

GEORGE T. STRONG'S LIBRARY.

THIS library has between four and five thousand books. The collection is miscellaneous. It seems strongest in History, and in English and German literature. The English chronicles and the English literature of the XVIth and XVIIth centuries are well represented, and generally in original editions. The proportion of early printed books and manuscripts is large.

Among the MSS. on vellum is a large folio Bible of the XIVth century, in good condition, with elaborate capitals and highly finished miniatures, many of them unusual in their subjects and style of treatment. Another Bible, a quarto, seems, from a memorandum in red letter, to have been the gift of Philipius de Eythop, "altarista et Capellanus," to some monastic fraternity in 1138, and the scribe commends the donor to the prayers of the faithful. A note on a fly-leaf, apparently by some French theologian of the last century, refers to certain peculiarities in its reading, especially in the much contro

verted passage, "There are three that bear witness," &c., and in the titles and arrangement of the canonical books, and states that it is pronounced by competent judges to have been written in the Xth century at latest. Another Bible in two volumes is remarkable for the minuteness of its character, and the delicacy of the vellum on which it is written.

The MS. Hours, Missals, and other books of devotion, are numerous and interesting. The illuminations of a folio Psalter and service-book, probably French work of the XVth century, are large and brilliant, but the volume has been mutilated, and several of its decorations abstracted. Two volumes of Hours executed in Italy (XVth century), contain miniatures of considerable artistic merit in design and color. There are also specimens of Flemish work, less elegant but profusely decorated, and highly finished. A very early Psalter, probably of the XIth century, is remarkable for the size and elaboration of its capital letters, some of which occupy nearly the whole page. Another Psalter is preceded by illuminations on a gold background in the most primitive style of art, and by a Calendar with curious miniatures illustrating the amusements and the agricultural employments appropriate to each month in the year-hawking, feasting, sowing

and reaping, knocking down mast for swine, slaughtering them, &c. These clearly belong to a very early period, though the residue of the volume cannot well be of earlier date than the XIVth century.

There is an interesting small 4to. MS. on vellum, in English of the XIVth century, entitled The Rule of Saint Benet, i. e., the Benedictine Monastic Code, concluding in rhyme. To this is subjoined a narrative of the Passion of our Lord, also in English, and compiled from the apocryphal Gospels.

A Psalter of the XVth century, in Italian, is without miniatures, but abounds in elegantly decorated capitals. A Greek MS. of the epistles, 4to. (bound by Lewis), from the Duke of Sussex's library, formerly in the Meerman collection, in excellent condidition, is on charta bombycina, almost equal to vellum in toughness and solidity. Another Greek MS.-Aristoteles de virtutibus et vitiis-4to. on vellum, contains in addition to the original text, a Latin version by Georgius Hermonymus, Spartanus, and an introductory or commendatory epistle by the translator, addressed to "the magnanimous and most illustrious Prince, Engelbert, Count of Cleves," to whom the MS., with its headings in gold letter and its heraldic illuminations, seems to have been an autograph presentation-copy from the translator. Aristotle's Opera Logica (XIVth century), folio on