The writer appeals in a piteous manner to His Holiness to excuse the newlyelected Abbot from the costly journey to Rome for confirmation, on the ground of the poverty of the monastery. The King writes :

"We pray you that the Apostolic See should condescend to succour the Monastery, which is now not only tottering but almost fallen, and which is on the point of utter ruin. A part of that Monastery, indeed, our ancestors built, and that portion is even now almost wasted by age; but the greater part they left unfinished, and of this up to the present time the poverty of the Monastery has prevented the completion, partly through the expense of the confirmation of the newly-elected Abbots, and partly through the badness of the seasons and the floods, which have ruined the greater part of the estates of the Monastery."

A pathetic appeal, truly, and one which ought to find an echo in the hearts of every Cathedral Chapter and of every clergyman of our own days, though times are changed.-Yours, CLERICUS.

BOOK-MURDER IN ITALY.

SIR,-A few days ago I went into a dingy little old tobacconist shop to buy some postage stamps, and was horrified to see the old man and his daughters tearing up in cold blood various ancient vellum-bound volumes, and destroying woodcuts of the fifteenth century and downwards with an amount of hardened callousness that I fear can have been acquired only by long practice! I positively snatched one splendid "tailpiece" out of the grimy old barbarian's hand. I felt like Irving when in some play I have seen him staying the hand of an assassin; and I asked the hoary-headed old sinner in a husky voice to allow me to go over all his waste paper. It ended in my arranging with him to put by all the woodcuts, or illuminations and ancient borderings, &c., on my paying him the weight of the paper, and a trifle over on every kilogramme for his trouble.

The books are vellum-bound treatises on philosophy, theology, medicine, &c., written in Latin, and are brought to him by an old woman. Where she gets them no one knows! Probably steals them. I believe a halfpenny a pound weight is the price the old man said he pays. In some cases the vellum bindings alone are worth twenty times the money, and might be available for keeping cuttings. But oh! the woodcuts are so beautiful. Would this style of thing be useful to you for tail-pieces or headings in your ANTIQUARIAN MAGAZINE? I have put a lot into my album. The old savage was very civil, and gave me the first lot for nothing! I am quite elated. They are quite in the style so much sought after in the present day.

I enclose a copy of the title-page of one of these books as a sample of the wholesale destruction which is going on: "Theologia Dogmatica et Moralis. Secundum ordinem Catechismi Concilij Tridentini. Tomus nonus de decalogo pars prima. Auctore F. Natali Alexandro, Ordinis F. F. Prædicatorum, in Sacra Facultate Parisiensi Doctore, & emerito Theologiæ Professore. Venetiis, M.DC.XVIII. Apud Nicolaum Pezzana. Superiorum Permissu, et Privilegio." In the centre of the page, immediately before the imprint, is a boldly-cut ornamental fleur-de-lis surrounded by a border of flowers, fruit, and scroll-work.

Yours,

C. H. M.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

THE Editor declines to pledge himself for the safety or return of MSS. voluntarily tendered to him by strangers.

Mr. Round's reply to Dr. Pring, on the subject of "The Ancient Name and Office of Portreeve," is unavoidably postponed to our May number.

Books Received.

1. Medieval Military Architecture in England. 2 vols. By G. T. Clark. Wyman & Sons. 1884.

2. Gwilt's Encyclopædia of Architecture. Revised by Wyatt Papworth. Longmans & Co. 1884.

3. The Encyclopædic Dictionary. Part i. Cassell & Co. 1884.

4. Cowdray. By Mrs. Charles Roundell. Bickers & Son. 1884. 5. Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson. By P. O. Hutchinson. Sampson Low & Co. 1883.

6. Leibnitz. Philosophical Classics Series. By J. T. Merz. Edinburgh : Blackwood. 1884.

7. Dearforgil, the Princess of Brefney. By the Author of "The Last Earl of Desmond." 2nd Edition. Longmans. 1884.

8. English Etchings. Parts xxxiii. and xxxiv. W. Reeves, 185, Fleetstreet.

9. Shakesperiana. January, 1884. Trübner & Co.

10. "Legal History" of Canon Stubbs. Reviewed by J. T. Tomlinson. E. Stanford.

1884.

II. History of Newcastle and Gateshead. By R. Welford. Scott, 14, Paternoster-square.

1884.

12. History of Aylesbury. Part ix. Aylesbury: R. Gibbs. March, 1884.

13. Bibliotheca Curiosa. Political Songs of England, from the reign of John to that of Edward II. Privately printed. 1884.

Books, &c., for Sale.

Guardian Newspaper, from commencement to 1864, bound; and 186570, in numbers. Offers to E. Walford, Hyde Park Mansions, Edgewareroad, N.W.

Gentleman's Magazine. A complete set, from vol. i., 1731, to 1868; two Index vols. Address, A. E. Peach, Beaconfield House, Fosse-road, Leicester.

Books, tc., Wanted to Purchase.

Dodd's Church History, 8vo., vols. i. ii. and v.; Waagen's Art and Artists in England, vol. i.; East Anglian, vol. i., Nos. 26 and 29. The Family Topographer, by Samuel Tymms, vols. iii. and iv.; Notes and Queries, 4th series, vols. vii., viii. (1871); 5th series, vols. vi., vii. (1876-7); also the third Index. Penny Magazine, 1843. A New Display of the Beauties of England, vol. i., 1774. Chambers' Cyclopædia of English Literature, vol. i. Address, E. Walford, 2, Hyde Park Mansions, Edgeware-road, N.W.

Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer, several copies of No. 21 (February, 1882) are wanted, in order to complete sets. Copies of the current number will be given in exchange at the office.

The

Antiquarian Magazine & Bibliographer.

Did Bellmen's Broadsides.

MONG the literary curiosities of the last century, not the least interesting were the singular poetical effusions which were printed at Christmas and other festive times, and issued in the shape of broadsides, by the City bellmen and others occupying official positions of a menial kind, with a view of augmenting their perhaps somewhat scanty income. They were generally printed with an ornamental border, and the verses upon them were written as an appeal to the generosity of the townspeople. One of these broadsides, which is now before us, is headed a " Copy of Verses humbly presented to all my worthy Masters and Mistresses, by John Beaumont, White Chapel Parish Bellman, Cryer, and Ale-conner. The next door to the Sign of the Coffins in Colchester Street." This is followed by a prologue, which runs as follows:

"Come on, my Muse, supply a gentle Strain,
Nor let thy Bellman ask thy Aid in vain.
Old Homer sung Achilles' direful Rage,
And good Eneas' Acts deck Virgil's Page;
Pope dealt in Satyr, and lash'd many a Man:

:

But I will please my Masters, if I can ;
And Mistresses, their Consorts, fair and chast,
And rhyme this Year, as I have done Years past."

"On St.

Then come the "verses on various subjects, such as Andrew," "St. Thomas," "Christmas Eve," "Christmas Day," "The King," &c., the whole ending with the following Epilogue: