braries Mr. Whitaker has some curious remarks in his History of the Ancient Cathedral of Cornwall.* After noticing what Leland says, that he employed several days at the monastery of St. Alban's, in order to extract some notes of the antiquities of Britain from the treasuries of its celebrated library, he observes, that William of Malmsbury expressly informs us of conventual churches," in which were contained from ancient days libraries stocked with a number of books, but burnt with their books by the Danes. We even observe books brought into England for sale, as early as the year 705. So early as that century too (the eighth) we see learning to have been prosecuted more successfully in England than in France; at York than at Tours. Then did the archbishop's library at York accordingly contain within it the fathers, Greek and Latin; the Latin and Greek classics, the commentators, the grammarians and moderns; all collected in journies on the continent; and, as far as we can judge," adds our learned antiquary, "from a poetical catalogue of it, the oldest catalogue perhaps existing in all the regions of literature, certainly the oldest existing in England; yet drawn up at the very time by a first rate scholar, of a name still retained in the North, Alcuin, or Alkin. TROGUS POMPEIUS, that Augustan writer of an universal history, in five and forty volumes, was preserved in this library, as he is expressly specified in this catalogue."

The catalogue, as Alcuin himself says, contained the choicest pieces of scholastic literature, which either were procured through the industry of his preceptor, or through his own care and diligence; Ethelbert, master of the school at York, afterwards archbishop of the see,

* Vol. H. p. 320.

having formed the library, and leaving it at his death to Alcuin, his learned disciple. The catalogue itself Mr. Whitaker gives from Gale.

Illic invenies veterum vestigia patrum
Quidquid habet pro se Latio Romanus in orbe
Græcia vel quidquid transmisit clara Latinis;
Hebraicus vel quod populus bibit imbre superno,
Africa lucifluo vel quidquid lumine sparsit―

Historici veteres, POMPEIUS, Livius ipse;
Acer Aristoteles, rhetor quoque Tullius ingens—

Quæ Maro Virgilius, Statius, Lucanus, et auctor
Artis grammaticæ, vel quid scripsere magistri,
Quid Probus, atque Focas, Donatus, Priscianusve
Servius, Euricius, Pompeius, Comminianus, &c.

Venerable Bede, the greatest ornament of his age and nation, died in the year 735, at his monastery at Monk Wearmouth, in the county of Durham; or, rather, at that of Girwy, or Iarrow, on the banks of the Tine, below Gateshead. He had enjoyed the honour of being one of the disciples of Theodore, the primate, as well as of John, bishop of Hexham, called John of Beverley, by whom he was admitted to the order of deacon, and afterwards to that of priest. His learning was great, and his compositions were numerous and useful, so that his celebrity has been acknowledged both at home and abroad.

The reliques of Bede were translated from Iarrow to Durham, by a priest of the name of Elfrid, and deposited by those of St. Cuthbert. It is said of him in the inscription over his tomb, in the church of St. Mary, that "Though born in an obscure corner of the world, "he, by his knowledge, enlightened the whole universe; "for he searched the treasures of all divine and human

learning, as those volumes of his, so well known to "the Christian world, abundantly testify. He had se"veral scholars of celebrated characters, and who shortly "after became bright luminaries of the church; such (6 were Alcuin, preceptor of Charles the Great, and "Claudius and Clemens, who first taught at Paris, and enlightened France with the knowledge of useful "literature."

During the ages which followed, there were not wanting some great characters, who shined as bright constellations, during the night of superstition that overspread these islands, along with the rest of the world; when Popery overwhelmed the churches of the western, as Mohammedanism spread over the eastern world. We might descant with rapture on the great and amiable qualities of an ALFRED, the boast of England, the brightest of her monarchs; while a Cambrian may be allowed to state, that his learned preceptors, John and Asserius, received, in a seat of learning in Wales, those bright endowments, which qualified them to render such important service to their royal pupil; who attained the first rank among scholars, while he was one of the greatest princes in the world.

The reader may contrast the reign of IN A, of ALFRED, or of EDGAR, with that of GEORGE THE THIRD; and he may consult the history of the ages that elapsed between :—the midnight of ignorance; the dawn of the reformation; the exertions of WICKLIFF, of LUTHER, and of CRANMER; the abolition of the seats of superstition; the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular tongues; and the triumphs of civil, intellectual, and religious freedom. He may lament the discordant sentiments among Protestants; or the infidelity of too many brought up within the bosom of the church: but still he will be grateful to heaven that his lot is cast in such an

age as that in which we live, and in such a country. BRITAIN is become the JERUSALEM of modern times, from whence the Word of God is to be sent forth to the remotest regions; and in particular we must send back to the East that gospel which first came from thence, to visit this once obscure and dark corner of the earth.

APPENDIX.

No. 1.

ANTIQUITIES OF ST. ALBAN'S.

THE present town of St. Alban's owes its celebrity

to the abbey and church raised in honour of the protomartyr of Britain: its situation is rather different from the ancient city of Verolamium, the famous Roman municipium, which, at one time, was the greatest town in Britain; having been the royal seat of Cassivelaunus, and the princes of the Cassii. The martyrdom of St. Alban here, and of Amphibalus, at Redburne, in the vicinity, cast a gloom over the Christian church; while the Pagan magistrates caused an inscription to be made on a marble tablet, which was inserted in the walls of the city, to evince the triumph of Paganism over Christianity. This was afterwards removed by the British Christians; and an inscription, in honour of the martyr, was placed in the stead of it, as appears from that ancient narrative mentioned by Ussher, which we shall presently notice.

In the Gentleman's Magazine, for 1759, a curious re presentation is given of the martyrdom of a British saint; taken from a piece of carved work, then extant in an old