Identifier: oldnewlondonnarr03thor (find matches)
Title: Old and new London : a narrative of its history, its people, and its places
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Thornbury, Walter, 1828-1876
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Cassell, Petter, & Galpin
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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nd studious j^ersons of Westminsterwith a place of retirement and study. He toldme, says Evelyn (Diary, Feb. 15, 1684), therewere thirty or forty young men in orders in hisparish, either governors to young gentlemen, orchaplains to noblemen, who, being reproved by theological subjects, but comprises works of generalliterature. Amongst the 5,000 volumes of theordinary staple from which libraries were formed acentury and a half ago, are some MSS. of greatinterest. The library contains a beautiful SarumMissal of the thirteenth century, and a magni-ficently illuminated Psalter of a little earlier period.But the gems of the collection, perhaps, are the Psychoniachia of Prudentius, and the Ver-sarium of Fortunatus, both apparently of the tenthcentury. By a scries of misfortunes this institution, itappears, had been reduced, of late years, to thelast stage of decay. Its slender endowment wasalmost entirely lost in the South Sea Bubble, and St. Martins-in-the-Fields.) THE TENISON LIBRARY. 157
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110—Vol. III. Sr. MARTINS LANK, iSiO, OLD AND NEW LONDON. t-St. Jitartins-in-thc-Fields. its resources failed altogether on the expiration ofa lease, the remainder of which has been taken bythe Commissioners of Woods and Forests for theimprovement of Charing Cross. There were inthe end no meaiis of providing salaries for theothcers or for any of the expenses incidental to themaintenance of a library, and the fate of an insti-tution which ought to be interesting to all lovers ofliterature came to be regarded with apprehensionand anxiety. For many years the trustees permitted a societyof subscribing members to hold its meetings, toplay at chess, and read newspapers in the reading-room; and thus a sort of club or mechanicsinstitute came to hold its meetings in ArchbishopTenisons Library, and a list of lectures was postedoutside the door. A portion even of the shelvesof the old library had been appropriated to thebooks of the new society; and if clergymen and studious persons, more espe

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