The Great Book-Collectors | Page 9

was kept alive in our country by King
Alfred's affection for the old English songs. We know that he used to
recite them himself and would make his children get them by heart. He
was not much of a scholar himself, but he had all the learning of Mercia
to help him. Archbishop Plegmund and his chaplains were the King's
secretaries, 'and night and day, whenever he had time, he commanded
these men to read to him.' From France came Provost Grimbald, a
scholar and a sweet singer, and Brother John of Corbei, a paragon in all
kinds of science. Asser came to the Court from his home in Wales: 'I
remained there,' he says, 'for about eight months, and all that time I
used to read to him whatever books were at hand; for it was his regular
habit by day and night, amidst all his other occupations, either to read
to himself or to listen while others read to him.' St. Dunstan was an
ardent admirer of the old battle-chaunts and funeral-lays. He was, it
need hardly be said, the friend of all kinds of learning. The Saint was
an expert scribe and a painter of miniatures; and specimens of his
exquisite handiwork may still be seen at Canterbury and in the
Bodleian at Oxford. He was the real founder of the Glastonbury library,
where before his time only a few books had been presented by
missionaries from Ireland. His great work was the establishment of the
Benedictines in the place of the regular clergy: and the reform at any
rate insured the rise of a number of new monasteries, each with its busy
'scriptorium,' out of which the library would grow. We must say a word
in remembrance of Archbishop Ælfric, the author of a great part of our
English Chronicle. He was trained at Winchester, where the
illuminators, it is said, were 'for a while the foremost in the world.' He
enacted that every priest should have at least a psalter and hymn-book
and half a dozen of the most important service-books, before he could
hope for ordination. His own library, containing many works of great
value, was bequeathed to the Abbey of St. Alban's. We end the story of
the Anglo-Saxon books with a mention of Leofric, the first Bishop of
Exeter, who gave a magnificent donation out of his own library to the
Cathedral Church. The catalogue is still extant, and some of the
volumes are preserved at Oxford. There were many devotional works
of the ordinary kind; there were 'reading-books for winter and summer,'

and song-books, and especially 'night-songs'; but the greatest treasure
of all was the 'great book of English poetry,' known as the Exeter Book,
in which Cynewulf sang of the ruin of the 'purple arch,' and set forth
the Exile's Lament and the Traveller's Song.
CHAPTER III.
ENGLAND.
A more austere kind of learning came in with the Norman Conquest.
Lanfranc and Anselm introduced at Canterbury a devotion to science,
to the doctrines of theology and jurisprudence, and to the new
discoveries which Norman travellers were bringing back from the
schools at Salerno. Lanfranc imported a large quantity of books from
the Continent. He would labour day and night at correcting the work of
his scribes; and Anselm, when he succeeded to the See, used often to
deprive himself of rest to finish the transcription of a manuscript.
Lanfranc, we are told, was especially generous in lending his books:
among a set which he sent to St. Alban's we find the names of
twenty-eight famous treatises, besides a large number of missals and
other service-books, and two 'Books of the Gospels,' bound in silver
and gold, and ornamented with valuable jewels.
A historian of our own time has said that England in the twelfth century
was the paradise of scholars. Dr. Stubbs imagined a foreign student
making a tour through the country and endeavouring to ascertain its
proper place in the literary world. He would have seen a huge multitude
of books, and 'such a supply of readers and writers' as could not have
been found elsewhere, except perhaps in the University of Paris.
Canterbury was a great literary centre. At Winchester there was a
whole school of historians; at Lincoln he might listen to Walter Map or
learn at the feet of St. Hugh. 'Nothing is more curious than the literary
activity going on in the monasteries; manuscripts are copied; luxurious
editions are recopied and illuminated; there is no lack of generosity in
lending or of boldness in borrowing; there is brisk competition and
open rivalry.'

The Benedictines were ever the pioneers of learning: the regular clergy
were still the friends of their books, and 'delighted in their communion
with them,' as the Philobiblon phrased it. We gather from the same