t ON THE BINDING OF THIS VOLUME to a length of about a foot. Charles I. visited Little Gidding more than once, and Peckard has recorded some of the remarks made by his Majesty concerning the most curious books produced there. About a Concordance, which had been made for him, and was given into his hands by Archbishop Laud, Charles said : ' The curious workmanship . . . and the exquisite art expressed in the binding are, I really think, not to be equalled.' A little later, on receiving a ' Harmony of the Kings and Chronicles,' bound in purple velvet and richly tooled in gold, the King rather happily said : ' It is a fit mirror for a King's daily inspection. . I have a second time gained a great treasure. What I said of the first book I may justly say of this.' Among the books of the old Royal Library in the British Museum there is to be found a copy of 'Mercator's Atlas,' printed at Amsterdam in 1613, which was most likely bound for Charles I. at Little Gidding. It is covered in crimson velvet, richly tooled in gold and silver in broad rectangular lines augmented with several small ornamental stamps, and in the centre appears the Royal coat- of -arms, cut out of stamped leather and affixed to the velvet. In this interesting volume the edges of the leaves are curiously stamped and painted. Although the old Royal Library of England was presented to the nation by George II. in a presumably complete state, it does not necessarily follow that all old Royal books were included in it ; indeed, such volumes, though undoubtedly rare, are sometimes found in private collections. Major E. Montagu-Stuart-Wortley is the fortunate possessor of a beautiful book concerningwhich he tells me there is a family tradition to the effect that it belonged to Charles I. It is a fine copy of the Bible, printed at Cambridge in 1629, bound in green velvet, and richly tooled in gold after the general design of circular-centre and quarter-circle corners, traced out in well-known Little Gidding stamps, with the addition of one, hitherto unknown to me, of a skull and a winged hour-glass ; the edges are stamped and painted in a very similar manner to those of ' Mercator's Atlas ' already mentioned. Charles had stamped velvet books made at Little Gidding for both his sons Charles and James, as well as for himself. That made for Prince Charles is a ' Harmony of the Four Gospels,' and was given to him by Nicolas Ferrar, the younger, at Richmond in 1640. It is a magnificent volume, bound in green velvet stamped in gold, with a design of laurel sprays, circles, and fleurs-de-lys. It now belongs to the Earl of Normanton and is in the library at Somerley. That made for Prince James is a ' Concordance of the Four Evangelists'; it is bound in purple velvet and simply stamped in gold with a circular centre and quarter-circle corners outlined by a series of small circular stamps and fleurs-de-lys, with the addition of an 6
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