"[2] The Dean and Chapter had it pulled down
in 1758.
[1] W. Salt Arch. Soc., vi. pt. 2, 211.
[2] Capit. Acts, v. 3.
Nearly all the books of the early collection perished
during the Civil War; but the finest manuscript, known as
St. Chad's Gospels, was saved by the preceptor. Among
the other manuscripts in the possession of the Chapter are
a fine vellum copy of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, with
beautiful initials, and the Taxatio Ecclesiastica, a tithe book
showing the value of church property in Edward I's time.[1]
[1] Harwood, Hist. and Antiq. of the Ch.... of Lichfield (1806),
109.
Section X
Many other churches, some of them small and unimportant,
owned books, and received them as gifts or
bequests. In the time of Richard II the Royal collegiate
chapel of Windsor Castle had, besides service books,
thirty-four volumes on different subjects chained in the
church, among them a Bible and a Concordance, and two
books of French romance, one of which was the Liber de Rose.[1]
[1] Vict. County Hist. of Berkshire, ii. 109.
The library of St. Mary's Church, Warwick, was first
formed by the celebrated antiquary, John Rous.
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