The Medieval Library.

Pausing a moment, the hospitaler would point out through a window of one of the carols the place where, not far from the entrance to the refectory, the books appointed to be read at meal-time are kept. Following the footsteps of the monks, they pass, on the way down the side of the quadrangle, several reading-desks, each having one or two books chained to it, and the hospitaler points out more of the same sort on the other side of the court, especially in front of the chapter-house. Lingering to glance at the books of devotion and legends of the saints on these isolated desks scattered here and there for the greater convenience of the monks, they would find on reaching the refectory that the appointed reader for the week had already begun reading to the monks at their meal. They themselves are perhaps to dine later in the guest apartments, and do not even enter the refectory, which is fortunate if the reader happens to have chosen for this occasion the rules of the order, since it is appointed that these shall not be read when strangers are present. The visitor, looking with some curiosity to see what books are selected for this meal-time reading, would find them chiefly sermons, saint-books, and the official literature of the order. Most of these would be pointed for chanting, for the books are generally intoned or chanted rather than read.

Passing into the second cloister, they would find the whole of one side occupied by the library building. The