is a well-known Greek quotation from Isocrates, importing that "if you are fond of learning you will be learned;" the two epithets, "fond of learning" and "learned" being appropriated severally to two statues surmounting columns on either side of the archway, and representing a schoolboy and a graduate of the seventeenth century, for the present school was not erected in place of the old timber building until the year 1630; and beneath the central upper window are the armorial bearings of the then reigning sovereign, Charles I. The windows in the higher range are those of the Great, or Upper School: the pointed windows beyond the tower belong to the southern extremity of the Library, and the basement windows beyond the gateway are those of the Lower Schoolroom, in which, on oaken boards, are painted the names of the alumni who have gained academical distinction at the Universities. The Large Schoolroom, which runs the whole length of the upper story, south-westward from the tower, is, like the rest of the building, in the Tudor style of architecture. It is 78 feet in length by 21 feet in breadth, lighted by a Late Perpendicular window at one end, overlooking the Head Master's house; besides seven square-headed windows down either side of the room, each of which is divided into six compartments by two transomed mullions. The roof and doors are of oak, and the lower part of the walls is panelled with the same beneath the line of windows. The Chapel, attended by the School on week-day mornings and Sunday afternoons, was begun in 1595. Some years after, it was furnished with the carved pulpit, the Bible-desk, and the scholars' benches, all of the same dark oak. An oak screen divides the building into a chapel and an ante-chapel. This screen is open at the top, in a series of compartments formed by small Corinthian pillars, from which rise semicircular arches intersecting one another. In front of the screen, on each side of its doorway, are now some plain oak pews for the Masters. The two corners between these pews and the entrance of the screen have seats for two scholars of the week, who used to go from them to the Bible desk, in order to read the first and second Lessons. The pews at the other end of the chapel are more recent. At the back of the ante-chapel is a raised seat, composed of one long bench, with a boldly-carved open front of dark oak, probably intended for strangers, many of whom attended service here in early times. The Library was erected also in 1595, but underwent considerable alterations in 1815. Square-headed windows at the ends were replaced by the present pointed windows, and at the sides (three gables having been taken down) the walls were finished with a parapet, uniformly with the other School buildings. In the earliest School-library catalogue, mention is made of "the gallery over the library, where specially mathematical bookes and instruments were intended to bee disposed." By this gallery could only be meant the old Library, or attic, removed at this time to give height to the tower-room, and to display the present arched ceiling, which is richly panelled and ornamented with the armorial bearings of the School Trustees. Dr. S. Parr wrote, in 1819:-" With an exception to the Eton library, enriched as it some time ago was by Mr. Storer's collection, I have seen in no Public School a Library equal to that of Shrewsbury. The room has been newly fitted up by the Trustees, and the books have been arranged in better order; and the catalogue drawn up with the utmost fidelity and judgment by the present learned Master, Dr. Samuel Butler." There is, however, good reason to doubt if any of the present catalogues can be considered complete, or if the order of the books be such as to make reference to them an easy matter. To instance only the manuscripts. A list of these is printed in Catalogi Librorum Manuscriptorum Angliæ in unum Collecti, tom. ii. p. 104. Oxford, 1697." This list is most imperfect, for it renders them in number only thirty-seven; while in reality there are more than twice as many. In each MS. volume the first work only has been named; in many cases, therefore, three or four other works have been overlooked. 66 In other respects, the Shrewsbury School Library well merits the eulogium Dr. Parr bestowed on it. The benefactions to it from 1596, when the list begins, to the present day are very |