'_Bowers of Paradise!_' Thus it was that an enthusiastic Hebrew student, writing of the Bodleian but a few years ago, apostrophized the little cells and curtained cages wherein readers sit, while hedged in and canopied with all the wisdom and learning of bygone generations, which here bloom their blossoms and yield up their fruits. And, as if answering in actual living type to the parable which the Eastern metaphor suggests, these cells from year to year have been and (though of late more infrequently) still are, the resort of grand and grave old bees, majestic in size and deportment, of sonorous sound, and covered with the dust, as it were, of ages. Just as a solemn rookery befits an ancestral mansion, so these Bees of the Bodleian form a fitting accompaniment to the place of their choice. And while the Metaphor well describes the character of that place whither men resort for refreshment amidst the work of the world and for the recruiting of mental strength for the doing of such work, so the Type well describes those who from the bowers gather sweetness and wealth, first for their own enriching and next for the enriching of others. Long then in these bowers may there be found busy hives of men; above all, those that gather thence, abundantly, such Wisdom as is _præ melle ori_. BODLEIAN LIBRARY, _May_ 30, 1868. CONTENTS. PAGE. ANNALS 1 APPENDIX A. ACCOUNT OF A 'TARTAR LAMBSKIN' CLOAK 307 " B. VELLUM-PRINTED BOOKS, ADDED SINCE 1830 310 " C. LIST OF MSS. FROM MONASTIC AND OTHER LIBRARIES 313 " D. MSS. AND MISCELLANEOUS CURIOSITIES EXHIBITED IN THE LIBRARY AND PICTURE GALLERY 319 " E. NUMISMATIC COLLECTION 339 " F. PAST AND PRESENT OFFICERS OF THE LIBRARY 341 " G. RULES OF THE LIBRARY 344 * * * * * LITHOGRAPH OF SHAKESPEARE-AUTOGRAPH, _to face page_ 301 ANNALS OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY.