_Biblia Sacra Antiquissima_, folio magno, vellum--six pounds, twelve shillings; _Polychronicon vetus MS. per Radulphum Hygden, nunquam Latine impressum_, vellum--eleven pounds; _Wicklif's Book of Postils or Sermons in Old English_--seven pounds, two shillings and six pence; _Other Discourses by him_--ten pounds, two shillings and six pence; _Wilhelmus Malmesburiensis de gestis Regum Angliae_, vellum--seven pounds, three shillings; _L'Histoire du Roy Arthur, avec des Figures d'orees_, folio grand on vellum--three pounds, two shillings; _Le Chronique de Jean Froissart des guerres de France et D'Angleterre_, folio grand, _avec des belles Figures_, vellum--three pounds, nine shillings; _Norden . Speculum Britanniae_--four pounds, seven shillings. It is not known to whom these books belonged at the period of the sale, but it appears probable they were the property of James Cecil, fourth Earl of Salisbury (a descendant of Lord Burghley's younger son), who succeeded to the title in 1683, and died in 1694. He was mixed up in the troubles of the time, and was, says Macaulay, 'foolish to a proverb,' and the 'prey of gamesters.' John Cecil, Earl of Exeter, from 1678 to 1700, who was descended from Lord Burghley's elder son, was himself a book collector, and therefore not likely to part with the library of his illustrious ancestor. The bindings of Lord Burghley's books are generally stamped with his arms, which are sometimes encircled by the order of the Garter, but a little volume preserved in the library of the British Museum simply bears his name and that of his second wife, his affectionate companion for forty-three years. Lord Burghley left an immense mass of papers, which are now preserved at Hatfield House, the Record Office, the British Museum, etc. Those in the British Museum, which consist of one hundred and twenty-one folio volumes of state papers and the miscellaneous correspondence of Lord Burghley, together with his private note-book and journals, passed from Sir Michael Hickes, one of the statesman's secretaries, to a descendant, Sir William Hickes, by whom they were sold to Chiswell, the bookseller, and by him to Strype, the historian. On Strype's death they came into the hands of James West, and from his executors they were acquired by William Petty, first Marquis of Lansdowne, whose manuscripts were purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum in 1807.[16] [Illustration: LORD BURGHLEY'S BOOK-STAMP.] THOMAS WOTTON, 1521-1587