[Illustration: 29--Collection of Sixteenth-Century Tracts.] _Collection of Sixteenth-Century Tracts._ Bound about 1610. To Henry, Prince of Wales, we owe a great debt of gratitude, as he was the first person of much consequence in our royal family to take any real interest in the Old Royal Library. Indeed it may be considered that the existence to-day of the splendid 'Old Royal' Library of the kings of England, which was presented to the nation in 1759 by George II., is largely due to the attention drawn to its interest and value by Prince Henry, who moreover added considerably to it himself. This Prince used as his favourite and personal badge the beautiful design of three white ostrich feathers within a golden coronet, and with the motto 'ICH DIEN' on a blue ribbon. With regard to the origin of this badge there is unfortunately a good deal of obscurity. The usual explanation is that it was the helmet-crest of the blind king of Bohemia, who was killed at Crecy in 1346, and that in remembrance of this it was adopted by the Black Prince as his badge. But, as a matter of fact, the ostrich feather was used as a family badge by all the sons of Edward III. and their descendants. It appears to have been the cognisance of the province of Ostrevant, a district lying between Artois and Hainault, and the appanage of the eldest sons of the house of Hainault. In this way it may have been adopted by the family of Edward III. by right of his wife, Philippa of Hainault. An early notice of the ostrich feather as a royal badge occurs in a note in one of the Harleian MSS. to the effect that 'Henrye, son to the erle of Derby, fyrst duke of Lancaster, gave the red rose crowned, whose ancestors gave the fox tayle in his proper cooler, and the ostrych fether, the pen ermine,' the Henry here mentioned being the father of Blanche, wife of John of Gaunt. On the tomb of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII., at Worcester, the feather is shown both singly and in plume, and it occurs in the triple plume form within a coronet and a scroll with the words 'ICH DIEN' upon it, on bindings made by Thomas Berthelet for Prince Edward, son of Henry VIII., who never was Prince of Wales. It really seems as if the first 'Prince of Wales' actually to use the ostrich feather plumes as a personal badge of that dignity was Prince Henry, and it occurs largely on such books belonging to his library as he had rebound, and also on books that were specially bound for presentation to him. This is the case in one of the most decorative bindings he possessed, enclosing a collection of tracts originally the property of Henry VIII., but which somehow or other became the property of Magdalen College, Cambridge, the governing body of which had it bound in embroidered velvet and presented to Prince Henry. [Illustration: 30--Bacon, Opera. Londini, 1623.]