Morton, that Bishop Poore, who died in 1237, might have been the original author of the _Ancren Riwle_, is by no means improbable, and deserves farther inquiry. The error as to Simon of Ghent is due, in the first place, not to Dr. Smith, but to Richard James (Sir Robert Cotton's librarian), who wrote on the fly-leaves of all the MSS. in the Cottonian Library a note of their respective contents, and who is implicitly followed by Smith. Wanley is more blamable, and does not here evince his usual critical accuracy, but (as remarked by Mr. Morton) he could only have looked at a few pages of the work. The real fact seems to be that Simon of Ghent made the abridged Latin version of the seven books of the _Riwle_ now preserved in Magdalen College, and this supposition may well enough be reconciled with the words of Leland, who says of him,-- "Edidit inter caetera, libros _septem_ de Vita Solitaria, {6} ad Virgines Tarentinas, Duriae cultrices."--_Comment_., p. 316. A second copy of the Latin version was formerly in the Cottonian collection (Vitellius E. vii.), but no fragment of it has hitherto been recovered from the mass of burnt crusts and leaves left after the fire of 1731. I am happy, however, to add, that within the last few months, the manuscript marked Vitellius F. vii., containing a French translation of the _Riwle_, made in the fourteenth century (very closely agreeing with the vernacular text), has been entirely restored, except that the top margins of the leaves have been burnt at each end of the volume. This damage has, unfortunately, carried away the original heading of the treatise, and the title given us by Smith is copied partly from James's note. This copy of the French version appears to be unique, and is the more interesting from its having a note at the end (now half obliterated by the fire), stating that it belonged to Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, whose motto is also added, "_Plesance. M [mil]. en vn_." The personage in question was Eleanor, daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and wife of Thomas of Woodstock, who ended her days as a nun in the convent at Barking in 1399. Is any other instance known of the use of this motto? Before I conclude these brief remarks, I may mention a _fifth_ copy of the _Ancren Riwle_, which has escaped the notice of Mr. Morton. It is buried in the enormous folio manuscript of old English poetry and prose called the Vernon MS., in the Bodleian Library, written in the reign of Richard II., and occurs at pp. 371^b.--392. In the table of contents prefixed to this volume it is entitled "The Roule of Reclous;" and although the phraseology is somewhat modernised, it agrees better with the MS. Cleopatra C. vi, than with Nero A. xiv., from which Mr. Morton's edition is printed. This copy is not complete, some leaves having been cut out in the sixth book, and the scribe leaves off at p. 420. of the printed edition.