For Oxford, the fifteenth century was an age of libraries and books. Looking back upon it, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester seems its patron saint,--donor of books to the Benedictines who lived on the site of Worcester College, and to the University,--harbinger of the Bodleian. We can still catch the savour of the old libraries at Merton where the light coloured by painted glass used to inlay the gloom under the wooden roof, or behind the quiet latticed windows above the cloisters at Christ Church. “What pleasantness of teaching there is in books, how easy, how secret,” says Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, an old Oxford man, and the giver of the first library to Oxford. “They are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without angry words, without clothes or money. If you come to them, they are not asleep; if you ask and inquire of them, they do not withdraw themselves; they do not chide if you make mistakes; they do not laugh at you if you are ignorant. O [Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY The portion of the Library shown in the picture is a storey built above the Divinity School by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, son of Henry IV., and the spectator is looking east towards the wing added by Sir Thomas Bodley at the close of the sixteenth century. Books cover every available inch of wall space, but the trusses of the old timbered roof are visible, as are also the more modern galleries, supported by wooden columns. These are for obtaining access to books placed high in the Library. The strands of light which bar the centre aisle are from the south windows of the building, overlooking the Fellows’ Garden of Exeter College. The windows also serve to light the “studies,” the latticed and balustered doors of which may be seen standing open at intervals (see illustration of one of these “studies”). The cases in the immediate foreground are used for modern books. ]