I may appropriately mention here a remarkable Pontifical formerly belonging to the Church of Canterbury, and, as Bishop Reeves remarked to me, probably “contrectatus manibus S. Thomae de Becket.” In this the sentence of ordination of priests is in the old form, and in the margin is added, in a much later hand, the new form as adopted by the Church of Rome before the Reformation, and retained in our Ordinal.[131] In Celtic literature we are tolerably rich. Part of our collection came to us, as already mentioned, by gift from Sir John Sebright, who had purchased the books at Edward Lhuyd’s sale. Amongst these is the _Book of Leinster_, a large folio of about the twelfth century, of very varied contents--historical, romantic, genealogical, and hagiological. The entire text has been published in lithographed fac-simile at the joint expense of Trinity College and the Royal Irish Academy, with a preface by Professor R. Atkinson. When this MS. was presented to our Library, eleven leaves were missing. These were found, however, and identified by Dr. Todd, in the Monastery of St. Isidore in Rome, whither they had gone from the Irish College in Louvain. They are now deposited in the Franciscan Monastery in Dublin. The history of the _Book of Lecain_ or _Leacan_, another important Irish MS., forms a curious counterpart to that of the _Book of Leinster_. The former was included in Ussher’s collection, and was in our Library in 1688 when the catalogue was compiled. It is there recorded, however, that nine leaves were wanting. It is stated by Nicolson (_Irish Historical Library_, p. 39), on the authority of Dr. Raymond, that the book was lodged in Paris by Sir John Fitzgerald in the time of James II. If so, this must have been very soon after the catalogue was compiled. In 1787, through the Abbé Kearney of Paris, it was sent to the Royal Irish Academy, then recently founded, and in their Library it is now preserved. The nine missing folios were found by O’Curry in one of the Sebright volumes (H. 2, 17). Although the original _Book of Lecain_ has thus passed from us, we possess a beautiful copy (on vellum) written by Eugene O’Curry in the old Irish hand. It is worth noting that the professional scribe still exists in Ireland, and writes a hand undistinguishable from that of his predecessors many centuries ago. In connection with the history of these two volumes, it is not inappropriate to mention that of another important volume, the _Book of Ballymote_. This was formerly in Trinity College Library, but was lent in 1720 to Dr. Raymond, and for a time disappeared. In 1769 it turned up at Drogheda, and being purchased by Chevalier O’Gorman, was by him presented to the Royal Irish Academy in 1785. We possess a paper copy of a portion of it, including one folio which is now missing from the original volume.