Whatever may have been the discomfort of this library according to our ideas, there is good reason for believing that it was in use till 1591, when Dean Williams fitted up part of the Dorter as a library for the use of the Dean and Canons[194]. The practice of placing the book-press in the cloister obtained with equal force in France, for the Benedictines who wrote the _Voyage Litteraire_, and who would of course be well acquainted with what was usual in their own Order, remark with surprise when they visit the ancient abbey of Cruas on the Rhone, that the press is in the church. On voit encore dans l'eglise l'armoire ou on enfermoit les livres, contre la coutume des autres monasteres de l'ordre, qui avoient cette armoire dans le cloitre. On y lit ces vers d'un caractere qui peut avoir cinq cent ans: Pastor jejunat qui libros non coadunat Nec panem praebet subjectis quem dare debet[195]. A shepherd starves whose store of books is low: Nor can he on his flock their due bestow. No example of an English book-press has survived, so far as I know, but it would be rash to say that none exists; nor have I been so fortunate as to find one in France, though I have taken a great deal of pains to obtain information on the subject. In default of a press made specially to hold books, I must content myself with representations of two well-known pieces of furniture--both preserved in French churches. The first (fig. 26) stands in the upper sacristy of the Cathedral of Bayeux, over the south transept. The name usually given to it, _le Chartrier de Bayeux_, implies that it was made to hold documents. M. Viollet-le-Duc does not accept this view, but considers that it contained reliquaries, with which he probably would not object to associate other articles of church-plate. [Illustration: Fig. 26. Part of the ancient press in Bayeux Cathedral, called _Le Chartrier de Bayeux_. From a photograph.] [Illustration: Fig. 27. Press in the church at Obazine, Central France. From a photograph.] It is of oak, very coarse, rough, and massive. It is 9 ft. 3 inches high, from floor to top, 17 ft. 2 inches long--(it was originally 3 ft. longer)--and 3 ft. deep. There are two rows of cupboards each 3 ft. 8 inches high, with massive doors that still preserve their original ironwork. The whole piece of furniture has once been painted, indications of which still exist, but the subjects can no longer be made out. M. Viollet-le-Duc[196], who possibly saw the paintings when they were in a better state of preservation than when I examined them in 1896, decides that they once represented the translation of relics.