Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/83

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their massive hinges turning " grated harsh thun- " der," and when shut, defied all human strength to open, led to the rooms which he occupied a library, a chapel, and a bedchamber. These are exactly as they were when inhabited by that no- bleman; their ornaments, furniture, and books, being neither altered, added to, or diminished. The first apartment is, like all the other rooms, small, dark, and inconvenient, in a situation suf- ficiently secluded, quiet, and secure, at the top of the tower which contained his own suite of apart- ments; the roof rudely carved, and the windows far above the head. Here we have a proof of the nobleman's attachment to letters, in a vast number of books, chiefly of controversial divinity, legen- dary history, and early translations of the classics; many of them inscribed in the first page with the hand of Lord William, in very good writing. Some MSS. of no great antiquity and as little value, are amongst the volumes, particularly a great wooden case above a yard in height, containing three Laves, on each of which are two pages of vellum fairly written with the legend of Joseph of Arimathea. The nature of the publications affords an agreeable and familiar idea of the fashionable reading of the day, as well as of Lord William's turn of mind, which seems to have pointed towards the gloomy

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