(Vol. viii., p. 93.)
On a recent visit to Aberystwith, I walked to the mother church of
Llanbadarn, a fine old building, which I was glad to find, since a former
visit, was undergoing important repairs in its exterior. While inspecting
the interior, I requested the clerk to show me into the vestry, and upon
inquiring if the church possessed any black-letter Bible, Foxe's _Martyrs_,
or any of those volumes which at the Reformation were chained to the desks
or pews, he opened a case in the vestry, in which I was sorry to observe
many volumes, not of that early date, but about a century and a half old,
yet valuable in their day as well as at present, in a sad dilapidated
state, arising from the dampness of the room, which is without a
fire-place. Many of the volumes were the gift of a Doctor Fowle, with his
autograph, stating that they were given as a lending library to the
parishioners.
The present incumbent is the Rev. ---- Hughes, a very excellent and zealous
pastor, with the modern church in Aberystwith annexed, who should this
narrative meet his eye, or be communicated to him, might be induced to make
inquiries into the losses which had taken place, and prevent farther
dilapidations and decay, in what was no doubt, once considered a valuable
acquisition to the inhabitants of the parish.
Permit me to add, that in a room over the entrance porch of that venerable
Saxon church St. Peter in the East, at Oxford, there is a large lending
library for the use of the parishioners, largely contributed to by several
of its recent and present zealous incumbent, and to which church so much
has lately been done to remove former eye-sores, and to render it one of
the most chastely decorated and best attended parish churches in the
University.