The permanent endowment of the Library was commenced by the Founder in
this year, by the purchase, from Lord Norreys, of the manor of Hendons
by Maidenhead, worth annually £91 10s.; to which he added 'certain
tenements in London,' producing an annual rent of £40. From the former,
now called Hindhay farm, in the parishes of Bray and Cookham, Berks, the
Library receives an annual rent, at the present time, of about £220; the
latter, which consisted of houses situated in Distaff Lane, were sold in
1853, and the produce invested in £3455 10_s._ 3 per cent. Consols.
The first book which came from the Stationers' Company, in pursuance of
the Indenture made in Dec. 1610, was an anonymous catechetical work
printed in this year by Felix Kingston for Thomas Man, entitled,
'Christian Religion substantially, methodicallie, plainlie, and
profitablie treatised.' It is now numbered 4^o R. 34 Th., and a note in
Bodley's own handwriting records its presentation.
Twenty Arabic, Persian, and other MSS., were presented by -- Pindar,
Consul at Aleppo of the Company of English Merchants, whom Bodley three
years previously had requested to procure such books[55].
Among other minor matters which called forth the care of Bodley, was the
providing a bell for the purpose of giving notice when the Library was
about to be closed. After it had been placed in the Library some
accident appears to have happened to it, since we read in one of his
letters to James[56], 'As touching the bell, I would have it cast again,
and if my friends think it good, made somewhat better.' In 1655 a
bell-rope was bought at the price of 1_s._ 4_d._ Of late years, however,
the Founder's bell had altogether disappeared, and the fact of its very
existence was unknown, while a small hand-bell, suggestive of a
muffin-man, and, more recently, a hand-bell taken from a Chinese temple
at Tien-tsin, and presented by Col. Rigaud, supplied its place. But in
July, 1866, in the course of moving some boxes and rubbish buried under
some stairs, a mouldy bell of considerable size was dragged to light,
which proved to be the missing bell of the Founder. It was immediately
put by the Librarian into the hands of Messrs. White, of Appleton,
Berks, who fitted it with a frame and wheel; and now, restored to a
conspicuous place in the great room, it daily thunders forth an
unmistakeable signal for departure. Around it, in gold letters, runs the
inscription:--'Sir Thomas Bodley gave this bell, 1611.' The
bell-founder's initials, W. S., are accompanied by the device of a crown
between three bells.
Another relic of Bodley's furniture is a massy iron chest, fastened with
three locks, two of which are enormous padlocks, for the preservation of
the moneys of the Library, of which the keys used to be in the custody
of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors. This is now exhibited in the
Picture Gallery, on account of the extreme beauty of the ironwork of
the locks, which covers in its intricate ramifications the whole of the
inside of the lid. On the outside are painted the arms of the University
(with the older motto 'Sapientiæ et Fælicitatis') and of Bodley.
[55] Hearne's _Job. Glaston._ ii. 637.
[56] _Reliquiæ Bodl._ p. 314.