The wonderful collection of Early English poetry known as 'the Vernon
MS.,' was presented 'soon after the Civil Wars' by Col. Edward Vernon,
of Trinity College, who had been an officer in the royal army. One who
bore the same name, doubtless the same person, of North Aston, Oxon, was
created D.C.L. Aug. 6, 1677; it was probably therefore about that time
that the MS. was presented. The volume is described in Bernard's
Catalogue, 1697, p. 181, as being a 'vast massy manuscript;' and very
correctly. Its measurements are these: length of page, 22-1/2 inches;
length of written text, 17-1/2 inches; breadth of page, 15 inches;
breadth of written text, 12-1/2 inches. It is written in triple columns,
on 412 leaves of stout vellum; and having been clad of late years in a
proportionate russia binding, is altogether a Goliath among books. In
date it is of the early part of the fourteenth century. Its first
article bears the titles of 'Salus Animæ' and 'Sowle-Hele,' and its
chief contents are Lives of the Saints, Hampole's _Prick of Conscience_,
Grosteste's _Castle of Love_, Hampole's _Perfect Living_, the treatise
on _Contemplative Life_, the _Mirror of S. Edmund_, the _Abbey of the
Holy Ghost_, and _Piers Plowman_; besides a multitude of smaller pieces,
several of which have been recently copied with a view to publication by
the Early English Text Society[137]. Fifty copies of a brief list of the
contents (numbering altogether 161 articles) were printed by J. O.
Halliwell, Esq., in 1848. A MS., similar in size and contents, was
presented to the British Museum a few years ago by Sir John Simeon; it
is, apparently, the work of the same scribe as the Bodleian book.
[137] This Society has also just issued Part 1. of Piers Plowman from
this MS., edited by W. W. Skeat, M.A. (Oct. 1867).