Note 119 — ANNALS OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The conditions imposed by the executors (which are printed in Gutch's Wood, ii. 943, and elsewhere) expressly stipulated that the books should be chained. As late as the year 1751 notices occur in the Librarian's account-books of the procuring additional chains for the Library. But the removal of them appears to have commenced as shortly afterwards as 1757, and in 1761 there was a payment for unchaining 1448 books at one halfpenny each. Several of the chains are still preserved loose, as relics.