Library of Manchester.

The See of Manchester having been created during the compilation of these Notes would naturally occasion me to notice any Library which might have existed in connection with that establishment. There is however no Library attached to the Collegiate Church, now the Cathedral of Manchester. There were a few books sold about twenty or five and twenty years ago by the Churchwardens of that time, which consisted chiefly of Divinity; Jewel’s Apology; Hooker’s Works; Fox’s Book of Martyrs, &c.; many of them in a dilapidated state, and very few perfect among them. They appear to have been books placed in the Church for the use of the congregation at large, rather than a Capitular Library.

It is probable that Humphrey Chetham, when he founded his Hospital, in what was formerly the College or Capitular buildings belonging to the Collegiate Church of Manchester, intended the Library which he established there to supply the deficiency of a Chapter Library. This Collection is remarkable as the most easily accessible in the United Kingdom. Any person, however humble in station, or homely in appearance, whencesoever he may come, has a right to demand a sight of any book in the Library. This rare facility of access has not been without its abuses, since some volumes have been mutilated, and in severe weather, as in the National Gallery of London, many persons come and ask for a book of light reading for the sake of a warm and comfortable apartment.

A well arranged Catalogue of this Collection under the title of Bibliotheca Chethamensis seu Bibliothecæ Publicæ Mancuniensis ab Humph. Chetham Arm. fundatæ Catalogus, was edited by John Radcliffe in 1791, in 2 vols. 8vo. to which a third volume edited by William Parr Gresswell was added in 1826, with a copious index to the whole Collection.