NOTE OF A MS. VOLUME OF CHRONICLES AT REIGATE.
Amongst the objects of the useful medium of literary communication afforded by the publication of "NOTES AND QUERIES," one appears to be a record of the casual notice of "some book or some edition, hitherto unknown or imperfectly described." I am induced therefore to inquire, whether the existence of an ancient MS. volume of Chronicles, which I have recently noticed in the little library adjoining Reigate Church, is already known to those who investigate out monastic annals? This volume may probably not have escaped their research, especially since the republication and extension of Wharton's Collection, have been recently proposed. A chronological series of chronicles relativing to the see of Canterbury was announced amongst the projected publications of the "Anglia Christiana Society."
The Reigate library, of which brief mention is made in Manning's and Bray's _History of Surrey_ (vol. i. p. 314.) without any notice of its contents, is preserved in the upper chamber of a building on the north side of the chancel, erected in 1513, and designated as a "vestibulum" in a contemporary inscription. The collection is small, and amoungst the most interesting volumes is a small folio, in the original oaken boards covered with white leather, presented to the library, 7. June, 1701, by William Jordan, of Gatwick, in the adjacent parish of Charlwood, probably the same person who was member for the borough of Reigate in 1717. Of previous possessors of the book nothing is recorded. It comprises several concise chronicles, which may be thus described:--
1. "Cathologus Romanorum Pontificum:"--imperfect, commencing with fol. 11; some leaves also lost at the end. It closes with the year 1359, in the times of Innocent VI.
2. "De Imperatoribus Romanis:"--from Julius Cæsar to the election and coronation of Charles IV. after the death of the emperor Lewis of Bavaria, and the battle of Cressy, in 1347.
3. "Compilacio Cronicorum de diversis Archiepiscopis ecclesie Cantuariensis:"--the chronicle of Stephen Birchington, a monk of Canterbury, printed by Wharton, from a MS. in the Lambeth collection. The text varies in many particulars, which may be of minor moment, but deserve collation. The writing varies towards the close, as if the annals had been continued at intervals; and they close with the succession of Archibishop William de Witleseye, in 1368, as in the text printed by Wharton (_Anglia Sacra_, vol. i. pp. 1-48.).