a northern tour by the aib
The next day we visited the library of Ushaw College, a Roman Catholic school and seminary still containing a few books from the library of Douai College in a building partly designed by AWN Pugin. The other visit was to spectacular Alnwick Castle, where books shown by kind permission of the Duke of Northumberland included an exquisite manuscript translation of Ecclesiastes, made for Anne Boleyn (once a Y anced to the Duke’s forebear Harry Percy) and her daughter’s warrant for the execution of the seventh Earl in 1572. The visit to Durham finished with dinner in the impressive setting of the Hall of Durham Castle. Bowes Museum came as a surprise. The superb collection, set in an unexpected French-style chateau amidst the Durham countryside, was made by Joséphine and John Bowes in the mid-nineteenth cen- tury and focuses on the decorative arts, so the books and manuscripts are little known. Indeed, several discoveries were made in compil- ing the display. We saw, among other things, some good Italian and French bindings, overshadowed by a magnificent Portolan Atlas by the cartographer Jean-François Roussin (Marseilles, 1644). From there, members had the choice of examining the country house libraries either of Castle Howard (‘This place is kinda swell’, com- mented one American) or of Harewood House. The York sessions began with a lecture by Professor Brian Cummings on ‘The Archbishop of York and the Reformation of the Minster Library’. The library showed treasures including Royal books: Catherine of Aragon’s prayer book was notably more utilitarian than her successor’s book shown in Alnwick while mother-in-law Elizabeth of York apparently owned a Wycli Y te New Testament from the early fifteenth century. There was a missal slashed by Protestant reformists and Archbishop Tobie Matthew’s preaching diary from 1583–1622, shown, incongruously, beside a table of material relating to Jonathan Martin who almost burned the Minster down in 1829. At the University Library we saw (among other things) incunabula, Stuart manuscripts and an outstanding group of bindings by ‘Edwards of Halifax’ alongside some of the workshop’s binding tools. Within the university, the Borthwick Institute for Archives produced manuscript material relating to Laurence Sterne and the Brontes, as well as a fascinating diary kept
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