as they should have done.  But seeing that this was useless, Mr. Casley, deputy librarian, hastened to rescue the famous Alexandrian Ms. in the Royal library, and the books in the Cottonian press named Augustus, as being considered the most valuable.  These are principally charts, maps, grants, and papal bulls, all relating to early English history.  Several of the presses were then removed bodily, but as the fire spread with alarming rapidity, and there was a delay in the arrival of the engines, it was discovered none too soon, that the backs of some of the presses were on fire.  Then the books were seized and thrown out of windows, after which they were carried into Westminster School and the Little Cloisters.  By permission of the Dean and Chapter they subsequently found a temporary home in a new building that had been erected as a dormitory for the school.

A committee was at once appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the amount of injury sustained.  It was found that a great number of manuscripts had suffered from the engine-water, as well as from fire, and the report of the commissioners stated, that out of 958 volumes of MSS. 746 were unharmed, and 98 partially injured.

The press named Otho had suffered the most.  In the table drawn up by Casley in his appendix to the Royal library, not one volume in Otho is seen to be intact; 16 are marked defective, 55 as lost, burnt, or defaced so as not to be distinguishable.  Vitellius was the next greatest sufferer, 46 volumes being preserved, 28 defective, and 34 seriously damaged.  Vespasian, with its fine collection of historical materials for the history of England and Scotland, its dramas in Old English verse, and the famous Coventry Mystery Plays and others happily escaped altogether.* Casley’s figures differ slightly from those of the commissioners:  out of a total of 958 volumes, he notes 748 as uninjured, 99 as defective, and 111 as lost, burnt, or defaced.

* Narrative of the Fire which happened at Ashburnham House, 23rd October 1731.  Report of the committee appointed by the House of Commons.

On the 1st November the work of restoration began, and was carried out by Bentley, Casley, three clerks from the Record Office, a bookbinder, and others.  The Speaker of the House of Commons was frequently present.  Some of the MSS. inclined to mildew were dried before a fire.  Some would have rotted if they had not been taken out of their bindings, so thoroughly had the water permeated.  The paper books which had received stains were taken to pieces and plunged into the softest cold water that could be procured, and when the stains disappeared they were put into alum and water, and then hung upon lines to dry.