A

HANDSOME and evidently authoritative, though anonymous,

brochure with this title has recently been issued "to be obtained (One Shilling post free) from the Librarian, Bodleian Library, Oxford." A prefatory memorandum of the Bodleian's growth to the present time deserves quotation in full:—

"The first University Library in Oxford was founded in 1320 by Thomas Cobham, Bishop of Worcester, who built for it an upper chamber above the Convocation House on the north side of the choir of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. The Statutes for the governance of Cobham's Library were promulgated in 1412. Twenty-three years later Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, made to the University Library his first gift of books, followed in 1439, 1441, and 1444 by his splendid donations of precious manuscripts which enriched it for the study of literature, philosophy, and science. The new library, in which Duke Humfrey's books were housed in 1488 and which is called by his name, is still used as one of the reading-rooms of the Bodleian. In 1598 Sir Thomas Bodley took upon himself the cost of making the University Library fitte & handsome with seates & shelves & deskes and all that may be needful * ** being thoroughly persuaded that I could not busie myself to better purpose'. The Library, which thenceforth has borne Bodley's name, was opened in 1602. It now contains about 1,500,000 volumes, representing over two and a half million separate literary pieces, and over 40,000 manuscripts, not counting a very large collection of Charters and Rolls."

"In ten years' time," we are told," the . Bodleian will be overcrowded with books." By 1937, "unless in the meantime effective measures are taken, muddle and misplacement will begin to impair efficiency. Books will have to be piled on the floor, as was the case twenty years ago. We shall look down a vista of embarrassment to a state of paralysis." This is the nightmare which all modern librarians. see. It is acutely present at Bodley with its unlimited future of book accessions (now pouring in at a rate of over 20,000 a year) and the terribly limited possibilities of finding additional shelving space on its present site. Five proposed ways of dealing with the problem are listed and discussed:

There is little hope in the first, for books will continue to appear in increasing number and a great library cannot safely close its doors to any very large proportion of them; nor in the second, for the engineering difficulties are excessive and the Bodleian has already eaten into the bowels of the earth as far as is consistent with the safety of the surrounding buildings. The best that the writer can say for the third proposal-specifically, a series of buildings of ferro-concrete on University land at Wolvercote, near the paper mill-is that they would be a striking feature in the Upper River landscape, and might have a beauty "like that of the grain-elevators at Fort William and Port Arthur on the Great Lakes in Canada." It is conceded that they would not be convenient and that distinguished librarians have advised against such suburban annexes.

In line with the fourth plan, an enlargement of the present Bodleian above ground, a number of possibilities are mentioned: the disemboweling of the Clarendon Building for use as a book-stack, the construction of a wing joining the Clarendon Building to the present Library, roofing over the Bodleian quadrangle, and, lastly, the saving of much space in the existing stacks by introducing modern steel shelves and (strangest of all!) electric light. Against all the architectural changes involved in these alternative, but not mutually incompatible, proposals there are aesthetic objections to which the writer of the monograph shows himself very creditably sensitive. The worst is the idea of covering the Bodleian quadrangle; the best, and the one most approved by the writer, is the new wing. Though it would destroy a view, the tentative sketch provided is not inharmonious. But it might be well to begin with steel shelves (and steel doors) and electricity. The inflammatory possibilities of the latter are apparently not now what they were once thought to be, and any danger would probably be more than balanced by the greater security the former would give.

But the most promising suggestion for increasing the efficiency of the Bodleian would seem to be the last: to keep the present library much as it is and erect a new Bodleian in the University Parks. "A

suitable site for such a building,” the writer concludes, “would be the meadow lying between the entrance opposite Keble Road and the Norham Gardens lodge."

"A new Bodleian would cost £500,000. It would form part of a chain of great libraries extending from the Parks to the Camera in Radcliffe Square. In such a new building shelf-access could be given to approved readers. The new Bodleian could be open, like the Camera, from early morning till late at night. For its planning modern library experience (not least the experience of large libraries overseas) would be available. Modern equipment and modern methods of lighting could be introduced. And the new Bodleian would be within fairly easy reach of all residents in Oxford. It would entail the sacrifice of a large and beautiful meadow in the University Parks. But the broad path round the western and northern sides of the Parks could be left with a wide verge of shrubs and turf. The ground now used for games would not be curtailed. The beauty of the Parks would be lessened, but the large extension of the Parks beyond the Cherwell makes some compensation for the inroads which science has already made."

The monograph concludes with an appendix by Mr. D. L. Keir, Fellow of University College, describing the Harvard University Library, justly selected as a model of material equipment and convenience, if not of aesthetic beauty.

T

HE Editor was flattered to receive from Professor C. Eagleton of Washington Square College, New York University (Oklahoma and Worcester, '14), the following waggish and very interesting communication, which arrived just too late for publication in the last issue:—

"Dear Mr. Editor:

I have been unanimously elected by Mr. Quigley to report to the OXONIAN an item of interest to five Rhodes Scholars, not all of whom get their names into print as often as does he. It was a generous act on his part to allow me such a privilege; and should he, or anyone else, send in to you a similar notice, I trust that you will immediately cast it into the wagger-paggerbagger, and print only the official communication.

"Bearing in mind the Founder's ideals, five of us set out for Europe this summer to further international understanding. We were ably assisted in this project by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which included us in a party of some fifty teachers of international law and relations and made generous provision for all our expenses, besides arranging a remarkable program of investigation. The five were Quigley, Noble, Gooch, Van der Zee, and myself.

"It was a great trip. Why, at the Hague banquet, there must have been at least a hundred different articles of food on the table; and at those in Paris and Geneva the wine bottles bore names on their labels which I recall seeing in musty volumes of the past. Unfortunately, our program kept us so busy that we five were unable to take a mouette up to Bellerive for the two franc fish banquet which we intended to have; but then, we got enough to eat without it. The Carnegie Endowment knows how to treat its guests royally; and we felt quite affable and peaceful toward all the countries we visited.

"We acquired quite a deal of information, as, for example, that milk and tea is no longer what Americans abroad mix at tea time. Unfortunately, the Union for the Rational Extermination of Rats had perished before we arrived; but we got to see the Institute of Weights and Measures at Sévres. The Peace Palace at the Hague seemed to be a regular tourist spot; and I wondered, after hearing the Registrar of the Permanent Court say that many private persons, of staatlos character, appealed to the Court, whether all these people were coming for such a purpose. At the Hague there was also the Rittersaal, where one of the Hague Conferences was held, and the House in the Woods, where the other one met.

14

The American Oxonian

"At Geneva the League of Nations was still going, and so far as I could tell, was planning to continue. It was annexing a big house across the street and discussing the purchase, already accomplished, of several hundred fee of lake front beyond the new International Labour Office building. It is hard to conceive of a more beautiful background. There is something wrong about it all, though, for I have always heard in America that the League with its Article X is a bugaboo to frighten all honest sovereign states; and yet the League officials told us that it was not a superstate in fact, and that they believed in the sovereignty of state in theory as well. Probably there was something Machiavellian about that-the old diplomacy at work.

"And speaking of the old diplomacy, we actually saw it, for we sat in on the Conference of Signatories who were discussing our reservations to joining the World Court. The old diplomats were disguised as young fellows with soft shirts and generally honest appearance; but that, I imagine, was because they knew we would be there watching them. They seemed much puzzled over what the fifth reservation meant, which is absurd, because everyone knows that the United States is perfectly frank and clear in its diplomacy. As one of our Senators there told the English representative, they had no business calling the Conference anyhow. They should have signed individually on the dotted line as the Senate demanded.

"I almost forgot to tell what we did at Paris. Well, perhaps I had better omit that. But the French were quite nice. At the Quai d'Orsay they showed us the Treaty of Versailles, with Wilson's name signed first, and never said a word about betrayal. At the Sénat, however, where they served us champagne and picture postcards, the one-armed military gentleman who showed us around seemed to suggest that cancellation of their debts to us would be a good idea. Visits to the Chateau at Versailles, with its rooms filled to overflowing with pictures of the past military glories (except Waterloo), and to the Musée de la Guerre at Vincennes, were good propaganda for the cause of peace.

"We came back with whole notebooks full of worthy thoughts, but our feelings were so jumbled by the trip home that it is going to take some time to unscramble them. After having a man overboard, scraping the poles off a fishing vessel, and having a collision in midocean, we were visited by a hurricane which had degenerated into a mere breeze by the time it struck Florida. All that, however, was as nothing compared with going through the U. S. Customs at New York. My final conclusion is that the supervision of customs and passports, especially those of the United States, is the greatest need in international affairs.

"It is worthy of mention that we saw R. L. Henry, of the Mixed Court in Egypt, on a vacation in Geneva. He seems to enjoy his work.

Yours for the old diplomacy,

CLYDE EAGLETON."