Among the many treasures of St. Edmund’s College, Ware, are a number of old Catholic Prayer-Books. Their preservation is mainly due to the zeal and insight of Father Raymund Stanfield. Amongst them is a copy of the famous old Manual: A Manual of Prayers and Litanies: Distributed according to the Days of the Week. With other Excellent Devotions fitted for all Persons and Occasions. Last Edition much corrected. Permissu Superiorum, 1688. It is a 12mo. volume, singularly compact though actually containing no less than 564 beautifully printed pages. From the foreword ‘To the Pious Reader’ we learn that the present edition is ‘purg’d from many, both gross Errata’s in the Print, and improprieties in the Translations’; the Hymns are ‘rendered according to the Corrected Latin of P. Urban VIII (now generally used in the Church), and those too in far more Musical Numbers.’

The Calendar which follows is peculiarly interesting. In January alone twenty British Saints are commemorated or their feasts kept; in February twenty-two; in March twenty-seven; in April twenty-six, and so on.