The Salopian - Winter 2021

SCHOOL NEWS 47
family, and equally to establishments where the ‘book/
tome’ itself is respected and safeguarded and accessed’. We
certainly pledge to fulfil this wish. The books will go on semipermanent
display in the glass cabinets in the Moser Library
Foyer, which will be specially adapted for the purpose.
of rare items in our collections and to update our catalogues
accordingly.
Sotheby’s Fine Art specialists at work in the picture storage archive.
Taylor Library Enquiries
We have had the usual steady stream of scholarly enquiries
about items in the Taylor Library. Some highlights include:
Request from Director of Special Collections at Drew
University in the USA regarding our Liber Chronicarum
(Book of Chronicles), Die Schedelsche Weltchronik,
Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493 for scans of the manual
defacement by a protestant reader of references to the Pope.
Rev Dr Mark Earngey of Moore Theological College in
Sydney Australia requested details of books in the Library
from the collection of the 16th century Bishop, John Ponet,
a friend of Roger Ascham, whose books we do hold. There
were none.
Enquiry from Dr Michael Metcalf regarding the Travel
Diaries and Papers of William George Brown (1768 – 1813),
particularly those relating to his time in the Ottoman Empire
between 1800 and 1803.
Dr Antje Carrel, of Lincoln College Oxford, requested
images of our MS 3 (15th century), a collection of sermons
by the Yorkshire hermit, Richard Rolle of Hampole. He
particularly wanted text that interprets the Mass and defines
its merits.
The Sistine books arrive in the Taylor Library in August 2021
Sotheby’s Valuation
At the behest of the Board of Governors, Sotheby’s made a
visitation to the School over five days in July. This was the
first full valuation, for insurance purposes, of the Collections
in the Taylor Library since 1998. The lists of items for review
dating from this previous visitation lacked shelf marks
and had eccentric descriptions, so we had a major task to
research, record and locate all items for review. This took a
couple of months of intense work to complete, using a range
of research tools. Though onerous, this work provided us
with a rich opportunity to look deeply into the whole range
The Archives
We have handled a large and fascinating array of enquiries,
accessions and donations great and small. The following are
the more memorable examples:
Of outstanding interest is the request by Laurence Le
Quesne to lodge his diaries in the School Archives. He
is former Head of History and an exceptional schoolmaster
of his generation (mostly at Shrewsbury from 1952 to 1989).
Laurence kept a detailed diary from 1954 until early 2019
(64 years, no less) without a single day missed. It is a superb
piece of writing of a consistently high standard that captures
with great clarity and colour days at Shrewsbury over nearly
40 years, as well as his times away teaching history at
Tasmania University (1957-61) and Sydney University (1964-
69) and his great journeys by sea and rail around the world.
They are a record of teaching, daily life at school over the
changing years, personalities, places and memories. But they
are much wider than just records of school and university
teaching. Laurence’s lifelong active church membership
is reflected in the pages; also travels and places faithfully
captured and seminal events in the wider world from the
Cold War to changing mores and politics in society. Above
all, perhaps, they capture the special joy and flavour of the
unique atmosphere of Shrewsbury School, its intellectual style
and rigour, its magnificent site, great colleagues, laughter,
sport, conversations and intense discussions in the Socratic