The College Library has received during the past term a number of rare and interesting books:

Very recently a collection of the works of Dean Swift was bought from the library of Col. Frederick Grant, costing fifty-five pounds. The collection also includes a number of books written by authors contemporaneous with Swift, relating to him. The most valuable of these books are a bound volume of the "Drapier Letters" and two volumes of the first edition of "Gulliver's Travels." Both works cost ten guineas each. The volume of the "Drapier Letters" is particularly interesting as it contains the very first editions of the "Letters" published, only a few of which are now in existence. The books, with a few exceptions, were published between the years 1710 and 1740.

Besides these works, the Library has just received a book, entitled "Five Straws Gathered from Revolutionary Sources," by Henry Bingham, Jr., 2G., an instructor in the History department. It contains five letters, the originals of which are in the Library, written by William Weeks, a paymaster in the Revolutionary forces, describing the conditions of the American army during the Revolution. The book is handsomely bound and is printed in old fashioned type.

"Ten Fac-Simile Reproductions Relating to Old Boston and Neighborhood," by S. A. Green '51 ex-mayor of Boston, is a book containing fac-similes of the following documents: The earliest American newspaper, printed in 1690; Hubbard's map of New England, 1677; the Rev. Samuel Willard's "Useful Instructions," 1673; the earliest Boston imprint, 1675; the earliest medical treatise printed in this country, 1678; the earliest book-eatalogue published in America, 1693; Bonner's map of Boston, 1722; the earliest print of Harvard College, 1726; a plot of Cambridge Common, 1784; Butler's map of Groton, Massachusetts, 1832. The print of Harvard College gives a view of the three buildings, Harvard, Stoughton and Massachusetts, in 1726. Massachusetts is the only one of the three that is still standing. The plot of Cambridge Common was drawn by Joshua Green of the class of 1784, the grandfather of the author, and is understood to have been an exercise in connection with his first college degree. It is a plan of Cambridge Common, with the adjacent roads and buildings, together with some sketches of College buildings.

Other acquisitions are, "A General History of the Philippines," by Juan de la Concepcion, a work in fourteen volumes curiously bound and printed in 1790 at the Convent of our Lady of Loretto; and an album containing the portraits of students who attended the Round Hill School at Northampton, Massachusetts. The Album is interesting as almost all the portraits are of men who later became famous either as scholars or statesmen.

The following are among the old books received:

"The State of Christendom," by Sir Henry Wotton, published in London in 1657; "Dramatic Sketches of Ancient Northern Mythology," by Frank Sayres, published in London in 1790;" "The World," by Adam Fits-Adam, published in London in 1753-56; and the "Anthologia Hibernia, or Collections of Science Belles-Letters and History," published in Dublin in 1793-94.