Page:Historical and biographical sketches.djvu/231

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ZIONITISCHER WEYRAUCHS HÜGEL.
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which these hymns were sung, were beautifully written and illuminated with full page decorations of flowers and birds by the brethren and sisters. One of them is now in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and another, with different designs, in a private library in Philadelphia. Ephrata is believed to be the last place in the world where the middle-age art of illuminating manuscripts was preserved and practiced.

A well-known New England collector who has since met with a sad fate, succeeded a few years ago in finding a copy of the Weyrauchs Hügel, for which he paid $40. Unfortunately, it lacked a title-page. Its owner, hearing of a gentleman living in the interior of Montgomery County, Pa., who would be more likely than any one else to be able to supply the omission, made him a visit and offered him $10 for the missing leaf. The gentleman referred to, with a tender sympathy for the plight of his antiquarian friend, went out to the Snow Hill Institution in Franklin County, and luckily found what was needed to complete the copy.