part iii

. It appears to be an epitaph by a husband in memory of his wife. The stone is now kept in one of the Sub-librarians' studies.

Thomas Shaw, the well-known Eastern traveller, bequeathed his collection of natural curiosities, which was sent to the Ashmolean Museum, and the MS. of his own travels, with corrections, and other papers. Copies of Caxton's _Game of the Chesse_ and _Recuyell of Troye_ were given by Mr. James Bowen, of Shrewsbury, painter[214].

[213] Hearne's _Diary_, xcvii. 12.

[214] A MS. vol. of collections by him relating to the history of Shropshire, dated 1768, is among Gough's books, Salop MS. 20.

A.D. 1753.

In May of this year died Henry Hyde, Lord Cornbury, son of Henry Hyde, Earl of Rochester, and great-grandson of the great Earl of Clarendon. He had made a will bequeathing all the Chancellor's MSS. to the University of Oxford, to be printed at their press, and the profits to be devoted to a school for riding and other athletic exercises in the University, should such an institution be accepted, or else to other approved uses. Dying before his father, through the effects of an accident, his bequest was void, as he was never actually in possession of the papers to which it referred; but after the death of his father in Dec. following, his sisters, who were the co-heiresses, carried out his will, by sending all the Clarendon MSS. in their possession to the University on the same conditions[215]. From these was published in 1759 (in which year the papers appear to have been deposited in the Library) the _Life_ of the first Earl, reprinted in several editions up to the year 1827. This was followed, in 1767-73, by the publication, under the editorship of Dr. Rich. Scrope, of Magd. Coll., of vols. i., ii. of a selection from the _State Papers_; of which vol. iii. appeared under the editorship of Mr. Thos. Monkhouse, of Queen's Coll., in 1786. During the progress of this publication, however, the original collection of MSS. papers was very largely increased by the acquisition of various portions which had long before been detached. Some were obtained, before the publication of vol. i., from the executors of Rich. Powney, LL.D.; and many were presented to the University, before the publication of vol. ii., by the Radcliffe Trustees, who had bought them for £170 when sold by auction in 1764 by the executors of Joseph Radcliffe, Esq., one of the executors to Edward, third Earl of Clarendon, who died in 1723. Dr. Douglas (afterwards Bishop of Salisbury), who was employed in the latter purchase, himself bought and gave some MSS. which had belonged to Mr. Guthrie, and was instrumental also in procuring some letters from Viscountess Middleton, &c. Again, before the publication of vol. iii. many further papers were purchased by the Radcliffe Trustees from a Mr. Richards, near Salisbury (from whose father Mr. Powney had obtained his portion), and from Mr. W. M. Godschall, of Albury, Surrey. And lastly, about eight or ten years ago, several boxes (including Clarendon's own iron-bound _escritoire_), containing miscellaneous papers, were forwarded by the Clarendon Trustees in final discharge of their trust.

A MS. of the _History of the Rebellion_, in seven volumes, together with one of the _Contemplations_, in three volumes, was forwarded in 1785 or 1786 by the Duke of Queensbury. The former MS. appears to be that from which the first edition was printed by the Earl of Rochester[216].

A complete Calendar of the _Clarendon State Papers_ is now in progress under the care of several editors. As far as it has advanced, it has proved the good judgment and the extreme correctness with which the printed selection was made; but as that selection ended with the Restoration, while the papers themselves reach on to 1667, the year of the Earl's banishment, the later portion may be expected to contain much of fresh interest and value.

It was in this year also that the first portion of the MSS. of Thomas Carte, the 'Englishman' and historian, came to the Library. It has been universally supposed that his voluminous and invaluable collections came _en masse_ subsequently to his death, but the Library Register shows that Oxford was indebted to him for a considerable and important portion during his life. In this year we find that he sent the papers which relate to the life of the great Duke of Ormonde, with a large number of others bearing on the history of Ireland from the time of Queen Elizabeth, comprised in thirty volumes folio and quarto. In the following year, shortly before his death (which occurred on April 2, 1754) he forwarded twenty-six more of his Irish volumes, in folio, marked A, B, C, D, &c. And in 1757 nine more of the same series were forwarded by his widow from Caldecot, near Abingdon, according to an entry in the old Catalogue, which appears to correspond to one in the annual Register to the effect that four more boxes were forwarded by the executors, 'by order of Rev. Mr. Hill.' The remainder of his collections were left in the hands of his widow, who, re-marrying to Mr. Nicholas Jernegan, or Jerningham (of the family seated at Cossey, Norfolk), bequeathed them, upon her death, to him, with the reversion to the University of Oxford. While they were in Mr. Jernegan's possession they were largely used by Macpherson for his publication of _State Papers_, for which use of them £300 were paid; and the agreement entered into by the publisher Cadell, when borrowing some of them for this purpose, is preserved in the MS. Catalogue of the collection. In 1778, however, Mr. Jernegan disposed of his life-interest to the University, for (as Nichols[217] was informed by Price) the sum of £50, and the remainder were consequently at once transferred to the Library. The collection numbers altogether 180 volumes in folio, fifty-four in quarto, and seven in octavo, besides several bundles of Carte's own papers; and is accompanied by a very full list of contents, compiled by Carte himself, in one folio volume. The mass of papers relating to Ireland which these volumes contain is enormous, drawn chiefly from the stores accumulated by Ormonde at Kilkenny Castle; to which are added miscellaneous historical collections derived from Lords Huntingdon, Sandwich, and Wharton. There are, also, several volumes of extracts and papers, collected with immediate reference to Carte's _History of England_. And a third, and especially interesting, portion consists of the papers of Mr. David Nairne, under-secretary to James II during his exile, which reach from 1692 to 1718, and fill two volumes in folio and eight or nine in quarto. It was from these that Macpherson chiefly compiled his _Original Papers_, published in 1775, in 2 vols., 4^o. A Report upon the contents of the collection, with special reference to Ireland (omitting the Nairne papers) was made to the Master of the Rolls by T. Duffus Hardy, Esq., and Rev. J. S. Brewer in 1863, and was printed in the following year, together with an extremely useful summary of the contents of the various volumes, and a reference-table of the letters, &c., printed by Carte in his Ormonde volumes. In consequence of this Report, two Commissioners (the Rev. Dr. Russell, President of Maynooth, and J. P. Prendergast, Esq.) were appointed to examine the whole series, and select for transcription all historical and official papers of interest relating to Ireland, with a view to the preservation of copies in the Record Office at Dublin. Several transcribers are therefore now continuously employed in transcribing for this purpose the papers selected by the Commissioners. Some notice of the MSS. is to be found in the Record Commission Report for 1800, p. 354.

[215] On Feb. 4, 1868, a scheme for the appropriation of the accumulated fund (now amounting to about £12,000), which had been approved by the Clarendon Trustees, was accepted by Convocation. The money is to be applied to the erection of laboratories, &c., at the University Museum, for the Professor of Experimental Philosophy.

[216] In the Benefaction Book this gift is entered under 1793, but it is mentioned in the Preface to vol. iii. of the _State Papers_, dated May 29, 1786, as having been '_lately_' given. Another copy of part of the _History_, partly written by William Edgeman, who was Hyde's secretary at Scilly and during his first exile, came to the Library among Rawlinson's MSS., by whom it was bought at the sale of the Chandos Library in 1747 for £1 10_s._!

[217] _Lit. Anecd._ ii. 514.

A.D. 1754.

In this year the MS. collections of Rev. John Walker, D.D., of Exeter (son of Endymion Walker, of Exeter; born 1674, dec. 1747[218]), from which he compiled his valuable and laborious work, _The Sufferings of the Clergy_, were forwarded to the Library by his son, William Walker, a druggist in Exeter, as appears from a letter from the latter preserved among papers relating to the Library in the Librarian's study. The annual accounts, however, mention the gift under the year 1756. Dr. Walker had expressed in his book (_pref._ p. xliii.) his intention to deposit his papers in some public repository, and his purpose was fortunately thus carried out. The papers have recently been bound, and now form twelve volumes in folio and eleven in quarto, with a few papers still in bundles[219]. A large number of letters from many among the sufferers and their representatives are here preserved; but, unfortunately, Walker's own handwriting is often hard to decipher. Many pamphlets which belonged to him (identified by the peculiar handwriting in MS. notes) are amongst a vast series recently bound and placed in continuation of the Godwyn Tracts; and several volumes of pamphlets written by Dissenters were given by himself in the years 1719-21.

The name of Hogarth occurs in the list of donors, as presenting his two engravings of the _Analysis of Beauty_, which he had published in the preceding year.

[218] His successor in his Exeter prebend was appointed in that year.

[219] The present writer, in answer to an enquiry in _Notes and Queries_ in 1862 (3rd series, i. 218), said that these papers were amongst the _Rawlinson_ MSS. This mistake arose from the fact that the least important portion had recently been found in a mass of papers belonging to that collection, but they did not at any time themselves form part of it.

A.D. 1755.

This year is remarkable for the number and variety of the collections with which, during its course, the Library was enriched, comprehending those of Rawlinson, Furney, St. Amand, and Ballard.

On April 6 died Richard Rawlinson, D.C.L., a Bishop among the Non-jurors, notwithstanding that he passed in the world as a layman. From the time of Bodley, Laud, and Selden, he was the greatest benefactor the Library had known; and his only rivals since his own day have been Gough and Douce. In point of numbers, his donation of MSS. far exceeded all. From the short autobiographical notice of himself, given in his own collections for a continuation of the _Athenæ Oxon._ (where he has inserted a small portrait of himself, engraved, without his name, by Van der Gucht), we learn the following particulars. He was born Jan. 3, 1689/90, in the Old Bailey, his father being Sir Thos. Rawlinson, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1706. On March 9, 1707/8 (having been previously at St. Paul's School and Eton), he was matriculated as a commoner of St. John's College; but in consequence of the death of his father in the same year, he became a gentleman-commoner in 1709; B.A., Oct. 10, 1711[220]; M.A., July 5, 1713; Governor of Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals, 1713; F.R.S., 1714; ordained (among the Non-jurors) Deacon, Sept. 21, and Priest, Sept. 23, 1716[221]. He then travelled through the whole of England, except some of the northern parts, and in 1719 went into Normandy, where, while staying at Rouen, he received from Oxford the degree of D.C.L. by diploma of June 30. Thence he went to the Low Countries, where, in Sept., he was admitted into the Universities of both Utrecht and Leyden, and returned into England in Nov. On June 12 in the following year, he started on a longer journey, which he extended through Holland, France, Germany, the whole of Italy, and Sicily, to Malta; and returned on the death of his elder brother Thomas, also a well-known book-collector, in 1726. During his six years' travels, he had seen, he remarks, four Popes[222]. Admitted F.S.A. May 10, 1727. On March 25, 1728, he was consecrated Bishop, by Bishops Gandy, Doughty, and Blackbourne, in Gandy's Chapel[223]. Appointed a Governor of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in March, 1733. He resided at London House, Aldersgate, so called from having been in early days a mansion of the Bishops of London. During his lifetime he was a constant benefactor to the Library; in the years 1733-4-5-7-8-9 and 1750, he is entered in the great Register for special gifts of coins, books, and pictures. Some hundreds of printed books, now in the gallery called '_Jur._,' and elsewhere, were given by him at these times; while many of the Holbeins and other valuable portraits in the Picture Gallery came from him[224]. A few MSS. also came from him during his lifetime which are now placed in the general Bodley collection. But at his death all his collections came _en masse_[225]; collections formed abroad and at home, the choice of book-auctions, the pickings of chandlers' and grocers' waste-paper, everything, especially, in the shape of a MS., from early copies of Classics and Fathers to the well-nigh most recent log-books of sailors' voyages[226]. Not a sale of MSS. occurred, apparently, in London, during his time, at which he was not an omnigenous purchaser; so that students of every subject now bury themselves in his stores with great content and profit. But history in all its branches, heraldry and genealogy, biography and topography, are his specially strong points. The printed books bequeathed by him in selection from his whole library (of which those in quarto and smaller sizes are still called by his name) amounted to between 1800 and 1900[227], but the MSS. to upwards of 4800, besides a large number of old charters and miscellaneous unsorted deeds.

The staff of the Library being very small at the time, as well as ill-paid[228], and such an accession being completely overwhelming, the officers appear to have contented themselves with duly entering the printed books, while leaving the MSS. entirely neglected. About the beginning of the present century some steps were taken towards a Catalogue, and a portion were arranged and numbered; still later, considerably more was done. But it was only on the accession of the present Librarian to the Headship, that the full extent of Rawlinson's collections was ascertained. Every corner of the Library was then thoroughly examined, and cupboard after cupboard was found filled with MSS. and papers huddled together in confusion, while, last not least, a dark hole under a staircase, explored by the present writer on hands and knees, afforded a rich 'take,' including many writings of Rawlinson's Non-juring friends. The whole number of volumes thus brought to light amounted to about 1300.

The classes into which the whole collection of MSS. is now divided are the following:--

1. _Class A_: 500 volumes, chiefly of English history, with a few theological books. Amongst these are the _Thurloe State Papers_, in sixty-seven volumes, of which all of importance were published by Birch, in seven vols. folio, in 1742. These papers were found after the Revolution concealed in the ceiling of garrets in Lincoln's Inn, which belonged to the rooms formerly occupied by Thurloe; and they still bear too evident marks of the damp to which they were there exposed. They passed through Lord Somers' and Sir Jos. Jekyll's hands into those of a bookseller, Fletcher Gyles, from whom Rawlinson obtained them in 1751, and who, as Rawlinson says, asked at first an 'immoderate price' for them. Another series is that of _Miscellaneous Papers of Sam. Pepys_, in twenty-five volumes, containing his correspondence, collections on Admiralty business, &c.[229] These, together with many other volumes which belonged to Pepys (including many curious dockyard account-books of the times of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth) were 'redeemed from _thus et odores vendentibus_[230].' Of another acquisition Rawlinson writes thus:--

'There was lately an auction here of Mr. Bridgeman's books, curiosities, and MSS., who was formerly clerk of the Council to K. James II, and register to the Ecclesiastical Commission. Here I laid out some pence, and picked up some curiosities; the original minute-book of the High Commission, the proceedings every session with the names of those present, by which it appears that Bp. Sprat was not so innocent as he would persuade us in his letter to the Earl of Dorset to think, and that notwithstanding all his shiftings he sat to the penultim. Session of that Court;' [Letters canvassing the nobility, gentry, justices of the peace, &c., in favour of the repeal of the Test;] '3 letters from the D. of Monmouth, two to the King and one to the Queen, desiring an audience in which he would give them such satisfaction, ... very pathetic, and deserved at least some attention[231]; ... several volumes of treaties, ... instructions to ambassadors. Very remarkable are those to Lord Castlemain on his going to Rome, the King's two letters to the Pope, a third of revocation, all personal and complement, but no embassy of obedience. Copy-books of letters, private and public, wrote by K. Charles and K. James II, from which might be collected such a fund of true tho' secret history, that the prize is not to be valued[232], and will, I hope, be a standing monument of great events, and preserved in Bodley's repository, with the papers of Bp. Turner and other great men at and since the year 1688[233].'

There are also some papers in this class and in Class C which belonged to Archbp. Wake, about which Rawlinson writes, on June 24, 1741[234]:--

'My agent last week met with some papers of Archbp. Wake at a chandler's shop; this is unpardonable in his executors, as all his MSS. were left to Christ Church. But quære whether these did not fall into some servant's hands who was ordered to burn them, and Mr. Martin Folkes ought to have seen that done. They fell into the curate's hands of St. George, Bloomsbury.'

2. _Class B_ numbers 520 volumes nominally, but really, including double numbers, 534. They comprise heraldry and genealogy (including MSS. of Sir Richard and Sir Thos. St. George, W. Wyrley, Guillim, Ryley, Glover, Le Neve, and other heralds) English and Irish history, and topography, including several monastic chartularies. Among the genealogical MSS. is a remarkable collection of pedigrees, in twelve volumes, which the present writer ascertained to have been compiled by Thomas Wilkinson, Vicar of Laurence Waltham, Berks, between about 1647 and 1681. They are arranged alphabetically, as far as the letter P in tolerable order and regularity, but thenceforward only in a rough and incomplete state. Unfortunately the handwriting is far from clear, and the ink has often made it worse. Among the volumes relating to _Essex_, _Norfolk_, _Suffolk_, &c., are twelve or thirteen which belonged to William Holman, a voluminous collector for the first-mentioned county, who incorporated the gatherings of Rev. John Ousley and Thos. Jekyll. Morant, the historian of Essex, obtained the larger portion of Holman's books; some are in the British Museum; and the remainder ('the refuse,' says Morant) were bought by Rawlinson in 1752 for £10[235]. Besides the above-mentioned volumes, there are a large number of Holman's MSS. which are kept distinct, and which have been recently bound in fourteen folio volumes, eleven quarto, and five octavo. Under _London_ are some nineteen or twenty volumes of Diocesan papers which belonged to Bp. John Robinson. They formed (with one volume in Class A and several in Class C) a mass which are described by Rawlinson, as follows[236]:--

'I lately rescued from the grocers, chandlers, &c. a parcel of papers once the property of Compton and Robinson, successively Bps. of London. Amongst those of the first were original subscription and visitation books, letters and conferences during the apprehensions of Popery amongst the clergy of this diocese, remarkable intelligences relating to Burnet and the Orange Court in Holland in those extraordinary times before 1688[237], minutes of the proceedings of the Commissioners for the Propagation of the Gospel, and a great variety of other papers. Amongst those of Bp. Robinson, numbers of originals relating to the transactions at the treaty of Utrecht, copies of his own letters to Lord Bolingbroke, and originals from Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Oxford, Electress and Elector of Hanover, Ormonde, Strafford, Prior, &c.; letters from the Scots deprived Bishops to Compton, and variety of State papers. They belonged to one Mr. [Anth.] Gibbon, lately dead, who was private secretary to both the afore-mentioned prelates.'

Under _Bucks_ are Rawlinson's own collections for a history of Eton College, and under _Middlesex_ and _Oxon._ his parochial collections for those counties. The _Irish_ MSS. include many of great antiquity and value which formerly belonged to Sir James Ware, _e.g._ Tigernach's Annals, Annals of Ulster, Lives of Saints, Dublin Chartularies, Arms of Irish families, Irish poems, &c. Among them is the often noticed Life of St. Columba by Magnus O'Donnell, written in 1532, which was bought by Rawlinson at the Chandos sale for twenty-three shillings.

Of these two classes a Catalogue, in one volume quarto, was printed in 1862, which was compiled by the writer of this volume[238]. A full index to the contents of all the MSS. has been made, which remains at present unprinted, but may possibly at some time appear in conjunction with a volume describing the contents of the succeeding class.

3. _Class C_ comprehends 989 MSS. of very miscellaneous character, but chiefly consisting of law, history and theology, with a few medical works. Among the theological portion are papers of John Dury, the zealous labourer for union amongst Protestants in the time of Charles I, papers of Bedell and Usher, some volumes of John Lewis of Margate[239], and some interesting Service-books of English use, including a Pontifical given to Salisbury Cathedral by Bp. Roger de Martivale between 1315-1329, and an early Oseney book. Several volumes consist of papers of Dr. Chamberlaine (author of _Notitia Angliæ_) and Mr. Henry Newman, secretaries of the Societies for the Propagation of the Gospel, and Promoting Christian Knowledge, which, Rawlinson mentions in a letter, dated April 28, 1744, (Ballard MS. ii.) that he had then recently purchased. Some seventeen or eighteen volumes came from the library of Bp. Turner of Ely (together with others in the classes called _Miscellaneous_ and _Letters_), containing papers of himself and his brother, Dr. Thomas Turner, Dean of Canterbury. These were obtained by Rawlinson in 1742, who in them became master, as he says, of a considerable treasure for ten guineas[240].' Early English poets are represented by Lydgate, Rolle of Hampole, William of Nassyngton, and others[241]; and one volume contains a few Welsh verses. A catalogue exists in MS. The volumes relating to English history in classes A and C are noticed in the return printed in the Record Commission Report for 1800, pp. 348-353.

4. The class entitled _Miscellaneous_ numbers about 1400 volumes, and includes the greater part of those which were discovered in 1861. They are so entirely miscellaneous that it is impossible to give in a few lines a real idea of their nature. History, travels, biography, and religious controversy largely prevail. There are papers of Sir Thos. Browne, Dr. Dee, Maittaire, Peter Le Neve, Ashmole[242], John Dunton, and Bagford, with a very large mass of _Hearniana_. Of the Non-jurors, there are papers of Grascome, Gandy, Spinckes, Hickes, Fitzwilliams, Howell, and Dean Granville. Some nine or ten volumes are occupied with the accounts of the Royal Surveyor of Works from 1532 to 1545. The Church-wardens' accounts of Sutterton, Lincolnshire, from 1493 to 1536, and of St. Peter's, Cornhill, from 1664 to 1689, are also found here[243]. There is a large series of Italian MSS. (amongst other foreign books, chiefly French) which bear on English history, as containing copies of reports made to Rome by Papal agents and to Venice by ambassadors, together with the proceedings at many conclaves. These were bought by Rawlinson at Sir Jos. Jekyll's sale of the Somers' MSS. in 1739, for £3 15_s._[244] There is also a mass of papers of J. J. Zamboni, Venetian Resident in England, and a friend of Maittaire. A considerable number of autograph signatures, barbarously cut out from various books, by Thomas Rawlinson, were found in loose papers; these have now been mounted and bound in two volumes. There are not, however, many of interest among them, except several of Ben Jonson.

5. In _Letters_ there are upwards of 100 volumes, comprising all the multifarious correspondence of Hearne with Anstis, Bagford, Baker, Barnes, Dodwell, Smith, &c., the correspondence of Rawlinson, Dr. Thomas Turner, and Bishop Francis Turner, Philip Lord Wharton, and Sir Edm. Warcupp. One volume contains a few letters by Dryden, Pope, Edw. Young, &c. There is also a series of letters in three vols. relating to Dr. John Polyander, of Kerckhoven, Professor of Divinity at Leyden, and eight or nine volumes of Vossius' correspondence, being the originals from which the folio volume published at London in 1691 was printed.

6. The class of _Poetry_ contains 221 volumes, including Chaucer, Hoccleve, Lydgate, Capgrave (Life of St. Catherine), and Rolle of Hampole, with Piers Plowman and the Romance of Parthenope of Blois (both imperfect). The majority are miscellaneous poems and plays of the seventeenth century. One volume, containing the words of anthems with the composers' names, is supposed to be the Chapel-book used by Charles I.

Of the three last-mentioned classes, a brief MS. list was drawn up with great neatness and accuracy by Dr. Bliss, in 1812 (reaching in the case of the _Miscell._ only as far as No. 407); an index, in continuation, to all the later additions is now in process of formation.

7. Of _Sermons_ there are about 200 volumes; many of which are by Non-jurors, including three by Rawlinson himself. Ten volumes are by Dan. Price, Dean of St. Asaph, 1696-1706; and one volume is said to contain unpublished sermons by Leighton, apparently from notes taken by some auditor at the time of delivery. These have been copied for publication in a proposed new edition (under the care of Rev. W. West, of Nairn, N.B.) of Leighton's whole works.

8. A selection of Biblical and Classical MSS., with a few others, amounting to 199, are placed in the case marked '_Auctarium_,' G. Amongst these are a few Greek volumes, with critical _Adversaria_ of Maittaire, Josh. Lasher, and J. G. Grævius. Early copies of Statius, Ovid, Virgil, &c. form part of the classics; while among the Biblical MSS. is a grand eighth-century copy (written in rounded minuscules, in the same style as the Rushworth book) of the Gospels of St. Luke and St. John, and a beautiful eleventh-century Psalter with the commentary of St. Bruno. One other fine book is a Psalter written for Ch. Ch. Cathedral, Dublin, by the care of Stephen Derby, Prior, about A.D. 1360-80, with remarkable miniatures illustrating Psalms xxxix, liii, lxix, lxxxi, and xcviii.

9. Of _Missals_, _Horæ_, and other Service-books, there are (besides those which are scattered in Classes C and G Auct.) about 130. These (most of which are of French origin, bought out of the library of Nic. Jos. Foucault[245], of Flemish, or of Italian) are now incorporated with a large collection of Liturgical books, which are called _Canon. Liturg._, from their having formed part of the Canonici collection purchased in 1818.

10. A small collection of _Statutes_, comprising sixty-five volumes, is kept distinct. They consist of the Statutes of various Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, of the Cathedrals of Lichfield, Hereford, Worcester, Chester, Manchester, Canterbury, Exeter, and the Abbey of Westminster; of the Order of the Garter (various copies); of Hospitals at Croydon, Chipping-Barnet, and Chichester; of the Gresham Charities, together with the Charters of London and Bristol; Statutes made by the Chapter of Paris for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there in 1421, and an eighteenth-century transcript of the Statutes of the College at Bayeux. But the volume of most interest in this class is the rare printed volume of the Statutes of Thame School, issued in 1575. Of this, only five other copies are known, one kept at the School itself, a second in the custody of the Warden of New College (the Visitor of the School), a third in the Royal Library, Brit. Mus., and the fourth and fifth, both on vellum, in the possession of the Earl of Abingdon and in the Grenville Library, Brit. Mus. Rawlinson's copy, which wants the title, has in it the book-plate of John, Duke of Newcastle.

11. Of the MSS. of Dr. Thomas Smith, the Non-juror, of Magd. Coll., Oxford, there are 139 volumes, which (with the exception of a few bequeathed by Smith himself) came into Rawlinson's hands together with the rest of Hearne's collections. They are noticed above, under the year 1735.

12. Besides the multitude of books, scattered throughout every class of Rawlinson's library, which belonged to Hearne or were written by him, there are about 150 small duodecimo volumes of Hearne's daily diary and note-books, commencing in July, 1705, and ending on June 4, 1735, the last actual entry being on June 1, and his decease occurring on June 10. The character of this diary is well known from the two volumes of Extracts published by Dr. Bliss in 1857, with the title, _Reliquiæ Hearnianæ_. But it must not be supposed that these volumes comprehend all that deserves publication; the diary throughout is full of like curious personal history and anecdote, antiquarian gleanings and amusing gossip, mixed, of course, with a good deal of occasional acrimony against those with whom Hearne came in collision either from differences in academic or literary matters, or from their being friends of the 'Elector of Hanover.' There is scarcely a subject falling within its writer's scope of observation on which this Diary may not be consulted; and as it is written in his usual plain and neat hand, with an index to each volume, it is fortunately easy for reference. Hearne bequeathed all his MSS., and books with MSS. notes, to Mr. William Bedford, son of the well-known bishop among the Non-jurors, Hilkiah Bedford; the legatee died on July 11, 1747, and Rawlinson bought them of his widow for £105. Hence it was that they came finally to the place where Hearne would himself have rejoiced to see them deposited. The autobiographical sketch of Hearne's own life, which Huddesford published in 1772, in conjunction with the lives of Leland and Wood, is preserved among the _Miscellaneous_ MSS. Of this Rawlinson says, in a letter dated June 19, 1740[246]: 'Tom's own life was so low and poor a performance that I recommended it to Bedford to burn.' On account, probably, of the numerous reflections which the Diary contained on living persons, Rawlinson ordered in his bequest that it should not be open to inspection until after the lapse of seven years. He laid also the same restraint upon the use of his own papers noticed in the next paragraph.

13. Large collections were made by Rawlinson for a continuation of Wood's _Athenæ Oxon._ These contain much valuable biographical information, derived in very many cases from the actual information of the persons noticed, letters from many of whom are inserted. There are, in all, twenty-five volumes, folio and quarto; among the folios there are two series of notices arranged alphabetically, and one volume (also alphabetical) of notices of Cambridge men admitted _ad eundem_; the quartos contain 1331 notices, numbered but not arranged in any other order, with one general alphabetical index. These collections, together with Hearne's Diaries, and Rawlinson's Non-jurors' Papers, and notes of his own Travels, were included in a fourth and last codicil, dated Feb. 14, 1755, which directed that all these papers should be kept locked up during a period of seven years. By the same codicil also were conveyed numerous engravings by Vertue, portraits of Englishmen, some paintings, and a collection of Roman, Persian, Italian, and English medals[247]. Some of the Italian medals, particularly a fine set in copper of the members of the House of Medici, are now exhibited in a case in the Picture Gallery[248]. By a codicil of June 17, 1752, Rawlinson had previously bequeathed a series of medals of Popes, of which he remarks, 'as they are, I take them to be one of the most complete collections now in Europe;' together with twenty shillings _per annum_ for enlarging and continuing the set[249].

14. Finally (as regards MSS.), Rawlinson left a mass of ancient charters, five hundred of which were catalogued by Mr. Coxe some years ago, and of vellum deeds and documents of all kinds, chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He left, also, all the copper-plates containing engravings of some of his ancient documents and other curiosities, as well as a large number of impressions from these plates. Many of these impressions were sold at the sale of Bodleian duplicates in 1862. The copper-plates were added to his bequest by a second codicil, dated July 25, 1754, in which he desired that impressions should be taken from them, to be sold in one volume for the use and benefit of the University. A last item in Rawlinson's miscellaneous gifts (besides various bas-reliefs, figures, a Jewish vessel, Muscovite cup, &c.) was a large collection of matrices of ancient conventual and personal seals, chiefly foreign; together with impressions of seals, ancient and modern, in metal and wax, 'most of which,' it is said in the Will (p. 4), 'were of the collection of Mr. Charles Christian, the celebrated seal engraver.' The wax impressions are now exhibited in the Picture Gallery.

Distinct from Rawlinson's other printed books is a curious series of Almanacs, in 175 volumes, extending from 1607 to 1747, which were sent to the Library in 1752. Some volumes in continuation, from 1747 to 1768, were given by Sir Rob. H. Inglis, Bart., in 1846[250]. Another series, between 1571 and 1663, is in the Ashmole collection.

By his second codicil, of July 25, 1754, Rawlinson bequeathed a fee-farm rent of £4 _per annum_ to the Under-librarian, in consideration of his taking charge of the MSS., but clogged with the strange conditions that he should not be a doctor in any faculty, married, or in Holy Orders[251]. The receipt of this sum is entered in the Accounts for 1756, but in no subsequent year.

The following is an alphabetical list of the principal libraries from which Rawlinson's MSS. were collected, with the dates (so far as ascertained) at which these libraries were dispersed:--

Acton (Oliver), of Bridewell Hosp. Bacon (Thos. Sclater), 1737. Bridgeman (Will. & Rich.), 1742. Chandos (Duke of), 1747. Clarendon (Henry, Earl of). Through _Chandos_. Clavell (Walter), 1742. Compton (Bishop). See p. 175. Foucault (Nic. Jos.), 'Comes Consistorianus[252],' 1721. Gale (Samuel), 1755. Graves (Rich.), of Mickleton. Through _Hearne_. Halifax (Montagu, Earl of), 1715. Hearne (Thomas), 1747. Holman (William). See p. 174. Jekyll (Sir Joseph), 1739. Le Neve (Peter), 1731. Maittaire (Mich.), 1748. Mead (Richard, M.D.), 1754-5. Murray (John), 1749. Oxford (Harley, Earl of), 1743-5. Pepys (Samuel). See p. 172. Pole (Francis), 175-. Powle (Henry), in 1689 Speaker of House of Commons. Rawlinson (Thomas), 1734. Robinson (Bishop). See p. 175. St. George (Sir Thomas). Somers (Lord). Through _Jekyll_. Spelman (Sir Henry). Spinckes (Rev. Nathan), 1727. Turner (Bishop). See p. 176. Usher (Archbishop). Through _Hearne_. Wake (Archbp.). See p. 174. Ware (Sir James). Through _Clarendon_ and _Chandos_. Whiston (William).

On July 15, a bequest of printed books and MSS. was received from Rev. Richard Furney, M.A., Archdeacon of Surrey (who had been schoolmaster at Gloucester, 1719-1724, and who died in 1753,) by the hands of the Rev. John Noel, of Oriel College. The printed books (nineteen in all) consisted almost entirely of early editions of classics. The MSS. (six folio volumes) are thus described in a list made by the Librarian, Humphrey Owen, at the time of their receipt:--

'1, 2, 3 and 4 contain collections relating to the history and antiquities of the city, church and county of Gloucester. 5, 6, a fair copy, seemingly prepared for the press, of the history and antiquities of the said city, church and county, by the Arch-deacon himself, or some friend of his from whom these papers came into his hands.'

The gift comprised also two ancient brass seals, and eighteen original deeds, amongst which is the original confirmation charter granted to Gloucester Abbey, by Burgred King of Mercia, in 862. This remarkable deed (which is not printed in Kemble's _Codex_) is in admirable preservation, is written in seventeen lines, with five lines containing seventeen signatures, and measures sixteen inches in width and ten and one-third in length. There are also original grants to the abbey from Hen. II and Stephen, and a confirmation, 29 Edw. I, of Magna Charta, which has a magnificent impression of the beautiful great seal. The deeds are noticed in the Report on the Public Records for 1800, p. 354.

* * * * *

By the death on Sept. 5, 1754, of James St. Amand, Esq.[253] (formerly of Lincoln College), a bequest of books, MSS., coins, &c. which had been made by a will dated Nov. 9, 1749, accrued to the Library, being received in the year 1755. The books consist chiefly of the then modern editions of the classics, and of the writings of modern Latin scholars; such of them as the Library did not need, were to go to Lincoln College. The MSS., sixty-eight in number, comprise various papers relating to the history chiefly of the Low Countries[254], together with notes and indices by St. Amand himself to Theocritus and other Greek poets, Horace, &c. They are described by Mr. Coxe, in vol. i. of the Catalogue of MSS., cols. 889-908. The main part of the residue of his property was bequeathed to Christ's Hospital, together with a picture of his grandfather James St. Amand, done in miniature and set in gold, with the singular proviso that the picture should be exhibited, and the part of the will relating to these bequests be read, at the first annual court of the Hospital, and also that the picture be shown annually to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, if required. Should a refusal to show the picture be persistently made, or any of the conditions of the will be avoided, then all the residue was to be given to the University, first to increase the stipend of the chief Librarian to £120 and of the second Librarian to £70, but only so long as both of them were unmarried, and then to be devoted to the purchasing of books and MSS., specially of classic authors.

Many of his books have a book-plate, which the author has ascertained to be that of Dr. Arthur Charlett; being the initials A. C., interlaced with the same repeated in an inverse way, surrounded by piles of books, and with the motto, 'Animus si æquus, quod petis hîc est.'

* * * * *

By the bequest of George Ballard (the author of the _Memoirs of Learned Ladies_), who died on June 24, the Library became enriched with forty-four volumes of Letters, chiefly addressed, by ecclesiastical and literary personages of all ranks, to Dr. Arthur Charlett, Master of University College, between the reigns of James II and George I. For the biographical and bibliographical history of the time these letters possess great interest and value; it was from them that the _Letters by Eminent Persons_, published in 1813, by Rev. John Walker, M.A., Fellow of New College, were chiefly drawn. No printed catalogue of them has yet appeared, but the Library possesses a MS. index to the contents of each volume, and a more complete and minute index has been recently commenced[255]. Besides the Letters, Ballard bequeathed some other MSS., in number twenty-three, among which is a volume of various voyages and expeditions, 1589-1634; Sir Edm. Warcupp's autograph account of the treaty in the Isle of Wight;[256] a dialogue between a tutor and his pupil, by Lord Herbert, of Cherbury; the second book of the _Supplication of Soules_, by Sir Thos. More, a precious little volume of 103 closely-written duodecimo pages, entirely in the handwriting of the great Chancellor; the _Universitie's Musterings_, by Brian Twyne; collections by Ant. à Wood; a small volume of Gloucestershire notes, supposed by Guillim; and several volumes written by Mr. Elstob and his sister. An extract from Ballard's will, with a list of his MSS., is in the Register marked 'C.'

Ballard was originally a stay-maker or mantua-maker at Campden, Gloucestershire; but, following the study of antiquities with great ardour, became well known and highly esteemed amongst all of like pursuits. At the age of forty-four he was appointed one of the eight clerks of Magdalen College, being matriculated Dec. 15, 1750, but never took any degree. He bequeathed to the College Library some of his books which were there wanting. The fullest account of him will be found in vol. ii. of _A Register of St. Mary Magd. College_, by J. R. Bloxam, D.D., pp. 95-102, 1857. Some letters from him are printed in Nichols' _Lit. Hist._ iv. 206-226.

The very valuable MS. of the letters of Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London (which are of great importance for the illustration of the history of Thomas à Becket), now numbered _E. Musæo_ 247, was given by Sir Thomas Cave, Bart. It is described in the Benefaction Book as 'liber rarissimus; per totam Angliam unum hoc tantum modo exstat exemplar.' The letters were first printed by Dr. Giles, together with the Lives of Becket, in his series of _Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ_, in 1845.

[220] This date is from the _Register of Graduates_; Rawlinson says, Mich. Term, 1710.

[221] By Bishop Jeremy Collier, in Mr. Laurence's Chapel on College Hill, London. (See a communication from the present writer in _Notes and Queries_, 3rd series, iii. 244.) He appears to have endeavoured to conceal from the world his clerical character. In a letter to T. Rawlins, of Pophills, Warw. in 1736, he requests him not to address him as _Rev._ (Ballard's MSS. ii. 6.) Some volumes of Sermons in his handwriting are among his MSS. His writing is of a very broad, rude, and clumsy character; and it is singular that his brother Thomas wrote a hand very similar. Richard usually signs only with his initials, separated by a cross, 'R + R.'

[222] The small note-books kept on his journeys, containing epitaphs, inscriptions, accounts of places visited, &c., are preserved (but, unfortunately, in an imperfect series) among his Miscellaneous MSS.

[223] See _Notes and Queries_, 3rd series, i. 225.

[224] Two beautiful miniature portraits of James Edward, son of James II, and his wife Clementina Sobieski, which could not, probably, at the time be safely exhibited, have recently been exhumed by the Librarian from the obscurity to which they had been consigned, and are now hung in the Picture Gallery. In Feb. 1749/50, Rawlinson sent Kelly's 'Holy Table,' a marble slab, covered with astrological figures (engraved in Dr. Dee's _Actions with Spirits_), which, he says, had been subsequently in the possession of Lilly. It is now in the Ashmolean Museum.

[225] By the terms of his will, dated June 2, 1752, and printed in 1755, he bequeathed all his MSS. of every kind (excepting private papers and letters) to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University, to be placed in the Bodleian Library, or in such other place as they should deem most proper, for the use and benefit of the University, and of all other persons, properly and with leave resorting thereto with a view to the public good; and to be kept separate and apart from every other collection. With these he gave also all his books printed on vellum or silk (of which latter kind there are two or three small specimens), all his deeds and charters, and all his printed books containing any MSS. notes, together with various antiquities and miscellaneous curiosities. His MS. and printed music he bequeathed to the Music School. Of the Musical library preserved in this room, a MS. Catalogue was made a few years ago by Rev. Robert Hake, M.A., then Chaplain of New College, now Precentor of Canterbury.

[226] _Apropos_ of log-books, it may be mentioned that whereas it appears from the eighth Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Records, p. 26, 1847, that the earliest log among the Admiralty Records is of the year 1673, there are several of about the same date and a little earlier to be found in Rawlinson's collection.

[227] Among the printed books are two copies of Archbp. Parker's rare _De Antiq. Eccl. Brit._, 1572. One of these is the identical copy described by Strype in his _Life of Parker_, and which was then in the possession of Bp. Fleetwood of Ely; the other (which was given to the Library by Jos. Sanford, B.D., Balliol Coll., in 1753) was presented to Rich. Cosin by John Parker, the Archbishop's eldest son, Jan. 5, 1593. Owen, the Librarian, notes on the cover that Dr. Rawlinson tells him this copy was bought at the sale of the library of his brother, Thos. Rawlinson, by the Earl of Oxford, for £40. A collection of the original broadsides proclamations issued during the whole of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in beautiful condition, forms a remarkable and splendid volume; the collection is complete, except that a few proclamations, of which printed copies are wanting, are supplied in MS. As far as the year 1577 they are printed by Richard Jugge, sometimes alone and sometimes in conjunction with John Cawood; thenceforward they are printed by the two Barkers, first by Christopher, and afterwards by Robert. They appear to have been collected in the reign of James I. A printed chronological table of contents is prefixed, together with a portrait of the Queen, engraved by Fr. Delaram, with six lines of verse by 'Jo. Davies, Heref.' At the year 1559 a leaf is inserted containing the arms of Q. Mary of Scotland quartering those of England (the assumption of which by Mary gave irreconcileable offence to Q. Eliz.), beautifully painted, with the note, 'Sent out of Fraunce, in July, 1559,' and these lines below:--

'The armes of Marie Queene Dolphines of ffraunce, The nobillest Lady in earth for till aduaunce: Off Scotland queene, and of Ingland also, Off Ireland als, God haith providit so.'

This leaf is one of two copies executed for Cecil and Q. Eliz. Two, probably unique, 'red-letter' books are also among the rarities of Rawlinson's printed collection. The one is a Sermon on Ps. iv. 7, preached before Charles I at Oxford by Josias Howe, B.D., of Trinity College. It is printed entirely in red, and has no title. It was bought, included in a volume of miscellaneous sermons, out of Dr. Charlett's library, by Hearne, who says in a MS. note that only thirty copies were printed. A description of it is given by Dr. Bliss in his _Reliquiæ Hearn._ vol. ii. pp. 960-1, where Hearne's note is printed in full. The other is a volume entitled, _The Bloody Court; or, the Fatal Tribunal_, being an account of the trial and execution of Charles I. The lengthy title is printed by Dr. Bliss, _ubi supra_. Some few of Rawlinson's printed books came to the Library among Gough's, in 1809.

[228] The salaries being miserably insufficient, the recognised duties of the officers appear to have been simply the cataloguing the few books that were received in ordinary course, and attending upon the readers. Consequently for any other work, for arranging or cataloguing any new collections, &c., special payments were always made. A somewhat amusing instance of this occurs under the year 1722, when the Librarian craved payment for making with his own hand certain new hand-lists, &c., but was refused. However, he carried on his claim from year to year until it was admitted to the amount of £5 15_s._ 6_d._ in 1725. And as the funds were insufficient to defray in this way the extra cost of cataloguing such a collection as Rawlinson's, hence, doubtless, came the neglect which it experienced. Such work was so clearly understood to form no part of the Librarians' regular duties, that Rawlinson says, in a letter to Owen, Apr. 15, 1751 (MS. C. 989), 'I think large benefactors should pay the expense of entries into the Bodleian, as their books are useless till so entered.'

[229] It was chiefly from these that the two volumes published in 1841 under the title of _Life, Journals, and Correspondence of S. Pepys_ were compiled. Unfortunately the editor, or his copyist, appears to have been sometimes unable to read the MSS., and at other times very careless; his book therefore abounds with errors. The following is one of the worst, as it libels the memory of a statesman who deserved better treatment: Sir R. Southwell is represented as saying in a letter to Pepys (vol. i. p. 282) that he has lost his health 'by sitting many years at the _sack_-bottle,' whereas the poor man had lost it by sitting many years 'at the _inck_-bottle.' A line or two farther on, Southwell's occupation with 'some care and much sorrow,' is changed into 'love, care and much sorrow.' Certain '_Novelles_,' or newspapers, which Mr. Hill sends to Pepys are explained (vol. ii. p. 135) to have been the _Novellæ_ of Justinian! Throughout the book proper names are frequently made to become anything but proper to their owners.

[230] Letter from Rawlinson to T. Rawlins, Jan. 25, 1749/50; Ballard MS. ii. 115.

[231] The same volume (now A. 139^b) also contains Monmouth's acknowledgment, written and signed by himself on the day of his execution, that Charles II had declared that he was never married to his mother; witnessed by Bishops Turner and Ken, together with Tenison and Hooper. This is now exhibited in the glass case at the entrance to the Library.

[232] In his delight at his new purchase, Rawlinson seems to have exaggerated the interest of these volumes.

[233] Letter to T. Rawlins, Feb. 24, 1742/3; Ballard MS. ii. 78.

[234] To the same; _Ibid._ 59.

[235] Gough, _Brit. Topogr._ i. 370, 345.

[236] Letter, June 24, 1741; Ballard MS. ii. 59.

[237] Including some letters from Ken while Chaplain to Princess Mary. These papers of Compton are in class C.

[238] For the description of the contents of three of the Irish volumes, the author was indebted to an experienced Irish scholar, Standish Hayes O'Grady, Esq.

[239] A volume of collections by him relating to the early versions of the Bible was bought in 1858 for five guineas.

[240] Ballard MS. ii. 87.

[241] One curious volume is described by Sir F. Madden in his preface to _Syr Gawayne_, printed by the Roxburghe Club in 1839.

[242] With relation to these Rawlinson says, in a letter dated Feb. 25, 1736-7, that he had bought, about two years since, some of Ashmole's papers from his heirs, including some of Dugdale's (Ballard MS. ii. 11).

[243] For Parish Registers, see under 1821.

[244] Two MS. volumes of the Relations of Venetian Residents in various countries were given to the Library by Will. Gent, in 1600, and Sir Rich. Spencer, in 1603.

[245] From this library Rawlinson also obtained some French editions of the _Horæ_, printed on vellum.

[246] Ballard MS. ii. 41.

[247] The clock, still in use in the Library, made by Robinson in Gracechurch Street, was one of the items comprised in this codicil, where it is described as a 'table clock,' then in the custody of Mr. John King, a bookseller, in Moorfields.

[248] These were bought, 'very cheap,' at Mrs. Kennon's sale, Feb. 24, 1755, by a dealer named Angel Carmey, who sold them to Rawlinson for £10 10_s._ Carmey's letter conveying his offer of sale is preserved in Rawlinson's copy of the sale catalogue.

[249] It does not appear, however, that this sum was ever paid.

[250] A curious, and probably unique, little 'Almanacke for XII yere, after the latytude of Oxenforde,' printed in 48^o (measuring two and a-half inches by one and three-quarters), by Wynkyn de Worde, 'in the fletestrete,' in 1508, was presented by David Laing, LL.D., the eminent Librarian to the Writers to the Signet, Edinburgh, in 1842. The Library also possesses two copies of a sheet Almanack, by Simon Heuringius, for 1551, printed by John Turck, at London; and other almanacs for 1564, 1567, and 1569. A volume containing five almanacs for the year 1589 was bought in 1857.

[251] With the same perverse eccentricity he ordered that the recipients of his endowments for the Keepership of the Ashmolean Museum and the Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, should be unmarried (in the former case only M.A. or B.C.L.), not a native of Scotland, Ireland, or the Plantations, nor a son of such native, nor, in the case of the Museum, even educated in Scotland, and not a member of either the Royal Society or the Society of Antiquaries.

[252] Autobiographical memoirs by Foucault, extending to 1719, were published under the editorship of F. Baudry, 4^o. Paris, 1862, in the French Government series of _Documents inédits sur l'Histoire de France_. The editor remarks in the preface (p. xli.), 'On ignore en quelles mains la bibliothèque de Foucault passa après sa mort [1721]. Le P. Le Long nous apprend seulement qu'elle fut vendue, et probablement dispersée.'

[253] A record of his birth and baptism is entered in a family register kept by his father on the fly-leaves of a splendid copy of the folio Prayer-Book of 1662. He was the second son; born in Covent Garden, Apr. 7, 1687; bapt. Apr. 21, by Dr. Patrick, the sponsors being Major-Gen. Werden, Sir Peter Apsley and the Countess of Bath. Prince George of Denmark was one of the sponsors to his elder brother, George. He had also a sister, Martha.

[254] Amongst these is a large collection of MS. news-letters written from various places abroad about the years 1637-1642; one of these, containing particulars of movements of the Swedish and Imperialist armies, is printed, as a specimen, in _Letters by Eminent Persons_, 1813, vol. i. pp. 15-17.

[255] References to many particulars relative to Thoresby, Bishop Gibson, White Kennett and Hickes (with a few others) are given in J. Nichols' notes to the _Letters of Archbp. Nicolson_ (2 vols. 1809), an interesting and varied biographical miscellany, but which is guilty of the capital crime of omitting an index.

[256] This ought, apparently, to have reached the Library much sooner, through the hands of Dr. Charlett; since it has the following inscription on the fly-leaf: 'Given by the Hon^ble. S^r. Edmund Warcup (being all writ w^th his own hand at y^e Isle of Wight at y^e Treaty) to the Public Library in Oxford, to be placed there when I thought fitting.

'AR. CHARLETT.

'Univ. Coll. Nov. 25, 97.'

A.D. 1756.

Dr. Samuel Johnson presented the account of Zachariah Williams' attempt to ascertain the longitude at sea, which he had published under Williams' name in the preceding year; and, as Warton noted[257], he entered it with his own hand in the Library Catalogue. The entry is still to be seen, with a memorandum of its being in Johnson's hand, in an interleaved, and now disused, copy of the Catalogue of 1738.

[257] Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, edit. 1835, vol. ii. p. 54.

A.D. 1759.

Above forty Syriac, Greek and Arabic MSS. are recorded in the Registers to have been presented by Henry Dawkins, Esq., of Standlynch, Wilts, who had collected them while travelling in the East with Robert Wood, whose works on Baalbec and Palmyra he presented at the same time. There are now _sixty_ MSS. in Syriac alone which pass under the name of Dawkins, some of which are of great age and value. They are described in Dr. R. Payne Smith's Catalogue of the Syriac MSS. Mr. Dawkins died in London, June 19, 1814, aged eighty-six.

Swedenborg's _Arcana Cœlestia_, published anonymously, in 8 vols. were sent 'by the author, unknown.' The same donor, still unknown, sent in 1766 _Selecti Dionys. Halicarn. tractatus_.

In this year and in 1761 published music began to be received from Stationers' Hall, and to be entered in the Register. It remained piled up in cupboards until about twenty-three years ago, when it was all disinterred and carefully arranged by Rev. H. E. Havergal, M.A., then Chaplain of New Coll. and Ch. Ch., and an assistant in the Library (now Vicar of Cople, Beds.), and bound in some 300 or 400 volumes. Since that time two further series of musical volumes have been arranged and bound.

A meagre list of the pictures, &c., in the Picture Gallery and Library was printed by the Janitor (or Under-janitor), N. Bull, and 'sold by him at the Picture Gallery.' It fills twelve duodecimo pages. A new edition, 'with additions and amendments,' including the pictures in the Ashmolean Museum, was issued by him in 1762, in sixteen octavo pages. This was, as it seems, the first list that had been issued since Hearne printed his original Catalogue in his _Letter containing an Account of some Antiquities between Windsor and Oxford_. A list, equally meagre with Bull's, was published by W. Cowderoy, Janitor, in 1806. He was succeeded in office (before 1825) by ---- Lenthall; on whom followed the present Janitor, J. Norris, appointed in 1835. By him a new Catalogue, enlarged with biographical notices, was issued, filling sixty pages; which was reissued, with a few alterations, in 1847, when such of the pictures as were not portraits had been removed to the new Randolph Gallery. As all the portraits were a few years ago distinctly labelled, but few copies of the Catalogue have, consequently, been since sold, and no new edition has appeared.

A.D. 1760.

The MSS. of the eminent antiquary, Browne Willis, who died on Feb. 5, in this year, came to the Library by his bequest. They were received from his executor, Dr. Eyre, on April 24. There are altogether fifty-nine volumes in folio, forty-eight in quarto, and five in octavo, consisting chiefly of Willis' own collections for his various works, with much correspondence intermingled and a few older historical papers. There is much of value for general ecclesiastical topography and biography, besides his large collections for the county of Bucks, and special volumes relating to the four Welsh Cathedrals. He desired in his will that the books should be placed in the Picture Gallery, 'next to those of my friend Bishop Tanner;' both collections have since been removed to a room on the floor below, but the presses which contain them still adjoin each other. Many of his letters are to be found among Ballard's and Rawlinson's papers, and show throughout both the warm interest which he took in ecclesiastical renovation and religious work generally, but

## particularly in the state of the Church in Wales, and the continual

efforts which he made to rouse slothful and negligent dignitaries to a sense of their duties and responsibilities. The restoration of the ruined and desolate Cathedral at Llandaff was an object especially dear to him. By his will, which was dated Dec. 20, 1741, he bequeathed to the University, besides his MSS., all his numerous silver, brass, copper and pewter coins, and also his gold coins, if purchased at the rate of £4 per oz., as the best return he could make for the many favours he acknowledged to have been conferred on him and on his grandfather, Dr. Thomas Willis, Professor of Natural Philosophy. This latter provision of his will was at once carried into execution; in the following year the University purchased one hundred and sixty-seven gold coins for £150 at £4 4_s._ per oz., and two more in 1743 for £8 5_s._ His other coins were given by him in the years 1739, 1740, 1741, 1747 and 1750; and by a codicil to his will dated Feb. 5, 1742, he desired that the whole collection should be annually visited on the Feast of St. Frideswide (Oct. 19), which day he had himself been wont annually to celebrate in Oxford. His first gift to the Library was in the year 1720, when he gave ten valuable MSS., chiefly historical (now placed among the general _Bodley_ Series), together with his grandfather's portrait.

A bequest of £70, towards the purchase of an orrery, was received from Rev. Jos. Parsons, M.A., of Merton College.

A.D. 1761.

Kennicott's collations of Hebrew Biblical MSS., made during the years 1759-60, were received from him on Dec. 17, in this year, according to an entry in the Register. But all his MSS., collations, correspondence, and miscellaneous books (including one in Zend, upon cloth), were subsequently deposited in the Radcliffe Library, whence they were removed, in 1862, together with the other contents of that collection, to the place of their present deposit, the New Museum.

A.D. 1762.

The west, or Selden, end of the Library was re-floored at a cost of £66. Unchaining of those books which hitherto, on account of their accessibility to all comers, were fastened to their shelves, appears to have been commenced in this year.

A.D. 1763.

The Janitor, Rev. John Bilstone, M.A., was deprived of his office by Dr. Owen, the Librarian, on account of his neglecting to perform his duties in person. An action for arrears of salary was subsequently brought by Bilstone against Owen[258]. He died Feb. 13, 1767, at which time he held three livings, besides his Chaplaincy of All Souls' College.

[258] 'See papers in _Files_, 1763; Archiv.' (MS. note in Dr. P. Bliss' _Collectanea_.)

A.D. 1764.

The _Editio princeps_ of Homer, Florence, 1488, was bought for £6 6_s._

A.D. 1768.

H. Owen, the Librarian, and Principal of Jesus College, died in March of this year, and was buried in his College Chapel. In his room was elected the Rev. John Price, B.D., of Jesus College, 'after a severe contest with Mr. Cleaver, of Brasenose, afterwards head of that College and Bishop of St. Asaph, who used to say that he was indebted to Mr. Price for his mitre, for had he obtained the Bodleian he should have there continued, instead of becoming tutor in a noble family, and so placed in the road to advancement. In this election the votes were equal, and Mr. Price, being senior, was nominated by the Vice-Chancellor[259].' Price appears to have been employed in the Library as early as the year 1760, when a payment of £8 8_s._ was made to him; in 1766 he signs, together with Owen and Thomas Parker, an account of books received from Stationers' Hall.

[259] Note by Dr. Bliss in the edition of Wood's _Life_ published, in 1848, by the Eccl. Hist. Soc. p. 88.

A.D. 1770.

The Library was largely enriched with books which were then modern, in which it appears to have been very deficient, by the legacy of the library of Rev. Charles Godwyn, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College. The collection, which is still in the main kept undivided (although a few folio and quarto volumes are placed in the general class marked _Art._), consists chiefly of works in English and general history, civil and ecclesiastical, published in the eighteenth century, and includes besides the later Benedictine editions of the Fathers. There is also a series of theological and literary pamphlets; to which have been added of late years upwards of 2400 volumes, of all dates and on all subjects, which are now all alike numbered, for convenience sake, in connection with Godwyn's own. The residue of his property, after payment of all claims and bequests, formed a further portion of his legacy; and the interest upon £1050 which accrued from this source, still forms part of the annual income of the Library.

A.D. 1771.

A payment of £2 12_s._ 6_d._ was made in this year (or rather, at the close of 1770) to a glass-painter, named Brooks, for one of the coats of arms in the great east window.

A.D. 1775.

Twenty-four Oriental MSS. and bundles of papers which had been found in the study of Rev. Dr. Thos. Hunt, Reg. Prof. of Hebrew, who died in the preceding year, were given by various persons.

A.D. 1776.

Lord North, the Chancellor of the University, presented to the Library the observations made by Dr. James Bradley, while Astronomer Royal, at Greenwich, 1750-62. These had been given to him by Mr. John Peach, son-in-law to Dr. Bradley, while a suit was pending between the Board of Longitude on behalf of the Crown and Mr. Peach respecting his right to their possession. The claim of the Crown had been first made in 1765, on the ground that they were the papers drawn up by Bradley in discharge of his public and official duties, but the executor, Mr. Sam. Peach, refused to resign them except for some valuable consideration. But after his death, his son, Mr. John Peach, who married Dr. Bradley's daughter, presented them to Lord North, with the understanding that the latter should give them to the University, on condition that they should be forthwith printed. They were, consequently, immediately put into the hands of Dr. Hornsby, the Savilian Professor of Astronomy, for publication; but the work progressed very slowly, in consequence of his ill-health, and a remonstrant correspondence ensued between the Board of Longitude, the Royal Society, and the University, which was printed by the Board, together with a statement of the whole case and of the steps taken by them for the recovery of the papers, in 1795. Several letters from Sir Joseph Banks, as President of the Royal Society, to Price the Librarian, in 1785, on the slow progress of the work, are preserved in a volume of MS. Letters to Librarians, recently bound up by Mr. Coxe. The first volume at length appeared in 1798, in folio, and the second, edited by Prof. A. Robertson, in 1805, with an appendix of observations made by Bradley's successor, Rev. Nath. Bliss, and his assistant, Mr. Charles Green, to March, 1765, which had been purchased by the Board of Longitude, and were presented by them to the University, in March, 1804. Some further remains of Dr. Bradley were, after Dr. Hornsby's death, found among the papers of the latter, and these (having been restored to the University by his family, on application, about 1829) were published in 1831, under the editorship of Prof. S. P. Rigaud, in one vol. quarto, entitled _Miscellaneous Works and Correspondence of Rev. J. Bradley_. In 1861, a fresh application for the return of the Observations was made to the University, by Mr. Airy, the Astronomer Royal, on the ground that they were the only volumes wanting in the series preserved at Greenwich, and that they were frequently needed there for reference. By a vote of Convocation, on May 2, this application was acceded to, and thirteen volumes of Observations were returned to what was certainly their legitimate place of deposit. Some miscellaneous papers, making about thirty parcels, still remain in the Library.

A.D. 1778.

_Carte's MSS._ See 1753.

A.D. 1780.

On Jan. 22, a Statute was passed which imposed an annual fee of four shillings[260] on all persons entitled to read in the Library and all who had exceeded four years from matriculation, as well as assigned to the Library a share of the matriculation fees. The preamble of the Statute alleges that the funds of the Library were so insufficient for their purpose that of works of importance daily published throughout the world 'vix unus et alter publicis sumptibus adscribi possit.' The Statute also provided for the holding of regular meetings by the Curators, and the issuing of an annual Catalogue of the books purchased during the year, with their prices, together with a statement of accounts. The commencement of the annual printed purchase-catalogues dates in consequence from this year.

In a letter from Thos. Burgess, afterwards the Bishop of St. David's and Salisbury, to Mr. Tyrwhitt, the editor of Chaucer, dated Corp. Chr. Coll., Nov. 16, 1779, the plan for increasing the funds of the Library, established by this Statute, is mentioned as a scheme 'much talked of,' the defects of the Library being such as 'we are now astonished should have been of so long continuance[261].' A paper in behalf of the proposal was circulated among Members of Convocation, upon a copy of which, preserved by Dr. Bliss with his set of the annual Catalogues, the latter has noted that it was written by Sir William Scott, afterwards Lord Stowell.

The exquisite portrait of Sir Kenelm Digby, supposed to be by Vandyke, was given by Edw. Stanley, Esq. It is now in the Picture Gallery; and, having recently been cleaned and covered with plate-glass, appears once more in all the freshness of its original perfection[262].

The Sub-librarian at this time was John Walters, an undergraduate Scholar of Jesus College. He published in this year a small volume of _Poems_ ('written before the age of nineteen'), the chief portion of which consists of a description of the Library, written with a warm admiration of his subject, and by no means destitute of poetic feeling. It numbers 1188 lines, and is illustrated with some well-selected notes. In 1782, when B.A. and still Scholar of his College, he published _Specimens of Welsh Poetry in English verse, with some Original Pieces and Notes_. He took the degree of M.A. in 1784, and died in 1791[263]. We learn from a MS. note in a copy of his _Poems_, presented to the Library by the present Principal of Jesus College, that he was the son of John Walters, Rector of Llandough (author of a Welsh Dictionary, 1794), by Hannah his wife, and that he was baptized there, July 9, 1760.

[260] By the Statute passed in 1813, and by that on Fees passed in 1855, an annual payment of _eight_ shillings was ordered to be made to the Library out of the total sum (now £1 6_s._) paid by each graduate whose name is on the University Books. But these individual fees, varying with the numbers on the Books, were consolidated, in 1861 in one fixed annual sum, from the University Chest, of £2800.

[261] Note by Dr. Bliss, in his MS. _Collectanea_, bequeathed by him to Rev. H. O. Coxe.

[262] Another portrait of Sir Kenelm, which hangs in the Library, was given, in 1692, by Mr. William Pate, a woollen-draper of London. To this Mr. Pate, Thos. Brown dedicated, in 1710, as 'his honest friend,' his translation from the French of _Memoirs of the Present State of the Court and Councils of Spain_.

[263] Nichols' _Lit. Anecd._ viii. 122.

A.D. 1785.

George III and Queen Charlotte visited the Library, from Nuneham, on Oct. 13. Price, the Librarian, was in attendance, and kissed hands.

Several Assistants, whose names are not perpetuated in the Library records, are found perpetuated by the inscriptions written by successive generations on the old oak staircases which run from their studies to the galleries above. In June of this year, Thomas Whiting, of Jesus College (B.A. also in this year), does in this way transmit the memory of his service to posterity. E. Thomas (_qu._ Evan Thomas, of All Souls' College, B.A., 1793?) does the same in 1790.

A.D. 1787.

On May 31, the Reader in Chemistry, Thomas Beddoes, M.D., of Pembroke College, issued a printed Memorial to the Curators 'concerning the state of the Bodleian Library, and the conduct of the Principal Librarian.' The utmost laxity appears from this statement to have prevailed with regard to attendance, and to the hours of opening the Library; the Librarian was always absent on Saturdays and Mondays, as on those days he was occupied in journeys to and from a curacy eleven miles distant, which he held together with a living more remote; and the Library which should then in summer have been opened at eight was found unopened between nine and ten, and unopened also after University sermons. The Librarian is charged besides with having discouraged readers by neglect and incivility, with being very careless in regard to the value and condition of books purchased by the Library[264], and with having but little knowledge of foreign publications. An anecdote is related (amongst others) of his lending _Cook's Voyages_, which had been presented by King Geo. III, to the Rector of Lincoln College, and telling him that the longer he kept it the better, 'for if it was known to be in the Library, he (Mr. Price) should be perpetually plagued with enquiries after it[265].' In consequence of these complaints, the Curators, in 1788, prepared on their part a new form of Statute, while the Heads of Houses prepared another. This separate action led to a paper war between the two bodies, in which the Regius Professors of Divinity, Law, Medicine, Hebrew and Greek, (Randolph, Vansittart, Vivian, Blayney and Jackson) appeared on the Curators' side of the question, and, as the Hebdomadal Board persisted in pressing their own scheme, they at length (with the exception of Blayney) adopted the strong step, on the day when the rival plan was proposed in Convocation (June 23, 1788), of formally protesting before a notary public against this violation of their privileges. The consequence was that the Statute was withdrawn, and the proposal for a new code abandoned by both

## parties. The chief points of difference were, that the Curators objected

to the proposal being put forward as 'cum consensu Curatorum' instead of 'ex relatione Curatorum,' to the increase of the Librarian's stipend to £150, to the appointment of two Sub-librarians instead of one, and to the leaving the appointment of these in the hands of the Librarian (in accordance with Bodley's own Statute) instead of assigning it to the Curators.

Eleven Arabic and Persian MSS. were given by Turner Camac, Esq., co. Down.

A first part of a Catalogue of the Oriental MSS., comprehending those in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Æthiopic, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Coptic, was issued in this year, in folio. It was compiled by John Uri, a Hungarian, who had studied Oriental literature under Schultens, at Leyden, and who was recommended for this purpose to Archbp. Secker, by Sir Joseph Yorke, then Ambassador in the Netherlands. Many years were occupied in the preparation of this volume, as Uri appears to have commenced his work in 1766, his signature occurring in the 'Registrum admissorum' under Feb. 17, in that year[266]. Sixty closely-printed folio pages of corrections and additions are, however, supplied by Dr. Pusey, in the second part of the Catalogue, which he completed after Dr. Nicoll's death and published in 1835. In his preface to this part, Dr. Pusey remarks that Uri frequently copied with carelessness; and that the whole series of Arabic MSS. was found to need re-examination from the discovery that all kinds of cheats and impositions had been played upon all the purchasers of Eastern MSS., Pococke alone excepted, by the cunning sellers with whom they dealt, particularly in the passing off of supposititious works for genuine[267]. And upon carrying out this re-examination, the following was found to be the result:--

'Varias errorum formas deprehendi, titulis nunc charta coopertis, nunc atramento oblitis, nunc cultro pæne abrasis; auctorum porro nominibus paullulum immutatis quo notiora quædam referrent; numeris etiam, quibus singula volumina signata sunt, permutatis, quo quis opus imperfectum pro integro habeat, paginis denique pauculis operi alieno a fronte assutis.'

[264] Among other instances the purchase (in 1784) of Sir John Hill's _Vegetable System_, at the cost of £140, is mentioned.

[265] It appears incidentally, from this pamphlet, that three o'clock was the dinner-hour at almost every College at that time.

[266] He died suddenly at his lodgings in Oxford, Oct. 18, 1796, aged upwards of seventy (_Gent. Magaz._, vol. lxvi. p. 884.)

[267] The late Dr. Simonides was evidently by no means the first in his art, although probably _facile princeps_.

A.D. 1789.

The Anatomy School, on the Library staircase, was fitted up in this year as a room for receiving the Greek and Biblical MSS., and fifteenth-century editions of classics. In 1794 it was ordered that it should be distinguished by the name of the _Auctarium_, a name which it still retains. Mr. John Thomas, of Wadham College, (B.A. 1790, M.A. 1793) was employed in 1790 in arranging the room and making a list of its contents.

Many early editions of the classics were purchased at the sale of the library of Mapheo Pinelli, at Venice. To enable these purchases to be made, the Curators made a public application for loans, to which a liberal response was returned, as noted under the following year.

The increased attention which began to be paid to the Library about this time is thus mentioned in a letter from Mr. Dan. Prince, the Oxford bookseller:--

'Our Bodleian Library is putting into good order. It has been already one year in hand. Some one, two or three of the Curators work at it daily, and several assistants. The revenue from the tax on the Members of the University is about £460 per annum, which has existed 12 years. This has increased the Library so much that it must be attended to, and a new Catalogue put in hand. They have lately bought all the expensive foreign publications. A young man of this place is about making a Catalogue of all the singular books in this place, in the College libraries as well as the Bodleian.... We have a young man in this place, his name is Curtis, who was an apprentice to me, who has hitherto only dealt in books of curiosities, in which he is greatly skilled, superior in many respects to De Bure, Ames, or his continuator. He has been employed five or six years in the Bodleian Library, and since at Wadham, Queen's and Balliol. He purposes to publish a Catalogue of little or not known books in Oxford, particularly in Merton, Balliol and Oriel[268].'

[268] Nichols, _Lit. Anecd._ iii. 699, 701.

A.D. 1790.

A very large number of _Editiones principes_ and other early-printed books were purchased at the sale at Amsterdam of the library of P. A. Crevenna. The first entire Hebrew Bible, printed at Soncino in 1488, was purchased for £43 15_s._; and Fust and Schoeffer's first _dated_ Latin Bible (Mentz, 1462) for £127 15_s._ To enable the Library to make the purchases of this and the preceding year, benefactions were received to the amount of nearly £200, and upwards of £1550 were lent by various bodies and individuals. The repayment of the loans was completed in 1795.

£120 were received for duplicates sold to Messrs. Chapman and King. Other small receipts from similar sales are found under the years 1793, 1794 and 1804.

A.D. 1791.

From this year onwards until 1803, inclusive, the name of Mr. Edward Lewton, of Wadham College (B.A. 1792, M.A. 1794), is found as that of an Assistant employed upon the Catalogues. Further benefactions to the amount of £232, for the purpose of aiding the purchase of early-printed books, were received in this year. The list of all the donors is printed in Gutch's edition of Wood's _History and Antiquities_, vol. ii.