A.D. 1683.

[141]A long account of Smith is given in Johnson'sLives of the Poets.

[142]Letters of Eminent Persons, &c., ii. 111.

[143]Doubtless an error for Chas. Aldrich

Three MSS., containing the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Pentateuch, and the Syriac Old Testament, were purchased at the cost of the University.

Nine Oriental and Russian MSS. were given by Joseph Taylor, LL.D., of St. John's College. And Sir Rob. Viner, Bart., the loyal alderman of London, favoured the Library with a human skeleton, a tanned human skin, and the dried body of a negro boy!

Thomas Marshall, or Mareschall, D.D., Rector of Lincoln College, and Dean of Gloucester, who died April 18, bequeathed his MSS., and all such among his printed books as were not already in the Library. The MSS. amounted to 159, chiefly Oriental, including some valuable Coptic copies of the Gospels,&c., which were procured for him by Huntington, with a few in Dutch, and others miscellaneous in language and subject. They are entered in Bernard's Catalogue, pp. 272-3, and 373-4. The printed books are still kept together under his name.

Fell, Bishop of Oxford, who died July 10, bequeathed a few MSS. They consist of an early and curious collection ofVitæ Sanctorumin four folio volumes, of a transcript (in nine folio volumes) of aGlossarium Septentrionaleby Francis Junius, Dionysius Syrus in Latin by Dudley Loftus, and two Greek MSS., Damascius and Euthymius Zigabenus, described at the end (col. 907) of Mr. Coxe's Catalogue of the Greek MSS. One other MS. has somehow been incorporated in this collection (now numbered 21-23) which does not belong to it. It is aClavis Linguæ Sanctæ, or explanation of all the Hebrew, and some Chaldee, roots, found in the Old Testament, by Nicholas Trott, in three folio volumes, written with great care and neatness. This, of which the first part had been printed at Oxford in 1719, was sent to the Library in 1746, as appears from the following letter, preserved (without address) in a parcel of papers relating to the Library, now in the Librarian's study:—

'My Lord,'My wife's grandfather Judge Trott, cheif justice of South Carolina, desired on his death bed that his forty years' labour relating to the Hebrew root might be sent as a present to the Publick Library at Oxford. I proposed to have carried it, but my time has allways been taken up at a disagreable series of Court Martials, and now I am again going to the West Indies. That I must beg your Lordship will order or give it a conveyance to the University, and I am, with great respect, my Lord,'Your Lordship's most humble servant,'THOS. FRANKLAND.'23 Nov., 1746.

'My Lord,

'My wife's grandfather Judge Trott, cheif justice of South Carolina, desired on his death bed that his forty years' labour relating to the Hebrew root might be sent as a present to the Publick Library at Oxford. I proposed to have carried it, but my time has allways been taken up at a disagreable series of Court Martials, and now I am again going to the West Indies. That I must beg your Lordship will order or give it a conveyance to the University, and I am, with great respect, my Lord,

'Your Lordship's most humble servant,'THOS. FRANKLAND.'23 Nov., 1746.

It appears, however, from the accounts, &c., that the MS. was not actually delivered until 1748 or 1749, when it was received through Dr. Hunt.

A few of Bishop Fell's MSS. came subsequently to the Library among those of Rev. Henry Jones[144], who succeeded Fell in his rectory of Sunningwell, Berks, in the church of which parish the Bishop's wife was buried.

At the Visitation on Nov. 8, it was ordered that notice be given that 'Nullus in posterum quemlibet librum aut volumen extra Bibliothecam asportet,' and that monition be sent to every College and Hall for the return of any books taken out within three days. Several books appear to have been reported in previous years as missing; hence, doubtless, the issue of this order.

[144]Hearne's pref. to John Ross, p. 1.

On the occasion of the visit of King James II to Oxford, chiefly, but unsuccessfully, made for the purpose of overawing the fellows of Magdalen College, who had refused to elect as president his nominee, Anth. Farmer, he was invited by the University to partake of a breakfast or collation in the Library. For this purpose he came hither on the morning of Sept. 5, between nine and ten, where, at the south part of the Selden end, a banquet was prepared which cost the University £160, consisting of 111 dishes of meat, sweetmeats, and fruit. The King sat here for about three quarters of an hour, and held some conversation with Hyde about a Chinese, 'a little blinking fellow,' who had recently visited the place, and about the religion of China; but asked no one to join him at the table. Upon rising to depart, a scene of strange indecorum, as it would now appear, ensued; the 'rabble' (as they are described) of courtiers and academics rushed upon the mass of untouched dainties, and began a disorderlyscramble, in which they 'flung the wet sweetmeats on the ladies linnen and petticoats, and stained them.' The King watched the scramble for two or three minutes, and then departed, commending to the Vice-Chancellor and doctors his chaplain, W. Hall, who had preached before him the day previous, and delivering a most fatherly homily on the sin of pride, the virtue of charity, and the duty of doing as they would be done to. Good, gossipping, Ant. à Wood gives in hisAutobiographya full account of all that passed, from which are taken the quotations made above[145].

[145]See also Miss Seward'sAnecdotes, Supplement, 1797, p. 72.

Dr. Hyde went up to London in this year to demand personally of the Company of Stationers the books which were due to the Library by Act of Parliament (1 James II, cap. 17, for seven years, continuing previous acts), but which they had neglected to send. His expenses were £6 5s.

Thirty pounds were paid in this year to Antony à Wood for twenty-five MSS. out of his library[146]. These are volumes of great value, including Chartularies of the Abbeys of Glastonbury and Malmesbury, and of the Preceptory of Sandford, Oxon, copies of Papal bulls relating to England, a register of lands in Leicestershiretemp.Hen. VI, &c.

The rest of Wood's MSS., and printed books, came to the Library, together with the other collections preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, in 1860.

It is said that Wood in this year estimated the number of MSS.in the Library at 10,141. This must have been the number of separate books, not volumes, as in 1697 the latter appear from Bernard's Catalogue to have been about 6700.

[146]In Bernard's Catalogue the purchase is said to have been made in 1692, but this is an error, as it is entered in the accounts of 1690.

On Oct. 8, died Dr. Thomas Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, who, retaining his attachment for the place over which he had presided from 1652 to 1660, bequeathed to it seventy-eight MSS. (now bound in fifty-four volumes), and all the printed books in his collection which the Library did not possess, the remainder going to Queen's College. They appear to have been received in the years 1693-4, as large payments for the carriage are found in the accounts then. His MSS. are described in the old Catalogue of 1697. The printed books, which are particularly rich in tracts of the time of Charles I and the Usurpation, are still kept distinct, being calledLinc.; ending, in the 8oseries, at about the middle of the shelves marked with the letter C in that division. They are placed in the gallery on the left hand of the great central room[147]. His legacy included a copy of the famousExposicio Sancti Jeronimi in Simbolo Apostolorum, which was printed at Oxford in 1468, and completed, as the colophon states, on Dec. 17. This volume was given to Barlow, as he notes at the beginning, by Bishop Juxon, July 31, 1657. It is exhibited in the glass case near the entrance. The Library possesses also seven other productions of the early Oxford press. They are as follow:—

1.Ægidius Romanus de Peccato Originali, dated March 14, 1479. This was one of Rob. Burton's books. Qu. unique?2.Textus Ethicorum Aristotelis, per Leonardum Arretinum translatus, 1479. One of Selden's books.3.Expositio Alexandri [de Ales] super tertium librum [Arist.] DeAnima. 'Impressum per me Theodericum rood de Colonia in alma universitate Oxon.' Oct. 11, 1481.4.Joh. Latteburii Exposicio Trenorum Jheremie, July 31, 1482. No place, but printed with the same type as the last.5.Liber Festivalis, in English, printed by Rood and Hunt, 1486. Two copies, but both very imperfect. The more imperfect one of the two formerly belonged to Herbert, and was bought for £6 6s.in 1832; two additional leaves have been inserted by Mr. Coxe, which were found among Hearne's scraps, having been given to him as fragments of a Caxton by Bagford. The other copy was bought in 1852, at Utterson's sale, for £6 10s.6.Opus Wilhelmi Lyndewoode super Constitutiones Provinciales. No place or date, but identified by the type.7.Vulgaria quedam abs Terentio in Anglicam linguam traducta. Without place or date, but also identified by the type. The following note, which corroborates the identification, is written in red ink on a fly-leaf in the volume (which includes several other tracts): '1483.Frater Johannes Grene emit hunc librum Oxon. de elemosinis amicorum suorum[148].'

1.Ægidius Romanus de Peccato Originali, dated March 14, 1479. This was one of Rob. Burton's books. Qu. unique?

2.Textus Ethicorum Aristotelis, per Leonardum Arretinum translatus, 1479. One of Selden's books.

3.Expositio Alexandri [de Ales] super tertium librum [Arist.] DeAnima. 'Impressum per me Theodericum rood de Colonia in alma universitate Oxon.' Oct. 11, 1481.

4.Joh. Latteburii Exposicio Trenorum Jheremie, July 31, 1482. No place, but printed with the same type as the last.

5.Liber Festivalis, in English, printed by Rood and Hunt, 1486. Two copies, but both very imperfect. The more imperfect one of the two formerly belonged to Herbert, and was bought for £6 6s.in 1832; two additional leaves have been inserted by Mr. Coxe, which were found among Hearne's scraps, having been given to him as fragments of a Caxton by Bagford. The other copy was bought in 1852, at Utterson's sale, for £6 10s.

6.Opus Wilhelmi Lyndewoode super Constitutiones Provinciales. No place or date, but identified by the type.

7.Vulgaria quedam abs Terentio in Anglicam linguam traducta. Without place or date, but also identified by the type. The following note, which corroborates the identification, is written in red ink on a fly-leaf in the volume (which includes several other tracts): '1483.Frater Johannes Grene emit hunc librum Oxon. de elemosinis amicorum suorum[148].'

A list of sixty-six books, which Hunt, the Oxford printer and bookseller, had in his hands for sale in 1483, is preserved in his own writing on a fly-leaf in a copy of a French translation of Livy, Paris, 1486, which was bought for the Library from Mr. C. J. Stewart, in Dec. 1860, for £12. The list is headed thus: 'Inventorium librorum quos ego Thomas Hunt, stacionariusuniversitatis Oxoniensis, recepi de Magistro Petro Actore et Johannis (sic) de Aquisgrano ad vendendum, cum precio cujuslibet libri, et promito (sic) fideliter restituere libros aut pecunias secundum precium inferius scriptum, prout patebit in sequentibus, Anno Domini Mo. CCCCo. octuagesimo tercio.'

[147]In most of them is inscribed the motto,αιεν αριστευειν.

[148]This last book is described by Dr. Cotton in the second series of hisTypographical Gazetteer, published in 1866, from a copy in the University Library at Cambridge. Besides the other Oxford books enumerated by that learned bibliographer, several fragments of another, aCompendium totius Grammaticæ(conjectured to have been written by John Anwykyll, Waynflete's first Grammar Master at Magdalene College) have been discovered. They have been identified by Mr. H. Bradshaw, the Librarian of the University of Cambridge, whose extensive acquaintance with early typography is well known. That gentleman found, at Cambridge, two leaves in the University Library in 1859, two more in Corpus Christi in 1861, and two in St. John's in 1866. Four other leaves were discovered by the present writer in 1867, bound up as fly-leaves in a volume in the library of Viscount Dillon, at Ditchley, Oxfordshire. Mr. Bradshaw supposes the book to have been printed about 1483-6.

Thirty-eight Persian and Arabic MSS., with one printed book, were bought from Hyde, the Librarian. They are entered in Bernard's Catalogue, pp. 286-7. Being bought out of the funds of the University, no mention of the price paid for them is found in the Library accounts.

The Oriental MSS., in number 420, of the famous Edward Pococke, Regius Professor of Hebrew (who had deceased Sept. 10, 1691), were purchased by the University for £600. They are chiefly in Armenian, Hebrew, and Arabic, with three volumes in Æthiopic, a Samaritan Pentateuch, and a Persian Evangeliary. A list is given at pp. 274-278 of Bernard's Catalogue. In 1822 the Library became possessed of a portion of Pococke's Collection of printed miscellaneous books, by the bequest of Rev. C. Francis, M.A., of Brasenose College. They are chiefly small volumes in Latin, on historical subjects; and are, for the most part, placed in the shelves marked 8oZ. Jur. [Arabic version of Isaiah, see p.81.]

Another large Oriental collection was added in this year by the purchase, from Dr. Robert Huntington, for the sum of £700, of about 600 MSS. These he had procured while holding the post of chaplain to the English merchants at Aleppo[149]. Thecollection is one of very great value and rarity. No. 1 is a fine and ponderous Syriac volume, containing the works of Gregory Abulpharage. No. 2 is a very fine folio Arabic MS., written in the year of the Hegira 777 (= A.D. 1375), and dedicated to the Sultan Almalek Alashraf Shalian ben Hosain; in it, as Uri says in his Catalogue, 'variæ Ægypti regiones recensentur, agrorum cujusque regionis mensura definitur, et annui redditus exponuntur.' Dibdin[150]describes it in his own exaggerated style, as follows:—'One of the grandest books— ... a sort of Domesday compilation—which can possibly be seen.... The scription is in double columns, with the margins emblazoned only in stars. The title, on the reverse of the first leaf, is highly illuminated, in a fine style; not crowded with ornaments, but grand from its simplicity. At the end, we observe that it is (rightly) calledMunus Pretiosum, and that the author was Sherfiddin Iahia ben Almocar ben Algiaian. The inspection of such a volume, on the coldest possible morning, even when the thermometer stands atzero, is sufficient to warm the most torpid system.' No. 80 is a copy of Maimonides'Yad Hachazaka, revised by the author, with his autograph signature at the bottom of fol. 165, and a MS. note by him on fol. 1. Of these an engraved facsimile is given inTreasures of Oxford, containing Poetical Compositions by the ancient Jewish Authors in Spain, and compiled from MSS. in the Bodl. Libr. by H. Edelman and Leop. Dukes; edited and rendered into English by M. H. Bresslau: part i. 8o. Lond. 1851. A second part of this work was to have contained prose selections from MSS. in the Huntington, Pococke, Michael, and Oppenheim collections, but no more was published. Among Huntington's books there are also three, of no great antiquity, in the Mendean character, of which Dr. T. Smith narrates in his life of Bernard(1704, p. 21) that two were said to have been given by God to Adam, and the third to the angels, 330,000 years before Adam. And one volume (No. 598) is in the Ouigour language, a Tartar dialect, of which very few specimens are known to exist. A gentlemanM. Vaḿbery, the traveller in Tartary, who is engaged in forminga Chrestomathy of this dialect, came in the last year to England for the purpose of examining this volume, as one of the few on which his work could be based. Three MSS. exist at Paris; but that in the Bodleian is said to be the most beautiful of all as a specimen of writing, as well as the most ancient. It is a version of theBakhtiar Nameh. A description of it, with an engraved facsimile, is given in Davids'Turkish Grammar, 4o. Lond. 1832, pref. p. xxxi.

An exchange of some duplicates was made with the Library of Queen's College, and in 1695 the duplicates of Bishop Barlow's Collection were transferred, in accordance with his will, to the same Library.

[149]He had previously given thirty-five MSS. in the years 1678, 1680, and 1683. He died on Sept. 2, 1701, only twelve days after his consecration as Bishop of Raphoe.

[150]Bibliogr. Decam.iii. 472.

A Mr. Clarke was employed in this year in making a catalogue of Pococke's and Huntington's MSS., for which he altogether received between £13 and £14.

Books were bought from Mr. Bobart, and at the auction of the library of Sir Charles Scarborough, M.D.

Stationers' Company.See1610.

MSS. from Wood.See1658.

From this year until 1700, Humphrey Wanley was an assistant in the Library, at an annual salary of £12. He had also £10 at the end of this year 'extraordinary, for his paines already past,' and £15, at the beginning of 1700, 'for his pains about Dr. Bernard's books.' Possibly this grant may have been in consequence of the interposition of Bishop Lloyd of Worcester, who, in a letter to Wanley of Jan. 6, in that year, promises to speak to the Bishop of Oxford to see whether he can get his place in the Library made better for him[151]. Wanley was no favourite with Hearne. The following passage from theMS. Diaryof the latter[152]is a specimen of the censure which he on several occasions passes on him: 'Humphrey Wanley appears from several passages to be a very illiterate silly fellow. He committed strange and almost incredible blunders when he was employed by Dr. Charlett and some others in printing the catalogue of the MSS. of England and Ireland, which work was committed first to the care of Dr. Bernard; but he being then very weak and otherwise employed, he could not take so much pains about it as he would, had he not been thus hindered.' The very accurate index, however, to this Catalogue was Bernard's own work, made from the proof-sheets, and written with his own hand, 'uti ab illo accepi,' says Dr. T. Smith in his Life (1704, p. 48). He prepared also another index, which included besides the contents of eight of the great foreign libraries, but not the Royal Library at Paris, the catalogue of which he was unable to obtain.

[151]Walker'sLetters by Eminent Persons, i. 102. It is pleasant to find that Wanley in more prosperous days evinced his gratitude for the help he had received in the Library, by giving, in the year 1721, £7 7s., together with a MS. Latin Bible.

[152]1714, vol. li. p. 193.

On the death of Edward Bernard, D.D., the Savilian Professor of Astronomy (which occurred on Jan. 12), the University became the purchaser from his widow of the greater part of his library. A selection from his printed books, made on behalf of the Library by H. Wanley, comprising many rare Aldines and specimens of the 15th century, were bought for £140, and his MSS., many of which were valuable copies of classical authors, together with collated printed texts and his ownAdversaria, for £200. Of 218 of the latter, Bernard has given a very brief list in his own invaluableCatalogus Manuscriptorum Angliæ, which appeared posthumously, in the year of his death. (Vol. ii. pp. 226-8.) The bulk of his books are dispersed through various divisions of the Library; but about thirty volumes of his ownAdversariaare kept together under his name. A very full account, by H. Wanley, of the purchase of the collection is printed by Dr. Bliss in his notes to theAth. Oxon.(iv. 709), who adds that this addition 'contained many of the most valuable books, both printed and MSS., now in the Library.'

In the discharge of his duty of selection, Wanley came into sharp collision with his chief, Dr. Hyde, as is shown by a curious paper, in Wanley's handwriting, which was transcribed by Dr. Rawlinson from the original in Dr. Charlett's possession[153]. The paper gives a list of books for the not securing which, together with others, out of Dr. Bernard's collection, blame had been thrown upon Wanley, and which Hyde had said must by all means be bought at the auction which was to be held in October, 1697. To the title of each book so specified, Wanley appends some caustic remarks, exposing Dr. Hyde's little acquaintance withthe Library or with the books themselves; and sums up thus at the close:—'This is what I have to say to these 13 books, one whereof I look upon as imperfect, two more I was charged not to meddle with, and the other ten are in the Library already. I shall wave all unmannerly reflections, as whether this be not in youinsignis insufficientia, for which you are liable to be turned out of your place; or [whether,] if you had been employed to bring in a list of Dr. Bernard's books wanting in the Library, and took the same method as now, the University would not have bought a fair parcel of duplicates, and such like; but I pass them by. Tho' it must be owned that the University being willing to lay out but 140 pounds, some different editions of the Bible, Fathers, Classicks, &c., were preferr'd to some books not at all in the Library, but they were at the same time judged to be of less moment, and likely to be given to it by future benefactors.'

The quarrel, however, soon ceased; for, in the following year, Hyde was anxious to see Wanley appointed as his successor. The latter, in a letter to Dr. Charlett, dated Oct. 10, 1698[154], repeats a conversation held with Hyde on the previous evening, in which the Librarian said 'that he is heartily weary of the place of Library-keeper; that he must use more exercise in riding out, &c., if he intends to preserve his health; which will of necessity hinder his attendance there. He had rather I succeeded him than anybody else, which I cannot do untill I am a graduate; that, if I have any friends amongst the heads of houses, they cann't do better for me than in procuring for me the degree of Batchellor of Law, that I may be in a condition to stand for his place with others, which he will resign as soon as I have obtain'd the said degree, and (for my sake) will communicate his intentions to nobody else in the mean time. He presses me to get this degree as soon as possible, urging thathe does not care how soon he is rid of his place.' Wanley asks for Charlett's advice; what that was does not appear, but, at any rate, he did not obtain the degree which he desired, and consequently did not become eligible as Hyde's successor.

Sixteen MS. treatises on Mathematics, Astronomy, and Ancient History, by Thomas Lydiat, were given by Will. Coward, M.D. They are placed amongst the Bodl. MSS., chiefly between Nos. 658-671.

[153]Rawlinson's copy is now in MS. Rawl. Misc. 937. For the knowledge of this paper the writer is indebted to Rev. W. H. Bliss.

[154]Ballard MSS. xiii. 45.

Considerable fears were entertained for the safety of the Divinity School and that portion of the Library which is built over it. About thirty-two years before, some failure had been observed in the roof of the former, which was rectified under the superintendence of Sir Christopher Wren. When Bishop Barlow's books were brought to the Library, in 1692 or 1693, the galleries on either side of the middle room were erected; and, as the beams of the roof of the School were then observed to give from the wall, they were anchored on both sides, under the direction of Dr. Aldrich. But the tight bracing had now caused the south wall, that which adjoins Exeter College garden, to bulge outwards, so that the book-stalls were found to have started from the wall by three and a-half inches at the top and two and a-half at the bottom; the wall itself was seven and a-half inches out of the perpendicular, and the four great arches of the vault of the School were all cracked. Hereupon Dr. Gregory, the Savilian Professor, was despatched to London to consult Sir C. Wren again, and, by his advice, additional buttresses of great depth and strength were erected on the south side, the weight of the bookstalls was removed from the roof of the School by their being trussed up to the walls with iron cramps; and the cracks in the vault were filled with lead or oyster-shells, and in some placeswith the insertion of new stones, and were then 'wedged up with well-seasoned oaken wedges.' This work went on through the summers of 1701 and 1702; and in 1703 some similar repairs were executed in some of the other Schools. The letters and papers of Wren on the subject, with the draughts, and reports of the workmen employed, are preserved in Bodley MS. 907. They are printed in [Walker's]Oxoniana, iii. 16-27.

In this year died Henry Jones, M.A., Vicar of Sunningwell, Berks[155]. He bequeathed to the Library sixty volumes in MS., very miscellaneous in character, and chiefly of the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of them had belonged to Bishop Fell. The bequest probably came to Oxford some few years after Mr. Jones' death, as the books are entered (in a full and accurate list) by Hearne, in the Benefaction Book, among the gifts of about the years 1706-12. It was from a modern transcript among these that Hearne edited theHistoria Regum Angliæof John Ross or Rouse; and seventy-one documents from No. 23, which is an Hereford Chartulary, were printed by Rawlinson at the end of hisHistory of Hereford, 8o, Lond. 1717. One volume has for many years been missing from the collection, viz., a funeral oration, by John Sonibanck, on the death of Queen Elizabeth of York, in 1503. A list of the MSS. is printed from the Benefaction Register, in Uffenbach'sCommercium Epistolicum, pp. 200-208.

Between 1700 and 1738 Sir Hans Sloane is recorded to have given considerably more than 1400 volumes, together with his picture in 1731; but the majority of them do not appear to have been considered of much value, and only 415 are specified by name in the Benefaction Register. Dr. Hyde, in a letter to Hudson, which accompanied a list of the books for which the latter had asked with a view to registration, says he scarce thinks the entry to be 'for the credit of the business,nos inter nos[156].' But Hudson appears to have thought that the omission proceeded rather from carelessness, for, in a letter to Wanley, he says that he thinks Hyde assigned 'non causa pro causa[157].'

[155]Steele'sMSS. Collections for Berks; Gough MS. 27.

[156]Walker'sLetters by Eminent Persons, i. 173.

[157]Ellis'sLetters of Eminent Literary Men, Camd. Soc. pp. 302-3.

The long-entertained idea of resigning the Librarianship was at length carried out by Dr. Thomas Hyde in this year, for the reasons given in the following letter, which was addressed by him to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, probably Dr. Charlett. It is here printed from a copy sent by Hyde to Wake, then Rector of St. James, Westminster, and preserved amongst the Wake Correspondence in the library of Ch. Ch.:—

'March 10, 1700/01,'Christ Church, Oxon.

'Sir,—I being a little indisposed by the gout, acquaint you thus by letter, that what I long agoe designed (as you partly knew) I am now about to put in execution. That is to say, I shall shortly lay down my office of Library-keeper, about a month hence, which resolution I do now declare, and I do hereby give you timely and statuteable notice of the same as Pro-Vice-Chancellor, entreating that, as the Statute requires, you will in two days order Mr. Cowper to draw a Programma to be set up at the Schools to the sence of the enclosed paper, he best knowing forms and lawyers' Latin.'Among the Bodleian Statutes in the Appendix, in the Statutede causis amovendi aut libere recedendi, you will find that upon the Library-keeper's notice thus given, you are in two days' time to fix up the programma preparatory to make it known that about a month hence (which is about the end of this term) that office will be actually resigned and void.'My reasons for leaving the place are two, viz. one is because(my feet being left weak by the gout) I am weary of the toil and drudgery of daily attendance all times and weathers; and secondly, that I may have my time free to myself to digest and finish my papers and collections upon hard places of Scripture, and to fit them for the press[158]; seing that Lectures (though we must attend upon them) will do but little good, hearers being scarce and practicers more scarce.'I should have left the Library more compleat and better furnish'd but that the building of the Elaboratory[159]did so exhaust the University mony, that no books were bought in severall years after it. And at other times when books were sometimes bought, it was (as you well know) never left to me to buy them, the Vice-Chancellor not allowing me to lay out any University mony. And therefore some have blamed me without cause for not getting all sorts of books.'Before the Visitations I did usually spend a month's time in preparing a list of good books to offer to the Curators; but I could seldom get them bought, being commongly (sic) answered in short, that they had no mony. Nay, I have been chid and reproved by the Vice-Chancellor for offering to put them to so much charge in buying books. These things at last discouraged me from medling in it. But, however, I leave the Library three times bigger than I found it[160], and furnished with a Catalogue of which I found it destitute. I wish the University a man who may take as much pains and drudgery as I have done whilst I was able to do it.'I entreat you with all speed to cause the Register to put up the programma signed with your name, that so things may be regularly and statutably dispatched in order, until the time of actuall resignation shall come.

'Among the Bodleian Statutes in the Appendix, in the Statutede causis amovendi aut libere recedendi, you will find that upon the Library-keeper's notice thus given, you are in two days' time to fix up the programma preparatory to make it known that about a month hence (which is about the end of this term) that office will be actually resigned and void.

'My reasons for leaving the place are two, viz. one is because(my feet being left weak by the gout) I am weary of the toil and drudgery of daily attendance all times and weathers; and secondly, that I may have my time free to myself to digest and finish my papers and collections upon hard places of Scripture, and to fit them for the press[158]; seing that Lectures (though we must attend upon them) will do but little good, hearers being scarce and practicers more scarce.

'I should have left the Library more compleat and better furnish'd but that the building of the Elaboratory[159]did so exhaust the University mony, that no books were bought in severall years after it. And at other times when books were sometimes bought, it was (as you well know) never left to me to buy them, the Vice-Chancellor not allowing me to lay out any University mony. And therefore some have blamed me without cause for not getting all sorts of books.

'Before the Visitations I did usually spend a month's time in preparing a list of good books to offer to the Curators; but I could seldom get them bought, being commongly (sic) answered in short, that they had no mony. Nay, I have been chid and reproved by the Vice-Chancellor for offering to put them to so much charge in buying books. These things at last discouraged me from medling in it. But, however, I leave the Library three times bigger than I found it[160], and furnished with a Catalogue of which I found it destitute. I wish the University a man who may take as much pains and drudgery as I have done whilst I was able to do it.

'I entreat you with all speed to cause the Register to put up the programma signed with your name, that so things may be regularly and statutably dispatched in order, until the time of actuall resignation shall come.

'In the mean time I remain,'Your humble servant,'THOMAS HYDE.'

John Hudson, M.A., of Queen's, afterwards D.D. and Princ. of St. Mary Hall, was elected in Hyde's room; he was opposed by J. Wallis, M.A., of Magd., the Laudian Professor of Arabic, but was chosen by 194 votes to 173[161]. A letter to him from Hyde on his election, with advice about the entering of Sir H. Sloane's books in the Register, the augmentation of Mr. Crabbe's salary, the Catalogues and the Statutes, is printed in [Walker's]Letters by Eminent Persons, i. 173. He had previously, in 1696-98, given seventy books to the Library, and in 1705-10 he added nearly 600. Hyde did not long survive his resignation, dying before one year had elapsed, on Feb. 18, 1702. He was buried at Handborough, near Oxford.

In this year Thomas Hearne, the famous antiquary, was appointed Janitor, or Assistant, in the Library. He tells us in hisAutobiography(p. 10) that, from the time of his taking the degree of B.A. in Act term, 1699, 'he constantly went to the Bodleian Library every day, and studied there as long as the time allowed by the Statutes would admit,' and that the fact of this his 'diligence being taken notice of by all persons that came thither, and his skill in books being likewise well known to those with whom he had at any time conversed,' occasioned Hudson's appointing him to be an Assistant immediately upon his own election as Librarian. It appears, from the Visitors' Book, that a payment of £10 was made to him in this year, and that, in the next year, £30 were voted to him for his assistance in making an Appendix to the Catalogue of printed books[162], and for enlarging and correcting the Catalogues of MSS. and Coins. Extra payments of 50s.were also made to him in 1704 and 1706, and of 20s.in 1709.

The Bodley Speech.See1682.

[158]These were left in MS. at Hyde's death, and have never been published.

[159]i.e.the Ashmolean Museum.

[160]Hyde was greatly mistaken here, as a calculation made by Hearne in 1714 (q.v.) showed that the Library had then little more than doubled since 1620.

[161]Reliqq. Hearn.ii. 616.

[162]For an account of Hearne's Appendix, see1738.

A considerable number of printed books were given by Steph. Penton, B.D., and a collection of 500 coins was bequeathed about this time by Tim. Nourse, of Univ. Coll.

The name of John Locke appears in the Register, as the donor of his own works (which he gave at Hudson's request), together with some others, including, with an honourable fairness, those of Bishop Stillingfleet written in controversy with himself. As Locke's expulsion from Ch. Ch., in 1684, by royal mandate, for political reasons, is sometimes, with an injustice which he himself would doubtless have warmly repudiated, represented as if it had been the act of Oxford itself, it is worth while to quote the language in which this gift from him, twenty years afterwards, is recorded, and recorded, too, by the pen of the earnest and conscientious Jacobite, Thomas Hearne: 'Joannes Lock, generosus, et hujus Academiæ olim alumnus, præter Opera ab ipso edita, ob ingenii elegantiam, doctrinæ varietatem, et philosophicam subtilitatem, omnibus suspicienda (here follow the titles of his own works), insuper ex suo in optimas artes amore, animoque ad supellectilem literariam augendam propenso, Bibliothecæ huic dono dedit libros sequentes;'scil.Churchill'sVoyages and Travels, 4 vols., 1704, Stillingfleet'sVindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity, Stillingfleet'sAnswer to Locke, and Rob. Boyle'sHistory of the Air. Locke desired, in a codicil to his will, that in compliance with a second request from Hudson, all his anonymous works should also be sent to the Library[163].

William Ray, formerly consul at Smyrna, presented about600 coins, chiefly Greek, which E. Lhwyd (who reported their number to be about 2000) said he had been told had been collected at Smyrna by his cook[164]. But the Benefaction Register records that they were obtained by Ray from the widow of one 'domini Dan. Patridge,' who had himself intended to present them to the University. They were put in order, and a Catalogue made of them, some years afterwards, by Hearne, who intended to have given the Catalogue to the Library, 'had not,' he says, 'the ill usage he afterwards met with there obliged him to alter his mind[165].' Ray also gave a Turkish almanac.

[163]Lord King'sLife of Locke, edit. 1830, vol. ii. p. 51.

[164]Walker'sLetters by Eminent Persons, i. 137.

[165]Life, p. 13, inLives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood, 1772.

The supposed original MS. ofThe Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety, by the author ofThe Whole Duty of Man, was given by Mr. Keble, the London bookseller. It is now numbered Bodl. MS. 21. Dr. Aldrich was of opinion that it is not in the author's own hand, but copied in a disguised hand by Bishop Fell. Hearne thought it to be in a disguised hand of Sancroft's; but the resemblance is very slight indeed[166].

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