A.D. 1756.

'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'sCodex) 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 Librarydid 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 theMemoirs 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. ArthurCharlett, 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 theLetters 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 theSupplication of Soules, by Sir Thos. More, a precious little volume of 103 closely-written duodecimo pages, entirely in the handwriting of the great Chancellor; theUniversitie'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 greatardour, 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. ofA 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 numberedE. Musæo247, 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 ofPatres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, in 1845.

[220]This date is from theRegister 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 inNotes 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 asRev.(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]SeeNotes 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'sActions 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]Aproposof 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 rareDe Antiq. Eccl. Brit., 1572. One of these is the identical copy described by Strype in hisLife 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 hisReliquiæ 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.

'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 hisReliquiæ 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 15s.6d.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 ofLife, Journals, and Correspondence of S. Pepyswere 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 thesack-bottle,' whereas the poor man had lost it by sitting many years 'at theinck-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 theNovellæof 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. 139b) 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 toSyr 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 under1821.

[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 theHoræ, 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 10s.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 48o(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, 4o. Paris, 1862, in the French Government series ofDocuments 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, inLetters by Eminent Persons, 1813, vol. i. pp. 15-17.

[255]References to many particulars relative to Thoresby, Bishop Gibson,WhiteKennett and Hickes (with a few others) are given in J. Nichols' notes to theLetters 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 Honble.Sr. Edmund Warcup (being all writ wthhis own hand at yeIsle of Wight at yeTreaty) to the Public Library in Oxford, to be placed there when I thought fitting.'Ar. Charlett.'Univ. Coll.Nov. 25, 97.'

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

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'sLife of Johnson, edit. 1835, vol. ii. p. 54.

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 nowsixtyMSS. 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'sArcana Cœlestia, published anonymously, in 8 vols. were sent 'by the author, unknown.' The same donor, still unknown, sent in 1766Selecti 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 hisLetter 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.

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 couldmake 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 4s.per oz., and two more in 1743 for £8 5s.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 generalBodleySeries), 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.

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.

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

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 inFiles, 1763; Archiv.' (MS. note in Dr. P. Bliss'Collectanea.)

TheEditio princepsof Homer, Florence, 1488, was bought for £6 6s.

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 8s.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'sLifepublished, in 1848, by the Eccl. Hist. Soc. p. 88.

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 markedArt.), 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 payment of £2 12s.6d.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.

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.

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, underthe editorship of Prof. S. P. Rigaud, in one vol. quarto, entitledMiscellaneous 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.

Carte's MSS.See1753.

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. Thecommencement 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 ofPoems('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 publishedSpecimens of Welsh Poetry in English verse, with some Original Pieces and Notes. He tookthe degree of M.A. in 1784, and died in 1791[263]. We learn from a MS. note in a copy of hisPoems, 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 ofeightshillings was ordered to be made to the Library out of the total sum (now £1 6s.) 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 ofMemoirs of the Present State of the Court and Councils of Spain.

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