MS. wherein there are such faults; I make bold to cite the old fragments of the Greek Gospels in the Cotton Library, written in very large uncial letters of silver and gold, which I take to be older than the Alexandrian MS. from the form of the letters, &c. (not to mention its exactly answering the description which St. Hierome in his Prologue to Job gives of the ancient books of his time,) in these fragments are the same faults, as CHIPAN for σπεῖραν, ΚΤΡΗΝΕΟΝ for Κυρηναιον, ΕΡΧΟΜΕ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΡΑΛΗΨΟΜΕ for ἔρχομαι καὶ παραληψομαι, ΕΙΜΕΙ for ἐιμὶ, ΜΙΖΩΝ for μέιζων, and very many others. And I could bring thousands of examples from other books ancient and modern; but I forbear and rather refer to any such book if it be written in the Levant. Be pleased, Sir, to tell me whose satisfaction this is designed for, and pardon my haste, and want of books, and spare my faults, for the post being ready to go, I have not time to read over what I have written; but am

Your humble Servt.

H. W.

VOL. I.

I

LETTER XLV.

Sir SAMUEL GARTH to Dr. CHARLETT.

Names and Abbreviations in Garth's Dispensary.

SIR,

SIR Edw. Walsop, to whom I

have many obligations, has added to them by giving me this opportunity of assuring you of my humble service. I am ashamed that any thing besides the sense of my own duty should remind me of acquitting myself to you as I ought. You must give me leave to remember your former civilities to me, since it is natural to you to forget them. I have subscribed the interpretation the town puts upon some names and abbreviations in a late poem you have been pleased to read, and must take leave to tell you, that since by your approbation of it you have made me proud, you ought to send me something done by yourself to make me humble. Tho' I have made some persons very angry with me, yet if I have any ways contributed to your diversion, the attempt I engaged in will scarce be repented of, by, Sir, Your obliged servant,

Extract of a Letter from Dr. NICHOLSON, (afterwards Bishop of Carlisle,) to Dr. CHARLETT.

The Cornish Language.

Salkeld, Nov. 14, 1700.

ABOUT ten daies agoe I had a letter from honest Mr. Lhwyd, who saies he has thoughts (with Mr. Vice Chanrs. leave) to pass from Cornwall, where he then was, into Bretagne in France, in order to pick up the Remains of the Armorican Dialect. This will be the finishing part of his Collections; and then

(about four months hence) you are to expect his return to Oxford, where he's to put his materials into form. From Ireland he has brought above thirty parchment MSS. in the Language of the Natives. He met, he saies, with O'Flaherty, the author of the Ogygia; who is a person affable and learned: but the late Revolutions in that Kingdome have reduced him to great poverty, The Cornpapers. and destroyed his books and ish language, he complains, is so extremely corrupted with English, that 'tis almost wholly perish'd. He has transcrib'd the onely (two or three) books that are written in it; and has formed such a vocabulary out of 'em as he had formerly done out of the Irish and High-landScotch. These books are the Guirimir, mention'd in the late edition of Camden. He supposes that word to be a corruption of Gwari mirkl; which, in their Dialect, signifies a Miraculous Play or Interlude. The latest of those he copy'd, was written by one William Gorden, A.D. 1611. They were compos'd for the begetting in the common people a right notion of the Scriptures; and were acted in the memory of some not long since deceas'd.

LETTER XLVII.

Mr. CHERRY to Mr. HEARNE.

SR. HEARNE,

IN answer to yours of the 6th instant (which I received not till last night) I shall only tell you that I think you are very much obliged to Dr. Kennett for procuring you: such an offer; the terms of which are, in my

Hearne had just taken his degree of B.A. and his academical title was Sir Hearne. This title was, in the early ages, general to all who had taken a degree, or entered into holy orders; and thus, in our old writers, we continually meet with Sir prefixed to the name, which has occasionally given rise to a mistaken supposition that these persons were knighted.

+ This offer was made, at the instance of White Kennett, by Dr. Bray, commissary to the Bishop of London. It was to go to Mary-Land in the character of a missionary, for which he was to have received a cure of seventy pounds a year, and other preferment by degrees, as well as the appointment of librarian to the province, to visit and survey all the public libraries, at a salary of ten pounds. Hearne, after taking the advice of his friends, declined the office, and preferred remaining in Oxford. The following prayer, which he composed on the occasion, was found among his papers, after his decease, and is now preserved in the Bodleian. “O Lord God, Heavenly Father, look down upon me with pity, and be pleased to be my guide, now I am importuned to leave the place where I have been educated in the university. Aud of thy great goodness I humbly desire thee to signify to me what is most proper for me to do in this affair." I take