than once, and heard the account of it. However, for better satisfaction, I shall repeat the story, viz. that the shoe is vastly large, made up of about a thousand patches of leather. It belonged to John Bigg, who was formerly clerk to Judge Mayne, one of the judges that gave sentence upon K. Charles the first. He lived at Dinton in a cave under ground, had been a man of tolerable wealth, was looked upon as a pretty good scholar, and of no contemptible parts. Upon the Restoration he grew melancholly, betook himself to a recluse life, made all his other cloaths in the same manner as the shoe, lived by begging, but never asked for any thing but leather (which he would immediately nail to his cloaths) yet kept three bottles, that hung at his

mention of contemporaries, and of the race of contempora ries, in their time in literary estimation; but a concern for the literary offices to which fortune had subjected them imposes silence."

Since the present sheet was actually in the compositor's hands, the octavo edition of that interesting and entertaining work Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, by a veteran in literature, has appeared. The reader will there find many of the particulars given in these pages, with some few in addition, but it is hoped, that the collection of letters now offered to the public eye will, even though some few anecdotes may have been anticipated, contain a considerable quantity of information illustrative of the manners and transactions of the period in which they were written, which has not been before published, and is at least worthy of preservation.

girdle, viz. one for strong beer, another for small beer, and the third for milk, which liquors used to be given and brought to him, as was his other sustenance, notwithstanding he never asked for them.

This shoe hath often put me in mind of the Roman campagi, or military shoes of the inferior soldiers, which were made much in the same manner; excepting this, that the upper parts were uncovered, just like the more ancient shoes called crepida. The Emperors likewise worę much the same, but finer, and then they were styled regii campagi. The Tzange (called by Codinus τaynıα) were worn by none but the Emperors, and they reached to the middle of the leg, and had on them the figure of the Eagle. These were rather later than the campagi, tho' as to the form in other respects not much different. We have draughts of each on old monuments.

Oxon, Feb. 12, 1712-13.

SIR,

LETTER XCIII.

Dr. HICKES to T. HEARNE.

Touching for the King's Evil.

March 18, 1712-13.

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I RETURN you hearty thanks for your noble present of Mr. Dodwell's book,* which I have not yet been well enough to read since I received it. I wish you good success in subscriptions to the book you are going to put to the press, and in all other your undertakings. I have occasion to make inquiry after a family, which was in my time of note in Oxford, it is the family of one Mr. Martin Lippiard, a famous apothecary there in my younger days. He had a daughter full of sores with the King's Evil, whom her father carried behind him on horseback to K. Charles 1st, when he was prisoner in Holmby House, where she was touched by the King, and was perfectly cured in a little time, and married and had children. This story is certainly true ; but if there be any of the family in Oxford, I desire you to inquire for a further confirmation of it. It is for the sake of a gentleman that is

* De Parma Woodwardiana Dissertatio.

The following curious memoranda are copied from the Register of the Parish of Stanton St. John, near Oxford. "An account of Certificates given of Persons having not before been touched for ye King's Evill.

making many collections of this nature, that I give you this trouble of further inquiry, by which you will oblige

Your most faithful friend and servant,

GEO. HICKES.

"Feb. 25. 1683-4. A Certificate given concerning Tho. Grant Son of Tho. and Amy Grant."

"1686. Sept. 5. I gave a Certificate for Mr. Mason's Daughters Alice and Avice, who were touched by the King, Sept. 19th. as Mr. Mason told me."

1705. Mar. 25. I gave a Certificate concerning Ralph Gilbert's Son Ralph not being formerly touched for ye King's Evil.”

The following is extracted from the "Mercurius Aulicus," } of Sunday, March 26, 1643.

"His Majesty caused an order (which had been signed and printed the day before) to be posted on the court gates, and all the posts and passages into the citie of Oxford, prohibiting all such as were troubled with the disease called the King's Evil, to repair into the Court for the cure thereof, at the feast of Easter now approaching, or at any other time hereafter till the Michaelmas next."

With respect to this miraculous power of healing, which has been claimed by all our sovereigns from Edward the Confessor to Queen Anne, the following account is given by Daines Barrington, in his "Observations on the More Ancient Statutes," of what he heard from an old man, a witę ` ness in a cause which was tried before him.

“He had, by his evidence, fixed the time of a fact, by Queen Anne's having been at Oxford, and touched him whilst a

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LETTER XCIV.

THOMAS HEARNE to Mr. CHERRY.

Dodwelli de Parma Woodwardiana Dissertatie.

HONOURED SIR,

I RECEIVED your parcel and letter, with the other letters (which have been delivered to your daughter) inclosed in them. I did not hear of Mr. Hayes's being in town till I read your letter. I am sorry he would not call upon me. But I suppose multiplicity of business hindered, and I excuse him. I am very glad I had so good an opportunity of doing some justice to that truly good and truly great man Mr. Dodwell, But then what I have said hath so exasperated some men that I have fallen under a violent prose

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child for the evil. When he had finished his evidence, I had an opportunity of asking him, Whether he was really cured? Upon which he observed with a significant smile, that he believed himself never to have had a complaint that deserved to be considered as the evil; but that his parents were poor, and had no objection to the bit of gold.'

"It seems to me, that this piece of gold which was given to those who were touched, accounts for the great resort on this occasion, and the supposed afterwards miraculous cures."

Many curious particulars relating to this custom may be found in Nichols's "Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century," vol. ii. p. 495-504,