LETTER XXXV.

From the same to the same.

Saxon Manuscripts.

Univ. Coll. July 5, 1697.

REVEREND AND HONORED SIR,

THE great kindness you are pleased

to shew me in a correspondence so highly beneficial and useful to me, affects me so sensibly,

Dr. Charlett's means he was made an assistant keeper of the Bodleian Library, where he assisted in drawing up the Indexes to the Catalogue of MSS. the Latin preface to which he also wrote. Upon leaving Oxford he removed to London, where he became Secretary to the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge, and at Dr. Hickes's request, travelled over the kingdom, in search of Anglo-Saxon MSS. a Catalogue of which he drew up in English, which was afterwards translated into Latin by the care of Mr. Thwaites, and printed in the Thesaurus Ling. Vet. Septen. Oxon. 1705, folio.

At length he was appointed Librarian to Secretary Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, a situation for which he was peculiarly adapted, and which he filled with great satisfaction to his employer. Here he remained till his death, which happened July 6, 1726, and was occasioned by a dropsy. He was twice married, first to a widow, with several children; the second time, only a fortnight before his decease, to a very young woman, to whom he left his property, which was considerable.

Besides the Catalogue of Saxon MSS., he published a translation of Ostervald's Grounds and Principles of the Christian

that I cannot but return you ten thousand thanks, and earnestly beg of God Almighty to grant you health and will to continue it. I know well that your ordinary occasions must needs find you employment, and when I consider the trouble you give yourself upon the account of so many learned men both in England and beyond the seas, which alone were sufficient to take up your whole time; I cannot but be filled (as it were) with the warmest and most cordial sense of gratitude, for those many and great favours I have all along received from you, tho' without the

Religion, explain'd in a catechetical Discourse, for the Instruc. tion of Young People. It was revised by Dr. George Stanhope, and printed 8vo. London, 1704. He left great collections for a Catalogue of Lord Oxford's MSS. which, if finished, would have been very interesting, as he gave large specimens of the various works, interspersed with literary anecdotes, and criticism.

Hearne, from whose MS. papers this account is taken, thought him an unsteady capricious man, of good natural abilities, but those unimproved by a proper course of reading. He mentions him too as imprudent and dissipated, and in one place goes so far as to call him " a very great rogue.' It is not improbable, however, that the Oxford Antiquary was displeased with him for some incivilities in his official capacity, and an instance of his haughty and unfriendly behaviour to those who consulted the Harleian treasures is preserved in the Library Journal, where his rudeness to Browne Willis is very apparent even from his own words. See Nichols's Life of Bowyer, page 639.

least pretence of right, since it could never be in my power to do you any service. But as I have told you already, did I but know wherein I might be serviceable to you, I should not be backward.

I am sorry to hear that so many of the Saxon Charters in the Cottonian Library are spurious, but still it is a comfort that a good number are remaining there and elsewhere of undoubted authority. As to the Lombardic Character, we have not a book that I know of, written in it, I mean agreeable to the specimens of it in Mabillon de re Diplomatica, nor did I ever see any in any other place. In Sir J. Cotton's (I perceive by your Catalogue) there be several, and should be very happy in a sight of them, but when that will be, I cannot tell. Several of our MSS. are said by Dr. Langbain to be written in Lombardic Letters; but they are in the common text or square hand about 400 years old, vastly different from Mabillon, as I suppose yours are also.

I

suppose your books as the Gospels of St. Matt, and St. Mark, the 2d Council of G. P. &c. to be in capital letters by your account of them, and by them I could see what the difference is between this sort of Character and others, besides what I could learn from so noble a date as that of the said Synodical book. Neither are these with the other books you mention, all whereby I might be furthered in my design by

the use of the Cottonian Library. For to deal freely with you, Sir, tho' perhaps, I may tell you nothing but what you know already, the Cottonian Library has more choice and valuable monuments of antiquity, and greater store of them than the Bodleian. I mean, Latin, Saxon, and English, so that when I had copied specimens from our chiefest books, I thought I could not do better than make my application to you, for the favour of a date or two from yours. The only Saxon date we have is the Saxon Chronicle, tho' we have 3 or 4 Saxon books besides, whose ages we may give a good guess at. We have no English date above 300 years old, and but a few Latin ones. We have ancient Latin MSS. indeed, but they give not the year when they were written, sometimes they tell whom they were written by, but then I cannot find who Ulricus Rægenbaldus, &c. should be: so that the oldest Latin date we have is in the year 818 and presently after we have some others, them we want for the 10th and 11th Centuries, but from those we can make a pretty good shift. But it is far otherwise with you, who have numbers of them of the best sort.

If the Foundation Charter of Croyland should be the original, I should be very glad to put it into my book, and would thankfully and safely return it. But if the Gentleman will not be willing to part with it out of his own custody, I

shall not expect it. I forgot to mention that the date of our Greek MSS. begin at the 9th Century. and hold on to this present. It is impossible for. one Library to monopolize all things, so that if I finish what I intend, I must travel over Europe, which will be a very pleasing journey to,

Honored Sir,

Your most humble and obliged Servant,

HUMFREY WANLEY.

LETTER XXXVI.

Mr. W. SHERWIN to Dr. TURNER, President of C. C. C.

All Souls' College.—Magdalen.-St. John's.

REVEREND SIR,

I THOUGHT it would not be unacceptable to you, to have an account of what has happened here since you left this place; we are told that the business of All Souls has had two hearings before my Lord of Canterbury, where Mr. Proast persists in denying the Warden having any right to that place: there is nothing yet determined. On Wednesday night Magd. Coll. Chapel was robbed of a great part of their communion plate, by some that must needs know the College well, 'tis supposed they lodged themselves in the chapel at nine o'clock prayers, and came out at the great doors which are only bolted on the inside. They did not meddle with the