BOOK I, THE COL LECTOR OF THE HAR document in its kind which is known to exist. That journal illustrates the literary history and the manners of the time, not less amusingly than it exhibits the personal LEIAN MSS. character of its writer, and the fidelity with which he worked at his task in life. WANLEY was the son of a country parson, little known to fame, but possessing some tincture of learning, and was born at Coventry, on the 21st of March, 1673. In his youth he attracted the favourable notice of his father's diocesan, William LLOYD, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry (and afterwards of Worcester), by whom he was sent to Edmund Hall at Oxford. That hall he soon exchanged for University College, on the persuasion of Dr. Arthur CHARLETT, by whose influence he was afterwards made an Underkeeper of the Bodleian Library. He took no degree, but won some distinction, whilst at Oxford, by the services which he rendered to Dr. MILL in collating the text. of the New Testament. On leaving the University, WANLEY went to London, where he became Secretary to the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. He translated OSTERVALD'S Grounds and Principles of the Christian Religion; and compiled a valuable Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts preserved in the chief libraries of Great Britain. The last-named labour gave proof of much ability. It was a sample of the work for which its writer was best fitted. As Speaker of the House of Commons, HARLEY took a considerable part in organizing the Cottonian Library, when it became a public institution under the Act of Parliament. WANLEY proffered to the Speaker, on this occasion, some advice about the necessary arrangements; became well acquainted with HARLEY'S bookishness, and saw how eagerly he would welcome opportunities for the improve ment of his own library, as well as of that newly acquired BOOK I, by the Public. The Sir Symonds D'EwES of that generation was the grandson of the diligent antiquary and politician who has been heretofore mentioned in this volume as the close friend of Sir Robert COTTON, and to whose labours, in a twofold capacity, students of our history owe a far better acquaintance with parliamentary debates, in the times both of ELIZABETH and of CROMWELL, than, but for him, would have been possible. The grandson of the first Sir Symonds had inherited from his ancestor a valuable library; but its possession had no great charm for him. He was willing to part with it, for due consideration, yet aware that he was under an obligation, moral if not legal, not so to part with his books as to lead to their dispersion. On that head, the original collector had thus expressed himself in his last Will:-"I bequeath to Adrian D'EwES, my young son yet lying in the cradle, or to any other of my sons, hereafter to be born, who shall prove my heir (if God shall vouchsafe unto me a masculine heir by whom my surname and male line may be continued in the ages to come), my precious library, in which I have stored up, for divers years past, with great care, cost, and industry, divers originals and autographs, . . . and such [books] as are unprinted; and it is my inviolable injunction and behest that he keep it entire, and not sell, divide, or dissipate it. Neither would I have it locked up from furthering the public good, the advancing of which I have always endeavoured; but that all lovers of learning, of known virtue and integrity, might have access to it at reasonable times, so that they did give sufficient security to restore safely any original or autograph . . borrowed out of the same, without blotting, erasing, or defraying it. But Chap. V. LECTOR OF THE HAR COLLEC TIONS AND THEIR HIS TORY. BOOK I, THE COL LECTOR OF if God hath decreed now at last to add an end to my family in the male line, His most holy and just will be done!' In that case, the testator proceeds to declare, it is his LEIAN MSS. desire that the library should pass to his daughter and her heirs, on like conditions as to its perpetual preservation, so that not only all lovers of learning. . . . may have access to it at seasonable times, but also that all collections which concern mine own family, or my wife's, may freely be lent ... to members thereof,' &c. Then the testator addsin relation to the last-named clause-an averment that he had only sought after the very truth, as well in these phy, in Ms. things as in all other my elucubrations, whilst I searched Harl. (B. M.) amongst the King's records or public offices.' D'Ewes, WANLEY'S ACCOUNT OF SITION OF THE D'EWES LIBRARY. It having come to WANLEY'S knowledge or belief, in the THE ACQUI year 1703, that possibly arrangements might be made to obtain this library, for the Public, from the then possessor, he wrote to HARLEY in these terms: Sir Symonds D'EWES being pleased to honour me with a peculiar kindness of esteem, I have taken the liberty of inquiring of him whether he will part with his library, and I find that he is not unwilling to do so. And that at a much easier rate than I could think for. I dare say that it would be a noble addition to the Cotton Library; perhaps the best that could be had anywhere at present. If your Honour should judge it impracticable to persuade Her Majesty to buy them for the Cotton Library-in whose coffers such a sum as will buy them is scarcely conceivable-then, Sir, if you shall have a mind of them yourself I will take care that you shall have them cheaper than any other person whatsoever. I know that many have their eyes upon this collection.' 'I am desirous,' he goes on to say, 'to have this collection in town for the public good, and rather in a 841, fol. 63. public place than in private hands; but, of all private Wanley to MS. Lansd. (B. M.) I have not spoken to gentlemen's studies, first in yours. Book I, Chap. V. THE COL LECTOR OF THE HAR HARLEY welcomed the overture thus made to him, and LEIAN MSS. WANLEY, on his behalf, entered upon a negotiation which ended in the eventual acquisition of the whole of the D'EWES Manuscripts for the Harleian Collection. Soon afterwards, WANLEY became its librarian. THE HAR LIBRARY, In the course of this employment he watched diligently for other opportunities of a like sort; established an active correspondence with booksellers, both at home and abroad; and induced Lord OXFORD to send agents to the Continent HISTORY OF to search for manuscripts. But the Earl had soon to meet LETAN an eager rival in the book-market, in the person of Lord SUNDERLAND, Who in former years had been, by turns, his colleague and his opponent in the keener strife of politics. In their new rivalry, Lord SUNDERLAND had one considerable advantage. He cared little about money. If he succeeded in obtaining what he sought for, he rarely scrutinised the more or less of its cost. WANLEY was by nature a bargainer. He felt uneasy under the least suspicion that any bookseller or vendor was getting the better hand of him in a transaction. And he seems, in time, to have inoculated Lord OXFORD with a good deal of the same feeling. Some of the entries in his diary put this love of striking a good bargain in an amusing light. Thus, for example, in telling of the acquisition of a valuable monastic chartulary which had belonged to the 'Bedford Library' at Cranfield, he writes thus:- The said Chartulary is to be my Lord's, and he is to present to that library St. Chrysostomi's Works, in Greek and Latin, printed at Paris, for which my Lord shall be registered a benefactor to the said library. Moreover, Mr. FRANK will BOOK I, Chap. V. THE COL LECTOR OF Wanley's Diary, vol. i, pp. 13, 21. send up a list of his out-of-course books, out of which my Lord may pick and choose any twenty of them gratis... I am also to advise that he is heartily willing and ready to serve LEIAN MSS. his Lordship in any library matters; . . particularly with [Sir John] OSBORNE of Chicksand Abbey, where most part of the old monastical library is said yet to remain.' And again, on another occasion:- My Lord was pleased to tell me that Mr. GIBSON's last parcel of printed books were all his own. as being gained into [the bargain with] the two last parcels of manuscripts bought of him.' GIBSON's protest that he was entitled to an additional thirty pounds was quite in vain. 1720, February. Ib., vol. ii, f. 24. Wanley's Diary, vol. i, f. 73, verso. MS. Lansd., 771. (B. M.) Of the innumerable skirmishes between librarian and bookseller which WANLEY'S pages record with loving detail, two passages may serve as sufficient samples :'VAN HOECK, a Dutchman,' he writes in 1722, brought to my Lord a small parcel of modern manuscripts, and their lowest prices, which proved so abominably wicked that he was sent away with them immediately.' And, in February, 1723-BOWYER, the bookseller, came intreating me to instruct him touching the prices of old editions, and of other rare and valuable books, pretending that thereby he should be the better able to bid for them; but, as I rather suppose, to be better able to exact of gentlemen. I pleaded utter inexperience in the matter, and, without a quarrel, in my mind rejected this ridiculous attempt with the scorn it deserved. This may be a fresh instance of the truth of TULLIE's paradox, "that all fools are mad." In the year 1720, large additions were made, more especially to the historical treasures of the Harleian Library, by the purchase of manuscripts from the several collections of John WARBURTON (Somerset Herald), of Archdeacon BATTELY, and of Peter SEGUIER (Chancellor of France). Another important accession came, in the same |