you will transmit the Dissertation to me through Mr. Nichols, and I will keep it till I receive your directions to send it to the press, and perhaps I may in the mean time make some improvements. I shall be obliged to you for any hints, and am, Sir, your most faithful and obedient servant, T. ASTLE. "Grose hath been missing twenty-one days, but he is hourly expected."

4. Mr. GOUGH to Mr. ASTLE.

"DEAR SIR, Enfield, Aug. 26, 1776. "Your paper is with Mr. Nichols, to be sent as soon as composed. You will make your corrections and additions, and return it to him at your earliest leisure. Likewise settle with Basire whether new copy of the seal of the size or Vertue's retouched. Thank you for your enquiries about Enfield church. If there is any thing in your offices, or possession, that can throw any light on the history of the town, shall be exceedingly obliged to you for it at leisure. I have not heard of your syllabus of the Cotton Library. I should be glad to add your name to my book. Were the pamphlets, given by the present King to the Museum, collected by Sisson? I was the other day at a house in my neighbourhood* inhabited by the Lords Aston, where Weever mentions Prince Arthur's marriage in tapestry. But I had the mortification to find all the furniture had been carried away by the heiress (married to Clifford) to Tixal, Staffordshire. Have you any opportunity of tracing this? Is Loxdale's Parochial Antiquities of Staffordshire worth publishing? and could it and Erdeswick's correctest copy, with your collections, be made into a good County History? I hope to hear a better account of Grose, than that he has fallen into the hands of the Yankee-row Fishes; and am, Sir,

"Yours sincerely,

5. "DEAR SIR,

R. GOUGH."

Battersea Rise, Aug. 31, 1776. Yesterday I was favoured with your letter of the 25th instant. I have been a tour into Buckinghamshire, and did not return till Thursday evening.

"I have directed Mr. Basire to compare his drawing of the seal with the original. I will search for materials concerning the town of Enfield, and if I find any thing worthy of your attention you shall have it.

"Hooper promises to publish the Syllabus of the Cotton Library in about a month; it was made about the reign of King Charles the Second; but I do not know by whom. I have added an Alphabetical Catalogue of the loose Charters in that Library, made by the late Rev. Mr. Widmore. I do not recollect

* Standon House, Herts, formerly the seat of Sir Ralph Sadleir. See "Progresses of Queen Elizabeth," vol. II. p. 109.

who made the collection of Pamphlets, given by the King to the British Museum; but any of the officers of the house can answer that question. I think it is probable that the tapestry you mention must be at Tixal, Mr. Clifford having expended large sums of money in ornamenting that house.

"Loxdale's Parochial Antiquities of Staffordshire is a quarto consisting of about ninety pages; it is well done, but it comprehends only a small part of the county. I have very large additions to Erdeswick by the late Dr. Vernon, Rector of St. George's Bloomsbury, and also some collections by Mr. Burton, Author of the History of Leicestershire, and some collections by Inge, Esq. of Thorp, com. Stafford; but much labour is required to make them deserve the name of a good County History. The Rev. Paul Fielde, brother of the Mr. Fielde, of Hertfordshire, published proposals and made collections for a History of Staffordshire, i. e. he borrowed the collection of the Earl of Stamford and several other persons; these papers are now in the hands of his brother above mentioned. "I am very truly yours, &c. T. ASTLE. "Grose is just returned from Jersey—I have not yet seen him."

6. Mr. GOUGH to Mr. ASTLE.

"DEAR SIR, Enfield, May 18, 1778. "The inclosed Proposal for re-publishing Plot's and Erdeswicke's Histories of Staffordshire with improvements were lately put into my hands by the Birmingham booksellers, who have undertaken it. Mr. Saunders†, a Clergyman at Hales Owen, who has the reputation of a good Genealogist, is employed about the antient: the rest will be written by Mr. Heely, author of the Descriptions of Hagley, &c. lately published. Mr. Malton, author of a Treatise on Perspective, is to take the views. They have already received considerable assistance from various Collectors; and would apply if they knew how to that valuable fund of materials which you are known to have formed, for this county in particular, and which I think myself formerly authorized by you to say, is open to every person properly qualified to pursue such a design. Unacquainted as I am with any of the parties concerned, I may perhaps be already anticipated by them or their friends in this application; and to the undertaking, if properly conducted, I can only in general wish success ‡. "I am, Sir, your obliged humble servant,

R. GOUGH."

It is almost superfluous to say that this projected County History never made its appearance; and it is lamentable to add that Mr. Shaw, who began the History under the most favourable auspices, died deranged in intellect, in the midst of his arduous undertaking.

+ Author of a "History of Shenstone," published posthumously in the Continuation of the "Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica." See the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. IX. p. 72.

See Mr. Gough's "British Topography," vol. II. p. 229, and the preface to vol. II. of Shaw's Staffordshire.

The Hon. DAINES BARRINGTON.

This benevolent Judge, the personal Friend of Mr. Bowyer, and to whose patronage the Editor of the " Literary Anecdotes *" was for many years indebted, has been repeatedly and gratefully noticed in various pages of that Work. He was a general, if not a profound Scholar, a sound Lawyer, a good Topographer, and a skilful Naturalist. A few of his Letters may, perhaps, be acceptable.

1. Mr. BARRINGTON to Mr. GOUGH.

"Temple, Dec. 30, 1769. "Mr. Barrington presents his compliments to Mr. Gough, and takes the liberty of sending him an extract from Gwillim, which relates to an Antiquary of the last century:

"As Thomas Speght, in his additions to the Works of Chaucer noteth, and to this most learned of poets, the most learned of antiquaries, applieth those verses.'-Gwillim's Heraldry, p. 370, 2nd edition, 1632.

"It appears also by Lucas's Voyages, that Lewis the Fourteenth appointed this traveller to be his Antiquary; whereas that post seems to have dropped with us, after the first appointment of Leland by Henry the VIIIth.

"A MS. written by Sir John Wynn, of Gwedir, either at the latter end of the reign of James the First, or beginning of Charles the First, makes mention of Richard Broughton, Esq. Justice of North Wales, who was the Chief Antiquary of England. "In the same MS. mention is also made of Robin Jachwr, as the greatest antiquarie of the Principality'."

2.

"March 1, 1770.

"Mr. Barrington presents his compliments to Mr. Gough, and is ashamed to have mislaid his reference to Vincent the Antiquary, as he cannot recover it by the index to the Harleian MSS. Mr. Barrington, however, hath a sort of local recollection that it is pretty near the end of the first volume of that Catalogue.

"As nearly the last proof of Sir John Wynn's MS. hath been just brought from the printer, Mr. Barrington will venture to refer Mr. Gough for what relates to Broughton the Antiquary, to p. 18; and for what relates to Robin Jachwr, to p. 93.

See vol. III. p. 9; vol. VI. p. 451; and vol. VII. pp. 22. 510.