Chap. II. 132] THE SUCmost presses, CESSORS OF SIR ROBERT marks, as for instance, that of the famous Evangeliary of BooK I, King Ethelstan, NERO D. vi, mentioned on page in the Cottonian Library, as being esteemed the valuable amongst the collection. Several entire with the books in them, were also removed; but . . . several of the backs of the presses being already on fire, they were obliged to be broke open, and the books, as many as could be, thrown out of the windows.' All the MSS. that were saved, and the remains of what been burnt, were removed to the Dormitory of Westminster School. 1731 October. At the time of this disastrous fire, the number of MS. volumes was 958. Of this number 114 were reported to be lost, burnt, or entirely spoiled; and 98 damaged so as to be defective.' Mr. Speaker ONSLOW took immediate measures, in conjunction with Dr. BENTLEY and Mr. CASLEY, for the examination of the burnt MSS., and for the repair of such as were then deemed alone reparable. Three months afterwards the Record Clerk to whom the task was more particularly committed, thus reports his progress : 'One hundred and upwards,' he says, 'being volumes of Letters and State Papers, have been quite taken to pieces, marked, and bound again.' But he laments that 'there Report of the having no way hitherto been found out to extend vellum Committee and parchment that has been shrivelled up and contracted by fire to its former dimensions, part of several of the vellum MSS. must remain not legible, unless the desi- and Casley's deratum can be supplied.' For nearly a century some of the most precious of the injured MSS. remained as the fire had left them. But in 1824, by the care of Mr. FORSHALL, the then Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum, a commencement was made towards their restoration, which his successor, Sir F. MADDEN, zealously and successfully continued. Nearly appointed to view the Cot tonian Li brary (1782), pp. 11-15; Appendix thereto. BOOK I, Chap. II. THE SUC CESSORS OF SIR ROBERT COTTON. THE BE- three hundred volumes have been repaired, and more or less completely restored, (a considerable number of which were previously regarded as beyond all hope of recovery) to a state of legibility.* The calamity of 1731 brought about what may, in a sense, be termed a partial compensation, by inducing Major Arthur EDWARDS to make an important bequest, with the view of precluding its recurrence. Owing to the protraction of a life interest in the legacy-the terms of which will be cited in describing that eventual Act of Incorporation which created the British Museum-it did not become available until other arrangements had made its application to building purposes needless. It was, consequently, and in pursuance of the Testator's contingent instructions, appropriated to the purchase of books in the manner, and with results, which will be spoken of in a subsequent chapter. Major EDWARDS also bequeathed his own collection of about 2,000 volumes of printed books, by way of addition to the Cottonian Library of MSS. These, however, were not actually incorporated with the Museum collections until the year 1769. For several years, BENTLEY conjoined the Keepership of the Cottonian with that of the Royal Library. His predecessors in the office were Dr. Thomas SMITH (hitherto the only THE KEEP biographer of the Founder,) and William HANBURY, who had married a descendant of the Founder. Dr. SMITH was less eminent as a scholar-though his learning was great-but far more estimable as a man, than was his successor in the ERS OF THE * Some of the burnt MSS. regarded, until Mr. Forshall's time, as hopelessly illegible, have been found very helpful to the preparation of the volume now in the reader's hands. Chap. II. LIFE AND CHARACTER COTTON. Keepership, the imperious and covetous Master of Trinity. BOOK I, For conscience sake, SMITH had given up both a good fellowship and a good living, at the Revolution. Literature profited by the loss of Divinity. He died in May, 1710. HANBURY-by a very undesirable plurality-was a Trustee as well as Keeper. That he was not, in either capacity, strictly faithful to the spirit of the Trust confided to him seems to be established by incidents which I find recorded in the MS. Diary of Humphrey WANLEY. The reader will observe that it is possible to reconcile WANLEY'S statement with the supposition that the MSS. alienated had never actually been made part of the Cottonian Library, though it is as plain as sunlight that a really faithful trustee would have made them part of it. As it turned out, the sale of them did no actual and eventual mischief. On December 2nd, 1724, says WANLEY, 'I had a conversation with Mr. HANBURY, who owned that he hath still in his possession many original and valuable papers given him by his wife's brother, Sir JOHN COTTON, which now lie in different places. These papers and whatever else happens to be among them-as books, rolls, &c. -he hath agreed to put into my hands for my Lord's wanley's [OXFORD's] use. I have promised that he shall be very ii, 40 (B.M). well paid and considered for the same.' WANLEY had already recorded a previous visit in which HANBURY had delivered for my Lord OXFORD's use, a small but curious parcel of old letters,' adding: I believe he expects a gratuity for them.' On the last day of December he received another parcel; and on the 4th January, 1725, he again writes: Mr. HANBURY gave me another parcel of letters written to Sir Robert COTTON.' Without endorsing the violent diatribe of Lord OXFORD (the second of the Harleian Earls) against HANBURY'S Diary, MS., BOOK 1, LIFE AND OF SIR successor as the almost wilful destroyer of part of the Cotton MSS.-it must be admitted that there is conCHARACTER clusive evidence that neglect of duty on Dr. BENTLEY'S part was a moving agent in the disaster. Under his nominal keepership the practical duties of Cottonian Librarian were discharged by an industrious and otherwise meritorious deputy, David CASLEY. ROBERT THE PRO JECT OF 1707 THE COT TONIAN, ROYAL, AND There were many projects for making Sir Robert FOR UNITING COTTON's noble collections, both in literature and antiquities, the foundation of a British Museum,' before a feasible and successful project was hit upon. It is curious to note that one of these schemes embraced, as the groundwork of the projected national Museum, the collections of Sir Robert COTTON, of Prince HENRY, and of Lord Arundel; and that some particulars of the plan were narrated—to a country correspondent-by Sir Hans SLOANE, almost fifty 7 April, 1707. years before his own conditional bequest gave occasion and means for the eventual union of the collections so spoken of with the vast gatherings of all kinds, in literature and in science, to the procuring of which so large a portion of his own useful and laborious life was to be devoted. Sloane to Charlett, (Bodleian Library, Oxford). When that occasion came, two of the then Cottonian Trustees framed a Petition to Parliament in which they expressed their acknowledgments for 'seasonable and necessary care' of the Cotton Library. They alleged that it had remained almost useless' to the Public, during many years, for want of a fixed and convenient building to receive it; that it had been exposed to many dangers by frequent removals, and had once run the hazard of ' a total destruction by fire.' If, said they, the loss which the Public then sustained proved to be less than had been feared, the Public owed the obligation to a great member Chap. II. LIFE AND CHARACTER of this House' [of Commons] who powerfully interposed Book I, and assisted in its preservation.' The allusion is to the Right Hon. Arthur ONSLOW, the then Speaker, who afterwards became one of the first Trustees of the Museum ROBERT established by the Act of 1753. famed OF SIR COTTON. Samuel Bur roughs and Thos. Hart; Major Ms. in further Cottonian upon 'Appendix' The Petitioners proceed to state that their most earnest Petition of wishes are accomplished by seeing a Library, throughout Europe, with the generous gifts of EDWARDS annexed thereto, placed out of all dangers from neglect, and that they rejoice to perceive (B. M.). that the Museum of their own Founder is about to be enlarged by other rare and valuable collections. We are,' say they, fully persuaded that an edifice raised such a stately plan will, by degrees, be stored with benefactions and become a common Cabinet for preserving with safety all curiosities and whatsoever is choice or excellent in its kind. Moreover, being a new institution for the service of the learned world it will be an honour to the Nation, an ornament long wanted in this great city, and a distinguished event in the history of our times.' Then follows the passage which I have prefixed, by way of motto, to this first division of the volume now in the reader's Heretofore, hands. p. 3. CHARGES CHARACTER When these Petitioners went on to state to Parliament that no expression of gratitude can be too great . . . for RECENT doing honour to the memory of Sir Robert COTTON,' their AGAINST THE assertion gave rise to no utterance of hostile feeling. They were not even charged with undue laudation of their OF SIR R. ancestor. People who at that time troubled themselves to think of such matters at all, were agreed in regarding Sir Robert COTTON as unquestionably one of the worthies of England. Nowadays-as I have had occasion to show COTTON. |