The Approbation of the Publick only excites them to mend their Writings, and give them all the Perfection they are capable. Mr. Carew was uneasy at the Errors of the Printers, and some Oversights of his, that had crept into his Book; and desired to improve it by the Observations of others, who had writ on the same Subject. Being told in the Year 1606, that Mr. Dodderidge, who was then Sollicitor-General, had published some Account of the Dutchy of Cornwall, (which was not true, for that Tract did not come out till 1630) he desired Mr. Camden to send him a Copy of it.
"I make bold", says he (N), " to use my thanks for your kind remembring me by Sir Anthony Rouse, as a Shoeing- horn to draw on a Request; and this it is : I learn that Master Sollicitor hath compiled a Treatise of our Cornish Dutchy, and dedicated it to the Prince : this I much long to see, and heartily pray by your means to obtain a Copy thereof. The first publishing of my Survey was voluntary; the second, which I now purpose, is of necessity, not so much for the enlarging it, as the correcting mine and the Printers Oversights: and amongst these, the Arms not the least, touching which mine Order, suitable to your Direction, was not observed, and so myself made an Instrument, but not the Author of Wrong and Error. I imagine that I may cull out of Master Sollicitor's Garden many Flowers to adorn this other Edition; and if I wist where to find Mr. Norden, I would also fain have his Map of our Shire; for perfecting of which, he took a Journey into these Parts."
Mr. Carew never published a second Edition of his Book, tho' he lived fourteen Years after the writing of that Letter. And whether he left behind him a Copy of it revised and corrected for a new Impression, does not appear. It hath indeed been reported, that there was a Copy extant with large Additions (O); but they don't tell us whose Additions they are. They can hardly be the Author's own Additions, since they are said to be large ones; and we have seen that Mr. Carew's Design in the intended second Edition of his Survey, was not so much for the enlarging it, as the correcting his and the Printers Oversights. However it be, we may reasonably wonder that a Work so valuable, and the only compleat one we have on that Subject, should not have been reprinted since the Year 1602; whereby it is become so scarce, and bears such an excessive Price. Perhaps this is owing to the false Rumours which have been spread from time to time, that it was going to be reprinted with large Additions. For these idle common Reports have often prevented new Editions of useful and necessary Books. But it is to be hoped, that some publick-spirited Persons will reprint it, as it was first published. If any body hath any Additions or Supplements to it, they may print them separately.
Mr. Carew (P)
"was intimate with the most noted Scholars of his Time, particularly with Sir Henry Spelman, who in an Epistle (*) to him concerning Tythes, doth not a little extol him for his Ingenuity, Vertue, and Learning. 'Palmam igitur cedo' (saith he) '& quod Graeci olim in Caria fua gente, admirati sunt, nos in Caria nostra gente agnoscimus, ingenium splendidum, bellarumque intentionum saecundissimum, &c.'"
And a famous Scotch Poet (+)
"stiles him another Livy, another Maro, another Papinian, and highly extols him for his great Skill in History, and Knowledge in the Laws (Q)."
Mr. Carew
"died on the sixth day of November, in fifteen hundred and twenty, and was buried in the Church of East-Antonie among his Ancestors. Shortly after, he had a splendid Monument set over his Grave, with an Inscription thereon, written in the Latin Tongue (R)"
As I have not seen that Inscription, I cannot tell whether it be the same with the following Epitaph, written by Mr. Camden (S), probably at the Request of Mr. Carew's Family.