The reader will find an animated eulogy on this great nobleman in Walpole's Anecdotes of Painters, vol. iv., 227; part of which was transcribed by Joseph Warton for his variorum edition of Pope's works, and thence copied into the recent edition of the same by the Rev. W.L. Bowles. But Pembroke deserved a more particular notice. Exclusively of his fine statues and architectural decorations, the Earl contrived to procure a great number of curious and rare books; and the testimonies of Maittaire (who speaks indeed of him with a sort of rapture!) and Palmer show that the productions of Jenson and Caxton were no strangers to his library. Annales Typographici, vol. i., 13. edit. 1719. History of Printing, p. 5. "There is nothing that so surely proves the pre-eminence of virtue more than the universal admiration of mankind, and the respect paid it by persons in opposite interests; and, more than this, it is a sparkling gem which even time does not destroy: it is hung up in the Temple of Fame, and respected for ever." Continuation of Granger, vol. i., 37, &c. "He raised (continues Mr. Noble) a collection of antiques that were unrivalled by any subject. His learning made him a fit companion for the literati. Wilton will ever be a monument of his extensive knowledge; and the princely presents it contains, of the high estimation in which he was held by foreign potentates, as well as by the many monarchs he saw and served at home. He lived rather as a primitive christian; in his behaviour, meek; in his dress, plain: rather retired, conversing but little." Burnet, in the History of his own Times, has spoken of the Earl with spirit and propriety. Thus far the first edition of the Bibliomania. From an original MS. letter of Anstis to Ames (in the possession of Mr. John Nichols) I insert the following memoranda, concerning the book celebrity of Lord Pembroke. "I had the book of Juliana Barnes (says Anstis) printed at St. Albans, 1486, about hunting, which was afterwards reprinted by W. de Worde at Westminster, 1496—but the Earl of Pembroke would not rest till he got it from me." From a letter to Lewis (the biographer of Caxton) by the same person, dated Oct. 11, 1737, Anstis says that "the Earl of Pembroke would not suffer him to rest till he had presented it to him." He says also that "he had a later edition of the same, printed in 1496, on parchment, by W. de Worde, which he had given away: but he could send to the person who had it." From another letter, dated May 8, 1740, this "person" turns out to be the famous John Murray; to whom we are shortly to be introduced. The copy, however, is said to be "imperfect; but the St. Albans book, a fair folio." In this letter, Lord Pembroke's library is said to hold "the greatest collection of the first books printed in England." Perhaps the reader will not be displeased to be informed that in the Antiquities of Glastonbury, published by Hearne, 1722, p. lviii, there is a medal, with the reverse, of one of the Earl's ancestors in Queen Elizabeth's time, which had escaped Evelyn. It was lent to Hearne by Sir Philip Sydenham, who was at the expense of having the plate engraved.

While this nobleman was the general theme of literary praise there lived a Bibliomaniacal Triumvirate of the names of Bagford, Murray, and Hearne: a triumvirate, perhaps not equalled, in the mere love of book-collecting, by that which we mentioned a short time ago. At the head, and the survivor of these three,[368] was Thomas Hearne; who, if I well remember, has been thus described by Pope, in his Dunciad, under the character of Wormius:

But who is he, in closet close ypent,
Of sober face, with learned dust besprent?
Right well mine eyes arede the myster wight,
On parchment scraps y-fed, and Wormius hight.

[368] The former bibliomaniacal triumvirate is noticed at [p. 217], ante. We will now discuss the merits of the above, seriatim. And first of John Bagford, "by profession a bookseller; who frequently travelled into Holland and other parts, in search of scarce books and valuable prints, and brought a vast number into this kingdom, the greater part of which were purchased by the Earl of Oxford. He had been in his younger days a shoemaker; and for the many curiosities wherewith he enriched the famous library of Dr. John More, Bishop of Ely, his Lordship got him admitted into the Charter House. He died in 1716, aged 65; after his death, Lord Oxford purchased all his collections and papers for his library: these are now in the Harleian collection in the British Museum. In 1707 were published, in the Philosophical transactions, his Proposals for a General History of Printing."—Bowyer and Nichol's Origin of Printing, pp. 164, 189, note. It has been my fortune (whether good or bad remains to be proved) not only to transcribe, and cause to be reprinted, the slender Memorial of Printing in the Philosophical Transactions, drawn up by Wanley for Bagford, but to wade through forty-two folio volumes, in which Bagford's materials for a History of Printing are incorporated, in the British Museum: and from these, I think I have furnished myself with a pretty correct notion of the collector of them. Bagford was the most hungry and rapacious of all book and print collectors; and, in his ravages, he spared neither the most delicate nor costly specimens. He seems always to have expressed his astonishment at the most common productions; and his paper in the Philosophical Transactions betrays such simplicity and ignorance that one is astonished how my Lord Oxford, and the learned Bishop of Ely, could have employed so credulous a bibliographical forager. A modern collector and lover of perfect copies, will witness, with shuddering, among Bagford's immense collection of title-pages in the Museum, the frontispieces of the Complutensian Polyglot, and Chauncy's History of Hertfordshire, torn out to illustrate a History of Printing. His enthusiasm, however, carried him through a great deal of laborious toil; and he supplied in some measure, by this qualification, the want of other attainments. His whole mind was devoted to book-hunting; and his integrity and diligence probably made his employers overlook his many failings. His handwriting is scarcely legible, and his orthography is still more wretched; but if he was ignorant, he was humble, zealous, and grateful; and he has certainly done something towards the accomplishment of that desirable object, an accurate general history of printing. The preceding was inserted in the first edition of this work. It is incumbent on me to say something more, and less declamatory, of so extraordinary a character; and as my sources of information are such as do not fall into the hands of the majority of readers, I trust the prolixity of what follows, appertaining to the aforesaid renowned bibliomaniac, will be pardoned—at least by the lover of curious biographical memoranda. My old friend, Tom Hearne, is my chief authority. In the preface to that very scarce, but rather curious than valuable, work, entitled Guil. Roper Vita D. Thomæ Mori, 1716, 8vo., we have the following brief notice of Bagford: §. ix. "Epistolas et Orationes excipit Anonymi Scriptoris chronicon; quod idcirco Godstovianum appellare visum est, quia in illud forte fortuna inciderim, quum, anno mdccxv. una cum Joannæ Bagfordio, amico egregio ad rudera Prioratûs de Godstowe juxta Oxoniam animi recreandi gratia, perambularem. De illo vero me prius certiorem fecerat ipse Bagfordius, qui magno cum nostro mœrore paullo post Londini obiit, die nimirum quinto Maij anno mdccxvi. quum jam annum ætatis sexagessimum quintum inplerisset, ut è litteris intelligo amici ingenio et humanitate ornati Jacobei Sothebeii, junioris, qui, si quis alius, è familiaribus erat Bagfordii. Virum enimvero ideo mihi quam maxime hâc occasione lugendum est, quod amicum probitate et modestia præditum amiserim, virumque cum primis diligentem et peritum intercidisse tam certum sit quam quod certissimum. Quamvis enim artes liberales nunquam didicisset, vi tamen ingenii ductus, eruditus plane evasit; et, ut quod verum est dicam, incredibile est quam feliciter res abstrusas in historiis veteribus explicaverit, nodosque paullo difficiliores ad artis typographicæ incunabula spectantes solverit et expedierit. Expertus novi quod scribo. Quotiescunque enim ipsum consului (et quidem id sæpissime faciendum erat) perpetuo mihi aliter atque exspectaveram satisfecit, observationis itidem nonnunquam tales addens, quales antea neque mihi neque viris longe doctioribus in mentem venerant. Quidni itaque virum magnum fuisse pronunciarem, præcipue quum nostra sententia illi soli magni sint censendi, qui recte agant, et sint vere boni et virtute præditi?"—Præf. pp. xxi., ii. In Hearne's perface to Walter Hemingford's history, Bagford is again briefly introduced: "At vero in hoc genere fragmenta colligendi omnes quidem alios (quantum ego existimare possum) facile superavit Joannes Bagfordius, de quo apud Hemingum, &c. Incredibile est, quanta usus sit diligentia in laciniis veteribus coacervandis. Imo in hoc labore quidem tantum versari exoptabat quantum potuit, tantum autem re vera versabatur, quantum ingenio (nam divino sane fruebatur) quantum mediocri doctrina (nam neque ingenue, neque liberaliter, unquam fuit educatus) quantum usu valuit," p. ciii. The reader here finds a reference to what is said of Bagford, in the Hemingi Wigornensis Chartularium; which, though copious, is really curious and entertaining, and is forthwith submitted to his consideration. "It was therefore very laudable in my friend, Mr. J. Bagford (who I think was born in Fetter-lane, London) to employ so much of his time as he did in collecting remains of antiquity. Indeed he was a man of a very surprising genius, and had his education (for he was first a shoe-maker, and afterwards for some time a book-seller) been equal to his natural genius, he would have proved a much greater man than he was. And yet, without this education, he was certainly the greatest man in the world in his way. I do not hear of any monument erected to his memory, but 'twas not without reason that a worthy gentleman, now living in London, designed the following epitaph for him:

Hic. Sitvs. Joannes. Bagfordivs.
Antiquarivs. Penitvs. Britannvs.
Cujvs. Nuda. Solertia. Aliorvm.
Vicit. Operosam. Diligentiam.
Obiit. Maii. v. A.D. m.dcc.xvi.
Ætatis [LXV.]
Viri. Simplicis. Et. Sine. Fvco.
Memoria. Ne. Periret.
Hunc. Lapidem. Posvit.
. . . . . . . . . . . .

"'Tis very remarkable that, in collecting, his care did not extend itself to books and to fragments of books only; but even to the very Covers, and to Bosses and Clasps; and all this that he might, with greater ease, compile the History of Printing, which he had undertaken, but did not finish. In this noble work he intended a Discourse about Binding Books (in which he might have improved what I have said elsewhere about the ancient Æstels) and another about the Art of making Paper, in both which his observations were very accurate. Nay, his skill in paper was so exquisite that, at first view, he could tell the place where, and the time when, any paper was made, though at never so many years' distance. I well remember that, when I was reading over a famous book of collections (written by John Lawerne, Monk of Worcester, and now preserved) in the Bodleian Library, Mr. Bagford came to me (as he would often come thither on purpose to converse with me about curiosities) and that he had no sooner seen the book, but he presently described the time when, and the place where, the paper of which it consists, was made. He was indefatigable in his searches, and was so ambitious of seeing what he had heard of, relating to his noble design, that he had made several journies into Holland to see the famous books there. Nor was he less thirsty after other antiquities, but, like old John Stow, was for seeing himself, if possible (although he travelled on foot), what had been related to him. Insomuch that I cannot doubt, but were he now living, he would have expressed a very longing desire of going to Worcester, were it for no other reason but to be better satisfied about the famous monumental stones mentioned by Heming (Chart, Wigorn., p. 342), as he often declared a most earnest desire of walking with me (though I was diverted from going) to Guy's Cliff by Warwick, when I was printing that most rare book called, Joannis Rossi Antiquarii Warwicensis Historia Regum Angliæ. And I am apt to think that he would have shewed as hearty an inclination of going to Stening in Sussex, that being the place (according to Asser's Life of Ælfred the Great) where K. Ethelwulph (father of K. Alfred) was buried, though others say it was at Winchester," &c. "Mr. Bagford was as communicative as he was knowing: so that some of the chief curiosities in some of our best libraries are owing to him; for which reason it was that the late Bishop of Ely, Dr. More (who received so much from him), as an instance of gratitude, procured him a place in the Charter-House. I wish all places were as well bestowed. For as Mr. Bagford was, without all dispute, a very worthy man, so, being a despiser of money, he had not provided for the necessities of old age. He never looked upon those as true philosophers that aimed at heaping up riches, and, in that point, could never commend that otherwise great man, Seneca, who had about two hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling, at use in Britain; the loan whereof had been thrust upon the Britains, whether they would or no. He would rather extol such men as a certain rector near Oxford, whose will is thus put down in writing, by Richard Kedermister, the last abbot but one of Winchcomb (Leland Collect. vol. vi., 168), in the margin of a book (I lately purchased) called Hieronymi Cardinalis Vitas Patrum, Lugd. mcccccii. 4to. Nihil habeo, nihil debeo, benedicamus Domino. Testamentum cujusdam rectoris, juxta Oxoniam decedentis circiter annum salutis, 1520." "Nor was Mr. Bagford versed only in our own old writers, but in those likewise of other countries, particularly the Roman. His skill in that part of the Roman history that immediately relates to Britain is sufficiently evident from his curious letter, printed at the beginning of Leland's Collectanea. That he might be the better acquainted with the Roman stations, and the several motions of the soldiers from one place to another, he used to pick up coins, and would, upon occasion, discourse handsomely, and very pertinently, about them; yet he would keep none, but would give them to his friends, telling them (for he was exemplarily modest and humble) that he had neither learning nor sagacity enough to explain and illustrate them, and that therefore it was more proper they should be in the possession of some able persons. He would have done any thing to retrieve a Roman author, and would have given any price for so much as a single fragment (not yet discovered) of the learned commentaries, written by Agrippina, mother to Nero, touching the fortunes of her house, which are (as I much fear) now utterly lost, excepting the fragment or two cited out of them by Pliny the elder and Cornelius Tacitus; as he would also have stuck at no price for a grammar printed at Tavistock, commonly called The long Grammar. When he went abroad he was never idle, but if he could not meet with things of a better character, he would divert himself with looking over Ballads, and he was always mightily pleased if he met with any that were old. Anthony à Wood made good collections, with respect to ballads, but he was far outdone by Mr. Bagford. Our modern ballads are, for the most part, romantic; but the old ones contain matters of fact, and were generally written by good scholars. In these old ones were couched the transactions of our great heroes: they were a sort of Chronicles. So that the wise founder of New College permitted them to be sung, by the fellows of that college, upon extraordinary days. In those times, the poets thought they had done their duty when they had observed truth, and put the accounts they undertook to write, into rhythm, without extravagantly indulging their fancies. Nobody knew this better than Mr. Bagford; for which reason he always seemed almost ravished when he happened to light upon old rhythms, though they might not, perhaps, be so properly ranged under the title of ballads," &c., pp. 656-663. Being unable to furnish a portrait of Bagford (although I took some little trouble to procure one) I hope the reader—if his patience be not quite exhausted—will endeavour to console himself, in lieu thereof, with a specimen of Bagford's epistolary composition; which I have faithfully copied from the original among the Sloanian MSS., no. 4036, in the British Museum. It is written to Sir Hans Sloane.

From my Lodgings, July 24, 1704.

worthy sir,

Since you honoured me with your good company for seeing printing and card-making, I thought it my duty to explain myself to you per letter on this subject. Till you had seen the whole process of card-making, I thought I could not so well represent it unto you by writing—for this I take to be the first manner of printing. In this short discouse I have explained myself when I design to treat of it in the famous subject of the Art of Printing. It hath been the labour of several years past, and if now I shall have assistance to midwife it into the world, I shall be well satisfied for the sake of the curious. For these 10 years past I have spared no cost in collecting books on this subject, and likewise drafts of the effigies of our famous printers, with other designs that will be needful on this subject. If this short account of the design of the whole shall give you any satisfaction, I shall esteem my pains well bestowed. Hitherto, I have met with no encouragement but from three reverend gentlemen of Bennet College in Cambridge, who generously, of their own accord, gave me 10 pound each, which is all I ever received of any person whatsoever. It may indeed be imputed to my own neglect, in not acquainting the learned with my design, but modesty still keeps me silent. I hope your goodness will pardon my impertinence. I shall be ready at all times to give you any satisfaction you desire on this subject, who am,

Honoured Sir,