[383] "Bibliotheca Rawlinsoniana, sive Catalogus Librorum Richardi Rawlinson, LL.D. Qui prostabunt Venales sub hasta, Apud Samuelem Baker, In Vico dicto York-street, Covent Garden, Londoni, Die Lunæ 29 Marti mdcclvi." With the following whimsical Greek motto in the title-page:

Και γαρ ὀ ταὼς διὰ τὸ σπάνίον θαυμάζεται.
Eubulus.

("The peacock is admired on account of its rarity.")

This valuable library must have contained nearly 25,000 volumes, multiplying the number of articles (9405) by 3—the usual mode of calculation. Unfortunately, as was the case with Dr. Mead's and Mr. Folkes's, the books were not arranged according to any particular classification. Old black-letter English were mixed with modern Italian, French, and Latin; and novels and romances interspersed with theology and mathematics. An alphabetical arrangement, be the books of whatever kind they may, will in general obviate the inconvenience felt from such an undigested plan; and it were "devoutly to be wished," by all true bibliographers, that an act of parliament should pass for the due observance of this alphabetical order. We all know our A, B, C, but have not all analytical heads; or we may differ in our ideas of analysis. The scientific and alphabetical united is certainly better; like Mr. Harris's excellent catalogue, noticed at [p. 99], ante. The "Méthode pour dresser une bibliothéque," about which De Bure, Formey, and Peignot have so solemnly argued, is not worth a moment's discussion. Every man likes to be his own librarian, as well as "his own broker." But to return to Dr. Rawlinson's collection. On examining a priced catalogue of it, which now lies before me, I have not found any higher sum offered for a work than 4l. 1s. for a collection of fine prints, by Aldegrever. (No. 9405.) The Greek and Latin Classics, of which there were few Editiones Principes, or on large paper, brought the usual sums given at that period. The old English black-letter books, which were pretty thickly scattered throughout the collection, were sold for exceedingly low prices—if the copies were perfect. Witness the following:

£s.d.
The Newe Testament in English, 1500029
The Ymage of both Churches, after the Revelation of St. John, by Bale, 1550016
The boke called the Pype or Tonne of Perfection, by Richard Whytforde, 1553019
The Visions of Pierce Plowman, 1561020
The Creede of Pierce Plowman, 1532016
The Bookes of Moses, in English, 1530039
Bale's Actes of English Votaryes, 1550013
The Boke of Chivalrie, by Caxton0110
The Boke of St. Alban's, by W. de Worde110

These are only very few of the rare articles in English literature; of the whole of which (perhaps upwards of 200 in number) I believe the boke of St. Albans brought the highest sum. Hence it will be seen that this was not the age of curious research into the productions of our ancestors. Shakspeare had not then appeared in a proper variorum edition. Theobald, Pope, and Warburton, had not investigated the black-letter lore of ancient English writers for the illustration of their favourite author. This was reserved for Capell, Farmer, Steevens, Malone, Chalmers, Reed, and Douce: and it is expressly to these latter gentlemen (for Johnson and Hanmer were very sparing, or very shy, of the black-letter), that we are indebted for the present spirit of research into the works of our ancestors. The sale of the books lasted 50 days. There was a second sale of pamphlets, books of prints, &c., in the following year, which lasted 10 days: and this was immediately succeeded by a sale of the doctor's single prints and drawings, which continued 8 days. Dr. Rawlinson's benefactions to Oxford, besides his Anglo-Saxon endowment at St. John's College, were very considerable; including, amongst other curiosities, a series of medals of the Popes, which the Doctor supposed to be one of the most complete collections in Europe; and a great number of valuable MSS., which he directed to be safely locked up, and not to be opened till seven years after his decease. He died on the 6th of April, 1755. To St. John's College, where he had been a gentleman commoner, Dr. Rawlinson left the bulk of his estate, amounting to near 700l. a year: a plate of Abp. Laud, 31 volumes of Parliamentary Journals and Debates, a set of Rymer's Fœdera, his Greek, Roman, and English coins, not given to the Bodleian Library; all his plates engraved at the expense of the Society of Antiquaries; his diploma, and his heart; which latter is placed in a beautiful urn against the chapel wall, with this inscription:

Urbi thesaurus, ibi cor.
Ric. Rawlinson, LL.D. & Ant. S.S.
Olim hujus collegii superioris ordinis
commensalis.
Obiit. vi. Apr. mdcclv.

Hearne speaks of him, in the preface of his Tit. Liv. For. Jul. vita Hen. V., p. xvi., as "vir antiquis moribus ornatus, perque eam viam euns, quæ ad immortalem gloriam ducit."

[384] This gentleman's library, not so remarkable for the black-letter as for whimsical publications, was sold by auction, by Samuel Paterson (the earliest sale in which I find this well known book-auctioneer engaged), in June, 1759, and the three ensuing evenings. The title of the Sale Catalogue is as follows:——"A Catalogue of the original MSS. and manuscript collections of the late Reverend Mr. John Henley, A.M., Independent Minister of the Oratory, &c., in which are included sundry collections of the late Mons. des Maizeaux, the learned editor of Bayle, &c., Mr. Lowndes, author of the Report for the Amendment of Silver coins, &c., Dr. Patrick Blair, Physician at Boston, and F.R.S., &c. Together with original letters and papers of State, addressed to Henry d'Avenant, Esq., her Britannic Majesty's Envoy at Francfort, from 1703 to 1708 inclusive." Few libraries have contained more curious and remarkable publications than did this. The following articles, given as notable specimens, remind us somewhat of Addison's memoranda for the Spectator, which the waiter at the coffee-house picked up and read aloud for the amusement of the company.——No. 166. God's Manifestation by a Star to the Dutch. A mortifying Fast-Diet at Court. On the Birth Day of the first and oldest young Gentleman. All corrupt: none good; no, not one.——168. General Thumbissimo. The Spring reversed, or the Flanderkin's Opera and Dutch Pickle Herrings. The Creolean Fillip, or Royal Mishap. A Martial Telescope, &c. England's Passion Sunday, and April Changelings.——170. Speech upon Speech. A Telescope for Tournay. No Battle, but worse, and the True Meaning of it. An Army beaten and interred.——174. Signs when the P. will come. Was Captain Sw-n, a Prisoner on Parole, to be catechised? David's Opinion of like Times. The Seeds of the plot may rise though the leaves fall. A Perspective, from the Blair of Athol. The Pretender's Popery. Murder! Fire! Where! Where!——178. Taking Carlise, catching an eel by the tail. Address of a Bishop, Dean, and Clergy. Swearing to the P——r, &c. Anathema denounced against those parents, Masters, and Magistrates, that do not punish the Sin at Stokesley. A Speech, &c. A Parallel between the Rebels to K. Charles I. and those to his successor. Jane Cameron looked killing at Falkirk.——179. Let Stocks be knighted, write, Sir Bank, &c., the Ramhead Month. A Proof that the Writers against Popery, fear it will be established in this Kingdom. A Scheme wisely blabbed to root and branch the Highlanders. Let St. Patrick have fair Play, &c.——Of Orator Henley I have not been able to collect any biographical details, more interesting than those which are to be found in Warburton's notes to Pope's Dunciad: He was born at Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire, in 1692, and was brought up at St. John's College, in the University of Cambridge. After entering into orders, he became a preacher in London, and established a lecture on Sunday evenings, near Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and another on Wednesday evenings, chiefly on political and scientific subjects. Each auditor paid one shilling for admission. "He declaimed," says Warburton, "against the greatest persons, and occasionally did our poet (Pope) that honour. When he was at Cambridge, he began to be uneasy; for it shocked him to find he was commanded to believe against his own judgment in points of religion, philosophy, &c.: for his genius leading him freely to dispute all propositions, and call all points to account, he was impatient under those fetters of the free-born mind." When he was admitted into priest's orders, he thought the examination so short and superficial that he considered it "not necessary to conform to the Christian religion, in order either to be a deacon or priest." With these quixotic sentiments he came to town; and "after having, for some years, been a writer for the booksellers, he had an ambition to be so for ministers of state." The only reason he did not rise in the church, we are told, "was the envy of others, and a disrelish entertained of him, because he was not qualified to be a complete spaniel." However, he offered the service of his pen to two great men, of opinions and interests directly opposite: but being rejected by both of them, he set up a new project, and styled himself, "The restorer of ancient eloquence." Henley's pulpit, in which he preached, "was covered with velvet, and adorned with gold." It is to this that Pope alludes, in the first couplet of his second book of the Dunciad:

High on a gorgeous seat, that far outshone
Henley's gilt tub——