Perhaps some of your numerous readers may be interested with the following Note:—A few weeks since I met with at a stall a most beautifully-written MS. commentary on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. The MS. was evidently of the close of the seventeenth, or the first three or four years of the eighteenth century. I was much struck with its learning. At the end were two sermons written in a different hand. The commentary was scored and corrected by the same hand the sermons were written in. These latter were full of most copious extracts from the Greek and Latin Fathers. The handwriting was very remarkable. I discovered that the commentary was that of Dr. Whitby, though differing in several places from that published by him. By a comparison with some of Dr. Whitby's letters in the British Museum (especially Add. MSS. 4276., fol. 194.), two learned friends at once identified the Doctor's handwriting, which is very peculiar in the formation of some of the letters, and especially from having a remarkable curve [Illustration: horizontal curved line]. The two sermons, I believe, have never been published. Between the leaves of the MS. I found an old letter, of which I send you a copy. The person to whom it was addressed was Dr. Elias Sydall, subsequently, I believe, Bishop of Gloucester, then chaplain to Archbishop Tenison. I know not whether it has ever appeared in print before.
"To the Pious and Revd Dr Sydall, Chaplain to his Grace the Archbp. of Canterbury.
"The humble petition of the Inhabitants of the Parish of Allington in Kent.
"Sr.
"The sublime character his Grace did latelie bestow on a brace of his own Chaplains, that he feared not, not he, to turn them loose against any two preachers in England, has rais'd so high an opinion of your person in all men of sense and understanding, that you cannot wonder to see yourself courted by us as the reigning favourite at Lambeth; be pleas'd, therefore, when business of State or the care of the Church aford his Grace some minutes of leisure, to represent our deplorable case to Him: we are now as a flock without a Shepheard, and are inform'd by a threat'ning Emissary, who came latelie down only to scatter terror through our fields, that my Ld designs to thrust a young looker amongst us, who, tho' fit to be an Amanuensis, should the dreadfull times of Pulton[3] return, yet knows not yet what doctrine He should give, nor what tithes He should receive. Good Sr, put his Lordship in mind that our Fathers had once here the great Erasmus, & that our living should not be the portion of Sucklings: His Grace's singular affection to the Church will encline him, we hope, to consider our case, and we entreat you to favor it with your gracious countenance; and your Petitioners will, as in duty bound, pray to God that he will be pleas'd to translate one of the Prebendaries to Heaven, to make room for you before it is too late.
[3] "The A.B. disputed in K. James' time against Pulton the Jesuite, who prov'd too hard for Him."
"Sam. Andrews,
John Stain, Churchwardens.
"Will. Sokes.
Hum. Terryl.