A.D. 1809.
The death of the eminent topographer and antiquary, Richard Gough, on Feb. 20, 1809[275], brought into operation the bequest made to the Library in his will, dated ten years previously. This consisted of all his topographical collections, together with all his books relating to Saxon and Northern literature, 'for the use of the Saxon Professor,' his maps and engravings, and all the copper-plates used in the illustration of the various works published by himself. The transmission of this vast collection was accomplished by Mr. J. Nichols, the executor, in the course of the year; and some of his correspondence on the subject is printed in his Illustrations of Literary History, vol. v. pp. 556-561. The collection (which numbers upwards of 3700 volumes) was placed in the room formerly the Civil Law School, that room having been assigned to the Library a few years previously, and fitted up (at a cost of about £675) for the reception of various historical collections. In the same room are now the Carte, Dodsworth, Tanner, Willis, Junius, and portion of the Rawlinson, manuscripts, with other smaller collections; the name proposed to be given to it, and by which it was designated in Gough's will, was 'The Antiquaries' Closet.' Gough's library consists, firstly, of a large series of maps[276] and topographical prints and drawings, in ele
phant-folio volumes; of this a very brief outline-list is given in the printed catalogue, but a full list in detail exists in MS[277]. Secondly, of printed books and MSS., arranged under the heads of General Topography, Ecclesiastical Topography[278], Natural History, the several Counties (with London, Westminster, and Southwark) in order[279], Wales, Islands, Scotland, and Ireland. Thirdly, of 227 works connected with Anglo-Saxon literature and that of the Scandinavian races generally. Fourthly, of an extremely large and valuable series of printed Service-books of the English Church
before the Reformation, together with a few MSS., chiefly Horæ. The value of this series may be gathered from the following statement of the Missals, Breviaries, Manuals, Processionals, and Hours, which it comprises, besides which there are Graduals, Psalters, Hymns, Primers, &c.
| Missals, | Salisbury use, | 30 | |
| Missals, | York use, | 4 | |
| Missals, | Rouen use, | 1 | |
| Missals, | Roman use, | 3 | |
| Missals, | 'pro sacerdotibus in Anglia, &c. itinerantibus.' | 1 | |
| Breviaries and Portiforia, | Salisbury use, | 18 | |
| Breviaries and Portiforia, | York use, | 2 | |
| Breviaries and Portiforia, | Hereford use, | 1 | [280] |
| Manuals, | Salisbury use, | 10 | |
| Manuals, | York (MS.) use, | 1 | |
| Processionals, | Salisbury use, | 10 | |
| Processionals, | York use, | 1 | |
| Hours, | Salisbury use, | 24 | |
| Hours, | Roman use, (besides several MSS.) | 1 |
Of several of these books there are more than single copies.
A fifth division of Gough's library consists of sixteen large folio volumes of coloured drawings of monuments in churches of France, chiefly at Paris, in Normandy, Valois, Champagne, Burgundy and Brie, and at Beauvais, Chartres, Vendosme and Noyon. They form part of a large collection extending through the whole of France, which was made by M. Gagnières, tutor to the sons of
the Grand Dauphin, and given by him to Louis XIV in 1711. Of this collection, now preserved in the Imperial Library, twenty-five volumes were lost amid the troubles of the French Revolution, between 1785 and 1801; but in what way, out of the twenty-five, these sixteen came into Gough's hands, has not been clearly ascertained. The collection is of great value, as most of the monuments were defaced or destroyed by the revolutionary mobs. Gough's volumes contain about 2000 drawings, of the whole of which facsimiles were made in 1860 by M. Jules Frappaz, by direction of the French Minister of Public Instruction, (who made application for the purpose, through Mr. J. H. Parker, in 1859) for the purpose of so far supplying the deficiency in the series at Paris[281].
The copy of the British Topography, which Gough had prepared for a third edition (of which a considerable part of vol. i. had been printed, but was burned in the disastrous fire at Mr. Nichols' printing-office in Feb., 1808,) was bought by the Curators of Mr. Nichols in 1812 for £150[282]. It has been recently bound in four very thick volumes. A fifth volume contains the proof-sheets of that portion of vol. i. which had been printed, extending to Cheshire, p. 446. The collections for the first edition make three volumes.
By Gough's bequest the Library became also possessed (as mentioned above) of the very valuable copper-plates which illustrated his Sepulchral Monuments, and other works. In 1811, one hundred guineas were paid to Basire, the engraver, for cleaning and arranging 380 of these plates. Amongst these was the actual brass effigy of one of the Wingfield family in the fifteenth century, from Letheringham Church, Suffolk, of which an engraving is found in the Monuments. The brass is now exhibited in the glass case of miscellaneous objects of curiosity in the Picture Gallery.