small MS. of Horæ, which had belonged to Sir Thomas Pope, the founder of Trinity College, is among Aubrey's books. A MS. of Matthew of Westminster, (now e Mus. 149) had been given to the Library by Aubrey, in 1675, through Ant. à Wood.
There are also five or six MSS. which were given to the Museum by William Kingsley before 1700. Some few others, which were given by E. Lhuyd and Dr. W. Borlase, together with a volume of W. Huddesford's correspondence, are now incorporated with the Ashmole MSS., and are described in Mr. Black's catalogue, as well as the latest gift of this kind which was made to the Museum, viz. a little volume of Private Thoughts, by Bishop Wilson, of Sodor and Man, which was presented in 1824 by Lieut. Brett, R.N.
Thirty-nine choice Persian and Arabic MSS., which had formed part of Sir Gore Ouseley's collection, were bought from his son, Sir Fred. Gore Ouseley, Bart., the present Professor of Music, for £500. The rest of the collection came by gift, as will be seen under the following year.
At the sale (in June-Aug.) of the library of Dr. Bliss, a large number of volumes (still kept separate) were purchased, including a volume of original letters of Charles I, Clarendon, &c., and poems by Lord Fairfax (see p. [97]); together with many from the series of books of Characters collected by Dr. Bliss, and from his like series, both of books printed in London shortly before the fire of 1666, and of books printed at Oxford. The Library obtained by his bequest his own interleaved copy of the Athenæ, with many MS. additions[357].
A copy of the octavo Bible printed by Barker in 1631 (not 1632, as generally said), in which the word 'not' was omitted in the seventh commandment, was bought for £40. For this error (which looks very much like a wicked jest) the printer was fined 1000 marks by the High Commission Court[358], and the edition was rigidly suppressed, all the copies which could be found being condemned to the flames.
Another purchase was a large collection of political tracts in seventy volumes, chiefly relating to foreign affairs, which had been formed by Mr. — Hamilton, of the Diplomatic Service.
[354] This number includes some fifteen or sixteen volumes given by subsequent donors, but incorporated with Ashmole's own books.
[355] About fifty volumes out of Wood's whole number were missing when the Library became possessed of them.
[356] These were printed by the Wiltshire Archæological Society in 1862, in one volume quarto, under the editorship of Rev. J. E. Jackson.