The Earl was willing that the MSS. should, if necessary, be
allowed to be borrowed. And, in pursuance of this expressed wish, Patrick Young had, in 1648, the use of various MSS. from this collection, as we find from a memorandum at the end of the Register of Readers in 1648-9. But one MS. suffered in consequence considerable injury[89]. A further portion of the collection (consisting of 22 Greek MSS. and 2 Russian), which had been retained by the Earl, was subsequently purchased by Oliver Cromwell, and given by him to the Library in 1654. There they still bear the Protector's name; but, strange to say, no entry of the gift appears in the Benefaction Book[90]. These are all fully described in the first volume of the general Catalogue of MSS., published by Rev. H. O. Coxe in 1853. A Catalogue of the Barocci and Roe MSS., by Dr. Peter Turner, of Merton College, beautifully written, filling 38 folio leaves, is bound up among Selden's printed books, marked AA. 1. Med. Seld.
On Aug. 27, the Library was visited for the first time by King Charles and his Queen, little anticipating under what circumstances that visit would be repeated. He was received with an oration by the Public Orator, Strode, a copy of which is preserved in Smith MS. xxvi. 26, and which, in the exaggerated style of the Court-adulation of the time, began with words that sound blasphemously in our ears, 'Excellentissime Vice-Deus.' From the Library the King ascended to the leads of the Schools; and there discussed the proposed removal of some mean houses in Cat Street, which then intervened between the Schools and St. Mary's Church. A plan of the ground and buildings was made at his desire, which was sent up to him at London.
[86] In the following year Mr. Henry Featherstone, bookseller in London, gave to the Library a number of Hebrew books.
[87] Parr's Life of Usher, Letters, p. 400.
[88] Ibid. Quoted in Sir H. Ellis' Letters of Eminent Literary Men, Camden Soc., 1843. p. 130.
[90] Richard Cromwell proposed at one time to perpetuate his own name in the Library, together with his father's, by sending a collection of the addresses which had been made to him, in order to show the temper of the nation, and the readiness of the greatest persons 'to compliment people on purpose for secular interest.' Reliquiæ Hearn. i. 263.