gathering of Oriental MSS., which had been chiefly procured for him in the East by Huntington, and at the sale of Golius' library, at Leyden, in October, 1696, by Bernard. The collection numbers at present 714 volumes, but probably some of these may have been books added for convenience' sake from other sources. Many of them bear the motto of some former owner (qu. Golius?), somewhat like in form to Selden's, but better in spirit, πανταχη την αληθειαν.' It is strange that no notice of this liberal gift is found in any of the Library Registers, and it is only from a passing mention in Hearne's preface to Camden's Elizabeth (p. lxvi.) that we find it was a death-bed legacy, and consequently learn the date of its acquisition. Hearne there says that the books were placed in the Library 'in tenebris;' and this expression was made one of the subjects of complaint against him when prosecuted in 1718 in the Vice-Chancellor's court on account of that preface. He then replied that the expression was correct, for that they were placed in a dark corner to which access was only had through a trap-door, but that he himself had put them there for want of a better place. He had wished to deposit them in one of the rooms in the Picture Gallery, but Dr. Hudson kept that for his own purposes[180].
At this period every stranger admitted to read in the Library had to pay nine shillings in fees, of which 1s. went to the Head Librarian, 3s. 6d. to the Second Librarian, 1s. 6d. to the Janitor, 2s. to the Registrar (for an order for admission, but in the Long Vacation this fee went to the Second Librarian), and 1s. to the Proctor's man[181]. In 1720 the fee to be received from every visitor not qualified to read was fixed at one penny, to be paid to a porter who was then first appointed to the charge of the Picture Gallery. It subsequently rose by a silent custom to the large sum of a shilling; but some few years ago the Curators fixed
the charge to visitors at threepence each, unless accompanied, and in consequence franked, by some member of the University in his academic dress. Since this moderate sum has been fixed, the number of ordinary sight-seeing visitors has, naturally, much increased[182].
The suppression, by an order of the Heads of Houses, dated March 23, 1712/3, of Hearne's edition of Dodwell's tract De Parma Equestri Woodwardiana, was attributed by Hearne himself to (as the remote occasion) an incident connected with his office in the Library, which is related very fully by himself in vol. xliv. of his MS. Diary. On Feb. 20, Mr. Keil, the Savilian Professor of Geometry, brought to the Library an Irish gentleman named Mollineux, recommended by Sir Andrew Fountaine, to whom he requested Hearne to show the curiosities of the place. As Keil was 'a very honest gentleman,' Hearne little suspected that his friend was possessed with the 'republican ill principles' and 'malignant temper' of Whiggism, and consequently was not very guarded in his talk. After showing him various MSS. and coins, he took the visitor into the Anatomy School[183], where all kinds of odds and ends were preserved; amongst which was (as Hearne gravely notes in another place) a calf which, being born in the year of the Union, 1707, had (it is to be presumed in consequence thereof) two bodies and one head. What
followed during the exhibition of this museum is worth relating in the diarist's own words:—
'I mentioned a picture engraved and hanging there with horns and wings, and underneath, uxor ejus ad vivum pinxil. This picture many had said was Benjamin Hoadley, the seditious divine of London; but, for my part, I gave no other description of it than this, that 'twas the picture of one of the greatest Presbyterian, republican, antimonarchical, Whiggish, fanatical preachers living in England. And this description was enough to exasperate him. And yet, for all that, he did not discover any passion, nor give the least hint that he was a Whig himself. Neither did he give any hint of it afterwards till I came to mention a tobacco stopper tipped with silver, and given to me by a reverend divine, who had informed me that it was made out of an oak that lately grew in St. James's Park, but was destroyed by the D. of M. for the great house he was building near St. James's, and that the said oak came from an acorn that was planted there by King Charles II, being one of those acorns that he had gathered in the Royal Oak, where he was forced to shelter himself from the fury of the rebells after the fight at Worcester. Mr. Mollineux was at the other end of the room when this was shew'd, and the said story told; but hearing it he comes immediately to the tables, and expresses himself in words of this kind, viz. that 'twas a bawble, and that an hundred such things were not worth the seeing. Mr. Keil however thought otherwise, and said that he thought my collection was better than that in the Laboratory. Some mirth passing after this, I went on with my description, and had not yet formed an opinion that Mr. Mollineux was a Whig; but finding that he was still inquisitive after other curiosities, and that he pretended to much skill in good ingraving and drawing, I produced the picture of a beautifull young man, over the head of which was ΕΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ, and underneath, Quid quæritis ultra? I did not tell them whose picture it was, but said that I shew'd it them as a thing excellently well done, which they all allow'd and view'd it over and over, and seemed to be mightily taken with it, and Mr. Mollineux in particular was pleased to say that 'twas admirably well done, and deserved a place amongst the most exquisite performances of this
kind, at the same time asking how long I had had it, and whose picture I took it to be. To the former of which questions I reply'd, about a quarter of a year, to the latter that I did not pretend to tell who it was designed for. Yet Mr. Keil was pleased to laugh, and to tell Mr. Mollineux, They are all rebells, Mr. Mollineux, they are all rebells in this place, speaking these words in a merry joking way, and not with any intent to do me an injury. Mr. Mollineux took the words upon the picture down, which I did not deny him, not thinking that 'twas with a design to inform against me, as it afterwards proved. Yet from this time I began a little to suspect his integrity, and that he was not one of those good men I expected from Mr. Keil, whom I had always found to be a man of honesty.'
Hinc illæ lachrymæ! Poor Hearne was reported to Dr. Charlett the same afternoon for showing the Pretender's Picture; a meeting of the Curators of the Library was threatened; but eventually the matter seemed to pass over by his being desired by the Vice-Chancellor to give up the key of the Anatomy School, in order that the determining Bachelors might meet there, by which change Hearne was mulcted of the fees which he obtained for showing the room, and was sometimes detained one hour, or two, later than usual in order to see to the locking up of the staircase on which it is situated. On March 23, however, he was summoned before the Heads of Houses for remarks made in his preface to Dodwell's above-mentioned tract, and, after a sharp discussion, in which reference was made to his exhibition of the portraits, he was ordered to suppress his preface, and re-issue the book without it; to which he consented. He was pressed to make a formal retractation of the passages to which objection was made, but this he stiffly refused to do. He says in a letter to Sir Philip Sydenham that the only form of retractation or expression of sorrow he could have been prevailed on to sign (strongly resembling the famous apology of a middy to an insulted naval surgeon) would have been some such
form as this:—'I, Thomas Hearne, A.M., of the University of Oxford, having ever since my matriculation followed my studies with as much application as I have been capable of, and having published several books for the honour and credit of learning, and particularly for the reputation of the foresaid University, am very sorry that by my declining to say anything but what I knew to be true in any of my writings, and especially in the last book I published, intituled, Henrici Dodwelli de Parma Equestri Woodwardiana Dissertatio, &c., I should incurr the displeasure of any of the Heads of Houses, and as a token of my sorrow for their being offended at truth, I subscribe my name to this paper, and permitt them to make what use of it they please[184].'
[180] Hearne's MS. Diary, vol. lxxi. May 20.