10. A small collection of Statutes, comprising sixty-five volumes, is kept distinct. They consist of the Statutes of various Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, of the Cathedrals of Lichfield, Hereford, Worcester, Chester, Manchester, Canterbury, Exeter, and the Abbey of Westminster; of the Order of the Garter (various
copies); of Hospitals at Croydon, Chipping-Barnet, and Chichester; of the Gresham Charities, together with the Charters of London and Bristol; Statutes made by the Chapter of Paris for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there in 1421, and an eighteenth-century transcript of the Statutes of the College at Bayeux. But the volume of most interest in this class is the rare printed volume of the Statutes of Thame School, issued in 1575. Of this, only five other copies are known, one kept at the School itself, a second in the custody of the Warden of New College (the Visitor of the School), a third in the Royal Library, Brit. Mus., and the fourth and fifth, both on vellum, in the possession of the Earl of Abingdon and in the Grenville Library, Brit. Mus. Rawlinson's copy, which wants the title, has in it the book-plate of John, Duke of Newcastle.
11. Of the MSS. of Dr. Thomas Smith, the Non-juror, of Magd. Coll., Oxford, there are 139 volumes, which (with the exception of a few bequeathed by Smith himself) came into Rawlinson's hands together with the rest of Hearne's collections. They are noticed above, under the year 1735.
12. Besides the multitude of books, scattered throughout every class of Rawlinson's library, which belonged to Hearne or were written by him, there are about 150 small duodecimo volumes of Hearne's daily diary and note-books, commencing in July, 1705, and ending on June 4, 1735, the last actual entry being on June 1, and his decease occurring on June 10. The character of this diary is well known from the two volumes of Extracts published by Dr. Bliss in 1857, with the title, Reliquiæ Hearnianæ. But it must not be supposed that these volumes comprehend all that deserves publication; the diary throughout is full of like curious personal history and anecdote, antiquarian gleanings and amusing gossip, mixed, of course, with a good deal of occasional acrimony against those with whom Hearne came in collision either from differences
in academic or literary matters, or from their being friends of the 'Elector of Hanover.' There is scarcely a subject falling within its writer's scope of observation on which this Diary may not be consulted; and as it is written in his usual plain and neat hand, with an index to each volume, it is fortunately easy for reference. Hearne bequeathed all his MSS., and books with MSS. notes, to Mr. William Bedford, son of the well-known bishop among the Non-jurors, Hilkiah Bedford; the legatee died on July 11, 1747, and Rawlinson bought them of his widow for £105. Hence it was that they came finally to the place where Hearne would himself have rejoiced to see them deposited. The autobiographical sketch of Hearne's own life, which Huddesford published in 1772, in conjunction with the lives of Leland and Wood, is preserved among the Miscellaneous MSS. Of this Rawlinson says, in a letter dated June 19, 1740[246]: 'Tom's own life was so low and poor a performance that I recommended it to Bedford to burn.' On account, probably, of the numerous reflections which the Diary contained on living persons, Rawlinson ordered in his bequest that it should not be open to inspection until after the lapse of seven years. He laid also the same restraint upon the use of his own papers noticed in the next paragraph.
13. Large collections were made by Rawlinson for a continuation of Wood's Athenæ Oxon. These contain much valuable biographical information, derived in very many cases from the actual information of the persons noticed, letters from many of whom are inserted. There are, in all, twenty-five volumes, folio and quarto; among the folios there are two series of notices arranged alphabetically, and one volume (also alphabetical) of notices of Cambridge men admitted ad eundem; the quartos contain 1331 notices, numbered but not arranged in any other
order, with one general alphabetical index. These collections, together with Hearne's Diaries, and Rawlinson's Non-jurors' Papers, and notes of his own Travels, were included in a fourth and last codicil, dated Feb. 14, 1755, which directed that all these papers should be kept locked up during a period of seven years. By the same codicil also were conveyed numerous engravings by Vertue, portraits of Englishmen, some paintings, and a collection of Roman, Persian, Italian, and English medals[247]. Some of the Italian medals, particularly a fine set in copper of the members of the House of Medici, are now exhibited in a case in the Picture Gallery[248]. By a codicil of June 17, 1752, Rawlinson had previously bequeathed a series of medals of Popes, of which he remarks, 'as they are, I take them to be one of the most complete collections now in Europe;' together with twenty shillings per annum for enlarging and continuing the set[249].
14. Finally (as regards MSS.), Rawlinson left a mass of ancient charters, five hundred of which were catalogued by Mr. Coxe some years ago, and of vellum deeds and documents of all kinds, chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He left, also, all the copper-plates containing engravings of some of his ancient documents and other curiosities, as well as a large number of impressions from these plates. Many of these impressions were sold at the sale of Bodleian duplicates in 1862. The copper-plates were added to his bequest by a second codicil, dated July 25, 1754, in which he desired that impressions should be taken from them, to be sold in one volume for the use and benefit of the University.
A last item in Rawlinson's miscellaneous gifts (besides various bas-reliefs, figures, a Jewish vessel, Muscovite cup, &c.) was a large collection of matrices of ancient conventual and personal seals, chiefly foreign; together with impressions of seals, ancient and modern, in metal and wax, 'most of which,' it is said in the Will (p. 4), 'were of the collection of Mr. Charles Christian, the celebrated seal engraver.' The wax impressions are now exhibited in the Picture Gallery.
Distinct from Rawlinson's other printed books is a curious series of Almanacs, in 175 volumes, extending from 1607 to 1747, which were sent to the Library in 1752. Some volumes in continuation, from 1747 to 1768, were given by Sir Rob. H. Inglis, Bart., in 1846[250]. Another series, between 1571 and 1663, is in the Ashmole collection.