Hearne left all his manuscripts and books with manuscript notes to Mr. William Bedford, son of the nonjuring bishop, Hilkiah Bedford, whose widow sold them to Dr. Richard Rawlinson for one hundred guineas, and by him they were bequeathed to the Bodleian Library. Hearne's diary and note-books, in about one hundred and fifty small duodecimo volumes, were among them.[66] His printed books were sold by Thomas Osborne on the 16th of February 1736, and following days. The title-page of the catalogue reads: 'A Catalogue of the Valuable Library of that great Antiquarian Mr. Tho. Hearne of Oxford: and of another Gentleman of Note. Consisting of a very great Variety of Uncommon Books, and scarce ever to be met withal.
Which will begin to be sold very cheap, the lowest Price mark'd in each Book, at T. Osborne's Shop in Gray's Inn, on Monday the 16th day of February 1735-36.'
The title-page has also a small portrait of Hearne, with the following lines below it:—
'Pox on't quoth time to Thomas Hearne,
Whatever I forget, you learn.'
The catalogue contains six thousand seven hundred and seventy-six lots.
Hearne's publications, which were almost all printed by subscription at Oxford, are very numerous. Among the most valuable are an edition of Livy in 6 vols., 1708; the Life of Alfred the Great, from Sir John Spelman's manuscript in the Bodleian Library, 1710; Leland's Itinerary, 9 vols., 1710; Leland's Collectanea, 6 vols., 1715; Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More, 1716; Camden's Annals, 3 vols., 1717; Curious Discourses by Eminent Antiquaries, 1720; Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, 2 vols., 1724; Peter of Langtoft's Chronicle, 2 vols., 1725; Liber Niger Scaccarii, 2 vols., 1728; and Walter of Hemingford's History, 2 vols., 1731.
FOOTNOTES:
[66] Extracts from these volumes were published by Dr. Bliss in 1857, and again in 1869, under the title of Reliquiæ Hearnianæ; and Hearne's Remarks and Collections are now being printed by the Oxford Historical Society.