A.D. 1816
A very important MS., with relation to Scottish history, was placed in the Library on Dec. 5, in this year. It is a transcript (from the originals,) by Col. J. Hooke, agent in Scotland for James II287, of all his political correspondence between the beginning of the year 1704 and the end of 1707. It forms two folio volumes, but is unfinished, as the second volume ends with the commencement of a letter from James Ogilvie, of Boyn, to M. de Torcy, Dec. 26, 1707. A brief narrative of Hooke’s negotiations, which contains copies of a few of the letters here given, was published in France, in the French language, and a translation was printed in a small volume at Dublin in 1760; but the great mass of the correspondence is as yet inedited. The volumes came to the Library in pursuance of a bequest from the Rev. J. Tickell, Rector of Gawsworth, Cheshire and East Mersea, Essex, who died at Wargrave, Berks, July 3, 1802. The bequest was to take effect upon the death of his wife, which occurred towards the close of 1816288.
The Curators reported, at the end of the annual list, that considerable progress had been made towards the formation of a new general Catalogue. Further progress was reported in the following year; in which year also Dibdin289 announced that the Catalogue would be finished, in four folio volumes, by Messrs. Bandinel and Cotton under the superintendence of Professor Gaisford290. He adds, ‘The Prince Regent hath munificently given a considerable sum towards the completion of these glorious labours.’ There is no record in the annual accounts of any such donation; but in 1823 and 1824 payments amounting to £420 were made to the Librarian, Sub-librarians, and Assistant, for their work on the new Catalogue291, out of ‘the Prince Regent’s benefaction.’ On the proposition of the Chancellor, Lord Grenville, in 1814, Mr. Vansittart, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had expressed his willingness to apply to Parliament for a grant of £5000 for the purpose; probably this idea was abandoned for the more easily practicable one of a grant from the Privy Purse.
Four Greek MSS. were presented in this year by Rev. —— Hall, Chaplain at Leghorn292; a copy of Lucan’s Pharsalia, with MSS. collations by Joseph Addison, by the Warden of Merton College; and a large collection of books in Oriental literature, printed in Bengal, by the East India Company.
Notes
287 Hooke in 1685 was one of the Chaplains attending Monmouth in his rebellion! Lockhart Papers, 1817, vol. i. p. 148.
288 Gent. Magaz. vol. lxxv. ii. 569.
289 Bibliogr. Decam. iii. 429.
290 Portions of the Letters A F and P which had been thus prepared were subsequently printed, but the whole work was then for some years suspended, and afterwards commenced de novo. And nearly thirty years elapsed before it was finally completed.
291 Previous grants amounting to £260, had been made in 1820.
292 Three of these are described in Mr. Coxe’s Catalogue, cols. 812-14.