A.D. 1837
The magnificent series of historical prints and drawings which is called, from the name of its collectors and its donor, the Sutherland collection, was presented to the University on May 4 in this year, although it was not actually deposited in the Library until March, 1839330. The six volumes of the folio editions of Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion and Life, and of Burnet’s Own Times, are inlaid and bound in sixty-one elephant folio volumes, and illustrated with the enormous number of 19,224 portraits of every person and views of every place in any way mentioned in the text, or connected with its subject-matter331. The gathering was commenced in 1795 by Alexander Hendras Sutherland, Esq., F.S.A.; on his death (May 21, 1820) it was taken up by his widow332, who spared neither labour nor money to render it as complete as possible, and by whom its contents were, consequently, nearly doubled. At length, desiring, in accordance with her husband’s will, that the results of her own and his labour should be always preserved intact, Mrs. Sutherland presented the whole collection to the Bodleian. Its extent may be in some degree appreciated when it is mentioned that there are (according to Mrs. Sutherland’s statement in the preface to the Supplementary Catalogue) 184 portraits of James I, of which 135 are distinct plates; 743 of Charles I, of which 573 are distinct plates, besides sixteen drawings; 373 of Cromwell (253 plates); 552 of Charles II (428 plates); 276 of James II; 175 of Mary II (143 plates); and 431 of William III, of which 363 are separate plates[333]. There are also 309 views of London and 166 of Westminster. Amongst those of London is a drawing on many sheets, by a Dutch artist, Antonio van den Wyngaerde, executed between 1558-1563. It affords a view which extends from the Palace at Westminster to that at Greenwich, both included; and comprehends also Lambeth Palace and part of Southwark, with the palace there of the Protector Somerset, in which the Mint was situated. The whole amount expended on the formation of the series is estimated at £20,000.
The collection is accompanied by a handsomely printed Catalogue, compiled by Mrs. Sutherland, and published in 1837 in three volumes quarto, two containing the portraits, and one the topography334. A Supplement to this was printed in the following year, in the preface to which Mrs. Sutherland records her transfer of the collection. She adds that ‘the University of Oxford, by the manner in which it has received the collection, has afforded her the high gratification of witnessing the fulfilment, in their utmost extent, of the wishes of its founder; and in the liberal step which its future conservators have taken, to insure a direct and easy means of reference to the prints, she finds proof of their intention to comply with her own earnest desire, that the books should be as freely open to those really interested in them as may be consistent with their safe preservation. Under the superintendence of the compiler, but at the expense of the University, a copy of the Catalogue has been prepared, in which every print is marked with the page which it respectively fills in the volumes; by means of this, every difficulty of reference, and every doubt as to the print intended to be described, is obviated, and the manuscript indices will be preserved from the injury of constant use. In order to prevent the possibility of disappointment in referring from this marked catalogue, every print (with four exceptions only) of which the page has not been ascertained, has been struck out, although probably several of the portraits not at present found are still in the volumes.’ The following letter of thanks was addressed by Convocation to the donor335:—
‘To Mrs. Sutherland, of Merrow, in the County of Surrey.
‘Madam,—We, the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford, feel ourselves called upon to acknowledge, in a public and formal manner, the splendid donation recently made by you to our Bodleian Library.
‘It is doubtless a source of much gratification to us that our University should have been selected by you as the fittest depository of so valuable a collection; but we are not, on that account, less disposed to appreciate and admire the feeling which has led you to make so considerable a sacrifice, and to relinquish the possession of what has been to you, for many years, an object of constant interest and occupation.
‘We shall prize the matchless volumes about to be committed to our care, not merely as being embellished with the richest specimens of the graphic art, but as possessing a real historical character; as enhancing, in no slight degree, the value of works which we have long been accustomed to regard as most important contributions to the annals and literature of our Country.
‘Given at our House of Convocation, under our Common Seal, this first day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven336.’
A few other books were sent by Mrs. Sutherland at the same time, including Boydell’s Shakespeare, Heath’s Chronicle, Scott’s edition of Dalrymple’s Preservation of Charles II, Faber’s Kit-Cat Club, Wilson’s Catalogue of an Amateur, &c. And in 1843 she increased her former gift by the presentation of copies of a large number of illustrated, biographical, and historical works, many of which are in a like manner enriched with additional engravings. Chief amongst these is a copy of Park’s edition of Walpole’s Royal and Noble Authors, enlarged from five vols. 8o. to 20 vols. 4o. by the insertion of prints, portraits, and some of the original drawings. Similarly enlarged copies of Dr. Dibdin’s works are also included; together with framed oil-portraits of Frederic, King of Bohemia, and of Mr. Sutherland.
A curious collection of rare Dutch tracts, in two vols., printed at Amsterdam between 1637 and 1664, and relating to English, Irish, and Scottish affairs, chiefly during the Civil Wars, was bought for £2 13s. And an enormous gathering of English pamphlets, on every kind of subject, in prose and verse, between about 1600 and 1820, said to number 19,380 articles, and which had accumulated in the stores of the well-known bookseller, Mr. Thomas Rodd, was bought of him for £101 14s. 6d. These exceeding, from their number, the powers of the then very slender staff of the Library for arrangement and cataloguing, remained piled up in cupboards for about twenty-five years. But a general clearance out of all neglected corners taking place on the appointment of the present Librarian to the Headship, they were then sorted (to a certain extent), bound, numbered, and incorporated in the general Catalogue; when they proved to be a valuable addition to the pamphlet-literature, comparatively few of them being found to be duplicates.
Shakespeare; Romeo and Juliet. See 1834.
Sanscrit MSS. See 1842.
A grant was made by Convocation of £400 annually, for five years, towards the expense of the new Catalogue, the printing of which was commenced in the summer. A statute also was passed providing that there should be two ‘ministri,’ or assistants, with salaries regulated by the Curators.
The Rev. Herbert Hill, M.A., Fellow of New College, was approved by Convocation, on Oct. 26, as Sub-librarian, in the room of Mr. Cureton, who removed in this year to the British Museum. Mr. Hill, however, only held the office for one year. And Mr. Richard Firth, New College (B.A. 1839, M.A. 1849, now, and from 1850, a Chaplain in the diocese of Madras), became minister in the room of Mr. F. J. Marshall, New College (B.A. 1834, M.A. 1837, Chaplain of New College, deceased 1843), who had probably entered the Library in 1834 in the place of Mr. Etty.
Notes
330 MS. note by Mrs. Sutherland in the Library copy of her catalogue.
331 As early as 1819 the collection numbered 10,000 prints, bound in 57 volumes. Clarke’s Repert. Bibliogr. pp. 574-577.
332 Mrs. Sutherland died March 18, 1852.
333 In Mrs. Sutherland’s own copy of the catalogue (now in the possession of E. L. Hussey, Esq., Oxford), some of these numbers are enlarged in MS. as follows: Charles II, 557, being 432 plates; Cromwell, 379, 255 plates; William III, 436, 367 plates. Amongst the portraits, there are frequently numerous copies of the same plate, being impressions in all its different states. In a few instances (particularly with regard to Charles I) some of the prints entered in the catalogue have not been found in the volumes.
334 Ten copies were printed of a larger and finer edition, for presentation to various Libraries, but as only four of these (Bodleian, Cambridge University, British Museum, and Bibl. Royale, Paris) acknowledged the gift (the letters from which are preserved in one copy of the catalogue), no more than five copies were printed of the Supplement. Consequently those Libraries which did not return thanks for the gift have now an imperfect book.
335 It is here printed from the original (written in the beautifully neat hand of the late Registrar, Dr. Bliss,) which is now in the possession of a nephew of Mrs. Sutherland, Edw. Law Hussey, Esq., of Oxford, M.R.C.S. It is sealed with the old University seal, described on p. 1 of these Annals, enclosed in a gold box. The late Rev. R. Hussey, Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, was one of the brothers of Mrs. Sutherland.
336 A very erroneous notice of the collection, written in a singularly depreciatory tone, was inserted in an article in the Quarterly Review, in 1852, vol. xci. p. 217. The writer appears to have confounded the facts connected with Gough’s preference of the Bodleian to the British Museum (as told in Nichols’ Lit. Hist.), or possibly Douce’s, with the totally different circumstances of Mrs. Sutherland’s gift, whose husband had left the collection entirely at her disposal, provided only that it were not dispersed.