2»4 S. N» 99;, Nov. 21. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



413 



ioteresting than the abridged copy quoted in Beloe'a 

 Anecdotes, ii. 248., is here transcribed : — 



" Mr. Thoinasou's Note about his Collection. 



" An exact Collection of all the Books and Pamphlets 

 printed from the beginning of the year 1641, to the Coro- 

 nation of King Charles IL, 1G61, and near one hundred 

 manuscripts never yet in print, the whole containing 

 30,000 Books and Tracts uniformly bound, consisting of 

 2,000 volumes, dated in the most exact manner, and so 

 carefully preserved as to have received no damage. The 

 Catalogue of them makes twelve volumes in folio: they are 

 so marked and numbered, that the least Treatise may be 

 readily found, and even the very day on_which they be- 

 came publick wrote on most of them. 



"This Collection cost great pains and expence, and was 

 carried on so privately as to escape the most diligent 

 search of the Protector, who, hearing of them, used his 

 utmost endeavours to obtain them. They were sent into 

 Surrey and Essex, and at last to Oxford, the then library- 

 keeper, Dr. Barlow, being a friend to the Collector, and 

 under his custody they remained till the Doctor was 

 made Bishop of Lincoln, as appears by the following 

 letter from the Bishop to the Collector : 



" ^A Copy of the Bishop of Lincoln's Letter. 



« ' Oxon, Feb. 6, 1676. 

 " ' My good Friend, 



"'lam about to leave Oxford, (my\lear mother,) 

 and that excellent and costly collection of bookes which 

 have so long bcene in my handes r now I entreat you, 

 either to remove them, or speake to my successor that 

 they may continue there till you can otherwise conveni- 

 ently dispose of them. Had" I monej' to my minde, I 

 would be your chapman for them, but your Collection is 

 soe great, and my purse soe little, that I cannot compass 

 it. It is such a Collection (both for the vast number of 

 bookes, and the exact method they are bound in,) as none 

 has, nor possibly can have, besides yourselfe. The use of 

 that Collection myght be of exceedinge benefitt to the 

 publique (both church and state) were it placed in some 

 safe repository where learned and sober men might have 

 accesse to, aiul the use of it. The fittest place for it (both 

 for use and honor) is the King's, Sr. Tho. Bodley's, or 

 some publique library, for in such places it might be most 

 safe and useful!. I have long indeavoured to find bene- 

 factors,- and a -way to procure it for Bodley's library, and 

 I doe not despaire but such a way may be found in good 

 time by 



" ' Your aflfectionate friend, 



" ' Thomas Lincolne.' 

 " There have been greate charges disbursed, and paines 

 taken in an exact Collection of Pamphlets that have been 

 published from the beginning of that long and unhappy 

 Parlement which began Nov. 1640, which doth amount 

 to a very great number of pieces of all sorts and all sides 

 from that time until his Majesty's happy restauracion and 

 coronacion, their number consisting of near 30,000 several 

 pieces to the very great charge and greater care and pains 

 of him that made the Collection. The use that may be 

 made of them for the public, and for the present and after 

 ages, may and will prove of great advantage to posteritv, 

 and besides this there is not the like, and therefore only 

 fit for the use of the King's majesty. The which Collec- 

 tion will necessarily employ six readers at once, they con- 

 sisting of six several sorts of paper, being as uniformly 

 bound, as if they were but of one impression of books. It 

 consists of abcnit 2000 several volumes, all exactly marked 

 and numbered. The method that hath been observed 

 throughout is Time, and such exact care hath been taken, 

 that the very day ia written upon most of them that they 

 came out. 



"The Catalogue of them, fairly written, do contaift 

 twelve volumes in folio, and of the numbers aforesaidj 

 which is so many, that when they stand in order accord-' 

 ing to their numbers, whilst anything is asked for and 

 shewed in the Catalogue, though but of one sheet of 

 paper, or less, it may be instantly shewed ; this method iti 

 of very great use and much ease to the reader. 



" In this number of pamphlets is contained nearly one 

 hundred, and several pieces that never were printed en 

 the one side, or on the other (all or most of which are on 

 the King's side), which no man durst venture to publirf» 

 here, without the danger of his ruin. 



" This Collection was so privately carried on, that it 

 was never known that there was such a design in hand, 

 the Collector intending them only for His Majesty's use 

 that then was ; His Majesty once having occasion to use 

 one pamphlet could nowhere obtain or compass the sight 

 of it but from him, which His Majesty having seen was 

 very well satisfied and pleased with the sight of it, he 

 commanded a person of honour (now) near His Mtyesty 

 that now is, to restore it safely to his hands from whom 

 he had it, who faithfully restored it, together with the 

 charge His Majesty gave him, which was with his own 

 hand to return it to him, and withal expressed a desire 

 from his then Majesty to him that had begun that work, 

 that he should continue the same, His Majesty being 

 very well pleased with the design, which was a great en- 

 couragement to the undertaker, else he thinks he should 

 never have been induced to have gone on through so 

 difiicult a work, which he found by experience to prove 

 so chargeable and heavy a burden, both to himself and 

 his servants that were employed in that business, which 

 continued above the space of twenty years, in which time 

 he buried three of them, who took great pains both day 

 and night with him in that tedious employment. 



"And that he might prevent the discovery of them 

 when the army was northward, he packed them up in 

 several trunks, and by one or two in a week he sent thetn 

 to a trusty friend in Surrey, who safely preserved them j 

 but when the army was westward, and fearing their re.- 

 turn that way, he was faigne to have them sent back 

 again, and thence safely received them, but durst not 

 keep them by him, the danger being so great ; but packed 

 them up again, and sent them into Essex : and when the 

 army ranged that way to Tripleheath, was faigne to send 

 for them back from thence, and not thinking them safe 

 anywhere in England, at last took a resolution to send 

 them into Holland for their more safe preservation. But 

 considering with himself what a treasure it was, upon 

 second thought, he durst not venture them at sea, but re- 

 solved to place them in his warehouses in form of tables 

 round about the rooms covered over with canvas, con- 

 tinuing still without any intermission his going on ; nay, 

 even then, when by the Usurper's power and command 

 he was taken out of his bed, and clapt up close prisoner at 

 Whitehall for seven weeks space and above, he still hoping 

 and looking for that day, which thanks be to God is now 

 come, and there he put a period to that unparallelled 

 labour, charge, and pains, he had been at. 



" Oxford Library Keeper (that then was) was in hand 

 with them, about them a long time, and did hope the 

 Publick Library might compass them ; but that could not 

 be then effected, it rising to so great a sum as had been 

 expended on them for so long a time together. 



" And if that traitorous Usurper had taken notice of 

 them by any information, he to secure them had made 

 and signed an acquittance for lOOOZ., acknowledged to be 

 received in part of that bargain, and have sent that ini- 

 mediately thither, and they to have challenged by virtue 

 of that as bought by them, who had more power than he 

 had that collected them to have contended with him for 

 them by the power that they and their friends could have 



