Jan. 7. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



authorised to receive into that house such children as are 

 of the age between five and nine, as is before specified and 

 limited ; and the said steward is from time to time to 

 acquaint the corporation for the poor, what persons are 

 brought in, to the end they may bee provided for. 

 Dated this four and twentieth day of January, 1650. 



Saulkr." 



John Bruce. 



LETTERS OF EMINENT LITERARY. MEN. 



Sir, 

 I send you, as a New Year's Gift for your " N. & Q.," 

 transcripts of half-a-dozen Letters of Eminent Literary 

 Men, specimens of whose correspondence it will do 

 your work no discredit to preserve, 



Yours faithfully, 



Henry Ellis. 

 British Museum, Dec. 26, 1 853. 



Dean Swift to * * • • * ' 

 [MS. Addit., Brit. Mus., 12,113. 



Orig.] 



Sir, 



Belcamp, Mar. 14th. 



Riding out this morning to dine here with 

 Mr. Grattan, I saw at his house the poor lame boy 

 that gives you this : he was a servant to a plow- 

 man near Lusk, and while he was following the 

 plow, a dog bit him in the leg, about eleven weeks 

 ago. One Mrs. Price endeavored six weeks to 

 cure him, but could not, and his Master would 

 maintain him no longer. Mr. Grattan and I are 

 of opinion that he may be a proper object to be 

 received into Dr. Stephen's Hospital. The boy 

 tells liis story naturally, .and Mr. Grattan and I 

 took pity of him. If you find him curable, and it 

 be not against, the rules of the Hospitall, I hope 

 you will receive him. 



I am, Sir, 



Your most humble Servt. 



Jonath. Swift. 

 II. 

 The Rev. Thomas Baker to Mr. Humphry Wanley. 

 [Harl. MS. 3778, Art. 43. Orig.'] 



Cambridge, Oct. 16th [1718], 

 Worthy Sir, 



I am glad to hear Mrs. Elstob is in a condition 

 to pay her debts, for me she may be very easy : 

 tho' I could wish for the sake of the University 

 (tho' I am no way engaged, having taken up my 

 obligation) that you could recover the Book, or at 

 least could find where it is lodged, that Mr. Brook 

 may know where to demand it. This, I presume, 

 may be done. 



If you have met with Books printed by Gutten- 

 berg, you have made a great discovery. I thought 

 there had been none such in the world, and began 

 to look upon Fust as the first Printer. I have I 



seen the Bishop of Ely's Catholicon (now with us), 

 which, for aught I know, may have been printed 

 by Guttenberg; for tho' it be printed at Ments, 

 yet there is no name of the Printer, and the cha- 

 racter is more rude than Fust's Tullie's Offices, 

 whereof there are two Copies in 1465 and 1466, 

 the first on vellum, the other on paper. 



May I make a small enquiry, after the mention 

 of so great a name as Guttenberg ? I remember, 

 you told me, my Lord Harley had two Copies of 

 Edw. the Sixth's first Common Prayer Book. Do 

 you remember whether either of them be printed 

 by Grafton, the King's Printer ? I have seen four 

 or five Editions by Whitchurch, but never could 

 meet with any by Grafton, except one in my cus- 

 tody, which I shall look upon to be a great Rarity, 

 if it be likewise wanting to my Lord's Collection. 

 It varies from all the other Copies, and is printed 

 in 1548. All the rest, I think, in 1549. One 

 reason of my enquiry is, because I want the Title, 

 for the date is at the end of the Book, and indeed 

 twice ; both on the end of the Communion Office, 

 and of the Litany. But I beg your pardon for so 

 small an enquiry, whilst you are in quest of Gut- 

 tenberg and Nic. Jenson. My business consists 

 much in trifles. I am, 

 Sir, 

 Your most ob. humble 

 Servant, 



Tho. Baker. 

 To the worthy Mr. Wanley, at 

 the Hiding Hood Shop, the 

 corner of Chandois and Bed- 

 ford Streets, 



Covent Garden, 



London. 



A note in Wanley's hand says, " Mrs. Elstob 

 has only paid a few small scores." 



III. 



Extract of a Letter from Wm. Bickford, Esq., to 

 the Rev. Mr. Amory of Taunton, dated Dunsland, 

 March 7, 1731. 



[MS. Addit, Brit. Mus., 4309, fol. 358.] 



I cannot forbear acquainting you of a very 

 curious passage in relation to Charles the Second's 

 Restoration. Sir Wm. Morrice, who was one of 

 the Secretaries of State soon after, was the person 

 who chiefly transacted that affair with Monk, so 

 that all the papers in order to it were sent him, 

 both from King Charles and Lord Clarendon. 

 Just after the thing was finished, Lord Clarendon 

 got more than 200 of these Letters and other 

 papers from Morrice under pretence of finishing 

 his History, and which were never returned. Lord 

 Somers, when he was chancellor, told Morrice's 

 Grandson that if he would file a Bill in Chancery, 

 he would endeavour to get them ; but young 

 Morrice having deserted the Whig Interest, was 



