340 } The Literary Treasures of Longleat. 
as a memorial of my gratitude for his signal and continual favours; I leave to 
the Library of the Cathedral at Wells, all my books of which my Lord Wey- 
mouth has the duplicates and of which the Library there has not: or, in ease I 
outlive my Lord, I leave tothe Library aforesaid (Wells) to make their choice 
of allof which they have not duplicates; and the remainder of my books not 
chosen for the Library, I leave to be divided between my two nephews, Isaac 
Walton and John Beacham, excepting those books which I shall dispose of to 
others . . . . I bequeath to the Library at Bath all my French, Italian, 
and Spanish books,’’ * 
According to an old catalogue preserved in the library the number 
of books, pamphlets, &c., now there,that had belonged to the bishop, 
is nearly one thousand. 
There is a large collection of Civil War tracts, and a great num- 
ber of old geographical works of voyages and travels descriptive of 
the world as then known. Also many valuable works on antiquities, 
coins, and the like, such as are now seldom met with in private 
houses ; fine and costly volumes, the like of which indeed are not often 

*Printed in Bowles’s Life of Bishop Ken, vol. ii., p. 306. 
I may take this opportunity of printing a letter upon this subject, which I discovered at Longleat, 
written by Mr. Hawkins, the Bishop’s executor, to Thomas, Viscount Weymouth. 
*““My Lord. Knowing certainly of the account Mr. Ord gave yr. Ldship concerning the death of 
my Ld. Bp. Ken made me presume on pardon for omitting the giving it myself at that time both of 
hurry and affliction and being now unable to give farther particulars than are known to yr. Ldship. 
I shall only add that by his Will now in my custody (and which I shall copy from), he gives to 
your Ldship all his books of which your Ldship has not the duplicates as a memoriale of his grati- 
tude for your signall and continued favours, wh. Will, if yr. Ldship gives leave I shall show you 
when Ican wait on you: in the meantime and because the remainder of his books are to severall 
I have ventured to lock his Dore, of which Mr. Ord has the key and I myself have lockt on a pac- 
lock. 1am as in Duty bound s0 with great respect, My Lord, yr. Ldship’s most obedient servant, 
Witt. Hawkins. 
Sarum Close, 
March 27, 1711. 
To Rt. Hon. Thos. Ld. Vist. Weymouth, 
St. James’s Square, London,’ 
Talso discovered at Longleat, thirteen original letters in the handwriting of the Bishop himself, 
which were quite unknown to his biographers, 
The following account of the Bishop’s death is from a letter by, Hilkiah Bedford to Thomas Hearne. 
‘May 17, 1711. 
Bp. Ken died at Longleat March 19, 1710-1, a little after 5in the morning, and was buryed about 
the same hcur on the Wednesday following in the parish (Frome) Church-yard. His last illness of 
about 8 days continuance, mostly a difficulty of breathing, call’d by the Physicians a nervous Asthma. 
Siez’d first in January last abt. 5 in the morning wth. violent coughing at Mrs. Thynne’s at l-ewston 
in Dorcetshire. About a week after he was again early in the morning taken with a dead palsey in 
his left side, weh. lasted a day or 2, but the hand remuin’d useless to his death, About a fortnight 
after that, he was siez’d with spitting blood, yet he was well enough to remove to Longleat 9 days 
before he dyed, and design’d in 3 or 4 days after he got thither to go to Bathe.” 
‘Jun. 19, 1711. 
Bp. Ken was bury’d before 6 in the morning by his own appointment, for the more privacy : atten- 
ded to the grave cniy by my Lord Weymouth’s steward (I think) and 12 poor men that carried him 
by turns and had 5s. a-piece for it: the coffin coyer’d with a few yards of black cloth instead of a 
Pall, and that given to the Minister of the Parish for a gown.” 

