298 A. D. 1753. 



faid librai'X- vefted in them and their fuccenbrs forever, for the pur- 

 pofes therein mentioned, upon truft, to infpect, confult, and take 

 care of the faid library ; and fhall appoint a perfon well read in 

 antiquities and records to have the immediate care thereof. IV) 

 and an ac^ of the 5th of Qiieen Anne, for the better fecuring her 

 majefly's purchafe of the faid Cotton-houfe, recites, that the queen 

 might render fo great a treafure of books and manufcripts ufeful to 

 her own fubjecls and to all learned foreigners, (he had purchafed the 

 faid Cotton-houfe and garden, for L4500 of Sir John Cotton ; and 

 that a convenient room fhould be built, wherein the faid library 

 fhould be lodged, and fhould be called by the name of Cottonian- 

 library ; to be managed by the truftees therein mentioned, for the 

 ufe of the public forever : which library, however, (for want of a 

 proper repofitory) did, in the year 1731, futfer by a fire, which con- 

 fumed the houfe wherein the fame was then placed ; and what re- 

 mains of the fiid library llill continues in the fame inconvenient 

 room to which (upon occafion of that fire) it was removed. And 

 farther recites, that Arthur Edwards Efquire, being defirous to pre- 

 ferve for the public ufe the faid library, did, by will dated in 1738, 

 devife L7000 (after the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Milles) to ered, in a 

 proper fituation, fuch a houfe as might be moft likely to preferve the 

 laid library from future accidents. But, if, before that bequeft 

 fhould take place, fuch a building fhall be erected, then the faid fum 

 fhall be employed in purchafing fuch manufcripts, books of antiqui- 

 ties, antient coins, medals, and other curiofities, as might be worthy 

 to increafe and enlarge the faid library. He did alfo thereby give to 

 the faid truftees all his books, in cafes, and alio his pictures; which- 

 have been placed, according to his defire, in the faid library. 



' V) And whereas the right honourable the countefs dowager of 

 Oxford and Mortimer, and the mofl noble the duchefs of Portland, 

 her only daughter, have expreffed their approbation of a propofal for 

 the purchafe of the valuable colledion of manufcripts colledled by 

 the late earl of Oxford, and by his father, in confideration of 

 Li 0,000, on condition that the fame fliall be kept together in a proper 

 repofitory, as an addition to the Cottonian library, and to be called 

 by the nam.e of the Harleian colledion of manufcripts : it is now 

 enadlcd, that L 10,000 fhall be paid for them to the faid countefs's 

 truftees. The faid colledtion of manufcripts to be placed and con- 

 tinued in the fame repofitory in which the Cottonian library is 

 hereafter to be placed. The archbifliop of Canterbury, the lord 

 chancellor (or lord keeper), the lord treafurer (or firft commiffioner 

 of the treafury), the lord prefident of the council, the lord privy-feal, 

 the lord high-admiral (or firft commiflioner of the admiralty), the 

 lord fteward and lord chamberlain of his majefty's houfehold, the- 



