210 FOTHERGILL'S SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS CHAP. 



waste until Fothergill rescued them. To these he added 

 the letters of the learned Edward Lhuyd, which he took 

 over from Da Costa as payment for a large debt. 1 He 

 hoped to have used these stores himself, but as his time 

 was too much occupied with other things he presented 

 the manuscripts in 1769 to the University of Oxford, 

 where they are preserved in the Bodleian Library. 



In writing to W. Huddesford, Fothergill enlarges upon the 

 bright example set by Lister and Lhuyd : " the greatest men 

 of the past century derive their credit from that firmest of all 

 foundations, virtue. In this term," he continues, " I include 

 piety, benevolence and industry." He goes on to urge that 

 the scholars at Oxford should bring out a fresh edition of 

 Lister's great work on Conchology, comparing the plates with 

 specimens from all sources ; towards this he offers his own 

 aid. In another letter he uses his position of privilege as a 

 donor to propose a larger undertaking a " Review of the 

 rise and progress of Natural History in Great Britain, from 

 the Revival of Letters to the middle of the present century, 

 with some account of the lives and characters of the principal 

 promoters of natural knowledge." Could not Oxford men 

 be found well qualified, one to take the fossil, one the botanical 

 part, etc. ? He adds some plain words on the state of the 

 university (which was little better than Gibbon had found it in 

 1752-1753) : men of the first rank of understanding seemed to 

 be absorbed in the mere round of eating, drinking and sleeping. 

 Huddesford, who as Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum had 

 studied its contents well, seems to have responded to Fother- 

 gill's stimulating suggestions : at any rate he indexed the 

 Lister manuscripts ; he brought out in the next year a very 

 fine edition of Lister's work, and he compiled also some lives 

 of British naturalists and scholars before an early death cut 

 short his own labours : against him no want of industry can 

 be charged. 2 



1 Edward Lhuyd (born 1660, died 1709), Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, 

 Oxford, was a scholar and naturalist of no little eminence : poor, modest 

 and laborious, he helped to advance the science of his day in several depart- 

 ments, and was one of the earliest of Celtic philologists. His catalogue of 

 fossils, Lithophylacii Britannici, etc., is well known. See Some Incidents in 

 the Life of Edward Lhuyd, by Richard Ellis, B.A., of Aberystwyth, who is 

 also engaged on the preparation of Lhuyd's Life and Letters ; also Corresp. 

 R. Richardson, pp. 12, in. 



2 See MS. Letters from Fothergill to Huddesford, Ashmole MSS., No. 1822, 

 Bodleian Library ; Register of Convocation, Univ. Oxford, April 14, 1769 ; 

 Nichols, Illust. iv. 458 ff., and Lit. Anecd. viii. 600, ix. 740. 



