70 LETTERS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 



THOMAS LYDYAT TO MR. ROUSE. 



[MS. Bodl. 313.] 



To his friend, Mr. Rouse, Fellow of Oriel College, and Keeper 



of the public Library in Oxford. 



Mr, Rouse, Having occasion to send to Oxford, I have sent 

 you a copy of my period for Dr. Morrison, not so fair a one 

 as I would, (during mine imprisonment my papers of some 

 were many of them stained, and some quite marred with wet;) 

 but indeed all that I have left, except only that with Dr. Bain- 

 bridge his censure, and mine answer to it; a transcript whereof, 

 and of my postcript in the bottom of my table hung in the 

 library, being some part of it worn away, I have sent withal : 

 that you might the better understand what I said to you, of 

 hanging up a better in its place. I pray you remember my 

 service to Dr. Morrison : I would I were able to gratify him 

 or any of you all in a better matter. I pray you also, as you 

 have fit opportunity, remember me to Dr. Turner ; I was in- 

 deed very desirous to have spoken with him, and tarried all 

 that afternoon, the night following, and the next day, till past 

 nine oclock in Oxford, only for that cause : and when he sent 

 me word by his man, that I could not speak with him till two 

 oclock. in the afternoon, the excuse that I made was true, that 

 my horse was weak, and borrowed but for a day : whereunto 

 I might have added, that the poor man of whom I borrowed 

 him (my nephew, the bearer hereof, lately one of your college 

 tenant's tenant in Kenington, whose errand to Oxford at this 

 time is to bring a child of his, one of my grand nephews, to 

 be a chorister in New College,) hath none other means to get 

 his living but by his teem, whereof that was one, and the 

 principal his fhiller : as all your college tenants and the whole 

 town of Kenington can witness : and therefore I was loth to 

 adventure the wronging of him in that kind ; especially this 

 busy time of harvest, and opportunest time of the year to cart 

 any whither. Otherwise I could have been content to have 

 further attended Dr. Turner's leisure. So with remembrance 

 of my duty to my betters, and with my duty and my best 

 service to my good nurse the University of Oxford, I remain 

 Yours to be commanded in what I may, 



THOMAS LYDYAT. 

 Allcrton, Aug. 2, 1638. 



