309 



had produced two beautiful drawings of the mummy ; and 

 that both Mr. Wakeman and Mr. Burton had presented 

 their drawings to the subscribers. 



The Secretary read a letter from Joseph Lentaigne, 

 Esq., on the subject of a Manuscript Translation of Part of 

 Virgil's yEneid. 



"A manuscript, in three volumes, containing the third, 

 fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth, eleventh, and twelfth books 

 of the iEneid, in English verse, has been lately placed 

 in my hands by F. Comyn, Esq., of Woodstock, in the 

 county of Galway, who discovered it among the books 

 of one of his ancestors, formerly a physician at the court 

 of Louis XV. of France. It bears the following date : — 

 " Ended at St. Germains the 18th day of 7 ber , 1692 ;" 

 being two years prior to the commencing of Mr. Dry- 

 den's great translation, which (as he informs us) he 

 was " three years doing," and which was completed in 

 1697. That this manuscript is genuine cannot reason- 

 ably be doubted. The orthography, the fabric of the 

 paper upon which it is written, the date of printed papers 

 used in the binding, and many other circumstances, prove 

 that it is the production of the period at which it bears 

 date. The name " Lauderdail" is written on the fly-leaf, 

 and is still legible notwithstanding an attempted oblitera- 

 tion. The author's name is not given ; but the Episode of 

 Nisus and Euryalus is marked, « by Mr. Dryden ;" that of 

 Camilla, by " Mr. John Stafford ;" and, at the end, are the 

 following among other memoranda : — " Eighty-six errors 

 since sent to Mr. Dryden, after Bryarly wrote it; 162 errors 

 corrected since Mr. Bysh wrote this book; 122 errors cor- 

 rected since Mr. Dallon wrote this book; 486 lines cor- 

 rected and altered since this book was first sent to Mr. 

 Dryden." It is, therefore, most probably the work of se- 

 veral contributors, but corrected and altered by Lord Lau- 



