ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Lord Chamberlain to Henry the Eighth. In the Calendar to this volume, preceding the 

 prayers, there are obituary notices in MS. of several members of the Poyntz family, 



A remarkable early English Psalter and Service Book, hitherto undescriljed and, 

 indeed, unknown. The exact title of the work is, " The Psalter or Fsahnes of David, 

 corrected and poyncted as thei shalbe song in Churches after the translacion of the greate 

 Bible. Hereunto is added, diverse thynges as male appere on the next side, where is 

 expressed the contentes of this boke. A"- Domini MDXLIX Mense Augustij." On 

 the recto of the last leaf is the " Privilege " to R. Grafton. Upon the reverse is the 

 colophon: "Imprinted by Richard Grafton, printer to the Kynges Maiestie, Mense 

 Augustij, 1549. Cum privilegio ad imprimedum [sic] solum." It Avas, therefore, printed 

 in the same year as the first Book of the Common Pj-ayer, and was, no doubt, issued by 

 authority. It differs somewhat from the Psalter published beibre and during the next 

 few years in its contents, but its special peculiarity is, that it contains directions for the 

 part to be taken by the " Clerks " in the various services, headed, " AH that appertein 

 to the Clercks to say or syng at the Ministracion of the Communion, etc." It forms, there- 

 fore, a kind of companion or supplement to the first Prayer Book, and a manual for the use 

 of the Clerks only. Accordingly nearly all the rubrics are omitted, and only the first words 

 are given of whatever the Priest or Minister has to say ; whereas all that is to be said by 

 the Clerks is given in full. This copy bears traces of having been used for some time. 



A copy of Beaumont and Fletcher, 1679, which formerly belonged to Charles Lamb, 

 the identical copy to which he alludes in " Elia," in the Essay on " Old China": — " Do 

 you remember the brown suit, which you made to hang upon you, till all your friends 

 cried shame upon you, it grew so threadbare — and all because of that folio Beaumont and 

 Fletcher, which you dragged home late at night, from Barker's in Covent Garden ? Do 

 you remember how we eyed it for weeks before we could make up our minds to the 

 purchase, and had not come to a determination till it was near ten o'clock of the Saturday 

 night, when you set off from Islington, fearing you should be too late, — and when the old 

 bookseller with some grumbling opened his shop, and by the twinkling taper (for 

 he was setting bedwards) lighted out the relic from his dusty treasures, and Avhen you 

 lugged it home wishing it were twice as cumbersome, &c." This copy has numerous notes 

 by Charles Lamb, and markings of the passages selected by himself and his sister, as 

 extracts to be used in his Specimens of the Early English Dramatic Poets. He after- 

 wards lent the book to Coleridge, who made numerous notes in it before he returned it to 

 the owner. One of tliese is as follows : — " iST.B. I shall not be long here, Charles ! I gone, 

 you will not mind my having spoiled a book in order to leave a relic, S.T.C., Oct'" 1811." 

 Underneath this note are the initials, " W. W.," possibly those of William "Wordsworth. 

 Purchased at the sale of Col. Cunning-hani's books. 



'& 



A copy of the first edition of the " Sermon of Repentaunce," by John Bradford, the 

 martyr, and the cha^jlain and friend of Bishop Ridley, "Imprinted at Londo in Panics 

 Churche Yearde, at the signe of the Rose, by John Wight." The Epistle to the 

 Chxistian Reader is dated the 12th of July 1553, and the book was therefore printed 

 during the nine days of Lady Jane Grey, between the death of Edward the Sixth, to 

 which he i-efers in the epistle as " the most grevous plague of the death of our late kynge 

 (a prince of all that ever was sijthen Christes ascention into heaven in anye region 

 pereles),," and the proclamation of Queen Mary, July 19th, 1553. It is of extreme 

 rarity : when it was reprinted for the Parker Society, among the writings of John 

 Bradford, in 1848, the Editor, the Rev. Aubrey Townsend, was unable to find a perfect 

 copy of this edition from which to take the text, and he writes : — " During the last 35 

 years I have given much attention to, and made many enquiries in reference to the early 

 editions of the Martyr, but I have never even heard of a perfect copy of this very scarce 

 book." 



" Historic del Sig. Don Fernando Colombo nelle quale s' ha' particolare & vera 

 relatione della vita & de' fatti dell' Ammiraglio Christoforo Colombo suo padre, &c.'' 

 Milan, 1614. This is the 2nd edition — the scarcest of all — of the history of Columbus by 

 his son Fernando, who accompanied him in his fourth voyage, and had access to his 

 charts and papers. It was the only one necessary to complete the Museum series of the 

 editions of this important work, called by Washington Irving " The corner stone of the 

 history of the American Continent." This 2nd edition contains important additions 

 and improved readings which do not appear in any other. 



A group of English tracts or news-letters, printed at the commencement of the 

 seventeenth century, relating to the war then carried on in the Low Countries, viz. : — 



" Newes from Ostend, of the oppugnation and fierce siege, made by the Ai-chduke 

 Albertus his forces, commanded by the Duke of Ossuna, &c. London, 1601." 4"- 



" Further New.es of Ostend, &c. London, 1601." 4«- 



" A short report of honourable journey into Brabant, by his Excellencie Grave 

 Mauris, Gouvernour and Lord Generall of the imited Netherlandsh Provinces: From 

 the 26 day of June to the 19 day of July, 1602. London, 1602." 4 »■ 



" A copie of the articles and conditions of his Excellencie, granted to the Governour, 

 • 100. A 4] Captaines, 



