B'ORESTAL LITERATURE. 249 



time, renewed the assembly of the society; and they, 

 having formed the same rules for their governance, and 

 re'solved not to meddle with matters either of State or 

 religion, proposed two questions to be discussed at their 

 next meeting. But before the period fixed for that pur- 

 pose they received notice that his then Majesty took' a 

 dislike to the society, he not being informed that they 

 had resolved to decline all matters of State, whereupon 

 their meeting was stopped, and the society was dissolved. 



" On this event their papers became dispersed ; but 

 fortunately a considerable part of their notes and obser- 

 vations soon after falling into Mr Camden's hands, were 

 by him deposited in the Cotton Library. Transcripts of 

 some few of these dissertations were taken by the learned 

 Dr Thomas Smith, in order for publication ; but he dying, 

 they came into the hands of Mr Thomas Hearne, the 

 celebrated antiquary, who, in the year 1720, printed them 

 at Oxford in one volume octavo, under the title of A 

 Collection of Curious Discourses written by eminent Anti- 

 quaries upon several Heads in our English Antiquities," 



The sale was immediate and complete. A second 

 edition was resolved on, but he died before it could be 

 prinbed ; and in 1775 the papers collected by him were 

 published, together with all the others which had been 

 obtained, including such as had been printed, many of 

 the original papers having been preserved in the Cotton 

 and Harlein Libraries. 



Amongst these was a treatise entitled Antiquity of 

 Forests, by Arthur Agarde, which appears to have been 

 previously published in 1771. The author was a learned 

 and industrious antiquary, who was born in Derbyshire in 

 1540, and who died in 1615, and was buried near the door 

 of the Chapter-House, in the cloisters of Westminster 

 Abbey. He was educated for the practice of the law, 

 but was appointed deputy-chamberlain of the Exchequer, 

 which office he held forty-five years. He was author of 

 several of the papers in this collection, and of several 

 valuable treatises published in his lifetime. 



