By the Rev. J E. Jackson. 



79 



% Anthony Wood, writing to Aubrey, Nov. 10. 1671 : — 

 " I have received your Liber. B., and have almost 

 done him. If you have any more that follows I 

 would gladly see them. I read these collections 

 with great delight, and have excerpted some things 

 thence for my purpose." 

 % In one of Wood's MSS. at Oxford is another reference. 

 Speaking of Cirencester, Wood says ; " Mr. Thomas 

 Gore of Alderton in Wilts hath taken with his pen 

 all the coates in the house, at the West end of the 

 church, knowne now (1678) by the name of the 

 Swan. See Jo. Aubrey's Book B. p. 309." 

 It only remains to be said, that not one shield of arms or scrap of 

 history relating to any of the places above referred to as in " Liber 

 B.," is to be found in any of Aubrey's manuscripts now forthcoming ; 

 and it is therefore clear that " B.," which did contain them, and 

 which consisted (as one of the references proves) of not less than 

 318 pages, was another and a separate volume, now missing. 



Some years ago I was examining Aubrey's manuscripts in the 

 Ashmolean Library, and in so doing was struck by the marginal 

 and other allusions to " Liber B." The Librarian " had never 

 heard of, nor even suspected it. No such manuscript was in the 

 library ; nor did the oldest of their present catalogues mention it. 

 Many years ago everything was in confusion. What might have 

 been there before, he could not say." At last, however, in search- 

 ing through Aubrey's collections I found out how and when it had 

 disappeared. At the back of page Z in the Index to volume A, in 

 the handwriting of William Aubrey, six years after the antiquary's 

 death, is this memorandum : — 



" August 14, 1703. Borrowed then of Mr. Edw. Lhwyd, the 

 Keeper of the Ashmolean Library, the Second Volume of my 

 brother's ' Hypomnemata Antiquaria,' which I shall restore 

 upon demand. WM. AUBREY." 

 As it was to be restored " upon demand" and as there is no me- 

 morandum of its return, it was probably either forgotten by the 

 Librarian, or when demanded could not be found. William Aubrey, 



