volume numbered 13 has fifty-seven pieces of that description; number 21, ninety-six;[1] 14, thirty-two;[2] forming altogether, perhaps, about three hundred or more. Appended to some are explanatory notes, as, for instance, “This manuscript appears to have been written, or at least a part of it, about or after the year 1644. In p. 91 is an allusion to Sir Edward Littleton, then Lord Keeper, going from London to the King at Oxford, which was in 1642; and in p. 38, the pulling down of Cheapside Cross is mentioned. This was, I think, in 1644.—Edmond Malone."
In the Bodleian, they remain a distinct collection—creditable alike to the industry, taste, and patience by which they were brought together. Nor can we but feel respect for that preservative spirit and taste of our ancestors by which so many small pieces of a remote age should have been snatched from that hasty oblivion to which such things are commonly destined. The catalogue bears date 1836.
Such was the life of a scholar. Careless of the bustle of human existence, he was active only to read, hear, and note the progress of its letters. He loved them for their own sake; for the inquiries induced—the thought and knowledge evolved—the enlargement of mind acquired by the successful cultivator—the innocence as well as amusement of the occupation. His topics promised well for the quietude he loved. While others lost their temper or good manners toward each other in critical pursuits, nothing of that description escaped from him.
