the figures in the prints of the Natural History of Northamptonshire were taken, they were left at London with Dr. Sloane, upon obligations he had generously laid upon me.

I shou'd be very glad, Sir, to wait on you in this county, and do not quite despair of seeing you in Yorkshire. I frequently drank your health with my friend, Mr. Buddle, and other of the London Botanists, and shall be always, with my best wishes,

I have almost run over your elaborate book,' and with very much satisfaction; and have considered what way I could answer Mr. R.'s and your request, by giving the world an account of it; but I find it impossible to do justice to your indefatigable labours, by bringing that into a narrower compass than the nature of the work requires; and

1 The Ducatus Leodensis, which was published the preceding month.

I must own, in a treatise of so many different subjects, to give a due spirit to each, requires a much better genius than mine; and, by giving a general account of it, I am sensible I cannot give your book its due character. I hope, dear Sir, you will pardon my declining this task, and impute it not to any disrespect of the society nor of yourself, for both which I have a very great esteem, and shall, with all due respect, ever subscribe myself,

Your friend and servant,

RICH. RICHARDSON.

P. S. I perceive you have not seen Elizabeth. P.S. Stainton's monument at Kirklees, a true transcript of which you may find in Leland's Itinerary, Ix. p. 176, which I copied myself from the original: the inscription upon Robin Hood's grave was never legible in my time, and is now totally defaced; insomuch that neither the language nor character is to be distinguished; only you may perceive it was written about the verge of the stone. I have heard Dr. Armitage say, (who was most part of his time at Kirklees,) that he could read upon it “* Hic jacet Robertus Hood, filius secundus Comitis de Huntingdon, * *;" but I must own, tho' he was a person of merit, I gave little credit to this report.

LETTER XLIX.

Mr. Hearne to Dr. Richardson.

OxON., October 17th, 1715.

HONOURED SIR,

THIS morning I receiv'd the ffavour of your letter, together with the stone bead (as I think, at present, you rightly call it,) that was inclosed. I desire you to accept of my thanks for this curiosity, which I shall preserve by me as a token of your kindness. It is the first I have seen. But I have not yet time to consider it, my printer keeping me in full imploy. I have just finished the Acts of the Apostles, in Greek and Latin' in capital letters, and am now printing Joannis Rossi, Antiquarij Warwicensis, Regum Angliæ Historia.' But I print a very small number; nor will the times suffer me to venture upon a larger. I likewise thank you for your Notes about the Celts. I am very unwilling to dissent from so good a judge as you

:

1, 2 Of the former of these works, only one hundred and twenty copies were printed of the latter, only sixty. The first, which has never been reprinted, is now, perhaps, the most rare of all Hearne's publications. Dr. Dibdin, in the Ædes Althorpianæ, says he has known a copy sell for £20. It was published at 10s.; and only a year after it appeared, Mr. Baynes wrote to Dr. Richardson, who wanted a copy, that Mr. Hearne himself had one, but would not part with it under a guinea.

are.

I am not very fond of conjectures, and am therefore very ready and willing to hearken to what can be alleged by any one. My humble service to your good brother. I am glad you are pleased with the Collectanea, and am, with the utmost respect,

Honour'd SIR,

Your most obliged humble servt,

THO. HEARNE.

LETTER L.

Mr. Baynes' to Dr. Richardson.

WORTHY SIR,

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, August 3rd, 1716.

I have sent you this week by the carrier, and I hope you will receive them safe, the Acts of the Apostles, Titus Livius, &c. and Alfred of Beverley. I have put down your name for Mr. Roper's Life of Sir Thomas Moore, the Chronicon Godstonianum, and the Description of Fairford Church Windows; all which Mr. Hearne designs to give you in an eight-shilling volume, about two months hence; and will, when that labour is over, publish

1 Of Mr. Baynes I know nothing more than that he was of University College, Oxford, from which he dates his letters. Of these there are three in this Correspondence, all on similar subjects: this, here extracted, is the third.

Camden's Elizabetha, of which, he tells me, he has a copy, with many large and usefull additions under the Author's own hand. You see how great is the diligence of this man; how unwearied he is, allmost as the sun; how he seeks to enlighten and scatter all the darkness which covers the ages before him. Our Sacred and Civil History suffer'd an irreparable loss at the dissolution of our Monasteries; for the Monks first wrote the Chronicles of their times, and then preserv'd them, with other books of all kinds, in their librarys; but these librarys, sharing the fate of the religious houses they belong'd to, were destroy'd, and we deprived of the light and views they would have given us into the times which preceded their destruction. The weight of this loss, which we have ever since felt, your friend of Edmund Hall seeks to lighten; while with incredible diligence and curiosity he strives to recover whatsoever escaped the sacrilege of those times. I drank your health some time agoe with him and Mr. Bobart, who both send their humble service to you to theirs', give me leave, in a very particular manner, to joyn the best services and wishes of,

Worthy SIR,

Your most obliged humble servt,

BENJ. BAYNES.