Dr. Peckard appears to have had the use of some of Peck's MSS. (perhaps
those referred to by DR. RIMBAULT), but he regrets the loss of a MS. which
he had lent to the Rev. Mr. Jones, of Sheepshall, being, a _Life of
Nicholas Ferrar_, by Peck, prepared for the press, but which, after near
twenty years' inquiry, he had been unable to recover. This suggests the
Query, Has it ever yet been recovered? DR. RIMBAULT'S inquiry regarding
Thomas Hearne has been answered by Dr. Dibdin (_Bibliomania_, London, 1811,
p.381.) who informs Dr. Peckard, Dr. Wordsworth, and his Quarterly Reviewer
(p. 93), that Hearne, in the Supplement to his _Thom. Caii Vind. Ant.
Oxon._, 1730, 8vo., vol. ii., "had previously published a copious and
curious account of the monastery at Little Gidding," which he says "does
not appear to have been known to this latter editor," meaning Dr.
Wordsworth. I have not Hearne's work to refer to; but Dr. Dibdin _versus_
Dr. Wordsworth and his Reviewer, as to ignorance of what so well-known an
author as Tom Hearne has written, is a little curious. The word "Arminian,"
in DR. RIMBAULT'S Query, requires a remark. On reading the _Memoir_ which
Dr. Wordsworth has edited, he will find (Appendix, p. 247.) that the
Ferrars complained of "a libellous pamphlet, entitled the _Arminian Nunnery
at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire_," and that they repudiated
"Arminianism and other fopperies." This suggests a further Query: Is DR.
RIMBAULT possessed of that pamphlet? The attachment to books manifested by
the Ferrars family entitles them, I humbly think, to as much space as your
"NOTES AND QUERIES" can afford them.