The learned and munificent Narcissus Marsh, Archbishop successively of
Cashel, Dublin, and Armagh, on his death, Nov. 2, in this year,
bequeathed to the Library a very large and valuable gathering of
Oriental MSS., which had been chiefly procured for him in the East by
Huntington, and at the sale of Golius' library, at Leyden, in October,
1696, by Bernard. The collection numbers at present 714 volumes, but
probably some of these may have been books added for convenience' sake
from other sources. Many of them bear the motto of some former owner
(_qu._ Golius?), somewhat like in form to Selden's, but better in
spirit, 'πανταχη την αληθειαν.' It is strange that no notice of
this liberal gift is found in any of the Library Registers, and it is
only from a passing mention in Hearne's preface to Camden's _Elizabeth_
(p. lxvi.) that we find it was a death-bed legacy, and consequently
learn the date of its acquisition. Hearne there says that the books were
placed in the Library 'in tenebris;' and this expression was made one of
the subjects of complaint against him when prosecuted in 1718 in the
Vice-Chancellor's court on account of that preface. He then replied that
the expression was correct, for that they were placed in a dark corner
to which access was only had through a trap-door, but that he himself
had put them there for want of a better place. He had wished to deposit
them in one of the rooms in the Picture Gallery, but Dr. Hudson kept
that for his own purposes[180].
At this period every stranger admitted to read in the Library had to pay
nine shillings in fees, of which 1_s._ went to the Head Librarian, 3_s._
6_d._ to the Second Librarian, 1_s._ 6_d._ to the Janitor, 2_s._ to the
Registrar (for an order for admission, but in the Long Vacation this fee
went to the Second Librarian), and 1_s._ to the Proctor's man[181]. In
1720 the fee to be received from every visitor not qualified to read was
fixed at one penny, to be paid to a porter who was then first appointed
to the charge of the Picture Gallery. It subsequently rose by a silent
custom to the large sum of a shilling; but some few years ago the
Curators fixed the charge to visitors at threepence each, unless
accompanied, and in consequence _franked_, by some member of the
University in his academic dress. Since this moderate sum has been
fixed, the number of ordinary sight-seeing visitors has, naturally, much
increased[182].
The suppression, by an order of the Heads of Houses, dated March 23,
1712/3, of Hearne's edition of Dodwell's tract _De Parma Equestri
Woodwardiana_, was attributed by Hearne himself to (as the remote
occasion) an incident connected with his office in the Library, which is
related very fully by himself in vol. xliv. of his _MS. Diary_. On Feb.
20, Mr. Keil, the Savilian Professor of Geometry, brought to the Library
an Irish gentleman named Mollineux, recommended by Sir Andrew Fountaine,
to whom he requested Hearne to show the curiosities of the place. As
Keil was 'a very honest gentleman,' Hearne little suspected that his
friend was possessed with the 'republican ill principles' and 'malignant
temper' of Whiggism, and consequently was not very guarded in his talk.
After showing him various MSS. and coins, he took the visitor into the
Anatomy School[183], where all kinds of odds and ends were preserved;
amongst which was (as Hearne gravely notes in another place) a calf
which, being born in the year of the Union, 1707, had (it is to be
presumed in consequence thereof) two bodies and one head. What followed
during the exhibition of this museum is worth relating in the diarist's
own words:--
'I mentioned a picture engraved and hanging there with horns and
wings, and underneath, _uxor ejus ad vivum pinxil_. This picture
many had said was Benjamin Hoadley, the seditious divine of London;
but, for my part, I gave no other description of it than this, that
'twas the picture of one of the greatest Presbyterian, republican,
antimonarchical, Whiggish, fanatical preachers living in England.
And this description was enough to exasperate him. And yet, for all
that, he did not discover any passion, nor give the least hint that
he was a Whig himself. Neither did he give any hint of it afterwards
till I came to mention a tobacco stopper tipped with silver, and
given to me by a reverend divine, who had informed me that it was
made out of an oak that lately grew in St. James's Park, but was
destroyed by the D. of M. for the great house he was building near
St. James's, and that the said oak came from an acorn that was
planted there by King Charles II, being one of those acorns that he
had gathered in the Royal Oak, where he was forced to shelter
himself from the fury of the rebells after the fight at Worcester.
Mr. Mollineux was at the other end of the room when this was shew'd,
and the said story told; but hearing it he comes immediately to the
tables, and expresses himself in words of this kind, viz. _that
'twas a bawble, and that an hundred such things were not worth the
seeing_. Mr. Keil however thought otherwise, and said that he
thought my collection was better than that in the Laboratory. Some
mirth passing after this, I went on with my description, and had not
yet formed an opinion that Mr. Mollineux was a Whig; but finding
that he was still inquisitive after other curiosities, and that he
pretended to much skill in good ingraving and drawing, I produced
the picture of a beautifull young man, over the head of which was
ΕΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ, and underneath, _Quid quæritis ultra?_ I did not
tell them whose picture it was, but said that I shew'd it them as a
thing excellently well done, which they all allow'd and view'd it
over and over, and seemed to be mightily taken with it, and Mr.
Mollineux in particular was pleased to say that 'twas admirably well
done, and deserved a place amongst the most exquisite performances
of this kind, at the same time asking how long I had had it, and
whose picture I took it to be. To the former of which questions I
reply'd, about a quarter of a year, to the latter that I did not
pretend to tell who it was designed for. Yet Mr. Keil was pleased to
laugh, and to tell Mr. Mollineux, _They are all rebells, Mr.
Mollineux, they are all rebells in this place_, speaking these words
in a merry joking way, and not with any intent to do me an injury.
Mr. Mollineux took the words upon the picture down, which I did not
deny him, not thinking that 'twas with a design to inform against
me, as it afterwards proved. Yet from this time I began a little to
suspect his integrity, and that he was not one of those good men I
expected from Mr. Keil, whom I had always found to be a man of
honesty.'
_Hinc illæ lachrymæ!_ Poor Hearne was reported to Dr. Charlett the same
afternoon for showing the Pretender's Picture; a meeting of the Curators
of the Library was threatened; but eventually the matter seemed to pass
over by his being desired by the Vice-Chancellor to give up the key of
the Anatomy School, in order that the determining Bachelors might meet
there, by which change Hearne was mulcted of the fees which he obtained
for showing the room, and was sometimes detained one hour, or two, later
than usual in order to see to the locking up of the staircase on which
it is situated. On March 23, however, he was summoned before the Heads
of Houses for remarks made in his preface to Dodwell's above-mentioned
tract, and, after a sharp discussion, in which reference was made to his
exhibition of the portraits, he was ordered to suppress his preface, and
re-issue the book without it; to which he consented. He was pressed to
make a formal retractation of the passages to which objection was made,
but this he stiffly refused to do. He says in a letter to Sir Philip
Sydenham that the only form of retractation or expression of sorrow he
could have been prevailed on to sign (strongly resembling the famous
apology of a middy to an insulted naval surgeon) would have been some
such form as this:--'I, Thomas Hearne, A.M., of the University of
Oxford, having ever since my matriculation followed my studies with as
much application as I have been capable of, and having published several
books for the honour and credit of learning, and particularly for the
reputation of the foresaid University, am very sorry that by my
declining to say anything but what I knew to be true in any of my
writings, and especially in the last book I published, intituled,
_Henrici Dodwelli de Parma Equestri Woodwardiana Dissertatio, &c_, I
should incurr the displeasure of any of the Heads of Houses, and as a
token of my sorrow for their being offended at truth, I subscribe my
name to this paper, and permitt them to make what use of it they
please[184].'
[180] Hearne's _MS. Diary_, vol. lxxi. May 20.
[181] _Ibid._ vol. xlvii. p. 89.
[182] In an account of a visit to Oxford by an American tourist, which
appeared very recently in the _New York Times_, and was copied into
English journals, written with the warm-hearted tone of one who could
rightly appreciate the interest of the place, although (like most
Transatlantic visitors) he spent but twenty-four hours in it, the
following comment is made upon the smallness of this Bodleian fee:--'The
gentleman [_i.e._ the present Janitor, Mr. John Norris] who showed me
through this noble collection, and gave me the most interesting
explanations, politely informed me that the charge was 3_d._ It went
against my conscience to give a gentleman of his civility and erudition
the price of a pot of beer, and I added a small testimonial, for which
he seemed more than sufficiently grateful.'
[183] This was the room which is now attached to the Library under the
name of the _Auctarium_.
[184] Hearne's _MS. Diary_, xlviii. 22. The retractation and apology
which Hearne afterwards actually submitted to the Vice-Chancellor in
court in 1718, when in trouble again for his preface to Camden's
Elizabeth, was very similar in style to this. But he was not allowed to
read it. _Ibid._ lxxi. 3 May.