In this year the MS. collections of Rev. John Walker, D.D., of Exeter
(son of Endymion Walker, of Exeter; born 1674, dec. 1747[218]), from
which he compiled his valuable and laborious work, _The Sufferings of
the Clergy_, were forwarded to the Library by his son, William Walker, a
druggist in Exeter, as appears from a letter from the latter preserved
among papers relating to the Library in the Librarian's study. The
annual accounts, however, mention the gift under the year 1756. Dr.
Walker had expressed in his book (_pref._ p. xliii.) his intention to
deposit his papers in some public repository, and his purpose was
fortunately thus carried out. The papers have recently been bound, and
now form twelve volumes in folio and eleven in quarto, with a few papers
still in bundles[219]. A large number of letters from many among the
sufferers and their representatives are here preserved; but,
unfortunately, Walker's own handwriting is often hard to decipher. Many
pamphlets which belonged to him (identified by the peculiar handwriting
in MS. notes) are amongst a vast series recently bound and placed in
continuation of the Godwyn Tracts; and several volumes of pamphlets
written by Dissenters were given by himself in the years 1719-21.
The name of Hogarth occurs in the list of donors, as presenting his two
engravings of the _Analysis of Beauty_, which he had published in the
preceding year.
[218] His successor in his Exeter prebend was appointed in that year.
[219] The present writer, in answer to an enquiry in _Notes and Queries_
in 1862 (3rd series, i. 218), said that these papers were amongst the
_Rawlinson_ MSS. This mistake arose from the fact that the least
important portion had recently been found in a mass of papers belonging
to that collection, but they did not at any time themselves form part of
it.