On Jan. 22, a Statute was passed which imposed an annual fee of four
shillings[260] on all persons entitled to read in the Library and all
who had exceeded four years from matriculation, as well as assigned to
the Library a share of the matriculation fees. The preamble of the
Statute alleges that the funds of the Library were so insufficient for
their purpose that of works of importance daily published throughout the
world 'vix unus et alter publicis sumptibus adscribi possit.' The
Statute also provided for the holding of regular meetings by the
Curators, and the issuing of an annual Catalogue of the books purchased
during the year, with their prices, together with a statement of
accounts. The commencement of the annual printed purchase-catalogues
dates in consequence from this year.
In a letter from Thos. Burgess, afterwards the Bishop of St. David's and
Salisbury, to Mr. Tyrwhitt, the editor of Chaucer, dated Corp. Chr.
Coll., Nov. 16, 1779, the plan for increasing the funds of the Library,
established by this Statute, is mentioned as a scheme 'much talked of,'
the defects of the Library being such as 'we are now astonished should
have been of so long continuance[261].' A paper in behalf of the
proposal was circulated among Members of Convocation, upon a copy of
which, preserved by Dr. Bliss with his set of the annual Catalogues, the
latter has noted that it was written by Sir William Scott, afterwards
Lord Stowell.
The exquisite portrait of Sir Kenelm Digby, supposed to be by Vandyke,
was given by Edw. Stanley, Esq. It is now in the Picture Gallery; and,
having recently been cleaned and covered with plate-glass, appears once
more in all the freshness of its original perfection[262].
The Sub-librarian at this time was John Walters, an undergraduate
Scholar of Jesus College. He published in this year a small volume of
_Poems_ ('written before the age of nineteen'), the chief portion of
which consists of a description of the Library, written with a warm
admiration of his subject, and by no means destitute of poetic feeling.
It numbers 1188 lines, and is illustrated with some well-selected notes.
In 1782, when B.A. and still Scholar of his College, he published
_Specimens of Welsh Poetry in English verse, with some Original Pieces
and Notes_. He took the degree of M.A. in 1784, and died in 1791[263].
We learn from a MS. note in a copy of his _Poems_, presented to the
Library by the present Principal of Jesus College, that he was the son
of John Walters, Rector of Llandough (author of a Welsh Dictionary,
1794), by Hannah his wife, and that he was baptized there, July 9, 1760.
[260] By the Statute passed in 1813, and by that on Fees passed in 1855,
an annual payment of _eight_ shillings was ordered to be made to the
Library out of the total sum (now £1 6_s._) paid by each graduate whose
name is on the University Books. But these individual fees, varying with
the numbers on the Books, were consolidated, in 1861 in one fixed annual
sum, from the University Chest, of £2800.
[261] Note by Dr. Bliss, in his MS. _Collectanea_, bequeathed by him to
Rev. H. O. Coxe.
[262] Another portrait of Sir Kenelm, which hangs in the Library, was
given, in 1692, by Mr. William Pate, a woollen-draper of London. To this
Mr. Pate, Thos. Brown dedicated, in 1710, as 'his honest friend,' his
translation from the French of _Memoirs of the Present State of the
Court and Councils of Spain_.
[263] Nichols' _Lit. Anecd._ viii. 122.