This year is rendered noticeable in the later annals of the Library by
the fact that not a single MS. was purchased during its course. But a
very valuable collection of Arabic, Persian and Sanscrit MSS. formed by
Brigadier Gen. Alex. Walker, during his service in India, was presented
by his son, Sir Will. Walker, of Edinburgh[344]. These are kept as a
distinct collection, like other donations or purchases of similar
extent; the Sanscrit portion is described in the catalogue compiled by
Prof. Aufrecht. The collection of printed Hebrew books was increased by
the purchase (for £176 14_s._ 6_d._) of 483 volumes from the library of
the celebrated lexicographer, Gesenius, of Halle, who died Oct. 23,
1842, and whose library was sold by auction at Halle, in Jan. 1844. Two
curious collections of tracts were also bought; the one in English
consisting of 300 volumes, ranging from 1688 to 1766, and chiefly
treating of the case of the Non-jurors, the Bangorian controversy, and
the affairs of the city of London (for £22 10_s._); and the other in
French, consisting only of four small volumes, but containing a very
large number of '_Merveilles_,' strange histories of strange wonders,
between 1557 and 1637, of great rarity and singularity. These were
obtained at the sale of the library of Mr. Benj. Heywood Bright, No.
3796, for £13.
On Dec. 23, the present writer (then a Clerk of Magdalen College) was
appointed Assistant, _vice_ Mr. Taunton, after upwards of five years'
previous service as a supernumerary, having first entered the Library in
June, 1840.
[344] Gen. Walker, who in the beginning of the century was Governor of
Baroda, in Guzerat, died at Edinburgh in 1832. His MSS., in the words of
Prof. Aufrecht, 'integritate et antiquitate eminent.'