A very interesting series of eighteen autograph letters from Henry Hyde,
the second Earl of Clarendon, was presented to the University by 'our
honoured Lord and Chancellor,' the Earl of Derby[351]. They are best
described in the following letter to the Vice-Chancellor, which
accompanied the gift, and which is now bound in the same volume:--
'KNOWSLEY, _Oct._ 17, 1854.
'MY DEAR SIR,--In looking over some old papers here the other day, I
found (how they came here I know not) some original and apparently
autograph letters, which appeared to me to be curious. They are
private letters, addressed by Lord Clarendon, to the Earl of
Abingdon, as Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, during, and on the
suppression of, the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion. I have no doubt
of their genuineness; and if from the connexion of the University
with the writer[352], as well as the locality, you think they would
be worth depositing in the Bodleian Library, I shall have great
pleasure in offering them to the acceptance of the University for
that purpose; and in that case would send with them a miniature
pencil drawing of the Duke of Monmouth, which is not too large to be
let into the cover of the portfolio which should contain the
letters, and for the authenticity of which I can so far vouch that
it has been in this house since 1729, at least; since it appears in
a catalogue of the pictures and engravings here which formed the
collection at that time.
'I am, my dear sir,
'Yours sincerely,
'DERBY.'
The portrait in question, which is a beautifully executed drawing, in an
oak frame, marked on the back, 'Duke of Monmouth, by Foster,' is now
fixed, as desired, in the present morocco binding of the volume.
A collection of early editions of the Prayer-Book (including
Whitchurch's May and June editions of 1549 and that of 1552), of the
Metrical Psalter, and of Visitation Articles (amongst others, Edward the
Sixth's Articles of 1547, and Injunctions of the same year), with a few
miscellaneous books, was bought of the Rev. T. Lathbury, M.A., the
well-known writer on English Church history, for £300. Various rare
English books were purchased at Mr. Pickering's sale, and foreign
dissertations, &c. at that of the library of Professor Godfrey Hermann,
the Greek editor and commentator (who died Dec. 31, 1848), at Leipsic,
in April.
[351] A portrait of Lord Derby, in his Chancellor's robes, painted by
Sir F. A. Grant, was given by him to the University about 1858, and now
hangs in the Picture Gallery.
[352] The Earl was High Steward of the University.