No More Learning

Nor
was ridicule the only weapon employed : charges of dishonesty,
plagiarism and even heterodoxy were scattered up and down its
pages. Public opinion, prejudiced in Boyle's favour by his youth
and high birth, soon declared decisively against Bentley. It was
at this time that Swift, then residing in Sir William Temple's
family, ridiculed Bentley in his Battle of the Books ; and Garth's
poem, The Dispensary, published in 1699, is chiefly remembered
by the foolish couplet in which he expressed his agreement with
the prevailing sentiment of polite society :
So diamonds take a lustre from their foil,
And to a Bentley 'tis we owe a Boyle.
Atterbury and his friends had good reason to suppose that they
had crushed Bentley and destroyed not only his reputation for
learning but, also, his character.
But it was not easy to crush Bentley. It was about this time
that he replied to the condolence of a friend : ‘Indeed, I am in no
pain about the matter; for it is a maxim with me that no man
was ever written out of reputation but by himself. ' He set to
work to revise and enlarge what he had already written about
Phalaris, and his full reply appeared early in 1699. The Dis-
sertation did not instantly convert public opinion to Bentley's
side; but competent scholars, not, at that day, a large company,
saw at once that Bentley had not only disproved for ever the
1 As to Atterbury see the chapter Divines of the Church of England in vol. 1, post.


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334
Scholars and Antiquaries
authenticity of the letters of Phalaris, but had also made large
additions to the sum of existing knowledge on every subject which
he bad occasion to discuss. Nor was it in learning only that
Bentley's immense superiority was shown: he was a far more
cogent reasoner than his assailants ; his language, if sometimes
severe, was nowhere scurrilous; and he even came near to beating
the Oxford men with their own weapon of ridicule. If he could
not rival the rapier thrust of Atterbury, he made uncommonly
pretty play with his quarterstaff and brought it down again and
again with astonishing precision on the heads of his antagonists.
It is needless here to review the different matters illuminated
by Bentley in the course of his discussion. It will be more to the
purpose to quote two passages which illustrate his view of language
and of literature. Discussing the Greek in which the Epistles are
written, he says:
Even the Attic of the true Phalaris's age is not there represented, but a
more recent idiom and style, that by the whole thread and colour of it betrays
itself to be many centuries younger than he. Every living language, like
the perspiring bodies of living creatures, is in perpetual motion and alteration;
some words go off and become obsolete; others are taken in and by degrees
grow into common use; or the same word is inverted to a new sense and
notion, which in tract of time makes as observable a change in the air and
features of a language as age makes in the lines and mien of a face. All are
sensible of this in their own native tongues, where continual use makes every
man a critic. For what Englishman does not think himself able, from the
very turn and fashion of the style, to distinguish a fresh English composition
from another a hundred years old ? Now, there are as real and sensible
differences in the several ages of Greek, were there as many that could discern
them. But very few are so versed and practised in that language as ever to
arrive at that subtilty of taste.
The second extract describes the matter of the Epistles and
directly contradicts the well-turned sentences in which Temple
had expressed his worthless opinion of their unequalled merit:
'T would be endless to prosecute this part and show all the silliness and
impertinency in the matter of the Epistles. For, take them in the whole
bulk, they are a fardle of commonplaces, without any life or spirit from
action and circumstance. Do but cast your eye upon Cicero's letters, or any
statesman's, as Phalaris was: what lively characters of men there! what
descriptions of place! what notifications of time! what peculiarity of circum-
stances! what multiplicity of designs and events! When you return to these
again, you feel, by the emptiness and deadness of them, that you converse
with some dreaming pedant with his elbow on his desk; not with an active,
ambitious tyrant, with his hand on his sword, commanding a million of
subjects.
In the same year (1699), Bentley received a practical proof
of the estimate formed of his character and learning by men


## p. 335 (#359) ############################################

Master of Trinity College 335
who were learned themselves. The two archbishops, with bishops
Burnet, Lloyd, Stillingfleet and Moore, had been appointed by king
William to act as a commission for filling offices in the gift of the
crown; and, by their unanimous vote, Bentley was appointed to
the mastership of Trinity college, Cambridge. He was admitted
to his new office on 1 February 1700. It is not the business of this
narrative to describe the war which began at once and went on for
thirty-eight years between Bentley and the fellows of Trinity
college. It is enough to say that Bentley was twice tried for his
misdemeanours before judges who cannot be suspected of any
bias against him, and twice sentenced to be deprived of his office.
In each case, the judge was the bishop of Ely, who had been
declared visitor of the college. In 1714, bishop Moore, who had
been one of Bentley's electors fourteen years before, died before
he could pronounce the judgment which he had written. In 1734,
bishop Greene pronounced sentence of deprivation ; yet Bentley's
ingenuity and pertinacity proved equal even to this emergency,
and he remained at Trinity lodge until his death in 1742. But
the inscription placed upon his grave in the chapel denies, by its
wording, his right to be called master of the college. In his con-
duct as master, there is much that is inexcusable, but the worst
feature is his sordid rapacity. This ugly vice seems alien to his
character, which, if proud and overbearing, showed a marked
strain of magnanimity in most of the circumstances of his life.
But there is another and a more agreeable side to Bentley's
life during these forty-two years. He did much to reform the
discipline and promote the studies of the undergraduates. He
showed great zeal in encouraging learning; and it is a remarkable
proof of the largeness of his mind that he was quite as favourable
to other studies as to those in which he had made his own reputa-
tion. Thus, the first lectures delivered by Vigani as professor
of chemistry (1702) were given in a laboratory (then called an
elaboratory) fitted up by Bentley in the rooms now occupied by
the bursar at Trinity. For Roger Cotes, Newton's greatest pupil,
he built an observatory over the central gate of the college. His
urgent pressure induced the reluctant Newton to prepare the
second and improved edition of the Principia, in 1713; and he
himself defrayed the cost of the publication. In 1705, he brought
Henry Syke, a learned orientalist, from Utrecht to be Hebrew
professor at Cambridge and made him a tutor of Trinity. To
Ludolf Küster, a Westphalian scholar then residing in Cambridge,
he gave such help as no other man living could have given, for his


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336
Scholars and Antiquaries
editions of Suidas and Aristophanes. More than all this, Bentley
set a great example to an academic society by the devotion of his
whole life to study. He never went abroad; it seems that, after
his marriage in 1701, he never left Cambridge except for London,
where he had still an official residence as royal librarian; he took
no exercise except a walk in his garden; he never appeared at
social gatherings, though he enjoyed the society of a few intimate
friends at his own house. The business of his life was to exhaust
learning; and he said he should be willing to die at 80, as he
should then have read everything worth reading. The books
which he published must not be supposed to mark the limits of
his study. Thus, he devoted years of labour to Homer and to the
text of the Greek Testament; and, though he published nothing
in either subject, the manuscript materials which he left have
profoundly affected the subsequent study of both. Everything
which he wrote for the press was prepared in great haste; and his
enemies said, with some appearance of truth, that his main motive
for appearing in print was his wish to conciliate public opinion,
when one of his many law-suits seemed likely to go against him.
He probably regarded his books as an interruption to the more
pressing business of study. Still, they are the landmarks of
his life; and a short account will be given here of the works
published by him after 1700.
The first of these was polemical and appeared at Utrecht in
1710, under the pseudonym Phileleutherus Lipsiensis. A certain
John Le Clerc, who, with little real learning of any kind, had
contrived to become a considerable figure in European literature,
undertook, in an evil hour, to edit the fragments of Menander
and Philemon. Of his qualifications for the enterprise, it is enough
to say that he knew little of the Greek language and nothing of
Greek metre. Bentley wrote out in great haste comments upon
323 of the fragments, exposing the incompetence of the editor and
suggesting corrections of his own. He then sent the manuscript
to Peter Burmann at Utrecht by the hands of Francis Hare, then
serving as chaplain-general to Marlborough's army. Burmann
published the notes with a preface of his own. It was at once
recognised as Bentley's work and eagerly read : in three weeks,
there was not a copy to be had. The unerring sagacity of the
critic and the liveliness of the style make it one of the most
attractive of Bentley's books.
In 1711 appeared his Horace. It was dedicated to Harley,
the tory prime minister, of whose powerful aid Bentley was then


## p. 337 (#361) ############################################

Edition of Horace
337
sorely in need, at a critical stage in his battle with the college.
Horace was the first Latin author whom Bentley had edited : till
then, his published work had dealt mainly with Greek writers.
The object aimed at was a complete revision of the text, and all
accessible authorities were used for the purpose ; but Bentley
relied more upon his power of emendation than upon any MSS.
His Horace presented over 700 unfamiliar readings; and these
novelties, instead of being relegated to the foot of the page, were
promoted to the text. All the old power and erudition were shown
in the notes in which the editor sought to justify his innovations.
The reader who is inclined to reject some change proposed turns
to the note and finds it almost impossible to resist the dialectical
force of the editor. But there are faults in this work wbich had
not been conspicuous before in Bentley's books—arrogance in
asserting his own merits and a tendency to think more of exhibit-
ing his own skill in argument than of discovering what his author
really wrote. For the first time, too, he begins to force upon
the
author his own standards of taste, a fault which betrayed him later
into the great literary blunder of his life. The book brought him
much praise and as much criticism. The two are pleasantly com-
bined in the language of Atterbury, now dean of Christ Church
and on civil terms with Bentley, when he acknowledged the gift of
& copy :
I am indebted to you, Sir, for the great pleasure and instruction I have
received from that excellent performance; though at the same time I cannot
but own to you the uneasyness I felt when I found how many things in
Horace there were, which, after thirty years' acquaintance with him, I did
not understand.
Bentley's next book was published under his old pseudonym
Phileleutherus Lipsiensis ; but, this time, the language was English
and very racy English too. A Discourse of Free-thinking, an
anonymous work by Anthony Collins, appeared in 1713 and was
instantly followed by a swarm of refutations. But all these
were eclipsed by Bentley's Remarks. Collins had appealed to
antiquity in support of his opinions ; but he did not know Greek
or Latin well enough to draw the true conclusions from his authors.
Here, Bentley was in his element: he lays about him with rare
zest and had no difficulty in showing that Collins had undertaken
'to interpret the Prophets and Solomon without Hebrew, Plutarch
and Zosimus without Greek, and Cicero and Lucan without Latin. '
He treats the anonymous author unceremoniously enough ; but his
language does not go beyond what was then thought permissible
CH. XIII,
22
E. L. IX.


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338
Scholars and Antiquaries
a
and even praiseworthy in the mouth of a champion of orthodoxy.
To the scholar, the chief interest of this book is to watch Bentley
for once interpreting the thought, rather than the language, of the
ancients. The mastery with which he extracts the whole meaning
and nothing but the meaning from a difficult passage of Lucan
(IX 546—568) shows what he could have done, had he chosen, in
this part of a scholar's business.
Of Bentley's edition of Terence, published in 1726, the most
remarkable feature is his explanation of a problem which previous
editors had declared insoluble. Bentley gave a clear statement of
the principles which differentiate the metre of Plautus and Terence
from that of Horace and Vergil; and, with this instrument, he was
able to correct many corruptions in the text of Terence. All later
discussion of this subject starts from the point where Bentley
left it.
Manilius was the last Latin poet of whom a revised text was pub-
lished by Bentley. Early in his career, he had prepared an edition
of this poet, but 'dearness of paper and the want of good types
and some other occasions' prevented its appearance till 1739, when
Bentley was seventy-seven years old. The astronomical poem of
Manilius is difficult and the text very corrupt. To contemporary
critics, the changes which Bentley made in the text seemed to pass
all permissible limits. But deeply-seated corruptions cannot be
cured by trilling alterations; and more than one competent judge
has pronounced that Manilius, rather than Horace or Phalaris, is
the chief monument of Bentley's genius.
Of the other work of Bentley's old age, it can only be said that
few reputations except his own could have survived it. When the
prince regent proposed that Jane Austen should write a romance
to glorify the august house of Coburg, she had the good sense to
decline the task; it is a pity that Bentley was not equally wise,
when queen Caroline expressed her wish that he should edit
Milton. The queen may have supposed that he would illustrate
Milton's language from Homer and Vergil ; but Bentley preferred
to revise the text of Paradise Lost. It was a task for which he
was ill equipped. His turn of mind was prosaic. He thought
more of correctness than of poetry, and was quick to find 'vitious
construction' or 'absonous numbers' where Milton rises above the
laws of critics. And, though he occasionally quotes from Ariosto
and Tasso, from Chaucer and Spenser, he was not really familiar
with the poetry and romance which had helped to nourish the
youth of Milton.


## p. 339 (#363) ############################################

Edition of Paradise Lost 339
Starting from the known fact that Milton, being then blind,
could not write down his verses or read his proof-sheets, Bentley
discovered a large number of what he took to be errors of the
amanuensis or of the printer. Next, he invented a hypothesis that
some friend, employed by Milton as 'editor,' abused his trust by
inserting in the poem many passages, and some long ones, of his
own composition. Bentley professed to correct the misprints and
to detect the spurious passages. Further, in very many places he
frankly abandons all pretence of recovering Milton's text and
corrects the poet himself. The book was published in 1732, shortly
before Bentley's second trial before the bishop of Ely. The
corrections were printed in the margin in italics ; the insertions of
the imaginary editor were enclosed between brackets and were
also printed in italics ; the notes at the foot of the page seek to
justify the corrections and excisions.
This strange production cannot be excused on the ground that
Bentley was in his dotage. The notes show that his mind was still
working with the old vigour. But his undoubted superiority in a
different field had apparently persuaded him that he would prove
equally successful in an unfamiliar enterprise. He has generally
a sort of prosaic logic on his side, and sometimes he has more.
A very favourable specimen of his notes will be found on Paradise
Lost v1 332, where Milton speaks of a stream of nectarous humour
issuing from Satan's wound. Bentley notes that nectar was the
drink of the gods; next he shows conclusively that Milton is
translating a line in Homer, which says that the blood of the gods
is ichor; and he ends by saying that Milton wrote 'ichorous
humour. ' This is a notable criticism : if Milton did not write
‘ichorous,' he certainly should have written it. But Bentley's very
next note is typical of the perversity which runs through the whole
commentary. On the line,
And with fierce ensigns pierc'd the deep array1
the note is as follows:
Another Blunder again, though not quite so vile as the last. Why are
Ensigns, the Colours, called fierce; the tamest things in the whole Battel?
And how could they pierce an Array that are never used for striking? The
Author gave it,
And with fierce Onset piero'd the deep array.
The book was read with amazement; and, while some made
fun of the author, others wrote serious refutations. It is probable,
i Paradise Lost, bk. VI, 1. 356.
22_2


## p. 340 (#364) ############################################

340
Scholars and Antiquaries
6
however, that the taste of that age did not resent the outrage as
keenly as we might suppose. It is a remarkable fact that, on the
margin of his own copy, Pope signified his approval of many of the
new readings, though, in his published poems, he attacked Bentley
repeatedly for his treatment of Milton. Pope's hostility may
have been partly inherited from Atterbury and Swift. He had
a grievance of his own as well, if the story be true that Bentley
said to him of his translation of Homer: 'a pretty poem, Mr Pope,
but you must not call it Homer. ' When Bentley was asked, late in
life, why Pope assailed him, he said: 'I talked against his Homer,
and the portentous cub never forgives. '
Bentley wrote one piece of English verse which is preserved in
Boswell's Life of Johnson. Johnson praised the verses highly on
one occasion and recited them with his usual energy. ' He added:
‘they are the forcible verses of a man of strong mind but not
accustomed to write verse ; for there is some uncouthness in the
expression. ' The verses describe the arduous labours and scanty
rewards of a scholar's life; and Johnson's praise and his blame are
alike just.
Bentley died in Trinity college after a few days' illness on
14 July 1742. Four months earlier, Pope had published, in the
fourth book of The Dunciad, his full-length caricature of the most
famous scholar in Europe, now over eighty years old. It suited
Pope's purpose or his humour to represent Bentley as one of the
dullest of men. But the truth is that no greater intellect than
his has ever been devoted to the study and elucidation of ancient
literature.
Of Bentley's contemporaries at Cambridge and elsewhere,
several made a reputation for learning and scholarship; and these
will be briefly mentioned here. Of Joseph Wasse, Bentley said:
“When I die, Wasse will be the most learned man in England'
He was a fellow of Queens' college and edited Sallust, besides
preparing material for an edition of Thucydides. John Davies,
president of Queens' college and one of Bentley's few intimates,
edited many of the philosophical works of Cicero. Conyers
Middleton, fellow of Trinity college and protobibliothecarius
of the university (1721), bore a prominent part in the warfare
against Bentley. During his lifetime, he enjoyed a great reputa-
tion as a keen controversialist and the master of an excellent style.
Of his numerous works, the chief are his Life of Cicero, which
brought him much profit, and his Free Enquiry, which involved
him in prolonged controversy with more orthodox divines. William


## p. 341 (#365) ############################################

Markland.
Taylor. Dawes
341
Warburton, bishop of Gloucester, cannot be called a scholar,
in the strict sense of the word : his knowledge of the ancient
languages and literature was very small. Yet he had vigour
of mind and much miscellaneous reading, so that his chief
work, The Divine Legation, was regarded by many of his con-
temporaries as a genuine masterpiece.
The influence of Bentley is clearly seen in the work of three
Cambridge scholars who belong to the generation after him.
Jeremiah Markland, fellow of Peterhouse, had some intimacy
with Bentley in his studious old age, and devoted his own life
to study and retirement. He twice refused to stand for the
Greek chair at Cambridge. He edited several Greek plays; but
his masterpiece is his edition of the Silvae of Statius. It shows
great acumen, together with a wide and exact knowledge of the
Latin poets ; and it still remains the best commentary on this
author. John Taylor, fellow of St John's college, and librarian
(1732) of the university, won his reputation by learned editions
of portions of the Greek orators. Richard Dawes, fellow of
Emmanuel and, afterwards, a schoolmaster at Newcastle, published
only one book, his Miscellanea Critica ; but it marks a distinct
advance in Greek scholarship. Though it pleases him to speak
slightingly of Bentley, yet it is clear that he had studied Bentley's
writings with minute attention; and thus he was enabled to make
important discoveries in Greek syntax and Greek metre, which no
one would have applauded more heartily than Bentley, had he lived
to hear of them.
II. ANTIQUARIES
6
This summer (1656) came to Oxon 'The Antiquities of Warwickshire,
&c. written by William Dugdale, and adorn'd with many cuts. This being
accounted the best book of its kind that hitherto was made extant, my pen
cannot enough describe how A. Wood's tender affections and insatiable desire
of knowledg were ravish'd and melted downe by the reading of that book.
It was in these words that Anthony Wood? greeted the
appearance of a book which represented the firstfruits of a new
movement in the study of local history and antiquities. This
movement, which becomes noticeable in the seventeenth century,
For a list of scholars whose names belong to the history of this period of
literature, but are mainly associated with studies other than classical, see the
bibliography to this chapter.
? Life and Times of Anthony Wood, ed. Clark, A. , vol. 1, p. 209.
2


## p. 342 (#366) ############################################

342
Scholars and Antiquaries
approached the subject from a new standpoint, and, in place of
depending upon bald and hackneyed compilations by previous
writers, sought to found its history on the study of original
documents and records, supplemented by local topographical
investigation. With immense industry and untiring patience,
'collections' were made from every accessible source. Charters,
registers, muniments, genealogies, monumental inscriptions,
heraldic achievements, were all made to yield their quota; and
if, in the amassing of material, the collectors were sometimes
too uncritical of their 'originals,' or in the maze of detail
have lost sight of broader issues, they at least preserved from
oblivion a multitude of valuable records and paved the way for
the remarkable series of county histories and other kindred works
produced in the succeeding century.
The centre of the new school was at Oxford, where, since the
opening of its doors in 1602, the library of Sir Thomas Bodley had
been rapidly accumulating materials and extending its collections,
until it became a great storehouse of sources, and served as the
nursing-ground of a remarkable group of men, which includes the
names of Wood, Hearne, Rawlinson, and Tanner.
To these may be added the author of The Antiquities of
Warwickshire, for, though Sir William Dugdale was not an
alumnus of the university, yet, during his sojourn in Oxford, in
1642—6, he fell under the spell of the Bodleian and collected there
abundant material for the works he was at that time projecting.
The book which Wood greeted so enthusiastically was not
undeserving of the encomium. In its fulness, its method, its
reliance upon original sources, and its general accuracy, it was
much beyond anything that had hitherto appeared. It set a new
standard in topographical history, and inspired succeeding writers
to emulate its merits. If, among its author's many works, the
Warwickshire volume may be esteemed his masterpiece, yet the
book which, at the present day, most notably maintains Dugdale's
fame is Monasticon Anglicanum, an account of English monastic
houses, consisting, to a large extent, of charters of foundation and
other original documents. In this undertaking, he collaborated
with Roger Dodsworth, an indefatigable worker who spent his life
in the study of genealogy and ecclesiastical and monastic history,
and whose enormous manuscript collections now repose in the
Bodleian. Wood says of him that he was a person of
wonderful industry, but less judgment, was always collecting and
1 Fasti Oxon. , ed. Bliss, P. , vol. 11, p. 24.


## p. 343 (#367) ############################################

Dodsworth and Dugdale 343
transcribing, but never published anything': a characterisation
that would describe equally well many another antiquary whose
ambitious schemes have failed of fruition.
The first volume of Monasticon appeared in 1655, the year
after Dodsworth’s death and just seventeen years after the
authors began their joint work. The second volume, which was
delayed until the sale of the first should produce funds to defray
some of the expense, came out in 1661; and, in 1673, Dugdale
published a third volume containing Additamenta and documents
relating to the foundation of cathedral and collegiate churches.
The precise share in this work with which the respective authors
are to be credited has been, almost from the first, a subject of
controversy; but this is a matter of little moment. Dugdale
claimed that a full third of the collection was his, and that the
work had wholly rested on his shoulders? ; and there can be no
doubt that, apart from his contributions to the text, the work
owes its appearance in print to Dugdale's energy and methodical
scholarship.
In 1722—3, captain John Stevens, to whom is
attributed the English abridgment of Monasticon which appeared
in 1718, brought out two supplementary volumes to the original
work, containing additional charters and the records of the friaries.
By a happy chance, there came into Dugdale's hands, about
the year 1656, a large collection of manuscripts and documents
relating to St Paul's cathedral, amounting 'to no lesse than ten
porters burthens'; and, setting to work upon these, he produced
two years later his History of St Paul's Cathedral, and thus
preserved a valuable record of the building and monuments that
were, within a few years, to be destroyed in the great fire.
The History of Imbanking and Drayning of divers Fenns and
Marshes (1662), which was undertaken at the request of Lord
Gorges, surveyor-general of the Bedford level, suggests a subject
somewhat outside the scope of Dugdale's activities; but his wide
acquaintance with manuscript sources and the contents of state
archives, aided by a journey through the district in 1657, enabled
him to compose a treatise abounding in historical and antiquarian
interest. He takes leave to interpret the limits of his subject
very widely, and is quite aware of the irrelevancy of his digres-
sions. The isle of Ely gives an opening for narrating at large
the life of Saint Audrey (translated from a Cottonian manuscript),
and then follows the whole story of the feats of Hereward in
defence of the isle against William the conqueror and his knights.
1 Life, Diary, and Correspondence of Sir William Dugdale, ed. Hamper, W. , p. 284.
a


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It is in this unexpected quarter that the accomplished antiquary
reveals himself as an entertaining story-teller.
Dugdale's genius for painstaking research found a thoroughly
suitable theme in his Origines juridiciales (1666), a historical
account of English laws, courts of justice, inns of court, and
other cognate matters, in which is embodied much curious
information respecting ancient forms and customs observed
therein ; while The Baronage of England, which he began during
his stay in Oxford and published in 1675—6, is a monument to
his industry. His 'church and king' principles found expression
in A short view of the late troubles in England, which appeared
anonymously in 1681, though he had not at first intended to
make it public during his lifetime.
In several respects Dugdale was particularly fortunate, though
it must be allowed that this good fortune was worthily bestowed.
Early in his career, he received help and encouragement from
influential friends, notably Sir Henry Spelman and Lord Hatton ;
and an official position in the College of Arms secured for him
ready access to important collections of manuscripts and records
which he used to good purpose. His books are always methodically
arranged, and his text, devoid of superfluous verbiage, is carefully
and fully documented by references to his authorities. In works
involving a multitude of details and covering fields previously
little explored, it is not surprising to find that charges of in-
accuracy were levelled at the author ; but, in truth, the wonder is,
not that errors may be discovered, but at the admirable work
in which they are embedded. Certain lapses from a critical
discernment of the evidences as to the genuineness of documents
were gently pointed out to Dugdale in a courteous letter from
his friend Sir Roger Twysden, student of constitutional law and
upholder of ancient rights and liberties. Wood, also, says that
he sent Dugdale at least sixteen sheets of corrections to The
Baronage, and he does not hesitate to repeat other aspersions
on Dugdale's accuracy ; but he concludes with this tribute :
Yet however what he hath done, is prodigious . . . and therefore his memory
ought to be venerated and had in everlasting remembrance for those things
which he hath already published, which otherwise might have perished and
been eternally buried in oblivion 2.
The most prominent and characteristic name in the Oxford
group is that of Anthony Wood, or Anthony à Wood as, in later
years, he pedantically styled himself. Born in Oxford, in 1632,
1 Hamper, u. 8. , p. 335.
? Fasti, u. s. , vol. II, p. 28.


## p. 345 (#369) ############################################

6
Anthony Wood
345
he spent, practically, his whole life there, and died, in 1695, in the
house in which he was born. During his undergraduate days, he
did not show any particular aptitude for academic studies; but his
natural bent towards those antiquarian pursuits which afterwards
claimed his whole energies soon declared itself, and at seventeen
years of age he had begun to take notes of inscriptions. His
graduation as B. A. , in 1652, secured for him admission to the
Bodleian library, 'which he took to be the happiness of his life,
and into which he never entred without great veneration”. '
There he browsed at large, and gave himself up to his beloved
studies of English history, antiquities, heraldry, and genealogies,
with music as his chief recreation.
But it seems to have been Dugdale's Warwickshire that gave
his studies a special objective. It fired him to attempt a similar
work for his own county, and, with this object, he began tran-
scribing the monumental inscriptions and arms in the various
churches. As his researches and collections progressed, the scope
of his undertaking was enlarged; and, presently, his original idea
of preserving a record of extant monuments developed into that
of a comprehensive survey which should include the antiquities
of the city, a history of the university and colleges, and the
biographical records contained in his Athenae and Fasti. In
pursuance of this object, he explored all accessible sources : the
manuscripts in the Bodleian, including the collections of John
Leland, of which he made much use, the archives of the university,
to which he was allowed free access, and the muniments of the
several colleges; he also visited London for the purpose of working
in the libraries there.
At length, in 1669, the university treatise being completed,
the university press offered to publish the work, stipulating that
the author should consent to its being translated into Latin 'for
the honour of the University in forreigne countries. ' Dr John
Fell, dean of Christ Church, the prime mover in this design,
undertook at his own charge the translating and printing.
Richard Peers and Richard Reeve were commissioned to make
the Latin version, and Fell took the editing into his own hands.
His high-handed methods caused the author much heart-burning,
and he thus (11 August 1670) graphically describes the situation :
All the proofs that came from the press went thro the Doctor's hands, which
he would correct, alter, or dash out or put in what he pleased, which created
i Life, 4. 8. , vol. 1, p. 182.
9 As to Fell, of, ante, vol. VII, p. 457.


## p. 346 (#370) ############################################

346
Scholars and Antiquaries
a great trouble to the composer and author: but there was no help. He was
a great man, and carried all things at his pleasure.
Wood's diary, at this period, contains many complaints about
the liberties taken with his book; and for the misdoings of
Peers he cannot find words hard enough. But, in spite of his
declaration that he would scarce own the book, he was not able
to suppress a natural pride in the two handsome volumes which,
in 1674, made their appearance under the title Historia et
Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis. Nevertheless, Wood's
dissatisfaction with the Latin version was quite genuine, and, very
soon afterwards, he began an English transcription of the whole
work, continuing the general history to the year 1660. This
recension was not printed in Wood's lifetime ; but he bequeathed
the manuscript to the university, and it was eventually published
by John Gutch in 1786–96.
The other section of Wood's work on Oxford, Survey of the
Antiquities of the City, or, as it was entitled in Peshall's
edition, The Antient and Present State of the City of Oxford,
was probably begun before the idea of a separate work on the
university took definite form, and a considerable portion of it
was written between 1661 and 1663. At this point, his interest
seems to have been absorbed by the university treatise, and,
though he worked on the manuscript to the end of his life,
continually revising it and adding fresh notes, the scheme was
never actually completed. While a certain lack of form and pro-
portion in the work may, therefore, be disregarded, there can be no
question about its value as a minute record and reconstruction
of the past, the details of which were industriously garnered from
a great variety of sources and carefully collated with personal
investigation of the localities.
When pursuing his researches among the university archives,
Wood must have come across the papers of Brian Twyne, a
diligent Oxford antiquary who had done much pioneer spade-
work in the same field; but his diaries are curiously reticent
on the subject. This silence may have been unintentional; but,
as a matter of fact, he drew extensively upon this store; indeed,
his latest editor goes so far as to say that 'there was no originality
in his work, for he merely put into shape Twyne's materials. '
But, whatever the extent of his indebtedness, no fraudulent
motive need be attributed to Wood, for he makes constant
* Andrew Clark, in Dict. of Nat. Biog. , vol. win, art. Wood.


## p. 347 (#371) ############################################

Wood's Athenae Oxonienses
347
reference to Twyne, and, in freely using such materials as came
in his way, he was only following the custom of the day.
At the request of the authorities, Wood had written, as an
addition to the Historia, notices of the lives of Oxford writers,
to be appended to the accounts of the respective colleges, and
it may have been this task which suggested to him the idea of
compiling a counterpart to the history, in the shape of an
account of all the writers who had received their education at
the university. This undertaking was probably even more akin
to his peculiar genius than the Historia itself, and for some years
he worked energetically at it. He searched registers and all
kinds of records, made enquiries far and near, wrote letters
innumerable, and received contributions from many friends and
correspondents. When Athenae Oxonienses, the monumental
work upon which his chief fame rests, at length made its
appearance, its outspoken criticisms caused no little resentment
in various quarters. This reception was, no doubt, anticipated,
for the book was issued without the author's name, and, in the
preface, endeavours were made to justify ‘harsh expressions' and
severe reflections,' on the ground 'that faults ought no more
to be conceald than virtues, and that, whatever it may be in a
painter, it is no excellence in an historian to throw a veil on
deformities. ' But these precautions did not serve to protect the
author from the consequences of reckless charges, as he found
to his cost. The libel suit which was prosecuted against Wood in
the vice-chancellor's court at Oxford for statements reflecting
upon Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon, ended against him ;
he was expelled the university, and his book was publicly burned.
It has been aptly remarked of Wood that he was ‘unquestionably
one of the most useful of our distinguished writers,' and this
applies in special measure to Athenae. With its wealth of in-
formation concerning English authors, it is still of the highest
importance, and, in its particular sphere, possibly The Dictionary
of National Biography is the only work that, in the course of two
centuries, has taken a place beside it.
It is hardly possible to consider Athenae apart from the
personality of the man to whom its existence is due and the
impress of whose character it bears. To enormous industry and
an insatiable appetite for research, Wood united a naturally
ungenerous temperament and asperity of disposition, increased,
in later years, by close application to study and the narrow-
ing effects of a too exclusively academic life. Peevish and


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348
Scholars and Antiquaries
quarrelsome, disliked and mistrusted, he withdrew more and more
from intercourse with his fellows and immersed himself in his
self-imposed task. One can picture him in the seclusion of his
garret study, penning, with keen satisfaction, severe judgments
and spiteful comments upon the lives and achievements of those
who did not meet with his approval. He can hardly be acquitted
of malice in his animadversions, even if the saying attributed
to him concerning his projected third volume of Athenae be
apocryphal : When this volume comes out, I'll make you laugh
again. ' But it must, in fairness, be observed that he did not allow
the friction caused by the disposal of Sheldon's manuscripts to
warp his estimate of Dugdale, and that he speaks eulogistically
of bishop Fell, in spite of his high-handed mode of editing the
Historia. His claim to a desire for truth must also be conceded
to him; but truth was sometimes apt to mean an overscrupulous
care lest any weight should be omitted from the adverse scale.
Wood was not only a chronicler of the past, but a recorder,
also, of the passing hour, and in his autobiography and diaries
we meet him at close quarters. The record is minute, at times
even trivial. It embodies much interesting detail of university
life; but, except for his youthful reminiscences of the civil war,
glimpses of the outside world are few. He notes that Dryden
was soundly cudgelled by three men one night near Will's coffee-
house in Covent garden; but he seldom gives pictures like that
of his meeting with Prynne, who was at that time keeper of the
records and had promised to take him to the Tower. Wood, with
a soupçon of his accustomed acidity, says that he
went precisely at the time appointed, and found Mr Prynne in his black
taffaty-cloak, edgʻd with black lace at the bottom. They went to the Tower
directly thro the City, then lying in ruins (oocasion'd by the grand conflagra-
tion that hapned in 1666); but by his meeting with several citizens and prating
with them, it was about 10 of the clock before they could come to the same
place.
That he is careful to place his own doings in a favourable light
is only natural; but he finds pleasure in recording incidents and
opinions unfavourable to others, and seems entirely devoid of
both sense of humour and the milk of human kindness. We
like him better and can forgive him, in a measure, when he tells
of his solicitude over Dodsworth's manuscripts, and the pains
he took in spreading them out on the leads to dry when they
were in danger of perishing from damp. So far as Wood him-
self is concerned, one is tempted to think it a pity that the
· Life, u. s. , vol. II, p. 110.
.


## p. 349 (#373) ############################################

Thomas Hearne
349
autobiography has been preserved, for it leaves the impression that
he was a disagreeable person and that, for all his great work, he
was a little soul.
-
79
IRS
Thomas Hearne, too, was a diarist; but his services to
literature and learning were of a different nature from those of
Wood. From his earliest youth he showed a genius for scholar-
ship, and, shortly after taking his degree at Oxford, was appointed
assistant keeper in the Bodleian library, where his energies were
devoted to completing the catalogues of the printed books, the
manuscripts, and the coins. One of his first essays in publication
was, very fitly, commemorative of the founder of the library :
Reliquiae Bodleianae, or Some genuine remains of Sir Thomas
Bodley (1703). Next, as the outcome of his early interest in
classical studies, appeared an edition of Pliny's Epistolae et
Panegyricus, which was followed by other classical texts. Ductor
Historicus, or A short system of Universal History and an intro-
duction to the study of it, which he brought out in 17045,
indicated the direction which his activities would soon take.
From the original manuscripts in the Bodleian, he published, for
the first time, John Leland's Itinerary (1710—12) and Collectanea
(1715) an undertaking which has indissolubly linked his name
with that of the father of English antiquities.
In 1716, Hearne entered upon his important service to historical
study, the production of that admirable collection of early English
chronicle histories which, beginning with Historia Regum Angliae
of John Rous (or Ross), came from the press in an almost
uninterrupted series, down to the Henry II and Richard I of
Benedict, abbot of Peterborough, which bears date 1735, the year
of Hearne’s death. Hardly less interesting than the chronicles
themselves is the extraordinary gathering of tractates appended
as supplements to the several volumes. Drawn from a variety
of sources, they deal with many curious and interesting matters,
often in no way related to the main subject of the volume.
Among them are a number of manuscript pieces from the
collection formed by Thomas Smith, the learned librarian of the
Cottonian library, who had bequeathed his books and manuscripts
to Hearne. The speed with which these volumes came out hardly
admitted of their bearing the character of critical editions ; and,
;
possibly, the wealth of material which lay ready to his hand and
called for publication operated against deliberate and scholarly
work, such as might have claimed for him the title of historian,
La
៖
T


## p. 350 (#374) ############################################

350
Scholars and Antiquaries
in place of the more modest epitaph of his own choosing — who
studied and preserved antiquities. '
Wood made extensive preparations for a third volume of
Athenae, which, in order to avoid interference from censors or
friends, he purposed to have had printed in Holland. But this
scheme he did not live to carry out, and, on his death-bed, he,
'with great ceremony,' gave the two manuscript volumes of this
continuation to Thomas Tanner, afterwards bishop of St Asaph,
'for his sole use, without any restrictions. ' In so doing, it is
probable that Wood had in view the publication of this volume
by his legatee ; but, whether through being occupied with schemes
of his own, or because he did not care to take the risk of
publishing so compromising a work, Tanner took no steps in the
matter.
In the same year, 1695, Tanner, then a young man in his
twenty-second year, brought out the first of his two notable
compilations. Notitia Monastica, founded mainly on the Monas-
ticon of Dodsworth and Dugdale, gives in brief form the founda-
tion, order, dedication, and valuation of the various religious
houses in England and Wales, with references to manuscript
and printed sources for fuller information. This useful manual,
the idea of which was doubtless suggested by the author's own
needs, did not allow any scope for original work; but a long
preface afforded an opening for noticing the scanty existing
literature of the subject, and adding some account of the several
orders, with a sketch of the progress of monasticism in England.
Tanner's insistence on the value of monastic records in the study
of local history and genealogy, and his defence of monks and
their learning against the wholesale blackening to which they had
been subjected since the dissolution of monasteries, indicates
the advance made in the general attitude towards this subject
since the days when Camden and Weever had felt it necessary
to apologise for making mention of monasteries. At the time
of his death, the bishop had nearly completed the transcript of a
revised and enlarged edition, and this was brought out by his
brother, John Tanner, in 1744.
Tanner's other important work, Bibliotheca Britannico-
Hibernica, after being in hand for forty years, at length appeared
in 1748, under the editorship of David Wilkins, of Concilia fame.
i This additional material eventually appeared in the second edition of Athenae,
published, in 1721, by Jacob Tonson, who had acquired the copyright of the work.


## p. 351 (#375) ############################################

John Aubrey
351
This book, in which an attempt is made to give an account of all
the writers of the three kingdoms down to the beginning of the
seventeenth century, long remained the best authority in its own
province, and its usefulness is not yet exhausted.
Two of the chief contributors to Wood's Athenae were his
friends Andrew Allam and John Aubrey. The former of these,
though well versed in sectarian controversial writings and highly
esteemed by Wood, has left nothing of his own which has found
a place in literature. John Aubrey's genial and disinterested but
erratic spirit did not lend itself to finished schemes, and it seems
to have been his fate that his work should be incorporated
in that of others. His Perambulation of Surrey, begun in 1673,
was, eventually, included in The Natural History and Antiquities
of Surrey, which Richard Rawlinson published in 1719; and his
Wiltshire collections he turned over to Tanner, who was engaged
upon the same subject ; but the only outcome was the supply of
some material for Gibson's edition of Camden.
The chief assistance Aubrey gave to Wood took the form of
a series of Brief Lives of eminent persons, which, as he said
in a characteristic covering letter, had been put in writing
'tumultuarily, as they occur'd to my thoughts or as occasionally
I had information of them. ' These much-quoted, haphazard,
gossiping notes are full of vivid and intimate touches concern-
ing character, actions, and personal appearance, often freely
expressed but always kindly and without malice. In some of
the portrait sketches, notably that of Venetia Stanley, he displays
the insight of an artist; eyes have an especial attraction for
him, and, occasionally, he describes them in words which are in
themselves a portrait. His wide acquaintanceship enabled him
to write at first hand of many of his contemporaries; and the
sketches of men of an earlier generation, such as Shakespeare,
Ben Jonson, Ralegh, and Bacon, may be taken to represent
reports and anecdotes, more or less authentic, which were in
current circulation. The longest and most important of these
lives, that of Aubrey's friend Thomas Hobbes, was written at
length, to furnish material for Blackburne's Latin biography of
the philosopher. The only book which Aubrey himself published,
Miscellanies (1696), reveals that susceptible side of his character
which probably called down upon him Wood's epithets of
credulous' and 'magotieheaded' Besides being an entertaining
volume of stories, it contains much current folklore concerning
omens, ghosts, secondsight and other supernatural beliefs.
6


## p. 352 (#376) ############################################

352
Scholars and Antiquaries
Following upon the pioneer labours of Leland, Stow, Camden
and Speed, and the early local monographs of Lambarde, Carew
and others, progress in the study of local history and topography is
marked by William Burton's Description of Leicester Shire (1622),
and that model for county historians the Warwickshire of Dug-
dale. The second half of the seventeenth century found authors
and compilers hard at work and a fever of schemes in the air;
but, too often, the collector sank under the burden of his task,
and the materials he amassed remained a mere mountain of
notes, instead of growing into the fair and monumental edifice
planned at the outset. Many of these attempts have survived
in manuscript, some have been worked into later and more
successful schemes, while others have served as useful quarries;
and the few which achieved the distinction of print are of very
varying degrees of merit and value.
One of the most extensive of these schemes was that of Robert
Plot, at one time secretary to the Royal society and first keeper
of the Ashmolean museum, who planned a comprehensive tour
through England and Wales for the discovery and recording of
antiquities, customs, and natural and artificial curiosities. So
ambitious a project was, of course, never realized, but his Natural
History of Oxfordshire (1677) and Natural History of Stafford
shire (1686) brought him much credit, though the credulity which
they display has not maintained his reputation in a more critical
age. Dr William Stukeley, antiquary and exponent of Druidism,
who took an active part in the foundation of the Society of Anti-
quaries in 1717—8, and acted as its secretary for several years,
published some of the results of his antiquarian excursions, in
1724, under the title of Itinerarium Curiosum, an account of
antiquities and remarkable curiosities in nature or art observed
in travels through Great Britain. Alexander Gordon's Itine-
rarium Septentrionale (1726), which dealt chiefly with Roman
remains, was the outcome of a similar journey in Scotland and
the north of England.
A book which opens with the phrase 'England, the better
part of the best Island in the World,' could hardly fail to secure
popularity; but the extraordinary success of Edward Chamber-
layne's Angliae Notitia was, possibly, due less to this felicitous
sentiment than to the practical utility of the work as a convenient
handbook to the social and political state of the kingdom. No
fewer than nineteen revisions were called for between 1669 and
1702; and, after the author's death in 1703, it continued in vogue


## p. 353 (#377) ############################################

11
County Histories
353
in an enlarged form, as Magnae Britanniae Notitia, under the
editorship of his son, John Chamberlayne. Its success provoked
the appearance of a piratical rival, by Guy Miege, under the
title The New State of England; and this, also, went through
several editions.
Among other considerable topographical undertakings of this
period was the edition of Camden's Britannia (1695) trans-
lated and edited by Edmund Gibson, bishop of London, Tanner's
friend and fellow-worker, which included contributions by many
contemporary antiquaries, and Magna Britannia et Hibernia
antiqua et nova (1720—31), which, apparently a booksellers'
venture, did not claim originality, but was an able compilation
edited by Thomas Cox from published sources. Its six volumes
contain only English counties.
The notes which Elias Ashmole began collecting in 1667 for
The Antiquities of Berkshire were not printed till 1719, more than
a quarter of a century after his death. Robert Thoroton published
his Antiquities of Nottinghamshire in 1677, and James Wright's
meagre History and Antiquities of Rutland came out in 1684.
Sir Henry Chauncy's Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire
(1700) was followed, on the same plan, by Sir Robert Atkyns's
Ancient and present state of Glocestershire (1712); but neither of
them was a conspicuously meritorious work. Peter Le Neve's
great collections for Norfolk antiquities and genealogy served as
the ground work of the History of Norfolk which Francis Blome.
field began issuing in 1739, in monthly numbers printed at his
own private press. After his death, the work was completed in
1775 in an inferior manner. Richard Rawlinson, who had a gift
for editing other men's work, and who acted as foster-parent to
many orphaned books, designed a parochial history of the county
of Oxford, which was to have included Wood's account of the city;
and the materials collected both for this work and for his projected
continuation of Wood's Athenae form part of the immense collec-
tion of manuscripts which he bequeathed to the Bodleian library,
In addition to printing Aubrey's Surrey (1719), Rawlinson also
brought out Tristram Risdon’s Survey of Devon (1714), and
fathered separate histories of several cathedral churches, which
are not especially valuable.
Individual towns received a due share of attention; among the
more successful essays being William Somner's Canterbury (1640),
Ralph Thoresby's Leeds (1715), and Francis Drake's York (1736).
Stow's Survey of London, first published in 1598, had been already
23
13
*
E. L. IX.
CH. XIII.


## p. 354 (#378) ############################################

354
Scholars and Antiquaries
several times 'augmented,' before John Strype once more edited
and brought it down to date in 1720. Strype's chief work, how-
ever, was in the field of ecclesiastical history and biography; but
his books, ill-arranged and uncritical, are distinguished less for
their literary value than for the remarkable amount of curious
detail which they contain. The diocese of London found
a chronicler in Richard Newcourt, who, in 1708—10, published
his valuable Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense.
Wood's Oxford has already been referred to. Thomas Baker, non-
juring fellow of St John's college, Cambridge, added to accurate
and wide knowledge the character of unselfish readiness to com-
municate to others his stores of learning. He made extensive
collections towards a history of the university of Cambridge,
including an Athenae Cantabrigienses ; but, with the exception
of the admirable history of his college, published, with large
additions, by J. E. B. Mayor in 1869, the forty-two folio volumes
in Baker's remarkable hand-writing still remain in manuscript.
His Reflections on Learning, which appeared anonymously in
1700 and went through seven editions, brought him considerable
credit at the time, but is now happily forgotten. William Cole,
the friend of Horace Walpole, ably followed Baker in the same
path, and, though he published nothing, his hundred folio volumes
of manuscript collections and transcripts attest his industry, and
many contributions from his pen appeared in the works of con-
temporary writers.
In monastic antiquities, the writings of Dugdale and Tanner stand
preeminent among the books of this period, as does Dugdale's
St Paul's among works devoted to particular ecclesiastical founda-
tions. With these may be mentioned Simon Gunton's History of
the Church of Peterborough (1686) and James Bentham's History
of Ely Cathedral (1771). Browne Willis's History of the Mitred
Abbies (1718), and Survey of the Cathedrals were useful, if not
particularly accurate, compilations.
Among the more ancient monuments of antiquity, Stonehenge,
from the latitude it afforded for ingenious speculation, formed the
subject of various theories. Aubrey, in his oft-quoted but never
printed Monumenta Britannica, assigns to it a druidical origin.
In 1655 Inigo Jones, in his monograph on the subject, sought
to trace a Roman original; while Walter Charleton, in Chorea
Gigantum (1663), endeavoured to restore' it to the Danes, and
William Stukeley, in 1740, produced his Stonehenge, a temple
restor'd to the British Druids.


## p. 355 (#379) ############################################

Old English Studies
355
Roman antiquities attracted comparatively small attention,
though such books as William Burton's Commentary on An-
toninus, his Itinerary (1658), and John Horsley's Britannia
Romana (1732), with the writings of Thomas and Roger Gale,
Nathaniel Salmon, Alexander Gordon, and others, suffice to show
that the study was not entirely neglected.
The efforts of archbishop Parker in the sixteenth century to
further Old English studies, found a successor, among others, in
Sir Henry Spelman, who, besides producing numerous learned
works of his own, was ever ready to encourage the studies of
others. Neither the short-lived lectureship which he founded at
Cambridge, nor Rawlinson’s abortive similar project at Oxford
more than a century later, succeeded in giving the study an
academic status. Nevertheless, the subject did not lack votaries,
among whom are to be counted William Somner, whose Dictio-
narium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum was issued in 1659, Francis
Junius, George Hickes, bishop Gibson, editor of the Old English
Chronicle, William Elstob, and his learned sister Elizabeth, who
published a Homily on the Birthday of St Gregory and a
Grammar of the language.
It is not surprising to find that legal antiquities and the
history of various offices of state interested many of the able
men who either held office or engaged in the business of law, and
the results include some of the most successful essays in the
antiquarian literature of the time. Of such was The History and
Antiquities of the Exchequer of the Kings of England (1711) by
Thomas Madox, historiographer royal, whose other works include
Formulare Anglicanum, a series of ancient charters and docu-
ments arranged in chronological sequence from the Norman
conquest to the end of the reign of Henry VIII. This book, with
its learned introduction, is important as a contribution to the
study of diplomatic, a subject long neglected in this country.
Elias Ashmole and John Anstis, both members of the College of
Arms, each produced a work on the Order of the Garter. The
numerous additions to the literature of heraldry comprised, besides
writings by Selden, Dugdale, Nisbet, and others, The Academy
of Armory (1688), by Randle Holme (third of that name), with
its extraordinary glossaries of terms used in every conceivable
art, trade, and domestic employment.
Two books are noteworthy as ventures into new regions of
research that have since become fields of modern activity. Henry
Bourne's Antiquitates Vulgares, or The antiquities of the common
23-2


## p. 356 (#380) ############################################

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Scholars and Antiquaries
people (1725) foreshadowed the study of local customs and tra-
ditions, now called folklore ; and the account of English printers
and printing which Joseph Ames issued in 1749, under the title
of Typographical Antiquities, is the foundation stone of the
history of printing in England.
With the growth of the literature of antiquarian studies con-
sequent upon this increased activity, there arose the need of
guides through the labyrinth of existing materials and of working
books designed to facilitate research ; and, accordingly, such aids
begin to appear, though they were not always the outcome of a
deliberate intention to furnish the tool-chest of the student of
antiquities.