bly such a pious Benefactor may be an instrument. for such a glorious purpose, and may accordingly hope for the reward, Dan. 12. 3. of those, who turn many to Righteousness, which is, to shine as the stars for ever and ever. As for the time, in which such Lectures should be read, if I might give my advice, it should be once a week both in term and vacation throughout the year, the holydays, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Whitsuntide excepted. And that the Lectures should be alternately for each month in the year, one month for Chaldee, and another for Syriack, Thus all, who come to keep the Easter and Act Terms might hear Lectures for both Languages. And as the Hebrew Lectures are appointed to be read in Term time, and the Arabick in the vacation, so there might be two lectures at least weekly in the Oriental studies throughout the year, excepting the times beforementioned. I am, Reverend Sir, Your most humble and affectionate Servt. LETTER CXXXI. Dr. GIBSON, Bishop of Lincoln, to Dr. CHARLETT. On the foundation of a Saxon Lectureship in Oxford.—Saxon Chronicle.-Bodleian Catalogue.-English Histories. Duke-street, Westminster, Jan. 2, 1719-20. DEAR SIR, YOUR last letter from Oxford men-. tioned your going to the Bath, and, as I understood, with design to winter there; so that I hope I am in the right in directing thither my most hearty wishes for many happy years, and of the full benefit of the waters, in order to it. As nobody has greater obligation to wish you a full. enjoyment of health and happiness than myself, so I am sure no body can wish it more cordially than I do. I had heard nothing of an established Saxon Lecture, till I received your letter, nor do I yet know who the founder is, or what the Salary. When the present Bishop of Derry was Almoner, I have heard him speak of applying the allowance made by the late Bp. of Worcester to one or more Professors of the Oriental Languages, to a Saxon lecture, but I do not remember that he ever told me the thing was settled. My knowledge in that way is almost gone, thro' disuse; but yet I have a great desire, before I die, to make the Saxon Chronicle a complete work; by additions which may be had from other Manuscripts, and by reducing every piece of History whatever that has been originally written in Saxon, and may be determined to a certain year or near it, into one body of Saxon Annals; with proper distinctions to shew from whence every thing is taken. There are, I take it, many Saxon pieces which, tho' never parts of any formal Book of Annals, are of undoubted authority, and as truly historical as the Annals themselves; and I think there can be no harm in casting all these into one uniform body with the Annals, so long as the Reader is told, what is, and is not, a part of the Annals properly so called; but there will be this great benefit by it, that the reader will see at one view whatever history remains, which has been ever written in the Saxon tongue from which circumstance, there is no doubt but all our ancient histories derive their chief authority. Now there is a young man come into Bodley's Library, I hope the first work he will be engaged in, is a new edition of Dr. Hyde's Catalogue; taking in all books and editions, which are in private libraries, and not in the publick. This is what I have long wanted and often spoke of; and I think the University cannot do any thing that will be of greater service to the publick, or more for their own honour. The way that Mr. Hearne and Mr. Hall are got into, of publishing our English historian which have not been published before, ought to be greatly encouraged; but why so few copies to be printed of every book? Every person who is possessed of one of those books, will naturally reckon that he has a greater treasure because the copies are few; but certainly the end of printing was to multiply copies, and to spread them into many more hands, and to make learning more accessible than it was before. The notion of greater value should give way to greater use; and if it does not, you will find more and more complaints and uneasinesses upon that head; especially in London. On Wednesday next our Stamford Carrier sets out for London, and will be in town on Saturday, who brings with him a parcel directed for you (to be left with Mr. Sare, bookseller, at Grey's Inn Gate, till called for, I having no correspondent at present in town, by whom I could conveniently send it as you directed) wherein you will find three score and two Roman Medals and Medalions; seven and thirty other odd counters; a MS. relating to Surrey and Sussex, and copies of all such pamphlets as I have hitherto published a present, such as it is, that I hope you will not think altogether unworthy of your acceptance. I should thank you heartily for any thing that relates to Lincolnshire, the town of Stamford, or the sufferings of K. Charles from his seizure at Holdenby to his murder. I am collecting every individual particular of that melancholy story, from our best historians, ranged in a series of time. But I shall first (and that shortly) publish proposals for printing by subscription, some Antiquities of Lincolnshire, General and Particular, in seven books, containing : Book 1. History of the Church of Lincoln from a MS. of Bishop Sanderson. 2. Antiquities of the town of Stamford. |