Mr. TANNER to PETER LE NEVE, Esq. Norroy *. "HONOURED SIR, All Souls Coll. Oxon. June 13, 1696. "Had I not been hindered by almost a month's absence from Oxford, I should have long ere this time answered your kind Letter, for which I now heartily thank you. I think either Mr. Wood or Mr. Aubrey acquainted me before of this civil proffer of your assistance. I hope they returned you (according to my desires) my humblest respects; but I could not then presume (having not the honour to be known to you) to give you thanks myself; so that I hope you will now accept of my most grateful resentments of the notice you are pleased to take of me and my poor performances. "As for my designed History of Wiltshire,' I shall not have leisure to go on with it this year or two, till I have finished the 'Bibliotheca Britannica,' which I have now upon the stocks, which will contain a History of the Lives and Works of all the Writers of Great Britain and Ireland, down to the end of the Sixteenth Century; in which will be also printed entire from the original the long-desired Work of John Leland, De Scriptoribus Britannicis.' When this is off my hands, I fully intend (please God to spare me life and health) to fall upon the History of my native County of Wilts, if I can find any tolerable encouragement. "Sir Henry Spelman's Icenia' will be shortly printed, with the rest of his Works that have not been yet published. Mr. Gibson has the care of the Edition, and has ordered me to let you know, that when they come to that treatise you shall have the sheets as soon as they are printed off. "Mr. Wood sold several MSS. (to the value of 301.) to the Bodleian Library, and others to Jesus College Library; but what their names I cannot now tell, and at present have not opportunity to enquire. They are printed by themselves, in the Catalogue of MSS. which wants only the Index now to be finished. "I do not hear that Mr. Vincent's Northamptonshire, or Dr. Keurden's Lancashire, are in the press. I am certain they are not in Oxford. "In the Notitia Monastica' I never did pretend to be free from the misfortunes of Writers, especially young ones, I mean from errors and omissions; but if ever it fortune to have another Edition, I will beg the favour of your assistance. "The Monasticon mentions the Register of Bermondsey in the hands of Mr. Selden; but whether it was lent to any body, and never returned, or whether it was lost after his death, I cannot tell; but it never was sent to Oxford. "Whenever I come to London I will be sure to wait upon you. In the mean time be pleased to accept my thanks for your kind offers; and assure yourself you may freely command, Sir, THOM. TANNER." "Your very humble servant, "SIR, All Souls College, Feb. 8, 1696-7. "I received your Letter about a week since, and have made enquiry after Sir Symonds D'Ewes's Catalogue of Manuscripts, which is not yet printed, but will the next after my Lord Bishop of Norwich's, which the Printers are now about. I will take particular care myself about the printing and correcting it, and be sure to send your copy, and two or three of the printed ones, as soon as they are worked off. "As to your other queries, I suppose, it is about a composition of the Vicarage of Halifax, that you enquire after in the Register of Lewes. Dr. Wilkinson was here in Oxford before Christmas on that errand; and, being sent to me by Mr. Gibson, I searched all the places in this town, wherein I could imagine it might be found; but all in vain. As for the Register that once belonged to Mr. Selden, it is not among those MSS. of his which we have. I have been told that his executors kept from us ten or twelve Leiger-books (we have not one of those he had) which, if I do not mistake, were burnt in the Fire of London: or are perhaps now among Sir Matthew Hale's MSS. in Lincoln's Inn, or in the hands of the Heirs of.... Vaughan. “******** † Reading, after the death of the then incumbent, Magister Radulphus de Diceto: but this I thought you might have seen in the Register of Thetford, and so I did not transcribe it. This Ralph de Diceto I take to be the same with the great Historian of that name, Dean of Paul's; for the time agrees very well. "There is another Charter follows this of William de Albini that I have transcribed, made by his son Will. de Albini junior, and is almost in the same words, confirming the grant of his Father; only after—in liberam et perpetuam eleemosinam, pro animá Alicia reginæ aviæ meæ, pro animá patris mei et matris meæ, et omnium antecessorum, &c. "I should be glad if these hints may be of any use to you; and am, Sir, your most humble servant, THOM. TANNER." "SIR, All Souls Coll. Aug. 17, 1697. Having been out of town great part of the time since Whitsuntide, I had forgot to send the Catalogue of Sir Symonds D'Ewes' MSS. to you, as I promised. Since this was printed off, I met with a letter from one Mr. Gipps, who desired to know whether the Catalogue which you sent was printed; if it was not, he gave us hopes of sending a more perfect one. I am sorry we did not know of it before; for, now the sheet is worked off, our Printers will scarce be willing to throw this away for waste paper, and print it over again. However, if he will be pleased to send us an account of such MSS. as are here omitted, they shall be added as an Appendix to this. But these Additions must be sent before Michaelmas, otherwise the Book will be published: or, if you know of any other gentleman that is willing to discover his hidden treasure of MSS. to the world, they may have place in our A few lines have been cut off. Collec Collection. Truly there are a great many choice books (and some indeed that I feared were lost) in this study of Mr. D'Ewes. I could wish the worthy Owner would be so kind as to give them to some Public Library, so they would be of more general use to the Learned, and would be an everlasting monument to the memory of his most industrious and learned Grandfather. "The Remains of Sir Henry Spelman, wherein are his Icenia, and also an ancient History of the Family of the Sharnburns in Norfolk, is very near done; there wanting nothing but Mr. Gibson's Life of Sir Henry, and the Preface. "I have sent you herewith a List of such Books as are now printing at the Theatre, and of those that have been lately published therehence; as also a specimen of a very good design to print as much of the Saxon Bible as can be found (excepting the Four Gospels that were published by Dr. Marshall, and the Psalms published by Spelman), to which end the Learned Editor has got the Heptateuch entire, and has made large collections of the other parts of the Old and New Testament out of the Saxon Homilies, &c. If you, or any gentleman of your acquaintance, out of love to Antiquities, and our old Mother-tongue, are willing to subscribe for this Book, which is already pretty far advanced, I will take care to get one or more for you; for there will be very few to be had, besides those subscribed for. It will not amount (in paper of this Specimen) to above half a crown in sheets. I have nothing else to trouble you with at present; but am, honoured Sir, your most humble servant, THOM. TANNER." "WORTHY SIR, All Souls, Oxon. Sept. 21, 1697. "I have a great many thanks to return you for your last. The publick is very much obliged to you for your care in discovering those hidden treasures of MSS. I wish those Noble Lords would make haste in conveying an account of their Collections hither. The accession you have made to your own Library shall be inserted. I have made bold to inclose a letter for Sir Richard Gipps, which I desire you to convey to him; I cannot tell whether to direct to him in Suffolk, so am forced to trouble you. The price of Mr. Kennett's Antiquities in sheets is (I think) ten or eleven shillings: you may have it cheaper at Stationers' Hall than here, for they begin to be scarce; there were but few of them printed, which makes them the dearer. I will take care that you have a Catalogue of MSS. as soon as completed. I thank you for your promoting the Saxon Bible. "I am sorry for the mistake in not entitling this present Sir Symonds D'Ewes, Baronet; but it shall be amended if any thing else is sent. I am, in great haste, Sir, "Your most humble servant, THOM. TANNER." "SIR, All Souls, Oxon. Jan. 18, 1697-S. "According to your order, I have sent you three Saxon Heptateuchs by Matthew's waggon, that lodges at the Oxford Arms in Warwick-lane; they are (by reason of the goodness of the paper) to cost three shillings each, but you may let the money alone till I send you one of the Catalogues of MSS. I thank you for your care about my Lord Bridgewater's MSS.; but the account that was sent you by Mr. Pierce is not particular enough; so that, I believe, it would be a disparagement to that noble Lord's Collection to print it. I shall be glad to know the name of his Lordship's seat in Buckinghamshire; for in the summer-time I intend to take a journey thither, and hope, upon your recommendation of me to my Lord, that I may have the favour to peruse them. "I have heard nothing of my Lord Kent's MSS. "The View of the present State of Ireland' (1584) which you have, I presume was wrote by the famous Poet Edmund Spenser: see the last Edition of his Works, wherein it is printed. "I am, in great haste, your most affectionate friend and most humble servant, THOM. TANNER *." All Souls Coll. Oxon. Apr. 29, 1698. "SIR, "The Catalogue of my Lord Kent's MSS. came safe to my hands; and is now printing. I am very much obliged to you for the favour those Noble Lords promise me of the perusal of their Books. I intended to have taken a journey to Ashbridge about this time; but I am forced to change my resolution, because I think to be in London within a fortnight, where I shall make it some of my first business to wait upon you; and must depend very much on your favour for the sight of the MSS. in the Heralds' Office, &c.: for my principal business in London is to see some of your MSS. in order to compleat my Bibliotheca Britannica, for which I have gathered most of the materials this place will afford; and am willing, before I draw it up for the press, to consult the Cotton, Lambeth, and other Libraries about London; from whence I shall take a turn to Cambridge. "I do not remember that ever I met with that Book of Pedigrees you mention. "I am, Sir, your most obliged servant, "DEAR SIR, THOM. TANNER." Saturday morn. Aug. 20, 1698. "This is to return you my humblest thanks for the paper of Additions to my Notitia,' one of which I have herewith sent for the Heralds' Office. I have not sent you another of my Lord of Norwich's MSS. because I fear you will not be able to do any thing to the purpose with it to-day, and I do not know but that I may leave the town on Monday, or Tuesday at farthest; but, in the mean time, I will endeavour to wait on you to thank you for your great civilities to your most humble servant, THOM. TANNER." * Indorsed by Mr. Le Neve: "Mr. Tanner's Letter; sent 3 Saxon Heptateuchs, 38. each; the account of Earle of Bridgewater's MSS. not particular enough, a disparagement to print it; would know the name of my Lord's Seat, com. Buck.; intends to take a journey thither; desires me to recommend him to my Lord that he may peruse them.-Ask Tanner whether he hath ever light of the account of the book Weever speaks of, called Botoner Herald to Sir John Fastolf; his pedigrees of the Norff, and Suff. gentry; and to see whether it is not in a corner of my Lord Bridgewater's library.-Qu. the quotation in Weever? "Lord Kingston will consider of it. Answered the 9th of April 1698.” "DEAR "Dear Sir, All Souls Coll. October 25, 1698. "I am perfectly ashamed of my rudeness in not answering the kind letter you were pleased to send me a little after I left London but my long absence from Oxford occasioned so much trouble to me when I came hither again, that I had not leisure to write; and, about a month since, I went to see my relations in Wiltshire, where I was detained by a fit of sickness longer than I intended to stay; so that, being just returned to College, I could not omit the first opportunity of writing to Mr. Le Neve, to thank him not only for his great civilities to me in London, but also for those hints of errors in the 'Notitia Monastica,' which I shall take care to amend if ever it bears another impression. "Before I went out of town, I desired Mr. Hall to send you one of our Catalogues as soon as published; which he has since done, he tells me; and I hope you have received it. I hope it will be of good use to you; and I wish you may find any thing in our Oxford Libraries that may entice you to come down and spend a week or a fortnight here next summer-whenever you come, if I am in town, you shall have free access to any MSS. this place affords. If, in the mean time, you lack any passage in any book here to be consulted, you may very freely command any service I can do you. I shall now fall to my studies again, and shall not pass by any thing of Norfolk that occurs. This brings into my thoughts to acquaint you of a very pretty benefaction of a Norfolk man (that died at the Devizes while I was last in Wiltshire) to Magdalen College in Cambridge; viz. the impropriation of Steple Ashton, Wiltshire, worth 100l. per annum, for the maintenance of a Fellow abroad, travelling; which Fellow is to be a Norfolk man born. He has also given to the same College the perpetual advowson of the Vicarage of the same place, worth 150l. per annum. "You desired to know whether Bucklebury, Berkshire, belonged to Reading Abbey. In the Register of that place, which I have by me, I find the Church and some lands in Burchildeberi belonged to it, which probably may be the same now with Bucklebury. "If you could spare your book of the Monks' names that received pensions at the Dissolution, for a week's time, you may please to leave it at Mr. Churchill's, Bookseller, in Paternosterrow, who will put it in one of his parcels that he sends to our Booksellers, and it will safely come to me. I shall be careful of it, and return it without damage. This will be a great obligation to, Sir, your most affectionate friend and humble servant, THOM. TANNER. My humblest service to Mrs. Le Neve." "DEAR SIR, Norwich, March 18, 1701-2. "The days begin to be pretty long, and the weather inviting, so that I must renew my request to you to procure me leave to search Sir Henry Spelman's study. You may assure the worthy Owner, that, if he pleases to allow me the favour and trust to peruse the books, the least paper shall not be embezzled, and I |