“Sir,—I make bold to transmit to Oxford, through your hands, the Saxon punches and matrices, which you were pleased to intimate would not be unacceptable to that learned body. It would be a great satisfaction to me, if I could by this means perpetuate the munificence of the noble donor, to whom I am originally indebted for them, the late Lord Chief Justice Parker, afterwards Earl of Macclesfield, who, among the numerous benefactors which my father met with, after his house was burned in 1712–13, was so good as to procure those types to be cut, to enable him to print Mrs. Elstob’s _Saxon Grammar_. England had not then the advantage of such an artist in letter cutting as has since arisen,[289] and it is to be lamented, that the execution of these is not equal to the intention of the noble donor, and, I now add, to the place in which they are to be reposited. However, I esteem it a peculiar happiness, that as my father received them from a great patron of learning, his son consigns them to the greatest seminary of it, and that he is, Sir, your most obliged friend, and humble Servant, “W. BOWYER.” The adventures of this epistle and the gift which accompanied it, before reaching their destination, are almost romantic. For some reason which does not appear, Rowe Mores, on receipt of the punches and matrices, instead of transmitting them to Oxford, took them to Mr. Caslon’s foundry to be repaired and rendered more fit for use. Mr. Caslon having kept them four or five years without touching them, Mr. Bowyer removed them from his custody, and in 1758 entrusted them to Mr. Cottrell, from whom in the same year he received them again, carefully “fitted up” and ready for use, together with 15 lbs. of letter cast {159} from the matrices. In this condition the whole was again consigned by Mr. Bowyer to Rowe Mores, together with a copy of Miss Elstob’s _Grammar_, for transmission to Oxford. On hearing, two years later, that his gift had never reached the University, he made inquiries of Mores, from whom he received a reply that “the punches and matrices were very safe at his house,” awaiting an opportunity to be forwarded to their destination. This opportunity does not appear to have occurred for three years longer, when, in October, 1764, the gift was finally deposited at Oxford. Its formal acknowledgment was, however, delayed till August 1778, exactly a quarter of a century after its presentation.[290]