In the previous chapter it has been shown how the munificence of Bishop Fell and Francis Junius furnished the University of Oxford with an unusually large stock of excellent letter of all descriptions, so that it was in a position to do better work than any other house in the kingdom. Its productions, during the first twenty years of the eighteenth century, were in every way worthy of its reputation, and some of them deserve special mention. In 1705 Hickes's _Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus_ was issued in three large folio volumes of great beauty. The work required many unusual founts, and these were mainly furnished from the bequest of Junius. In 1707 the University published Mill's _Greek Testament_, which Wood in his _Athenæ Oxonienses_ (vol. ii. p. 604) says had been begun in 1681 at Bishop Fell's printing-house near the theatre. The double pica italic used in this was a grand letter. Both the foregoing works were ornamented with handsome initial letters, and head and tail pieces engraved by M. Burghers, probably the first engraver of the day in this country. Many classical works were also produced in the same sumptuous manner, notably Hudson's edition of the _Works of Dionysius_,1704, which it is difficult to praise too highly. The copies measured nearly eighteen inches in height, the paper was thick and good; the Greek and Latin texts were printed side by side, with notes at the foot, yet ample margins were left. In fact it is one of the finest examples of English printing of this period to be met with. Cambridge was sadly behind her sister University. Neither Reed in his _Old English Letter Foundries_, nor Mr. Allnutt in his valuable articles on Provincial Presses, has anything to say of it. Cornelius Crowndale was the University printer at this time, but beyond an edition of _Eusebius_ in three folio volumes, issued in 1720, no notable book came from his press, little in fact beyond reprints in octavo and duodecimo of classical works for the use of the scholars, and repeated editions of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer, full of errors, and so badly printed that the less said about them the better. We may notice, however, an edition of Butler's _Hudibras_, edited by Zachary Grey, in two octavo volumes, with Hogarth's plates, and two books by Conyers Middleton, _Bibliothecæ Cantabrigiensis ordinandæ methodus_, 1723, and _A Dissertation concerning the Origin of Printing in England,_ 1735, both in quarto. Among the earliest provincial presses at work in the beginning of the eighteenth century was that at Norwich, where Francis Burges was established in the year 1701. Thomas Tanner, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, sent John Bagford a broadside, printed by that printer, a list of the clergy that were to preach in the cathedral at Norfolk from November 1st, 1701, until Trinity Sunday following. In a MS. note at the foot Tanner says:--