[238] For the description of the contents of three of the Irish volumes, the author was indebted to an experienced Irish scholar, Standish Hayes O'Grady, Esq. [239] A volume of collections by him relating to the early versions of the Bible was bought in 1858 for five guineas. [240] Ballard MS. ii. 87. [241] One curious volume is described by Sir F. Madden in his preface to _Syr Gawayne_, printed by the Roxburghe Club in 1839. [242] With relation to these Rawlinson says, in a letter dated Feb. 25, 1736-7, that he had bought, about two years since, some of Ashmole's papers from his heirs, including some of Dugdale's (Ballard MS. ii. 11). [243] For Parish Registers, see under 1821. [244] Two MS. volumes of the Relations of Venetian Residents in various countries were given to the Library by Will. Gent, in 1600, and Sir Rich. Spencer, in 1603. [245] From this library Rawlinson also obtained some French editions of the _Horæ_, printed on vellum. [246] Ballard MS. ii. 41. [247] The clock, still in use in the Library, made by Robinson in Gracechurch Street, was one of the items comprised in this codicil, where it is described as a 'table clock,' then in the custody of Mr. John King, a bookseller, in Moorfields. [248] These were bought, 'very cheap,' at Mrs. Kennon's sale, Feb. 24, 1755, by a dealer named Angel Carmey, who sold them to Rawlinson for £10 10_s._ Carmey's letter conveying his offer of sale is preserved in Rawlinson's copy of the sale catalogue. [249] It does not appear, however, that this sum was ever paid. [250] A curious, and probably unique, little 'Almanacke for XII yere, after the latytude of Oxenforde,' printed in 48^o (measuring two and a-half inches by one and three-quarters), by Wynkyn de Worde, 'in the fletestrete,' in 1508, was presented by David Laing, LL.D., the eminent Librarian to the Writers to the Signet, Edinburgh, in 1842. The Library also possesses two copies of a sheet Almanack, by Simon Heuringius, for 1551, printed by John Turck, at London; and other almanacs for 1564, 1567, and 1569. A volume containing five almanacs for the year 1589 was bought in 1857. [251] With the same perverse eccentricity he ordered that the recipients of his endowments for the Keepership of the Ashmolean Museum and the Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, should be unmarried (in the former case only M.A. or B.C.L.), not a native of Scotland, Ireland, or the Plantations, nor a son of such native, nor, in the case of the Museum, even educated in Scotland, and not a member of either the Royal Society or the Society of Antiquaries.