Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867: With a Preliminary Notice of the earlier Library founded in the Fourteenth CenturyMacray, William Dunn
History
Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867: With a Preliminary Notice of the earlier Library founded in the Fourteenth Century
Macray, William Dunn
Bodleian Library
At the Visitation on Nov. 8, it was ordered that notice be given that
'Nullus in posterum quemlibet librum aut volumen extra Bibliothecam
asportet,' and that monition be sent to every College and Hall for the
return of any books taken out within three days. Several books appear to
have been reported in previous years as missing; hence, doubtless, the
issue of this order.
[144] Hearne's pref. to John Ross, p. 1.
A.D. 1687.
On the occasion of the visit of King James II to Oxford, chiefly, but
unsuccessfully, made for the purpose of overawing the fellows of
Magdalen College, who had refused to elect as president his nominee,
Anth. Farmer, he was invited by the University to partake of a breakfast
or collation in the Library. For this purpose he came hither on the
morning of Sept. 5, between nine and ten, where, at the south part of
the Selden end, a banquet was prepared which cost the University £160,
consisting of 111 dishes of meat, sweetmeats, and fruit. The King sat
here for about three quarters of an hour, and held some conversation
with Hyde about a Chinese, 'a little blinking fellow,' who had recently
visited the place, and about the religion of China; but asked no one to
join him at the table. Upon rising to depart, a scene of strange
indecorum, as it would now appear, ensued; the 'rabble' (as they are
described) of courtiers and academics rushed upon the mass of untouched
dainties, and began a disorderly scramble, in which they 'flung the wet
sweetmeats on the ladies linnen and petticoats, and stained them.' The
King watched the scramble for two or three minutes, and then departed,
commending to the Vice-Chancellor and doctors his chaplain, W. Hall, who
had preached before him the day previous, and delivering a most fatherly
homily on the sin of pride, the virtue of charity, and the duty of doing
as they would be done to. Good, gossipping, Ant. à Wood gives in his
_Autobiography_ a full account of all that passed, from which are taken
the quotations made above[145].
[145] See also Miss Seward's _Anecdotes_, Supplement, 1797, p. 72.
A.D. 1688.
Dr. Hyde went up to London in this year to demand personally of the
Company of Stationers the books which were due to the Library by Act of
Parliament (1 James II, cap. 17, for seven years, continuing previous
acts), but which they had neglected to send. His expenses were £6 5_s._
A.D. 1690.
Thirty pounds were paid in this year to Antony à Wood for twenty-five
MSS. out of his library[146]. These are volumes of great value,
including Chartularies of the Abbeys of Glastonbury and Malmesbury, and
of the Preceptory of Sandford, Oxon, copies of Papal bulls relating to
England, a register of lands in Leicestershire _temp._ Hen. VI, &c.
The rest of Wood's MSS., and printed books, came to the Library,
together with the other collections preserved in the Ashmolean Museum,
in 1860.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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