Meanwhile, his pen worked as hard in the service of scholars, both at home and abroad, as though he had been a busy proof-reader in a leading printing-office. He supplied, at the same time, on the right hand and on the left, precedents and formulæ, with a diligence and readiness which would have won both fame and fortune for a long-accustomed conveyancer. CAMDEN consults him, continually, for help in his historical labours. Ben JONSON puts questions to him about intricate points of Roman geography. [Sidenote: MS. Cott., Julius C., iii, fol. 239. (B. M.)] William LISLE seeks COTTON’S aid in the prosecution of his studies of the language and literature of the Anglo-Saxons. [Sidenote: _Ib._, fol. 288, seqq.] PEIRESC consults him on questions in Numismatics. [Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._, Jas. I, vol. lxxxi, § 15. (R. H.)] If great officers of State chance to quarrel amongst themselves about their respective claims to carry before the King the sword _Curtana_, at some special ceremony, they agree to refer the dispute to Sir Robert COTTON and to abide—without fighting a duel—by his momentous decision. If a courtier obtains for a friend the royal promise of an Irish viscounty he writes to COTTON, asking him to choose an appropriate and well-sounding title. [Sidenote: MS. Cott., Julius C., iii, fol. 378.] Roger MAYNWARING begs him to determine the legal amount of burial-fees. [Sidenote: _Ib._, fol. 252.] Dr. LAMBE asks him to settle conflicting pretensions to the advowson of a living which, in old time, belonged to an abbey. [Sidenote: _Ib._, fol. 229.] Augustine VINCENT implores his help in a tough question about patents of peerage. [Sidenote: _Ib._, fol. 379.] The Lord Keeper WILLIAMS seeks advice on questions of parliamentary form and privilege. [Sidenote: Edwards’ _Life and Letters of Ralegh_, vol. ii, p. 321.] RALEGH writes to him, from that ‘Bloody Tower’ which he was about to turn into a literary shrine for all generations of Englishmen to come, by composing in it a noble ‘History of the World’—beseeching him to supply a desolate prisoner with historical materials. [Sidenote: MS. Julius C. iii, fol. 204.] The Earl of ARUNDEL writes to him from Padua, begging that he would compile ‘the story of my ancestors.’ [Sidenote: _Ib._, fol. 320.] The Earl of DORSET entreats him to make out a list of the gifts which some early SACKVILLE had piously bestowed upon the Church—not, however, with the smallest intention of himself increasing them. And, anon, there comes to Sir Robert, from a third great peer, the second of the Cecil Earls of Salisbury, an entreaty—expressed in terms so urgent that one might call it a supplication—‘Permit me, I pray you, to see my Lord of NORTHAMPTON’S letters.... [Sidenote: Salisbury to Cotton, in MS. Cott., Julius C., iii.] I will return them unread, and unseen, by anybody,’ save himself. And then the Secretary of State writes to him in an impetuous hurry which made his letter scarcely legible:—‘If you be not here’ [_i.