Got to Woburn by 2 P.M., sat down and wrote for two hours and a half, then dressed, but did not dine till nearly 8 P.M. The Duke of Manchester there with Lord Preston, Mr. Cartwright, and Edwards, the bookseller, who is putting the library to rights and showing how to make the catalogue. I was surprised to learn from him that a man could not lay out in one year more than 5,000_l._ judiciously in books; that Lord Spencer has been fourteen years expending 25,000_l._, and has the best library in England, perhaps better than the King’s. He tells me the nation [France] bought L’Héritier’s[207] library, and gave it to the Botanical Garden. Miss Knight,[208] authoress of the continuation of ‘Rasselas,’ whom I met at Kedington’s, lent Dolmien’s[209] ‘Life at Naples,’ through Lady Hamilton’s interest with the Queen. He wrote to her from prison. Did not get to bed till past 11 P.M. Such hours and fasting from 9 A.M. in morn to 8 P.M. at night did not agree with me. I waked at 4 A.M., and having a lamp, rose, washed, prayed, and sat down by candlelight to my notes and finished them. Lord Preston swears; it hurts me to hear him. I certainly ought to convert such people and reproach myself, and confess the sin every day in my catalogue to God; but I go on and do it not. If I had wit I could laugh at it, but I have no more wit than a pig. The following are selected from this year’s correspondence: _From T. Symonds, Esq., describing Trinity College Establishment, Revenue, &c._ ‘Cambridge: March 20, 1801. ‘You desire me, good friend, to send you a long letter from this place, but I could more easily find materials to write one to our friend Charles Cole, from his being perfectly conversant with every one here, and with almost everything. You observe very right, that landlords cannot come into a share of the wealth of their tenants but by a corn rent. This I have insisted upon of late frequently at Bury. The present state of the University is an indisputable proof of it. The pressure of the times is hardly felt by its members. Will you not think so, when you hear that the revenue of this College amounted to nearly 16,000_l._ last year, and that the eight senior fellows received more than 300_l._ each, and the junior half of that sum? They have been obliged to raise, however, the price of the commons (as they are called) from fifteen to eighteen pence. But I sit down here every day for this sum to a dinner, which gentlemen of a thousand a year cannot give often with prudence. ‘The papers, I presume, have informed you of the trial of our plate stealers last week.