In 1696-7 the income was £341, and the expenditure £125, the chief items being £51 only to the three officers (Librarian, Under-Librarian, Janitor), £19 for establishment, £17 for the Curators’ dinner, £8 for binding and—six shillings for books! The last detail was a consequence of the money required in the next year for the purchase of the Bernard printed books. The average expenditure on books was about £30 a year. [Sidenote: The Eighteenth Century.] The eighteenth century in the Universities, and indeed in the country at large, is usually described as one of general torpor, with a low standard of taste, but brightened by many examples of conspicuous individual merit. This may be true, and the annals of the Oxford Press seem to bear it out. But it is true also that literature has much to say for itself during this period, and that one study at least was strongly developing itself—the study of English antiquities. The Bodleian itself may be said to have languished, in a sense, until about 1750, and then to have waked up, under the astonishing series of large gifts of which it was the recipient. In fact the hundred years from 1735 to 1835 may be called the Century of Great Donations. When Dr. John Hudson[13] succeeded Hyde, and Hearne entered the Library as (Janitor and) Assistant, both in 1701, a good deal of activity was exhibited. In 1704 Dr. Charlett testified that “Our Public Library, which for some years had stood still, is now in a thriving condition by the active diligence and curiosity of Dr. Hudson, who spares no author, no bookseller, but solicits all to augment that vast treasure.” But in 1716, after bickerings on other grounds, Hearne was turned out of his place, as a Nonjuror, and Hudson became careless before his death, in 1719. Joseph Bowles[14], who succeeded Hudson, and died at the age of thirty-four in 1729, seems to have been unequal to the position he obtained, though our chief testimony comes from Hearne who cordially hated him. Robert Fysher,[15] the next Librarian, was not a man of mark, and appears to have been disabled by ill-health from fully performing his duties. [Sidenote: The Printed Books.]