have been lost at the press, which has been a quarrel between me and his lordship, who lays the fault on Chiswell, but so as between them I have lost the originals, which had now been safe records as you will find in that history. The rest I have named I lent to his countryman, the late Duke of Lauderdale, who honouring me with his presence in the country, and after dinner discoursing of a Maitland (ancestor of his) of whom I had several letters impaqueted with many others, desired I would trust him with them for a few days: it is now more than a few years past, that, being put off from time to time, till the death of his Grace, when his library was selling, my letters and papers could no where be found or recovered; so as by this treachery my collection being broken, I bestowed the remainder on a worthy and curious friend of mine, who is not likely to trust a S-- with any thing he values. But, Sir, I quite tire you with a rhapsody of impertinencies, beg your pardon, and remain, &c. 22. Among the errata of the Numismata, but of which 1 immediately gave an account in the Philosophical Transactions, the following were thus to have been read: p. 1. n. 22-mixted as well as obrized sort, in the margin; for such a metal is mentioned by Aldus (of Valentinian) with CONOB: which he reads, Constantinopoli Obrizatum, belonging, he says, to Count Landus: vide Aldus Manut. Notar: Exp'ta, p. 802. Venet, c10.10.xc1. and P. 51. 1. q. r. Etiminius: Spanheim indeed is suspicious of this medal, but 1. was unwilling to degrade our metropolis of the honour. P. 202, in margin, r. Regulbium (with innumerable more). SIR, I know not whether Sir Jo. Hoskins, Sir R. Southwell, Mr. Waller, and Dr. Harwood (who is concerned in what I have said of Taille Douce), and the rest (on whom I have obtruded books), would have the patience of Mr. Hill, to read my letter, when you meet at the learned Coffee-Club, after they are gone from Gresham, 'Bishop Burnet's printer or publisher. 2 Qu. Mr. Pepys? 3 "Obryzum signifies gold of the most exalted purity.”—J. E The Reverend Joshua Walker to John Evelyn. Great Billing, near Northampton, 7th Feb. 1700-1. HONOURED SIR, I give you many thanks for your kind letter. Your acceptance of those few papers I sent you has encouraged me to send more. I desired a neighbour of mine who has had great experience in setting willows, to give me an account of his way of setting them, and also of his way of planting and fencing quickset-hedges. I have here sent you his papers; here is also a table, a great part of which I heretofore collected for my own use; if I had had more books of planting, I might have added more to it. I think it would be a considerable benefit to the inhabitants of champaign countries in England, where timber, fuel, fruit, and shelter are much wanting, if a statute were made, giving leave that any one who has land worth five pounds, and in common fields, may, if he please, inclose part of it not exceeding one rood; and he that has four cows'gates upon any common, may likewise inclose not exceeding one rood, or what quantity the parliament shall think fit; and so proportionably for more, provided he plant those enclosed parts all over with wood, and likewise giving leave to enclose some proportions for the planting of fruit-trees, as you suggest in your Pomona, p. 358. Probably more trees would be planted without any damage to any one, if commoners had leave by statute to plant trees upon the waste for their own use as well as Lords of Manors, a due proportion being allotted to each of them. I think you would do a very good work if you would be pleased to use your interest to procure such a statute. Many Members of Parliament would sooner hearken to you than to any other person in matters of this nature, being sensible how much good you have done to this nation. That it would please Almighty God to bless you with long life and happiness, and reward you for the great pains you have taken for the benefit of your country, is the prayer of, Sir, Your most obliged humble servant, JOSHUA WALKER. Archdeacon Nichoison to John Evelin. HONOURED SIR, March 25th, 1701. It has long been my custom to clear accounts (as far as I am able) with all my creditors on the first day of every new year. Where I am non-solvent I make an honest acknowledgement, and that is my case with you. Give me leave therefore to make this return of my humble thanks for the kind letter I had from you last week; and to let you know that (since you are pleased to invite me to it) I am very ready to run farther on the score with you. Your MS. life of S. Cuthbert is, I perceive, the legend written by R. Hegge, who was fellow of Corpus Christi where that treatise was deposited. There is indeed a very faulty copy of it printed, and I have often endeavoured to procure a transcript from the author's original, but in vain. You generously offer this, and my brother will wait on you for it, and convey it to me. If I live to publish my history of the Saxon Northumberland, I shall pay a grateful respect to my bene factor. I am troubled to hear of Mr. Pepys's indisposition. I heartily wish his recovery and the continuance of his restored health, When I was servant to Mr. Secretary Williamson (above twenty years ago), I often waited upon him at his house at Westminster; but I was then, as I still am, too inconsiderable to be remembered by him. Besides an account of the author (if known) of his MS. life of Mary Queen of Scots, I very much desire to know whether there be any very valuable matters, relating to the history of Scotland, amongst Sir R. Maitland's collections of Scotch Poems. I observe that in the same volume with Balfour's Pratiques (or reports as we call them), he has a manuscript of the old Sea-Law of Scotland. I would beg to be informed whether this last treatise be not the same with the Leges Portuum; which, though quoted by Sir John Skene under that Latin title, is written in the Scotch language, and is only a list of the customs of goods imported and exported. If I may (through your kind intercession) have the favour of tran scribing anything for my purpose out of his library, I have a young kinsman, (a clerk to Mr. Musgrave at the tower), who will wait on him to that purpose. Suffer me now, Sir, to own another obligation to you (wherein I am a sharer with the public) for your Acetaria, which, with submission, I think you have miscalled an appendix to your Calendarium. You give it the precedence, and very justly, in your royal plan; the several chapters whereof I shall much long to see published, for though an ingenious countryman of mine, Mr. Baker, seems dissatisfied with Mr. Wotton's making agriculture and gardening parts of liberal knowledge, I am as much an admirer of all the branches of natural as civil history, and the former has as many of my spare hours in the summer, as the latter has in the winter. There is one passage (page 65) wherein I think myself nearly concerned to request your farther information. The French Acetosella, with the round leaf, grows (you say) plentifully in the north of England. You distinguish this From the Roman Oxalis, wherewith Dr. Morison had made our Acetosa Eboracensis (as he calls it) to be nearly of a kind. But Mr. Ray has rightly observed that ours is not Casp. Banhinus's Rotundifolia Hortensis (which is the same with the Roman Oxalis), but his Scutata repens. Besides this I know of no kind of sorrel that is so peculiar to the northern parts of this kingdom as your expression seems to intimate, nor can this, which is no trefoil, be reckoned among any of the Acetosella. You will pardon this impertinence in, Sir, Your obliged humble servant, WILL. NICOLSON. Archdeacon Nicolson to John Evelyn. HONOURED SIR, Salkeld, 9th May, 1701. About ten days ago I received your two MSS., for which I now return my most humble thanks. The legend of St. Cuthbert comes very opportunely, and (as I expected) differs considerably in the account it gives of the Council at Twyford, wherein he was chosen Bishop, from what the print had said of it. This being one of the matters wherein I am scoundreled by the late reply of Dr. Wake, here's a seasonable assistance given me in the defence I shall be obliged to make of my insipid notes on Northumberland; and 'twill likewise afford me an opportunity of making a just acknowledgment for the benefaction. I hardly expected that the third part of my historical library would have been treated by any man with so much contempt, after it had been so fortunate as to be approved by yourself and some others of the most competent judges of the kingdom. It is a duty I owe to your kind characters of it, as well as a piece of justice to my own innocence and integrity, to wipe off as much of this gentleman's dust as I can; and when I have done that, I hope it will sufficiently appear that he has much more to answer for than I have. Begging your pardon for this impertinence, I am, dear Sir, Your most obliged humble servant, William Wotton to John Evelyn HONOURED SIR, Jan. 22, 1701-2. The kind notice you have been pleased to take of my poor performances gives me a satisfaction which few things in the world could have equalled. Few authors, I believe, are so entirely disengaged from the world, as to be proof against applause even from common readers; but the approbation of great masters is the highest reward any writer ought to look for. I am sure my time has not been misspent, since Mr. Evelyn has passed so favourable a judgment upon what I have been doing. It encourages me also to go on with Mr. Boyle's Life, for which I have been so long indebted to the public. I have now all the materials I am to expect, and intend with all convenient speed to digest them into such an order as may make them at hand when I shall use them. His works have been epitomated by Mr. Bolton after a sort, I am at a loss whether I shall interweave a kind of a system of his philosophy into the Life as I at first designed, or only relate matters of fact. In that matter I shall be VOL. III. сс |