Transactions of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archaeological Society . r toCambridge; but Grsevius has never been pilloried as a thief inconsequence ; and no one in his senses would ever wish to do real fact is, the Bishop delighted not only in collecting books,but of course both lent and borrowed them. Thus in the BishopsDiary, under the date April 14th, 1703, we find John ErnestGrabe borrows the first volume of the Antwerp Bibel, with theassurance that this and other valuable works shall be restored without any damage at demand; while Alexander Cunninghamwrites from The Hague,
Transactions of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archaeological Society . r toCambridge; but Grsevius has never been pilloried as a thief inconsequence ; and no one in his senses would ever wish to do real fact is, the Bishop delighted not only in collecting books,but of course both lent and borrowed them. Thus in the BishopsDiary, under the date April 14th, 1703, we find John ErnestGrabe borrows the first volume of the Antwerp Bibel, with theassurance that this and other valuable works shall be restored without any damage at demand; while Alexander Cunninghamwrites from The Hague, 22nd Feb. 1709, to borrow books fromthe Bishop of Ely, who is very ready to lend books to those whoare upon any public service. The charge of not returning books,however, is we fear common against all great book collectors,—not that they intend keeping them, but that they cannot make uptheir minds to return them yet. At his death the Bishop left, we are told, codices in folio 6,725;in quarto 8,200; in octavo 14,040 ; manuscripts 1,790; making a* Bibliomania, p. 318 Ill liKKIKSTKItSIUUK A I!(! 111TKOTURA L SOCIIOTY. total of 30,75(). This Library was offered in 1714 to Lord Oxfordfor ^98,000; and how that distinguished and truly noble col-lector could have declined the purchase of such exquisite treasures,Dibdin is at a loss to understand. The reason, however, whyLord Oxford declined was that the Bishop insisted on being paidthe money in his lifetime, though Lord Oxford was not to have thebooks till the Bishops death. But a public-spirited character,writes Dibdin, was not wanting to prevent the irreparable dis-persion of such book-gems, and that patriotic character wasGeorge I., who gave 6,000 guineas for them, and presented themto the public library of the University of Cambridge ; making theLibrary there equal to the famous one at the sister University. These are imperial works, and worthy kings! And here, adds the same writer, the almost unrivalledBibliotheca Moriana
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