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The attitude of a little fiddler who is exhibiting his trick monkeys can hardly be surpassed by caricaturists of any time. A quaint bit of cloister scandal is indicated in an initial from the Harleian Manuscript, in which a monk who has been entrusted with the cellar keys is seen availing himself of the situation, eagerly quaffing a cup of wine while he stoops before a large cask.
This would account also for the Eadwine Psalter at Cambridge, a twelfth-century imitation of the Harleian manuscript. Neither of these Psalters can be described as an absolute copy of the Utrecht Psalter.
By his will Parliament was to have the first refusal of this collection for £20,000. Though it was in the reign of the needy George II., the sum was voted, and by the same Act was bought the Harleian collection of MSS. to add to it; to this was added the Cottonian Library of MSS., and the nation had a ready-made collection.
The money to pay for the Sloane and Harleian collections was raised by an easy method of which modern morals do not approve that is to say, by lottery. Many suggestions were made as to the housing of this national collection. Buckingham House, now Buckingham Palace, was spoken of, also the old Palace Yard; of course, the modern Houses of Parliament were not then built.
The acquisition of these manuscripts was the last important purchase made by Wanley; he died a few months later, aged fifty-three. Besides the above-mentioned treasures from the Dusseldorf library the Harleian possesses, among other Greek classical manuscripts, some that are unique in character.
The rough copies of his correspondence from that time until his death, are preserved in the Harleian MS. 7010, in the British Museum, the most interesting parts of which are added to the other extracts. Lady Fanshawe wrote her Memoir in the year 1676, and died on the 20th January 1679-80, in her fifty-fifth year. Her will is dated on the 30th October, 31st Car.
And we must leave Rupert to his career of romantic daring, to be made President of Wales and Generalissimo of the army, to rescue with unequalled energy Newark and York and the besieged heroine of Lathom House, to fight through Newbury and Marston Moor and Naseby, and many a lesser field, to surrender Bristol and be acquitted by court-martial, but hopelessly condemned by the King; then to leave the kingdom, refusing a passport, and fighting his perilous way to the seaside; then to wander over the world for years, astonishing Dutchmen by his seamanship, Austrians by his soldiership, Spaniards and Portuguese by his buccaneering powers, and Frenchmen by his gold and diamonds and birds and monkeys and "richly-liveried Blackamoors"; then to reorganize the navy of England, exchanging characters with his fellow-commander, Monk, whom the ocean makes rash, as it makes Rupert prudent; leave him to use nobly his declining years, in studious toils in Windsor Castle, the fulfilment of Milton's dream, outwatching the Bear with thrice-great Hermes, surrounded by strange old arms and instruments, and maps of voyages, and plans of battles, and the abstruse library which the "Harleian Miscellany" still records; leave him to hunt and play at tennis, serve in the Hudson's Bay Company and the Board of Trade; leave him to experiment in alchemy and astrology, in hydraulics, metallurgy, gunpowder, perspective, quadrants, mezzotint, fish-hooks, and revolvers; leave him to look from his solitary turret over hills and fields, now peaceful, but each the scene of some wild and warlike memory for him; leave him to die a calm and honored death at sixty-three, outliving every companion of his early days.
And this general reason moved all men to large contributions: that when a conquest was to be withstood wherein all should be lost, it was no time to spare a portion." Copy of contemporary letter in the Harleian Collection, quoted by Southey. Our lion-hearted Queen showed herself worthy of such a people.
His wife's letters to him during his imprisonment, which are preserved in the Harleian MS. 7005, and the account of her efforts to procure his release, exhibit proofs of the most touching and devoted affection, and cannot be read without the highest esteem for her character. She married Mr. Porter.
Wit and Loyalty revived, in a collection of some smart satyrs in verse and prose on the late times. Lond. 1682, qu. said to be written by Abr. Cowley, Sir John Birkenhead, and Hudibras, alias Sam. Butler. For this information I am indebted to Mr. Reed, of Staple Inn. BOSWELL. This tract is in the Harleian Misc., ed. 1810, vi. 57. Mr. Reed's quotation differs somewhat from it.
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