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these, nineteen were left to the University; to the Earl of Oxford he left, or as matter of form sold, twenty-three volumes, which are now made public property, and are in the British Museum.

"It seemed," says M. M. " some time since as if the University had intended to have perfected their number, a gentleman having been employed to copy some of these MSS. in the Museum for the public library at Cambridge. These two volumes are now in the public library." This business was undertaken by Mr. Ayscough of the British Museum, but was never completed.

There is one volume of Baker's writing and composition (for this is not a copy) which is entitled to particular and most honourable mention; a copy of it, but incorrectly made, is in St. John's College Library; the original, as written by Baker, is in the British Museum; it is entitled "A succinct and impartial Account of St. John's House and St. John's College, with some occasional and incidental account of the affairs of the University, and of such Private Colleges as held communication or intercourse with the Old House or College, collected principally by a member of the College, A. 1707. It gives a complete view of St. John's House or Hospital, when a priory of canons regular, proceeding to the foundation of the College, A. 1511, Robert Shipton being first master, and ending with Peter Gunning, twenty-second master, June 25, 1661. It also contains a catalogue of the masters or priors of the Old House or Hospital; a catalogue of the bishops, who went from the College; a catalogue of the fellows, from the foundation of the College to the year 1546, taken from the College Archives; the names of the masters and

the admissions from 1525 to March 1712. It contains further, an account of the old and new libraries; in short, it is as complete a book, as far as it goes, as can be well conceived, evidently written after much research, and with great judgment, with zeal and attachment to the College, with loyalty to the civil and ecclesiastical constitutions, with candour and liberality towards all parties. A man who lays down a maxim in his reflections on learning, That we should have more learning if we had fewer books,' and who observes of that work, that he has ventured to throw in one into the account, but it is a very small one, and writ with an honest design of lessening the number,' might easily find reasons for suppressing this manuscript as well as all the rest."

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The reasons that have prevented some able person from perfecting and publishing this volume since Baker's death are best known to others. Some person, it seems, had in contemplation to publish it, when Dr. Newcome was Master of St. John's, but was forbidden, on account of some peculiarities contained in the work. What those are, this is not the place to inquire.-But here I beg the reader to notice, that the two writers, to whom we are wont to refer as of the greatest authority in matters concerning our University, had embraced certain opinions, not according with those of that learned body; one being, as before observed, a Catholic in Queen Elizabeth's reign, when the University was Protestant; the other, a ponjuror, when the University had sworn allegiance to William. With respect to the worthy Baker, he was many years fellow of St. John's. At the Revolution he was obliged to resign on refusing to take the oath, but continued to reside in College; and there he died, Anno 1740.

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In his books, now in the College Library, and MSS. he always styles himself Socius ejectus, ejected fellow; and seems, if I may hazard an opinion, to have been fond of his title, priding himself, probably, rather as being a man of conscience, than learning.

The College have, I understand, got over at last their difficulties; and a gentleman of St. John's was some time since preparing Mr. Baker's history for the press.

Mr. Baker only published a work, entitled, Reflections on Learning; and a Preface to Bishop Fisher's Funeral Sermon, for Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, 1708. But his style and manner, and ample materials shew, that if he had actually written an Athenæ Cantabrigienses it would have far surpassed the Athenæ Oxonienses.

Previously to Mr. Baker's history there was a MS. account in St. John's Library, written by a fellow of that College, but according to Baker, very imperfect and erroneous: and Mr. Ashby, a fellow, who died a few years since, left some additions: these, from Mr. A.'s known acquaintance with the affairs of the College, are, it may be expected, valuable; but I can only say of these two latter works, such things are, having barely, through favour of a gentleman of that society, looked into them.

"Mr. Cole, whose MSS. relating to Cambridgeshire and Cambridge should next be mentioned, was born in Cambridgeshire: he combined the zeal of a native and the learning of an university man, with the patience of an antiquary. He was first of Clare-Hall, and afterwards fellow-commoner of King's College. He resided many years at Milton, near Cambridge, and died in Dec. 16, 1782. He was a thorough-paced Tory, and half a papist, which

I mention, however, with no insidious meaning-for he might have been a whole papist without the smallest reflection from me-I rather speak after those who were intimate with Mr. Cole, and who respected some of his better qualities: many who read these pages will remember his common appellation, Cardinal Cole.

"These papers, then, of Mr. Cole's, comprising no less than sixty volumes, were almost all written or collected by himself, through the course of nearly half a century before he died. For he had so long, it seems, been making local observations, and procuring materials for a topographical and archæological History of Cambridgeshire.

"Mr. Cole left this prodigious collection to the British Museum; but ordered in his will, that it should be preserved unopened till twenty years after his decease. That time being elapsed, the books were a few years ago opened, and are now become accessible to the public.

"Cole's papers differ somewhat from Baker's: the latter, though they contain a few articles of the writer's own, are principally, as before observed, transcripts of ancient documents: the former, while they abound with collections and copies from public archives, contain likewise a great variety of original compositions. The authors also appear to have differed as much in their taste and character as in the quality of their writings. Baker, though he may be supposed by some to have been a mere plodding copyist, possessed the exploring spirit of the antiquary with the liberality of a gentleman; he had learning, judgment, and good manners. Cole, whatever may have been his literary attainments, (and it is certainly not intended to underrate them), yet could stoop to pick up straws, or even to perpetuate scandal: and with the

perseverance of the antiquary united the minuteness of a parish clerk.

Quin id erat curæ, quo pacto cuncta tenerem,
Utpote res tenues, tenui sermone peractas a.

"The first volume contains Parochial Antiquities of Cambridgeshire, or an Account of the Churches, with the Funereal Monuments in and about them in the County of Cambridge. Among others, also, an account of the Chapel of our Lady, and St. Nicholas, or King's College, Cambridge.

a" The hint relative to Mr. Cole's propensity to scandal is not here made for the first time. A brother of the craft, who published a book at Cambridge, in the year 1784, speaking of these MSS. proceeds thus:" If according to his whimsical will they should ever be laid before the public; but this, if we may judge from his notes on publications, presented to him by his best friends, they are utterly unfit for ; since characters formed from such strong passions and prejudices as he was perpetually actuated by, can never be drawn with any degree of exactness: and the misfortune is, that these, with all the little tales of scandal of the University, town and country, for half a century past, are so blended with his other collections, (however valuable in themselves) they can scarce be separated: so that, probably, from this circumstance alone, the labours of his whole life will be suffered to sink into oblivion, and nothing left to support his memory but that foolish monument of his vanity, ordered by will to be erected over his remains. And the attempt to keep these characters from the public, till the subjects of them be no more, seems to be cruel and ungenerous, since it is precluding them from vindicating themselves from such injurious aspersions, as their friends, perhaps, however willing, may at that distance of time be incapable of removing. The above censure may, perhaps, be thought severe; but the Editor, well acquainted with the fickleness of his disposition for more than forty years, avers it to be well grounded; and thinks it incumbent upon him thus to publish it to the world, to prevent any mischief that may arise hereafter from his unwarrantable prejudices."This is extracted from Masters's History of Bene't College.

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