I wish I had one. Son and daughter are your servants, and hope to see you in your circuit. I am, dear Doctor, your most faithful servant, Jos. BANKS*." Aynho, Oct. 23, 1722. "SIR, "I have been twice at Oxford, in order to hunt out for you, as I promised, a Catalogue of the Manuscripts in St. Mark's Library; but they have turned your whole Library upside down, in order to make a new Catalogue, so that I cannot as yet meet with it. They place the Books, not according to their matter, as they stood formerly, but according to their bulk, which will be very inconvenient. Thomasin's Account, ut in 1650, 4to, or a Manuscript which my friend Mr. Gale will help you to, Number 6015, 217 of his Library, will supply the want of what I intended to procure. I know not whether the business will permit you to look upon the stones I send you: all of them were dug up in Fritwel Pits, within half a mile of us, and one may collect vast numbers of all sorts, except the largest, which, I think, is very surprising. I have now finished my Notes upon Lactantius: but I am not ready for the press yet, by reason of the necessity I am under of correcting a text for my composer's use, and marking the insertions, which, though an ungrateful, is yet a necessary piece of work. I hope, some time in this winter, I shall have opportunity to wait upon you, and make the due acknowledgments for the favour of those MSS. you so generously allowed me the use of: The largest stone was the very heart or centre of a rock, four yards from the surface of the quarry which faces the North, and not near any gully or cavity. "I am, Sir, your obliged and most humble servant, J. WASSE†.” March 22, 1725-6. "DEAR SIR, - "I thank you, in behalf of my country, for the care you took in adorning the little fabric we call Arthur's Oven. Though the thing was much in my own circumstances, not worth your noticing, yet I could not but observe with pleasure what you was capable of doing if you had got subject to work on. "Pardon my curiosity to know what you are doing in your constant application towards promoting of Learning; and when you have leisure I wish you would acquaint me on what footing your Antiquarian Society is. I rejoice to hear that the Earls of Hartford and Pembroke give so much countenance to it. Their good example, I hope, will make Learning fashionable amongst great men as well as others. When this kind of Society was first erected in France under the late King, Learning was not so common as it came to be afterwards; for, so soon as it was warmed by the sun-beams of Royal favour, all the Statesmen in that country became Antiquaries, and scarce any body was thought capable of public employment who had not a tolerable *Great-grandfather of the Right Honourable President of the Royal Society. He was elected F.S.A. 1724.-His son "Joseph Banks, jun. Esq.” was elected six years earlier. + Of whom see the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. I. pp. 263, 706. share share of Learning. That King found his advantage in this; fon amongst other things, the learned men whom he encourag strove, by all their art and eloquence, to make him the h immortalis which he aspired to be thought; and though the could not altogether hide his imperfections, yet they dressed him up as such a Lover of Learning, and Encourager of Art and Sciences, that I believe the learned part of posterity wil not be over-active to pry into his blemishes. May your Society proɛper; and may all men of power, as well as of sense, enter inte right notions about it! May they consider, that though a respect for Roman Antiquities be in itself of little or no value, yet, a it invites to Learning, and as this necessarily carries along with it a perfect knowledge of those Worthies amongst the Greeks and Romans who were famed for love of their country, of glory, and of liberty, to let them conclude that those who have the greatest knowledge of Antiquity have, cæteris paribus, the best title to be esteemed Patriots. This theme is so tempting, that I find myself insensibly led to say more of it than is necessary to you. I am, with the utmost sincerity, dear Sir, "Your most faithful humble servant, JOHN CLERK." To Dr. HARLEY, in Alnwick, Northumberland. "HONOURED SIR, London, July 1, 1725. "There are few Counties in England but their Antiquities have been taken notice of, and explained by some or other; and it is great pity that ours (which has so many Remains of Roman and British) should not have that justice done it, through the want of leisure of those who are curious that way. We might have expected it from Bp. Nicolson and Dr. Todd, who were making Collections on that head; but as their talents lay in different kinds of Antiquities, the one in British, the other in the Roman; so, I believe, it will be allowed that there is none more fit for pursuing that design than Dr. Stukeley, in whom the knowledge of both is so happily united, and who has devoted a great deal of time to those curious and entertaining studies. It will be needless for me to say any more of him, for you have seen his performances, and are better able to judge of them than I am; but what I should have mentioned first, and will, I hope, add weight to my request, is, that Dr. Mead (whose favours I always think of with gratitude and pleasure) expects an exact account from him of the Roman towns there. I beg, therefore, you will please to go with him thither, and ask the favour of some of our friends to go with you, and do him all the service you can. I would have you be entertaining him with your thoughts of the antient and present state of those places. His conversation will be agreeable, I hope, to you. He will, I doubt not, be ravished with the sight of Bremenium and Habita neum, and Alnwick Castle, the antient seat of his great friend the Lord Percy's ancestors, the Mound at Elsdon, and all other our Antiquities. I thought it needless to write to Mr. Cay, as noi knowing HARLEY, DERHAM, AND HALES, TO STUKELEY. 799 nowing whether he can be at leisure; but, having some busimess with Mr. Horsley, have hinted it to him, and have wrote about it to Mr. N. Punshon. I have little news since my last. i am pretty well, blessed be God; though I had got a dizziness yesterday, for which the Doctor ordered me to bleed, and entirely cured me. My duty and service where due. I am, dear Sir, your ever dutiful and affectionate son, J. H[ARLEY.]" Upminster, Feb. 22, 1725-6. "HONOURED SIR, "I lately met, casually, the Account of Stonehenge that I long since promised you, and could not with strict searching find; which is, an information of one Stainer, an ingenious and experienced Statuary on Bow-bridge, near London, who visited Stonehenge; and the better to inform himself of the nature of the stone, he bought at Salisbury a new strong hammer to break off a piece, which he intended to have polished, weighed, &c. : But, instead of breaking the stone, he broke his hammer, and lost his cost and labour; but found, however, the stones to be harder than porphyry. He measured the largest of the stones, and found it 22 feet out of the earth. He hath had the curiosity to try the weight of several sorts of stones, and finds Portland stone to be 16 solid feet to the ton; white marble 12 feet; and black marble 10 feet to the ton. And, forasmuch as the Stonehenge stone is much harder than any of these, yea than porphyry, he concludes, that eight solid feet of these stones would make a ton, and that the weight of the great stone above ground is 50 or 60 ton. But, according to the measure I myself took some years ago of that stone (if I mistake not therein) it is above 80 ton; what a vast weight therefore is the whole stone, which probably is as much under ground as above it. And I hope you, who have been curious and inquisitive in the matter, will inform us whence these stones were brought, and by what carriage and mechanism, which, with all success and felicity, is heartily wished you by your most humble and affectionate servant, WM. DERHAM." Teddington, May 15, 1726. DEAR SIR, "When I saw you last, you told me you should have in a few days the Modern Names of those Towns on the Picts Wall which are mentioned on the Cup which was found at Littlecott, near Hungerford. I have now a draft of it; but believe you have since seen the Cup, which I hear was sent to Lord Hartford. I shall be obliged to you, if you will let me know where it is, and whether it may be seen; and if you have the Modern Names I beg of you to send me them, in the order they are upon the Cup. I am your humble servant, STEPH. HALES." Oct. 26, 1727. DEAR DOCTOR, "When I look upon the date of your obliging Letter, I am ashamed not to have answered it sooner. I heartily thank you for thinking a poor old friend worth your attention, especially when you have (as I perceive by your Letter) so many delightful objects about you to engage it much better. The few friends 1 have (among whom I desire still to reckon you) are not increased since you left the town. I am too old now to create new friendships; and, as the world goes now, few good ones are best. Among those of your profession 1 stick still to honest Dr. Hale, who hath not yet been so fickle and inconstant as to cast me off. "I will not turn my Letter into a newspaper. You have (no doubt) enough of them in the country; and I live too much retired to be able to be a news-writer. My conversation never did, nor doth much lie that way. I had rather read the ingenious description you give of your country villa, than all the North and South news which stuff our daily papers. Your invitation thither is what I wish I could comply with; but the little businesses which still chain me to the town, will not let me enjoy that happiness. Besides, there is a sort of a laziness attends one, who grows old; which maketh him loth to change his sedentary life. The disposition of your rural house (and none better fitted for those things than yourself), and your suitable inscriptions, please me well. The criticism you make upon Horace [in the beautiful antithesis of Te and Me], and the parallel places you bring to prove it, convince me of the truth of your reading. "I am glad, and congratulate my good friend Mr. Williamson upon his happiness of having you for his neighbour, and enjoy ing your conversation. Pray my service to him, and to his elder sister, if she liveth with him. His younger sister, you tell me, is married at York; and was your partner. I heartily wish, dear Doctor, you may, some time or other, be blessed with as good a partner as you deserve. "Your neighbourhood ought to value you, for introducing among them an Assembly; by the means of which good manners, polite entertainment, and honest correspondence, are kept up and preserved; much preferable to our foreign operas and v cious masquerades, which last are like to be still continued. "I shall now close my Letter with answering the kind conclusion of yours; wherein you are pleased to continue as a Subscriber to whatever I publish; by which I see that distance of place makes no alteration in your friendship. I am just rid of my last volume of the Annales Typographici; and am ready to put to the press a new Edition of Marmora Oxoniensia, by Subscription, every copy Large Paper, the same as what I have used before in the books you have been so kind as to subscribe to. The copies of these books will be as few as I can, and for no other but Subscribers; for I value more the opportunity of experiencing the kindness of my Friends, than the vain name of an Author. I will make bold to acquaint you by a Letter with my Proposals when they are ready. "After having robbed you of some minutes (and it is a pity any moment of that time you spend so usefully and agreeably should be lost) by this homely scribble, give me leave to subscribe myself, with the honest sincerity of a friend, dear worthy Sir, your most humble and most obedient servant, M. MAITTAIRE." "He July 28, 1728. "HONOURED COLLEAGUE, "I received the favour of yours of July 6, and hope now I shall quickly hear of the Flixweed Seed, that I may at the same time return your expence, with thanks, and with an Oration and lecture, to be left at Mr. Bettesworth's. We lose our Domine's here apace, for want of your assistance. Dr. Freind (54 they say) went off on Friday last of a fever; but an imposthume in the thorax last of all broke and suffocated him. So he will ridicule the Inoculators no more, in his noble Histories. And we have lost our noble man-midwife, Dr. Chamberlane, the D's minion; and the curious Dr. Woodward; all, I think, in their prime; and pretty old Dr. Gibbons (78), who did not receive fees with grief, but alacrity. We may be sure they did not want help; but you were not here, to turn the scale right. I hear not a word of Benefactions to the College, notwithstanding the recited losses and previous gains; and, I believe, we shall not get that way a single penny, until Astræa returns among us, as we might well hope, in this Golden Age, which I still hope that the Cavillations at Soissons will not turn into an Iron Age. Benefactions must, and will always, proceed from plain, honest, and good men, and from them only, and not from Politicians, howsoever confederated. I had almost forgot our late loss also of old Dr. Slare, within a year as old as I am, through God's blessing, now 81 and a quarter. Also we have lost the ingenious and worthy Dr. Wellwood, and Dr. Grimbalston. But we are like to have a good and plentiful supply of new Members, thanks to the King's late visit to Cambridge. Six new ones are to be examined next Friday. But I shall tire you. God governs the world; and men of your sense, and knowledge, and industry, need not doubt the best. I am, worthy Sir, your most humble and obedient servant, WALTER HARRIS*." Morpeth, Jan. 22, 1728-9. “SIR, "I was willing to take the first opportunity of making my acknowledgments for the civilities I met with at Grantham. "The motto I put down in haste was suitable enough to those studies I was intent on; but I ought to have remembered the change you have made in your state, which readily occurred to me after I had left you; and then I wished I had changed my Antiquarian into a Congratulatory motto: Felices ter et amplius: The rest you will supply in word and deed, and, I doubt not, be found amongst those whom Horace pronounces so happy. I called at Collingham in my way, and was pleased to find your Account of the Station at Brugh so exactly agreeable to matter of fact. It must, no doubt, be Crocolana. The distance of nine computed miles from Lincoln answers exactly to twelve in the Itinerary, according to the proportion I have generally observed to hold true. I cannot say that I am so well satisfied with respect to the other places in the Sixth Iter. Ad Pontem, according to the number in the Itinerary, should not be above two or three miles from Newark, and Margidunum about eight. I observe that * Author of "A Description of Dublin, 1732." 3 F VOL. II. the |