Note 352 — The Drawing Room. (continued 2)

Archbishop Laud, who has beheaded in the year 1644, had a great fondness for sumptuous decoration in dress, books, and ecclesiastical establishments; which made him suspected of a leaning towards the Roman Catholic religion. His life has been written by Dr. Heylin, in a heavy folio volume of 547 pages; and in which we have a sufficiently prolix account of the political occurrences during Laud's primacy, but rather a sparing, or indeed no, account of his private life and traits of domestic character. In Lloyd's Memoirs of the Sufferers from the year 1637 to 1660 inclusive (1668, fol.) are exhibited the articles of impeachment against the Archbishop; and, amongst them, are the following bibliomaniacal accusations. "Art. 5. Receiving a Bible, with a crucifix embroidered on the cover of it by a lady. Art. 6. A book of popish pictures, two Missals, Pontificals, and Breviaries, which he made use of as a scholar. Art. 7. His (own) admirable Book of Devotion, digested according to the ancient way of canonical hours, &c. Art. 19. The book of Sports, which was published first in King James his reign, before he had any power in the church; and afterward in King Charles his reign, before he had the chief power in the church," &c., pp. 235-237. But if Laud's head was doomed to be severed from his body in consequence of these his bibliomaniacal frailties, what would have been said to the fine copy of one of the Salisbury Primers or Missals, printed by Pynson upon vellum, which once belonged to this archbishop, and is now in the library of St. John's College, Oxford?! Has the reader ever seen the same primate's copy of the Aldine Aristophanes, 1498, in the same place? 'Tis a glorious volume; and I think nearly equals my friend Mr. Heber's copy, once Lord Halifax's, of the same edition. Of Laud's benefactions to the Bodleian Library, the bibliographer will see ample mention made in the Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Angliæ, Hiberniæ, &c., 1697, folio. The following, from Heylin, is worth extracting: "Being come near the block, he (Laud) put off his doublet, &c., and seeing through the chink of the boards that some people were got under the scaffold, about the very place where the block was seated, he called to the officer for some dust to stop them, or to remove the people thence; saying, it was no part of his desire 'that his blood should fall upon the heads of the people.' Never did man put off mortality with a better courage, nor look upon his bloody and malicious enemies with more christian charity." Cyprianus Anglicus; or the Life and Death of Laud; 1668, fol.; p. 536. In the Master's library at St. John's, Oxford, they shew the velvet cap which it is said Laud wore at his execution; and in which the mark of the axe is sufficiently visible. The archbishop was a great benefactor to this college. Mr. H. Ellis, of the Museum, who with myself were "quondam socii" of the same establishment, writes me, that "Among what are called the king's pamphlets in the British Museum, is a fragment of a tract, without title, of fifty-six pages only, imperfect; beginning, 'A briefe examination of a certaine pamphlet lately printed in Scotland, and intituled Ladensium Autocatacrisis,' &c., 'The Cantabarians Self-Conviction.' On the blank leaf prefixed, is the following remark in a hand of the time. 'This Briefe Examen following, was found in the Archbishop's (Laud?) Library, wher the whole impression of these seauen sheets was found, but nether beginning nor ending more then is hearein contained. May 11th, 1644.' This work, (continues Mr. Ellis,) which is a singular and valuable curiosity, is in fact a personal vindication of Archbishop Laud, not only from the slanders of the pamphlet, but from those of the times in general: and from internal evidence could have been written by no one but himself. It is in a style of writing beyond that of the ordinary productions of the day."