Note 363 — The Drawing Room. (continued 2)

As I have already presented the public with some brief account respecting Bishop Fell, and sharpened the appetites of Grangerites to procure rather a rare portrait of the same prelate (See Introd. to the Classics, vol. i., 89), it remains only to add, in the present place, that Hearne, in his Historia Vitæ et Regni Ricardi II., 1729, 8vo., p. 389, has given us a curious piece of information concerning this eminent bibliomaniac, which may not be generally known. His authority is Anthony Wood. From this latter we learn that, when Anthony and the Bishop were looking over the History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, to correct it for the press, Fell told Wood that "Wicliffe was a grand dissembler; a man of little conscience; and what he did, as to religion, was more out of vain glory, and to obtain unto him a name, than out of honesty—or to that effect." Can such a declaration, from such a character, be credited? Bishop More has a stronger claim on our attention and gratitude. Never has there existed an episcopal bibliomaniac of such extraordinary talent and fame in the walk of Old English Literature!—as the reader shall presently learn. The bishop was admitted of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1662. In 1691, he became Bishop of Norwich; and was translated to Ely in 1707; but did not survive the translation above seven years. How soon and how ardently the passion for collecting books possessed him it is out of my present power to make the reader acquainted. But that More was in the zenith of his bibliomaniacal reputation while he filled the see of Norwich is unquestionable; for thus writes Strype: "The Right Reverend, the Lord Bishop of Norwich, the possessor of a great and curious collection of MSS. and other ancient printed pieces (little inferior to MSS. in regard of their scarceness) hath also been very considerably assistant to me as well in this present work as in others;" &c. Preface (sign. a 2) to Life of Aylmer, 1701, 8vo. Burnet thus describes his fine library when he was Bishop of Ely. "This noble record was lent me by my reverend and learned brother, Dr. More, Bishop of Ely, who has gathered together a most valuable treasure, both of printed books and manuscripts, beyond what one can think that the life and labour of one man could have compassed; and which he is as ready to communicate, as he has been careful to collect it." Hist. of the Reformation, vol. iii., p. 46. It seems hard to reconcile this testimony of Burnet with the late Mr. Gough's declaration, that "The bishop collected his library by plundering those of the clergy in his diocese; some he paid with sermons or more modern books; others only with 'quid illiterati cum libris.'" On the death of More, his library was offered to Lord Oxford for 8000l.; and how that distinguished and truly noble collector could have declined the purchase of such exquisite treasures—unless his own shelves were groaning beneath the weight of a great number of similar volumes—is difficult to account for. But a public-spirited character was not wanting to prevent the irreparable dispersion of such book-gems: and that patriotic character was George I.!—who gave 6000l. for them, and presented them to the public library of the University of Cambridge!—