Note 311 — The Drawing Room.

"This Robert Wakefield was the prime linguist of his time, having obtained beyond the seas the Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac tongues. In one thing he is to be commended, and that is this, that he carefully preserved divers books of Greek and Hebrew at the dissolution of religious houses, and especially some of those in the library of Ramsey abbey, composed by Laurence Holbecke, monk of that place, in the reign of Henry IV. He died at London 8th October, 1537, leaving behind him the name of Polypus, as Leland is pleased to style him, noting that he was of a witty and crafty behaviour." Wood's Hist. of Colleges and Halls, p. 429, Gutch's edit.