kew, M.D., was born at Kendal, Westmoreland, in the year
1722. His father was Dr. Adam Askew, an eminent physician of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He received his education at Sedbergh School, the
Grammar School of Newcastle, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He took
the degree of M.B. in 1745, and that of M.D. five years later. After
leaving the University he went to Leyden, where he remained twelve
months studying medicine, and then undertook an extensive tour on the
Continent, during which he purchased a large number of valuable books
and manuscripts. Dibdin says he was well known as a collector in most
parts of Europe. In 1750, having finished his travels, Askew returned to
Cambridge, where he practised for some time as a physician. He
afterwards removed to London, where, aided by the patronage and support
of his friend Dr. Mead, he soon acquired a considerable reputation, but
he is better known as a scholar than a physician. Dr. Parr entertained a
very high opinion of his attainments in Greek and Roman literature.
Askew was a Fellow and Registrar of the College of Physicians, and also
a Fellow of the Royal Society. He died at Hampstead on the 27th of
February 1774.

Dr. Askew was an indefatigable collector, and filled his house from the
ground floor to the attics with rare and handsomely bound books. The
library, which numbered about seven thousand volumes, was extremely rich
in early editions of the Greek and Latin classics, and its owner was
ambitious that it should contain every edition of a Greek author. It
comprised the first editions of the _De Officiis_ of Cicero, the Natural
History of Pliny, Cornelius Nepos, the History of Ammianus Marcellinus,
the Fables of AEsop, the Works of Plato, and of many other Greek and
Latin writers; the greater number of them being printed on vellum. A
vellum copy of the _Rationale_ of Durandus, printed by Fust and
Schoeffer at Mentz in 1459; a first edition of the _Teseide_ of
Boccaccio, printed on vellum at Ferrara in 1475; a copy of the _Greek
Anthology_, also on vellum, printed at Florence in 1494; _Tully of Old
Age_, printed by Caxton, and a fine vellum copy of the _Tewrdannck_,
were a few of the other notable books in the collection.

The printed books in the library were sold by Baker and Leigh at their
auction rooms in York Street, Covent Garden, on the 13th of February
1775, and the nineteen following days. The lots were three thousand five
hundred and seventy in number, and re