in those times that many of our choicest MSS. were conveyed out
of the land beyond sea. Of this our Archbishop complained often; taking
it heavily, as he wrote in one of his letters to Secretary Cecyl, "that
the nation was deprived of such choice monuments, so much as he saw they
were in those days, partly by being spent in shops, and used as waste
paper, or conveyed over beyond sea, by some who considered more their
own private gain than the honour of their country." This was the reason
he took so much pleasure in the said Secretary's library; "that such
MSS. might be preserved within the realm, and not sent over by covetous
stationers, or spoiled in the apothecaries' shops." ... For the
retrieving of these ancient treatises and MSS. as much as might be, the
Archbishop had such abroad, as he appointed to lay out for them
wheresoever they were to be met with, as was shewn before.

'But he procured not a few himself from such in his own time as were
studious in antiquity: as, namely, several Saxon books from Robert
Talbot,[6] a great collector of such ancient writings in King Henry the
Eighth's time, and an acquaintance of Leland, Bale, etc. Some of which
writings the said Talbot had from Dr. Owen,[7] the said King Henry's
physician; and some our archbishop likewise had from him; as appears in
one of the Cotton volumes:[8] which is made up of a collection of
various charters, etc., written out by Joh. Joscelyn.[9] Where at some
of these MSS. collected, the said Joscelyn adds these notes, _The copy
of this Dr. Talbot had of Dr. Owen. The Archbishop of Canterbury had
this charter from Dr. Owen, etc_. There be other collections of this
nature now remaining in Benet College, sometime belonging to this
Talbot, which we may presume the Archbishop, partly by his own interest,
and partly by the interest of Bale, Caius, and others, obtained;
particularly his annotations upon that part of Antoninus's _Itinerarium_
which belongs to Britain. And another _De Chartis quibusdam regum
Britannorum_. These are mentioned by Anthony a Wood.

'And he kept such in his family as could imitate any of the old
characters admirably well. One of these was Lyly, an excellent writer,
and that could counterfeit any antique writing. Him the Archbishop
customarily used to make old books complete, that wanted some pages;
that the character might seem to be the same throughout. So that he
acquired at length an admirable collection of ancient MSS. and very