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 Vitae 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