ooks and of
learning, we have this pleasing desideratum yet to be supplied--I must
go on, in my usual desultory manner, in rambling among libraries, and
discoursing about books and book-collectors. As we enter upon the
reign of HENRY IV., we cannot avoid the mention of that distinguished
library hunter, and book describer, JOHN BOSTON of Bury;[268] who may
justly be considered the Leland of his day. Gale, if I recollect
rightly, unaccountably describes his bibliomaniacal career as having
taken place in the reign of Henry VII.; but Bale and Pits, from whom
Tanner has borrowed his account, unequivocally affix the date of 1410
to Boston's death; which is three years before the death of Henry. It
is allowed, by the warmest partizans of the reformation, that the
dissolution of the monastic libraries has unfortunately rendered the
labours of Boston of scarcely any present utility.

[Footnote 268: It is said of BOSTON that he visited almost
every public library, and described the titles of every book
therein, with punctilious accuracy. Pits (593) calls him
"vir pius, litteratus, et bonarum litterarum fautor ac
promotor singularis." Bale (p. 549, edit. 1559) has even the
candour to say, "mira sedulitate et diligentia omnes omnium
regni monasteriorum bibliothecas invisit: librorum collegit
titulos, et authorum eorum nomina: quae omnia alphabetico
disposuit ordine, et quasi unam omnium bibliothecam fecit."
What Lysander observes above is very true: "non enim
dissimulanda (says Gale) monasteriorum subversio, quae brevi
spatio subsecuta est--libros omnes dispersit et BOSTONI
providam diligentiam, maxima ex parte, inutilem reddidit."
_Rer. Anglicar. Scrip. Vet._, vol. iii., praef. p. 1. That
indefatigable antiquary, Thomas Hearne, acknowledges that,
in spite of all his researches in the Bodleian library, he
was scarcely able to discover any thing of Boston's which
related to Benedictus Abbas--and still less of his own
compositions. _Bened. Abbat._ vol. i., praef. p. xvii. It is
a little surprising that Leland should have omitted to
notice him. But the reader should consult Tanner's _Bibl.
Britan._, p. xvii., 114.]

There is a curious anecdote of this period in Rymer's Foedera,[269]
about taking off the duty upon _six barrels of books_, sent by a Roman
Cardinal to the prior of the Conventual church of St. Trinity,
Norwich