his name subjoined, shew a delicate taste, an
active research, and, if we except his _Hermetical_ propensities, a
fortunate termination. His "opus maximum" is the _Order of the
Garter_; a volume of great elegance both in the composition and
decorations. Your copy of it, I perceived, was upon _large paper_; and
cost you--

[Footnote 349: It remains here to make good the above
serious charges brought against the ancient and worthy
family of the FERRARS; and this it is fully in my power to
do, from the effectual aid afforded me by Dr. Wordsworth, in
the fifth volume of his _Ecclesiastical Biography_; where
the better part of Dr. Peckard's Life of Nicholas Ferrar is
published, together with some valuable and original addenda
from the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth. Be it, however,
known to Dr. Wordsworth, and the reviewer of the
Ecclesiastical Biography in the _Quarterly Review_, vol.
iv., pp. 93, 103, that Hearne had previously published a
copious and curious account of the monastery at Little
Gidding in the supplement to his _Thom. Caii. Vind.
Antiquit. Oxon._, 1730, 8vo., vol. ii.: which, as far as I
have had an opportunity of examining Dr. Wordsworth's
account, does not appear to have been known to this latter
editor. We will now proceed to the bibliomaniacal anecdotes
of NICHOLAS FERRAR, SENIOR AND JUNIOR. "Amongst other
articles of instruction and amusement, Mr. FERRAR (senior)
entertained an ingenious _Book-binder_ who taught the
family, females as well as males, the whole art and skill of
_book-binding_, gilding, lettering, and what they called
pasting-printing, by the use of the rolling press. By this
assistance he composed a full harmony, or concordance, of
the four evangelists, _adorned with many beautiful
pictures_, which required more than a year for the
composition, and was divided into 150 heads or chapters."
There is then a minute account of the mechanical process (in
which the nieces assisted) how, by means of "great store of
the best and strongest white paper, nice knives and
scissars, pasting and rolling-press" work--the arduous task
was at length accomplished: and Mary Collet, one of Mr.
Ferrar's nieces, put the grand finishing stroke to the
whole, by "doing a deed"--which has snapt asunder the
threads of Penelope's web for