d illustrations; of which I think the
_Tatler_ only has appeared, and to which his lordship contributed
some valuable communications.

[350] I know that not only this lot of _Oldys's manuscripts_, but a
great quantity of _original contributions_ of whole lives, intended
for the "Biographia Britannica," must lie together, unless they have
been destroyed as waste paper. These biographical and literary
curiosities were often supplied by the families or friends of
eminent persons. Some may, perhaps, have been reclaimed by their
owners. I am informed there was among them an interesting collection
of the correspondence of Locke; and I could mention several lives
which were prepared.

[351] This collection, and probably the other letters, have come
down to us, no doubt, with the manuscripts of this collector,
purchased for the British Museum. The correspondence of Dr.
Davenant, the political writer, with his son, the envoy, turns on
one perpetual topic, his son's and his own advancement in the state.

[352] It is a stout octavo volume of 400 pages, containing a good
selection of specimens from the earliest era, concluding with Sam.
Daniel, in the reign of James I. Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper was the wife
of an auctioneer, who had been a chum of Oldys's in the Fleet
Prison, where he died a debtor; and it was to aid his widow that
Oldys edited this book.

[353] William Thompson, the poet of "Sickness," and other poems; a
warm lover of our elder bards, and no vulgar imitator of Spenser. He
was the revivor of Bishop Hall's Satires, in 1753, by an edition
which had been more fortunate if conducted by his friend Oldys, for
the text is unfaithful, though the edition followed was one borrowed
from Lord Oxford's library, probably by the aid of Oldys.

[354] Malone's Life of Dryden, p. 420.

[355] This is one of _Oldys's Manuscripts_; a thick folio of titles,
which has been made to do its duty, with small thanks from those who
did not care to praise the service which they derived from it. It
passed from Dr. Berkenhout to George Steevens, who lent it to Gough.
It was sold for five guineas. The useful work of ten years of
attention given to it! The antiquary Gough alludes to it with his
usual discernment. "Among these titles of books and pamphlets about
London are many _purely historical_, and many of _to