Anthony Wood gives a pleasant
account of his visit: 'Posting off forthwith he found Sir John Cotton in
his house, joining almost to Westminster Hall: he was then practising on
his lute, and when he had done he came out and received Wood kindly, and
invited him to dinner, and directed him to Mr. Pearson who kept the key.
Here was another trouble; for the said Mr. Pearson being a lodger in the
shop of a bookseller living in Little Britain, Wood was forced to walk
thither, and much ado there was to find him.' The library was afterwards
moved to Essex Street, and then to Ashburnham House in Little Dean's
Yard, where the great fire took place in 1731, which some attributed to
'Dr. Bentley's villainy.' Dean Stanley has told us how the Headmaster of
Westminster, coming to the rescue, saw a figure issue from the burning
house, 'in his dressing-gown, with a flowing wig on his head, and a huge
volume under his arm.' This was Dr. Bentley the librarian, doing his best
to save the Alexandrian MS. of the New Testament. Mr. Speaker Onslow and
some of the other trustees worked hard in the crowd at pumping, breaking
open the presses, and throwing the volumes out at a window. The
destruction was lamentable; but wonders have been done in extending the
shrivelled documents and rendering their ashes legible. The public use of
the collection had been already regulated by Parliament when a
comprehensive Act was passed in 1753, and the nation acquired under one
title the Cottonian Library, Sir Hans Sloane's Museum, the Earl of
Oxford's pamphlets and manuscripts, and all that remained of the ancient
royal collections.
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