Weever the dancing-master, Sir Charles Cotterell, Mr. Coxeter, Lady
Pomfret, and Lady Mary Wortley Montague'; and here we might mention the
sad case of Mr. Warburton the herald, whose forte was to find out
valuable English plays. Shortly before his death in 1759 he discovered
that the cook had used up about fifty of the MSS. for covering pies, and
that among them were 'twelve unpublished pieces by Massinger.' Something
may be said too as to the older collections formed in London for the use
of schools. At Westminster, it has been well said, Dean Williams
'enlarged the boundaries of learning.' According to Hackett, he converted
a waste room into a noble library, modelling it 'into a decent shape,'
and furnishing it with a vast number of learned volumes. The best of them
came from the library of Mr. Baker of Highgate, who throughout a very
long life had been gathering 'the best authors of all sciences in their
best editions.' Dean Colet had endowed St. Paul's School with
philological works in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; but these were destroyed
in the great fire, together with the whole library of the High Master.
This was Mr. Samuel Cromleholme, who had the best set of neatly-bound
classics in London; 'he was a great lover of his books, and their loss
hastened the end of his life.' The shelves at Merchant Taylors and in the
Mercers' Chapel were almost as well filled as those at St. Paul's; and
Christ's Hospital at that time had a good plain library in the
mathematical school, with globes and instruments, 'and ships with all
their rigging for the instruction of lads designed for the sea.
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