Arundelian library, the rare literary accumulation of the noble Howards; the last possessor of which had so little inclination for books, that the treasures which his ancestors had collected lay open at the mercy of any purloiner.  This degenerate heir to the literature and the name of Howard seemed perfectly relieved when Evelyn sent his marbles, which were perishing in his gardens, to Oxford, and his books, which were diminishing daily, to the Royal Society!

The SOCIETY of ANTIQUARIES might create a deeper interest, could we penetrate to its secret history:  it was interrupted, and suffered to expire by some obscure cause of political jealousy.  It long ceased to exist, and was only reinstated almost in our own days.  The revival of learning under Edward the Sixth suffered a severe check from the papistical government of Mary; but under Elizabeth a happier era opened to our literary pursuits.  At this period several students of the Inns of Court, many of whose names are illustrious for their rank or their genius, formed a weekly society, which they called “the Antiquaries’ College.”  From very opposite quarters we are furnished with many curious particulars of their literary intercourse:  it is delightful to discover Rawleigh borrowing manuscripts from the library of Sir Robert Cotton, and Selden deriving his studies from the collections of Rawleigh.  Their mode of proceeding has even been preserved.  At every meeting they proposed a question or two respecting the history or the antiquities of the English nation, on which each member was expected, at the subsequent meeting, to deliver a dissertation or an opinion.  They also “supped together.”  From the days of Athenaeus to those of Dr. Johnson, the pleasures of the table have enlivened those of literature.  A copy of each question and a summons for the place of conference were sent to the absent members.  The opinions were carefully registered by the secretary, and the dissertations deposited in their archives.  One of these summonses to Stowe, the antiquary, with his memoranda on the back, exists in the Ashmolean Museum.  I shall preserve it with all its verbal aerugo.

“SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.

“To MR. STOWE. 
“The place appointed for a conference upon the question
followinge ys att Mr. Garter’s house, on Frydaye the 2nd. of
this November, being Al Soule’s daye, at 2 of the clocke in
the afternoone, where your oppinioun in wrytinge or otherwise
is expected.

“The question is,

“Of the antiquitie, etimologie, and priviledges of parishes
in Englande.

“Yt ys desyred that you give not notice hereof to any, but
such as haue the like somons.”

Such is the summons; the memoranda in the handwriting of Stowe are these:—­

[630.  Honorius Romanus, Archbyshope of Canterbury, devided his province into parishes; he ordeyned clerks and prechars, comaunding them that they should instruct the people, as well by good lyfe, as by doctryne.