Gormund. His pieces upon Tho. Coriat the • Odcumbian Traveller. Wit and Mirth, or Pleasant Fests, &c. As to the author, he is faid to have been a Gloucestershire man, and was bred a failor; he was at the taking ⚫ of Cadiz under the earl of Effex, in 1596, • and at Flores, in the Island-Voyage, next year: he was befides in Germany, Bohemia, Scotland, &c. He was many years collector for the lieutenant of the tower, of the wines which were his fee from all fhips which brought them up the Thames; but was at laft difcharged because he would not purchase the place at more than it was worth. He calls himself the King's Water-poet and the Queen's Water-man, and did wear the badge of the royal arms. After the beheading of King Charles, he kept a public-house in Phenix alley, near Long-acre, and fet up the Mourning-Crown, for his fign; but found it fafer to take it down again and hang up his own head inftead of it. It is faid he died about the year 1654*.'

Of

Taylor, though illiterate, was a man of understanding, but a fingular humourift. In his account of Wood the great eater, above-mentioned, he relates, that he was very near engaging him to eat at one time as much black pudding as would reach cross the Thames, at any place to be fixed on by Taylor himself, betwixt London and Richmond. Being a waterman by trade, he had a mortal hatred to coaches, and wrote a bitter but very diverting invective against them; and upon a fuggeftion that the watermen were starving for want of employment, preferred a petition to King James I. which was referred to certain commiflioners, of whom Sir Francis Bacon was one, the object whereof was, to obtain a prohibition of all playhoufes but thofe on the bank fide, that the greater

part

Of this ftupendous work the Harleian catalogue, it is difficult to give an idea, fave by fuch extracts as those above, and others in Latin of a like kind. Prefixed to it is a Latin dedication to lord Carteret by Mr. Michael Maittaire, dated February 1742-3, and after that, a preface, doubtless drawn up by Johnson, beginning To folicit a subscription for a catalogue ' of books expofed to fale,' wherein with great learning and no lefs judgment, he points out the excellence and extent of the collection, urges thofe arguments which fhould induce men of learning to become purchasers, and anticipates whatever objections could be made to this uncommon fpecies of catalogue, and the method of circulating it.

The feveral articles are diftributed in the order of a common place, that does honour to Johnfon and Maittaire, who are supposed to have been jointly the framers of it. Here follows a fpecimen of the subdivision of the firft of the heads therein contained, viz. Theology.

part of those who were defirous of feeing plays might be compelled to go by water. Taylor himself folicited this petition, and was prepared to oppofe before the commiffioners the reafons of the players, but the commiffion was diffolved before it came to a hearing.

Gallica.

Veterum.

Recentiorum.

Patres Græci & Scriptores Ecclefiaftici.
Latini & Scriptores Ecclefiaftici.

Concilia.

Controverfie Theologica.

Contra Judeos.

Græcorum Scripta contra Latinos.

Contra Ecclef. Roman.

Scriptores pro Romana Ecclefia.

Libri de Jefuitarum Moribus.

Libri de Ritibus, Cæremoniis et Inftitutis Ecclefiaft.

De Ritibus Græcorum.

Liturgiæ Græcorum.

De Ritibus Rom. eccl. &c.

Liturgia.

Miffalia Angliæ, five ad ufum Ecclefiæ Sa

rifburienfis.

Miffalia Romana.

Miffalia variarum Ecclefiarum.

Liturgiæ orientalium Ecclefiarum.

Breviaria.

Ritualia.

Proceffionalia.

Antiphonaria.

Litaniæ.

Ceremonalia & Paftoralia.

Officia Mariæ Virginis.

Horæ Romanæ.

Hora Sarifburienfis.

Manualia.

Hymnorum libri.

Scriptores de Trinitate.
Theologia Gallica.

Scriptores de Ritibus Judaicis.

The catalogue having paffed the prefs, turned out to be very voluminous, and being of a fingular kind, Ofborne hoped to be able to make the public pay for it; to this end it was, that he directed Johnfon to draw up the preface, giving an account of the contents of the library, and containing a variety of arguments to vindicate a folicitation for a fubfcription, that is to VOL. I.

L

fay,

fay, a demand of five fhillings for each volume of the catalogue, to defray the expence of printing it; the volume or volumes fo purchased, to be taken in exchange for any book rated at the fame value. This paper, of which a character has already been given, was, as I conjecture, a precurfor to the catalogue, and was with great industry circulated throughout the kingdom. It anfwered its end; the catalogue was printed in five octavo volumes, the collectors and lovers of books bought it, and Ofborne was reimbursed.

While the catalogue was compiling, Johnson was further employed by Ofborne to felect from the many thoufand volumes of which the library confifted, all fuch fmall tracts and fugitive pieces as were of greatest value or were most scarce, with a view to the reprinting and publishing them under the title of the Harleian Mifcellany. To recommend a fubfcription for printing the collection, proposals were published containing an account of the undertaking, and an enumeration of its contents, penned by Johnfon with great art; which being very fhort, may itself be deemed a fugitive piece, and is therefore here inferted.

It has been for a long time a very juft complaint among the learned, that a multitude of valuable productions, published in fmall pamphlets, or in fingle fheets, are in a fhort time, too often by accidents or negligence, deftroyed and entirely loft; and that thofe authors, whofe reverence for the public has 'hindered them from fwelling their works with repetitions, or incumbering them with fuperfluities, and who, therefore, deferve the praife and gratitude of