Welsh Journals

A NOTE ON THE ASHMOLEAN COLLECTION OF LETTERS ADDRESSED TO EDWARD LHUYD THE most extensive collection of Edward Lhuyd material, in the form of letters and notes, is contained in the so-called Reliquiae Lhuydianae, I-XI, numbered Ashmolean MSS. 1814-1821, 1825, 1829, 1830, at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Ashmolean MSS. 1818, 1819, 1821, that is, Reliquiae V, VI, VIII (this last manuscript has been retained at the Ashmolean Museum), do not concern us here as they contain miscellaneous items, both hand-written and printed, but no letters, while Ashmolean MSS. 1820a and 1820b, Reliquiae VII, are, for the most part, answers to Lhuyd's Parochial Queries and some notes. The bulk of the extant letters received by Lhuyd between 1689 and 1709 are found in Ashmolean MSS. 1814 (A-D), 1815 (E-K), 1816 (L-N), 1817a (O-S), 1817b (T-W), Reliquiae I-IV: Ashmolean MSS. 1829, 1830, Reliquiae X, XI, contain, respectively, correspondence from Brewster, Hugh Jones, Archer, John Aubrey, and from Cole, Fleischer, Gambold, Gryne, Hugh Griffiths, Harrison, Hugh Jones, John Lloyd, written between 1695-1697. Ashmolean MS. 1829, ff.178-179, contains also three extracts from letters written to Lhuyd by William Nicolson and Tancred Robinson, which have been copied into this manuscript apparently by William Huddesford,1 Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, 1755-72, who has added a note, 'The Original Letters are in the Possession of Emanuel Mendes da Costa Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies Lond.' It would have been natural to assume that all these collections of letters and papers would have been retained as official Museum records on Lhuyd's death (in fact, Ashmolean MSS. 1818, 1820b, and 1821 contain items later than Lhuyd's day), had it not been for Mr. Gwyn Walters's discovery that Ashmolean MS. 1825 (Reliquiae IX, Lhuyd's grandfather's letter book) bears a 'Sebright seal' and number and must therefore have been sold as part of the general collection. At some later date, and very fortunately, it found its way back to the Museum. I hope to show that part, at least, of Lhuyd's correspondence has a similar history and that some of the contents of Ashmolean MSS. 1814- 1817b were retrieved from the Sebright Library. Ashmole MSS. 1829, 1830, are not included in this discussion as they appear to have 1 There are examples of his hand in Bodleian MSS. Top. Oxf. e. 19, and Add. A 222.