ces, several of
which are very antient, and written on Vellum. Also, a great number of
Pedigrees of Noble Families, etc. With many other Curiosities. Which
will be Sold by Auction the 22nd Day of February 1730-1 at the Bedford
Coffee-house, in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden. Beginning every
Evening at Five a-Clock. By John Wilcox, Bookseller in Little Britain.'

The sale appears to have lasted about a fortnight, and was followed by a
small supplementary one on March the 19th, of 'Some Curiosities and
Manuscripts omitted in the previous Catalogue.' A copy of the sale
catalogue, with the prices and the names of some of the purchasers in
manuscript, is to be found in the British Museum.

Although Le Neve was an ardent collector and compiled a considerable
number of works on heraldry and topography, many of which are preserved
in the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, Heralds' College, and the
Record Office, he does not appear to have printed anything. His list of
_Pedigrees of Knights made by King Charles II., King James II., King
William III. and Queen Mary, King William alone, and Queen Anne_, was
edited by Dr. G.W. Marshall for the Harleian Society in 1873.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 59: Edwards, _Lives of the Founders of the British Museum_, p.
308.]

[Footnote 60: _Memoir of Oldys_, etc. London, 1862, p. 76.]

ROBERT HARLEY, FIRST EARL OF OXFORD, 1661-1724

AND

EDWARD HARLEY, SECOND EARL OF OXFORD, 1689-1741

Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, who was born in Bow Street, Covent
Garden, on the 5th of December 1661, was the eldest son of Sir Edward
Harley, K.B., who was Governor of Dunkirk after the Restoration.
Entering Parliament in 1689, in 1701 he was elected Speaker of the House
of Commons; in 1710 he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in
1711 he was created Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, and made Lord High
Treasurer, from which post he was dismissed in 1714. In 1713 he received
the Order of the Garter. He was impeached by the House of Commons in
1715; acquitted without being brought to a trial in 1717, and died at
his house in Albemarle Street, London, on the 21st of May 1724.

[Illustration: ONE OF THE BOOK-PLATES OF ROBERT HARLEY AS A COMMONER.]

Harley was the greatest collector of his time, and formed a splendid
library, which, at the time of his death, besides the printed books,
contained more than six thousand volumes of manuscripts, and an immense
number of charters, rolls,