uminations.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 74: Oldys, _Diary_, London, 1862, p. 3.]

[Footnote 75: Horace Walpole says that the prints sold for the 'frantic
sum of L1495, 10s.'--_Letters_, London, 1857-59, vol. v. p. 439.]

[Footnote 76: Nichols states that the books were sold by auction under
the name of Messrs. Langford, but actually by Mr. Samuel Paterson, who
compiled the catalogue.--_Anecdotes of literature_, vol. vi. p. 345.]

[Footnote 77: West's country residence was Alscot Park,
Preston-on-Stour, Gloucestershire.]

BENJAMIN HEATH, 1704-1766

Benjamin Heath, who was born at Exeter on the 20th of April 1704, was
the eldest son of Benjamin Heath, a fuller and merchant of that
city.[78] He was educated at the Exeter Grammar School, and afterwards
studied law, with a view of being called to the Bar; but having
inherited a handsome fortune on the death of his father, he abandoned
his intention, and devoted himself to literature, and also to the
formation of a library, which he had commenced at a very early age. In
1752 Heath was elected town-clerk of Exeter, an appointment he held
until his death on the 13th of September 1766. In 1762 the University of
Oxford conferred on him the degree of D.C.L. He was the author of
several works, principally on the Greek and Latin classics and the text
of Shakespeare. Heath in his lifetime divided a portion of his fine
library between two of his sons, but retained a large part of it. Dibdin
in _Bibliomania_ prints an interesting letter, dated Exeter, March 21st,
1738, from Heath to Mr. John Mann of the Hand in Hand Fire Office,
London, asking him to superintend the purchase of some books at a sale
which was shortly to take place, and appending a list of those he
desired, and the prices he was willing to pay for them.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 78: Drake, _Heathiana_. London, 1882.]

HORACE WALPOLE, FOURTH EARL OF ORFORD, 1717-1797

Horatio or Horace Walpole, fourth Earl of Orford (he disliked the name
Horatio, and wrote himself Horace), was the fourth and youngest son of
Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford, by his first wife, Catherine
Shorter, eldest daughter of John Shorter of Bybrook, near Ashford in
Kent. He was born, as he himself tells us, on the 24th of September 1717
O.S. In 1727 he was sent to Eton, where he had for his schoolfellows the
future poets Thomas Gray and Richard West; and eight years later he
proceeded to King's College, Cambridge. Walpole