e Third Voyage of Vespucius in
Latin; and two very interesting documents relating to the Spanish
Armada--one being an original letter from the Lords of the Council to
the Lord High Admiral, regarding the preparation of the fleet, dated
July 21, 1588; and the other, a Resolution of a Council of War, held by
the admirals and captains of the fleet which dispersed the Armada, dated
August 1, 1588. The former of these papers is signed by Chr. Hatton
(Cancs.), W. Burghley, F. Knollys, T. Heneage, Poulet, and J. Wolley;
the latter by C. Howard, George Cumberland, T. Howarde, Edmonde
Sheffeylde, Fr. Drake, Edw. Hoby, John Hawkyns, and Thomas Fenner.

There is a catalogue of Mr. Grenville's library in three parts (London,
1842-72). Parts 1 and 2 were compiled by Messrs. Payne and Foss, the
booksellers of Pall Mall, who bought largely for him; and part 3 by Mr.
W.B. Rye, the late Keeper of the Department of Printed Books, British
Museum.

A portrait of Mr. Grenville by Hoppner has been engraved for Fisher's
_National Portrait Gallery_. There is also a painting of him by Phillips
at Althorp, and a miniature by C. Manzini in the National Portrait
Gallery.

A bust of him, presented by Sir David Dundas, is placed in the room in
the British Museum occupied by his library.

FRANCIS DOUCE, 1757-1834

Francis Douce, who was born in 1757, was a son of Thomas Douce, one of
the Six Clerks of the Court of Chancery. He was first sent to a school
at Richmond, conducted by a Mr. Lawton, author of a work on Egypt, and
afterwards to 'a French academy, kept by a pompous and ignorant
Life-Guardsman, with a view to his learning merchants' accounts, which
were his aversion.' On leaving school he studied for the bar, and for
some time held an appointment, under his father, in the Six Clerks'
Office, but the post was not very congenial to him, as from an early age
he devoted himself to books and antiquities, and he also had a great
passion for music. His father, who died in 1799, bequeathed the greater
part of his property, which was very considerable, to his elder son,
leaving but a comparatively small amount to be divided between Francis
and his sisters, but in 1823 Nollekens, the sculptor, left Douce so
large a portion of his fortune that at the decease of the latter his
property was valued at nearly eighty thousand pounds. In 1807 he
succeeded the Rev. Robert Nares as Keeper of the Manuscripts in the
British Museum, but resigned the p