Notes and Queries, Number 24, April 13, 1850

Отрывок из книги

Reading for a different purpose in the domestic papers of Charles II.'s reign in the State Paper Office, I came upon a letter from Thomas Skinner, dated Colchester, Jan. 30. 1677, of which I will give you what I have preserved in my notes; and that is all that is of any interest.

It is a letter to the Secretary of State, asking for employment, and recommending himself by what he had done for Monk's memory. He had previously written some account of Monk, and he describes an interview with Lord Bath (the Sir John Grenville of the Restoration); in which his Lordship expressed his approval of the book.

.....

3. The previous account of Monk, which gained Lord Bath's approval, and led to Monk's son soliciting him to write a life, is probably Skinner's addition of a third part to Bate's Elenchus Motuum, to which he also probably refers in the opening of his Preface to the Life of Monk:—

4. It appears from Skinner's letter, that his original intention was to write a Life in Latin. Webster edited the Life which we have, from a copy in English found in the study of Mr. Owen, late curate at Bocking in Essex, and supposed to be in Skinner's handwriting; and he had seen another copy, agreeing literally with the former, which had been transcribed by Shelton, formerly rector of St. James's in Colchester; and which, after Mr. Shelton's death, became the property of Mr. Great, an apothecary in Colchester. (Webster published in 1723.)

.....