Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/309

 tiquities, and bibliography. His acquirements in palæography caused him to be in request for copying documents and to assist in the arrangement of the records in the Tower. He was a frequent contributor to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’ Although somewhat blunt in manner, students found in him a ready and accomplished helper. His friend Nichols (Gentleman's Magazine, lxxiv. 1094) pays a touching tribute to his good heart and benevolent character. He was of tall and bulky figure, as is shown by his portrait (ib. 1804, lxxiv. 1093). A friend tells a long story (ib. 1811, p. 319) about a young lady who was reproved for her want of attention when being shown the ‘curiosities’ by Ayscough, ‘than whom perhaps a kinder-hearted, better-humoured man never existed,’ and ‘who, although an old bachelor, was a great admirer of beauty.’ One of the duties of the assistant librarians was to take round the parties of visitors, and Ayscough, unlike some of his brother officers, seems to have taken an interest in this service.

Besides two contributions to the ‘Archæologia’ (1797) and his share in the production of several books, Ayscough published the following works: 1. ‘A Catalogue of the MSS. preserved in the British Museum hitherto undescribed, consisting of 5,000 volumes, including the collections of Sir Hans Sloane, the Rev. Thomas Birch, and about 500 volumes bequeathed, presented, or purchased at various times,’ London, 1782, 2 vols. 4to. 2. ‘Remarks on the Letters from an American Farmer; or a detection of the errors of Mr. J. Hector St. John, pointing out the pernicious tendency of those letters to Great Britain,’ London, 1783, 8vo (Anon.). 3. ‘A General Index to the Monthly Review from its commencement to the end of the 70th volume [1749–84],’ London, 1786; a continuation down to the 81st volume (1784–9) was compiled by Ayscough in 1796, 8vo; and there is a continuation by another hand down to 1816. 4. ‘A General Index to the first fifty-six volumes of the Gentleman's Magazine, from its commencement in 1731 to the end of 1786,’ London, 1789, 2 vols. 8vo; continued by Nichols to 1818, 2 vols. 8vo, with an index to the plates (1731–1818), by Ch. St. Barbe. 5. ‘An Index to the remarkable words and passages made use of by Shakespeare, calculated to point out the different meanings to which the words are applied,’ London, 1790, roy. 8vo; reprinted in Dublin 1791, and ‘second edition, revised and enlarged,’ London, 1827, demy 8vo; the last is adapted to the edition of the plays published in 1823 by the booksellers. 6. ‘A general index to the first 20 volumes of the British Critic, in two parts; part i. contains a list of all the books reviewed, part ii. an index to the extracts, criticism, &c.,’ London, 1804, 8vo (Anon.), continued by Dr. Blagdon.

[Memoir of Ayscough contributed by Nichols to Gent. Mag. lxxiv. 1093–5, revised by Chalmers and reproduced in Literary Anecdotes (ix. 54–6). See also Gent. Mag. li. 69, 117, liii. 982, 1014, 1036, lxxiv. 518, lxxxi. 319; and General Index, v. 8; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes and Illustrations; Description of Works printed by Record Commission, 1831; S.D.U.K. Biog. Dict.; Allibone's Dict. of English Literature.]  AYSCOUGH, WILLIAM, LL.D. (d. 1450), bishop of Salisbury, is believed to have come of an ancient Lincolnshire family seated at Kelsey. The date of his birth is unknown, and the only thing which gives an interest to his name is the manner of his death. Indeed all that is recorded of him before he was made a bishop is that his name occurs in the list of prebendaries of Sutton in Lincoln Cathedral, where he was installed on 10 Nov. 1436. But on 11 Feb. 1438 he was promoted by papal bull to the bishopric of Salisbury, and was consecrated at Windsor on 20 July following; on which promotion he gave up his prebend. He was Henry VI's confessor, and appears to have been constantly called to council by that king, whom he married to Margaret of Anjou, at Titchfield, on 22 April 1445. He was also one of the bishops who examined Eleanor Cobham, the wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, for sorcery. His continual residence at court seems to have been the principal cause of complaint against him in his own diocese, where bishops were expected to keep open house with the profuse hospitality of the middle ages. It was, in fact, a novelty in those days for a bishop to be a king's confessor; and it exposed him to the further criticism that if he was the king's confessor and an influential member of the council he was responsible for everything that was done amiss. Nothing but covetousness, it was believed, could have reconciled him to the atmosphere of the court if he had given the king good advice without effect. These feelings found a vent one day when he really did visit his diocese. In that year of civil tumult, 1450, at the very time that Jack Cade and his followers were upon Blackheath just before they entered London, the bishop said mass at Edington, in Wiltshire, on 29 June, the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. The sacred rite was scarcely completed when the people in church dragged him from the altar and