Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/246

172 Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, then Lord Bishop of Lincoln, in pursuance of a command from the late Queen, of blessed memory, to take a catalogue of the Royal Library at St. James's. We began it in October 1693; finished, and had it transcribed, and presented to Her Majesty by the Easter following; during all which time we had the key of the said Library constantly in our keeping, as also some weeks longer. And then, as we were directed, we delivered it up to Sir John Lowther, now the Right Hon. the Lord Lonsdale, who was at that time Vice-Chamberlain to His Majesty.

It is plain then, from the date of a public record, joined with Mr Postlethwayt's and Mr Wright's testimonies, that I had not actual custody of the Royal Library before May. For in that year Easter fell upon April the 8th. And it's deposed here, that the key of the library was not delivered to the Vice-Chamberlain, from whose hands I was to receive it, till some weeks after Easter. And in the same May