T. GATAKER, Jane. 203 " Some of these," says he, " peradventure, if they be not abroad already, might not be unworthy to see the light, nor should I be unwilling, if they should be so esteemed, to bend any poor and weak endeavours that way. But, of that orationto the pope, certain lines, not many, are pared away in my copy, though so as the sense of them may be guessed and gathered from the context ; and in the other treatises there are many faults that cannot easily, or possibly some of them without help of other copies, be amended. My desire is to understand from you, whether, at your being in England, for I wot well how careful you were to make inquiry after such monuments, you lighted upon any of these, and where, or in whose hands they were." In another letter to Usher dated from Rotherhithe, June 24, 1617, he writes thus:-" I esteem myself much beholden unto you, as for your former love, so for this your late kind- ness, in vouchsafing me so large a letter, with so full instruc- tions concerning this business, that I was bold to break unto you, though the same, as by your information appeareth, were wholly superfluous. True it is, that though not fully pur- posed to do ought therein myself, willing rather to have offered mine endeavours and furtherance to some others." Having mentioned two of the manuscripts, he adds, " But I perceive now, by your instructions, that the one is out already, and the other perfect and fit for the press, in the hands of one better furnished and fitter for the performance of such work than myself, whom I would therefore incite to send what lie hath perfect abroad, than by his perfect copy, having pieced out mine imperfect one, to take' his labours out of his hand. I have heard, since I wrote to you by Mr. Bill, that Sir Henry Savile is about to publish Bishop Grosthead's epistles, out of a manuscript remaining in Merton college library. If I meet with your countryman Malachy, at any time, I will not be unmindful of your request. And if any good office may be performed by me for you here, either about the impression of your learned and religious labours, so esteemed and desired, not of myself alone but of many others of greater judgment than myself, or in any other employment that my weak ability may extend itself unto, I shall be ready and glad upon any occasion to do my best therein.". Dr. Usher and Mr. Gataker had an ardent predilection for publishing the remains of ancient divines, which introduced them to an acquaintance with each other, and occasioned their Parr's Life of Usher, p. 57-76.
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