which he calls a _Primer_, was purchased for the Earl of Oxford (for
31l. 10s., as I learn from a priced copy of the catalogue), and was
highly valued. To judge from the above description, it must have been a
very beautiful book; and as it does not seem to be at present among the
Harleian collection of MSS. in the British Museum, I should be glad to
learn into whose hands it has fallen. It is _not_ the celebrated volume
of _Hours_ known under the name of the _Bedford Missal_, since that was
purchased by Lord Harley of Lady Worseley, and is now in the possession
of the Rev. Mr. Tobin;--nor is it the book of _Hours_ in the library of
the Duke of Devonshire (described by Dr. Dibbin in the _Bibl.
Decameron_, vol. i. p. 155.), which contains the autograph notes of
Henry VII.;--nor is it the similar volume formerly in the libraries of
George Wilkinson, of Tottenham Green (sold in 1836), and the Rev. Will.
Maskell, and now MS. Add. 17,012. in the British Museum, in which are
seen the autographs of Henry VII. and his Queen, Henry VIII., Catherine
of Aragon, and others;--nor is it the beautiful volume of _Hours_
executed for René d'Anjou, and subsequently presented to Henry VII. by
his chaplain George Strangeways, Archdeacon of Coventry (now in the
British Museum, MS. Eg. 1070.);--nor, lastly, is it the book of _Hours_
in the collection of George III. (No. 9.), which contains the autograph
writing of Henry VIII.

F.M.
B.M., Feb. 19. 1850.


_Bess of Hardwick._--Elizabeth, or Bess of Hardwick, celebrated for her
distaste for celibacy, makes a considerable figure in the histories of
the Cavendish family, who in some degree owed their greatness to her
judicious purchases and careful management of their Derbyshire estates.