Hearne's common-place books are an amusing source of information
about Oxford society in the years of Queen Anne, and of the
Hanoverian usurper. Tom Hearne was a Master of Arts of St. Edmund's
Hall, and at one time Deputy-Librarian of the Bodleian. He lost this
post because he would not take "the wicked oaths" required of him,
but he did not therefore leave Oxford. His working hours were passed
in preparing editions of antiquarian books, to be printed in very
limited number, on ordinary and LARGE PAPER. It was the joy of Tom's
existence to see his editions become first scarce, then VERY SCARCE,
while the price augmented in proportion to the rarity. When he was
not reading in his rooms he was taking long walks in the country,
tracing Roman walls and roads, and exploring Woodstock Park for the
remains of "the labyrinth," as he calls the Maze of Fair Rosamund.
In these strolls he was sometimes accompanied by undergraduates, even
gentlemen of noble family, "which gave cause to some to envy our
happiness." Hearne was a social creature, and had a heart, as he
shows by the entry about the death of his "very dear friend, Mr.
Thomas Cherry, A.M., to the great grief of all that knew him, being a
gentleman of great beauty, singular modesty, of wonderful good
nature, and most excellent principles."

The friends of Hearne were chiefly, perhaps solely, what he calls
"honest men," supporters of the Stuart family, and always ready to
drink his Majesty's (King James') health. They would meet in
"Antiquity Hall," an old house near Wadham, and smoke their honest
pipes. They held certain of the opinions of "the Hebdomadal
Meeting," satirised by Steele in the Spectator (No. 43). "We are
much offended at the Act for importing French wines. A bottle or two
of good solid Edifying Port, at honest George's, made a Night