¹ Hansard, 3rd ser., 16 (1832), cols. 1340–41; Hansard, 3rd ser., 17 (1833), col. 1003.

² Spater, George, William Cobbett: The Poor Man's Friend, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1982) 2: 539–41Google Scholar; Schweizer, Karl W. and Osborne, John W., Cobbett in his Times (Leicester, 1990), p. 126Google Scholar.

³ Hansard, 3rd ser., 17 (1833), col. 1003.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Colley, Linda, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 (London and New Haven, 1992), pp. 155 ffGoogle Scholar. Iain Pears, similarly, explains, as background before going on to other matters, that he mainly treats the aristocracy and middling sort because they “increasingly saw themselves as the cultural, social, and political core of the nation,‘citizens’ in the Greek sense with the other ranks of society scarcely figuring in their understanding of the ‘nation’” (The Discovery of Painting: The Growth of Interest in the Arts in England, 1680–1768 [New Haven, 1988], p. 3Google Scholar).

⁶ Carol Duncan makes a similar argument in Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums (London, 1995), pp. 34–42Google Scholar, in which the foundation of the National Gallery is viewed as a triumph of the bourgeoisie.

⁷ Mandler, Peter, The Rise and Fall of the Stately Home (New Haven, 1997), pp. 2–4, 15–21Google Scholar.

⁸ Duncan, Civilizing Rituals, ch. 2; Bennett, Tony, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (London, 1995), pp. 36–39, 90–100Google Scholar; Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean, “The Museum in the Disciplinary Society,” in Pearce, Susan M., ed., Museum Studies in Material Culture (London, 1989), pp. 61–72Google Scholar; Hooper-Greenhill, , Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge (London, 1992), chs. 1 and 7Google Scholar.

⁹ For earlier discussions on elites and their relations to culture, see Linda Colley and Peter Mandler as cited above; Brewer, John, The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1997)Google Scholar; Solkin, David, Painting for Money: The Visual Arts and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century England (New Haven and London, 1992)Google Scholar; Wahrman, Dror, “National Society, Communal Culture: An Argument about the Recent Historiography of Eighteenth-Century Britain,” Social History 17, 1 (01 1992): 43–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Habermas, who is always cited on this subject, glosses over the issue of who constitutes the public by ignoring the possibility of other publics than a self-conscious bourgeoisie: Habermas, Jürgen, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, trans. Burger, Thomas (Cambridge, 1989), p. 37Google Scholar. For an explicit commentary on Habermas see Brewer, John, “This, That, and the Other: Public, Social and Private in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” in Castiglione, Dario and Sharpe, Lesley, eds., Shifting the Boundaries: Transformation of the Languages of Public and Private in the Eighteenth Century (Exeter, 1995), pp. 1–21Google Scholar. Thomas Crow provides valuable insights into ideas about an educated, opinion-forming public for art in France in the same period in his Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Paris (London and New Haven, 1985)Google Scholar, although this deals more with questions of criticism than of access.

¹⁰ van Rymsdyk, John and van Rymsdyk, Andrew, Museum Britannicum, being an Exhibition of a Great Variety of Antiquities and Natural Curiosities, belonging to that Noble and Magnificent Cabinet, the British Museum (London: for the authors, 1778), p. iiGoogle Scholar.

¹¹ See, e.g., David Solkin, Painting for Money; Barry, Jonathan, “Bourgeois Collectivism? Urban Association and the Middling Sort,” in Barry, Jonathan and Brooks, Christopher, eds., The Middling Sort of People: Culture, Society and Politics in England 1550–1800 (London, 1994), pp. 84–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “The Press and the Politics of Culture in Bristol, 1660–1775,” in Jeremy Black and Jeremy Gregory, eds., Culture, Politics and Society in Britain, 1660–1800 (Manchester, 1991), pp. 49–81; Wahrman, , “National Society, Communal Culture,” pp. 43–72Google Scholar.

¹² Select parties of connections of the trustees were allowed to visit the Museum before its official opening in 1759.

¹³ MS notes in BL, printed copy of The Will of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. Deceased (London: for John Virtuoso, 1753)Google Scholar, BL, shelfmark C.61.B.13. This copy contains manuscript notes on trustees' and parliamentary meetings about the British Museum in 1753–54 by someone who was a trustee (and possibly an M.P.). Empson's statement appears in notes on deliberations in the Commons on Monday, March 19, 1753.

¹⁴ Ibid., MS notes concerning meeting of trustees at the King's Arms Tavern, Thursday, March 15, 1753.

¹⁵ Ibid., MS notes on Commons deliberations on Monday, 19 March 1753. For accounts of the foundation of the museum, see Miller, Edward, That Noble Cabinet: A History of the British Museum (London, 1973)Google Scholar; de Beer, Gavin, Sir Hans Sloane and the British Museum (London, 1953)Google Scholar; Crook, J. Mordaunt, The British Museum (London, 1972)Google Scholar; Caygill, Marjorie, The Story of the British Museum (London, 1981)Google Scholar; MacGregor, Arthur, ed., Sir Hans Sloane: Collector, Scientist, Antiquary, Founding Father of the British Museum (London, 1994)Google Scholar; Edwards, Edward, The Lives of the Founders of the British Museum (1870; repr. New York, 1969)Google Scholar.

¹⁶ On the trustees, see Edwards, , Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, p. 321Google Scholar; Caygill, Marjorie, “Sloane's Will and the Establishment of the British Museum,” Appendix 1, in MacGregor, , ed., Sir Hans Sloane, pp. 56–65Google Scholar. Over the course of the eighteenth century, the trustees became less scholarly and more aristocratic, a trend questioned by the Parliamentary Select Committee in 1835–36. See, for example, House of Commons, Report of the Select Committee on the British Museum, 1835 (479.) VII. 47–54, 220–21.

¹⁷ 26 Geo. II c. 22.

¹⁸ For a basic account of the changing regulations in the period, although one that sometimes confuses the Reading Room with the museum, see Cash, Derek J., “Access to Museum Culture: The British Museum from 1753 to 1836,” (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1994)Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Findlen, Paula, “The Museum: Its Classical Etymology and Renaissance Genealogy,” Journal of the History of Collections 1, 1 (1989): 60CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Findlen, Paula, Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1994), pp. 101–03, 109–16Google Scholar.

²⁰ Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, MS. 69 B 8, f. 59v, Sept. 4, 1694. On Chevalier's cabinet, see Goldgar, Anne, Impolite Learning: Conduct and Community in the Republic of Letters 1680–1750 (New Haven, 1995), pp. 188–94Google Scholar.

²¹ Quoted in De Beer, , Sir Hans Sloane and the British Museum, p. 122Google Scholar.

²² British Museum Central Archive (hereafter cited as BMCA), Standing Committee Minutes, vol. II (PRO CE3/2), f. 487, Dec. 8, 1758. For a detailed account of library arrangements, see Harris, P. R., A History of the British Museum Library, 1753–1973 (London, 1998)Google Scholar. I regret not having been able to make more use of this work, it having appeared near the completion of this project.

²³ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers vol. I (PRO CE4/1), ff. 282–283v. Memorial by Matthew Maty, Feb. 18, 1774.

²⁴ Quoted in Miller, , That Noble Cabinet, pp. 67–69Google Scholar.

²⁵ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. I (PRO CE4/1), f. 282v. Memorial by Matthew Maty, Feb. 18, 1774.

²⁶ Harris reports that about 160 reader's tickets were issued or renewed in 1759; about 60 in 1769; about 75 in 1779; about 100 in 1789; and about 125 in 1799. These figures rose in the nineteenth century, with 683 new readers in 1827, for example. Harris, , History of the British Museum Library, pp. 10, 54Google Scholar.

²⁷ BMCA, Standing Committee Minutes, vol. II (PRO CE3/2), f. 487, Dec. 8, 1758.

²⁸ BMCA, Standing Committee Minutes, vol. III (PRO CE3/3), f. 702, Aug. 14, 1761. A new room was brought into use in 1774. See Harris, , History of the British Museum Library., p. 10Google Scholar.

²⁹ On the mindset and etiquette of the Republic of Letters see Goldgar, Impolite Learning.

³⁰ BL, Add. MS. 4449, f. 134. “Statutes and Rules to be observed in the Management of the British Museum, by order of the Trustees,” 1758. Printed. Dated Dec. 16, 1758 in Thomas Birch's hand.

³¹ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 1 (PRO CE4/1), f. 75. Memo [in Templeman's hand] on equipment for the Reading Room.

³² BL, Add. MS, 45,871, f. 60v, Diary and occurrence book of British Museum (1762–1774), Charles Morton, May 22, 1767.

³³ BL, Add. MS, 4449, f. 83v. “Proposal for the Establishment of the British Museum.”

³⁴ BL, Add. MS, 4449, f. 108v. “Qualification and Duty required in the Principal Librarian.”

³⁵ [Bentley, Richard], A Proposal for building a Royal Library, and establishing it by Act of Parliament, broadside, 1697Google Scholar.

³⁶ Goldgar, , Impolite Learning, pp. 14, 24, 222Google Scholar.

³⁷ BL, Add. MS. 4449, ff. 118–120. [Gowin Knight's hand]. Draft, n.d.

³⁸ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers vol. I (PRO CE4/1), f. 186. “Form of Letters Common Introduction.” [Gowin Knight's hand.] Dec. 3, 1763.

³⁹ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers vol. 1 (PRO CE4/1), f. 207. Matthew Maty's proposals for cataloguing Sloanian books, Feb. 15, 1765. On the process of compiling these catalogues, see Harris, , History of the British Museum Library, pp. 7–8, 14–17Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers vol. I (PRO CE4/1), ff. 568–568v, S. Harper and H. Maty to trustees, n.d. [1780?]

⁴¹ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. I (PRO CE4/1), ff. 566–567v. Memorial of S. Harper and H. Maty to trustees, April 7, 1780.

⁴² A Catalogue of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts, purchased by Authority of Parliament, for the Use of the Publick; and preserved in the British Museum 2. vols. (London, 1759–[63]), 1: 1Google Scholar.

⁴³ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 1 (PRO CE4/1), f. 206v. Report by Matthew Maty on a proposal for cataloguing the library, April 27, 1759.

⁴⁴ BL, Add. MS. 4449, ff. 119–199v. [Gowin Knight's hand.] Draft, n.d. 45

⁴⁵ BMCA, Standing Committee Minutes, vol. 1 (PRO CE3/1), ff. 204–05, meeting of 4 March, 1757.

⁴⁶ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 1 (PRO CE4/1), f. 86. [Gowin Knight], observations on the rules and orders under the consideration of the General Board. April 4, 1759.

⁴⁷ BMCA, Standing Committee Minutes, vol. 3 (PRO CE3/3), f. 762, May 14, 1762.

⁴⁸ BMCA, Standing Committee minutes, vol. 3 (PRO CE3/7), f. 1670, meeting of 13 August, 1779; BMCA, Standing Committee minutes, vol. 8 (PRO CE3/8), f. 2218, meeting of 15 January, 1802.

⁴⁹ BL, Add. MS, 45,871, ff. 46v, 53. Diary and occurrence book of the British Museum (1762–1774), Charles Morton, July 20, 1764; April 26, 1765.

⁵⁰ BL, Add. MS, 35,398, f. 255v, Thomas Birch to Lord Royston, London, July 5, 1755, indicates that the “putting the Garden in some tolerable Order” was a priority above considering how to arrange the collection and the rules for admitting the public; BL, Add. MS. 4451, f. 200, Thomas Birch, draft minutes of General Meeting of Trustees, June 3, 1756: “The Garden is now in great forwardness, & may be considered as a valuable part of the British Museum, being well stock'd with exotic plants….”

⁵¹ BL, Add. MS. 31,299, ff. 5–5v, “To the standing Committee of the British Museum. The Memorial of Geo. Keate Esq^r. of Charlotte Street Bloomsbury,” July 30, 1779. Copy.

⁵² BL, Add. MS. 31,299, f. 3. [Keate, George], “Case of the Gardens of the British Museum.” [1779]Google Scholar

⁵³ Borsay, Peter, The English Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town 1660–1770 (Oxford, 1989), p. 162Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Ibid., pp. 291–95; Lawrence, Henry W., “The Greening of the Squares of London: Transformation of Urban Landscapes and Ideals,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 83, 1 (1993): 90–118CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵⁵ Heckethorn, Charles William, Lincoln's Inn Fields and the Localities Adjacent (London, 1896), pp. 69ff., 74Google Scholar; Chancellor, E. Beresford, The Romance of Lincoln's Inn Fields and its Neighbourhood (London, 1932), pp. 40–41Google Scholar.

⁵⁶ Companion to every Place of Curiosity and Entertainment in and about London and Westminster (London, 1767), p. 185Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ Solkin, David, Painting for Money, ch. 4, esp. pp. 110–11Google Scholar; Brewer, John, “The most polite age and the most vicious': Attitudes towards culture as a commodity, 1660–1800,” in Bermingham, Ann and Brewer, John, eds., The Consumption of Culture 1600–1800: Image, Object, Text (London, 1995), p. 348Google Scholar; Brewer, , The Pleasures of the Imagination, pp. 65–66Google Scholar. For background on these gardens throughout London, see Wroth, Warwick, The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1896)Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Jacob Henry Burn, Historical Collections Relative to Ranelagh Gardens, scrapbook in BL at Cup.401.k.8 (1743–1841), ff. 24, 38, 177, and passim.

⁵⁹ Schwarz, L. D., London in the Age of Industrialisation: Entrepreneurs, Labour Force and Living Conditions 1700–1850 (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 170, 181–82, 195CrossRefGoogle Scholar. According to Schwarz, common laborers usually earned about 2/- a day; carpenters and bricklayers about 3/- a day.

⁶⁰ Solkin, , Painting for Money, p. 110Google Scholar.

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⁶² Solkin, , Painting for Money, p. 111Google Scholar. On Vauxhall in the eighteenth century, see also Wroth, , London Pleasure Gardens, pp. 286–311Google Scholar.

⁶³ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 1 (PRO CE4/1), f. 241. Memorial of Mrs. Arthington, Aug. 13, 1769.

⁶⁴ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 1 (PRO CE4/1), f. 242. Ambrose Hankin to the trustees, Aug. 4, 1769.

⁶⁵ BL, Add. MS. 31,299, f. 3. [Keate, George], “Case of the Gardens of the British Museum.” [1779]Google Scholar

⁶⁶ BL, Add. MS. 31,299, f. 5v. “To the standing Committee of the British Museum. The Memorial of Geo. Keate Esq^r. of Charlotte Street Bloomsbury.” July 30, 1779. Copy.

⁶⁷ Ibid. This document continues on ff. 6–6v to record the deliberations of the Standing Committee on this case and its refusal to listen to Keate's arguments. Their reason for refusing to allow children into the gardens was that they had to be attended by servants, who were not allowed admittance.

⁶⁸ BL, Add. MS, 31,299, ff. 3v–4. [Keate, George], “Case of the Gardens of the British Museum.” N.d. [1779]Google Scholar

⁶⁹ BL, Add. MS. 6179, ff. 61–62v. Among John Ward's papers on the museum (Ward d. 1758); not in Ward's hand. “Objections to the appointing Public days for admitting all Persons to see the Museum without distinction.”

⁷⁰ BL, Add. MS. 4302, ff. 13v–14v. Cadogan, , “Observations on the Plan for Shewing the British Museum,” 12. 12, 1756Google Scholar.

⁷¹ BL, Add. MS. 4449, f. 115. “Rules proposed to be Observed in making the Collections of proper Use to the Publick by way of Resolutions in a General Meeting of the Trustees.”

⁷² For a discussion of the meanings of “curious” and “curiosity” in the eighteenth century, see Benedict, Barbara M., “The ‘Curious Attitude’ in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Observing and Owning,” Eighteenth-Century Life 14 (11 1990): 59–98Google Scholar.

⁷³ BL, Add. MS. 27,276, f. 27. Butler, Weedon, “Pleasing Recollection: A Walk Through the British Musum,” 07 16, 1767Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ Ibid., f. 32.

⁷⁵ BL, Add. MS. 4449, ff. 148–50. “A Scheme for the more convenient Shewing of the MUSEUM.” Printed. See also Add. MS. 27,276, ff. 15–17.

⁷⁶ On the increasing enthusiasm for natural history in this period, see Allen, David Elliston, The Naturalist in Britain: A Social History (Harmondsworth, 1978)Google Scholar; Jones, W. P., “The Vogue of Natural History in England, 1750–1770,” Annals of Science 2, 3 (07 1937): 345–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jardine, Nicholas, Secord, James, and Spary, Emma, eds., Cultures of Natural History (Cambridge, 1996)Google Scholar.

⁷⁷ Commons Journals, 11 May 1774.

⁷⁸ Crook, , The British Museum, p. 64Google Scholar, citing Edwards, Lives of the Founders, who cites BL, Add. MS. 10,555 f. 14.

⁷⁹ Quoted in Edwards, , Lives of the Founders, p. 338Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ Quoted in Findlen, , “Museum,” p. 72Google Scholar.

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⁸² John Brewer, “‘The most polite age and the most vicious’”; Brewer, , The Pleasures of the Imagination, pp. xxiii, 72ffGoogle Scholar; Solkin, Painting for Money.

⁸³ Brewer, , Pleasures of the Imagination, p. 246Google Scholar.

⁸⁴ Maty, Matthew, in Commons Journals, 11 05 1774Google Scholar.

⁸⁵ BMCA Original Letters and Papers, vol. 2 (PRO CE4/2) f. 749. Memorial to trustees by J. Planta, S. Harper, E. W. Gray, and R. Nares [?], May 22, 1801.

⁸⁶ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 2 (PRO CE4/2), f. 756v. Joseph Planta, report on improving the Museum, April 8, 1802.

⁸⁷ In [Pierre Jean Grosley], Londres, 4 vols. (Neuchâtel, 1770) 2: 437, 3rd additional note (not by Grosley).

⁸⁸ Commons Journals, 11 May, 1774. Opening times and rules for admission were printed in numerous guides to London, and in newspapers and magazines.

⁸⁹ “Directions to such as apply for tickets to see the BRITISH MUSEUM,” 1-page sheet, n.d., shelved at BL, 1856.g.l4; London and its Environs Described, 6 vols, in 3 (London, 1761) 2: 19–20Google Scholar.

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⁹⁴ Ibid., pp. 189–90.

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⁹⁷ BL, Add. MS. 6179, f. 63. “Rules Proposed to be observed in making the Collections of proper use to the Publick….” 1750s.

⁹⁸ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 1 (PRO CE4/1), ff. 174–174v, Peter Collinson to Dr. Watson, London, Oct. 5, 1762.

⁹⁹ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 1 (PRO CE4/1), ff. 177–177v. Memorial of James Empson [1762].

¹⁰⁰ BMCA, Standing Committee minutes, vol. 2 (PRO CE3/2), f. 451. Meeting of July 14, 1758.

¹⁰¹ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 1 (PRO CE4/1), ff. 106–08. Charles Morton and A. Gifford's comments on proposed rules for officers [April 1759].

¹⁰² Ibid., f. 112.

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¹⁰⁴ See Habermas, Structural Transformation.

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¹⁰⁷ BL, Add. MS. 36,269, f. 159v. Drafts of device for seal for British Museum, offered by John Ward to trustees for approval.

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¹⁰⁹ Ibid., p. 98.

¹¹⁰ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 2 (PRO CE4/2), ff. 745–745v.

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¹¹² Ibid., f. 746v.

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¹⁵⁰ Robbins, , The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman, p. 16Google Scholar.

¹⁵¹ On Whig thought in the 1790s, see Cookson, J. E., The Friends of Peace: Anti-War Liberalism in England, 1793–1815 (Cambridge, 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On Whigs and the people, see Mitchell, L. G., “Foxite Politics and the Great Reform Bill,” English Historical Review 108 (04 1993): 338–64, esp. 350Google Scholar.

¹⁵² Minutes of General Meeting of Trustees, July 13, 1805, reprinted in House of Commons, British Museum, Regulations and Returns respecting Admissions to the Museum, 1807 (6.) II. 31; Select Committee on the British Museum 1835 (479.) VII. 195, 206–08, 221, 224, 229, 246 (for example).

¹⁵³ BMCA C.2106–07, Standing Committee of the Trustees, July 11, 1795, cited by MacGregor, Arthur in “Utilité et divertissement dans les musées de Grande-Bretagne à la fin du XVIIIe siècle,” in Pommier, Edouard, ed., Les Musées en Europe à la veille de l'ouverture du Louvre (Paris, 1995)Google Scholar. I am grateful to Professor MacGregor for calling this example to my attention.

¹⁵⁴ House of Commons, Select Committee on the British Museum, 1835 (479.) VII. 237.

¹⁵⁵ Stewart, Larry and Weindling, Paul, “Philosophical Threads: Natural Philosophy and Public Experiment among the Weavers of Spitalfields,” British Journal for the History of Science 28 (1995): 37–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schaffer, Simon, “The Consuming Flame,” in Brewer, and Porter, , Consumption and the World of Goods, pp. 512–15Google Scholar.

¹⁵⁶ BMCA, Original Letters and Papers, vol. 1 (PRO CE4/1), f. 123v. Joseph Lockwood to trustees, June 26, 1760.

¹⁵⁷ House of Commons, Select Committee on the British Museum, 1835 (479.) VII. 99,100.

¹⁵⁸ Ibid., p. 19.

¹⁵⁹ House of Commons, Select Committee on the British Museum, 1836 (440.) X. 274.

¹⁶⁰ Commons Journal, 11 May 1774. Reporting the views of Matthew Maty.

¹⁶¹ House of Commons, British Museum, Regulations and Returns respecting Admission to the Museum, 1810–11 (168.) XI. 159. The decision was made at an extraordinary general meeting of the trustees on March 17, 1810.

¹⁶² House of Commons, British Museum, Regulations and Returns respecting Admissions, 1805 (22.) III, 329*; Receipts and Payments, 1817 (304.) XV. 1; Accounts, 1834 (21.) XLII. 499.

¹⁶³ BL, Add. MS. 6184, f. 1. Proposals, signed by original members, for the Society for the Encouragement of Learning. Aug. 1, 1735.

¹⁶⁴ BL, Add. MS. 6190, f. 13. Meanwell to the Society for the Encouragement of Learning, n.d. (1736)

¹⁶⁵ BL, Add. MS. 6184, f. 1.

¹⁶⁶ Ibid.