read any thing of the use of the other two in any Country, and be pleased to let me know thereof.
The Copy of Ninnius (you sent me) hath holpen me well to correct mine; but finding such difference between the three Manuscript Books, which the Scribe confesseth to have made use of, I presume your Transcript comprehends much more, in regard you have had the benefit of eleven Co∣pies (as you confess) to help you; which Differences are very requisite to be known of such as love Antiquity. And also where those several Copies (that you have seen) are extant, and to be found at present; and how ma∣ny of those Copies bear the name of Gildas before them, and how many the name of Ninnius: And what those of Gildas do comprehend more or less in them, than those of Ninnius; And whether the Notes of Samuel Beulan, are found in any of those of Gildas, or yet in every one of the Copies of Ni∣nnius; and whether the name of Samuel be added to those Notes in any of those Copies, and to which of them: All which (with the antiquity of the Character of those several Copies) are very necessary to be known, and may easily be discovered by you, and very hardly by any other ever after you.
Moreover, about three Years ago, I sent a Copy of the Tract concerning the Saxon Genealogies (extant, if I mistake not, in Gildas and Ninnius) unto you to be corrected by your Book; and Sir Simon D'Ewes undertaking that charge for you (as Mr. Dr. Ellis told me) returned me only this An∣swer upon the back of my own Papers, viz. The eldest Copy of this Ano∣nymon Chron. doth in some places agree with the Notes sent up, but in others differs so much, as there can be no collation made of it, &c. But those my Notes do agree very well with the Book you sent me, and differs not in twen∣ty words in all the Tract; whereof either many are only Letters wanting or abounding; and therefore I marvel what he meant in saying so, unless he had seen a larger Copy of the same than that I had; but your last Letter un∣to me tells, that it is only extant in Sir Thomas Cotton's two Books, and want∣ing in all the other Books that bear the name, either of Gildas or Ninnius; and that Book you sent me, was copied out of one of Sir Thomas Cotton's Books, and examined by the other. He further addeth, that the Author of that Tract (being, as he saith, an English-Saxon.) lived in the Year of our Lord 620: upon what ground I know not. Yet I cannot think other∣wise, but that Sir Simon D'Ewes had some grounds for the same; and it may be the very same that Leland the famous Antiquary had to say, that Ninnius lived, tempore inclinationis Britannici imperii; and Jo. Bale, who more plain∣ly saith, that he lived in the Year 620, just as Sir Simon D'Ewes hath. And (for that Sir Simon is dead) I desire to know of you whether the said Tract be not more copious in one of Sir Thomas Cottom's Books, than it is in the other: Or whether Sir Simon D'Ewes might not find a larger Copy of the same elsewhere; for if it be not the work of Ninnius, nor Samuel Beulan, it may as well be in other Books as in those, especially if an English-Saxon was Author of it: But if it be not found elsewhere, I pray you tell me up∣on what grounds is the Author of it said by Sir Simon to live Anno 620, and Ninnius by Leland, and Bale likewise, said to live in the same Time; when by the first Chapter of some Copies of Ninnius his Book, it seemeth he wrote not two hundred Years after Moreover, in regard you prefer that small Tract (so much spoken of by me) before all the rest of the Book, it were a deed of Charity for you to paraphrase a little upon it; whereby such as are but meanly skilled in Antiquity, may reap some profit by it: Truly some remarhable Passages from the Reign of Ida to the Death of Oswi, Kings of Northumberland, are contained in it; which being well understood, would add a greater luster to the British History.