(1) Collections concerning the earl of Essex, etc., written around 1600: (a) speeches in the star-chamber on the impeachment of Robert, earl of Essex, 29 November 1599, (b) ‘A lettre written by the lord keeper to the earle marshall’ (Essex), with ‘Therle marshal to the lord keeper’, (c) 43 English epigrams by Sir John Davis, (d) ‘An apologie of the earle of earle of Essex against those which falsely and maliciously taxe him to bee the onelie hinderer of the peace and quiet of his countrie. To Mr Anthony Bacon’, ‘Penned by himselfe in anno 1598’, (e) ‘Letter from Mr Antony Bacon to the erle of Essex, and his answer’, (f) an account of the death of Essex; (2) ‘Summarie collections of true natural magick grounded upon principles divine and from the writings of Hermes Trimegistus and others the learned auncients: conteining the true philosophie and physick drawen into commune places’, by Samuel Rynevile and Norton; there is an epistle dedicatory to Lord Burleigh, dated from ‘my house at Ligh’; the dedication begins ‘I think it no offense or unmeete ...’; the treatise begins ‘Magick we define to be an art and faculte ...’; (3) ‘Two bookes of the histories of Ireland, compiled by Edmund Campion, feloe of Seint John Baptistes colledge in Oxforde’, evidently a scribal copy, written about the beginning of the seventeenth century; (4) ‘A brief collection of all such severall and ordinarie fees or charges as (by suites in the common-lawe) are defraied or paid out into diverse courtes or offices thereunto appendant everie terme tyme. Opto placere probis. 1609’; (5) ‘Oratio penitentis humilis et devota pro peccatorum remissione et gratia’; this consists of verse of the psalms put together, with headings to each in the margin; written in the seventeenth century; (6) ‘An exposition upon the nynthye psalme off David’, beginning (after an argument, ‘The prophett in this psalme ...’), ‘Qui habitat ... In this psalme god is praysed for the benefites ...’; written in the seventeenth century; (7) ‘An exposition upon the 129 psalme’, beginning ‘The title of the psalme ... For explication of this title we may understand ...’; in the same hand as no. 6; (8) ‘Devout and godly prayers made off the preface and seaven peticions of the Pater noster’, followed by ‘One prayer made at large of the holl Pater noster’; written in the seventeenth century; (9) ‘A sermon of Saint Cyprian the Martyr concerning the supper of our lord, truely translated by Doctor Watson bisshoppe of Lincolne’, beginning ‘When the rumor of Lazarus which was raysed ...’; in the same hand as no. 8; (10) (a) ‘A parable of faithe, hope, and charitie’, beginning ‘A certaine noble and mightie kinge had three daughers ...’ (see MS Ee.02.12, no. 8), (b) ‘A parable concerning the retournyng of a sinner from the captivitie of the devill to God agayne, written by Saint Barnard’, beginning ‘Betwene Babilon and Hierusalem there is no peace ...’, in the same hand as no. 8; (11) a long English poem, in a hand of the fifteenth century; the last rubric indicates the general nature of the work: ‘Here endith the boke of the nativite of our lady, and of the birth of our lord Jhu Christe’; the second book relating to ‘the counsell of the trynyte’ begins ‘Who that is bound and fetherid in prysoun ...’; this appears to correspond in many respects with the work known as Lydgate’s ‘Lyf of our lady’, printed by Caxton; (12) ‘A tretys wiche is callid’: here the rubric breaks off, but an addition follows in a later hand, ‘a vieu of the instabilitie of the worlde with a reproof of thexcesse therein used’, by Thomas Hoccleve, beginning ‘Musi[ng upon] the resteles busynesse ...’; written in the fifteenth century; an epilogue or envoy is appended, beginning ‘[O] lytill booke who gafe the hardinesse’ (see also MSS Gg.06.17 and Hh.04.11); (13) (a) ‘Vita trium regum Colonie’, in English prose, beginning ‘The matter of this blessid kynges of the Est betokened’, after a prologue beginning ‘With hit is lo that of this thre kynges ...’, (b) ‘Versus Barnardi’, an English version of a short poem attributed to St Bernard, incomplete, beginning ‘O sothefast sonne of all bryghtnesse ...’; (14) historical collections of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, in the same hand as No. 1 (e) and (f): (a) a justification of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, beginning ‘There hath not happned sithence the memorie of man ...’, (b) Queen Elizabeth I’s instructions to Sir Philip Sidney, sent as an ambassador to the Emperor Rudolph on the death of Maximilian, beginning ‘Wee thinke it verie convenient that in your waie ...’ (see also MS Gg.05.36, no. 16); (c) a letter dissuading the Queen from marriage with the duke of Anjou, beginning ‘Most feared and beloved, most sweet and gracious soverayne to seeke out excuses ...’ (15) a translation of Queen Elizabeth I’s confirmation of King Henry II’s charter granted to the town of Nottingham, dated Westminster, ‘the seaventh day of February, in the secounde yere of her majestie’s reigne’; (16) ‘Narrationes sive declarationes in placitis’: law pleadings from the reign of King Henry IV to that of Queen Elizabeth I, in a hand of the time of the latter; (17) instructions for holding courts leet and baron; (18) ‘Epistola ad potentissimum Philippum Austriacum regem Hispani ... De tumultibus Belgicis componendis. Vernaculo sermone conscripta et nunc calamitosissimo hoc tempore Latine publicata ...’, subscribed ‘Antverpiæ, 15 Martii, anno 1577 ... Antonius de Corra Hispaliensis’; this copy seems to have been corrected in the author’s own hand; a paragraph to be inserted is stitched into the volume, written on a fragment of a letter directed to the author, S. Thelogiæ professori, Oxoniis’; prognostications, being tables, some of planetary conjunctions, some of throws of three dice, etc.; (20) ‘The priouresses prologue’, and a small portion of the tale by Chaucer, on a single leaf of parchment, in a hand of the fifteenth century; (21) two fragments of the Brute Chronicle, consisting of three sheets, of which the second and third are transposed, written in the fifteenth century; on the first sheet are chapters lxviii–lxxxiii entire out of the History of King Arthur; on the second, chapters clxii–clxxxiv; on the last, chapters cxli–clv; the chapters on the last two sheets are identical with those in MS Hh.06.09, except for a few verbal differences, as if they were both translated from the same work; (22) an exposition of the Ten Commandments, written in English in the fifteenth century, incomplete at the beginning; it is followed by the Pater noster, Ave Maria, Credo, the 12 articles of the faith, and (also in English) a paragraph ‘De septem peccatis mortalibus’; (23) ‘The vii dedes of mercy bodily and gostely’ and ‘The v wittes outwarde and inwarde’, on a single parchment leaf of the fifteenth century. On the last two leaves are tables of the times of the sun’s rising and setting.