R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

244 R. W. Macanexciting moiety in the reign of the Rev. H. O. Coxe asLibrarian, early famous for his crushing repulse of theforger, Simonides (' I have here, Mr Coxe, a very ancientMS. which should certainly be in your Library: to whatcentury would you assign it?'—'To the latter half ofthe nineteenth century, Mr Simonides'). Coxe may besaid to have inaugurated, on his appointment in 1860,the modern age of expert administration, since carried tosuch high degrees of virtuosity. The chief events of hisreign fall into the first decade, notably the loan of theCamera by the Radcliffe Trustees, and its adaptation tothe use of the Library as a Reading Room, available afterdark. The General Catalogue of Printed Books, begun in1860, was completed in 1878, and is still in daily use. Theyear last specified was further marked by the first AnnualMeeting of the Library Association, which was holden inOxford under the presidency of Mr Coxe: before the closeof the decade the erection of the New ExaminationSchools on the High Street set free the ground floor of theOld Schools in Bodley's Quadrangle for Library uses.There was, and is, a pleasant custom at the annualVisitation of the Library for a Student of Christ Churchto deliver a Latin oration in praise of Bodley and incommemoration of Bodleian events of the year. Let mehere insert three lines from an old Diary. 'Thursday,8 Nov. 1877. At 12 I gave the Latin speech in Bodley,before a small but select audience: The Dean (Liddell),in the chair: Mark Pattison, Stubbs, Coxe, and one ortwo more present.' This exploit procured for me my onlypersonal interview with Dr Pusey, who was at the timeacting Treasurer. It still costs me a pang to rememberthat the gold bangle, with suitable inscription engraved,for which I exchanged his cheque, was raped by an unromanticburglar, some ten years later: and though thepoor devil went into penal servitude, my (or rather, her)