CROMWELLI

Summary

The circumstance of the Fitzwilliam Museum having become the depository of three autograph letters of Oliver Cromwell, which will be printed for the first time in this Portfolio, has suggested an investigation into the incidents which connected his history with the University and Town of Cambridge.

The letters are preserved in a thin 4to. volume, and are preceded by an account of their discovery and of the manner in which they were placed in the Museum, and are accompanied by several comments. The whole contents of this volume, being in MS., will be transcribed and submitted to the reader, with a few additions to the comments; and the above-mentioned investigation will form a sequel. The reader shall be detained from the perusal of them, only while he is requested to commend and cherish that public spirit or enlarged view of the duties of a member of the Commonwealth, which prompts individuals to deposit articles of national interest in libraries or museums of general resort and reference rather than in private cabinets.

TRES EPISTOLÆ AUTOGRAPHÆ QUEIS ‘TEMPUS EDAX RERUM’ PEPERCIT

These three Letters of Oliver Cromwell were found among the Court Rolls belonging to the Manor of Wymondham Cromwell, in the County of Norfolk, and were given by the Steward of that Manor to the Reverend John Neville White;–who has presented them to his friend the Reverend Samuel Tillbrook, of St. Peter's College, in conformity to a wish expressed on his part, that–through him–these interesting relics of the Protector Cromwell might be deposited in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge.