Lansdowne MS 763, ff 122-131

See Burney, ii. 426. We have seen that this valuable manuscript belonged originally to John Wylde the precentor of Waltham Abbey; and not only such part of it as was composed by himself, but all the other treatises that it contains were written by his own hand, in all probability about the year 1460. His pious anathema was of no avail; for at the dissolution of the Abbey the book fell into the hands of the celebrated Thomas Tallys, organist to King Henry VIII., his name being on the back of the last leaf. From him it is supposed to have passed into the hands of the no less celebrated Thomas Morley, one of the gentlemen of Queen Elizabeth's chapel, to whom it was of considerable service in his "Introduction to Musicke." It afterwards became respectively the property of Mr. Powle, Speaker of the House of Commons and Master of the Rolls in the reign of King William; Lord Chancellor Somers; and Sir Joseph Jekyll. At the sale of the latter's books it was purchased by some country organist, who presented it to Mr. West. Dr. Pepusch appears to have been permitted. by one of its owners to make a transcript of it, which is said to be still extant. Besides the passages in the Histories of Musick by Sir John Hawkins,and Dr. Burney, already referred to, a general account of the contents of this manuscript may be found in the work of the former gentleman, vol, ii. book 2, chap. 10. The following papers have been added to the end of this volume, viz.

1. An original letter from Dr. John Wallis to some unknown person (the superscription being lost), with his remarks on an ancient Greek manuscript containing a collection of hymns and anthems composed by the members of the Greek church at Constantinople, with the art of singing, &c. fo. 124. It is printed in Hawkins's Hist. of Musick, vol. i. p. 391.

2. Humphrey Wanley's account of the last named Greek manuscript, which was taked from the Turks at Buda about the year 1686, and is supposed to have belonged to the library of Matthew Corvinus, King of Hungary. fo. 125. This manuscript appears to have been in Mr. Wanley's own possession at the time he wrote the above account; but it is certainly not the article afterwards described by him in the Harl. Catal. N^o 1613, as was stated in the former Catalogue of the Lansd. MSS. See a letter from him on the same subject to Dr. Chariett, printed in Hawkins's Hist. of Musaick, vol. i. p. 392.

3. A note from Mr. West to Mr. Raper, requesting his judgment on Wylde's manuscript, 4 Decem. 1767. fo. 127.

4. Some brief remarks on the manuscript, by Mr. Raper. fo. 128.

5. A letter from Mr. Daines Barrington to Mr. West, returning thanks for the loan of his manuscript, &c. 17 March 1770. fo. 129.