Letter 0499

Charlett recommends Mr Wanly, the bearer, to Sloane. Wanley wants to see Sloane’s personal library and that of the Royal Society. Charlett informs Sloane that he is a adoringly conversed of by himself and the other professors at Oxford. He apologizes for Mr Isted’s presumption that it would be appropriate to write Sloane from Paris [Sloane MS 4037, fol. 38]. Charlett was elected Master of University College at Oxford in 1692 and held that post until his death in 1722. Charlett used the mastership to gain influence, especially through persistent letter-writing to numerous correspondents, sharing the latest literary, political, and scholarly gossip (R. H. Darwall-Smith, Charlett, Arthur (16551722), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5158, accessed 18 June 2013]).