350,000 pamphlets, were bought the same year by Thomas Osborne, the bookseller of Gray's Inn, for 13,000l., which was several thousand pounds less than the cost of binding. Osborne found his purchase a heavy investment. The sale catalogue of the coins was compiled by George North, F.S.A. ; that of the library partly by William Oldys, in five volumes 8vo, London, 1743-5, while Johnson contributed an introduction ('Catalogus Bibliothecæ Harleianæ in locos communes distributus cum Indice Auctorum'). Under the title of the 'Harleian Miscellany' a selection of scarce pamphlets and tracts found in the library was made by Oldys and printed in eight volumes 8vo, London, 1744-6, with a preface by Johnson. The best edition is that by Thomas Park, in ten volumes 4to, London, 1808-13. A 'Collection of Voyages and Travels,' compiled from the same source, appeared in two volumes fol., London, 1745.
That the manuscripts might not be dispersed, Lady Oxford parted with them in 1753 to the nation for the insignificant sum of 10,000l. (26 Geo. II, c. 22, sec. 3). They now form the Harleian collection in the British Museum, and consist of 7,639 volumes, besides 14,236 original rolls, charters, deeds, and other legal documents. A catalogue of the contents of the manuscript volumes (exclusive of the charters, &c.) was published in two volumes fol., London, 1759-63, the compilation of H. Wanley, D. Casley, and W. Hocker; another, the work of R. Nares, Sir H. Ellis, and T. H. Horne, in four volumes fol., London, 1808-12. A manuscript catalogue of the charters, in the handwriting of Samuel Ayscough [q. v.], is now in use at the British Museum. A new index is in preparation.
Lady Oxford died on 9 Dec. 1755, aged 62, and was buried with her husband on the 26th. Their only surviving child, Margaret Cavendish (1715-1785), who married, on 11 June 1734, William Bentinck, second duke of Portland, was the 'noble, lovely little Peggy,' celebrated by Prior. Harley's portrait by Mahl was engraved by Vertue. In 1731 Thomas Gent [q.v.] addressed to him epistles in prose and verse respecting a proposed supplement to Walton's Polyglott Bible.
[Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), vol. viii., which contains the correspondence of Pope and Harley; Nichols's Lit. Anecd.; Collins's Collections of Noble Families, pp. 212-13; Collins's Peerage (Brydges), iv. 80-1; Edwards's Memoirs of Libraries, vol. i.; Walpole Letters (Cunningham), i. 139, 145, and elsewhere; Chester's Registers of Westminster Abbey; Welch's Alumni Westmon. 1852, pp. 544, 555; Swift's Works (Scott).]
HARLEY, GEORGE (1791–1871), water-colour painter and drawing- master, born in 1791, appears as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1817, when he sent two drawings of views in London. He had a large practice as a drawing-master, and drew in lithography some landscape drawings, as 'Lessons in Landscape,' for Messrs. Rowney & Forster's series of lithographic drawing-books, published in 1820-2. In 1848 he published a small 'Guide to Pencil and Chalk Drawing from Landscape,' dedicated to his past and present pupils, which reached a second edition. Harley died in 1871, aged 80. There are two water-colour drawings by him in the print room at the British Museum, one being a view of Maxstoke Priory, Warwickshire. A view of Fulham Church and Putney Bridge is in the South Kensington Museum.
[Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880; Catalogues of the Royal Academy and South Kensington Museum.]
HARLEY, GEORGE DAVIES, whose real name was Davies (d. 1811), actor and author, was, according to one account, a tailor ; according to a second, a banker's clerk, and afterwards a clerk in lottery offices. He received lessons from John Henderson [q. v.], and made his first appearance on the stage as Richard III on 20 April 1785 at Norwich. Becoming known as the Norwich Roscius, he was engaged by Harris for Covent Garden, where he appeared as Richard 25 Sept. 1789. In the course of this and two or three following seasons he played Shylock, Touchstone, King Lear, Macbeth, &c., and took original characters in ill-starred plays of Hayley and other writers. Finding that his salary did not increase, and that he was allowed to decline on a lower order of character, he withdrew into the country, but soon returned to Covent Garden, where he remained for four seasons. He then once more went into the country and played old men in comedy with success at Bristol in 1796-9, and afterwards at Birmingham, Sheffield, Wolverhampton, and elsewhere. In 1802 he supported Mrs. Siddons in her farewell visit to Dublin. According to Wewitzer, an untrustworthy authority, he died at Leicester, 28 Nov. 1811. He never rose above being a useful actor.
His writings consist of: 1. 'A Monody on the Death of Mr. John Henderson, late of Covent Garden Theatre,' Norwich, 4to, 1787. 2. 'Poems by George Davies Harley, of the Theatre Royal, Norwich. Printed for the author (by subscription),' 8vo, 1796. 3. 'Ballad Stories, Sonnets,' &c., vol. i. Bath, 1799, 12mo. 4. 'Holyhead Sonnets,' 12mo, Bath,
