Cox Macro

[1] Richard Hurd was curate during 1742-3 of a parish near Norton, where he often saw Macro, and considered him "a very learned and amiable man, the most complete scholar and gentleman united that almost ever I saw."

It contained many valuable paintings, a few pieces of sculpture, a collection of coins and medals, numerous manuscripts, and a library of books rich in old poetry and other rare works.

Peter Tillemans of Antwerp, a friend of the family since about 1715, created decorative work in the house and produced about twenty paintings, some original and others in the manner of other artists.

Among them were drawings by the old masters, which had belonged to Sir James Thornhill, many letters from protestant martyrs, descended to him through Bishop Cox, the great register of Bury St Edmunds Abbey, a ledger-book of Glastonbury Abbey, the original manuscript of Edmund Spenser's A View of the Present State of Irelande all the collections of John Covel, and numerous charters.

[1] Many of his manuscripts had belonged to Sir Henry Spelman, others formed part of the library of Bury St Edmunds Abbey, and several of them had been obtained through Hurd.

for Norwich, who disposed of the old masters by auction in 1819, and sold the books and manuscripts for a trifling sum — no more than £150, it is said — to Richard Beatniffe, bookseller in that city, who resold them at a very large profit.

The manuscripts were sold for him by Christie of Pall Mall in 1820, and were purchased — forty-one lots by Dawson Turner and the rest by Hudson Gurney — for £700.