Roundell Palmer

“ Nor is it improbable that alterations, and various readings, originating with himself, might have obtained private circulation among his friends, long before he had made up his own mind to give them to the public; a suggestion which may possibly help to explain the fact, that a writer, patronized by Dodwell, was misled into believing (for such a writer ought not lightly to be accused of a wilful fraud) that the text, published in the "Conference" under the Bishop's name, was really from his hand. ”

“ It is also certain, that, in the retirement of his latter years at Longleat, the Bishop devoted much of his time and mind to poetical pursuits; and he left many poems in manuscript, which were first published after his death. That he should have revised the "Morning," "Evening," and "Midnight," Hymns, (especially after a spurious revision, purporting to be by himself, had gone abroad,) is, at least, not improbable; and if he did so, the text so revised, would, as a matter of course, come into the hands of, and be published by, the owner of the copyright, Brome. ”

“ I therefore think it necessary to give you my reasons for differing from them, and for retaining my own opinion, that the text of 1712 was the result of the Bishop's revision of his own compositions.
The facts are these. The "Manual of Prayers for Winchester Scholars" was originally published by Ken in 1674, (when he was thirty-seven years old, and a resident Fellow of Winchester College,) without any Hymns. It appears, however, from a passage in the "Manual," that the author had composed, for the use of the scholars, three Hymns, for "Morning," "Evening," and "Midnight;" ”