William Dugdale in his Autobiography acknowledges the assistance which he had received from Burton. In 1612 Thomas Purefoy of Barwell in Warwickshire bequeathed at his death to Burton the original manuscript of John Leland's Collectanea. Anthony Wood says Burton needlessly expanded this work; but Thomas Hearne, in the preface to his edition of the Collectanea, denies that. In 1631 Burton caused part of Leland's Itinerary to be transcribed, and in the following year he gave five quarto volumes of Leland's autograph manuscripts to the Bodleian Library.
