Transcriber's Note: Some typographical and punctuation errors have beencorrected. A complete list follows the text. Words in Greek in theoriginal are transliterated and placed between +plus signs+. Wordsitalicized in the original are surrounded by _underscores_. THE BOOK-HUNTER IN LONDON. [Illustration] [Illustration: '_His soul was never so staked down as in a bookseller'sshop. _' ROGER NORTH. ] THE BOOK-HUNTER IN LONDON Historical and other Studies of Collectorsand Collecting _WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS_ BY W. ROBERTS _Author of'The Earlier History of English Bookselling, ''Printers' Marks, ' etc. _ LONDONELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E. C. 1895 CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE xiii INTRODUCTION xv EARLY BOOK-HUNTING 1 BOOK-HUNTING AFTER THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING 12 FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW 44 BOOK-AUCTIONS AND SALES 98 BOOKSTALLS AND BOOKSTALLING 149 SOME BOOK-HUNTING LOCALITIES 168 WOMEN AS BOOK-COLLECTORS 259 BOOK THIEVES, BORROWERS, AND KNOCK-OUTS 274 SOME HUMOURS OF BOOK-CATALOGUES 293 SOME MODERN COLLECTORS 299 INDEX 323 [Illustration] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 'HIS SOUL WAS NEVER SO STAKED DOWN AS IN A BOOKSELLER'S SHOP. '--ROGER NORTH _Frontispiece_ IN A SCRIPTORIUM 2 LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY 5 ROMAN BOOKS AND WRITING MATERIALS 11 EARL OF ARUNDEL'S BADGE 16 SIR ROBERT COTTON 21 SIR JULIUS CÆSAR'S TRAVELLING LIBRARY 22 ARCHBISHOP USHER 26 WOTTON HOUSE IN 1840 28 MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD 29 SIR HANS SLOANE'S MONUMENT 30 LITTLE BRITAIN IN 1550 33 CHARLES, THIRD EARL OF SUNDERLAND 37 LONDON HOUSE, ALDERSGATE STREET, 1808 40 ST. BERNARD'S SEAL 43 MR. AUSTIN DOBSON 45 WILLIAM BECKFORD, BOOK-COLLECTOR 48 GEORGE JOHN, EARL SPENCER 51 JOHN, DUKE OF ROXBURGHE, BOOK-COLLECTOR 52 A CORNER IN THE ALTHORP LIBRARY 53 MICHAEL WODHULL, BOOK-COLLECTOR 57 GEORGE NICOL, THE KING'S BOOKSELLER 60 THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, BIBLIOGRAPHER 63 REV. C. MORDAUNT CRACHERODE, M. A. , BOOK-COLLECTOR 65 J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS 71 CANONBURY TOWER, GEORGE DANIEL'S RESIDENCE 73 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 76 LAMB'S COTTAGE AT COLEBROOK ROW, ISLINGTON 77 WILLIAM HAZLITT 78 THOMAS HILL, AFTER MACLISE 79 SAMUEL ROGERS'S HOUSE IN ST. JAMES'S PLACE 81 SAMUEL ROGERS 82 ALEXANDER DYCE, BOOK-COLLECTOR 83 W. J. THOMS, BOOK-COLLECTOR 88 HOLLINGBURY COPSE, THE RESIDENCE OF THE LATE MR. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS 91 JOHN DUNTON, BOOK-AUCTIONEER IN 1698 101 SAMUEL BAKER, THE FOUNDER OF SOTHEBY'S 102 SAMUEL LEIGH SOTHEBY 104 MR. E. G. HODGE, OF SOTHEBY'S 105 A FIELD-DAY AT SOTHEBY'S 106 KEY TO THE CHARACTERS IN THE 'FIELD-DAY AT SOTHEBY'S' 107 R. H. EVANS, BOOK-AUCTIONEER, 1812 109 JOHN WALKER, BOOK-AUCTIONEER, 1776 112 STAIRCASE AT PUTTICK AND SIMPSON'S 113 THE LATE HENRY STEVENS, OF VERMONT 115 MR. JAMES CHRISTIE, 'THE SPECIOUS ORATOR' 117 BENJAMIN HEATH, BOOK-COLLECTOR, 1738 123 SPECIMEN OF TYPE OF THE MAZARIN BIBLE 125 A CORNER IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM 127 ALDUS, FROM A CONTEMPORARY MEDAL 129 THE FIFTY-SEVEN ALTHORP CAXTONS 134 FROM 'GAME AND PLAY OF CHESSE, ' BY CAXTON 135 SPECIMEN OF THE TYPE OF 'THE BOKE OF ST. ALBANS' 137 SPECIMEN PAGE OF TYNDALE'S TESTAMENT, 1526 138 JOHN MURRAY, OF SACOMB, BOOK-HUNTER 139 TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF 'THE COMPLEAT ANGLER' 144 FROM THE 'PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, ' PART II. 145 CORNELIUS WALFORD, BOOK-COLLECTOR 152 THE SOUTH SIDE OF HOLYWELL STREET 153 EXETER 'CHANGE IN 1826 154 A BARROW IN WHITECHAPEL 155 A BOOK-BARROW IN FARRINGDON ROAD 158 A FEW TYPES IN FARRINGDON ROAD 159 HENRY LEMOINE, AUTHOR AND BOOKSELLER 161 THE LATE EDMUND HODGSON, BOOK-AUCTIONEER 164 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, 1606. FROM THE CRACE COLLECTION 169 THOMAS BRITTON, 'THE SMALL-COAL MAN, ' COLLECTOR OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND MSS. 173 DUKE STREET, LITTLE BRITAIN, FORMERLY CALLED DUCK LANE 175 CHARLES LAMB, AFTER D. MACLISE 177 OLD HOUSES IN MOORFIELDS 178 JONES AND CO. (SUCCESSORS TO LACKINGTON) 180 INTERIOR OF LACKINGTON'S SHOP 181 LACKINGTON'S HALFPENNY 182 THE POULTRY IN 1550 184 THE OLD MANSION HOUSE, CHEAPSIDE 185 GILBERT AND FIELD'S SHOP IN COPTHALL COURT 186 E. GEORGE'S (LATE GLADDING'S) SHOP, WHITECHAPEL ROAD 188 MIDDLE ROW, HOLBORN, 1865 195 WILLIAM DARTON, BOOKSELLER 197 INTERIOR OF DARTON'S SHOP, HOLBORN HILL 198 JAMES WESTELL'S, 114, OXFORD STREET 200 SALKELD'S SHOP--'IVY HOUSE'--IN CLAPHAM ROAD 203 JOHN BAGFORD, SHOEMAKER AND BOOK-DESTROYER 204 MR. TREGASKIS'S SHOP--'THE CAXTON HEAD'--IN HOLBORN 205 DAY'S CIRCULATING LIBRARY IN MOUNT STREET 207 PATERNOSTER ROW ON A BANK HOLIDAY 209 JOHN EVELYN, BOOK-COLLECTOR 212 NEWBERY'S SHOP IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD 213 CHARLES TILT'S SHOP 221 BUTCHER ROW, 1798 224 CHARLES HUTT'S HOUSE IN CLEMENT'S INN PASSAGE 226 MR. WILLIAM D. REEVES, BOOKSELLER 227 MESSRS. HILL AND SON'S SHOP IN HOLYWELL STREET 231 MESSRS. SOTHERAN'S SHOP IN PICCADILLY 233 HONEST TOM PAYNE 239 HENRY G. BOHN, BOOKSELLER 243 JOHN H. BOHN 244 MR. F. S. ELLIS 245 A CORNER AT ELLIS AND ELVEY'S 246 WESTMINSTER HALL WHEN OCCUPIED BY BOOKSELLERS AND OTHERS 247 JOHN HATCHARD (1768-1849) 252 JAMES TOOVEY, BOOKSELLER 253 JAMES TOOVEY'S SHOP, PICCADILLY 254 BERNARD QUARITCH, THE NAPOLEON OF BOOKSELLERS 256 QUEEN ELIZABETH'S GOLDEN MANUAL OF PRAYERS (FRONT COVER) 262 QUEEN ELIZABETH'S GOLDEN MANUAL OF PRAYERS (BACK COVER) 263 THE FRONTISPIECE TO 'THE LADIES' LIBRARY' OF STEELE 266 ELIZABETH PINDAR'S BOOKPLATE 267 THE ESHTON HALL LIBRARY 269 'EARNING HIS DINNER' 275 THE KING'S LIBRARY, BRITISH MUSEUM 276 'STEALS A BOOK, PLACES IT IN A NOVELETTE, AND WALKS AWAY' 280 'HE HAD PLACED THE BOOK IN HIS POCKET. SOMEONE HAD RELIEVED HIM OF IT' 282 THE LATE HENRY HUTH, BOOK-COLLECTOR 300 MR. HENRY H. GIBBS, BOOK-COLLECTOR 302 MR. R. COPLEY CHRISTIE, BOOK-COLLECTOR 303 THE LATE FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON 312 PORTRAIT BOOKPLATE OF MR. JOSEPH KNIGHT 313 'AN ORDER FROM MR. GLADSTONE' 315 PORTRAIT BOOKPLATE OF MR. H. S. ASHBEE 316 MR. T. J. WISE, BOOK-COLLECTOR 317 MR. CLEMENT SHORTER'S BOOKPLATE 318 MR. A. BIRRELL, BOOK-COLLECTOR 319 FACSIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE, 'PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, ' FIRST EDITION 321 [Illustration: _Roman Book-box. _] PREFACE. _'THE Book-hunter in London' is put forth as a contribution to thefascinating history of book-collecting in the metropolis; it does notpretend to be a complete record of a far-reaching subject, which a dozenvolumes would not exhaust; the present work, however, is the firstattempt to deal with it in anything like a comprehensive manner, but ofhow far or in what degree this attempt is successful the reader himselfmust decide. _ _The task itself has been an exceedingly pleasant one to the author, andit only remains for him to thank, collectively, the large number offriends and acquaintances who have so cordially favoured him with adviceand information on so many points. In only a couple of quite unimportantinstances has he experienced anything approaching churlishness. Thegeniality and courtesy of the book-collector are proverbial, butspecimens of a different type are evidently to be found here and there. _ _As regards the chapter on Modern Collectors, the author's object hasbeen to deal with a representative selection of the bibliophiles ofto-day. To aim at anything like completeness in this section of the bookwould be highly undesirable, having regard to a proportionaterepresentation of the subject as a whole. Completeness, moreover, wouldbe an impossibility, even in a volume devoted entirely to modern men. _ _The greatest possible care has been taken to prevent inaccuracy of anykind, but whilst freedom from error is a consummation which every authordesires, it is also one of which few can boast. The reader will be doingthe author a favour by informing him of any mistake which may bedetected in the following pages. An omission in the account of Stewart, the founder of Puttick's, may be here made good: he had the privilege ofselling David Garrick's choice library in 1823. The author regrets tolearn that Purcell (p. 165), a very intelligent bookseller, died somemonths ago. _ _'The Book-hunter in London' is the outcome not only of material whichhas been accumulating for many years past, from published andunpublished sources, but also of a long and pleasant intercourse withthe leading book-collectors and booksellers in London, not to mention avigorous and constant prosecution of one of the most pleasant andinstructive of hobbies. The author has freely availed himself of theinformation in the works of Dibdin, Nichols, and other writers on thesubject, but their statements have been verified whenever possible, andacknowledgements have been made in the proper places to the authoritieslaid under contribution. _ _W. R. _ 86, GROSVENOR ROAD, S. W. INTRODUCTION. IT would be quite as great a fallacy to assume that a rich man is also awise one, as to take for granted that he who has accumulated a largelibrary is necessarily a learned man. It is a very curious fact, butnone the less a fact, that just as the greatest men have the shortestbiographies, so have they been content with the smallest libraries. Shakespeare, Voltaire, Humboldt, Comte, Goethe had no collection ofbooks to which the term library could fairly be applied. But though eachpreferred to find in Nature and in Nature's handiworks the mentalexercise which less gifted men obtain from books, that did not preventthem from being ardent book-lovers. Shakespeare--to mention oneonly--must have possessed a Plutarch, a Stowe, a Montaigne, and a Bible, and probably half a dozen other books of less moment. And yet, with thispoor show, he was as genuine a book-lover as Ben Jonson or my LordVerulam. Lord Burleigh, Grotius, and Bonaparte are said to have carriedtheir libraries in their pockets, and doubtless Shakespeare could havecarried his under his arm. If all great men have not been book-collectors in the manner which isgenerally understood by the phrase, it is certain that they have, perhaps without a single exception, been book-lovers. They appear, forthe most part, to have made a constant companion of some particularlyfavourite book; for instance, St. Jerome slept with a copy of Aristotleunder his pillow; Lord Clarendon had a couple of favourites, Livy andTacitus; Lord Chatham had a good classical library, with an especialfondness for Barrow; Leibnitz died in a chair with the 'Argenis' ofBarclay in his hand; Kant, who never left his birthplace, Königsburg, had a weakness in the direction of books of travel. 'Were I to sell mylibrary, ' wrote Diderot, 'I would keep back Homer, Moses, andRichardson. ' Sir W. Jones, like many other distinguished men, loved hisCæsar. Chesterfield, agreeing with Callimachus, that 'a great book is agreat evil, ' and with La Fontaine-- 'Les longs ouvrages me font peur Loin j'épuiser une matière Il faut n'en prendre que la fleur'-- hated ponderous, prosy, pedantic tomes. Garrick had an extensivecollection on the history of the stage, but Shakespeare was his onlyconstant friend. Gibbon was a book-collector more in the sense of a manwho collects books as literary tools than as a bibliophile. But it isscarcely necessary just now to enter more fully into the subject ofgreat men who were also book-lovers. Sufficient it is, perhaps, to knowthat they have all felt the blessedness of books, for, as WashingtonIrving in one of his most lofty sentences has so well put it, 'When allthat is worldly turns to dross around us, these [the comforts of awell-stored library] only retain their steady value; when friends growcold, and the converse of intimates languishes into vapid civility andcommonplace, _these_ only continue the unaltered countenance of happierdays, and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hopenor deserted sorrow. ' It is infinitely easier to name those who have collected books in thisvast and unwieldy London of ours, than it is to classify them. To adoptbotanical phraseology, the _genus_ is defined in a word or two, but thespecies, the varieties, the hybrids, and the seedlings, how varied andimpossible their classification! Most men have bought books, some haveread a few, and others many; but beyond this rough grouping together weshall not attempt anything. One thing, however, the majority ofbook-collectors agree in, and that is in regarding their own generationas a revolution--they have, as Butler has described it in his picture ofan antiquary, 'a great value for that which is past and gone, like themadman that fell in love with Cleopatra. ' Differing in many, and often material, points as one book-collector doesfrom another, the entire passion for collecting may be said to focusitself into two well-defined grooves. A man either collects books forhis own intellectual profit, or out of pure ostentatious vanity. In theensuing pages there will be found ample and material facts in regard tothe former, so that we may say here all that we have to say regardingthe latter. The second type of book-enthusiast has two of the mostpowerful factors in his apparently reckless career--his own book-greed, and the bookseller who supplies and profits by him. 'What do you think of my library?' the King of Spain once asked Bautru, the French wit, as he showed him the collection at the Escurial, at thattime in the charge of a notoriously ignorant librarian. 'Your Majesty's library is very fine, ' answered Bautru, bowing low; 'butyour Majesty ought to make the man who has charge of it an officer ofthe Treasury. ' 'And why?' queried the King. 'Because, ' replied Bautru, 'the librarian of your Majesty seems to be aman who never touches that which is confided to him. ' There are many varieties of the ignorant collector type. The mostfruitful source is the _nouveau riche_. Book-collecting is greatly amatter of fashion; and most of us will remember what Benjamin Franklinsaid of this prevailing vice: 'There are numbers that, perhaps, fearless the being in hell, than out of the fashion. ' The enterprisingindividual who, on receipt of a catalogue of medical books, wired to thebookseller, 'What will you take for the lot?' and on a price beingquoted, again telegraphed, 'Send them along, ' was clearly a person whowished to be fashionable. Another characteristically amusingillustration of this type of book-collector is related by anold-established second-hand bookseller, who had bought at a country salesome two or three hundred volumes in a fair condition. But they wereprincipally old sermons, or, what is worse, theology and politicaleconomy. He placed a sample lot outside his shop, leaving the bulk ofthe stock untouched. The little parcel attracted the attention of astylishly dressed man, who entered the shop and said, 'I'll take thesebooks, and, say, have you any more of this kind with this shield ontothem?' pointing to the bookplate attached, which bore the arms and nameof a good old county family. 'That box, sir, is full of books from thesame house, and probably every book has the same bookplate, but I havenot yet had time to examine them. ' 'What's yer figger for them, any way?See here, I start back to Chicago to-morrow, and I mean to take thesebooks right back along. I'm goin' to start a libery thar, and thesebooks will just fit me, name and all. Just you sort out all that havethat shield and name, and send them round to the Langham at seven sharp. I'll be round to settle up; but see, now, don't you send any withoutthat name-plate, for that's my name, too, and I reckon this old hosswith the daggers and roosters might have been related to me some way. ' 'I remember, ' says the Marquis d'Argenson, in his 'Mémoires, ' 'oncepaying a visit to a well-known bibliomaniac, who had just purchased anextremely scarce volume, quoted at a fabulous price. Having beengraciously permitted by its owner to inspect the treasure, I venturedinnocently to remark that he had probably bought it with thephilanthropic intention of having it reprinted. "Heaven forbid!" heexclaimed in a horrified tone; "how could you suppose me capable of suchan act of folly! If I were, the book would be no longer scarce, andwould have no value whatever. Besides, " he added, "I doubt, betweenourselves, if it be worth reprinting. " "In that case, " said I, "itsrarity appears to be its only attraction. " "Just so, " he complacentlyreplied; "and that is quite enough for me. "' Another type which borders dangerously near to that which we have beendescribing is the collector who, not necessarily ignorant, collects forhimself alone. The motto which Grolier adopted and acted upon--'IoGrolierii et amicorum'--might have been a very safe principle to go uponin the sixteenth century, but it would most certainly fail in thenineteenth, when one's dearest friends are the most unmitigatedbook-thieves. But perhaps even the too frequent loss of books is an evilto be preferred to the egoistical meanness of the selfish collector. Balzac gives in his 'Cousin Pons' a vivid delineation of such a person. The hero is a poor drudging music-teacher and orchestra-player, who hasinvested every franc of his hard-won earnings in the collecting ofexquisite paintings, prints, bric-à-brac, and other rare mementoes ofthe eighteenth century. Despised by all, even by his kindred, troddenupon as a nobody, slow, patient, and ever courageous, he unites to acomplete technical knowledge a marvellous intuition of the beautiful, and his treasures are for him pride, bliss, and life. There is no showin this case, no desire for show, no ambition of the despicableshoddy-genteel sort--a more than powerful creation of fiction. Astrikingly opposite career of selfishness is suggested by the fairlywell-known story of Don Vincente, the friar bookseller of Barcelona, who, in order to obtain a volume which a rival bookseller, Paxtot, hadsecured at an auction, set fire one night to Paxtot's shop, and stolethe precious volume--a supposed unique copy of the 'Furs e ordinacionsfetes per los gloriosos reys de Arago als regnicoes del regne deValencia, ' printed by Lambert Palmart, 1482. When the friar was broughtup for judgment, he stolidly maintained his innocence, asserting thatPaxtot had sold it to him after the auction. Further inquiry resulted inthe discovery that Don Vincente possessed a number of books which hadbeen purchased from him by customers who were shortly afterwards foundassassinated. It was only after receiving a formal promise that hislibrary should not be dispersed, but preserved in its integrity, that hedetermined to make a clean breast of it, and confess the details of thecrimes that he had committed. In cross-examination, Don Vincente spurnedthe suggestion that he was a thief, for had he not given back to hisvictims the money which they had paid him for the books? 'And it was solely for the sake of books that you committed thesemurders?' asked the judge. 'Books! yes, books! Books are the glory of God!' Vincente's counsel, in defence of his client, in this desperate straitmaintained that there might exist several copies of the books found inhis possession, and that it was out of the question to condemn, on hisown sham avowal, a man who appeared to be half cracked. The counsel forthe prosecution said that that plea could not be urged in the case ofthe book printed by Lambert Palmart, as but one copy of that was inexistence. But the prisoner's counsel retorted by putting in evidenceattested affirmation that a second copy was in France. Up to this moment Vincente had maintained an imperturbable calm; but onhearing his counsel's plea he burst into tears. In the end, Don Vincentewas condemned to be strangled, and when asked if he had anything more tourge, all he could utter, sobbing violently, was, 'Ah! your worship, _my copy was not unique_!' Cousin Pons and Don Vincente are extreme instances of bibliomaniacs towhom the possession of a book was the supreme happiness of life. The manof Fiction and the man of Fact were at one in this passion ofacquisitiveness. Don Vincente was compelled by hunger--_mala suadafames_--to become a book _seller_; and if it became a general rule forbook-collectors to become booksellers there would, we venture to think, be a very material increase in police-court and, perhaps, criminal casesgenerally. Mr. G. A. Sala tells us an amusing story of the lateFrederick Guest Tomlins, a historian and journalist of repute. In theautumn of his life Tomlins decided to set up as a bookseller. Hepurposed to deal chiefly in mediæval literature, in which he wasprofoundly versed. The venture was scarcely successful. A customerentered his shop one day and asked for a particular book, as marked inthe catalogue. 'I had really no idea it was there, ' meditativelyremarked Mr. Tomlins, as he ascended a ladder to a very high shelf andpulled out a squabby little tome. Then he remained about five-and-twentyminutes on the ladder absorbed in the perusal of the volume, when thecustomer, growing impatient, began to rap on the counter with his stick. Thereupon Mr. Tomlins came down the ladder. 'If you think, ' he remarked, with calm severity, to the intending purchaser, 'that any considerationsof vile dross will induce me to part with this rare and precious littlevolume, you are very much mistaken. It is like your impudence. Be offwith you!' A not altogether dissimilar anecdote is related by LordLytton in that curious novel 'Zanoni, ' in which one of the characters isan old bookseller who, after years of toil, succeeded in forming analmost perfect library of works on occult philosophy. Poor in everythingbut a genuine love for the mute companions of his old age, he wascompelled to keep open his shop, and trade, as it were, in his ownflesh. Let a customer enter, and his countenance fell; let him departempty-handed, and he would smile gaily, oblivious for a time of barecupboard and inward cravings. _À propos_ of a literary man turning bookseller, the experiment hasoften been tried, but it has generally failed. Second-hand booksellingseems to be a frequent experiment after the failures of other tradesand callings. We have known grocers, greengrocers, coal-dealers, pianoforte-makers, printers, bookbinders, cheap-jacks, in London, adoptthe selling of books as a means of livelihood. Sometimes--and severalliving examples might be cited--the experiment is a success, butfrequently a failure. The knowledge of old books is not picked up in amonth or a year. The misfortune which seems to dog the footsteps of manymen in every move they make, does not fail to pursue them inbookselling. Some of them might almost say with Fulmer, in Cumberland's'West Indian' (1771): 'I have beat through every quarter of thecompass . . . I have blustered for prerogatives, I have bellowed forfreedom, I have offered to serve my country, I have engaged to betrayit . . . I have talked treason, writ treason. . . . And here I set up asa bookseller, but men leave off reading, and if I were to turn butcher Ibelieve they'd leave off eating. ' There can be no doubt about the fact that Englishmen as a rule do notattach sufficient importance to book-buying. If the better-classtradesman, or professional man, spends a few pounds at Christmas or onbirthday occasions, he feels that he has become a patron of literature. How many men, who are getting £1, 000 a year, spend £1 per month onbooks? The library of the average middle-class person is in ninety-ninecases out of a hundred the cruelest possible commentary on hisintelligence, and, as a matter of fact, if it contains a couple ofvolumes worthy of the name of books, their presence is more often thannot an accidental one. A few volumes of the _Sunday at Home_, the_Leisure Hour_, _Cassell's Magazine_, or perhaps a few other monthlyperiodicals, carefully preserved during the twelve months of theirissue, and bound up at the end of the year--with such stuff as this isthe average Englishman's bookcase filled. Mark Pattison has gone so faras to declare that while the aggregate wealth of the United Kingdom ismany times more than it was one hundred and fifty years ago, the circleof book-buyers, of the lovers of literature, is certainly not larger, ifit be not absolutely smaller. It may be urged that a person with £1, 000per annum as income usually spends £100 in rent, and that theaccommodation which can be got for that amount does not permit of oneroom being devoted to library purposes. This may be true, but thisexplanation is not a valid excuse, for a set of shelves, 13 feet by 10feet 6 inches, placed against a wall will accommodate nearly onethousand octavo volumes--the genius of the world can be pressed into ahundred volumes. An American has advised his readers to 'own all thebooks you can, use all the books you own, and as many more as you canget. ' The advice is good, and it is well to remember that by far themajority of great book-collectors have lived to a ripe old age. Thecompanionship of books is unquestionably one of the greatest antidotesto the ravages of time, and study is better than all medical formulasfor the prolongation of life. The man who has resolved upon getting together a collection offirst-class books may not unreasonably be appalled at the difficultieswhich stand in the way. And what, indeed, it may be asked, will becomeof the hundreds and thousands of books which are now all the fashion?How many will survive the levelling process of the next half a score ofyears, and how few will be known, except to bibliographers, half acentury hence? The lessons of the past would aid us in arriving at somesort of conclusion as regards the future, if we were inclined to indulgein speculation of this vain character. It will, however, be interestingto point out that of the 1, 300 books printed before the beginning of thesixteenth century, not more than 300 are of any importance to thebook-collector. Of the 50, 000 published in the seventeenth century, notmore than perhaps fifty are now held in estimation; and of the 80, 000published in the eighteenth century not more than 300 are consideredworth reprinting, and not more than 500 are sought after. In a curious little book, 'L'An 2440, rêvue s'il en fut jamais, 'published in Paris a century ago, there is a very quaint description ofthe process by which, in an improved state of society, men would applythemselves not to multiply books, but to gather knowledge. The sages ofthe political millennium exhibited their stores of useful learning in acabinet containing a few hundred volumes. All the lumber of letters hadperished, or was preserved only in one or two public libraries for thegratification of a few harmless dreamers that were tolerated in theirlaborious idleness. This pleasant little picture, drawn by M. L. S. Mercier, of the state of things five centuries hence, is in strongcontrast to the painful plethora of books of the present day. Dr. Ingleby, the famous Shakespearian scholar, is credited with the idea ofestablishing a society for the purpose of procuring books which no oneelse would buy; but this society (the 'Syncretic Book-club') could nothave had any success if the vast quantities of unsaleable rubbish whichone meets with on every hand are to be taken into account. Doubtless Dr. Ingleby would have included in his scope such books as Lord Lonsdale's'Memoir of the Reign of James II. , ' 1803, which fifty years ago sold for5-1/2 guineas, but which, within the past few months, has declined totwo shillings! There was a time when even old and unsaleable books had a commercialvalue. Before the cheapening of paper, a second-hand bookseller hadalways the paper-mill to fall back on, and the price then paid, £1 10s. Per cwt. , was one inducement to dispose of folios and quartos whichremained year in and year out without a purchaser. The present price ofwaste-paper is half a crown a hundredweight, so that the bookseller isnow practically shut out of this poor market. Indeed, an enterprisingbibliopole was lately offering 'useful old books, ' etc. , at 3s. 6d. Percwt. , free on the rails, provided not less than six hundredweight isbought. 'To young beginners, ' he states, 'these lots are greatbargains'; but whether he means young beginners in literature or youngbeginners in trade, is an open question. In either case, 'useful oldbooks' at the price of waste-paper are a novelty. There is a certainamount of danger in the wholesale destruction of books, for posteritymay place a high value, literary and commercial, on the very works whichare now consigned to the paper-mill. Unfortunately, posterity will notpay booksellers' rent of to-day. Just as those books which have thelargest circulation are likely to become the rarest, so do those whichwere at one time most commonly met with often, after the lapse of a fewdecades, become difficult to obtain. In one of his 'Echoes' notes, Mr. G. A. Sala tells us that, in the course of forty years'bookstall-hunting, he has known a great number of books once commonbecome scarce and costly--_e. G. _, Lawrence's 'Lectures on Man'; Walker's'Analysis of Beauty'; Millingen's 'Curiosities of Medical Experience';Beckford's 'Vathek' in French; Jeremy Bentham's works; and Harris's'Hermes. ' Possibly the disappearance of these and many other books maybe attributed to certain definite causes. For example, in the earlyyears of this century one of the commonest books at 1s. Or 1s. 6d. WasTheobald's 'Shakespeare Restored'; but fifty years later it was a veryrare book. The interest in Shakespeare and his editors had become quitewide-spread in literary circles, and literature in any way bearing onthe subject found ready purchasers. Just as the disappearance of certain books sends their prices upconsiderably in the market, so the unexpected appearance of others hasjust the reverse effect. Until quite recently one of the scarcest of thefirst editions of the writings of Charles Dickens was a thin octavopamphlet of seventy-one pages, entitled 'The Village Coquettes: a ComicOpera. In two Acts. London: Richard Bentley, 1836. ' So rare was thisbook that very few collectors could boast the possession of it, and anuncut example might always be sold for £30 or £40. About a year beforehis death, Dickens was asked by Mr. Locker-Lampson whether he had acopy; his reply was: 'No, and if I knew it was in my house, and if Icould not get rid of it in any other way, I would burn the wing of thehouse where it was'--the words, no doubt, being spoken in jest. Not longsince, a mass of waste-paper from a printer's warehouse was returned tothe mills to be pulped, and would certainly have been destroyed had notone of the workmen employed upon the premises caught sight of the nameof 'Charles Dickens' upon some of the sheets. The whole parcel wascarefully examined, and the searchers were rewarded by the discovery ofnearly a hundred copies of 'The Village Coquettes, ' in quires, clean andunfolded. These were passed into the market, and the price at once fellto about £5. The most curious things turn up sometimes in a similarmanner. A little sixpenny bazaar book ('Two Poems, ' by Elizabeth Barrettand Robert Browning, 1854) was for a long time extremely rare, as muchas £3 or £4 being paid for it when it occurred for sale. Suddenly itappeared in a bookseller's catalogue at 2s. , and as every applicantcould have as many as he wanted, it then leaked out that the bookseller, Mr. Herbert, had purchased about 100 copies with books which he purposedsending to the mill. Even 'remainders' sometimes turn out to be littlegold-mines. The late Mr. Stibbs bought the 'remainder' of Keats's'Endymion' at 4d. Per copy. We do not know what he realized by thisinvestment, but their value for some years has been £4 and upwards. [Illustration: _The late Henry Stevens, of Vermont. _] The subject of book-finds is one about which a volume might be written. Every 'special' collector has his fund of book-hunting anecdotes andincidents, for, where the rarity of a well-known book is commonproperty, there is not usually much excitement in running it to earth. The fun may be said to begin when two or three people are known to be onthe hunt after a rare and little-known volume, whose interest is of aspecial character. To take, as an illustration, one of the mostsuccessful book-hunters of modern times, the late Henry Stevens, ofVermont. Until Mr. Stevens created the taste for Americana among hisfellow-countrymen, very few collectors considered the subject worthnotice. And yet, in the space of a quarter of a century, he unearthedmore excessively rare and unique items than the wildest dreamer couldhave supposed to exist. Books and pamphlets which were to be had for theproverbial old song when he first came to this country quickly becamethe objects of the keenest competition in the saleroom, and invariablyfound buyers at extravagant prices. As an illustration, although not anAmerican item, we may mention that when a copy of the Mazarin Bible wasoffered at Sotheby's in 1847, the competitors were an agent of Mr. JamesLenox (Stevens' client) and Sir Thomas Phillipps in person; the latterwent to £495, but the agent went £5 better, and secured the prize at thethen unheard-of price of £500. At first Mr. Lenox declined to take thebook, but eventually altered his mind, wisely as it proved, for althoughat long intervals copies are being unearthed, the present value of Mr. Lenox's copy cannot be much short of £4, 000. During 1854 and 1855 Mr. Stevens bought books to the value of over 50, 000 dollars for Mr. Lenox, and on reviewing the invoices of these two years, 'I am confident, ' saysMr. Stevens, 'that, if the same works were now' (1887) 'to be collected, they would cost more than 250, 000 dollars. But can so much and so manyrare books ever be collected again in that space of time?' In December, 1855, Mr. Stevens offered Mr. Lenox in one lump about forty Shakespearequartos, all in good condition, and some of them very fine, for £500, or, including a fair set of the four folios, £600, an offer which wasaccepted, and it may be doubted whether such a set could now bepurchased for £6, 000. Mr. Lenox was for over ten years desirous ofobtaining a perfect copy of 'The Bay Psalter, ' printed by Stephen Dayeat Cambridge, New England, 1640, the first book printed in what is nowthe United States, and had given Mr. Stevens a commission of £100 forit. After searching far and wide, the long-lost 'Benjamin' wasdiscovered in a lot at the sale of Pickering's stock at Sotheby's in1855. 'A cold-blooded coolness seized me, and advancing towards thetable behind Mr. Lilly, I quietly bid, in a perfectly neutral tone, "Sixpence"; and so the bids went on, increasing by sixpences, until halfa crown was reached and Mr. Lilly had loosened the string. Taking upthis very volume, he turned to me and remarked, "This looks a rareedition, Mr. Stevens; don't you think so? I do not remember having seenit before, " and raised the bid to 5s. I replied that I had little doubtof its rarity, though comparatively a late edition of the Psalms, and atthe same time gave Mr. Wilkinson a sixpenny nod. Thenceforward a"spirited competition" arose between Mr. Lilly and myself, until finallythe lot was knocked down to Stevens for 19s. ' The volume had cost thelate Mr. Pickering 3s. It became Mr. Lenox's property for £80. Twenty-three years later another copy was bought by Mr. CorneliusVanderbilt for 1, 200 dollars. In a letter to Justin Windsor, the late J. Orchard Halliwell-Phillippsgave some very curious and interesting information respectingbook-collecting in the earlier half of the present century. 'About theyear 1836, ' he wrote, 'when I first began hunting for old books at thevarious stalls in our famous London city, black-letter ones and rareprints were "plenty as blackberries, " and I have often found such thingsin unlikely places and amidst a mass of commonplace rubbish, exposed forsale in boxes labelled, "These books and pamphlets 6d. Or 1s. Each, "outside an old bookseller's window, where another notice informed thepasser-by that "Libraries were purchased or books bought;" and thusplainly showed how such now indeed rarities came into the possession ofan ignorant bibliopole. It was not, however, till about 1840 that Iturned my attention to the more special work of collecting Shakespearequartos, in which, I may say, I have been very successful. It was at oneof George Chalmers' sales that I first bought one or two, and after thatI hunted for them in all parts of the country, and met with considerablesuccess, often buying duplicates, and even triplicates, of the sameedition and play. At one time I possessed no less than three copies ofthe very rare quarto edition of "Romeo and Juliet, " 1609, and sometimeseven had four copies of more than one of the other quartos. Not so verylong before this period, old Jolley, the well-known collector, picked upa Caxton at Reading, and a "Venus and Adonis, " 1594, at Manchester, ina volume of old tracts, for the ignoble sum of 1s. 3d. Jolley was awealthy orange-merchant of Farringdon Street, London, and entertained meoften with many stories of similar fortunate finds of rare books, whichserved to whet my appetite only the more. But I was soon stopped in mybook-hunting career by the appearance all at once on the scene of anumber of buyers with much longer purses than my own, and thus I wasdriven from a market I had derived so much pleasure from with greatregret. Some time afterwards circumstances rendered it desirable that Ishould part with a large number of my book-treasures by auction and tothe British Museum; but even then I retained enough to be instrumentalin founding the first Shakespearian library in Scotland, by presentingto the University of Edinburgh, amongst other rarities, nearly fiftycopies of original quartos of Shakespeare's plays, printed before theRestoration, and to keep sufficient myself of the rarest and mostvaluable examples. ' Sometimes the notes of a former possessor have a considerable literaryinterest, as, for example, the copy of Stowe's 'Survey of London, ' 1618, presented to the Penzance Library by the late J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, who has written, under date December 24, 1867, the following note: 'Thisis a favourite book of mine. I like to read of London as it was, withthe bright Thames crowded with fish, and its picturesquearchitecture. . . . I should not have discarded this volume for anylibrary, had I not this day picked up a beautiful _large paper_ copy ofit, the only one in that condition I ever saw or heard of. ' As an illustration of the enhanced value possessed by books having noteswritten in them by their owners, it may be mentioned that when the greatMr. Fox's furniture was sold by auction after his death in 1806, amongstthe books there happened to be the first volume of Gibbon's 'Decline andFall, ' which apparently had been given by the author to Fox, who wroteon the fly-leaf this note: 'The author at Brooks' said there was nosalvation for this country, until six heads of the principal persons inthe administration were laid on the table. Eleven days after, this samegentleman accepted a place of "lord of trade" under those veryministers, and has acted with them ever since. ' This peculiarly nastylittle note sent the value of the odd volume up to £3 3s. Gibbon, writing in his 'Autobiography' of Fox, says, 'I admired the powers of asuperior man, as they are blended in his attractive character with thesoftness and simplicity of a child, ' an opinion which he might havemodified if he had lived to read the foregoing note. When Canning'sbooks, for the most part of an exceedingly commonplace and uninterestingcharacter, came under the hammer at Christie's in 1828, the competitionwas extremely keen for all volumes which bore the great statesman'sautograph, and as most of the books contained more or less elaborateindications of Canning's proprietorship, his executors received nearlydouble the sum which they could reasonably expect. Similar illustrationsoccur every year at book-auctions. The idiosyncrasies of collectors might make quite as long a chapter asthat of books which have belonged to famous persons, and it is for thesame reason that we have to deal briefly with each. It is curious thatalmost as soon as book-collecting became at all general, the 'faddy' mancame into existence. Dr. John Webster, of Clitheroe, who died June 18, 1682, aged seventy-two, for example, had a library which was rich inbooks of romance, and what was then termed 'the black art'; but Websterwas the author of a rare volume on witchcraft, so that his books werehis literary tools--just as, a century later, John Rennie, thedistinguished civil engineer, made a speciality of mathematical books, of which he had a collection nearly complete in all languages. Dr. Benjamin Moseley's library, which was sold by Stewart in March, 1814, was composed for the most part of books on astrology, magic, andfacetiæ. The Rev. F. J. Stainforth, whose library was sold at Sotheby'sin 1867, collected practically nothing but books written by or relatingto women; he aimed to secure not only every book, but every edition ofsuch books. He was a most determined book-hunter, and when HolywellStreet was at its lowest moral ebb, this eccentric gentleman used tovisit all the bookshops almost daily, his inquiry being, 'Have you anywomen for me to-day?' Mr. Stainforth, who died in September, 1866, wasfor many years curate of Camden Church, Camberwell, and was from 1851incumbent of All Hallow's, Staining, the stipend of which was about£560, and the population about 400. 'Bless my books--all my Bible books, all my _hocus pocus_, and all my _leger-de-main_ books, and all my otherbooks, whether particularly mentioned at this time or not, ' was theprayer of a Scotsman of about a century and a quarter ago, and soperhaps the Rev. Mr. Stainforth thought, if he did not utteroccasionally some such petition. [xxix-A] Half a century ago one of the most inveterate frequenters ofbook-auctions was a certain Dr. G. , of diminutive stature, on account ofan awkward deviation of the spine. At that time the appearance of aprivate purchaser at a sale was a very rare event, and one which, whenit occurred, invariably met with a more or less hostile reception fromthe fraternity. Dr. G. 's first appearance produced a good deal ofsensation. The hunchback, it is true, was rather shabbily dressed, but'l'habit ne fait pas le moine, ' and is certainly no trustworthy index tothe pockets of the wearer. Excitement reached fever-heat when a Wynkynde Worde was put up and persistently contested for by the doctor, whoran it up against the booksellers present (some of whom quickly desistedfrom the fun for fear of burning their fingers), one of whom, farexceeding his commission, obstinately refused to give in until the bookwas knocked down to him to his own dismay, and the delight and ironicalcompliments of his colleagues. After this _contretemps_ the doctor hadit pretty much his own way; his name was duly entered on the salecatalogue, and his address was known. The next day our bookseller, sobered by reflection, called on the doctor, confessed his sin of theprevious day, humbly asked for absolution, and offered him the book atan immense loss on the sale price. 'If you were, ' replied the doctor, 'to bring the book at my door for nothing, I would take it with a pairof tongs and drop it into the gutter. ' It was a puzzle to everyone whatthe little doctor did with all his purchases, which were limited chieflyto classical books. At his death, however, it transpired that he boughtfor the various Universities of the United Kingdom. The doctor's son, apoor curate, entered his late father's library for the first time, andfound there a mass of books, which occupied nearly a month in selling, and realized, to his delight, a large sum of money. The contempt with which Dr. G. Received the bookseller's proposal ispeculiarly typical of the book-collector. If he cannot obtain what hewants just exactly when he wants it, he does not care about it. Thebook-collector is doubtless too prone to despise everything which is notquite in his line, forgetting that all branches of literature contributein some degree, greater or lesser, to the bulk of human knowledge. Noman can be universal, even if he had the wealth of a dozen Rothschilds, or the mental vigour and versatility of a hundred Gladstones. The book-hunter has, however, his good traits, which sometimes require agood deal of finding, it is true. We need not dwell at great length onhis apparently unconquerable habit of beating down the prices, for thecustom is too well known to require much explanation; but a view of theother side of the picture is only fair. A few years ago a well-knownbookseller catalogued a copy of the 'Book of Job' at a very low figure. A wealthy collector, whose purchases were generally closed on thejudgment of a distinguished bookman, asked to have the copy sent onapproval. It was despatched; but came back within a few days. Noexplanation was volunteered: when, however, the collector came into theshop a short time after, he was asked why he had returned the book. Hisanswer was to the effect that he could not persuade himself that theillustrations were really by Blake, particularly as the price asked wasso low. A week or so after this a distinguished art-critic, hearing ofthe whereabouts of this copy, asked to have it on approval: in sendingit the bookseller enclosed a note to the effect that some doubt had beenexpressed as to the genuineness of the plates. In a few days came acheque from the man of art for £10 over and above the catalogue price, and a note to the effect that the illustrations were not onlyunquestionably by Blake, but in the finest possible state. Last summer a certain bookseller sold, after some considerable amount ofhaggling, a very fine Missal for £65, which was £5 less than itscatalogue price. A few weeks after the purchaser called and paid theadditional £5, explaining that a friend of his had taken a violent fancyto the book, and begged to be allowed to possess it at £70. Anotherhonest book-collector, discovering that he had bought a bookconsiderably cheaper than an example had been sold at Sotheby's, and £2less than Mr. Quaritch had asked for a similar copy, sent his booksellera present of a parcel of books to make up the difference in the twoamounts. With these few introductory and perhaps desultory pages, the reader isinvited to the more solid feast provided for his delectation in thefollowing pages. FOOTNOTES: [xxix-A] Mr. Stainforth's collection ranged over 300 years, and, amidmuch utter rubbish, there were a few things of considerable rarity, notably one of only three complete copies known of T. Bentley's'Monument of Matrones, ' 1582, formerly in the libraries of Herbert, Woodhouse, Heber and Bliss. It included two autograph letters of theRight Hon. T. Grenville, and realized £63; Anne Bradstreet's 'Tenth Muselately sprung up in America, ' 1650, £12 10s. ; and a copy of Dame JulianaBerners' 'Booke of Hauking, ' etc. , £13. Nearly fifty items appear underthe name of Aphra Behn; whilst there are twenty-one editions of JanePorter's 'Poems, ' which realized the grand total of 14s. The librarycomprised 3, 076 lots (representing, perhaps, twenty times that number ofvolumes), and realized the total of £792 5s. [Illustration] THE BOOK-HUNTER IN LONDON EARLY BOOK-HUNTING. THOSE who have studied the earlier phases of English history willreadily understand that the terms book-hunting in England andbook-hunting in London are by no means synonymous. The passion for bookshad manifested itself in various and remote parts of this country longbefore London had developed into a place of importance; when, indeed, itwas battling from without and within with conflicts which seemed topredict complete annihilation. But the growth of London is essentiallytypical of the growth of the nation, and of the formation of thenational character. When it was laying the foundation of its futuregreatness London had no thought of intellectual pursuits, even ifLondoners themselves had any conception of an intellectual life. For anytrace of such unthought-of, and perhaps, indeed, unheard-of, articles asbooks, we must go to localities far remote from London--to spots where, happily, the strife and din of savage warfare scarcely made themselvesheard. The monasteries were the sole repositories of literature; to themonk alone had the written book any kind of intelligence, any species ofpleasure. To him it was as essential as the implements of destruction tothe warrior, or the plough to the husbandman. The one had no sympathy, no connection, with the other, only in so far that the events whichtranspired in the battlefield had to be recorded in the _scriptorium_. Although London was a place of importance at a very early stage of theRoman occupation, it was not in any sense an intellectual centre forcenturies after that period. [Illustration: _In a Scriptorium. _] Indeed, it might be laid down as a general principle that the fartherthe seeker went from London the more likelihood there was of meetingwith books. To Northumbria, from the end of the sixth to the end of theseventh century, we shall have to look for the record of book-buying, for during that period books were imported in very considerablequantities; abbeys arose all along the coast, and scholarsproportionately increased. In a letter to Charlemagne, Alcuin speaks ofcertain 'exquisite books' which he studied under Egbert at York. AtWearmouth, Benedict Biscop (629-690) was amassing books with all thefury of half a dozen ordinary bibliomaniacs. He collected everything, and spared no cost. At York, Egbert had a fine library in the minster. St. Boniface, the Saxon missionary, was a zealous collector. There werealso collections--and consequently collectors--of books at places lessremote from London--such as Canterbury, Salisbury, Glastonbury, and evenSt. Albans; but of London itself there is no mention. Scarcely any such thing as book-hunting or book-selling could possiblyhave existed in London before the accession of Alfred, who, among theseveral ways in which he encouraged literature, is said to have given anestate to the author of a book on cosmography. Doubtless, it was afterthe rebuilding of the city by Alfred that, in the famous letter toWulfseg, Bishop of London, he takes a retrospective view of the times inwhich they lived, as affording 'churches and monasteries filled withlibraries of excellent books in several languages. ' Bede describesLondon, even at the beginning of the eighth century, as a great marketwhich traders frequented by land and sea; and from a passage in Gale welearn that books were brought into England for sale as early as 705. With the reconstruction of London, the wise government, and theenthusiastic love for letters which animated the great Saxon King, thecommerce of the capital not only increased with great rapidity, but thecommerce in books between England and other countries, particularly fromsuch bibliopolic centres as Paris and Rome, began to assume veryconsiderable proportions. If, as is undoubtedly the case, books werecontinually being imported, it follows that they found purchasers. Bythe beginning of the eleventh century there were many private andsemi-private collections of books in or near London. The Englishbook-collectors of the seventh century include Theodore, Archbishop ofCanterbury, Benedict, Abbot of Wearmouth, and Bede; those of the eighthcentury, Ina, King of the West Saxons, and Alcuin, Abbot of Tours;whilst the tenth century included, in addition to Alfred, ScotusErigena, Athelstan, and St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. But it cannot be said, with due regard to truth, that London was in anysense a seat of learning, or a popular resort for learned men, untilwell on into the thirteenth century. Doubtless many consignments ofbooks passed through the city on the way to their respectivedestinations. Edward I. May be regarded as the first English monarch who took anyinterest in collecting books; most of his, however, were service books. They are mentioned in the Wardrobe Accounts (1299-1300) of this King, and are only eleven in number. These he may have purchased in 1273 inFrance, through which he passed on his way home from Palestine. But itis much more probable that he had no thought of books when hurrying hometo claim the crown of his father. Contemporary with Edward was anotherbook-collector of a very different type, an abbot of Peterborough, Richard of London, who had a 'private library' of ten books, includingthe 'Consolation of Philosophy, ' which he may have formed in London. Butquite the most interesting book-collector (so far as we are concernedjust now) of this period is Richard de Gravesend, Bishop of London. Aminute catalogue of this collection is among the treasures of St. Paul'sCathedral, and has been privately printed. In this case, the price ofeach book is affixed to its entry; the total number of volumes is onehundred, their aggregate value being £116 14s. 6d. , representing, according to Milman's estimate, £1, 760 of our present money. Twenty-oneBibles and parts of Bibles were valued at £19 5s. Twenty-two volumes inthis collection deal with canon and civil law, four with ecclesiasticalhistory, and about an equal number with what may be designated scienceand arts, the rest being of a theological character. The entries runthus: 'Tractatus fr'is Dertti'i de proprietatibus rerum. Libellus instructionum. Liber Avicennæ. Liber naturalis. ' The two last-named are respectively the highest and lowest priced itemsin the list--for books of a single volume only--the 'Liber Avicennæ'being valued at the very high figure of £5, and the 'Liber Naturalis' at3s. A Bible in thirteen volumes is valued at £10; and a 'little Bible'at £1. The total value of the property of this Bishop was scheduled atabout £3, 000. In spite of civil strife and foreign complications, the taste forliterature made great strides during the twelfth and thirteenthcenturies, with the very natural consequence of an increased demandfor, and supply of, books. And the curious thing is that book-collectingwas gradually passing away from the monks, and becoming exceedinglypopular with the laity. 'Flocks and fleeces, crops and herds, gardensand orchards, the wine of the winecup, are the only books and studies ofthe monks. ' The Franciscans, who (like the Dominicans) came to Englandin 1224, were expressly forbidden 'the possession of books or thenecessary materials for study. ' When Roger Bacon joined this order, hewas deprived of his books. St. Francis himself, it seems, was once'tempted to possess books'--by honest means, let us hope, although thepoint is not quite clear--and he almost yielded to the temptation, butfinally decided that it would be sinful. The plague of books seems tohave troubled this poor saint's soul, for he hoped that the day wouldcome when men would throw their books out of the window as rubbish. [Illustration: _Lambeth Palace Library. _] In proof of the theory that laymen at a very early period becamebook-collectors, the most interesting example which we can quote is thatof Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who died in 1315, and whobequeathed his library to Bordesley Abbey, Worcestershire, where it hadalready been deposited during his lifetime. Beginning with thispreamble, 'A tus iceux qe ceste lettre verront ou orrount. Guy deBeauchamp, Comte de Warr. Saluz en Deu. Nous avoir bayle e en lagarde leAbbé e le covent de Bordesleye, lesse a demorer a touz jours lesRomaunces de souz nomes; ces est assaveyr, ' the bequest recites, withgreat minuteness, a remarkably interesting list of books. This list('escrites ou Bordesleye le premer jour de may, le an du regñ le RoyEdw{d} trentime quart') is in the Lambeth Library, but it is reprintedby Todd in his 'Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer, ' pp. 161, 162. Thislist is of more than ordinary interest, chiefly because the collectionformed by a layman gives us a very good insight into the class of bookswhich the early nobility of England read, or, at all events, collected. Religious books, of course, formed the background of the library, butthere were many romances, such, for instance, as those of King Arthur, of 'Josep alb Arimathie e deu Seint Grael, ' of 'Troies, ' etc. There wasalso a book 'De Phisik et de Surgie. ' This collection contained between forty and fifty volumes, in which wasincluded pretty nearly the entire range of human knowledge as it thenextended. It is well to remember in connection with this bequest that, at the same time, or, more correctly, in 1300, the academical library ofOxford consisted of a few tracts kept in chests under St. Mary's Church. With the greatest book-collector of this period, Richard de Bury(1287-1345), the author of the 'Philobiblon, ' unfortunately, we havelittle to do, as his book expeditions appear to have been confinedalmost entirely to foreign countries. He collected books from everysource open to him, and wrote of his passion with a warmth of eloquenceof which even Cicero might have been proud. His most important booktransaction, which comes within the purview of the present volume, relates to the gift by an Abbot of St. Albans of four volumes to DeBury, then Clerk of the Privy Seal, viz. , Terence, Virgil, Quintilian, and Hieronymus against Rufinus. In addition to these, the Abbot sold himthirty-two other books for fifty pounds of silver. When De Bury becameBishop this 'gift' troubled his conscience, and he restored several ofthe books which had come into his possession in a perfectly honest andlegitimate manner, whilst others were secured from the Bishop'sexecutors. One of the volumes acquired in the latter manner is now inthe British Museum. It is a large folio MS. On the works of John ofSalisbury, and bears upon it a note to the effect that it was written bySimon (Abbot of St. Albans, 1167-1183), and another to the followingeffect: 'Hunc librum venditum Domino Ricardo de Biry Episcopo Dunelmensiemit Michael Abbas Sancti Albani ab executoribus predicti episcopi annoDomini millesimo ccc{o} xlv{to} circa purificationem Beate Virginis. ' The catalogue of the library of the Benedictine monastery of ChristChurch, Canterbury, in the Cottonian Collection, British Museum, andprinted for the first time at length in Edward's 'Memoirs of Libraries'(i. 122-235), is a remarkable list of the most extensive collection ofbooks at that time in this country. It was formed at the end of thethirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century. This library waswell furnished with works in science and history, and particularly sowith the classics--Aristotle, Cicero, Lucan, Plato, Suetonius, Seneca, Terence, and Virgil. The extreme probability is that London was thehighway through which the greater part of this and other early librariespassed. If, early in the fifteenth century, the book-hunter in Londonpossessed few opportunities of purchasing books, he would have foundseveral very good libraries which were open to his inspection. Therewas, for example, a very considerable collection in the Franciscanmonastery, which once stood on the site now occupied by Christ'sHospital, Newgate Street. The first stone of this monastery was laid inOctober, 1421, amid much pomp, by the then Lord Mayor, Sir RichardWhittington, who gave £400 in books. It was covered in before the winterof 1422, and completed in three years, and furnished with books. FromStow's 'Survey' we learn that one hundred marks were expended on thetranscription of the works of Nicholas de Lira, to be chained in thelibrary, and of which cost John Frensile remitted 20s. One of thechained books, 'The Lectures of Hostiensis, ' cost five marks. Fromanother source we learn that a Carmelite friar named John Walldenbequeathed to this library as many MSS. As were worth 2, 000 pieces ofgold. Anthony à Wood refers to the oft-repeated charge of thebook-covetousness of the mendicant friars, which, in fact, was carriedto such an extreme 'that wise men looked upon it as an injury to laymen, who therefore found a difficulty to get any books. ' Of the same period, there is a very curious anecdote in Rymer's 'Foedera' about taking offthe duty upon six barrels of books sent by a Roman cardinal to the Priorof the conventual church of St. Trinity, Norwich. These barrels, whichlay at the Custom-house, were imported duty free. Neither the book-hunger of the mendicant friars, nor the difficultieswhich surrounded the importation of books, appears to have militatedgreatly against the growing passion. We have the name, and only thename, of a very famous book-hunter--John of Boston--of the first decadeof the fifteenth century, whose labours, however, have been completelyblotted out of existence by the dispersed monasteries. But there weremany other collectors whose memories have been handed down to us in amore tangible form, even if their collections of books are almost asabstract and indefinite as that of John of Boston. During the firstquarter of the fifteenth century, we have quite a considerable littlegroup of royal book-collectors--Henry IV. , Henry V. , and his brothers, John, Duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. The last-namedwas undoubtedly the most enthusiastic bibliophile of the four, butwhilst his extensive gifts of books to the University of Oxford may besaid to have formed the foundation of the library there, they were inthe following century destroyed by the mob. A few examples of his giftsare now preserved in the British Museum and at Oxford. His books wereestimated at a very high figure, the value placed on 120 of them (out ofthe total of 600) being no less than £1, 000. The memory of the Duke ofBedford's library is best perpetuated by the famous Bedford Missal, orBook of Hours, perhaps the most splendid example of fifteenth-centuryillustration. It is now in the British Museum, where it has been since1852. The history of this missal, perhaps the most interesting inexistence, is too well known to be dealt with here (see p. 109). Henry V. Was undoubtedly fond of books. Rymer refers to two petitions tothe Council after the King's death for the return of valuable books ofhistory, borrowed by him of the Countess of Westmoreland, and of thepriory of Christ Church, Canterbury, and not returned, though one ofthem had been directed to be delivered to its owner by the King's lastwill. The elegantly illuminated copy of Lydgate's 'Hystory, Sege, andDestruccion of Troye, ' 1513, in the Bodleian, is doubtless the copywhich Lydgate gave to Henry V. At Cambridge there is the MS. Of a Frenchtranslation of Cardinal Bonaventure's 'Life of Christ, ' with the note'this wasse sumtyme Kinge Henri the fifeth his booke, ' etc. Henry VI. Does not appear to have cared for books, and it is notsurprising, what with wars abroad and excessive taxation, plague andfamine at home, that literary tastes received a severe check. We getseveral glimpses of the dearth of books. In the MS. History of EtonCollege, in the British Museum, the Provost and Fellows of Eton andCambridge are stated, 25 Henry VI. , to have petitioned the King that hewould be pleased to order one of his chaplains, Richard Chestre, 'totake to him such men as shall be seen to him expedient in order to getknowledge where such bookes [for Divine service] may be found, paying areasonable price for the same, and that the sayd men might have thechoice of such bookes, ornaments, and other necessaries as now late wereperteynyng to the Duke of Gloucester, and that the king wouldparticular[ly] cause to be employed herein John Pye--his stacioner ofLondon. ' Book-importation by the galleys that brought the produce of the East toLondon and Southampton had assumed very considerable proportions duringthe fifteenth century; but the uncertainties which attended it were notat all favourable to its full development. Book-production was stillprogressing in the immediate neighbourhood of London. At St. Albans, forexample, over eighty were transcribed under Whethamstede during thisreign, a number which is peculiarly interesting when the degeneracy ofthe monasteries is remembered. Neither Edward IV. Nor Richard III. Seemsto have availed himself of the increasing plenty of books. The libraryof the former was a very unimportant affair. From the Wardrobe Accountof this King (1480) we get a few highly interesting facts concerningbook-binding, gildings, and garnishing: 'For vj unces and iij quartersof silk to the laces and tassels for garnysshing of diverse Bookes, price the unce xiiij_d. _--vij_s. _ x_d. _ ob. ; for the making of xvj lacesand xvj tassels made of the said vj unces and iij of silke, price ingrete ij_s. _ vii_d. _' These moneys were paid to Alice Claver, a'sylk-woman. ' And again 'to Piers Bauduyn, stacioner, for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called "Titus Livius, " xx_s. _; forbynding, gilding and dressing of a booke of the Holy Trinitie, xvj_s. _;for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called "Frossard, " xvj_s. _;for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called the Bible, xvj_s. _;for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called "Le Gouvernement ofKinges and Princes, " xvj_s. _; for bynding and dressing of the threesmalle bookes of Franche, price in grete vj_s. _ viiij_d. _; for thedressing of ij bookes whereof oon is called "La Forteresse de Foy" andthe other called the "Book of Josephus, " iij_s. _ iiij_d. _; and forbynding, gilding and dressing a booke called the "Bible Historial, "xx_s. _' The only incident which calls for special mention in the two next shortreigns is a law, 1 Richard III. , 1483, by which it was enacted that ifany of the printers or sellers of printed books--the 'great plenty' ofwhich came from 'beyond the sea'--'vend them at too high andunreasonable prices, ' then the Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, or anyof the chief justices of the one bench or the other, were to regulatethe prices. [Illustration: _Roman Books and Writing Materials. _] [Illustration] BOOK-HUNTING AFTER THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING. I. THE introduction of printing into this country by Caxton during thelatter half of the fifteenth century had very little immediate effect onbook-collecting. The operations of the press were slow, its patrons few, and its work controlled by one man. The reproduction of MSS. Wasessentially a slow process, but when these transcriptions were finished, they rarely failed to find a purchaser. Caxton, like Sweynheim andPannartz at Subiaco, soon learned the seriousness of over-printing anedition. Collectors were few, and the introduction of printing did notvery materially add to their number. London, however, soon became arecognised centre of the trade in books, and Henry VII. Patronized, inhis curious fashion, the collecting of them. He read, according toBacon, 'most books that were of any worth in the French tongue, ' and oneof the most commendable actions of this King was the purchase of thenoble series of vellum copies of the works printed at Paris by AntoineVérard, now in the British Museum--an act by which he may be said tohave laid the foundation of our great national library. The value ofbooks at this period is not without interest; but we must confineourselves to one or two facts relating to Caxton's books. At his deathin 1492, a copy of the 'Golden Legend' was valued at 6s. 8d. In thebooks of the Westminster churchwarden. From a note by Dibdin, it wouldseem that the price of Caxtons towards the end of the reign of HenryVII. Was as follows: 'Godfray of Boulogne' (imperfect), ii_s. _ Virgil's 'Æneid' (perfect), xij_d. _ 'Fait of Arms and Chivalry' (perfect), ij_s. _ viij_d. _ 'Chastising of God's Children, ' viij_d. _ Henry VIII. Was undoubtedly a book-lover as well as a book-collector. Heestablished a library at St. James's. But perhaps it is rather as abook-disperser that Henry is entitled to notice in this place. Thedissolution of the monasteries is the genesis of book-collecting inLondon. The first move in this respect is entitled 'An Act that allreligious houses under the yearly revenue of £200 shall be dissolved andgiven to the King and his heirs, ' and is dated 1535 (27 Henry VIII. , cap. 28, ii. 134). The second is dated 1539. Whatever advantages in ageneral way the dissolution of the monasteries may have had, itsconsequences, so far as regards the libraries, which the monksconsidered as among their most cherished possessions, were disastrousbeyond measure. Indeed, we have no conception of our losses. Addressinghimself to Edward VI. In 1549, John Bale, afterwards Bishop of Ossory, who had but little love for Popery of any description, writes in thisstrain: 'Avarice was the other dispatcher which hath made an end both ofour libraries and books . . . To the no small decay of the commonwealth. A great number of them who purchased those superstitious mansions[monasteries], reserved of these Library-books, some . . . To scourtheir candlesticks, and some to rub their boots; some they sold to thegrocers and soap-sellers, and some they sent over sea to thebookbinders, not in small numbers, but at times whole shipsfull, to thewondering of the foreign nations. Yea, the universities of this realmare not all clear in this detestable fact. But cursed is that bellywhich seeketh to be fed with so ungodly gains, and so deeply shameth hisnatural country. I know a merchantman, which shall at this time benameless, that bought the contents of two noble Libraries for fortyshillings price: a shame it is to be spoken. This stuff hath he occupiedin the stead of gray paper by the space of more than these ten years;and yet he hath store enough for as many years to come. . . . Ourposterity may well curse this wicked fact of our age, this unreasonablespoil of England's most noble antiquities, unless they be stayed intime. ' Fuller, in his 'Church History of Britain, ' quotes Bale'slamentation, and adds his own testimony on the same subject: 'As brokersin Long Lane, when they buy an old suit buy the linings together withthe outside, so it was considered meet that such as purchased thebuildings of monasteries should in the same grant have the Libraries(the stuffing thereof) conveyed unto them. And now these ignorantowners, so long as they might keep a ledger-book or terrier by directionthereof to find such straggling acres as belonged unto them, they carednot to preserve any other monuments. The covers of books, with curiousbrass bosses and clasps, intended to protect, proved to betray them, being the baits of covetousness. And so many excellent authors, strippedout of their cases, were left naked, to be buried or thrown away. . . . What soul can be so frozen as not to melt into anger thereat? Whatheart, having the least spark of ingenuity, is not hot at this indignityoffered to literature? I deny not but that in this heap of books therewas much rubbish; legions of lying legends, good for nothing but fuel. . . Volumes full fraught with superstition, which, notwithstanding, might be useful to learned men; except any will deny apothecaries theprivilege of keeping poison in their shops, when they can make antidotesof them. But, beside these, what beautiful Bibles, rare Fathers, subtileSchoolmen, useful Historians--ancient, middle, modern; what painfulComments were here amongst them! What monuments of mathematics allmassacred together; seeing every book with a cross was condemned forPopish; with circles for conjuring. ' The calamities bewailed in such picturesque language by Bale and Fullerwould have been much more serious but for the labours of one of ourearliest antiquaries and book-lovers, John Leland. 'The laboryouseJourney and serche of Johan Leylande for Englandes Antiquities geven ofhym as a newe yeares gyfte to kynge Henry the viii in the xxxvij yeareof his Reygne, ' 1549, is a remarkable publication, of great interest tothe book-hunter and the antiquary. But the fruits of Leland's researches cannot now be fully known, for hewas too intent on accumulating material to draw up an adequateinventory. Much that he preserved from destruction is now in the BritishMuseum, and some is in the Bodleian at Oxford. Some of the fragmentswhich he had saved from the general destruction had been placed in theKing's own library in Westminster. The dissolution of the monasteries had among its many effects thecreation, so to speak, of a large number of collectors. One of the mostfamous of the early sixteenth-century collectors, Sir Thomas More, however, died (in 1535) before he could have availed himself of the manytreasures scattered to all quarters of the earth. Dibdin records a bibliomaniacal anecdote which is well worth repeatinghere, as it shows how More's love of books had infected even those whocame to seize upon him to carry him to the Tower, and to endeavour toinveigle him into treasonable expressions: 'While Sir Richard Southwelland Mr. Palmer weare bussie in trussinge upp his bookes, Mr. Riche, pretending, ' etc. , 'whereupon Mr. Palmer, on his deposition, said, thathe was soe bussie ab{t} the trussinge upp Sir Tho. Moore's bookes in asacke, that he tooke no heed of there talke. ' Henry, Earl of Arundel, was not slow to seize upon the advantages whichthe dissolution placed before everyone. At Nonsuch, in Surrey, he formeda library, which is described in a biography of him, written shortlyafter his death, as 'righte worthye of remembrance. ' Besides hisnumerous MSS. And printed books, he acquired a considerable portion ofthe library of Cranmer, which was dispersed at the death of theArchbishop. His books passed to his son-in-law, Lord Lumley, at whosedecease they were purchased by Henry, Prince of Wales, and are now inthe British Museum. The Earl of Arundel's books are handsomely bound, and are known by his badge of the white horse and oak branch whichgenerally occurs on the covers. [Illustration: _Earl of Arundel's Badge. _] In Jeremy Collier's 'Ecclesiastical History' (vol. Ii. 307) we get aglimpse of book-matters in London in the middle of the sixteenthcentury. At the end of February, 1550, we learn that the Council bookmentions the King's sending a letter for the purging of the library atWestminster. The persons are not named, but the business was to cull outall superstitious books, as missals, legends, and such-like, and todeliver the garniture of the books, either gold or silver, to SirAnthony Archer. These books were many of them plated with gold andsilver and curiously embossed. This, as far as we can collect, was thesuperstition that destroyed them. 'Here avarice had a very thindisguise, and the courtiers discovered of what spirit they were to aremarkable degree. ' Here is another picture of an almost contemporaneousevent, equally vivid in its suggestiveness: 'John Tyndale, thetranslator's brother, and Thomas Patmore, merchants, were condemned todo penance by riding with their faces to their horses' tails, with theirbooks fastened thick about them, pinned, or tacked, to their gowns orclokes, to the Standard in Cheap; and there with their own hands tofling them into the fire, kindled on purpose to burn them. ' As a book-collecting period the sixteenth century, from the accession ofHenry VIII. --when books became the organs of the passions of mankind--tothe death of Elizabeth, is full of intense interest. The old order hadchanged; the world itself had made an entirely fresh start. Men andevents of the previous two or three centuries were almost as antiquethen as they are to-day, and perhaps in many respects they wereinfinitely less clearly understood. As the century grew in age, so thenumber of book-collectors increased. The hobby became first a passionwith the few, and then the fashion with the many. Henry VIII. Wasperhaps a passive rather than an active collector, with a distinctleaning in favour of beautiful books. His three children, who followedhim on the throne of England, were collectors of books, and the majorityof their purchases must have been made in London. Many of these bookshave, at some time or other, drifted from private hands into thesale-rooms, but perhaps the majority of those now existing are to befound within the walls of our public institutions. For example, at thesale of Dr. Askew's MSS. , in 1775, a very interesting item was purchasedby a Mr. Jackson, a Quaker, and a dealer in wine and spirits, with whombook-collecting was a passion. The MS. Proved to be in the handwritingof Edward VI. ; it was in French, and dealt with his opinion of his rightto the title of Supreme Head of the Church. At Jackson's sale the MS. Became the property of the British Museum. As another illustration, wemay refer to the copy of the 'Flores Historiarum per MatthæumWestmonasteriensem, ' etc. , 1570, in the British Museum (CracherodeCollection) which is the identical one presented by Archbishop Parker(by whose authority it was published) to Queen Elizabeth. It afterwardsfell into the hands of Francis, Earl of Bedford, who bequeathed it, withthe furniture of a little study, to his secretary. It was subsequentlyin the possession of Ritson. And yet again, in the Eton College Library, there is a copy of the 'Missale Romanum, ' printed at Paris by Hardouyn, 1530, which belonged to Mary, with a sentence in her handwriting; thisvolume afterwards came into the possession of Mary of Este, Queen ofJames II. , and subsequently into the hands of a London bookseller, fromwhom it was purchased for fifty-three shillings by Bishop Fleetwood, andpresented to the college library. Indeed, a large volume might becompiled on the Adventures of Some Famous Books. Interesting and important as is the phase of book-collecting whichrelates to royal personages, it falls into insignificance beside that ofmen who have achieved greatness through their own abilities. The bookscollected by Thomas Cranmer, for example, quite overshadow in interestanything which the whole reign of the Tudors could produce. It has beenwell said that his knowledge of books was wide, and his opportunitiesfor acquiring them unrivalled. Cranmer was a generous collector, for hislibrary was quite open for the use of learned men. Latimer spent 'manyan hour' there, and has himself told us that he met with a copy ofDionysius 'in my Lord of Canterbury's library. ' We have already seenthat many of Cranmer's books passed into the possession of the Earl ofArundel, but many were 'conveyed and stolen awaie. ' Cranmer's books havefound an enthusiastic historian in Prebendary Burbidge, who has almostrehabilitated the great ecclesiastic's library in the first part of Mr. Quaritch's 'Dictionary of English Book-collectors. ' Anotherbook-collector of a very different type was amassing an extensivelibrary at a somewhat later period than Cranmer: Dr. Dee, the famousnecromancer, had collected '4, 000 volumes, printed and unprinted, boundand unbound, valued at 2, 000 lib. , ' of which one Greek, two French andone High Dutch volumes of MSS. Alone were 'worth 533 lib. ' It occupiedforty years to form this library. Most of his books passed into thepossession of Elias Ashmole--who was another collector with aninsatiable appetite--and now form a part of the Ashmolean Museum. Someof Dee's singular MSS. Were found, long after his death, in the secretdrawer of a chest, which had passed through many hands undiscovered. Reverting for a moment to Ashmole, he himself tells us that he gave'five volumes of Mr. Dugdale's' works to the Temple Library. Andfurther: 'My first boatful of books, which were carried to Mrs. Tradescant's, were brought back to the Temple. ' In May, 1667, he boughtMr. John Booker's study of books, and gave £140 for them. In 1681 hebought 'Mr. Lilly's library of books of his widow, for £50. ' A very distinguished book-collector of the Elizabethan period was SirFrancis Drake, the great Admiral. It did not seem to be at all knownthat the distinguished naval hero was also a bibliophile until 1883, when the collection of books was brought from the old residence of theDrakes, Nutwell Court, Lympstone, Devon, to Sotheby's. The salecomprised 1, 660 lots, representing several thousand volumes, the totalbeing £3, 276 17s. 6d. It was especially rich in books and old tracts ofthe early seventeenth century relating to the English voyages toAmerica, and some of these realized very high figures. Although thelibrary was undoubtedly founded by Drake, it was evidently continued byhis descendants. Bacon, Baron of Verulam, was a distinguishedbook-collector, as the shelves of his chambers in Gray's Inn would havetestified. Archbishop Parker, than whom 'a more determined book-fanciernever existed in Great Britain, ' and Gabriel Harvey, the friend ofSpenser, and the object of Tom Nash's withering scorn, were among themost inveterate book-collectors of Elizabethan London. Had Harvey--whosebooks usually contain his autograph on the title-page, and not a few ofwhich were given him by Spenser--studied his books less, and the properstudy of mankind a little more, he might have shown his talents off to abetter advantage than in his conflicts with Nash. In the Bodleian thereis a set of old tales and romances which Spenser lent Harvey, taking asa hostage, apparently, Harvey's copy of Lucian in four volumes. Harveyhad a very poor opinion of such 'foolish' books, but he does not seem tohave returned them to their rightful owner. The fire which destroyed BenJonson's MSS. Undoubtedly consumed many of his printed books, butexamples from his library, with 'Sum Ben Jonson' inscribed, aresometimes met with. Shakespeare may have had a library, but we have noevidence that he possessed even a copy of his own plays in quarto. TheElizabethan poets and dramatists were prodigious contributors to thepress, but very poor patrons of booksellers. From various sources we getsome highly-coloured and unflattering pictures of the typicalbooksellers of the period. Tom Nash has limned for us a vivid littleportrait in 'Pierce Penilesse' (1592), in which he declares that if hewere to paint Sloth, 'I swear that I would draw it like a stationer thatI know, with his thumb under his girdle, who, if ever a man come to hisstall to ask him for a book, never stirs his head, or looks upon him, but stands stone still, and speaks not a word, only with his littlefinger points backward to his boy, who must be his interpreter; and soall day, gaping like a dumb image, he sits without motion, except atsuch times as he goes to dinner or supper, for then he is as quick asother three, eating six times every day. ' II. From start to finish the Stuart dynasty ruled England for close onthree-quarters of a century. That book-collecting should have existed atall under it is a marvel. But the hobby no longer depended upon thepatronage of courts and courtiers. From the Wise Fool, James I. , to theFoolish Fool, the second James, collectors pursued their hobby in Londonand out of it. James I. Began to collect books at a very early age, anda list of his library was published for the first time in the _Athenæum_in 1893. It has, however, but little interest to us in this place, fordoubtless most of the books were imported into Scotland from the greatbook centre, Paris. The library which he acquired after his accession tothe throne of England is of little consequence, for he was not theperson to purchase books when he had the means, and doubtless many ofhis bookish possessions were gifts. In the library at Eton College thereis his copy of Captain John Smith's 'History of Virginia, ' 1624, whichwas rescued by Storer from a dirty bookseller's shop in Derby, and theexistence of many others might be traced. It is certain that 'he gavethem shabby coverings, and scribbled idle notes on their margins. ' Hadhis son Henry lived, he might have developed into a respectablebook-collector. We know for certain that he 'paid a Frenchman thatpresented a book, £4 10s. '; and that he paid 'Mr. Holyoak for writing acatalogue of the library which the Prince had of Lord Lumley, £8 13s. 4d. ' Charles II. , like his forbears, was not a book-buyer, and so far ashe is concerned we must content ourselves with repeating a littleanecdote after Dibdin, who refers to an 'old and not incurious libraryat Workingham, in Suffolk, ' where there was a very fine ruled copy ofHayes's Bible, published at Cambridge, 1674, in two volumes folio; onthe fly-leaf it contains the following memorandum: 'N. B. --This Biblebelonged to K. Charles IId. And [was] given by him to Duke Lauderdaleand sold by auction w{th} y{e} rest of his Books. ' In a comparativelymodern hand, below, is written in pencil: 'Hark ye, my friends, that on this Bible look, Marvel not at the fairness of the Book; No soil of fingers, nor such ugly things, Expect to find, Sirs, for it _was the King's_. ' [Illustration: _Sir Robert Cotton. _] The most distinguished Metropolitan book-collector of the period was SirRobert Cotton, who began as early as 1588, and who had assistance fromsuch antiquaries as William Camden and Sir Henry Spelman. This library, after being closed on account of the treasonable character of thedocuments contained in it, passed into the possession of Cotton's son, Sir Thomas, whose house was almost adjoining Westminster Hall. Anthony àWood gives a curious account of a visit he paid it, when he found itsowner practising on the lute. The key of the library was in thepossession of one Pearson, who lodged with a bookseller in LittleBritain. Wood was 'forced to walk thither, and much ado there was tofind him. ' This library was removed to Essex Street, and again back toWestminster to Ashburnham House in Little Dean's Yard, where it sufferedgreatly from a fire in 1731, and what remains of it is now in theBritish Museum. Sir Thomas Bodley was another collector, but few of hisaccumulations appear to have come from London. The extraordinarycollection of pamphlets got together by Tomlinson, and now stored in theBritish Museum, is too well known to need more than a passing reference. It is not so generally known that Narcissus Luttrell was a veryvoracious collector of broadsides, tracts, and so forth. To nearly everyone of the items he affixed the price he paid for it. In 1820, at theBindley sale, this extraordinary collection, ranging in date from 1640to 1688, and comprising twelve volumes, realized the then large amountof £781. [Illustration: _Sir Julius Cæsar's Travelling Library. _] Sir Julius Cæsar, Master of the Rolls under James I. , was abook-collector of the right sort, and his box of charming littleeditions of the classics, with which he used to solace himself on ajourney, is now in the safe keeping of the British Museum. Sir Juliuswas born in 1557, and died in April, 1636; he possessed a finecollection of highly interesting manuscripts, which had the narrowestpossible escape from being destroyed at the latter part of the lastcentury. The collection was rescued in time by Samuel Paterson, theauctioneer, and it is now in the British Museum. Robert Burton (the author of the 'Anatomy of Melancholy') was, likeLuttrell, also a great collector of tracts, and his library, now in theBodleian, is peculiarly rich in historical, political, and poeticalpamphlets, and in miscellaneous accounts of murders, monsters, andaccidents. He seems to have purchased and preserved a copy of everythingthat came out. 'There is no nation, ' says Johnson, 'in which it is sonecessary as in our own to assemble the small tracts and fugitivepieces. ' 'The writers of these' frequently have opportunities 'ofinquiring from living witnesses, and of copying their representationsfrom the life, and preserve a multitude of particular incidents whichare forgotten in a short time, or omitted in formal relations, and yetafford light in some of the darkest scenes of state. ' 'From pamphlets, 'says the same writer, 'are to be learned the progress of every debate, and of every opinion. ' And he compares the impression produced on themind of him who shall consult these tracts, and of another that refersmerely to formal historians, to the _difference of him who hears of avictory, and him who sees the battle_. Archbishop Laud collected fromfar and wide. John Selden, like Laud, had a distinct weakness forlearned books, and consequently could have found little to satisfy hiscravings in London. Selden, when disturbed, put his spectacles into thebook he was busy with by way of marking the place; and after his deathnumbers of volumes were found with these curious book-markers. JohnFelton, who murdered Buckingham, was also a book-collector in a smallway. In Lilly's catalogue for 1863 there was a copy of Peacham's'Compleat Gentleman, ' 1622, with the following on the fly-leaf: 'JohnFelton, vicessimo secundo die Junii, 1622. ' A few glances, at this point, at the more material phases ofbook-collecting may not be without interest. The following is one of theearliest bookseller's statements of accounts with which we areacquainted. It was rendered to 'the Right Honourable the Lord Conway, 'on May 31, 1638, by Henry Seile, whose shop was at the sign of theTiger's Head, Fleet Street: 1 Nash's Ha' wee you to Saffron Walden 00 02 06 1 Greene's Arcadia } { 1 Farewell to Folly } { 1 Tullies' Love } These nine Bookes { 1 Lady Fitzwater's Nightingale } were delivered to { 00 10 0 1 Mamilia } your Lordship at { 1 Never too Late } Xs. { 1 Groatesworth of Wit } { 1 Mourning Garment } { 1 Peers pennylesse supplication } { In a letter addressed to Evelyn by Dr. Cosin (afterwards Bishop ofDurham) during his exile, and dated July 18, 1651, we get a delightfulglimpse of two book-lovers doing 'a deal. ' Mr. Evelyn was apparently aman who could drive a bargain with Hebraic shrewdness. 'Truly, sir, 'expostulated mildly the excited ecclesiastic, 'I thought I had preventedany further motion of abatement by the large offer that I made toyou. . . . If you consider their number, I desire you would be pleasedto consider likewise, that they are a choice number, and a company ofthe best selected books among them all. . . . There is in your notePliny's "Natural History" in English, priced at 36s. , which is worth £3;Camden's "Errors, " priced at 5s. 6d. , for which I have seen £1 given;Paulus Jovius at £1, which sells now in Paris at 4 pistoles; and Pol. Virgil at 10s. , which sells here for £10; William of Malmesbury at 15s. , for which they demand here £30, and Asser Menev, etc. , at 14s. , whichthey will not part with here nor elsewhere abroad for £20. ' It is highly probable that the book-market was never so bad in Londonas during this period; for, in addition to the above illustration, andat about the same time, Isaac Vossius came over to this country with aquantity of literary property, some of which had belonged to his learnedfather, in the hopes of selling it; but he 'carried them back intoHolland, ' where 'a quicker mercate' was expected. III. [Illustration: _Archbishop Usher. _] _Sic transit gloria mundi_ might well be the motto of a History ofBook-Collectors, for in by far the majority of cases great privatelibraries have been formed in one generation by genuine bookworms, onlyto be scattered in the next by needy legatees or in consequence ofimpoverished estates. There can be no doubt that several famouslibraries have derived their origin from the mere vanity of emulating afashionable pursuit. Into this matter, however, it is not necessary forus to enter, except to hazard the suggestion that if the money had notbeen spent in that direction it would doubtless have been squandered insome less worthy and enduring manner. One of the most interesting andvaluable contributions to the history of private collections of theseventeenth century is embedded in the long and entertaining letterwhich John Evelyn addressed to Mr. Pepys in August, 1689. This letter isso accessible that it may seem superfluous to quote any part of it; buta few of the leading points are necessary to the proper sequence of ourstory. 'The Bishop of Ely has a very well-stored library, but the verybest is what Dr. Stillingfleet has at Twickenham, ten miles out oftown. . . . Our famous lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, purchased a very choicelibrary of Greek and other MSS. , which were sold him by Dr. MericCasaubon, son of the learned Isaac; and these, together with hisdelicious villa, Durdens, came into the possession of the present Earlof Berkeley from his uncle, Sir Robert Cook. . . . I have heard that SirHenry Savill was master of many precious MSS. , and he is frequentlycelebrated for it by the learned Valesius, almost in every page of thatlearned man's Annotations on Eusebius, and the EcclesiasticalHistorians published by him. The late Mr. Hales, of Eton, had likewise avery good library; and so had Dr. Cosin, late Bishop of Duresme [andafterwards of Durham], a considerable part of which I had agreed withhim for myself during his exile abroad, as I can show under his ownhand; but his late daughter, since my Lady Garret, thought I had notoffered enough, and made difficulty in delivering them to me till nearthe time of his Majesty's restoration, and after that the Dean, herfather, becoming Bishop of that opulent See, bestowed them on thelibrary there. But the Lord Primate Usher was inferior to none I havenamed among the clergy for rare MSS. , a great part of which, beingbrought out of Ireland, and left his son-in-law, Sir Timothy Tyrill, wasdisposed of to give bread to that incomparable Prelate during the latefanatic war. Such as remained yet at Dublin were preserved, and by apublic purse restored and placed in the college library of thatcity. . . . I forbear to name the late Earl of Bristol's and hiskinsman's, Sir Kenelm Digby's, libraries, of more pompe than intrinsicvalue, as chiefly consisting of modern poets, romances, chymical, andastrological books. . . . As for those of Sir Kenelm, the catalogue wasprinted and most of them sold in Paris, as many better have lately beenin London. The Duke of Lauderdale's[27:A] is yet entire, choicelybound, and to be sold by a friend of mine, to whom they are pawned; butit comes far short of his relation's, the Lord Maitland's, which wascertainly the noblest, most substantial and accomplished library thatever passed under the speare, and heartily it grieved me to behold itslimbs, like those of the chaste Hippolytus, separated and torn from thatso well chosen and compacted a body. The Earl of Anglesey's, and severalothers since, by I know not what invidious fate, passed the samefortune, to whatever influence and constellation now reigning malevolentto books and libraries, which can portend no good to the future age. ' [Illustration: _Wotton House in 1840. _] It is interesting to note that of the several libraries enumerated byEvelyn three have become, partly or wholly, public property. That of Dr. John Moore, Bishop of Ely, was purchased after his death by George I. For £6, 000, and presented to the University of Cambridge, where it nowis. [27:B] Evelyn himself was, as will have been gathered, an ardentbook-collector. He began forming a library very early in life, whilstthat of his brother came to him by bequest. At the time of his death hehad a very extensive collection of books at Wotton, which has beenconsiderably augmented by his successors. In the early part of thepresent century William Upcott, of the London Institution, drew up acomplete catalogue. Upcott's appearance on the scene synchronized withthe disappearance of a number of volumes from the Evelyn Library; it hasbeen suggested that Lady Evelyn presented them to him 'or something ofthat sort, ' although the circumstance has never been officiallyexplained. Certain it is that a large number of books formerly in thepossession of the diarist have at times appeared in the auction-room. The most important which occurred during the last few years are twobeautifully-written MSS. , the work of Richard Hoare, one having thetitle 'Instructions Oeconomiques, ' 1648, with a dedication 'To thepresent mistress of my youth, the hopeful companion of my riper years, and the future nurse of my old age, Mrs. May Evelyn, my deare wife, 'etc. The second was a book of Private Devotions, 1650. Evelyn was alsounfortunate in his lifetime, inasmuch as the Duke of Lauderdale 'came tomy house, under pretence of a visit, ' but in reality to borrow 'for afew days' certain valuable MSS. , which this aristocratic thief neverreturned. So, too, he lent Burnet a quantity of MS. Material for his'History of the Reformation, ' which, like other borrowed books, nevercame back. A large number of first editions of the works of J. Evelyn, together with some books from his library, illustrated with hisautograph notes, occurred in the sale of the library of the late ArthurDavis, of Deptford and East Farleigh, July, 1857, many of which weredoubtless purloined at some time or other. [Illustration: _Magdalen College, Oxford. _] Of all the seventeenth-century book-collectors, perhaps the mostinteresting is that other diarist, Samuel Pepys. Samuel was not a man ofgreat learning, but his wit, his knowledge of the world, and hishumanity were unbounded. He welcomed almost anything in the shape of abook, from a roguish French novel to a treatise on medals, from a looseRestoration play to a maritime pamphlet, and from lives of the saints tobooks on astrology or philosophy. Not a great man, perhaps, but one ofthe most delightful and entertaining that one could wish. TheSecretary's 'Diary' is full of allusions to men and events of bookishinterest, and gives frequent illustrations of his amiable passion forbook-collecting. Fortunately, we have not to grope in the dark to get anaccurate portrait of the genial Samuel as a book-collector, for hisentire library is preserved, almost in the same state as he left it, atMagdalen College, Oxford, 'as curious a medley of the grave and gay' asany person of catholic tastes could wish for. The library consists ofalmost 3, 000 volumes, preserved in eleven mahogany bookcases. The booksare all arranged in double rows, the small ones in front beingsufficiently low to permit of the titles of the back row of larger onesbeing easily read. The library is a remarkably accurate reflection ofthe tastes of the founder. In addition to what is termed ordinary usefulbooks, there are many rarities, including no less than nine Caxtons, andseveral from the press of Wynkyn de Worde and Pynson. The celebratedcollection of ballads, commenced by Selden and continued by Pepys, issecond only in importance to the famous Roxburghe collection now in theBritish Museum. The manuscripts of various kinds form a very valuablepart of this celebrated collection. [Illustration: _Sir Hans Sloane's Monument. _] John Bagford, the biblioclast (1675-1716), also finishes us, likeEvelyn, with a list of book-collectors who were contemporaneous withhim. Besides Bishop Moore, already mentioned, there were Sir HansSloane, Lords Carbery (Duke of Kent), Pembroke, Somers, Sunderland, andHalifax. Among the commoners who emulated their 'betters' were Messrs. Huckle, Chichely, Bridges, Walter Clavell, Rawlinson, Slaughter, Topham, Wanley, Captain Hatton, 'Right Hon. Secretary Harley, ' and Dr. Salmon, whose collection is said to have consisted of 1, 700 folios. Edwards, inhis most valuable work on libraries, mentions yet a third list, which isanonymous, and is apparently almost contemporaneous with Bagford's. Thelist is introduced with the remark that 'the laudable emulation which isdaily increasing amongst the nobility of England, vying with each otherin the curiosities and other rich furniture of their respectivelibraries, gives cheerful hope of having the long-hidden monuments ofancient times raised out of their present dust and rubbish, ' and thenmakes special mention of the libraries of the Duke of Kent, Lords Derby, Denbigh, Longueville, Willoughby de Broke, Sunderland, Somers, andHalifax. When good Mr. Evelyn described Sir Kenelm Digby's library as 'of morepomp than intrinsic value, ' and as 'chiefly consisting of modern poets, romances, chemical and astrological books, ' he did not contemplate thefuture possibility of such despised trifles becoming fashionable and ingreater request than the accumulations of the collectors to whom theclassics were daily food. As Edwards has pointed out, the portion whichDigby gave to the Bodleian was in reality the fruit of the researches ofhis tutor, Thomas Allen. The portion which was of his own collecting, and consequently the only portion which accurately mirrored his owntastes, he took with him to France when driven into exile. When he diedthere, it apparently passed into the possession of Digby, Earl ofBristol, on whose account it was sold in London in 1680, fifteen yearsafter its owner's death. The catalogue enumerated 3, 878 items, of which69 were manuscripts, the total of the sale being £904 4s. Among the most famous of the seventeenth-century collectors were the twobrothers Francis, Baron Guilford, Lord Keeper (1637-1685), and Dr. JohnNorth, master of Trinity College (1645-1683). Of these two there aresome very entertaining facts in Roger North's 'Lives of the Norths'(1742-44). Dr. John North, we are told, 'very early in his career beganto look after books and to lay the foundation of a competent library. . . Buying at one lift a whole set of Greek classics in folio, in besteditions. This sunk his stock [of money] for the time; but afterwardsfor many years of his life all that he could (as they say) rap or runwent the same way. But the progress was small, for such a library ashe desired, compared with what the pittance of his stock wouldpurchase, allowing many years to the gathering, was of desperateexpectation. . . . He courted, as a fond lover, all best editions, fairest characters, best-bound and preserved. . . . He delighted in thesmall editions of the classics by Seb. Gryphius, and divers of hisacquaintance, meeting with any of them, bought and brought them to him, which he accepted as choice presents, although, perhaps, he had one ortwo of them before. . . . His soul was never so staked down as in an oldbookseller's shop. . . . He was for the most part his own factor, andseldom or never bought by commission, which made him lose time inturning over vast numbers of books, and he was very hardly pleased atlast. I have borne him company in shops for many hours together, and, minding him of the time, he hath made a dozen proffers before he wouldquit. By this care and industry, at length he made himself master of avery considerable library, wherein the choicest collection was Greek. 'At his death the collection came to his brother, the Lord Keeper. As with Dr. John North, book-hunting was the consuming passion of thelife of a very different man--Richard Smyth or Smith (of whom there is avery fine and rare engraving by W. Sherwin), one of the Secondaries orUnder-Sheriffs from 1644 to 1655. Having sufficient wealth, he resignedhis municipal appointment, which was worth £700 a year, in order todevote himself entirely to book-hunting. Anthony à Wood describes him as'infinitely curious and inquisitive after books, ' and states that 'hewas constantly known every day to walk his rounds amongst thebooksellers' shops (especially in Little Britain). ' Richard Chiswell, the bookseller who drew up a catalogue of Smith's books, whichsubsequently came into his possession _en bloc_, tells us that his skilland experience enabled him 'to make choice of such books that were notobvious to every man's eye. . . . He lived in times which ministeredpeculiar opportunities of meeting with books that were not every daybrought into public light, and few eminent libraries were bought wherehe had not the liberty to pick and choose. Hence arose, as that vastnumber of his books, so the choiceness and rarity of the greatest partof them, and that of all kinds, and in all sorts of learning. ' Thiscollection was sold by auction in May, 1682, the catalogue of itoccupying 404 closely-printed pages in large quarto. There were fourteenCaxtons, 'the aggregate produce' of which was £3 14s. 7d. ; the 'Godfreyof Bulloigne' selling for 18s. , 'being K. Edwarde the IVth's ownebooke, ' and the 'Booke of Good Manners, ' for 2s. ; the highest price inthe entire sale being given for Holinshed's 'Chronicle, ' 'with theaddition of many sheets that were castrated, being . . . Not allowed tobe printed, ' £7. Smith left an interesting and valuable obituary list ofcertain of his bibliopolic friends (which is reprinted in _Willis'Current Notes_, February, 1853), one of whom, according to him, was'buried at St. Bartholomew's, without wine or wafers, only gloves androsemary. ' [Illustration: _Little Britain in 1550. _] Dr. Francis Bernard, chief physician to James II. , was an indefatigablebook-hunter; being 'a person who collected his books, not forostentation or ornament, he seemed no more solicitous about their dressthan his own, and, therefore, you'll find that a gilt back or a largemargin was very seldom an inducement for him to buy. 'Twas sufficientfor him that he had the book. ' His library was sold in 1698, andrealized the then enormous sum of £2, 000. John Bridges, of Lincoln'sInn, the historian of Northamptonshire, was a collector who read as wellas bought books; his collection was sold at auction in 1726, when 4, 313lots realized £4, 001. Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, was a collectorwith comprehensive tastes and almost unlimited means. His collection isnow in the British Museum, and is computed to have numbered about 26, 000volumes, on the binding of only a portion of which he is said to haveexpended £18, 000, besides a mass of 350, 000 pamphlets. Thomas Baker(1625-1690) bequeathed a portion of his library to St. John's College, Cambridge, notwithstanding the fact that he was ejected therefrom. Hewas an unceasing collector, but his finances were scanty, and, worst ofall, he had to contend with collectors of greater wealth, or'purse-ability' as Bodley calls it. Writing to Humfrey Wanley, he says:'I begin to complain of the men of quality who lay out so much forbooks, and give such prices that there is nothing to be had for poorscholars, whereof I have found the effects. When I bid a fair price foran old book, I am answered, the "quality" will give twice as much, andso I have done. I have had much ado to pick up a few old books attolerable prices, and despair of any more. ' About 2, 000 of his bookswent to St. John's College, and the others were sold by auction, manybearing the inscription 'Thomas Baker, socius ejectus, ' etc. The libraryof another collector who, like Baker, had more of the kicks than of theha'pence of this life, Thomas Hearne (1678-1735), may be mentionedbriefly in this paragraph, for both were men of great learning. Hearne'scollection was sold in February, 1736, by Osborne the bookseller, 'thelowest price being marked in each book. ' On the title-page of thecatalogue, and beneath a poor portrait of Hearne, is the well-knowncouplet: 'Quoth Time to Thomas Hearne, "Whatever I forget, you learn. "' Humphrey Dyson is another book-collector of this period, and isdescribed by Hearne as 'a very curious man in collecting books. ' TheWesleys were book-lovers and readers, but have perhaps but little claimto rank as collectors _pur sang_. However, it is interesting to pointout that Lilly's catalogue for 1863 included a copy of Purcell's'Orpheus Britannicus, ' 1706, with an inscription on the fly-leaf: 'C. Wesley, junior. The valuable gift of his much-honor'd Father. ' The Restoration poets, like those of the Elizabethan period, had asufficiently hard fight to keep themselves in food; books were luxurieswhich they could only venture to enjoy at long and uncertain intervals. Dryden and Congreve, however, appear to have been addicted to thepleasant pastime. An exceedingly interesting copy of Spenser's 'Works, ' folio, 1679, wasonce in the possession of Mr. F. S. Ellis. On the fly-leaf occurred thisnote: 'The corrections made in this book are of Mr. Dryden's ownhandwriting. J. Tonson. ' The volume occurred in an auction, where itsvalue was not detected. The 'corrections, ' Mr. Ellis states, extendthrough the whole of the volume, and bear witness to the care anddiligence with which Dryden had studied Spenser's poems. Several of thenotes are in explanation of the text, but for the most part are carefuland curious corrections of the text and press. The pedigree of thisvolume is well established by its having in the cover the bookplate ofThomas Barrett, of Lee, celebrated by Dibdin as a 'bibliomaniacal andtasteful gentleman. ' Though Barrett died in 1757, his library was notdispersed till a few years since. Izaak Walton was a collector, and tookthe wise precaution of writing his autograph in each volume, as the veryinteresting score of examples now at Salisbury prove. His friend, Charles Cotton, of cheerful memory, was much more of a book-collector, although from the 'Angler' it would seem that his whole library wascontained in his hall window. Like Walton, Cotton wrote his autograph inmost of his books, which occur in the auction-room at irregularintervals. The extent or variety of the Cotton correction may begathered from the following 'epigram' which Sir Aston Cokaine wrote(1658) 'To my Cousin, Mr. Charles Cotton the Younger': 'D'Avila, Bentivoglio, Guicciardine, And Machiavil, the subtle Florentine, In their originals I have read through, Thanks to your library, and unto you, The prime historians of later times; at least In the Italian tongue allow'd the best. When you have more such books, I pray vouchsafe Me their perusal, I'll return them safe. Yet for the courtesy, the recompense That I can make you will be only thanks. But you are noble-soul'd, and had much rather Bestow a benefit than receive a favour. ' [Illustration: _Charles, Third Earl of Sunderland. _] One of the most remarkable collections of books ever made by a privateindividual was that known as the Sunderland Library. It was formed, notonly in the short space of twelve years, but at a time when many books, now of almost priceless value, and scarcely to be had at any price, werecomparatively common, and certainly not costly. Neither money nor painswas spared, 'and the bibliographical ardour of the founder soon began tobe talked of in the bookshops of the chief cities of Europe. ' Thefounder, Charles, third Earl of Sunderland, lived at Althorp, his townhouse being in Piccadilly, on the site of which the Albany now stands. At the latter place this library was lodged for several years. InMacky's 'Journey through England, ' 1724, Sunderland House is theredescribed as being separated from the street of Piccadilly 'by a wallwith large grown trees before the gate. . . . The greatest beauty ofthis palace is the library, running from the house into the garden; andI must say is the finest in Europe, both for the disposition of theapartments, and of the books. The rooms, divided into five apartments, are fully 150 feet long, with two stories of windows, and a galleryruns round the whole in the second story for the taking down books. Nonobleman in any nation hath taken greater care to make his collectioncomplete, nor does he spare any cost for the most valuable and rarebooks. Besides, no bookseller in Europe hath so many editions of thesame book as he, for he hath all, especially of the classicks. ' Thefounder of this famous library died on April 19, 1722. Evelyn has left afew very interesting facts concerning this collection. Under the dateMarch 10, 1695, we read: 'I din'd at the Earl of Sunderland's with LordSpencer. My Lord shew'd me his library, now again improv'd by many booksbought at the sale of Sir Charles Scarborough, an eminent physician, which was the very best collection, especially of mathematical books, that was I believe in Europe, once design'd for the King's library atSt. James's, but the Queen dying, who was the greate patroness of thedesigne, it was let fall, and the books were miserably dissipated. ' Fouryears later, April, 1699, we have another entry, to the effect that LordSpencer purchased 'an incomparable library, ' until now the property of'a very fine scholar, whom from a child I have known, ' whose name doesnot transpire [? Hadrian Beverland], but in whose library were many'rare books . . . That were printed at the first invention of thatwonderful art. ' In reference to Macky's incidental allusion to the Earlof Sunderland's indifference to cost in forming his library, Wanleyconfirms this. Writing in December, 1721, the diarist observes that thebooks in Mr. Freebairn's library 'in general went low, or rather at vilerates, through a combination of the booksellers against the sale. Yetsome books went for unaccountably high prices, which were bought by Mr. Vaillant, the bookseller, who had an unlimited commission from the Earlof Sunderland. ' Among the items was an edition of Virgil, printed byZarothus _circa_ 1475: 'It was noted that when Mr. Vaillant had boughtthe printed Virgil at £46, he huzza'd out aloud, and threw up his hat, for joy that he had bought it so cheap. ' When this famous book-collectordied, Wanley observes that 'by reason of his decease some benefit mayaccrue to this library [Lord Oxford's], even in case his relations willpart with none of his books. I mean, _by his raising the price of booksno higher now_; so that, in probability, this commodity may fall in themarket; and any gentleman be permitted to buy an uncommon old book forless than forty or fifty pounds. ' The third son of this famousbook-collector, Charles, fifth Earl of Sunderland, and second Duke ofMarlborough, greatly enlarged the collection formed by his father; andit was removed to Blenheim probably in 1734. This famous libraryremained practically intact until it came under the hammer at Puttickand Simpson's, occupying fifty-one days in the dispersal at intervalsfrom December 1, 1881, to March 22, 1883, the total being £55, 581 6s. Itis stated that the library originally cost about £30, 000. Dr. David Williams, who from 1688 to the end of his life was ministerof a Presbyterian congregation which met at Hand Alley, BishopsgateStreet, was a contemporary book-collector and book-hunter. His specialline was theology, and his library, which absorbed that of Dr. Bates, once Rector of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, is still preserved intact, andis now, to a certain degree, a free library. Archbishop Tenison wasanother great book-hunter of this period, and his library was preservedmore or less intact until 1861, when it was dispersed at Sotheby's, under an order of the Charity Commissioners. The brothers Thomas and Richard Rawlinson were, probably, the mostomnivorous collectors of the earlier part of the last century. Everything in the shape of a book was welcomed. The former (1681-1725), whose 'C. & P. ' (collated and perfect) appears on the frontispiece, title-page, or fly-leaf of books, when he lived in Gray's Inn, had sofilled his set of four rooms with books that he was obliged to sleep inthe passage. He is said to be the original study for the 158th _Tatler_, in which 'Tom Folio' and other _soi-disant_ scholars are trounced. 'Hehas a greater esteem for Aldus and Elzevir than for Virgil and Horace. 'It is very doubtful whether Addison (who wrote this particular _Tatler_)really had Thomas Rawlinson in mind, whom he describes as 'a learnedidiot. ' Swift has declared that some know books as they do lords; learntheir titles exactly, and then brag of their acquaintance. But neitherdescription is applicable to Rawlinson, who, for all that, may haveknown much more about Aldus or the Elzevirs than about Virgil or Horace. With a pretty taste for epithets, in which our forefathers sometimesindulged, Hearne has defended his friend from Addison's sarcasms bydeclaring that the mistake could only have been made by a 'shallowbuffoon. ' That Rawlinson was a bibliomaniac there can be no question, for if he had a score copies of one book, he would purchase another forthe mere gratification of possessing it. When he removed to the largemansion in Aldersgate Street, which had been the palace of the Bishopsof London, and which he shared with his brother, 'the books stillcontinued to be better lodged than their owner. ' He died, at thecomparatively early age of forty-four, as he had lived, among dust andcobwebs, 'in his bundles, piles and bulwarks of paper. ' The catalogue ofhis huge mass of books was divided into nine parts; the sale of the MSS. Alone occupied sixteen days. Richard Rawlinson (died 1755) survived hisbrother thirty years, and continued to collect books with all hisbrother's enthusiasm, but without his sheer book-greed. His MSS. Are atOxford, and the extent and richness of his accumulations may be gatheredfrom the fact that the collector laid nearly thirty libraries undercontribution. His printed books were sold in 1756 by Samuel Baker (nowSotheby's), the sale occupying forty-nine days, and the total amountingto £1, 155 1s. ; a second sale included 20, 000 pamphlets, and a third saleconsisted of prints. [Illustration: _London House, Aldersgate Street, 1808. _] Among the wisest and most distinguished book-collectors of the firsthalf of the last century is Dr. Richard Mead (1673-1754), a physician byprofession, but a bibliophile by instinct, and whom Dr. Johnsondescribed as having 'lived more in the broad sunshine of life thanalmost any other man. ' As Dr. Mead's fine library was 'picked up atRome, ' it scarcely comes within our purview; but it may be mentionedthat so long as this fine collection remained intact in London, it was_ipso facto_ a free library; it was especially rich in the classics, sciences and history. The first part was sold by Samuel Baker in 1754, and the second in the following year, the 6, 592 lots occupyingfifty-seven days, the total of the books being £5, 496 15s. Dr. Mead'smantle descended to his great friend and pupil, Dr. Anthony Askew(1722-1774), who had an exceedingly fine library; his career as acollector began in Paris in 1749, and nearly all his choicest treasuresappear to have been gathered on the Continent, and chiefly it seems byJoseph Smith, the English Consul at Venice. Askew's first library waspurchased by George III. In 1762, and now forms an integral part of theBritish Museum. His subsequent accumulations were dispersed in twosections, the books in 1775, and the MSS. Ten years later. We shall haveoccasion to refer again to the Askew sale. Dr. Richard Farmer appears tohave imbibed his taste for book-collecting from Askew, and became anindefatigable haunter of the London and country bookstalls, his specialline being Early English literature, then scarcely at all appreciated;it is stated that the collection, which cost him less than £500, realized, when sold by auction by King in 1798, upwards of £2, 000. Dr. Farmer is better remembered by posterity as a Shakespearian critic orcommentator. He was a Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's, and appears tohave had what Dibdin describes as 'his foragers, his jackalls, and his_avant-couriers_, ' who picked up for him every item of interest in hisparticular lines. As becomes the true bibliophile, he was peculiarlyindifferent to his dress, but he was a scholar of great abilities. Aglance at a priced copy of his sale catalogue is enough to turn anybook-lover green with envy. For example, his copy of Richard Barnfield's'Encomion of Lady Pecunia, or the Praise of Money' (1598), sold for19s. , Malone being the purchaser. That copy is now in the Bodleian. In1882, the Ouvry copy of the same book realized 100 guineas! A copy ofMilton's 'Paradise Lost' (1667), with the first title-page, sold for11s. ; a volume of twelve poems, chiefly printed by Wynkyn de Worde andPynson, realized 25 guineas. Each item would probably realize theamount paid for the whole, should they again occur for sale, which ismost unlikely. Both his friends, George Steevens and Isaac Reed, wereequally zealous collectors, and each had a strong weakness for the samegroove of collecting. The library of Steevens was sold, also by King, in1800, and the 1, 943 items realized £2, 740 15s. ; whilst that of Reed, sold seven years later, contained 8, 957 articles, and realized £4, 387. Both Steevens and Isaac Reed call for a much more extended notice thanit is possible to give them here. Many of Steevens' books realizedtwenty times the amount which he paid for them. Steevens, who was bornin 1736, resided in a retired house 'just on the rise of HampsteadHeath, ' so Dibdin tells us, the house being formerly known as the UpperFlask Tavern, to which 'Richardson sends Clarissa in one of her escapesfrom Lovelace. ' Here, as Dibdin further tells us, Steevens lived, embosomed in books, shrubs, and trees. 'His habits were indeed peculiar;not much to be envied or imitated, as they sometimes betrayed theflights of a madman, and sometimes the asperities of the cynic. Hisattachments were warm, but fickle, both in choice and duration. ' Severalof his letters are printed in Dibdin's 'Bibliomania' (edit. 1842), inwhich will also be found a long series of extracts from the salecatalogue of his library. There were nearly fifty copies of the first orearly quartos of the Shakespearian plays, which were knocked down atprices varying from 5s. To, in a few instances, over £20. The first, second, third and fourth folios realized £22, £18 18s. , £8 8s. , and £212s. 6d. , respectively! Isaac Reed was in many ways a remarkable man. Hewas the son of a baker in the parish of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West. Bornin 1742, he commenced professional life as a solicitor, which he soonabandoned for the more congenial pursuit of literature. His knowledge ofEnglish literature was unbounded, and the dispersal of his remarkablelibrary was one of the wonders of the year 1807. He was for over fortyyears a diligent collector, and few days passed in that period which didnot witness an addition to his library. He died at his chambers inStaple Inn. 'I have been almost daily at a book-auction, ' writesMalone--'the library of the late Mr. Reed, the last Shakespearian, except myself, where my purse has been drained as usual. But what I havepurchased are chiefly books of my own trade. There is hardly a libraryof this kind now left, except my own and Mr. Bindley's, neither of ushaving the least desire to succeed the other in his peculiar species ofliterary wealth. ' [Illustration: _St. Bernard's Seal. _] FOOTNOTES: [27:A] In Hearne's 'Diary, ' published by the Oxford Historical Society, there is a very quaint note about the Duke of Lauderdale, who isdescribed as 'a Curious Collector of Books, and when in London wouldvery often go to y{e} Booksellers shops and pick up w{t} curious Bookshe could meet with; but y{t} in his Elder years he lost much of hisLearning by minding too much Politicks. ' [27:B] At the Cambridge University Library there are some veryinteresting diaries of this famous book-lover, styled 'Father of BlackLetter Collectors, ' chiefly relating to the purchases of books. All themore important facts have been published in the pages of the_Bibliographer_. [Illustration] FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW. I. IN few phases of human action are the foibles and preferences ofindividuals more completely imbricated than in that of book-collecting. Widely different as were the book-hunters' fancies at the beginning andat the end of the eighteenth century, yet it would not be possible todraw a hard and fast line. For the greater part of that time theclassics of every description and of every degree of unimportance heldtheir own. Reluctant, therefore, to abandon the chief stimulant of theirearlier book-hunting careers, many collectors still took a keen interestin their _primi pensieri_. But their real passion found a vent in otherand less beaten directions. In addition to this, during the eighteenthcentury a large number of small working libraries were formed by men who_used_ books. Henry Fielding, Goldsmith, Dr. Johnson, David Hume, Smollett, Gibbon, Pope, and many others, are essentially figures in thehistory of book-hunting in London, but they had neither the means nor, so far as we are aware, the inclination to indulge in book-collecting asa mere fashionable hobby. Mr. Austin Dobson has lately published aninteresting account of Fielding's library, in which he proves not onlythat Fielding had been a fervent student of the classics in his youthand that he remained a voracious reader through life, but that he madegood use of a large collection of Greek and Latin authors, which wassold at his death. [Illustration: _Mr. Austin Dobson. _ From a photograph by E. C. Porter, Ealing. ] The eighteenth century may be regarded as the Augustan age so far asbook-hunting in London is concerned. A large percentage of the mostfamous collections were either formed, or the collectors themselves wereeither born or died, in that period. The Beckford and Hamilton, theHeber, the Sunderland, the Althorp, and the King's Library, all hadtheir origins prior to 1800. Richard Heber (1773-1833), with all his vast knowledge, learning, andaccomplishments, was a bibliomaniac in the more unpleasant sense of theword. No confirmed drunkard, no incurable opium-eater, ever had lessself-control than Heber had. To him, to see a book was to possess it. Cicero has said that the heart into which the love of gold has enteredis shut to every other feeling. Heber was very wealthy, so that with himthe love of books blinded him to almost everything else. He began tocollect when at Oxford, chiefly classics for the purpose of study. He issaid to have caught the disease from Bindley, the veteran collector, whobegan book-hunting early in the last century. Having one dayaccidentally met with a copy of Henry Peacham's 'Valley of Varietie, '1638, which professed to give 'rare passages out of antiquity, ' etc. , heshowed it to Bindley, who described it as 'rather a curious book. ' Whysuch an incident should have set Heber on his terrible career historytelleth not. Under the name of 'Atticus, ' Dibdin, who knew Heber well, has described him in this fashion: 'Atticus unites all the activity ofDe Witt and Lomenie, with the retentiveness of Magliabechi, and thelearning of Le Long. . . . Yet Atticus doth sometimes sadly err. He hasnow and then an ungovernable passion to possess more copies of a bookthan there were ever parties to a deed or stamina to a plant;and therefore, I cannot call him a "duplicate" or a triplicatecollector. . . . But he atones for this by being liberal in the loan ofhis volumes. The learned and curious, whether rich or poor, have alwaysfree access to his library. ' Heber's own explanation of this pluralityof purchase was cast somewhat in this fashion: 'Why, you see, sir, noman can comfortably do without _three_ copies of a book. One he musthave for his show copy, and he will probably keep it at his countryhouse. Another he will require for his own use and reference; and unlesshe is inclined to part with this, which is very inconvenient, or riskthe injury of his best copy, he must needs have a third at the serviceof his friends. ' The late Mr. Edward Solly was also a pluralist in thematter of books, and had even six or seven copies of a large number ofworks. He justified himself on the plea that he liked to have one toread, one to make notes in, another with notes by a previous owner, onein a choice binding, a 'tall' copy, a short ditto, and so forth. So far, however, as Heber is concerned, no one could be more generous than he inlending books. This might be proved from a dozen different sources, including the lengthy introduction 'To Richard Heber, Esq. , ' to thesixth canto of Scott's 'Marmion': 'But why such instances to you, Who, in an instant, can renew Your treasured hoards of various lore, And furnish twenty thousand more? Hoards, not like theirs whose volumes rest Like treasures in the Franch'mont chest, While gripple owners still refuse To others what they cannot use: Give them the priest's whole century, They shall not spell you letters three; Their pleasure in the books the same The magpie takes in pilfer'd gem. Thy volumes, open as thy heart, Delight, amusement, science, art, To every ear and eye impart; Yet who of all who thus employ them, Can, like their owner's self, enjoy them?' In addition to this reference, Scott, in one of his letters, speaks of'Heber the magnificent, whose library and cellar are so superior to allothers in the world. ' Frequent mention is made of Heber in the notes tothe Waverley novels. At one period of his life Heber was a Member ofParliament, and throughout his career it seems that he found recreationfrom the sport of collecting in the sport of the fields. He has beenknown to take a journey of four or five hundred miles to obtain a rarevolume, 'fearful to trust to a mere commission. ' He bought by allmethods, in all places, and at all times, a single purchase on oneoccasion being an entire library of 30, 000 volumes. Curiously enough, hedisliked large-paper copies, on account of the space they filled. Whenhe died, he had eight houses full of books--two in London, one inOxford, and others at Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent, besidessmaller collections in Germany. When sold, the number of lots was52, 000, and of volumes about 147, 000, and the total amount realized£57, 000, or about two-thirds of the original expenditure. The sale, which commenced in 1834, lasted over several years, and the cataloguealone comprises six thick octavo volumes. He is described as a tall, strong, well-made man. Writing to Sir Egerton Brydges, the Rev. A. Dyce observes concerningHeber's death: 'Poor man! He expired at Pimlico, [47:A] in the midst ofhis rare property, without a friend to close his eyes, and from all Ihave heard I am led to believe that he died broken-hearted. He had beenailing some time, but took no care of himself, and seemed, indeed, tocourt death. Yet his ruling passion was strong to the last. The morninghe died he wrote out some memoranda for Thorpe about books which hewished to be purchased for him' (Fitzgerald, 'The Book-Fancier, ' p. 230). In noticing Scott's edition of Dryden, and in alluding to the help whichScott obtained from Heber and Bindley, the _Edinburgh Review_ speaks ofthe two as 'gentlemen in whom the love of collecting, which is anamusement to others, assumes the dignity of a virtue, because it givesampler scope to the exercise of friendship, and of a generous sympathywith the common cause of literature. ' [Illustration: _William Beckford, Book-collector. _] William Beckford (1761-1844) and the tenth Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852), for several reasons, may be bracketed together as book-collectors. Eachwas a remarkable man in several respects. William Beckford, the authorof 'Vathek' and the owner of Fonthill, was a universal collector. Noless enthusiastic in amassing pictures and objects of art than books, he never scrupled to sell anything and everything except his books, which he dearly loved. A man who could draw eulogy from Byron could nothave been an ordinary person. Fonthill and its treasures were announcedfor sale in September, 1822, the auctioneer being James Christie, thecatalogue being in quarto size, and comprising ninety-five pages. Theauction, however, did not take place, but the collection was sold _enmasse_ to a Mr. John Farquhar for £330, 000, Beckford reserving, however, some of his choicest books, pictures, and curiosities. In the followingyear the whole collection was dispersed by Phillips, the auctioneer, thesale occupying thirty-seven days. With the money he received fromFarquhar, Beckford purchased annuities and land near Bath. He united twohouses in the Royal Crescent by a flying gallery extending over theroad, and his dwelling became one vast library. He added to hiscollection up to his last days, and obtained many books at CharlesNodier's sale. Beckford was one of the greatest book-enthusiasts thatever lived. His passion was more particularly for Aldines, and otherearly books bearing the insignia of celebrities, such as Frances I. , Henri et Diane, and De Thou, and especially of choice old moroccobindings by Desseuil, Padeloup, and Derome. He was especially strong inold French and Italian books, generically classified as _facetiæ_. Beckford would read for days and weeks at a stretch, with no morerecreation than an occasional ride. That he read his books there isample testimony, for at his sale one lot comprised seven folio volumesof transcripts from the autograph notes written by him on the fly-leavesof the various works in his library. For example, to the copy of PeterBeckford's 'Familiar Letters from Italy, ' 1805, he concludes five pagesof notes with, 'This book has at least some merit. The language issimple; an ill-natured person might add, and the thoughts not less so. 'In Brasbridge's 'Fruits of Experience, ' 1824, he writes: 'They who likehog-wash--and there are amateurs for anything--will not turn awaydisappointed or disgusted with this book, but relish the stale, trashyanecdotes it contains, and gobble them up with avidity. ' AfterBeckford's death, Henry G. Bohn offered £30, 000 for the whole library;but Beckford's second daughter, who married the Duke of Hamilton, refused to sanction the sale. It, however, came under the hammer atSotheby's, 1881-1884, in four parts of twelve days each, the net resultbeing £73, 551 18s. The tenth Duke of Hamilton was one of the most distinguishedbibliophiles of his time, and commenced purchasing whilst yet Marquis ofDouglas. A large portion of his library was collected in Italy andvarious parts of the Continent, whilst the collection of Greek and Latinmanuscripts which he obtained when on a diplomatic mission to Russiaformed an unrivalled series of monuments of early art. In 1810 hemarried Susanna Beckford, and at her father's death the whole of hissplendid library came into his possession. The two collections, however, were kept quite distinct. The Hamilton collection of printed books wassold at Sotheby's in May, 1884, the eight days realizing £12, 892 12s. 6d. The most important feature of the library, however, was themagnificent collection of MSS. Which the Prussian Government secured byprivate treaty--through the intermediary, it is understood, of theEmpress Frederick--for £70, 000. In May, 1889, those which theauthorities decided not to retain for the Royal Museum at Berlin weretransferred to Messrs. Sotheby's, and ninety-one lots realized the totalof £15, 189 15s. 6d. The gems of the collection were a magnificent volumeof the Golden Gospels in Latin of the eighth century, formerly a gift toHenry VIII. , which sold for £1, 500--a London bookseller once offered£5, 000 for this book--and a magnificent MS. Of Boccaccio, 'Les IllustresMalheureux, ' on vellum, 321 leaves, decorated with eighty-four exquisiteminiatures, which sold for £1, 700. It may be mentioned that a largenumber of the Beckford and Hamilton books were purchased through thelate H. G. Bohn. [Illustration: _George John, Earl Spencer. _] The Althorp Library, now in the possession of Mrs. Rylands, ofManchester, was formed by George John, Earl Spencer (1758-1834), between 1790 and 1820. Until its recent removal from Althorp it was thefinest private library in existence. In 1790 Lord Spencer acquired thevery fine and select library of Count Rewiczki, the Emperor Joseph'sAmbassador in London, for about £2, 500, and for the next thirty yearsthe Earl was continually hunting after books in the sale-rooms andbooksellers' shops. The story of the Althorp Library has been sorepeatedly told, from the time of its first librarian, the devil-huntingThomas Frognall Dibdin--whose flatulent and sycophantic records are notto be taken as mirroring the infinitely superior intellect and taste ofhis employer--down to the present day, that any further description isalmost superfluous. Besides this, the library is one which will soon beopen to all. We may, however, mention a point which is of greatinterest in the study of books as an investment. It may reasonably bedoubted whether the Althorp Library cost its founder much over £100, 000;it is generally understood that the price paid for it in 1892 was notfar short of £250, 000. [Illustration: _John, Duke of Roxburghe, Book-collector. _] Contemporaneously with the formation of the Althorp Collection, the Dukeof Roxburghe built a library, which was one of the finest and mostperfect ever got together. The Duke turned book-hunter through a loveaffair, it is said. He was to have been married to the eldest daughterof the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; but when this lady's sister wasselected as a wife for George III. , the proposed marriage was deemedimpolitic, and consequently the Duke remained single. The Duke himselfis said to have traced his passion for books to the famous dinner givenby his father, the second Duke, at which Lords Oxford and Sunderlandwere present, and at which the celebrated copy of the ValdarferBoccaccio was produced. The history of this incident is told in ourchapter on Book-sales, and need not be here more specifically referredto. The Duke was a mighty hunter, not only of books, but of deer andwild swans. So far as books are concerned, his great specialities wereOld English literature, Italian poetry, and romances of the Round Table;and as the first and last of these have increased in value as years havegone by, it will be seen that the Duke was wise in his generation. Indeed, we have it on the best authority that the aggregate outlay onthe Roxburghe Library did not exceed £4, 000, whilst in the course oflittle more than twenty years it produced over £23, 397, the sale takingplace in June, 1812. The Duke of Roxburghe and Lord Spencer were notaverse to a little understanding of the nature of a 'knock-out, ' for inone of the Althorp Caxtons Lord Spencer has written: 'The Duke and I hadagreed not to oppose one another at the [George Mason] sale, but afterthe book [a Caxton] was bought, to toss up who should win it, when Ilost it. I bought it at the Roxburghe sale on the 17 of June, 1812, for£215 5s. ' [Illustration: _A corner in the Althorp Library. _] Yet another distinguished book-collector of the same period calls fornotice. George III. Formed a splendid library out of his own privatepurse and at a cost of £130, 000. This library is now a part of theBritish Museum. A library such as that of George III. Gives very littleidea of a man's real tastes for books. The King availed himself of theaccumulated wisdom, not only of Barnard (who was his librarian fornearly half a century), but of three or four other experts, among whomwas Dr. Johnson. The King's everyday tastes, however, may be gatheredfrom the subjoined list of books, which he wished to have on his visitto Weymouth in 1795. He desired what he called 'a closet library' for awatering-place; he wrote to his bookseller for the following works: theBible; the 'Whole Duty of Man'; the 'Annual Register, ' 25 volumes;Rapin's 'History of England, ' 21 volumes, 1757; Millot's 'Elémens del'Histoire de France, ' 1770; Voltaire's 'Siècles' of Louis XIV. AndLouis XV. ; Blackstone's 'Commentaries, ' 4 volumes; R. Burn's 'Justice ofPeace and Parish Officer, ' 4 volumes; an abridgment of Dr. Johnson'sDictionary; Boyer's 'Dictionnaire François et Anglais'; Johnson's'Poets, ' 68 volumes; Dodsley's 'Poems, ' 11 volumes; Nichols' 'Poems, ' 8volumes; Steevens' 'Shakespeare'; 'Oeuvres' of Destouches, 5 volumes;and the 'Works' of Sir William Temple, 4 volumes; of Addison, 4 volumes, and Swift, 24 volumes. These books can scarcely be regarded as lightliterature, and, if anything, calculated to add to the deadly dulness ofa seaside retreat at the end of the last century. However, the selectionis George III. 's, and must be respected as such. The number of men who were prowling about London during the middle andlatter part of the last century after books is only less great than thevariety of tastes which they evinced. We have, for example, two suchturbulent spirits as John Horne Tooke and John Wilkes, M. P. ParsonHorne's (he subsequently assumed the name of his patron, William Tooke)collection did not, as Dibdin has observed, contain a single edition ofthe Bible; but it included seven examples of Wynkyn de Worde's press andmany other rare books. Eight hundred and thirteen lots realized the thenhigh amount of £1, 250 when sold at King and Lochée's in 1813. JohnWilkes' books were sold at Sotheby's in 1802. If less notorious, manyequally enthusiastic book-collectors were hunting the highways andbyways of London. Here, for example, is a little anecdote relative toone of these: When the splendid folio edition of Cæsar's 'Commentaries, ' by Clarke, published for the express purpose of being presented to the great Dukeof Marlborough, came under the hammer at the sale (in 1781) of TophamBeauclerk's library for £44, it was accompanied by an anecdote relatingto the method in which it had been acquired. Upon the death of anofficer to whom the book belonged, his mother, being informed that itwas of some value, wished to dispose of it, and, being told that Mr. Topham Beauclerk (who is said to have but once departed from hisinflexible rule of never lending a book) was a proper person to offer itto, she waited on him for that purpose. He asked what she required forit, and, being answered £4 4s. , took it without hesitation, thoughunacquainted with the real value of the book. Being desirous, however, of information with respect to the nature of the purchase he had made, he went to an eminent bookseller's, and inquired what he would give forsuch a book. The bookseller replied £17 17s. Mr. Beauclerk wentimmediately to the person who sold him the book, and, telling her thatshe had been mistaken in its value, not only gave her the additional 13guineas, but also generously bestowed a further gratuity on her. Fewbargain-hunters would have felt called upon to act as Beauclerk[55:A]did. Here is another anecdote of a contemporary book-hunter: Nichols states that Mr. David Papillon (who died in 1762), a gentlemanof fortune and literary taste, as well as a good antiquary, contractedwith Osborne to furnish him with £100 worth of books, at 3d. Apiece. Theonly conditions were, that they should be perfect, and that thereshould be no duplicate. Osborne was highly pleased with his bargain, and the first great purchase he made, he sent Mr. Papillon a largequantity; but in the next purchase he found he could send but few, andthe next still fewer. Not willing, however, to give up, he sent booksworth 5s. Apiece, and at last was forced to go and beg to be let off thecontract. Eight thousand books would have been wanted! An interesting collector, at once the type of a country gentleman and ofa true bibliophile, was Sir John Englis Dolben (1750-1837), of FinedonHall, Northamptonshire. He was educated at Westminster School, proceeding thence to Christ Church in 1768. Previously to his finalretirement into the country, he lingered with much affection about thehaunts of his youthful studies. He carried so many volumes about withhim in his numerous and capacious pockets that he appeared like awalking library, and his memory, particularly in classical quotations, was equally richly stored. This is one side of the picture. This is theother side, in which we get a view of the man-about-town collector inthe person of Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808), the hydrographer to theAdmiralty and to the East India Company: 'His yellow antiquarian chariotseemed to be immovably fixed in the street, just opposite theentrance-door of the long passage leading to the sale-room of Messrs. King and Lochée, in King Street, Covent Garden; and towards the bottomof the table, in the sale-room, Mr. Dalrymple used to sit, a cane in hishand, his hat always upon his head, a thin, slightly-twisted queue, andsilver hairs that hardly shaded his temple. . . . His biddings wereusually silent, accompanied by the elevation and fall of his cane, or byan abrupt nod of the head. ' [Illustration: _Michael Wodhull, Book-collector. _] The Osterley Park Library, sold by order of the seventh Earl of Jerseyat Sotheby's in 1885, was commenced in the last century, the originalfounder being Bryan Fairfax, who died in 1747. His books came into thehands of Alderman Child, who was not only a book-collector, butinherited Lord Mavor Child's books. The fifth Earl of Jersey marriedMr. Child's grand-daughter in 1804. Two mighty hunters of the oldschool may be here briefly mentioned--John Towneley and Michael Wodhull, the poet, both of whose collections were dispersed in several portions, partly at the beginning of the present century, and partly within quiterecent times. The founder of the 'Bibliotheca Towneleiana' was for along period of years an ardent collector, his favourite studies beingEnglish history, topography, and portraits. The great gem of hiscollection was the splendid 'Vita Christi, ' gorgeously ornamented withfull-page paintings, and with miniatures superbly executed in colours, heightened with gold, by Giulio Clovio, in the finest style of Italianart. This MS. Was executed for Alexander, Cardinal Farnese, andpresented to Pope Paul III. It was purchased abroad by a Mr. Champernounfor an inconsiderable sum, and cost Mr. Towneley 400 guineas. At itssale in 1883 it realized £2, 050. Two portions of the Towneley Librarywere dispersed by Evans in 1814-15 (seventeen days), and realized over£8, 597, and other portions were sold in 1816 and 1817. Towneley himselfdied in May, 1813, aged eighty-two. The remainder of his extensivecollection was sold at Sotheby's in 1883 (ten days). Wodhull, who diedNovember 10, 1816, aged seventy-six, had two sales during his lifetime, first in 1801 (chiefly duplicates), and secondly in 1803 (chiefly Greekand Roman classics). He, however, reserved for himself a library ofabout 4, 000, which, passing into the possession of Mr. F. E. Severne, M. P. , was sold at Sotheby's in January, 1886, and realized a total of£11, 973 4s. 6d. He is the Orlando of Dibdin's 'Bibliomania. ' The Greekand Roman classics formed the chief attraction of this _post-mortem_sale, which is generally regarded as one of the most important of itskind held during recent years. Most of the prizes were picked up inFrance after 1803, and it was during one of his book-hunting expeditionsin Paris that Wodhull was detained by Napoleon. Two other 'fashionable' or titled collectors may be here groupedtogether. The fine library formed by William, Marquis of Lansdowne wasdispersed by Leigh and Sotheby in thirty-one days, beginning withJanuary 6, 1806, the 6, 530 lots realizing £6, 701 2s. 6d. The highestamount paid for a single lot was for a very rare collection of tracts, documents, and pamphlets, in over 280 volumes, illustrating the historyof the French Revolution, together with forty-nine volumes relative tothe transactions in the Low Countries between the years 1787 and 1792, and their separation from the House of Austria. Wynkyn de Worde's'Rycharde Cure de Lyon, ' 1528, sold for £47 5s. ; and a curiouscollection of 'Masks' and 'Triumphs, ' of the early seventeenth century, mostly by Ben Jonson, realized £40. As a book-collector Sir MarkMasterman Sykes is a much better remembered figure in the annals ofbook-hunting than that of the Marquis of Lansdowne. The Sykes librarycontained a number of the _editiones principes_ of the classics, some onvellum, and also a number of Aldines in the most perfect condition. There were also many highly curious and very rare pieces of earlyEnglish poetry. The collection was sold at Evans's in 1824, and the gemsof the collection were a copy of the Mazarin Bible, and the LatinPsalter, 1459, to which full reference is made in a subsequent chapter. II. The history of literature, it is said, teaches us to consider itsdecline only as the development of a great principle of succession bywhich the treasures of the mind are circulated and equalized; as shootsby which the stream of improvement is forcibly directed into newchannels, to fertilize new soils and awaken new capabilities. Thehistory of book-collecting teaches us a similar lesson. The love whichso often amounted to a positive passion for the exquisite productions ofthe Age of Illuminated Manuscripts, all but died with the introductionof the printing-press, which in reality was but a continuation of theold art in a new form. And so on, down through the successive decadesand generations of the past four centuries, the decline--but not thedeath, for such a term cannot be applied to any phase ofbook-collecting--of one particular aspect of the hobby has synchronizedwith the birth of several others, sometimes more worthy, and at othersless. An exhaustive inquiry into the various and manifold changesthrough which the human mind passed alone might account for thesevarious developments, which it is not the intention of the presentwriter on this occasion to analyze. The rise and progress of what Sir Egerton Brydges calls 'theblack-letter mania' gave the death-blow to the long-cherished school ofpoetry of which Pope may be taken as the most distinguished exponent. 'Men of loftier taste and bolder fancy early remonstrated against thischilling confinement of the noblest, the most aspiring, and mostexpansive of all the Arts. . . . It was not till the commotion of Europebroke the chain of indolence and insipid effeminacy that the strongerpassions of readers required again to be stimulated and exercised andsoothed, and that the minor charms of correctness were sacrificed to theardent efforts of uncontrolled and unfearing genius. The authors of thisclass began to look back for their materials to an age of hazardousfreedom, and copious and untutored eloquence: an age in which the worldof words and free and native ideas was not contracted and blighted bytechnical critics and cold and fastidious scholars. ' To abandon theabstract for the more matter-of-fact details of sober history, the maniato which Brydges alludes may be said to date itself from the spring of1773. The occasion was the sale in London of the library of James West, President of the Royal Society. George Nicol, the bookseller, was anextensive purchaser at this sale for the King, for whom, indeed, heacted in a similar capacity up to the last. Nicol told Dibdin 'with hisusual pleasantry and point, that he got abused in the public papers, byAlmon and others, for having purchased nearly the whole of the Caxtonianvolumes in this collection for his Majesty's library. It was said abroadthat a Scotchman had lavished away the King's money in buying oldblack-letter books. ' The absurdity of this report was soon proved atsubsequent sales. Dibdin adds, as a circumstance highly honourable tothe King, that 'his Majesty, in his directions to Mr. Nicol, forbade anycompetition with those purchasers who wanted books of science and_belles lettres_ for their own progressive or literary pursuits; thususing the power of his purse in a manner at once merciful and wise. ' [Illustration: _George Nicol, the King's Bookseller. _] The impetus which book-collecting, and more particularly the section towhich we have just referred, received by the dispersal of the WestLibrary gathered in force as time went on, reaching its climax with theRoxburghe sale thirty-nine years afterwards. The enthusiasm culminatedin a club--the Roxburghe, which still flourishes. The warfare (atRoxburghe House, St. James's Square), as Mr. Silvanus Urban hasrecorded, was equalled only by the courage and gallantry displayed onthe plains of Salamanca about the same period. 'As a pillar, or othersimilar memorial, could not be conveniently erected to mark the spotwhere so many bibliographical champions fought and conquered, anothermethod was adopted to record their fame, and perpetuate this brilliantepoch in literary annals. Accordingly, a phalanx of the most hardyveterans has been enrolled under the banner of the far-famed Valdarfer'sBoccaccio of 1471. . . . The first anniversary meeting of this nobleband was celebrated at the St. Alban's Tavern [St. Alban's Street, nowWaterloo Place] on Thursday, June 17, 1813, being the memorable day onwhich the before-mentioned Boccaccio was sold for £2, 260. The chair wastaken by Earl Spencer (perpetual president of the club), supported byLords Morpeth and Gower, and the following gentlemen, [61:A] viz. , Sir E. Brydges, Messrs. W. Bentham, W. Bolland, J. Dent, T. F. Dibdin(vice-president), Francis Freeling, Henry Freeling, Joseph Hazlewood, Richard Heber, Thomas C. Heber, G. Isted, R. Lang, J. H. Markland, J. D. Phelps, T. Ponton, junior, J. Towneley, E. V. Utterson, and R. Wilbraham. Upon the cloth being removed, the following appropriatetoasts were delivered from the chair: 1. The cause of Bibliomania all over the world. 2. The immortal memory of Christopher Valdarfer, the printer of the Boccaccio of 1471. 3. The immortal memory of William Caxton, first English printer. 4. The immortal memory of Wynkyn de Worde. 5. The immortal memory of Richard Pynson. 6. The immortal memory of Julian Notary. 7. The immortal memory of William Faques. 8. The immortal memory of the Aldine family. 9. The immortal memory of the Stephenses. 10. The immortal memory of John, Duke of Roxburghe. 'After these the health of the noble president was proposed, andreceived by the company standing, with three times three. Then followedthe health of the worthy vice-president (proposed by Mr. Heber), which, it is scarcely necessary to observe, was drunk with similarhonours. . . . The president was succeeded in the chair by Lord Gower, who, at midnight, yielded to Mr. Dent; and that gentleman gave way tothe Prince of Bibliomaniacs, Mr. Heber. Though the night, or rather themorning, wore apace, it was not likely that a seat so occupied would bespeedily deserted; accordingly, the "regal purple stream" ceased not toflow till "Morning oped her golden gates, " or, in plain terms, till pastfour o'clock. ' Such is a brief account of the Roxburghe Club, which islimited to thirty-one members, one black ball being fatal to thecandidate who offers himself for a vacancy, and each member in hisannual turn has to print a book or pamphlet, and to present to hisfellow-members a copy. Before making any further reference to the_personnel_ of the Roxburghe Club, we quote, from a literary journal of1823, the following trenchant paragraph, _à propos_ of a similar club inScotland: 'BIBLIOMANIA. --This most ridiculous of all the affectations of the dayhas lately exhibited another instance of its diffusion, in theestablishment of a _Roxburghe[62:A] Club_ in Edinburgh. Its object, weare told, "is the republication of scarce and valuable tracts, especially poetry. "--"Republication!" In what manner? Commonsense forbidthat the system of the London Roxburghe Club be adopted. Of this thereare some four-and-twenty members or so, who dine together a certainnumber of times in the year, and each member in his turn republishessome old tract at his own expense. There are just so many copies printedas there are members of the club, and one copy is presented to each. Itis evident that no sort of good can be effected by this system, and, indeed, there has not yet resulted any benefit to the literature of thecountry from the Roxburghe Club. They have not published a single bookof any conceivable merit. The truth is that the members, for the mostpart, are a set of persons of no true taste, of no proper notion oflearning and its uses--very considerable persons in point of wealth, butvery _so-so_ in point of intellect. ' [Illustration: _Thomas Frognall Dibdin, Bibliographer. _] The primary aim and object of the Roxburghe Club were clearly enoughindicated in the first list of members, for the association of men withkindred tastes is at all times a highly commendable one. The RoxburgheClub might have sustained its _raison d'être_, if it had drawn the lineat such men as Thomas Frognall Dibdin and Joseph Hazlewood. Theforegoing extract from the _Museum_ of 1823 exactly indicates theposition which the club at that time held in public estimation. It haddegenerated into a mere drinking and gormandizing association, alike adisgrace to its more respectable members and an insult to the noblemanwhose name it was dragging through the mire. Those who have anopportunity of consulting the _Athenæum_ for 1834 will find, in thefirst four issues of January, one of the most scathing exposures towhich any institution has ever been subjected. Hazlewood had died, andhis books came into the sale-room. Never had the adage of 'Dead men tellno tales' been more completely falsified. Hazlewood, who does not seemto have been unpleasantly particular in telling the truth when living, told it with a vengeance after his death; for among his papers there wasa bundle entitled 'Roxburghe Revels, ' which Thorpe purchased for £40, the editor of the _Athenæum_ being the under-bidder. A few daysafterwards, and for the weighty consideration of a £10 note profit, thelot passed into the hands of Mr. Dilke, and the articles to which wehave referred followed. [64:A] If anything could have made the deceasedJoseph turn in his grave, it would have been the attention which hereceived at the unsparing hands of Mr. Dilke. The excellent Mr. Dibdinsurvived the exposure several years. The castigation proved beneficialto the club; and if its revelries were no less boisterous thanheretofore, it at all events circulated among its members books worthyof the name of Roxburghe, and edited in a scholarly manner. The clubstill flourishes, with the Marquis of Salisbury as its president, andthe list of its members will be found in our chapter on 'ModernCollectors. ' [Illustration: _Rev. C. Mordaunt Cracherode, M. A. , Book-collector. _] One of the mighty book-hunters of the last century was the Rev. ClaytonMordaunt Cracherode (whose father went out as a commander of marines inAnson's ship, and whose share in the prize-money made him a wealthyman), who died on April 6, 1799, in his seventieth year. His splendidlibrary now forms a part of the British Museum. It contains the mostchoice copies in classical and Biblical literature, and many of theseare on vellum. His collection of editions of the fifteenth century Mr. Cracherode used modestly to call a 'specimen' one; 'they form perhapsthe most perfect _collana_ or necklace ever strung by one man. ' Severalof the books formerly belonged to Grolier. His library was valued at£10, 000 at or about the time of his death; it would probably now realizeconsiderably over ten times that amount if submitted to auction. Thevalue of his prints was placed at £5, 000. Cracherode was an excellentscholar, and an amiable; his passion for collecting was strong even indeath, for whilst he was at the last extremity his agent was makingpurchases for him. He was one of the most constant habitués of TomPayne's, and at his final visit he put an Edinburgh Terence in onepocket and a large-paper Cebes in the other. His house was in QueenSquare, Westminster, overlooking St. James's Park. Reverting once more to the change which had been effected in the fanciesof book-collectors, James Bindley, whose library was sold after hisdecease in 1819, and James Perry, who died in 1821, may be regarded astypical collectors of the transition period. Both are essentially Londonbook-hunters--the former was an official in the Stamp Office, and thelatter was, _inter alia_, the editor of the _Morning Chronicle_. Bindley, to whom John Nichols dedicated his 'Literary Anecdotes, ' was abook-hunter who made very practical use of his scholarly tastes andample means. He haunted the bookstalls and shops with the pertinacity ofa tax-gatherer, and if his original expenditure were placed by the sideof the total which his collection of books brought after his death, nomore convincing arguments in favour of book-hunting could possibly beneeded. Bindley is the 'Leontes' of Dibdin's 'BibliographicalDecameron, ' and his collection of poetical rarities of the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries was one of the most remarkable which had ever beengot together. Not many of the items had cost him more than a fewshillings each, and they realized almost as many pounds as he had paidshillings. Perry was a journalist first and a book-collector afterwards, but in many respects there was a great similarity in the tastes of thetwo rival bibliophiles. Perry's was the more extensive collection--itwas sold in four parts, 1822-23--and perhaps on the whole much moregenerally interesting. Evans, the auctioneer, described it as 'anextraordinary assemblage of curious books, Early English poetry, oldtracts and miscellaneous literature. ' The _cheval de bataille_ of thefourth part consisted of 'a most Curious, Interesting andExtraordinarily Extensive Assemblage of Political and HistoricalPamphlets of the Last and Present Century. ' This collection wascomprised in thirty-five bundles. Perry made a speciality of facetiæ, pamphlets on the French Revolution, and Defoe's works, but the twocornerstones of his library were a copy of the Mazarin Bible and a FirstFolio Shakespeare. Among the many book-collectors whose careers link the past century withthe present, few are more worthy of notice than Francis Douce, who diedin the spring of 1834, aged seventy-seven. He was for a short timeKeeper of the MSS. In the British Museum. His fortune was much increasedby being left one of the residuary legatees of Nollekens, thesculptor--to the extent, in fact, of £50, 000. Dibdin, who was for manyyears a near neighbour and intimate friend at Kensington, describesDouce's library as 'eminently rich and curious . . . Not a book but whathad its fly-leaf written upon. In short, no man ever lived so much with, and so entirely for, his books as did he. ' Douce is the Prospero of the'Bibliomania. ' His books he bequeathed to the Bodleian, and his MSS. Tothe British Museum, the stipulation in the latter case being that theyare not to be opened until 1900! In manners and appearance Douce wassingular and strange, rough to strangers, but gentle and kind to thosewho knew him intimately. He was of the old school as regards dress, wearing as he did a little flaxen wig, an old-fashioned square-cut coat, with what M. Jacob calls 'quarto pockets. ' Several of his letters areprinted in Dibdin's 'Literary Recollections. ' Two other distinguished book-collectors, contemporary with Douce, and, like him, benefactors to the Bodleian, may be mentioned here--RichardGough (1739-1809), the antiquary; and Edmond Malone (1741-1812), theShakespearian scholar. Gough's gift consisted of the topographicalportion of his library; the remainder, comprising 4, 373 lots, realizingthe total of £3, 552, came under the hammer at Leigh and Sotheby's in1810, realizing what were then considered very fancy prices (a selectionof which are given in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, lxxx. , part ii. ). TheMalone collection, which became the property of the Bodleian through theinfluence of Lord Sunderlin in 1815, comprised what the collectorhimself describes as 'the most curious, valuable, and extensivecollection ever assembled of ancient English plays and poetry. ' It wouldprobably be impossible now to form another such collection. Malone toldCaldwell, who repeats the remarkable fact, that he had procured everydramatic piece mentioned by Langbaine, excepting four or five--theadvantage, observes that gentleman, of living in London. The number ofvolumes amounts to about 3, 200. As his biographer, Sir James Prior, haspointed out, his collection in the Bodleian remains distinct, and iscreditable 'alike to the industry, taste, and patience by which it wasbrought together. ' And further: 'None of his predecessors have attemptedwhat he accomplished. Few of his successors have, on most points, addedmaterially to our knowledge. ' Yet a third benefactor to the Bodleian maybe conveniently mentioned here. Thomas Caldecott, who was born in 1744, and died in 1833, was a Fellow of New College, Oxford, and afterwards aBencher of the Middle Temple. He resided chiefly at Dartford, and formeda choice library of black-letter books, and the productions of theElizabethan period. He attacked with considerable asperity and abilityShakespearian commentators, such as Steevens and Malone; and his rivalsdid not spare his edition of two of Shakespeare's plays when they cameout. He presented the gems of his library, the Shakespeare quartos, tothe Bodleian; but the remainder of his books, including many excessivelyrare and several unique pieces, came up for sale at Sotheby's in 1833, and realized a total of £1, 210 6s. 6d. The splendid library of John Dent, of Hertford Street, sold by Evans in1827, producing the sum of £15, 040, had a curious history. The nucleusof it was formed towards the close of the last century by HaughtonJames, who, in a moment of conviviality, and without a due considerationof its true value, transferred it to Robert Heathcote, [68:A] who madeseveral additions, and from whose possession it passed about 1807 intothat of John Dent. The sale of the Dent library is described by Dibdinas exhibiting the 'first grand melancholy symptoms of the decay of theBibliomania. ' The chief attraction was the Sweynheym and Pannartz Livy, 1469, on vellum, which fell (in more senses than one) under the hammerfor £262, Dent having paid £903 for it at Sir Mark Sykes' sale. Both thepurchasers, Payne and Foss, and Dibdin, made strenuous efforts topersuade the Earl of Spencer to purchase it, but unsuccessfully; itsubsequently became the property of Grenville, and passed with hiscollection into the British Museum. Dent is the Pontevallo of the'Bibliomania, ' and Baroccio of the 'Bibliographical Decameron, ' and doesnot seem to have been an altogether amiable specimen of the fraternity. Canning used to say that he once found Dent deep in the study of an openbook which was upside down! A much more genial bibliomaniac, Sir William Bolland, calls for notice;he was one of the original members of the Roxburghe Club, which, infact, was first suggested at a dinner-party at his house, June 4, 1812. He died May 14, 1840, aged sixty-eight, and his library, which comprised2, 940 lots, and realized £3, 019, was sold by Evans, and included manychoice books. One of the greatest bargains which this distinguishedcollector secured during his career became his property through themedium of Benjamin Wheatley, who purchased a bundle of poetical tractsfrom the Chapter Library at Lincoln for 80 guineas. When the inevitablesale came, one of these trifles, 'The Rape of Lucrece, ' alone realized100 guineas. George Chalmers (1742-1825), who is described as 'the most learned andthe most celebrated of all the antiquaries and historians of Scotland, 'was also one of the giant book-collectors of the present century, anddiffered from the majority of collectors in being a prolific andversatile author. At his death his nephew became the possessor of hisextensive library, but on the death of the nephew the books were placedin the hands of Evans, who sold them in two parts, September, 1841, andFebruary, 1842, and realized over £4, 100. The second part was very richin Shakespeariana, and included the 'Sonnets, ' 1609, £105; 'MidsummerNight's Dream, ' 1600 (second edition), £105; and many other importantitems. In the first part of the sale, Marlowe's 'Tragedie of Richard, Duke of York, ' 1595 (believed to be unique), sold for £131; and the onlyperfect copy then known of Patrick Hannay's 'Nightingale, ' 1622, fromthe libraries of Bindley, Perry, Sykes and Rice, £13 5s. The third partof Chalmers' library, which consisted for the most part of worksrelative to Scotland, particularly in illustration of the History ofPrinting in that Country, was also sold by Evans in 1842. Among otherbook-collectors of this period we may mention particularly the Rev. Henry Joseph Thomas Drury, whose library was rich in classics, all forthe most part finely bound; it came under the hammer at Evans's in 1827(4, 729 lots); Dr. Isaac Gosset, who died in 1812, in his sixty-eighthyear, and whose library, comprising 5, 740 lots, realized £3, 141 7s. 6d. At Leigh and Sotheby's in 1813; the Rev. Jonathan Boucher (1738-1804), Vicar of Epsom, who, like George Chalmers, for many years resided inAmerica, was, also like him, an inveterate book-collector to whomeverything in the shape of a book was welcome: his sale occupied Leighand Sotheby thirty-nine days, in 1806, the total being over £4, 510. III. The history of the second and third quarters of the present centurymakes mention of very few collectors of the first rank. Among the moreimportant of those whose libraries came under the hammer within thatperiod, we may specially refer to the following: William Upcott, whostarted early in life as an assistant to R. H. Evans, but who in 1806became sub-librarian of the London Institution. He was one of the firstto take up autograph-collecting, of which, indeed, he has been termedthe pioneer. He certainly collected with great advantage and knowledge, and his vast accumulations were sold at Sotheby's in four batchesduring 1846, he having died in September, 1845; John Hugh Smyth Piggott, whose library, in three portions, was sold at the same place, 1847-54;W. Y. Ottley, the prolific writer of books on art, 1849; W. Holgate, ofthe Post Office, whose library included a number of Shakespeariana, June, 1846; Hanrott, 1857; Sir Thomas Bernard, 1855; Isaac D'Israeli, the author of 'Curiosities of Literature, ' in 1849, and his unsparingcritic, Bolton Corney, in 1871; S. W. Singer, in four parts, 1860; J. Orchard Halliwell (afterwards Halliwell-Phillipps), in 1856, 1857, and1859; and the Rev. Dr. Hawtrey, part of whose books were sold, far belowtheir worth, in 1853, and the rest nine years later. Many of theforegoing were literary men, who aimed rather at getting together auseful library than one of rarities. The sale of all such librariesmakes a very sorry show beside that of the more ostentatiouscollections. For instance, the books which Macaulay used with suchbrilliant effect, and including among them an extraordinary number oftracts, many excessively rare, only realized £426 15s. 6d. , when sold in1863 in 1, 011 lots. Douglas Jerrold's little library, sold in August, 1859, in 307 lots, only fetched £173 3s. In very strong contrast tothese is the remarkable little library, formed between 1820 and 1830 byHenry Perkins, of Hanworth Park, Feltham, a member of the brewing firm. This collection comprised only 865 lots, but when sold at Sotheby's inJune, 1873, the total was found to be close on £26, 000! There was acopy each of the 42-line and 40-line Gutenberg Bible--the former is nowin the Huth Library, and the latter in the Ashburnham Library; severalother very early printed Bibles, including Coverdale's, Matthews', andCranmer's, two works printed by Caxton, with many other important bookswere sold. [Illustration: _J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps. _] The late George Daniel (who was born about 1790) may be regarded as theconnecting link between the collectors of the early part of the presentcentury and those of to-day. When, for example, Perry and Bindley leftoff, Daniel commenced. There was no great rush after Shakespeare quartosin the earlier part of the present century, and book-collecting for atime ceased to be the pet hobby of wealthy members of the peerage. WhenGeorge Daniel, a critic and bibliographer of exceptional abilities, began to collect, he soon made Shakespeare, as well as the earlierEnglish poets, objects of solicitude. He resided for many years in thehistoric old red-brick tower at Canonbury. [72:A] The sale of Daniel'sextraordinary collection was held at Sotheby's in July, 1864, when aFirst Folio, one of the finest in the world--now in the possession ofBaroness Burdett-Coutts--sold for £716 2s. , and when twenty of theShakespeare quartos realized a total of about £3, 000. [Illustration: _Canonbury Tower, George Daniel's Residence. _] George Daniel is now remembered by but few book-collectors. Mr. W. CarewHazlitt knew him very well, and describes him as a retired accountant, whose idiosyncrasy consisted of _rares morçeaux_, _bonnes bouches_, uniques--copies of books with a _provenance_, or in jackets made forthem by Roger Payne--nay, in the original parchment or paper wrapper, orin a bit of real mutton which certain men call sheep. He was a personof literary tastes, and had written books in his day. But his chiefcelebrity was as an acquirer of those of others, provided always thatthey were old enough or rare enough. An item never passed into hispossession without at once _ipso facto_ gaining new attributes, almostinvariably worded in a holograph memorandum on the fly-leaf. Daniel wasin the market at a fortunate and peculiar juncture, just when priceswere depressed, about the time of the great Heber sale. His marvellousgleanings came to the hammer precisely when the quarto Shakespeare, theblack-letter romance, the unique book of Elizabethan verse, had grownworth ten times their weight in sovereigns. Sir William Tite, J. O. Halliwell, and Henry Huth were to the front. It was in 1864. What awonderful sight it was! No living man had ever witnessed the like. Copies of Shakespeare, printed from the prompters' MSS. And published atfourpence, fetched £300 or £400. I remember old Joseph Lilly, when hehad secured the famous Ballads, which came from the Tollemaches ofHelmingham Hall, holding up the folio volume in which they werecontained in triumph as someone whom he knew entered the room. PoorDaniel! he had no mean estimate of his treasures--what he had was alwaysbetter than what you had. Books, prints, autographs--it was all thesame. I met him one morning in Long Acre. I had bought a very fine copyof Taylor, the Water Poet. "Oh, yes, sir, " he said, "I saw it; but notquite so fine as mine. " He went up to Highgate to look through theengravings of Charles Matthews the elder. They were all duplicates--ofcourse inferior ones. "Damn him, sir!" cried Matthews afterwards to afriend; "I should like him to have had a duplicate of my wooden leg. " John Payne Collier, who was born a year before Daniel, but who liveduntil 1883, was a collector with very similar tastes. He had been areporter on the _Morning Chronicle_, and in all probability imbibed someof his book-collecting zeal from Perry. His book-buying and literarycareer commenced, according to his own account, in 1804 or 1805, whenhis father took him into the shop of Thomas Rodd, senior, on whichoccasion he purchased his 'first Old English book of any value, ' namely, Wilson's 'Art of Logic, ' printed by Grafton, 1551; from this heascertained that 'Ralf Roister Doister' was an older play than 'GammerGurton's Needle, ' and also that it was by Nicholas Udal, Master of EtonSchool. When in Holland, in the winter of 1813-14, Collier purchasedamong other books an imperfect copy of Tyndale's 'Gospel of St. Matthew, ' to which, as he says in his 'Diary, ' 'the date of 1526 [1525]has been assigned, and which seems to be the very earliest translationinto English of any portion of the New Testament. Many yearsafterwards--I think in the spring of 1832--I happened to show it toRodd, the learned bookseller. I was at that time ignorant on thesubject, and Rodd offered me books to the value of two or three poundsfor it. I gladly accepted them. ' This fragment, for which Collier paid aflorin, was sold to Mr. Grenville by Rodd for £50, and is now in theBritish Museum. Writing in the _Athenæum_, January 31, 1852, he gives anaccount of the origin of events which led to one of the fiercestliterary quarrels of modern times: 'A short time before the death of thelate Mr. Rodd, of Newport Street [_i. E. _ early in 1849], I happened tobe in his shop when a considerable parcel of books arrived from thecountry. He told me that they had been bought for him at an auction--Ithink in Bedfordshire. . . . He unpacked them in my presence . . . Andthere were two which attracted my attention, one being a fine copy ofFlorio's "Italian Dictionary, " of the edition of 1611, and the other amuch-thumbed, abused, and imperfect copy of the Second Folio ofShakespeare, 1632. The first I did not possess, and the last I waswilling to buy, inasmuch as I apprehended it would add some missingleaves to a copy of the same impression which I had had for some time onmy shelves. As was his usual course, Mr. Rodd required a very reasonableprice for both; for the first I remember I gave 12s. And for the lastonly £1 10s. . . . On the outside of one of the covers was inscribed, "Tho. Perkins, his booke. "' Collier was vexed at finding that the volumecontained no leaves which would help him in completing the volume healready had. He had employed another person to do the collating, and itwas not until some considerable time after, and on examining thoroughlythe volume himself, that he discovered it to contain a large series ofemendations, which Collier included in his 'Notes and Emendations to theText of Shakespeare's Plays, ' 1853, which set the whole town by theears. Collier's library was dispersed at Sotheby's in 1884; it was anunusually interesting sale, and included many very rare and curiousbooks. [Illustration: _Samuel Taylor Coleridge. _ From the Portrait by G. Dawe, R. A. , 1812. ] Southey, Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Wordsworth, and William Hazlitt werebook-collectors of a type which deserves a niche to itself. Writing toColeridge in 1797, Lamb says: 'I have had thoughts of turning Quaker, and have been reading, or am, rather, just beginning to read, a mostcapital book, good thoughts in good language, William Penn's "No Cross, no Crown. " I like it immensely. ' Lamb's ideas of book-marking are to befound in his correspondence with Coleridge, in which he states that abook reads the better when the topography of its plots and notes isthoroughly mastered, and when we 'can trace the dirt in it, to havingread it at tea with buttered muffins, or over a pipe. ' Lamb's libraryconsisted for the most part of tattered volumes in a dreadful state ofrepair. Lamb, like Young, the poet, dog-eared his books to such anextent that many of them would hardly close at all. From thecorrespondence of Bernard Barton we get a glimpse at Lamb's cottage inColebrook Row, Islington--a white house with six good rooms. 'You enterwithout passage into a cheerful dining-room, all studded over and roughwith old books. ' Barton also writes: 'What chiefly attracted me was alarge old book-case full of books. I could but think how many long walksmust have been taken to bring them home, for there were but few thatdid not bear the mark of having been bought at many a bookstall--brown, dark-looking books, distinguished by those white tickets which told howmuch their owner had given for each. ' [Illustration: _Lamb's Cottage at Colebrook Row, Islington. _] In an edition of Donne [? 1669] which belonged to Lamb, Coleridgescrawled: 'I shall die soon, my dear Charles Lamb, and then you will notbe vexed that I have be-scribbled your book. S. T. C. , 2nd May, 1811. 'Lamb was too good-natured to be a book-collector. On one occasionWilliam Hazlitt[77:A] sent Martin Burney to Lamb to borrow Wordsworth's'Excursion, ' and Lamb being out, Burney took it, a high-handedproceeding which involved the borrower in a blowing-up. Coleridge atanother time helped himself to Luther's 'Table-Talk, ' and this alsocalled forth a great outcry. A copy of Chapman's Homer, which passedthrough the hands of Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge, eventually turnedup in one of Lilly's catalogues. This identical copy is noticed in anaccount of Rydal Mount which appeared in the first volume of _Once aWeek_. Coleridge, of course, has made a number of notes in it, and inone of these he describes the translation as 'an exquisite poem, spiteof its frequent and perverse quaintness and harshnesses, which are, however, amply repaid by almost unexampled sweetness and beauty oflanguage. ' [Illustration: _William Hazlitt. _] The difference between a bibliophile and a bibliomaniac has beendescribed as between one who adorns his mind, and the other hisbook-cases. Of the bibliomaniac as here characterized, we can suggest nobetter type than Thomas Hill, the original of Poole's 'Paul Pry, ' and ofHull in Hook's novel, 'Gilbert Gurney. ' Devoid as Hill was ofintellectual endowments, he managed to obtain and secure the friendshipof many eminent men--of Thomas Campbell, the poet, Matthews and Liston, the comedians, Hook, Dubois, John and Leigh Hunt, James and HoraceSmith, John Taylor, editor of the _Sun_, Horace Twiss, Baron Field, SirGeorge Rose, Barnes, subsequently editor of the _Times_, Cyrus Redding, and many others. That he was kind-hearted and hospitable nearly everyonehas testified, and his literary parties at his Sydenham Tusculum werequite important events, in spite of the ponderosity of his well-wornstories. During the more acute stages of bibliomania in this country atthe latter part of the last century and the beginning of this, 'when theArchaica, Heliconia, and Roxburghe Clubs were outbidding each other forold black-letter works . . . When books, in short, which had only becomescarce because they were always worthless, were purchased upon the sameprinciple as that costly and valueless coin, a Queen Anne's farthing, 'Hill had been a constant collector of rare and other books which were indemand. That he knew nothing of the insides of his books is verycertain; but he knew how much each copy would bring at an auction, andhow much it had brought at all previous sales. When the bibliomania hadreached its height, Messrs. Longman and Co. Determined upon embarking insuch a lucrative branch of the trade; they applied to Hill for adviceand assistance, offering to begin by the purchase of his entirecollection, a proposition which he embraced with alacrity. He drew up a_catalogue raisonné_ of his books, affixing his price for each volume. The collection was despatched in three or four trunks to PaternosterRow, and he received in payment the acceptances of the firm for as manythousand pounds. From some cause or other, the purchasers soon repentedof their bargain, but the only terms which Horace Smith could obtain forthe Longmans was an extension in the term of payment. Hill declared thatthe collection was worth double the price he had been paid for it. Formany years Hill assisted Perry, of the _Morning Chronicle_, in makingselections of rare books for his fine library at Tavistock House, particularly in the department of facetiæ. After leaving Sydenham, Hilltook chambers in James Street, Adelphi, where he resided until hisdeath. The walls of his rooms were completely hidden by books, and hiscouch was 'enclosed in a lofty circumvallation of volumes piled up fromthe carpet. ' He was never married, had no relations, and even his agewas a source of mystery to his friends. James Smith once said to him:'The fact is, Hill, the register of your birth was destroyed in theGreat Fire of London, and you take advantage of the accident to concealyour real age. ' Hook went further by suggesting that he might originallyhave been one of the little hills recorded as skipping in the Psalms. Hill died in 1840, his age being placed at eighty-three years. HoraceSmith said 'he could not believe that Hill was dead, and he could notinsult a man he had known so long; Hill would reappear. ' [Illustration: _Thomas Hill, after Maclise. _] Samuel Rogers, the banker poet, was also a book-collector, but not inthe sense of one who aims at number. His house at 22, St. James's Place, overlooking Green Park, was for over half a century--he had removedhere from the Temple about 1803--one of the most celebratedmeeting-places of literature and art in London. Byron, in his 'Diary, 'says, 'If you enter his house--his drawing-room, his library--you ofyourself say, This is not the dwelling of a common mind. There is not agem, a coin, a book, thrown aside on his chimney-piece, his sofa, histable, that does not bespeak an almost fastidious elegance in thepossessor. ' A writer in the _Athenæum_ of December 29, 1855, a few daysafter the poet's death, describes the library as 'lined with bookcasessurmounted by Greek vases, each one remarkable for its exquisite beautyof form. Upon the gilt lattice-work of the bookcases are lightly hung inframes some of the finest original sketches by Raphael, Michelangelo, and Andrea del Sarto; and finished paintings by Angelico da Fiesole, andFouquet of Tours. ' Among the treasures of the library were the MSS. OfGray, in their perfect calligraphy, and the famous agreement betweenMilton and the publisher Simmonds, for the copyright of 'Paradise Lost. ' [Illustration: _Samuel Rogers's House in St. James's Place. _] [Illustration: Sam{l} Rogers] Tom Moore the poet, and his friend and fellow-countryman, ThomasCrofton Croker, were both book-collectors. The library of the formerwas, in 1855, presented by his widow to the Royal Irish Academy, 'as amemorial of her husband's taste and erudition. ' Croker's books, whichwere dispersed after his death, contain an exceedingly curiousbook-plate, either indicating the possessor's residence, 'Rosamond'sBower, Fulham, ' or '3, Gloucester Road, Old Brompton, ' the variouslearned societies to which he belonged, with the additional informationthat he was founder and president (1828-1848) of the Society ofNovimagus. Charles Dickens, Thackeray, W. Harrison Ainsworth (thecollection of the last was sold at Sotheby's in 1882, and realized £46919s. 6d. ), and Charles Lever were not book-collectors in the usual senseof the word. [Illustration: _Alexander Dyce, Book-collector. _] Among the more notable literary men who were also book-collectors ofthis period, whose libraries are still preserved intact, are AlexanderDyce and John Forster. Their collections, now at South Kensington, areperhaps more particularly notable for the extraordinary number of bookswhich were once the property of famous men. Mr. Dyce, who was born inEdinburgh, June, 1798, and died in 1869, bequeathed to the Museum 14, 000books, whilst the library of his friend and executor, John Forster(1812-1876), contained upwards of 18, 000 books, in addition to a numberof autographs, pictures, etc. The more interesting books of a 'personal'nature in these two libraries are the following: Drayton's 'Battaile ofAgincourt, ' 1627, a presentation copy to Sir Henry Willoughby, withinscription in Drayton's autograph; a French cookery-book, with Gray'sautograph on the title; Ben Jonson's copy (with his autograph) of thefirst collected edition of Marston's plays, 1633; a copy of Steele's'Christian Hero, ' with some verses in his autograph addressed to Dr. Ellis, Head-master of the Charterhouse when Steele was at school. Sheridan's plays include a presentation copy of 'The Rivals, ' with aninscription to David Garrick. The foregoing are all in the DyceCollection. [Illustration: Ben: Jonson] [Illustration: To My Lord Tutour D{r}. Ellis With Secret impulse thus do Streams return To that Capacious Ocean whence they're born: Oh Would but Fortune come w{th}. Bounty fraught Proportion'd to y{e} mind w{ch}. Thou hast taught! Till then let these unpolish'd leaves impart The Humble Offering of a Gratefull Heart Rich{d}. Steele] [Illustration: David Garrick Esq{r}. From The Author. ] That of John Forster includes a copy of Addison's 'Travels in Italy, 'with an autograph inscription by the author: 'To Dr. Jonathan Swift, themost Agreeable Companion, the Truest Friend, and the Greatest Genius ofhis age, this Book is presented by his most Humble Servant the Author. 'Among the many books on America, there is one with John Locke'sautograph. The copy of the fourth edition of Byron's 'English Bards andScotch Reviewers, ' 1811, is that which was given by the author to LeighHunt, and contains the poet's autograph and many corrections; apresentation copy of Flatman's 'Poems and Songs, ' 1682, to Izaak Walton, who has inscribed his autograph in it; Gay's copy of Horace; someproof-sheets of Johnson's 'Lives of the Poets;' a copy of Keats's'Lamia, ' 1820, with an autograph inscription and a sonnet 'On theGrasshopper and the Cricket, ' also in the poet's handwriting; Gray'scopy of Locke's 'Essay concerning Human Understanding, ' a copy of the'Dunciad, ' 1729, with the inscription 'Jonath: Swift, 1729, amicissimiautoris donum'; and Isaac Newton's copy of Wheare's 'Method and Order ofReading Histories, ' 1685. [Illustration: John Locke] [Illustration: Izaak Walton July 3{o} 1682 given me, by the author. ] [Illustration: E Libris I. Newton. ] Apropos of books of distinguished ownership, the collecting of themsometimes takes an eccentric turn; for example, the third Lord Hollandbrought together all the various copies (now at Holland House) uponwhich he could lay hands of Fox's 'History of the Reign of James II. , 'which belonged to distinguished people, and amongst these former ownerswere Sir James Mackintosh, Sir Philip Francis, C. E. Jerningham, Rogers, and General Fitzpatrick; and as many of the copies contained MS. Notes, the interest of the collection will be readily understood. A brief review of the principal book-collectors whose libraries--formedfor the most part by men who lived in London--have been dispersed duringthe past dozen years will not be without interest; those which have beenalready referred to are, of course, omitted here. James Comerford, F. S. A. , by profession a notary public, who inherited from his father alove of books, and also a considerable collection, had an exceedinglyfine library, which consisted for the most part of topographical works, many of them on large paper with proof-plates. He was in hisseventy-sixth year when he died, and his books, which were sold atSotheby's in November, 1882 (thirteen days), realized a total of £8, 32713s. Frederic Ouvry, who died in June, 1881, was partner in the firm ofFarrer, Ouvry, and Co. , of Lincoln's Inn; he was elected a Fellow of theSociety of Antiquaries in 1848, and for twenty years was the society'streasurer, and succeeded Earl Stanhope as president. He was a man ofconsiderable means, and formed one of the most interesting and mostchoice of modern libraries. Many of his books fetched far higher sumsthan he had paid for them; for example, Drummond of Hawthornden's 'ForthFasting, ' 1617, cost him in 1858 £8 15s. --at his sale it fetched £60;and Lodge's 'Rosalynd, ' 1598, advanced from £5 10s. To £63. Mr. Ouvrywas an intimate friend of both Mr. Gladstone and Charles Dickens; a copyof the former's 'Gleanings of Past Years' was a presentation one fromthe author, and had the following inscription, 'Frederic Ouvry, Esq. , from W. E. G. , in memory of the work we have done together for fourteenyears in full harmony of thought and act. ' There were 177 autographletters from Dickens, which sold for £150. The four folio Shakespearessold for £420, £46, £116, £28; a copy of the first edition of Spenser's'Faërie Queene, ' 1590-96, £33; a copy of Daniel's 'Delia, ' 1592, withcorrections, supposed to be by the author, £88. The total of the sixdays' sale was £6, 169 2s. A very remarkable library came under the hammer at Sotheby's on March21-25, 1884, when the unique collection of the late Francis Bedford, theeminent binder, was sold. The beauty of the bindings was naturally themost striking feature of the library, but there were many books whichwere rare or historically interesting apart from their coverings. Forexample, there was the identical Prayer-Book that was found in thepocket of Charles I. Immediately after his execution; a copy of theBreeches Bible printed in Scotland, 1579; one of the Pearl Bible, 1653;a very fine copy of the 'Chronicon Nurembergense, ' 1493. Bedford's own_chef d'oeuvre_, a magnificent copy of Rogers' 'Italy' and 'Poems, ' inolive morocco, super extra, realized £116, whilst the total of the fivedays' sale was £4, 867 6s. 6d. Among the more notable collections sold during 1885-7, that of the lateLeonard Laurie Hartley, at Puttick's, may be mentioned, containing as itdid some important books. Mr. Hartley has been described as a voraciouscollector, and would buy almost anything the dealers offered him, andalmost at any price; hence he speedily became known as a good client, and doubtless paid 'through the nose' for very many articles. Theextraordinarily extensive collection of books and manuscripts formed bythe late Sir Thomas Phillipps (who died in 1867), of Middle Hill, Worcestershire, and Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham, commenced selling atSotheby's in 1886, and the supply is not yet by any means exhausted. Upto March, 1895, seven portions had been dispersed, the total being£15, 766. Perhaps the most interesting item in this vast collection wasthe original autograph manuscript of Sir Walter Scott's 'Life of Swift, 'which realized £230 in June, 1893. During 1886 and 1887 the collections of two of the most genuinebook-hunters that ever lived came under the hammer. Professor EdwardSolly's extensive library of about 40, 000 volumes, and comprising manyrare books on Defoe, Pope, Swift, Dryden, Samuel Butler, Johnson, Gray, Cobbett, Paine, and also books of topography, biography, history, travel, antiquities, bibliography, etc. , only realized the total of£1, 544 13s. 6d. (November, 1886). The equally interesting library of thelate W. J. Thoms, founder of _Notes and Queries_, and Deputy-Librarianof the House of Lords, realized two months after Mr. Solly's sale £1, 0949s. Mr. Thoms' library was considerably smaller than that of his friendMr. Solly, but they ran on very similar lines, Mr. Thoms' beingparticularly strong in quaint and out-of-the-way books relating to Pope, Junius, George IV. , Queen Caroline, Princess Olive of Cumberland, Reynard the Fox, and Longevity. The first part of the library of anotherindefatigable book-hunter, Cornelius Walford, came under the hammer atthe same place (Sotheby's) in February, 1887. Some interesting bookswere included in the four days' sale of the library of Sir WilliamHardy, F. S. A. , late Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records (December, 1886), but the books were chiefly first editions of modern authors. [Illustration: _W. J. Thoms, Book-collector. _ Founder of _Notes and Queries_. ] But the two great collections of books, equally celebrated in their way, with, however, little in common, which give to the year 1887 a mostspecial importance, were those of the Earl of Crawford, and the firstportion of the late James T. Gibson Craig's (of Edinburgh), both ofwhich were dispersed in June, each occupying Messrs. Sotheby ten days inthe dispersal. The Crawford sale of 2, 146 lots realized a total of£19, 073 9s. 6d. , or an average of over £8 17s. Per lot, whilst theGibson Craig sale of 2, 927 lots produced only £6, 803 8s. , or an averageof a little over £2 6s. The former included, however, a perfect copy ofthe Mazarin or Gutenberg Bible, which realized £2, 650, and a copy ofFust and Schoeffer's Bible, 1462, which sold for £1, 025. Coverdale'sBible realized £226, and Tyndale's Bible £255, whilst Tyndale's NewTestament, printed at Antwerp by Emperour, brought £230. The celebratedblock-book, the Apocalypse of St. John, generally regarded as the secondattempt in xylographic printing, realized £500. Sir Philip Sidney's'Arcadia, ' 1590, first edition, sold for £93. (It may be here mentionedthat the second portion of the Crawford library was sold in June, 1889, when 1, 105 lots realized £7, 324 4s. 6d. --three Caxtons produced a totalof £588; Cicero, 'Old Age, ' 1481, etc. , £320; Higden's 'Policronicon, '1482, £33; and 'Christine of Pisa, ' 1489, £235. ) The Gibson Craigcollection was essentially a modern one, and included a number of finelyillustrated books. One of the chief rarities was a copy of the firstedition of 'Robinson Crusoe, ' which fetched £50. There were also anumber of autograph letters and MSS. Of Sir Walter Scott, the mostimportant of which was the MS. Of the 'Chronicles of the Canongate, '£141. The second and third portions of the Gibson Craig library weresold in March and November, 1888, the total of the three sales being£15, 509 4s. 6d. The library of the Earl of Aylesford was sold atChristie's, March 6-16, 1888; and in June and November of the same year, the extensive collection of the late R. S. Turner, of the Albany, occupied Messrs. Sotheby twenty-eight days, 7, 568 lots realizing a totalof over £16, 000. A previous sale of 774 items of his books occurred inFrance in 1878, and realized 319, 100 francs. Turner's books includedmany exceedingly choice volumes bound by the most eminent craftsmen, such as Clovis Eve, Deseuil, Bozet, Derome, Padeloup, Capé, Trautz-Bauzonnet, Roger Payne, Bedford, and Rivière. Turner was born in1819, and died in June, 1887. Perhaps the great book sensation of 1888occurred in the sale at Christie's when a portion of the library of thelate Lord Chancellor Hardwicke ('The Wimpole Library') was sold, andwhen a dozen tracts relating to America, bound together in a quartovolume, realized the unheard-of sum of £555. In the same sale also therewere three Caxtons: the 'Game and Play of Chesse, ' 1475-76, firstedition, but not quite perfect, £260; and 'The Myrrour of the Worlde;'and Tullius 'De Amicitia, ' both imperfect, in one volume, £60. We can only briefly allude here to some of the more importantcollections which have been sold in London during the past six years. Inthe majority of instances they were the possession of deceasedindividuals, who for the most part lived out of London. In February, 1889, the Hopetoun House Library, the property of the Right Hon. TheEarl of Hopetoun, was sold at Sotheby's, 1, 263 lots realizing £6, 1176s. , the most important items in the sale being a copy of theGutenberg-Fust Latin Bible, 1450-55, £2, 000, and the _editio princeps_Virgil, 1469, £590. The library of Mr. John Mansfield Mackenzie, ofEdinburgh, sold at the same place in the following March (2, 368 lots =£7, 072), was one of the most important collections dispersed in recentyears; it was especially rich in first editions of modern writers, in_curious_ books, and in literature relating to the drama; it included anexceedingly extensive series of Cruikshankiana, many of which realizedprices which have not since been maintained. The most important lots inthe sale of a selection from the library of the Duke of Buccleuch, atSotheby's, March 25-27, 1889, were five Caxtons, viz. : 'Dictes andSayengis of the Philosophirs, ' 1477, first edition, £650; 'TheChronicles of England, ' first edition, 1480, £470; the same, secondedition, 1482, £45; Higden's 'Descripcion of Britayne, ' 1480, £195; andthe 'Royal Book, or Book for a King' (? 1487), £365. [Illustration: _Hollingbury Copse, the Residence of the late Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps. _] Many interesting items occurred in the sale (July, 1889) of the libraryof the late J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps (one of the most distinguished ofLondon book-hunters), which occurred a few months after the venerableowner's death. The amount realized for 1, 291 lots was £2, 298 10s. 6d. ;and among them were several Shakespeare quartos, in all instancesslightly imperfect. By far the most important feature of theShakespearian rarities, drawings and engravings, preserved atHollingbury Copse, near Brighton--'that quaint wigwam on the SussexDowns which had the honour of sheltering more record and artisticevidences connected with the personal history of the great dramatistthan are to be found in any other of the world's libraries'--stillremains intact, according to the late owner's direction. It was offeredto the Corporation of Birmingham for £7, 000, but without avail. Thecollection comprises early engraved portraits of Shakespeare, authenticpersonal relics, documentary evidences respecting his estates andindividuals connected with his biography, and artistic illustrations oflocalities connected with his personal history. The most important ofthe several hundred items is perhaps the unique early proof of thefamous Droeshout portrait, for which Halliwell-Phillipps gave £100, andfor which an American collector offered him £1, 000. A calendar of thisextraordinary assembly was very carefully edited by Mr. E. E. Baker, F. S. A. , in 1891, and the collection is still intact. Writing in June, 1887, Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps himself tells us that for nearly half acentury he had been an ardent Shakespearian collector, 'being mostlikely the only survivor of the little band who attended the sale of thelibrary of George Chalmers somewhere about the year 1840. But for a longtime, attempting too much in several directions with insufficientmeans, and harassed, moreover, by a succession of lawsuits, includingtwo in the Court of Torture--I mean Chancery--I was unable to retain myaccumulations; and thus it came to pass that bookcase full afterbookcase full were disposed of, some by private contract, many under thevibrations of the auctioneer's hammer. This state of affairs continuedtill February, 1872, but since that period, by a strict limitation of mycompetitive resources to one subject--the Life of Shakespeare--I havemanaged to jog along without parting with a single article of anydescription. ' A much more important collection of Shakespeariana than that whichappeared in the Halliwell-Phillipps sale came under the hammer at thesame place a few days afterwards, when the late Frederick Perkins'slibrary was dispersed (2, 086 lots realized £8, 222 7s. ). The sale, infact, was the most important in this respect since that of George Danielin 1864, to which, however, the Perkins Collection was considerablyinferior. Mr. Perkins had spent many years of search and a large sum ofmoney in collecting early editions of Shakespeare, but during the pastthirty years not only has their value gone up in an appalling degree, but they are for the most part positively unprocurable. Under thesedepressing conditions, Mr. Perkins managed nevertheless to obtaineighteen first or very early quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays; andpoor as is this show when compared with that of George Daniel, it isdoubtful whether a sale so extensive from the particular point of viewunder consideration as that of Mr. Perkins can be expected until wellinto the next century. The highest price was paid for 'The Second Partof Henrie the Fourth, ' 1600, £225; 'Romeo and Juliet, ' 1599, fetched£164; the 'Merchant of Venice, ' 1600 (printed by J. Roberts), £121;'Henry V. , ' 1608, third edition, £99. The First Folio fetched £415. The dispersals of book-collections in 1890 included a few ofconsiderable note. The exceedingly extensive one, for example, of thelate Sir Edward Sullivan, Bart. , Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was highlyinteresting as illustrating a phase of book-collecting which is now allbut obsolete. It was rich in the classics, which three-quarters of acentury ago would have created the greatest excitement. It occupiedtwenty-one days (May-June), when 6, 919 lots realized a total of £10, 9823s. --a highly satisfactory result, when the general depreciation in themarket value of the classics is considered. The extensive library of Mr. Thomas Gaisford (2, 218 lots, £9, 182 15s. 6d. ), which was sold in April, 1890, included not only some fine editions of the classics, but aremarkable series of Blake's works, first editions of Keats, Byron, Shelley, Swinburne, the four folio editions of Shakespeare, and a fewquartos, notably the 'Merry Wives of Windsor, ' 1602, £385; 'Love'sLabour Lost, ' 1598, £140; and 'Much Adoe about Nothing, ' 1600, £130, allfirst editions. Some very interesting and rare Shakespeare itemsoccurred also in the sale of the library of the late Frederick WilliamCosens, 1890, _e. G. _, 'Merchant of Venice, ' 1600, £270; and the 'Poems, '1640, £61. The dramatic library of the late Frank Marshall (Sotheby's, June, 1890, £2, 187 14s. 6d. ), and the angling books of the late FrancisFrancis (Puttick's, July, 1890), were interesting collections in the wayof special books. The most noteworthy collections dispersed in 1891 included the WaltonHall library of the late Edward Hailstone, who was D. L. Of the WestRiding, Yorkshire (sold in February and April, 5, 622 lots, £8, 991 5s. 6d. ), among which were many books of an exceedingly curious character;and the 'Lakelands' library of the late W. H. Crawford, of Lakelands, co. Cork (3, 428 lots, £21, 255 19s. 6d. ), remarkable on account of itscopy of the Valdarfer Boccaccio, 1471, £230; a copy (? unique) ofCaviceo, 'Dialogue treselegant intitule le Peregrin, ' 1527, on vellum, with the arms of France, £355; the Landino edition of Dante, 1481, withthe engravings by Bacio Baldini from the designs by Botticelli, £360;Shakespeare's 'Lucrece, ' 1594, £250, and 'Merchant of Venice, ' 1600, £111; and the 'Legenda Aurea, ' printed by Caxton, 1483, £465. Thetopographical and general library of the late Lord Brabourne was sold inMay, 1891, also at Sotheby's; whilst the remainder of this library wassold at Puttick's in June, 1893. The collections scattered in 1892included few of note, but we may mention those of the late Joshua H. Hutchinson, G. B. Anderson, and R. F. Cooke (a partner in the firm ofJohn Murray, the eminent publisher) as including many first editions ofmodern authors; whilst those of John Wingfield Larking and Edwin HenryLawrence, F. S. A. , included a number of rare books, as may be gatheredfrom the fact that the library of the former comprised 946 lots, whichrealized £3, 925 13s. , and that of the latter, 860 lots, £7, 409 3s. Themost interesting collection sold in 1893 was the selected portions fromthe books, MSS. , and letters collected by William Hazlitt, his son, andhis grandson; of the first importance in another direction was the saleof the Bateman heirlooms (books and MSS. ). The late Rev. W. E. Buckley, M. A. , formerly Fellow and Tutor ofBrasenose College, Oxford, and late Rector of Middleton-Cheney, Banbury, and vice-president of the Roxburghe Club, was a veritable Heber in asmall way. Besides the enormous quantity of books sold in two portions(twenty-two days in all) in February, 1893, and April, 1894, severalvanloads were disposed of locally, as not being worth the cost ofcarriage to London. His library must have comprised nearly 100, 000volumes, of which only a small proportion had any commercial importance. He managed, however, in his long career, to pick up a few bargains, notably the Columbus 'Letter' ('Epistola Christofori Colom. , ' fourleaves, 1493, with which was bound up Vespucci, 'Mundus novus AlbericusVesputius, ' etc. , 1503, also four leaves), which cost him less than £5, and which realized £315; he also possessed a first edition ofGoldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield, ' 1766, £39 10s. ; Keats's 'Poems, ' firstedition, 1817, in the original boards, £23 10s. ; Fielding's 'Tom Jones, '1749, first edition, uncut, in the original boards, £69. The twoportions of the Buckley library sold at Sotheby's realized £9, 420 9s. 6d. The smallest, as well as the choicest, library sold in 1894 (June11) comprised the most select books from the collection of Mr. BirketFoster, the distinguished artist. The first, second, third, and fourthfolio Shakespeares sold for £255, £56, £130, and £25 respectively; thequarto editions of the great dramatist included 'A Midsummer Night'sDream, ' 1600, large copy, £122; 'Merchant of Venice, ' 1600, £146; 'KingLear, ' 1608, £100. Mr. Foster also possessed John Milton's copy of'Lycophronis Alexandra, ' which realized £90; an incomplete copy ofCaxton's 'Myrrour of the World, ' 1491, £77. The valuable and interestingdramatic and miscellaneous library of the late Frederick Burgess, of theMoore and Burgess minstrels, was sold at Sotheby's, in May-June, 1894, and included many choice editions of modern authors. The late Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte was a giant amongbook-collectors, but his books were almost exclusively philological. Mr. Victor Collins, who has compiled an 'Attempt' at a catalogue, in whichthere are no less than 13, 699 entries, states that 'as a young man thePrince was fond of chemistry, and on one occasion he was desirous ofreading a chemical work that happened to exist only in Swedish. Helearned Swedish for the purpose, and this gave him a taste forlanguages, very many of which he studied. His object in forming thelibrary was to discover, rather perhaps to show, the relationship of alllanguages to each other. Nor was it only distinct languages he includedin his plan, but their dialects, their corruptions, even slang, thieves'slang--slang of all kinds. In carrying out his idea the Prince had ofcourse the advantages of exceptional abilities, and, until the fall ofthe Empire, of unlimited money. Some of the bindings are very beautiful. As to the printing, the Prince for long had a fully-fittedprinting-office on the basement floor of his house in Norfolk Terrace, Bayswater. The Prince being a Senator of France, a cousin of LouisNapoleon, and a well-known philologist, people brought him all sorts ofinteresting books. Therefore it is not surprising to find that thelibrary includes rare works not present, for instance, in the BritishMuseum. There are three early German Bibles which Mr. Gladstone, visiting the Prince once, thought should be presented to the BritishMuseum. To the best of Mr. Gladstone's knowledge, one of the three didnot exist anywhere else, and either of the three would be worth about£500. They are remarkable specimens of early German printing, and areprofusely illustrated. ' Mr. Collins calculates that there are at least25, 000 volumes in the collection, and that fully thirty alphabets arespread through them. This extraordinary collection, like theShakespearian one formed by Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, is still awaiting apurchaser (see the _Times_, July 25, 1895). The collection, also a special one, of a recently-deceasedbook-collector may be mentioned here, and for the following particularswe are indebted to Mr. Elliot Stock: 'Edmund Waterton, the son ofCharles Waterton, the naturalist, lived at first at Walton Hall, hisfather's residence. He sold this, and bought a house at Deeping, Waterton, where his ancestors formerly lived. He had a large oldlibrary, a great part of which he inherited from his father. His greatpleasure was in his "Imitatio Christi" collection. He succeeded ingathering together some 1, 500 different editions, printed and MS. He hadgiven commissions to booksellers all over Europe to send him any editionthey might meet with, and one of the pleasures of his life was to seethe foreign packets come by post. I sent him a seventeenth-centuryedition which I came across accidentally for his acceptance on "spec. "It turned out it was one he had been looking for for a long time, andhis letter describing his glee when it was brought up to his bedroom inthe morning with his breakfast was very comic. He kept an oblong volumelike a washing-book, with all the editions he knew of, some thousands inall, and his delight in ticking one more off the lengthy _desiderata_was like that of a schoolboy marking off the "days to the holidays. "Edmund Waterton had a number of rare books besides those in his"Imitation" collection; notably a very tall First Folio Shakespeare, with contemporary comments made by some ancestor, who had also made goodsome of the missing pages in MS. He was a lineal descendant of SirThomas More, on his mother's side, and possessed Sir T. More's clock, which still went when I stayed with him. It was apparently the sameclock that hangs on the wall at the back of Holbein's celebratedpicture of Sir Thomas More and his family. Waterton had one of thelongest and clearest pedigrees in the country, tracing back to Saxontimes without break; his family were Catholics, and seem to have lostmost of their property in the troublous times of the Reformation. Anyonewho was interested in the "Imitation, " whether as a collector or not, always met with kindness, and almost affection, from him. The first timeI met him--which arose from my making the facsimile of the BrusselsMS. --he showed his confidence and goodwill by lending me, for severaldays, his oblong record of editions to look over. ' Mr. Waterton's collection of the 'Imitation' came under the hammer atSotheby's in January, 1895, in two lots. The first comprised sixmanuscripts and 762 printed editions, ancient and modern, in variouslanguages, of this celebrated devotional work, arranged in languages inchronological order. It realized £101. The second lot comprised acollection of 437 printed editions, a few of which were not included inthe former, and sold for the equally absurd amount of £43. The BritishMuseum had the first pick of this collection, and the authorities wereenabled to fill up a large number of gaps in their already extensiveseries of editions. The six MSS. And over 250 printed editions passedinto the possession of Dr. Copinger, of Manchester, through Messrs. Sotheran, of the Strand, who, indeed, purchased the two 'lots' whenoffered at Sotheby's. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [47:A] 'In a small gloomy house within the gates of Elliot'sBrewery, between Brewer Street, Pimlico, and York Street, Westminster. '--Wheatley's edition of Cunningham's 'London. ' [55:A] The library of Beauclerk (who is better remembered as an intimatefriend of Dr. Johnson than as a book-collector) comprised 30, 000volumes, was sold by Paterson in 1781, and occupied fifty days. It was agood collection of classics, poetry, the drama, books of prints, voyages, travels, and history. [61:A] Among the absentees were his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, whowas prevented attending the anniversary by indisposition, the Marquis ofBlandford, and Sir M. M. Sykes, Bart. [62:A] The name really employed was Bannatyne. [64:A] Thorpe suspected this, and secured the volume, thinking to do hisfriends of the Roxburghe Club a good turn. Writing to Dibdin, Thorpesaid: 'I bought it for £40 against the editor of the _Athenæum_, who, ifhe got it, would have shown the club up finely larded. ' But Dibdin didnot jump at paying so heavy a price for silence, and Thorpe wiselyconsoled himself with Mr. Dilke's £50. [68:A] Heathcote dispersed two portions of his books at Sotheby's, firstin April, 1802, and secondly in May, 1808. Some of the books which Dentobtained for him, with additions, were sold at the same place in April, 1808. [72:A] This famous old place possesses a literary history which wouldfill a fairly long chapter. Among those who have lived here we maymention Ephraim Chambers, whose 'Cyclopædia' is the parent of a numerousoffspring; John Newbery lived here for some time, and it was during histenancy that Goldsmith found a refuge here from his creditors, and wrote'The Deserted Village' and 'The Vicar of Wakefield'; William Woodfallhad lodgings in this historic tower; and Washington Irving, early in thepresent century, threw around it a halo of romance and interest which ithad not previously possessed. [77:A] Hazlitt was a good deal of a book-borrower. In his 'Conversationswith Northcote' he speaks of having been obliged to pay five shillingsfor the loan of 'Woodstock' at a regular bookseller's shop, as he couldnot procure it at the circulating libraries. [Illustration] BOOK-AUCTIONS AND SALES. I. IT is perhaps to be regretted that the late Adam Smith did not make aninquiry into the subject of Books and their Prices. The result, if notas exhaustive as the 'Wealth of Nations, ' would have been quite asimportant a contribution to the science of social economy. In a generalway, books are subject, like other merchandise, to the laws of supplyand demand. But, as with other luxuries, the demand fluctuates accordingto fashion rather than from any real, tangible want. The want, forexample, of the edition of Chaucer printed by Caxton, or of theBoccaccio by Valdarfer, is an arbitrary rather than a literary one, forthe text of neither is without faults, or at all definitive. To takequite another class of books as an illustration: the demand for firsteditions of Dickens, Thackeray, Ruskin, and others, is perhaps greaterthan the supply; but we do not read these first editions any more thanthe Caxton Chaucer or the Valdarfer Boccaccio; we can get all the goodwe want out of the fiftieth edition. We do not, however, feel calledupon to anticipate the labours and inquiries of the future Adam Smith;it must suffice us to indicate some of the more interesting prices andfashions in book-fancies which have prevailed during the last twocenturies or so in London. The sale of books by auction dates, in this country at all events, fromthe year 1676, when William Cooper, a bookseller of considerablelearning, who lived at the sign of the Pelican, in Little Britain, introduced a custom which had for many years been practised on theContinent. The full title of this interesting catalogue is in Latin--alanguage long employed by subsequent book-auctioneers--and runs asfollows: CATALOGUS | VARIORUM ET INSIGNIUM | LIBRORUM | INSTRUCTISSIMÆ BIBLIOTHECA | CLARISSIMI DOCTISSIMIQ VIRI--LAZARI SEAMAN, S. T. D. | QUORUM AUCTIO HABEBITUR LONDINI | IN ÆDIBUS DEFUNCTI IN AREA ET VICULO | WARWICENSI. OCTOBRIS ULTIMO | CURA GULIELMI COOPER BIBLIOPOLÆ | LONDINI. { GRUIS IN CÆMETARIO } { ED. BREWSTER } { PAULINO } APUD { & } AD INSIGNE { PELICANI IN } 1676. { GUIL. COOPER. } { VICO VULGARITER } { DICTO } { LITTLE BRITAIN. } As will be seen from the foregoing, Cooper had no regular auction-rooms, for in this instance Dr. Seaman's books were sold at his own house inWarwick Court. Mr. John Lawler, in _Booklore_, December, 1885, pointsout an error first made by Gough (in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, andextensively copied since), who states that the sale occurred at Cooper'shouse in Warwick Lane. In his preface 'To the Reader, ' Cooper makes aninteresting announcement, by way of apology. 'It hath not been, ' hesays, 'usual here in England to make sale of books by way of Auction, orwho will give most for them; but it having been practised in otherCountreys to the advantage of Buyers and Sellers, it was thereforeconceived (for the encouragement of learning) to publish the sales ofthese books in this manner of way; and it is hoped that this will not beUnacceptable to Schollars; and therefore we thought it convenient togive an advertisement concerning the manner of Proceeding therein. ' Thesecond sale, comprising the library of Mr. Thomas Kidner, was held byCooper three months after, _i. E. _, February 6, 1676-77. On February 18, 1677-78, the third sale by auction was held, and this, as Mr. Lawler haspointed out, is the first 'hammer'[100:A] auction, and was held at acoffee-house--'in vico vulgo dicto, Bread St. In Ædibus Ferdinandistable coffipolæ ad insigne capitis Turcæ, ' the auctioneer in this casebeing Zacharius Bourne, whilst the library was that of the Rev. W. Greenhill, author of a 'Commentary on Ezekiel, ' and Rector of Stepney, Middlesex. The fourth sale was that of Dr. Thomas Manton's library, inMarch, 1678. From 1676 to 1682, no less than thirty sales were held, andthese included, in addition to the four already mentioned, the librariesof Brooke, Lord Warwick, Sir Kenelm Digby (see p. 120), Dr. S. Charnock, Dr. Thomas Watson, John Dunton, the crack-brained bookseller, Dr. Castell, the author of the 'Heptaglotton, ' Dr. Thomas Gataker, andothers. The business of selling by auction was so successful thatseveral other auctioneers adopted it, including such well-knownbooksellers as Richard Chiswell and Moses Pitt. At a very early period asuspicion got about that the books were 'run up' by those who had aspecial interest in them, and accordingly the vendors of Dr. BenjaminWorsley's sale, in May, 1678, emphatically denied this imputation, whichthey described as 'a groundless and malicious suggestion of some of ourown trade envious of our undertaking. ' In addition to this statement, they refused to accept any 'commissions' to buy at this sale. [Illustration: _John Dunton, Book-auctioneer in 1698. _] The dispersal of books by auction developed in many ways. It soonbecame, for example, one means of getting rid of the bookseller's heavystock, of effecting what is now termed a 'rig. ' Its popularity wasextended to the provinces, for from 1684 and onwards EdwardMillington[101:A] visited the provinces, selecting fair times forpreference, taking with him large quantities of books, which he sold atauction, and this doubtless was another method of distributing workswhich were more or less still-born. John Dunton (who, the Pretendersaid, was the first man he would hang when he became King) took a cargoof books to Ireland in 1698, and most of these he sold by auction inDublin. This visit was not welcomed by the Irish booksellers, and one ofits numerous results was 'The Dublin Scuffle, ' which is still worthreading. Dunton's receipts amounted to £1, 500. It was said that Duntonhad 'done more service to learning by his three auctions than any singleman that had come into Ireland for the previous three hundred years. ' [Illustration: _Samuel Baker, the Founder of Sotheby's. _] It may be pointed out that the early auction catalogues are of the'thinnest' possible nature. The books were usually arranged according tosubjects, but each lot, irrespective of its importance, was confined toa single line. The sales were at first usually held from eight o'clockin the morning until twelve, and again from two o'clock till six, aday's sale therefore occupying eight hours. Mr. Lawler calculates thatthe average number of lots sold would be about sixty-six. The early hourat which the sales began was soon dropped, and eventually the time ofstarting became noon, and from that to one or even two o'clock. It isquite certain that, up to ten shillings, penny and twopenny bids wereaccepted. The sales were chiefly held at the more noteworthycoffee-houses. Dr. King, in his translation (?) of Sorbière's 'Journeyto London, ' 1698, says: 'I was at an auction of books at Tom'sCoffee-house, near Ludgate, where were about fifty people. Books weresold with a great deal of trifling and delay, as with us, but verycheap. Those excellent authors, Mounsieur Maimbourg, MounsieurVarillas, Monsieur le Grand, tho' they were all guilt on the back andwould have made a very considerable figure in a gentleman's study, yet, after much tediousness, were sold for such trifling sums that I amasham'd to name 'em. ' [Illustration: _Samuel Leigh Sotheby. _] [Illustration: _Mr. E. G. Hodge, of Sotheby's. _] It is curious to note the evolution of the book-auctioneer from thebookseller. Besides the names already quoted, John Whiston, ThomasWilcox, Thomas and Edward Ballard, Sam Bathoe, Sam Paterson, Sam Baker, and George Leigh, were all booksellers as well as book-auctioneers. Ofthese the firm established by Samuel Baker in 1744 continues to flourishin Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge. The earlier auctioneers with whom bookswere a special feature, but who did not sell books except under thehammer, include Cock (under the Great Piazza, Covent Garden), Langford(who succeeded to Cock's business), Gerard, James Christie, Greenwood, Compton, and Ansell. [Illustration: _A Field-day at Sotheby's. _ (Reduced, by kind permission, from a full-page engraving in the_Graphic_. )] [Illustration: _Key to the Characters in the 'Field-day at Sotheby's. '_ 1. Mr. G. S. Snowden 2. Mr. E. Daniell 3. Mr. Railton 4. Mr. J. Rimell 5. Mr. E. G. Hodge 6. Mr. J. Toovey 7. Mr. B. Quaritch 8. Mr. G. J. Ellis 9. Mr. J. Roche 10. Mr. Reeves 11. Lord Brabourne 12. Mr. W. Ward 13. Mr. Leighton 14. Mr. E. W. Stibbs 15. Mr. H. Sotheran 16. Mr. Westell 17. Mr. Walford 18. Henry 19. Mr. Dobell 20. Mr. Robson 21. Mr. Dykes Campbell 22. Palmer's boy 23. Dr. Neligan 24. Mr. C. Hindley 25. Earl of Warwick 26. Mr. Molini 27. Mr. H. Stevens 28. Mr. F. Locker-Lampson 29. Mr. E. Walford] The firm of Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge is, by nearly half a century, the _doyen_ of London auctioneers. One hundred and fifty years is a longlife for one firm, but Sotheby's can claim an unbroken record of thatlength of time. The founder of the house was Samuel Baker, who startedas a bookseller and book-auctioneer in York Street, Covent Garden, in1744. At the latter part of his career, Baker, who retired in 1777 anddied in the following year, took into partnership George Leigh, and, ata later date, his nephew, John Sotheby, whose son Samuel also joined thefirm. Writing in 1812, Richard Gough observes in reference to Leigh:'This genuine disciple of the _elder Sam_ [Baker] is still at the headof his profession, assisted by a _younger Sam_ [Sotheby]; and of theAuctioneers of Books may not improperly be styled _facile princeps_. Hispleasant disposition, his skill, and his integrity are as well known ashis famous _snuff-box_, described by Mr. Dibdin as having a not lessimposing air than the remarkable periwig of Sir Fopling of old, which, according to the piquant note of Dr. Warburton, usually made itsentrance upon the stage in a sedan chair, brought in by two chairmen, with infinite satisfaction to the audience. When a high price book isbalancing between £15 and £20, it is a fearful sign of its reaching anadditional sum if Mr. Leigh should lay down his hammer and delve intothis said crumple-horn-shaped snuff-box. ' The style of the firm was formany years Leigh, Sotheby and Son. In 1803-4 a removal to 145, Strand, opposite Catherine Street, was made. John Sotheby died in 1807, and thename of Leigh disappeared from the catalogues in 1816. Samuel Sothebyremoved to the present premises, No. 3 (now 13), Wellington Street, Strand, in 1818, not more than a few yards from either of the two formerlocalities. The last of the race, Samuel Leigh Sotheby, joined hisfather in partnership in 1830, and is well and widely known as ascholar and author of considerable note. In 1843 John Wilkinson became apartner, and S. L. Sotheby died in 1861. The next alteration in thestyle of the firm was effected in 1864, when the present head and solemember, Mr. Edward Grose Hodge, was admitted into partnership. The firstsale was the collection of books belonging to Thomas Pellet, M. D. Curiously enough, Baker's name does not occur anywhere in connectionwith this sale on the catalogue thereof. The auction took place in theGreat Room over Exeter 'Change, and lasted fifteen days, or rathernights, for the sale began at five o'clock in the evening on Monday, January 7, 1744. The octavos, quartos, and folios, of which a selectionappeared in each evening's sale, were numbered separately, a processwhich must have been very confusing, and one which was soon dropped. Thefirst day's sale of 123 lots realized £47 7s. 1d. , whilst the fifteennights produced a total of £859 11s. 1d. One of the highest prices waspaid for Mrs. Blackwell's 'Herbal, ' 1740, 'finely coloured and bestpaper, in blue Turkey, ' £14. The catalogue of this sale contained theinteresting announcement: 'That the publick may be assured this is thegenuine collection of Dr. Pellet, without addition or diminution, theoriginal catalogue may be seen by any gentleman at the place of sale. 'In 1754-55 Dr. Mead's books occupied fifty days, and produced £5, 51810s. 11d. ; and in 1756 forty days devoted to the library of MartinFolkes yielded no more than £3, 091 odd. In February, 1755, Baker soldFielding's library of 653 lots (£364 7s. 1d. ). Gradually more importantproperties came to hand--the effects of Samuel Tyssen, 1802, thirty-eight days, £9, 102 16s. 7d. ; Prince Talleyrand (_BibliothecaSplendidissima_), 1816, eighteen days, only £8, 399; James Bindley, 1819, twenty-eight days, £7, 692 6s. 6d. ; the Dimsdales, 1824, seventeen days, £7, 802 19s. Of course, very interesting days have been experienced wherethe financial result was not very striking, as when, in 1799, the firmdisposed of the library of the Right Hon. Joseph Addison, 'Author andSecretary of State, ' for £533 4s. 4d. ; and in 1833 of that of 'theEmperor Napoleon Buonaparte' (_sic_), removed from St. Helena, for £4509s. (his tortoiseshell walking-stick bringing £38 17s. ); and, once more, when the drawings of T. Rowlandson, the caricaturist, were sold in 1818for £700. The libraries of the Marquis of Lansdowne, 1806; the Duke ofQueensberry, 1805; Marquis of Townsend, 1812; Count McCarthy, 1789;H. R. H. The Duke of York, 1827; James Boswell, 1825; G. B. Inglis, 1826;Edmond Malone, 1818; Joseph Ritson, 1803; John Wilkes, 1802; and a largenumber of others, came under the hammer at Sotheby's from 1744 to 1828. But the portions--the first, second, third, ninth, and tenth--of thestupendous Heber Library, dispersed here in 1834, owing to theprevailing depression, and what Dibdin called the _bibliophobia_, nearlyruined the auctioneers. They rallied from the blow, however, and havenever suffered any relapse to bad times, whatever account they may bepleased to give of the very piping ones which they have known prettywell ever since 1845, when Mr. Benjamin Heywood Bright's importantlibrary was entrusted to their care. The secret of this steady andsustained progress is to be found in the general confidence secured bystrict commercial integrity. The house receives business, but neversolicits it. During the last half century nearly every important libraryhas been sold at Sotheby's, including the Hamilton Palace and Beckford, the Thorold, the Osterley Park, the Seillière, and the Crawfordlibraries. [Illustration: _R. H. Evans, Book-auctioneer, 1812. _] But from 1812 to 1845 the most important libraries were almostinvariably sold by R. H. Evans, who began with the famous RoxburgheCollection--this sale, it may be mentioned, was held at the Duke'shouse, now occupied by the Windham Club, 13, St. James's Square--in1812, and finished with the sixth part of the library of the Duke ofSussex in 1845. We can only refer to a few of the more important ofEvans's sales, in addition to the two foregoing: In 1813 he sold thefine collection of early-printed books collected by Stanesby Alchorne, Master of the Mint, Earl Spencer having previously bought Alchorne'sCaxtons; in 1815 the Duke of Grafton's library; in 1818-19 two parts ofJames Bindley's collection; in 1819-20 the White Knights Library of theMarquis of Blandford; in 1832-33 John Broadley's collection of books, which included the celebrated 'Bedford Missal, ' bought by Sir John Tobinfor £1, 100, and now in the British Museum; in 1833 Edmund Burke's books;Lord Byron's in 1827; T. F. Dibdin's, 1817; the Earl of Guilford's, inthree parts, 1830-35; the fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and eleventhparts of the Heber Collection, 1834-36; the books of Thomas Hill ('PaulPry'), 1841; Daniel and Samuel Lysons, 1820, 1828, 1834; G. And W. Nicol, booksellers, 1825; Colonel Stanley, 1813; Sir M. M. Sykes, threeparts, 1824; and J. Towneley, 1814-45, 1828. A complete list of Evans'ssales is contributed by Mr. Norgate to _The Library_, iii. 324-330. Ofthe auctioneer himself a few details will not be out of place. RobertHarding Evans was the son of Thomas Evans, a bookseller of the Strand, and served his apprenticeship with Tom Payne at the News Gate. Leavinghere, he succeeded to the business of James Edwards, Pall Mall, and wasinduced by George Nicol to undertake the sale by auction of the Duke ofRoxburghe's library. The experiment was such a success that he becamealmost exclusively known as an auctioneer, and his business as abookseller speedily declined. He was an admirable auctioneer, having anexcellent memory and a vast fund of information; but he neglected themost important of all matters in commercial life, his ledgers. He had togive up selling books by auction, but restarted as a bookseller in BondStreet, with his two sons as partners; but his day was over, and herefailure again followed him. He died in Edwards Street, Hampstead Road, April 25, 1857, aged eighty. A few other firms of book-auctioneers, although, with one exception, they have ceased to exist, call for mention. Sam Paterson, than whom nomore popular an auctioneer ever wielded a hammer, was, as we havealready seen, first a bookseller. Sam--we employ the little familiarityby which he was universally known--was born in 1728 in the parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden, and lived on till 1802, his death being the resultof an accident. He was not only a bookseller, but an author and atraveller, and it was during a tour in Holland and Flanders that hebrought home a large collection of books, which he sold at auction. In1757, Sam prevented the valuable collection of MSS. Once belonging toSir Julius Cæsar from being destroyed; they had actually been sold to acheesemonger as waste-paper for £10. He rescued the whole collection, and drew up a masterly catalogue of it, and when sold by auction theresult was £356. For some years he was librarian to the Earl ofShelburne, afterwards first Marquis of Lansdowne. Sam's great talents at'cataloguizing' were unrivalled: he compiled those of James West, P. R. S. (whose library he sold at Langford's), 1773, the sale lastingtwenty-four days, and including a fine series of books printed byCaxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and on Old English literature and history, voyages and travels (see p. 179); the Rev. Thomas Crofts, forty-threedays, in 1783; Topham Beauclerk, April 8, 1781, and following forty-ninedays (the collection was dispersed by Sam himself 'opposite BeaufortBuildings, Strand'); of the Fagel Collection, now in Trinity College, Dublin, 1802, and others. Nichols states that the catalogues of thelibraries of Maffei Pinelli, sold in London in fifty-four days, 1789-90;of Samuel Tyssen, 1801, thirteen days; and of John Strange, fifty-sixdays, 1801, were compiled by the versatile Sam. The Pinelli cataloguemost certainly was not his work, for although he commenced it, he threwit up at a very early stage. The Tyssen and Strange libraries were soldat Sotheby's, for whom Sam 'catalogued' for some time. The book-hunterin London will occasionally meet with a copy of the 'BibliothecaUniversalis Selecta' on the stalls for a few pence, and he is stronglyrecommended to buy this very admirable volume. It is a model cataloguein its way; the contents of this sale (which took place at Sam's GreatRoom in King Street, Covent Garden, on Monday, May 8, 1786, and thethirty-five following days) are carefully classified, whilst the indexextends to nearly seventy pages. The volume is well interspersed withSam's annotations, and the published price of it is 5s. 6d. The secondcondition of sale is extremely interesting; it says, 'No bidder shalladvance less than THREEPENCE under ten shillings; above ten shillings, SIXPENCE; above one pound, ONE SHILLING. ' The chief rival of Leigh and Paterson was Thomas King, who from 1780 to1796 had a shop in Lower Moorfields, but who towards the end of 1796moved to King Street, Covent Garden, and set up as an auctioneer. Atfirst it was King and Son, but the son, early in the present century, started for himself in Tavistock Street, when the elder King'sson-in-law, Lochée, became a partner. The firm existed into the seconddecade of the present century, and sold many important libraries, notably Isaac Reed's, in 1807, which lasted thirty-nine days, andincluded a very extraordinary collection of works relating to theEnglish drama and poetry; Dr. Richard Farmer's, in 1798, lastingthirty-six days; John Maddison's, of the Foreign Department in the PostOffice, 1802, twenty-two days; George Steevens's, May 13, 1800, elevendays; and John Horne Tooke's, May 26, 1813, four days. It is scarcelynecessary to point out that either of the foregoing remarkable librarieswould give 'tone' to the annals of any book-auction house. Thecollection of the Rev. John Brand (see p. 179), of the Society ofAntiquaries, was sold by Stewart, the founder of Puttick's, ofPiccadilly, in 1807-8, when 4, 064 lots realized a total of £6, 151 15s. ;he also sold the libraries of Lord Thurlow, of W. Bryant, etc. Otherauctioneers who occasionally sold books during the earlier part of thepresent century were Jeffrey, of Pall Mall, who in 1810 sold Dr. Benjamin Heath's library in thirty-two days, the 4, 786 lots realizing£8, 899; Cochrane, of Catherine Street, who in 1816 (twelve days)dispersed an exceedingly interesting library originally formed between1610 and 1650 by Sir Robert Gordon, of Gordonstoun, one of the Gentlemenof the Bedchamber of James I. And Charles I. ; Compton, of ConduitStreet, who in 1783-84 (fifteen days) sold Joseph Gulston's library;Robins, of Warwick Street; and T. And J. Egerton, of Scotland Yard. [Illustration: _John Walker, Book-auctioneer, 1776. _] Mention may be here made of one who for many years occupied an importantposition in the fraternity. John Walker, brother-in-law of the elderGeorge Robinson, was the book-auctioneer to the trade, and frequentlyknocked down from £10, 000 to £40, 000 worth of books in the course of anafternoon. In 1776 Walker was in partnership with J. Fielding, and inearly life combined with the book-trade the office of one of thecoal-meters of the City of London. He resigned the hammer to WilliamHone about 1812, and died at Camberwell in February, 1817. A sketch ofhis life and a portrait of him appear in the fifth volume of the_Wonderful Magazine_. [Illustration: _Staircase at Puttick and Simpson's. _] After Sotheby's, the most important of the book-auctioneers of to-dayare Messrs. Puttick and Simpson; Christie, Manson and Woods; and Hodgsonand Co. The first-named have since December, 1858, occupied the greaterportion of the house in Leicester Square in which Sir Joshua Reynoldslived throughout his brilliant career, and where he died in 1792. Theauction-room was formerly the artist's studio; the office was hisdining-room; the upper portion of the house is occupied by Mr. H. Gray, the topographical bookseller. The place has been altered since thedistinguished painter resided there, but in this age of iconoclasm it ispleasant to wander in the passages and rooms where all the wit, beauty, and intellect of the latter part of the last century congregated--whereJohnson and Boswell, Burke, Garrick, Goldsmith and Malone met in goodfellowship. The founder of the firm was a Mr. Stewart (see p. 112), whostarted in Piccadilly in 1794, and who continued here until about 1825, when he took into partnership Benjamin Wheatley, who had been atSotheby's, and a son of the printer, Adlard; for a while the firm wasJohn and James Fletcher, but early in 1846, the two and only partnerswere Mr. Puttick and the present Mr. William Simpson; the former died in1873, and the business is now in the hands of Mr. Simpson and his son. The most important sale held at Puttick's was that of the SunderlandLibrary from Blenheim Palace, which, commencing on December 1, 1881, occupied from that date up to March 22, 1883, fifty-one days, the 13, 858lots realizing the gross total of £56, 581 6s. On April 21, 1884, and tenfollowing days, the exceedingly fine topographical library of the Earlof Gosford was sold at Puttick's, the total of the sale being £11, 3185s. 6d. ; the most remarkable item in the sale was a fine large copy ofthe first volume of the Mazarin Bible in the original binding, which wasknocked down to Mr. Toovey for £500; and next in interest to this was acopy of the First Folio Shakespeare, 1623, measuring 12-7/8 inches by8-3/8 inches, quite perfect, but with the title and verses mounted, andthe margins of two leaves slightly mended, and this sold for £470. Theextensive library of L. L. Hartley (see p. 87) was also disposed of atPuttick's, 1885-87, and realized the total of £16, 530; and otherimportant libraries dispersed there during the last half-century includethe Donnadieu books and MSS. , 1847-58, £3, 923; a portion of the LibriCollection, 1850-68, £8, 929; Dawson Turner's books and MSS. , 1859, £9, 453; Edward Crowinshield's (of Boston, N. E. ) books and MSS. , 1860, £4, 826; Sir Edward Dering's books and MSS. , 1861, £7, 259; the EmperorMaximilian's Mexican Library, 1869, £3, 985; John Camden Hotten's stock, 1873, £3, 751; Sir Edward Nichols' (Secretary to Charles I. , whose statepapers were sold privately to the British Museum) books, 1877, £977; thelibrary of J. Duerdin, consigned from Australia, 1884, £1, 140; booksfrom William Penn's Library, 1872, £1, 350; the library of Señor Don JoseFernando Ramirez, 1880, £6, 957; and many others. Literary property formsa comparatively small portion of Messrs. Puttick and Simpson's business, a very important part of which consists in the sale and privatedispersal of musical property of every description, as well as pictures, prints, porcelain and jewels. The firm of Hodgson and Co. Dates its origin from the twenties of thepresent century, the late Edmund Hodgson (who died in May, 1875, aged81) starting in partnership with Robert Saunders at 39, Fleet Street, asan auctioneer of literary property, the premises having been originallythe Mitre Tavern (see p. 222). In the interval the place had beenchristened the 'Poets' Gallery. ' When the property passed into the handsof Messrs. Hoare, the partnership between Saunders and Hodgsonterminated, and the latter removed to 192, Fleet Street, at the cornerof Chancery Lane (on the site now occupied by Partridge and Cooper), where Mr. Hodgson remained for many years. The march of improvementagain overtook him, and the business was once more removed, this time toits present site at 115, Chancery Lane, which was specially erected forthe peculiar requirements of a book-auction house. The late Mr. Hodgsonfor many years officiated in the rostrum of nearly all the chief tradedinner sales, and literary property to the value of some £50, 000 wouldfrequently be disposed of by him during an evening. His son, the presenthead of the firm, officiated in a similar capacity for some years, until, in fact, the pleasant custom of trade dinners became almostobsolete. The firm has dispersed, in its time, many important librariesand stocks of books, among which we may specially mention the valuablecollection of books of the College of Advocates, Doctors' Commons, London, Monday, April 22, 1861, and seven following days (2, 456 lots);the stocks or superfluous stocks of books of Charles Knight, Owen Jones, G. Cox, R. Bentley, 'Standard Novels'; Bradbury and Evans's, April, 1862(eight days); Arthur Hall, Virtue and Co. , November, 1862; Darton andHodge, 1863, 1866, and 1867; Lionel Booth, May, 1866; Day and Son, 1865, 1867, and 1868; Sampson Low and Co. , in consequence of the death ofSampson Low, jun. , 1871; Moxon and Co. , October, 1871, when a four days'sale resulted in over £12, 000; Cassell and Co. , in consequence of theremoval to Belle Sauvage Yard, September, 1875, five days' sale (4, 400lots); and very many others. [Illustration: _Mr. James Christie, 'The Specious Orator. '_ Engraved by R. Dighton, 1794. ] The firm of Christie, Manson and Woods dates its establishment from1762, but its fame is almost exclusively built upon its picture-sales. During its existence, however, the firm has sold several more or lessimportant libraries, such as those of James Edwards, the bookseller, 'the library of a gentleman of distinguished taste, ' April, 1804; Rev. L. Dutens (four days), February, 1813; the Earl of Gainsborough, March, 1813; the Hon. C. F. Greville, 1809; Sir William Hamilton, C. B. , andViscount Nelson, 1809; Sir James Pulteney (eight days), February, 1812;the Earl of Aylesford, 1879; Earl of Clarendon, 1877; C. Beckett-Denison, 1885; Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1785; J. P. Knight, R. A. , 1881; Earl of Liverpool, 1829; W. Macready, 1873; Rev. W. Bentinck L. Hawkins, in three parts, 1895, and others. II. The step from book-auctioneers to book-prices is a very easy one totake, but the subject is far less easily disposed of. A book is worthjust as much as its vendor can get for it, and no more. Rarity is notsynonymous with high commercial value. There may be only four copies ofa particular book in existence, but if the only three people in theworld who want it have provided themselves with a copy each, the fourthexample is not worth twopence. We have seen this kind of thingillustrated within the past few years. Very small poets are published invery small editions, but nobody buys them, and the books therefore haveno market value--in fact, they are superfluous. Hundreds of rare booksare superfluous. The auction-room is the great leveller of all manner ofunmerited fame, and it may be taken, as a general rule, to be aninfallible guide. We have but little information concerning the prices paid forsecond-hand books during the seventeenth century. The retailer's safestpossible guide, of course, would be the price at which he acquired aparticular book, or, if more than one, by the very simple process ofaveraging. One of the earliest and fullest illustrations we can citeoccurs in connection with some of the prices paid for books for theChetham Library of Manchester in 1663, and these are curious as well asinteresting. Thus, Holland's 'Heröologia, ' 1620, a good copy of whichnow realizes from £20 to £30, was purchased for 14s. Purchas's 'HisPilgrimes, ' 1625-26, which now sells at auction, if in good condition, at about £50, was obtained for £3 15s. Dugdale's 'History of St. Paul's'cost 12s. , and the same author's 'Antiquities of Worcestershire, ' 1656, £1 7s. 6d. ; the former now sells at prices varying from £5 to £10, andthe latter, when in good condition, is not expensive at 18 guineas. Inand about 1740 several book-sales occurred at or near Manchester, when alarge number of rare items realized painfully small prices. Forinstance, the 'Treatise concernynge the fruytfull saynges of Davyd theKynge and Prophete in the seven Penytencyall Psalms, ' 1508, by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester; the 'Nova Legenda Sanctorum Angliæ, ' 1516, bothprinted by Wynkyn de Worde, were purchased together for 5s. 6d. !Parsons' 'Conference about the next succession to the Crowne ofEngland, ' 1594, cost 1s. ; and the same Jesuit's 'Treatise of ThreeConversions of England, ' 1603-4, 15s. A few months ago these twopublications realized close on £10 at auction. Tyndale's 'Practyse ofPrelates, ' 1530, was obtained for 1s. 6d. ; and his 'Briefe Declarationof the Sacraments, ' 1550, for 1s. 7d. ; the former is now valued at 9guineas, and the latter at 4 guineas. The English edition of Erasmus''Enchiridion Militis Christiani, ' 1544, cost 6d. , and is now worthperhaps as many pounds. The bargain of the period, however, occurred inconnection with Sir Thomas Smyth's treatise 'De Republica etadministratione Anglorum, ' 1610; Raleigh's 'Prerogative of Parliaments'(?) 1628; and Burton's 'Protestation Protested, ' which, together, realized 4d. ! Each of these books is now extremely rare. Thirteen years after the above-mentioned books changed hands at priceswhich can now only be described as heartbreaking, the first auction-saletook place. It is noteworthy--as Mr. Lawler has pointed out--that 'thefirst libraries which were sold by auction were those of Puritan divineswho had lived and worked under the Commonwealth Government; theselibraries were consequently composed of books suited to their calling, consisting almost entirely of theological and historical books. ' Lifewas too awful a thing with them to indulge in a 'roguish' French novel, a Shakespearian play, or one of the many dramatic works which seemed fora time to kill all religious activity. A few of the items dispersed inthe first sales will not be without interest. Dr. Seaman's copy of the_editio princeps_ Homer in Greek, 1488, sold for 9s. ; the Crawford copyrealized £135--true, the latter was bound by Trautz-Bauzonnet. In theformer sale a copy of Dr. Eliot's Indian Bible sold for 19s. ; if itoccurred at auction now it might realize anything from £100 to £600. Atthe Restoration everything in the way of books of prayers was discarded, and sold for a few pence; they would now readily sell almost for theirweight in gold. There is a startling uniformity about the pricesrealized for books at the early book-sales, and one feels almostinclined to suppose that our forbears were influenced chiefly by thesize of the volumes. It is interesting to note that the great folioeditions of the Fathers realized in the end of the seventeenth centurypretty much the same prices as at the end of the nineteenth, and these, it need hardly be said, are very small indeed. From the sale of the library of Sir Kenelm Digby at the Golden Lion, inPaternoster Row, in April, 1680, we get a few highly interesting facts. This sale comprised 3, 878 lots, and realized the total of £908 4s. Hereare a few of the items: £ s. D. Æschylus, Stanley, London, 1664 1 0 0 Ascham's 'Toxophilus, ' 1545 0 1 4 Barclay's 'Ship of Fools, ' 1570 0 4 4 Bible of the Douay Translation, with the Rhenish Testament, 3 vols. , 4to. , 1633 1 5 0 Chaucer's Works, folio, 1597 0 12 8 Dugdale's 'Monasticon Anglicanum, ' 3 vols. , 1655, etc. 6 6 0 Fabyan's 'Chronicle, ' London, 1559 0 7 4 Hollinshed's 'Chronicle, ' London, 1577 0 8 0 Homerus cum comment. Eustathii, 4 vols. , folio, corio turcico et folio deaur. Romæ, 1542 7 0 0 Milton's 'Paradise Lost, ' London, 1668 0 2 1 'P. Plowman's Vision, ' London, 1550 0 1 7 Purchas's 'Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, ' 5 vols. , 1625-66 3 5 6 Shakespeare's Works, London, 1632 (second edition) 0 14 0 A comparison of the foregoing prices with those which the books wouldrealize to-day will suggest some interesting conclusions; but as themeans of doing this are in the hands of everyone, it is not necessary todiscuss them here. In the Bodleian Library there is an exceedinglyinteresting letter from R. Scott, the bookseller, to Samuel Pepys, datedJune 30, 1688. Scott writes: 'Having at length procured Campion, Hanmerand Spencer's Hist. Of Ireland, fol. (which I think you formerlydesired), I here send itt you, with 2 very scarce bookes besides, viz. Pricæi Defensio Hist. Britt. 4{o} and old Harding's Chronicle, as alsoethe Old Ship of Fooles in verse by Alex. Berkley, priest; which last, though nott scarce, yet so very fayre and perfect, that seldome comessuch another; the Priceus you will find deare, yett I never sold itunder 10s. , and att this tyme can have it of a person of quality; buttwithout flattery, I love to find a rare book for you, and hope shortlyto procure for you a perfect's Hall's Chronicle. ' With the books Scottsent his statement of account as follows: £ s. D. Campion, Hanmer and Spenser, fol. 0 12 0 Harding's 'Chronicle, ' 4to. 0 6 0 'Pricæi Defens. Hist. Brit. ' 0 8 0 'Shipp of Fooles, ' fol. 0 8 0 -------- 1 14 0 Whether Scott obtained these items at the Digby sale or not, we cannotsay; it is by no means unlikely, and if so, his desire to do Mr. Pepys agood turn may be estimated by the fact that he made a profit of 3s. 8d. Over the last item in the bill, and the profit on the others woulddoubtless be arranged on a similar scale. The second and the fourthitems, however, would be now worth from 15 to 20 guineas. Both Sir JohnPrice's 'Historiæ Britannicæ, ' 1573, and the histories of Ireland byHanmer, Campion and Spenser, 1633, are very rare and very importantbooks, and would not be dear now at as many guineas as Scott has chargedshillings. Book-auctions were not, however, unmixed blessings, and, as a fact, theyprovoked a good many curses from the poorer collectors. Here is onephase which concerns the sale of the library of John Bridges, [121:A] theNorthamptonshire historian, in 1726. This auction is interesting, not somuch on account of the books which were knocked down, or of the priceswhich they realized, but as being the genesis of the knock-out system. We have, fortunately, a very vivid picture of this sale from the pen ofHumfrey Wanley, who wished to obtain some of the items for the libraryof Lord Oxford. In his 'Diary, ' under date February, 1726, we read:'Went to Mr. Bridges' Chamber [No. 6, Lincoln's Inn] to see the threefine MSS. Again, the doctor, his brother, having locked them up. Heopenly bids for his own books, merely to enhance their price, and theauction proves to be, what I thought it would become, very knavish. ' Andagain: 'Yesterday, at five, I met Mr. Noel, and tarried long with him;we settled then the whole affair touching his bidding for my Lord at theroguish sale of Mr. Bridges' books. The Rev. Doctor, one of thebrothers, hath already displayed himself so remarkably as to be bothhated and despised; and a combination amongst the booksellers will soonbe against him and his brother the lawyer. They are men of the keenestavarice, and their very looks (according to what I am told) dart outharping irons. I have ordered Mr. Noel to drop every article in myLord's Commission when they shall be hoisted up to too high a price. ' We get another interesting view of the subject a year later. Hearne, theantiquary, writing to Dr. R. Rawlinson, the well-known book-collector, November 27, 1727, observes: 'I wanted much to hear from yourself howmatters went in your auctions, and was glad at last to have one[letter], though I am very sorry to find you have had such bad usage, when you act so honourably. But I am too sensible, that booksellers andothers are in a combination against you. Booksellers have the leastpretence of any to act so. Your brother (whom I shall always call myfriend) did them unspeakable kindness. By his generous way of bidding, and by his constant buying, he raised the value of books incredibly, andthere is hardly such another left. The booksellers (who go so much byhim) owe him a statue, the least they can do. But instead of that, theyneither speak well of him, nor do you (as I verily believe) commonjustice. ' In a letter from Benjamin Heath, the well-knownbook-collector, to 'Mr. John Mann, at the Hand in Hand Fire Office inAngel Court, on Snow Hill, ' dated March 21, 1738, we get yet anotherglimpse of some phases of book-auctions in the earlier part of the lastcentury. Fletcher Gyles, a bookseller of Holborn, published a catalogueof a book-auction which he purposed holding at his own place ofbusiness. 'Mr. Gyles, ' writes Heath, 'has offered himself to act for me, but as I think 'tis too great a Trial to his Honesty to make him at thesame time Buyer and Seller . . . I have been able to think of no FriendI could throw this trouble [of buying certain books] upon but you. ' Forthis service, the collector 'would willingly allow 3 guineas, which, theAuction continuing 24 Days, is 3 shillings over and above half a Crown aDay. ' The 'Auction requires the Attendance of the whole day, beginningat Eleven in the Morning, and Ending at two, and at five in theAfternoon, and Ending at Eight. ' [Illustration: _Benjamin Heath, Book-collector, 1738. _] A chronological account of the book-sales of London would be animportant as well as an interesting contribution to the history ofliterature. But our space is limited, and only the chief features ofsuch a history can be dealt with in this place. If one were asked toname the most famous book in the annals of book-sales, the answer wouldbe at once forthcoming and emphatic--the Valdarfer Boccaccio, otherwise'Il Decamerone di Messer Giovanni Boccaccio, ' printed at Venice byChristopher Valdarfer in 1471, and published, it is thought, at about10s. In stating that this book is the most famous one, it is almostunnecessary to explain that the Roxburghe copy is understood. By whatmeans it got into the hands of a London bookseller (about the middle ofthe last century) is not known. It is certain, however, that even atthat period he knew of its excessive rarity, for he offered it to thetwo great contemporary book-collectors, Lord Oxford and Lord Sunderland, for 100 guineas, an amount which at that time must have 'appearedenormously extravagant. ' Whilst these two collectors were deliberating, an ancestor of the Duke of Roxburghe saw and purchased it. Shortly afterthis event the two noble collectors were dining with the Duke, and thesubject of Boccaccio was purposely broached. Both Lord Oxford and LordSunderland began to talk of the particular copy which had been offeredthem. The Duke of Roxburghe told them that he thought he could show thema copy of this edition, which they doubted, but, to their mortification, the Duke produced the identical copy, over which both realized that hewho hesitates is lost. Beloe, in relating this anecdote, which was toldhim by G. Nicol, the royal bookseller, predicted that if this copy cameunder the hammer it would produce 'not much less than £500. ' As a matterof fact and of history, at the Roxburghe sale in 1812 it realized thethen huge sum of £2, 260, the buyer being the Marquis of Blandford, who, it is said, was prepared to go to £5, 000. There were three noblecandidates for this choice book, the Duke of Devonshire, Earl Spencer, and the Marquis of Blandford, whilst an agent of Bonaparte was known tobe present. The Rev. Mr. Dibdin has given a very highly-coloured andvivid account of this famous incident in his 'BibliographicalDecameron, ' and we need do no more than refer to the fact that 'thehonour of making the first bid was due to a gentleman from Shropshire, who seemed almost surprised at his own temerity in offering 100guineas. ' It is a curious commentary on even the fame of rare books thatthis copy of the Valdarfer Boccaccio came again into the sale-room in1819, when the Blandford library was sold, and when it became theproperty of Earl Spencer for £918. 'I will have it when you are dead, 'was the savage retort of a defeated book-lover at an auction sale, andsuch perhaps was Earl Spencer's mental determination when his rivalcarried off the bargain--by waiting seven years he saved £1, 242, as wellas possessing himself of one of the greatest of bibliographicalrarities. [Illustration: _Specimen of type of the Mazarin Bible. _] Although far before the Valdarfer Boccaccio in every point except thatof sensationalism, the first printed Bible, the Biblia Latina ofGutenberg, 1455, commonly known as the Mazarin, has had an excitinghistory in the way of prices. It is not only the first, but one of themost magnificent books which ever issued from the press. It is not atall a rare book in the usual sense of the word, for there are inexistence nineteen copies on paper, and five on vellum, the majority ofwhich are in this country. The most celebrated example of this splendidbook is now in the British Museum. The earliest record of this is itspossession by M. L. J. Gaignat, at whose sale in 1768 it became theproperty of Count McCarthy for 1, 200 francs; and from his sale, inParis, in 1815, it passed into Mr. Grenville's library for 6, 260francs--in other words, it had advanced in value in forty-six years from£48 to close on £250. It subsequently passed into the British Museum. Early in the present century, Nicol, the King's bookseller, obtained thecopy on vellum, formerly in the University of Mentz; at his sale in 1825it was bought by H. Perkins, the book-collecting brewer (Barclay, Perkins and Co. ), for £504, and at the sale of his library it fetched£3, 400, Mr. Ellis purchasing it for Lord Ashburnham. In 1824 Mr. Perkinsbought Sir M. M. Sykes' copy of the same book on paper for £199 10s. , and this copy in 1873 fetched £2, 960. James Perry, of the _MorningChronicle_, had a copy on paper, which, at his sale in 1822, the Duke ofSussex purchased for 160 guineas; and this copy, at the Duke's sale in1844, brought £190. The record price for the 'Mazarin' Bible was notreached until December, 1884, when the Syston Park library of Sir JohnThorold came under the hammer at Sotheby's, and this particular Bible onpaper sold for £3, 900 to Mr. Quaritch, or £500 more than the practicallyunique one on vellum. In June, 1887, the Earl of Crawford's copy, whichwas not a particularly good one, realized £2, 000, Mr. Quaritch havingpurchased it about thirty years previously for rather more than aquarter of the amount. In 1889 yet another copy turned up atSotheby's--it came from the Earl of Hopetoun's library--and this sold atthe same figure. We may also refer here to the second edition of theBible, 1462, but the first printed book with a date. The Edwards copy onvellum of this sold in 1815 for £175; in 1823 a very fine example wassold for £215; in 1873 the Perkins copy, which had cost its owner £173, sold for £780; and eight years later the Sunderland example on vellumfor £1, 600. [Illustration: _A Corner in the British Museum. _] The palm of the highest price ever paid for a single book must beawarded to the 'Psalmorum Codex, ' printed, like the last, by Fust andSchoeffer in 1459. By the side of this the Gutenberg Bible is a commonbook, and Sir John Thorold's example is the only one which has occurredin the market for almost a century. This particular copy realized 3, 350francs in the McCarthy sale, and 130 guineas in that of Sir M. M. Sykes;but at the Thorold sale, in 1884, it fetched £4, 950. Of the 'Codex'there are only nine copies known, all of which slightly differ from oneanother. We may also include here a mention of a copy of the Balbi'Catholicon'--'Summa Quæ vocatur Catholicon, sive Grammatica et LinguæLatina'--1460, for which Sir John Thorold paid £65 2s. , and which at hissale fetched £400. The British Museum copy of this book belonged to Dr. Mead, at whose sale it was purchased for £25 for the French King; thecopy subsequently became the property of West, at whose sale it becameGeorge III. 's for £35 3s. 6d. The Balbi 'Catholicon, ' of 1460, is thefourth book printed with a date, and is one of the few indubitableproductions of Gutenberg's press. It is an indispensable volume in acollection of books printed in the fifteenth century. Its literary meritis very considerable, and the London editor of 'Stephani ThesaurusLatinus' has pronounced it the best Dictionary for the Latin Fathers andSchoolmen. In addition to the copies just mentioned, a fine example, bound in russia-extra by Roger Payne, occurred in the Wodhull sale, January 12, 1886, and realized £310. This or a similar copy was pricedin Quaritch's 'Catalogue of the Monuments of the Early Printers, ' at£420. The decline in the value of what may be termed ordinary editions of theclassics during the present century has unquestionably been very great. Even the _editiones principes_ have scarcely maintained their formervalues; whilst their appearance in the book-market does not call forthanything like the enthusiasm and excitement which at one time prevailed. The Askew sale in 1775 was the first at which really sensational priceswere reached throughout for the first editions of the Greek and Latinclassics. Although some of these prices have been exceeded in many casessince that period, it is tantamount to a confession that they have gonedown in value when it is stated that the Askew prices are as nearly aspossible the same at which identical copies are now to be had. As weshall see presently, there are several exceptions to this rule; butthese exceptions occur, not because they are the _editiones principes_of Homer or Virgil, as the case may be, but because they are the worksof some eminent printer. And herein the change is a very striking one. The first edition of every classic has a literary or technical valuealmost equal to a manuscript, from which, of course, it is directlyprinted; but the first editions of the classics are not now collectedbecause of their textual value, and not at all unless they are fineexamples of typographical skill. The curious vicissitudes of theseeditions would alone occupy a fairly large volume; but we proposedealing briefly with the subject by comparing the prices at which goodcopies were sold in and about 1775, when Dr. Harwood published hisuseful little 'View of the Various Editions of the Greek and RomanClassics, ' with those at which they may be now acquired. [Illustration: _Aldus, from a contemporary Medal. _] Beginning with the _editio princeps_ Homer, 1488, the fine copy of thisedition in the British Museum was purchased, Dr. Harwood tells us, for£17. A 'large, pure, and fine' copy of this exceedingly rare work is nowpriced at £150, whilst the Wodhull copy sold in 1886 for £200. [129:A]But whilst this edition has increased enormously in pecuniary value, 'one of the most splendid editions of Homer ever delivered to theworld'--namely, that of the Foulis brothers, Glasgow, 1756-58--has onlydoubled its price, or has increased in value from two to four guineas. The very beautifully-printed _editio princeps_ of Anacreon, printed inParis by Henri Stephan, 1554, remains stationary, for its value then, asnow, is one guinea. Of the Aldine first edition of Sophocles, 1502, LordLisburne purchased 'a beautiful copy' in 1775 for 1-1/2 guineas; thepresent value of a similar example would range from 8 to 20 guineas, whilst a slightly imperfect copy sells for about £1. The first editionof Euripides, 1503, also printed at the Aldine Press, has advanced from£1 16s. To £3 10s. To 6 guineas, according to the eminence of thebinder. A 'most beautiful' copy of the first Herodotus, Aldus, 1502, realized £2 15s. In 1775, but cannot now be had for less than twice thatamount; whilst an example in a fine Derome binding of red morocco extrais priced at 12 guineas. The first Aristophanes, likewise from the pressof Aldus, 1498, shows a slight advance from £4 to 5 guineas. Theearliest issue of Isocrates, 1493, is one of the rarest of the_incunabula_, as it is one of the most beautiful when in perfectcondition. The exceedingly fine example in the British Museum wasbought by the authorities in 1775 for £11; copies may now be had for£15. The first (Aldine) edition of Plato has advanced in value from 5 guineasto just twice that sum. The very beautiful copy of this _editioprinceps_ on vellum, and now in the British Museum, was purchased by theMuseum authorities at Dr. Askew's sale in 1775 for 53 guineas. Thecommercial value of the very scarce and splendid first edition, in sixvolumes (Aldus, 1495-98), of Aristotle, shows a depreciation--from 17 to15 guineas--although it has realized in comparatively recent years asmuch as £51. Dr. Harwood adds to his entry of this book: 'The finestcopy of this first edition of Aristotle's works, perhaps in Europe, isin Dr. Hunter's Museum. ' Dr. Hunter gave £4 6s. For a 'most beautifulcopy of the first edition of Theocritus, ' Aldus, 1495--an edition whichalso includes Hesiod, Theognis, Phocylides, etc. , --the value of which isnow placed at £10. A much more considerable advance is seen inconnection with the _editio princeps_ of Musæus, 1494, a choice andbeautiful book, which is at once the first and rarest production of theAldine Press. George III. Gave in 1775 17 guineas for a fine copy, whichwould now realize twice that amount. An almost equally emphatic advancemay be chronicled in connection with the 'Anthologia Græca, ' Florence, 1494, printed throughout in capital letters, which, selling for 15guineas a century and a quarter ago, is now worth nearly double; whilstthe Sunderland copy in 1881 brought £51. The first impressions ofDiodorus Siculus, 1539, and Stephanus Byzantius, Aldus, 1502, arestationary at about £2 each, and Lucian, Florence, 1496, now, as in1776, sells for £20. Passing over a whole host of minor names in the list of Greek authors, we may venture upon a few facts in connection with the Latin writers. Virgil would, of course, come at the head of this list; but the exampleswhich came under Dr. Harwood's notice have no commercial valueindicated. George III. Gave £17 6s. 6d. For the very fine copy of thefirst Horace (about 1472) in Dr. Askew's sale--a fairly good example isnow priced at £50--whilst the first commentated edition of this author, Milan, 1474, has advanced from 9-1/2 guineas to 30 guineas; it isexceedingly rare, particularly the first of the two volumes. The firstAldine Horace (1501) has gone up from £2 5s. To £15, and other editionsfrom the same press have about quadrupled in value. Of the first editionof Ovid's 'Opera' (1471) only one copy is known, and the second, Bologna, 1480, is scarcely less rare, and certainly not less valuable, than the first. Dr. Harwood prices a very fine copy at £10 5s. , or abouta third of its present value. The first dated edition of ValeriusMaximus was printed by Schöffer at Mentz in 1471, but is apparently nota very popular book with collectors, for whereas in 1775 a beautifulcopy was valued at £26, its present price is only £28. A much morepopular book, Seneca's 'Tragoediæ, ' printed about 1475, has advancedfrom 4-1/2 guineas to £18, or, an exceptionally good copy bound byBedford, £25. Although for several centuries one of the most popular of books, some ofthe earlier editions of Pliny's 'Historia Naturalis' do not keep uptheir price. The second edition, Rome, 1470, which is rarer than thefirst--issued at Venice the year before--may now be had for 12 guineas. The British Museum copy of the first edition cost the nation £43 in1775. The edition printed by Jenson at Venice in 1472 is, however, muchsought after, for it is a very beautiful book, with a splendidlyilluminated border on the first page of the text. The British Museumcopy cost at Dr. Askew's sale £23, whilst Mr. Quaritch quotes an exampleat £140; but, then, the latter copy is printed on vellum, which makesall the difference. Silius Italicus is not by any means an author whosework is at present much studied, but the first edition of his 'Opera'(1471) is a book worth mentioning, because for beauty and grace it isunsurpassed by any of the works ever published by the first Italianprinters, Sweynheim and Pannartz. The British Museum copy cost in 1775£13 2s. 6d. , whilst it is now worth about £25. The superb copy in theBritish Museum of the _editio princeps_ Juvenal and Persius (printed atRome about the year 1469) cost the country 13 guineas; a first-classexample is now valued at £12. On the other hand, the Aldine edition ofMartial's 'Epigrammata' (1501) has gone up in value from 2 guineas to£10, or even £17 10s. , according to condition. The first edition ofJustin (printed at Venice, 1470) has declined, for the British Museumcopy cost 13 guineas in 1775, whilst a fine copy may now be had for 10guineas. A very different story has to be told with reference to the books andpamphlets produced by the early English printers. Until the latter partof the last century, these items were the despised of the scholarly andaristocratic collector. A few antiquaries found them not withoutinterest, but they had only a nominal commercial value. At the sale ofDr. Francis Bernard, at his 'late dwelling house in Little Britain, ' inOctober, 1698, thirteen Caxtons were sold, as follows: £ s. D. 'The Boke called Cathon, ' 1483 0 3 0 'Chastising of Goddes Chyldern' 0 1 10 'Doctrinal of Sapience, ' 1489 } 'Chastising of Goddes Chyldern' } 0 5 0 'Chronicle of England, ' _very old_ 0 4 0 'Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, ' 1477 0 5 4 'Game and Playe of the Chesse, ' 1474 0 1 6 'Godefroy of Boloyne, ' 1481 0 4 0 'Historyes of Troy, ' 1500 0 3 0 'Jason and the Golden Fleece' 0 3 6 'Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, ' 1502 0 3 0 Another copy 0 3 0 'Tullius of Olde Age' 0 4 2 ---------- £2 1 4 Eighty years later, when the library of John Ratcliffe[132:A] was soldat Christie's (March 27, 1776), a collection of upwards of thirtyCaxtons came under the hammer, and of these we will only quote sevenexamples: £ s. D. 'Chronicles of Englande, ' fine copy, 1480 5 5 0 'Doctrinal of Sapience, ' 1489 8 8 0 'The Boke called Cathon, ' 1483 5 5 0 'The Polytique Book, named Tullius de Senectute, ' 1481 14 0 0 'The Game and Playe of Chesse' 16 0 0 'The Boke of Jason' 5 10 0 'Legenda Aurea, '[133:A] 1483 9 15 0 At the Watson Taylor and Perry sales in 1823, four examples, nearly allfine copies, of Caxton's books realized a total of £239 5s. , as follows: £ s. D. 'The Life of Jason, ' 1476-77 95 11 0 'The Boke called Cathon, ' 1483 30 19 6 'Troylus and Creside, ' 1484 66 0 0 Virgil's 'Eneidos, ' 1490, very fine and perfect 46 14 6 [Illustration: _The Fifty-seven Althorp Caxtons. _] We do not think that the foregoing sets of figures call for anyelaborate comment. The present value of each item may be averaged atfrom £250 to £300, but the majority are absolutely unprocurable at anyprice. The highest sum ever paid for a Caxton is £1, 950, at which amountthe only perfect copy known of 'King Arthur, ' 1485, was knocked down atthe sale of the Earl of Jersey's books in 1885. At the same sale the'Histoires of Troy, ' _circa_ 1474, realized £1, 820. In 1812 the Duke ofDevonshire gave £1, 060 12s. For a copy of this book, for which the Dukeof Roxburghe had paid £50 a few years previously. The Syston Park copyof the 'Mirrour of the World, ' 1481, sold in 1884 for £335; Higden's'Polychronicon, 1482, is valued at £500; Lord Selsey's copy of Gower's'Confessio Amantis, ' 1483, sold in 1872 for £670; and Lord Jersey's, in1885, for £810. The 'Hystorye of Kynge Blanchardyn and PrincesEglantyne, ' 1485, imperfect, but one of the rarest of this press, realized £21 at the Mason sale, 1798-99, the purchaser being John, Dukeof Roxburghe, at whose sale in June, 1812, Lord Spencer gave £215 5s. For it. According to the latter's note in the copy, 'The Duke and I hadagreed not to oppose one another at the [Mason] sale; but after the bookwas bought, to toss up who should win it; when I lost. ' A tract of fiveleaves, by John Russell, 'Propositio ad illustriss. Principem Karoleumducem Burgundie, ' etc. (printed probably at Bruges, 1475), of which noother copy is known, was purchased by a bookseller in the West End ofLondon for £2 5s. He sold it to the Duke of Marlborough for 50 guineas, and at his sale in 1819 Earl Spencer purchased it for 120 guineas. Thereare about 560 examples of Caxton's books in existence. Of these, aboutone half are in the British Museum, the Althorp or Rylands library (57), at Cambridge, in the Bodleian, and in the Duke of Devonshire's library. Of this total thirty-one are unique, and seven exist only in afragmentary form. The greater number are safely locked up in public orprivate libraries, and are not likely, under ordinary circumstances, tocome into the market. A great quantity of romance has been writtenrespecting Caxtons. In Scott's 'Antiquary, ' 'Snuffy Davy' is stated tohave bought a perfect copy of the 'Game of Chess, ' the first bookprinted in England, for about two groschen, or twopence of our money. This he sold to Osborne for £20; it became Dr. Askew's property for 60guineas, and at the Askew sale it realized £170, the purchaser beingGeorge III. '"Could a copy now occur, Lord only knows, " ejaculatedMonkbarns, with a deep sigh and lifted-up hands--"Lord only knows whatwould be its ransom"; and yet it was originally secured, by skill andresearch, for the easy equivalent of twopence sterling. ' It has beenrepeatedly stated that there is no foundation whatever for thisanecdote; but Scott himself expressly states in a note that it isliterally true, and that David Wilson 'was a real personage. ' 'SnuffyDavy' has been identified with Clarke, the bookseller of New BondStreet, whose 'Repertorium Bibliographicum' is a most valuable book. However that may be, it is certain that the King did not give any suchprice at any such sale. The King's copy was purchased at West's sale in1773 for £32 0s. 6d. At the Askew sale the King's purchases did notexceed £300, and the items were almost exclusively editions of theclassics. It is certain, however, that Caxton's books have experiencedmany ups and downs. Mr. Blades tells us of an incident in which he waspersonally concerned. He happened on a copy of the 'Canterbury Tales' ina dirty pigeon-hole close to the grate in the vestry of the FrenchProtestant Church, St. Martin's-le-Grand; it was fearfully mutilated, and was being used leaf by leaf--a book originally worth £800. [Illustration: _From 'Game and Play of Chesse, ' by Caxton. _] Caxton's immediate successors met with a fate similar to his own. Themost remarkable feature of Richard Rawlinson's[136:A] library (sold bySamuel Leigh in 1756), which contained nearly 25, 000 volumes, consistedin the large quantity of Old English black-letter books, and these, ofcourse, realized absurdly low figures, as the following list testifies: £ s. D. 'The Newe Testament in English, ' 1500 0 2 9 'The Ymage of both Churches, after the Revelation of St. John, ' by Bale, 1550 0 1 6 'The Boke called the Pype or Toune of Perfection, ' by Richard Whytforde, 1532 0 1 9 'The Visions of Pierce Plowman, ' 1561 0 2 0 'The Creede of Pierce Plowman, ' 1553 0 1 6 'The Booke of Moses in English, ' 1530 0 3 9 'Bale's Actes of English Votaryes, ' 1550 0 1 3 'The Boke of Chivalrie, ' by Caxton 0 11 0 'The Boke of St. Albans, ' by W. De Worde 1 1 0 [Illustration: _Specimen of the type of 'The Boke of St. Albans. '_] The very high price paid for the 'Boke of St. Albans' is noteworthy, fornearly all the other items are equally rare. In 1844, a copy of this'boke' was sold as waste-paper for 9d. , and almost immediately passedinto the possession of Mr. Grenville for £70 or guineas. Dr. Mead'scopy--one of the only two known--of 'Rhetorica Nova Fratris LaurentiiGulielmi de Sacra, ' printed at St. Albans, 1480, sold for 2s. At theWillett sale, in 1813, it brought £79 16s. [Illustration: _Specimen page of Tyndale's Testament, 1526. _] The rarity of the English translations of the Bible and New Testamentarises from just the opposite cause which has operated in making theearly productions of the English press so scarce. The latter were forthe most part neglected out of existence, whilst the former wereliterally read out of it. A complete copy of the _editio princeps_Coverdale, 1535, is, we believe, unknown. One illustration willsufficiently indicate the enhanced value of this book, and theillustration may be taken as a general one in respect to this class ofbook: The Perkins copy, which realized £400 in 1873, was purchased atthe Dent sale in 1827 for £89 5s. The more perfect of the only twocopies known of Tyndale's New Testament, first edition, 1526, in theBaptists' Library at Bristol, is of great interest, and well deservingof a mention in this place. It has no title-page. Underneath a portrait, pasted to the first leaf, is this inscription: 'Hoh Maister John Murray of Sacomb, The works of old Time to collect was his pride, Till oblivion dreaded his care; Regardless of friends intestate he dy'd, So the Rooks and the Crows were his heir. ' [Illustration: _John Murray, of Sacomb, Book-hunter. _] On the opposite leaf is a printed statement to this effect: 'On Tuesdayevening (13 May, 1760) at Mr. Langford's sale of Mr. Ames's books, acopy of the translation of the New Testament by Tindall, and supposed tobe the only one remaining which escaped the flames, was sold forfourteen guineas and a half. This very book was picked up by one of thelate Lord Oxford's collectors ['John Murray' written in the margin], andwas esteemed so valuable a purchase by his lordship, that he settled £20a year for life upon the person who procured it. His Lordship's librarybeing afterwards purchased by Mr. Osborne, of Gray's Inn, he marked itat fifteen shillings, for which price Mr. Ames bought it. ' (John Murraydied in 1748. ) On the other side of the leaf is another note, inmanuscript: 'N. B. This choice book was purchased at Mr. Langford's sale, 13th May, 1760, by me John White [for £15 14s. 6d. ], and on the 13th dayof May, 1776, I sold it to the Rev. Dr. Gifford for 20 guineas. ' Dr. Gifford was an assistant librarian at the British Museum, and left hislibrary to the use of the Baptist Society at Bristol. Before leaving the subject of Bibles, we may refer to one of the mostinteresting events of the book-sale season of 1836, when, at Evans's onApril 27, the superb copy of St. Jerome's Bible, executed by Alcuin forCharlemagne, came up for sale. Commenced about the year 778, it was notcompleted till 800. When it was finished it was sent to Rome by hisfriend and disciple, Nathaniel, who presented it to Charlemagne on theday of his coronation; it was preserved by that monarch until his death. Its subsequent history is full of interest, and would form anentertaining chapter in the Adventures of Books. After its first owner'sdeath, it is supposed to have been given to the monastery of Prum inLorraine by Lothaire, the grandson of Charlemagne, who became a monk ofthat monastery. In 1576, this religious house was dissolved, but themonks preserved the manuscript, and carried it to Switzerland to theabbey of Grandis Vallis, near Basle, where it reposed till the year1793, when, on the occupation of the episcopal territory of Basle by theFrench, all the property of the abbey was confiscated and sold, and themanuscript in question came into the possession of M. Bennot, from whom, in 1822, it was purchased by M. Speyr Passavant, who brought it intogeneral notice, and offered it for sale to the French Government at theprice of 60, 000 francs; this was declined, when the proprietor knockedoff nearly 20, 000 francs from the original demand, but still withouteffecting a sale. M. Passavant subsequently brought it to England, andoffered it to the Duke of Sussex, who, however, declined it. It was thenoffered to the British Museum for £12, 000, then for £8, 000, and at lastfor £6, 500, which he declared an 'immense sacrifice. ' Unsuccessful atevery turn, he resolved to submit it to auction, and the precious volumewas entrusted to Evans. It was knocked down for £1, 500, but to theproprietor himself. After a further lapse of time, Passavant sold thevolume to the British Museum for £750. This splendid manuscript is alarge folio in delicate and beautifully formed minuscule characters, with the beginnings of chapters in fine uncials, written in two columnson the purest vellum. If this magnificent manuscript were now offeredfor sale, it would probably realize at least £3, 000. The rise in the value of the First Folio Shakespeare only dates back forabout a century. Beloe, writing in 1806, states that he remembers thetime when a very fine copy could be purchased for five guineas. Hefurther observes, 'I could once have purchased a superb one for 9guineas'; and (apparently) this 'superb' example realized 13 guineas atDr. Monro's sale in 1792. At the end of the last century it was thoughtto have realized the 'top' price with 36 guineas. Dr. Askew had a finecopy of the Second Folio, which realized at his sale, in 1775, £510s. --it had cost 2-1/2 guineas at Dr. Mead's sale--the purchaser beingGeorge Steevens. In this book Charles I. Had written these words: 'DUMSPIRO, SPERO, C. R. , ' and Sir Thomas Herbert, to whom the King presentedit the night before his execution, had also written: 'Ex donoserenissimi Regis Car. Servo suo Humiliss. T. Herbert. ' Steevensregarded the amount which he paid for it as 'enormous, ' but at his saleit realized 18 guineas, and was purchased for the King's library, and isnow, with some other books bought by George III. , at Windsor. Steevenssupposes that the original edition could not have exceeded 250 copies, and that £1 was the selling price. Its rarity ten or a dozen years afterits first appearance may be gauged by the fact that Charles I. Wasobliged to content himself with a copy of the Second Folio; its rarityat the present moment will be readily comprehended when it is statedthat during the past ninety years only five or six irreproachableexamples have occurred for sale. The copy for which the Duke ofRoxburghe gave 34 guineas, realized at his sale £100, and passed intothe library of the Duke of Devonshire. The example in the possession ofthe Baroness Burdett-Coutts is a very fine one; it was formerly GeorgeDaniel's copy, and realized 682 guineas at his sale in 1864. Heightmakes a great difference in the price of a book of this sort. Forexample, a good sound example measuring 12-1/4 inches by 8 inches isworth about £136; another one measuring 13-1/8 by 8-3/8 inches would beworth £300, and perhaps more. Dibdin, with his usual propheticinaccuracy, described the amount (£121 6s. ) at which Mr. Grenvilleobtained his copy as 'the highest price ever given, or likely to begiven, for the volume. ' As a matter of fact, the time must come when itwill be no longer possible to obtain a perfect copy of this volume, which to English people is a thousand times more important than theGutenberg Bible or the Psalmorum Codex. The following list is believed to contain all the finest examples knownat present: FIRST FOLIO EDITIONS OF SHAKESPEARE, 1623. Inches Inches High. Wide. Present Possessor. Loscombe 12 × 8 Sotheby's 12-1/4 × 8 Gardner 12-3/8 × 8 Mr. Huth. Stowe 12-3/8 × 8-1/8 Poynder 12-1/2 × 8-1/8 Ellis 12-5/8 × 8-1/8 Earl of Crawford. Quaritch's Catalogue 12-11/12 × 8 Thomas Grenville 12-7/8 × 8-3/8 British Museum. Holland 12-3/8 × 8-1/2 Duke of Devonshire 13-1/8 × 8-1/8 Chatsworth. George Daniel 13-1/8 × 8-1/4 Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Beaufoy Library 13 × 8-3/8 Locker-Lampson 13 × 8-3/8 Rowfant Library. Gosford (Earl of) 12-7/8 × 8-3/8 Lord Vernon 13-1/16 × 8-3/8 America. Hartley 13-1/8 × 8-1/2 John Murray 13 × 8-1/2 Albemarle Street. Thorold 13-3/8 × 8-1/2 America. Sir Robert Sydney, } Earl of Leicester, } with his arms on } sides; original old } 13-3/8 × 8-3/4 Mr. C. J. Toovey. Calf, with lettering, } full of rough } leaves } The Second, 1632, Third, 1664, and Fourth, 1685, Folios haveconsiderably advanced in value--the Second has risen from £15, at whichthe Roxburghe copy was sold in 1812, to nearly £200; George Daniel'scopy, of the purest quality from beginning to end, and one of thelargest known, sold for £148, but fairly good copies may be had for halfthat amount. The Third Folio, which is really the rarest, as most of theimpression was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, has gone up from£20 or £30 to £200, or even more when the seven doubtful plays have theseparate title-page; and the Fourth Folio from £5 to about ten timesthat amount. But the most remarkable feature in connection withShakespeare, so far as we are just now concerned, is the change whichhas taken place in the value of the quartos. We give below a tabulatedlist of first editions, in which this change will be seen at a glance: Former Recent Price. Price. £ s. D. £ s. D. 'The Merry Wives of Windsor, ' 1818 18 0 0 385 0 0 'Much Ado About Nothing, ' {1797 7 10 0 {1818 17 17 0 267 10 0 'Love's Labour Lost, ' 1818 40 10 0 316 10 0 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' {1805 2 2 0 {1818 12 10 0 116 0 0 'The Merchant of Venice' {1815 9 9 0 {1818 22 1 0 270 0 0 'King Richard II. , ' 1598, [143:A] 1800 4 14 6 108 3 0 '2 Henry IV. , ' 1797 (one leaf MS. ) 8 8 0 225 0 0 'Henry V. , ' 1818 5 7 6 211 0 0 '1 Henry VI. , ' 1801 38 7 0 50 0 0 'Richard III. , ' 1818 33 0 0 351 15 0 'Troilus and Cressida, ' 1800 5 10 0 110 0 0 'Romeo and Juliet, ' 1800 6 0 0 160 0 0 'Hamlet, ' 1812 4 13 0 36 0 0 'King Lear, ' 1800 28 0 0 70 0 0 'Othello' (1622), 1818 56 14 0 155 0 0 'Pericles, ' 1812 1 15 0 40 0 0 'Lucrece' 21 0 0 250 0 0 'Venus and Adonis'[143:B] (Malone's copy) 25 0 0 315 0 0 'Poems' 70 0 0 'Sonnets' {1800 3 10 0 {1812 21 0 0 230 15 0 [Illustration: _Title-page of the First Edition of 'The CompleatAngler. '_] What is true of the Shakespeare quartos and folios is also true in aslightly less accentuated degree of the first editions of the sixteenthand seventeenth century poets and dramatists. Dibdin describes a Mr. Byng as having purchased the only known copy of Clement Robinson's'Handefull of Pleasant Delites, ' 1584, at a bookstall for 4d. ; at hissale this 'Handefull' was sold for 25 guineas to the Duke ofMarlborough, at whose sale, in 1819, it fetched £26 15s. [Illustration: _From the 'Pilgrim's Progress, ' Part II. _] Puttenham's 'Art of English Poesie, ' 1589, and Gascoigne's 'Works, ' aretwo other striking illustrations of the increase in the value of oldEnglish poetry, although the books themselves are of comparatively minorimportance from a literary point of view. Isaac Reed well rememberedwhen a good copy of either might have been had for 5s. In the first andsecond decades of this century the prices had gone up to about £5, butthe present values would be nearer £20. Spenser's 'Faerie Queene, '1590-96, early in the century could have been had for £3 12s. ; it nowrealizes ten times that amount if in fine condition. Milton's 'ParadiseLost' has increased in the same ratio. Lovelace's 'Lucasta' has risenfrom 11 guineas to nearly £50. The market value of a first edition ofWalton's 'Compleat Angler, ' 1653, in 1816 was 4 guineas; in 1879 thisbook fetched £52; it has since realized £310. Rarer even than the firstWalton is the first edition of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress, ' 1678;Southey, writing in 1830, declared that the date of the firstpublication of this work was at that time unknown, since no copy couldbe traced. Not long after this an example--still in possession of Capt. Holford, of Park Lane--turned up, and was valued at £50; during the lastfew years four more have been unearthed: three of these are in England, and the other is among the treasures of the Lenox Library, New York. Thecommercial value of a copy is probably not much less than of a firstWalton. Although the first edition of the first part of the 'Pilgrim'sProgress' has always been considered so rare, the second part is evenrarer; indeed, only three copies are known to exist: one (veryimperfect) in the Astor Library in New York, one in the Rylands Library, and the other in the hands of a collector in London. Till some ten yearssince the two English copies were not known to exist; they were bothbought in one bundle for a few shillings in Sotheby's sale-room. Theimperfect American one was supposed to be unique till these came tolight. Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield' sixty years ago was 'uncollected'; aquarter of a century ago it sold for £5; ten years ago it was worth £10;in 1891 a remarkably tall and clean copy, in the original calf asissued, sold at Sotheby's for £94. Gray's 'Elegy, ' 1751, sold for £116s. In 1888, and for £70 since then. Apropos of this 'Elegy, ' there areonly three uncut copies known, and one of these was obtained by Mr. Augustine Birrell, Q. C. , a few years ago by a stroke of great good luck. He happened to be passing through Chancery Lane one day, and, having alittle time at his disposal, dropped into Messrs. Hodgson's rooms, wherea sale of books was in progress. At the moment of his entry some volumesof quarto tracts were being offered, and taking one of them in his hand, he opened it at random, and saw--a fine uncut copy of the famous'Elegy'! He bought the lot for a few shillings. It may be mentioned thatthe original manuscript of Gray's 'Elegy' sold for £130 in 1854. Such are a few of the excessively rare books, whose appearance in themarket is at all times an event in the book-collecting world. Partly asan illustration of our forbears' wit, and partly as a list of curiousand highly imaginary titles, the following article from the _LondonMagazine_ of September, 1759, is well worth quoting here: '_BOOKS selling by Auction, at the Britannia, near the Royal Exchange. _ _By_ L. FUNNIBUS, _Auctioneer_. '"Gratitude, " a Poem, in twenty-four cantos, from the original German of Lady Mary Hapsburgh, published at Vienna in the year 1756. --"Machiavel the Second, or Murder no Sin, " from the French of Monsieur le Diable, printed at Paris for le Sieur Dæmon, in la Rue d'Enfer, near the Louvre. --"Cruelty a Virtue, " a Political Tract, in two volumes, fine imperial paper, by Count Soltikoff. --"The Joys of Sodom, " a Sermon, preached in the Royal Chapel at Warsaw, by W. Hellsatanatius, Chaplain to his Excellency Count Bruhl. --"The Art of Trimming, " a Political Treatise, by the learned Van-Self, of Amsterdam. --"Self-Preservation, " a Soliloquy, wrote extempore on an Aspen Leaf on the Plains of Minden; found in the pocket of an Officer who fell on the First of August. --"The Art of Flying, " by Monsieur Contades; with a curious Frontispiece, representing Dismay with Eagle's Wings, and Glory with a pair of Crutches, following the French Army. --"The Reveries of a Superannuated Genius, on the Banks of Lake Liman, near Geneva, " by M. Voltaire. --"The Spirit of Lying, " from "L'Esprit Menteur" of Monsieur Maubert. --"Political Arithmetic, " by the same Author; in which is proved to Demonstration that Two is more than Five, and that Three is less than One. --"The Knotty Question Discussed, " wherein is proved that under certain circumstances, Wrong is Right, and Right is Wrong, by a Casuist of the Sorbonne. --"A New Plan of the English Possessions in America, " with the Limits _properly_ settled, by Jeffery Amherst, Geographer to his Britannick Majesty. --"The Theory of Sea-fighting reduced to Practice, " by E. Boscawen, Mariner. --"A Treatise on the Construction of Bridges, " by I. Will, and I. Willnot, Architects, near the Black-Friars, at Louvain. --"The Spirit of Treaties, " a very Curious Tract, in which is fairly proved, that absolute Monarchs have a right to explain them in their own sense, and that limited Princes are tied down to a strict observance of the letter. --"The Conquest of Hanover by the French, in the year 1759, " a tragi-comic Farce, by a French officer. --"A Letter of Consolation from the Jesuits in the Shades, to their afflicted brethren at Lisbon, " the second edition. --"The Fall of Fisher, " an excellent new Ballad, by ---- Harvey, Esq. --"The Travels of a Marshal of France, from the Weser to the Mayne"; shewing how he and 10, 000 of his companions miraculously escaped from the hands of the savage Germans and English; and how, after inexpressible difficulties, several hundreds of them got safe to their own country. Interspersed with several Curious Anecdotes of Rapes, Murders, and other French Gallantries; by P. L. C. , a Benedictine Monk, of the Order of Saint Bartholomew. ' [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [100:A] Cooper's hammer was of boxwood. Millington applies to his ownthe Homeric line, +deinê de klangê genet' argnreoio bioio+, which anyoneis quite at liberty to believe. James Christie's original hammer isstill in the possession of the firm; Samuel Baker's belongs to Mr. H. B. Wheatley. [101:A] In 1686 Millington was selling the library of the deceased LordAnglesey. Putting up a copy of 'Eikon Basilike, ' there were but fewbidders, and those very low in their biddings. Casually turning over thepages before bringing the hammer on the rostrum, he read, with evidentsurprise, the following note in Lord Anglesey's own handwriting: 'KingCharles the Second and the Duke of York did both (in the last session ofparliament, 1675, when I showed them, in the Lords' House, the writtencopy of this book, wherein are some corrections, written with the lateKing Charles the First's own hand) assure me that this was none of thesaid king's compiling, but made by Dr. Gauden, Bishop of Exeter; which Ihere insert for the understanding of others on this point, by attestingso much under my own hand. --ANGLESEY. ' [121:A] There were 4, 313 lots in this sale, the total of which was£4, 001. The catalogue has a very curious engraved frontispiece of anoak-tree felled, and persons bearing away branches, with a Greek mottosignifying that, the oak being felled, every man gets wood. [129:A] This particular copy is regarded as the finest ever sold atauction; it is bound in blue morocco by Derome, and cost Mr. Wodhull 15guineas in August, 1770. [132:A] John Ratcliffe, who died in 1776, lived in East Lane, Bermondsey, and followed the prosaic calling of a chandler. He collectedCaxtons and the works of other early English printers with greatdiligence and judgment for nearly thirty years. Many of these appear tohave been brought to him as wastepaper, to be purchased at so much perpound. An interesting account of this very remarkable man is given inNichols' 'Literary Anecdotes, ' iii. , 621, 622. [133:A] The original or Caxton's price for this book was about 5s. Or6s. Per copy. [136:A] The title-page of the catalogue contained the followingwhimsical motto from Ebulus: +Kai gar o taôs dia to spanion thaumazetai. + (The peacock is admired on account of its rarity. ) Hearne speaks of Richard Rawlinson as 'vir antiquis moribus ornatus, perque eam viam euns, quæ ad immortalem gloriam ducit. ' [143:A] The first edition of this play, 1597, sold in 1864 for £341 5s. ;it is the only copy known. [143:B] Thomas Jolley picked up a volume which contained a first editionof both 'Venus and Adonis' and the 'Sonnets, ' for less than 3s. 6d. InLancashire! The former alone realised £116 in 1844, and is now in theGrenville collection, British Museum. The copy of the former in theabove list was purchased at Baron Bolland's sale in 1840 for £91; atBright's sale for £91 10s. , when it became Daniel's. The 'Sonnets, ' alsoDaniel's copy, had belonged to Narcissus Luttrell, who gave 1s. For it. [Illustration] BOOKSTALLS AND BOOKSTALLING. OF the numerous ways and means of acquiring books open to thebook-hunter in London, there is none more pleasant or popular than thatof BOOKSTALLING. To the man with small means, and to the man with nomeans at all, the pastime is a very fascinating one. East, west, north, and south, there is, at all times and in all seasons, plenty of goodhunting-ground for the sportsman, although the inveterate hunter willencounter a surfeit of Barmecides' feasts. Nearly every book-hunter hasbeen more or less of a bookstaller, and the custom is more thantinctured with the odour of respectability by the fact that Roxburghe'sfamous Duke, Lord Macaulay the historian, and Mr. Gladstone theomnivorous, have been inveterate grubbers among the bookstalls. Macaulaywas not very communicative to booksellers, and when any of them wouldhold up a book, although at the other end of the shop, he could tell bythe cover, or by intuition, what it was all about, and would say 'No, 'or 'I have it already. ' Leigh Hunt was a bookstaller, for he says:'Nothing delights us more than to overhaul some dingy tome and read achapter gratuitously. Occasionally, when we have opened some veryattractive old book, we have stood reading for hours at the stall, lostin a brown study and worldly forgetfulness, and should probably haveread on to the end of the last chapter, had not the vendor of publishedwisdom offered, in a satirically polite way, to bring us out a chair. "Take a chair, sir; you must be tired. "' The first Lord Lytton had afancy for these plebeian book-marts; whilst Southey had a mania for themalmost: he could not pass one without 'just running his eye over for_one_ minute, even if the coach which was to take him to see Coleridgeat Hampstead was within the time of starting. ' The extreme variety of the bookstall is its great attraction, and thechances of netting a rare or interesting book lie, perhaps, not so muchin the variety of books displayed as in their general shabbiness. Tenyears ago an English journalist picked up a copy of the first edition ofMrs. Glasse's 'Art of Cookery, ' in the New Kent Road, for a few pence. It is no longer a shabby folio, but, superbly bound, it was sold withMr. Sala's books, July 23, 1895, for £10. A not too respectable copy ofCharles Lamb's privately-printed volume, 'The Beauty and the Beast, ' wassecured for a few pence, its market-value being something like £20. Acopy of Sir Walter Scott's 'Vision of Don Roderick, ' 1816, firstedition, in the original boards, was purchased, by Mr. J. H. Slater, inFarringdon Road, in January, 1895, for 2d. --not a great catch, perhaps, but it is one of the rarest of Scott's works; and as the originals ofthis prolific author are rapidly rising in the market, there is noknowing what it may be worth in the immediate future. Here is a curious illustration of the manner in which a 'find' isliterally picked up. A man who sells books from a barrow in the streetswas wheeling it on the way to open for the day, and passed close to abookseller's assistant who was on his way to work. As the man passed, asmall volume fell off into the road, which the assistant kindly pickedup, with the intention of replacing it on the barrow. Before doing so, however, he looked at the volume. One glance was enough. 'Here, what doyou want for this?' he asked. The dealer, taking a casual glance at thevolume, said: 'Oh, thruppence, I suppose, will do. ' The money was paid, and the assistant departed with the prize, which was a rare volume byIncrease Mather, printed in 1698 at Boston, U. S. A. , and worth from £8 to£12. A copy of Fuller's first work, and the only volume of poetrypublished by that quaint writer, the excessively rare 'David's HainousSinne, ' 1631, was bought a few years ago for eighteenpence, probablyworth half as many pounds. The coincidences of the bookstall are sometimes very remarkable. Mr. G. L. Gomme relates one which is well worth recording, and we give it inhis own words: 'My friend, Mr. James Britten, the well-known plant-lorescholar, has been collecting for some years the set of twenty-fourvolumes of that curious annual, _Time's Telescope_. He had twoduplicates for 1825 and 1826, and these he gave to me. One day lastJanuary I was engaged to dine with him, and in the middle of the _same_day I passed a second-hand bookshop, and picked out from the sixpennybox a volume of _Time's Telescope_ for 1816. In the evening I showed mytreasure with great contentment to my friend, expecting congratulations. But, to my surprise and discomfiture, a mysterious look passed over hisface, then followed a quick migration to his bookshelves, then a loudhurrah, and an explanation that this very "find" of mine was the _one_volume he wanted to complete his set, the one volume he had been insearch of for some time. ' Another book-collector picked out of arubbish-heap on a country bookseller's floor a little old book of poetrywith the signature of 'A. Pope. ' Subsequently he found a manuscript notein a book on the shelves of a public library referring to this verycopy, which, the writer of the note stated, had been given him by thepoet Pope. The late Cornelius Walford related an interesting incident, the 'onlyone of any special significance which has occurred to me duringthirty-five years of industrious book-hunting': 'When living at Enfield, I used generally to walk to the Temple by way of Finsbury, Moorgate, Cheapside, and Fleet Street. Every bookshop on the way I was familiarwith. On one occasion I thought I would vary the route by way of LongLane and Smithfield (as, indeed, I had occasionally done before). I wasat the time sadly in want of a copy of "Weskett on Insurances, " 1781, afolio work of some 600 pages. I had searched and inquired for it foryears; no bookseller had ever seen it. I had visited every bookshop inDublin, in the hope of finding a copy of the pirated (octavo) editionprinted there; and but for having seen a copy in a public library, should have come to the conclusion that the book never existed. Sometemporary sheds had been erected over the Metropolitan Railway in LongLane. One, devoted to a meagre stock of old books, _was opened thatmorning_. The first book I saw on the rough shelves was Weskett, original edition, price a few shillings. I need hardly say I carried itaway. . . . I have never seen or heard of another of the originaledition exposed or reported for sale. ' [Illustration: _Cornelius Walford, Book-collector. _] Mr. Shandy _père_ was a bookstaller also, and if Bruscambille's'Prologue upon Long Noses, ' even when obtainable 'almost for nothing, 'would fail to excite in every collector the enthusiasm experienced byMr. Shandy, we can at all events sympathize with him. '"There are notthree Bruscambilles in Christendom, " said the stall-man, who, like manystall-men of to-day, did not hesitate to make a leap in the dark, "except what are chained up in the libraries of the curious. " My fatherflung down the money as quick as lightning, took Bruscambille into hisbosom, hied home from Piccadilly to Coleman Street with it, as he wouldhave hied home with a treasure, without taking his hand once off fromBruscambille all the way. ' [Illustration: _The South Side of Holywell Street. _] We have already seen that there were bookstalls as well as bookshops inand about the neighbourhood of Little Britain during the latter part ofthe seventeenth century. There were bookstalls or booths also in St. Paul's Churchyard long before this period; but books had scarcely becomeold in the time of Shakespeare, so that doubtless the volumes which wereto be had within the shadow of the cathedral were new ones. Booksellersgradually migrated from the heart of London to a more westerlydirection. The bookstall followed, not so much as a matter of course asbecause there was no room for it; land became extremely valuable, andnarrow streets, which are also crowded, are not a congenial soil for thebook-barrow. The Strand and Holborn and Fleet Street districts, bothhighways and byways, became a favourite spot for the book-barrow duringthe last century, and remained such up to quite modern times--until, indeed, the iconoclastic wave of improvements swept everything beforeit. Holywell Street still remains intact. [Illustration: _Exeter 'Change in 1826. _] One of the most famous bookstalling localities during the last centurywas Exeter 'Change, in the Strand, which occupied a large area of theroadway between the present Lyceum Theatre and Exeter Street, and haslong since given place to Burleigh Street. The place was built towardsthe end of the seventeenth century, and the shops were at first occupiedby sempsters, milliners, hosiers, and so forth. The place appears tohave greatly degenerated, and soon included bookstalls among thestandings of miscellaneous dealers. Writing on January 31, 1802, RobertBloomfield observes: 'Last night, in passing through Exeter 'Change, Istopt at a bookstall, and observed "The Farmer's Boy" laying there forsale, and the new book too, marked with very large writing, Bloomfield's"Rural Tales": a young man took it up, and I observed he read the wholethrough, and perhaps little thought that the author stood at his elbow. 'This locality was also a famous one for 'pamphlet shops. ' 'Sold at thePamphlet Shops of London and Westminster' is an imprint commonly seen ontitle-pages up to the middle of the last century. In addition to shopsand stalls, book-auctions were also held here. The curious and valuablelibrary of Dr. Thomas Pellet, Fellow of the College of Physicians, andof the Royal Society, was sold 'in the Great Room over Exeter 'Change, 'during January, 1744, beginning at 5 p. M. (see p. 105). [Illustration: _A Barrow in Whitechapel. _] Early in the eighteenth century, the third Earl of Shaftesbury, in his'Miscellaneous Reflections, ' 1714, refers to notable philosophers anddivines 'who can be contented to make sport, and write in learnedBillingsgate, to divert the Coffeehouse, and entertain the assemblys atBooksellers' shops, or the more airy Stalls of inferior book-retailers. ' Bookstalls or barrows have been for nearly a century a feature of theEast End of London, more particularly of Whitechapel Road andShoreditch. The numbers of barrows have increased, but the locality ispractically the same. Many useful libraries have been formed from offthese stalls, and many very good bargains secured. Excellent collectionsmay still be formed from them, but the chances of a noteworthy 'find'are indeed small. The book-hunter who goes to either of these placeswith the idea of bagging a whole bundle of rarities is likely to comeaway disappointed; but if he is in a buying humour the chances are tento one in favour of his getting a good many useful books at verymoderate figures. We have heard of a man who picked up a complete set offirst editions of Mrs. Browning in Shoreditch, but no one ever seems tohave met that lucky individual; and as the story is retailed chiefly bythe owner of the barrow from which they were said to have beenrescued--the said owner apparently not in the least minding theinevitable conclusion at which the listener will arrive--the story isnot repeated as authentic. One of the last things which has come out ofShoreditch lately is a copy of the first edition of Gwillim's 'Displayof Heraldry' (1610), in excellent condition, and which was purchased fora few pence. An East End book-hunter tells us that, among other raritieswhich he has rescued from stalls and cellars in that district, are afirst folio Ben Jonson; a copy of the Froben Seneca (1515), with itsfine bordered title-page, by Urs Graf; an early edition of Montaigne, with a curious frontispiece; the copy of the _editio princeps_ Statius(1483), which was purchased by Mr. Quaritch at the Sunderland sale; oneor two Plantins, in spotless splendour; Henry Stephens' Herodotus, abook as beautiful as it is now valueless, but of which a copy is kept ina showcase at South Kensington, and others, all at merely nominalprices. Many first-class libraries were formed by these _frequentationesorientales_. It is a great pity that Macaulay, for example, has not lefton record a few of the very remarkable incidents which came under hisobservation during these pilgrimages. The late Mr. W. J. Thomscontributed a few of his to the _Nineteenth Century_ thirteen years ago. One of Mr. Thoms' most striking 'East End' book-hunting anecdotesrelates to a Defoe tract. When a collected edition of Defoe's works wascontemplated some forty years ago, it was determined that the variouspieces inserted in it should be reprinted from the editions of themsuperintended by Defoe himself. 'There was one tract which the editorhad failed to find at the British Museum or any other public library, and which he had sought in vain for in "The Row" or any bookseller'swithin reach of ordinary West End mortals. Somebody suggested that heshould make a pilgrimage to Old Street, St. Luke's, and perhaps Brownmight have a copy. Old Brown, as he was familiarly called, had a greatknowledge of books and book-rarities, although perhaps he was morewidely known for the extensive stock of manuscript sermons which he keptindexed according to texts, and which he was ready to lend or sell ashis customers desired. . . . The editor inquired of Brown whether he hada copy of Defoe's tract. "No, " said Brown; "I have not, and I don't knowwhere you are likely to find one. But if you do meet with one, you willhave to pay pretty handsomely for it. " "I am prepared to pay a fairprice for it, " said the would-be customer, and left the shop. Now, OldBrown had a "sixpenny box" outside the door, and he had such a keen eyeto business that I believe, if there was a box in London which wouldbear out Leigh Hunt's statement [that no one had ever found anythingworth having in the sixpenny box at a bookstall], it was that box in OldStreet. But as the customer left the shop his eye fell on the box, heturned over the rubbish in it, and at last selected a volume. "I'll payyou for this out of the box. " "Thank you, sir, " said Brown, taking theproffered sixpence. "But, by-the-by, what is it?" "It is _a_ tract byDefoe, " was the answer, to Old Brown's chagrin. For it was the very workof which the purchaser was in search. ' In the way of antiquity doubtless the New Cut--as what was once LambethMarsh is now termed--comes next to the two East End localities abovementioned as a bookstall locality. The place has certainly been abook-emporium for at least half a century. Mr. G. A. Sala declares thathe has purchased for an old song many of his rarest books in thiscongested and unsavoury locality where Robert Buchanan and his ill-fatedfriend, David Gray, shared a bankrupt garret on their first coming up toLondon from Scotland. The present writer has picked up some rare andcurious books in that locality during the past ten years, and othershave doubtless done the same. Not so very long ago a volume with theautograph of Drayton was secured for one penny, certainly not anextravagant price. [Illustration: _A Book-barrow in Farringdon Road. _] For some years Farringdon Road has enjoyed the distinction of being thebest locality in London for bookstalling. Its stalls are far morenumerous, and the quality of the books here exposed for sale is of amuch higher class, than those which are to be met with in other places. There are between thirty and forty bookstalls or barrows here, and theplace has what we may describe as a bibliopolic history, which goes backfor a period of twenty years. The first person to start in thebookselling line was a coster of the name of Roberts, who died somewhatsuddenly either in December of 1894 or early in January of the presentyear. Roberts appears to have been a fairly successful man at the trade, and had a fairly good knowledge of cheap books. The _doyen_ of theFarringdon Road bibliopoles is named Dabbs--a very intelligent man, whostarted first in the hot-chestnut line. Mr. Dabbs has generally a fairlygood stock of books, which varies between one and two thousand volumes, a selection of which are daily displayed on four or five barrows, andvarying from two a penny ('You must take two') up to higher-pricedvolumes. Curiously enough, he finds that theological books pay the best, and it is of this class that his stock chiefly consists. Just asbook-hunters have many 'finds' to gloat over, so perhaps booksellershave to bewail the many rarities which they have let slip through theirfingers. It would be more than could be expected of human nature, as itis at present constituted, to expect booksellers to make a clean or evenqualified confession in this respect. Our friend Dabbs, however, is notof this hypersensitive type, and he relates, with a certain amount ofgrim humour, that his greatest lost opportunity was the selling of abook for 1s. 6d. Which a few days afterwards was sold in Paris for £50. He consoles himself with the reflection that at all events _he_ made afair profit out of this book. If we could all be as philosophical asthis intelligent book-barrow-keeper, doubtless the slings and arrows ofoutrageous Fortune would impress fewer wrinkles on our brows, and helpus to think kindly of the friends who put us 'up' to good things in theway of gold-mines and generously left us to pay the piper. [Illustration: _A few Types in Farringdon Road. _] However picturesque may be the calling of the bookstall-keeper to theperson who experiences a fiendish delight in getting a 6d. Book out ofhim for 5-1/2d. , the calling is on the whole a very hard one. Exposedto all weathers, these men have a veritable struggle for existence. Their actual profits rarely exceed 30s. Or £2 weekly. They vary greatly, of course, according to weather, and a wet Saturday makes a verymaterial difference to their takings. Many weeks throughout the yearthese takings do not average more than 8s. Or 10s. We have madeinquiries among most of the bookstall-keepers in the Metropolis, and theabove facts can be depended upon. When these men happen upon a rarebook, they nearly invariably sell it to one of the better-classbooksellers. By this means they make an immediate profit and effect aready sale. There is beyond this a numerous class of what may bedescribed as 'book-ghouls, ' or men who make it a business to haunt thecheap bookstalls and bag the better-class or more saleable books andhawk them around to the shops, and so make a few shillings on which tosupport a precarious existence, in which beer and tobacco are the soledelights. We once met a man who did a roaring trade of this description, chiefly with the British Museum. He took notes of every book that struckhim as being curious or out of the way, and those which he discovered tobe absent from the Museum he would at once purchase. He was great in thematter of editions, such as Pope, Junius, Coleridge, and so forth. TheMuseum is naturally lacking in hundreds of editions of English authors;but as these editions, almost without exception, possess no literaryvalue, their presence (or absence) was not a matter of importance. Forsome months the 'collector' referred to inundated the Museum with theseunimportant editions. Our friend discovered that the Museum authorities, ignoring the prices which he placed on his wares, would only have themat their own figures--which showed a curious similarity to those atwhich the vendor had obtained them--and this, coupled with the fact thatthey refused to purchase many of the items offered at any price, led himto the conclusion that he was serving his country at too cheap a rate. It is scarcely necessary to add that he is now following a vocationwhich, if less agreeable, is certainly more profitable to himself. Occasionally one of these professional bookstallers blossoms into ashopkeeper in some court or alley off Holborn; but more generally theyare too far gone in drink and dilapidation to get out of the rut. One of the most curious characters who ever owned a bookstall was HenryLemoine, the son of a French Huguenot. He was born in 1756, and for manyyears kept a stall in Bishopsgate Churchyard. He wrote many books, anddid much hack-work for various publishers, chiefly in the way oftranslations from the French. He gave up shopkeeping in 1795, and becamea pedestrian bookseller or colporteur of pamphlets. In 1807 he again setup a small stand of books in Parliament Street, and died in April, 1812. He might have achieved success, and become a respectable member ofsociety, but his great failing was an all-consuming thirst. [Illustration: _Henry Lemoine, Author and Bookseller. _] Writing over forty years ago in 'London Labour and the London Poor, '1851, Henry Mayhew remarked: 'There has been a change, and in somerespects a considerable change, in the character or class of books soldat the street stalls, within the last forty or fifty years, as I haveascertained from the most experienced men in the trade. Now sermons, orrather the works of the old divines, are rarely seen at these stalls, orif seen, rarely purchased. Black-letter editions are very unfrequent atstreet bookstalls, and it is twenty times more difficult, I am assured, for street-sellers to pick up anything really rare and curious, than itwas in the early part of the century. One reason assigned for thischange by an intelligent street-seller was, that black-letter or anyancient works were almost all purchased by the second-hand booksellers, who have shops and issue catalogues, as they have a prompt sale for themwhenever they pick them up at book-auctions or elsewhere. ' As we havealready pointed out, the same rule which obtained forty years agoapplies with equal force to-day, and in the chief instances in which wehave met with books well known to be rare, on bookstalls, theircondition has been so bad as to render them valueless, except, perhaps, for the purpose of helping to complete imperfect copies. At one time the bookstall-keepers had fairly good opportunities ofmaking a haul of a few rare books--that was when they were called in toclear out offices and old houses. As the world has grown wiser inrespect to books as well as other things, executors, legatees, and soforth, have acquired unreasonable views as to the value of old books, and everything in the shape of a volume is sent to the regularbook-auctioneers. When it is remembered that practically all the bookswhich now occur on the various bookstalls of the Metropolis arepurchased under the hammer at Hodgson's, the chances of obtaininganything rare are reduced to a minimum. These books are the refuse ofthe various bookshops, after, perhaps, having passed from one shop toanother for several years without finding a purchaser outside the trade. At Hodgson's, of course, these books find their level, after repeatedappearances; they are here sold, not quite by the cartload, butcertainly in lots sufficiently large to fill a moderate sizedwheelbarrow. The tastes of the bookbuying public are so infinite thatthere would seem to be a sale, at some time or another, for everyspecies of printed matter; but the habitual haunter of the bookstallsmeets with the same water-soaked dog-eared volumes month after month, and year after year, so that he is forced to the conclusion that theright purchaser has not yet come along. These volumes appeal to thebookbuyer with a piteousness which is scarcely less than positivelyhuman. In the words of George Peele, written over three centuries ago, these books seem to say, 'Buy, read and judge, The price do not grudge; It will give thee more pleasure Than twice as much treasure;' but no one seems to take the hint. Samuel Foote, in 'The Author, ' makesVamp say: 'Books are like women, Master Cape; to strike they must bewell dressed; fine feathers make fine birds: a good paper, an eleganttype, a handsome motto, and a catching title, has drove many a dulltreatise through three editions. ' These adventitious aids may stillpossess a potent influence in selling a new book even to-day, but theyhave little effect on the sale of the books which gravitate towards thebook-barrow. The bookstall-keeper, it is true, has no rent to pay, except for thehire of his barrow, which amounts to one shilling per week each. Eventhis small charge is a considerable item where a man hires two or threebarrows and does scarcely any trade. Then he has to pay someone to lookafter his goods during his absence. Further than this, the barrow-manhas to pay cash down before he removes his purchase from the sale-room. On the other hand he gives no credit. The bookseller who enjoys theluxury of a shop, gets credit from the auctioneer, and gives credit tohis customers. He has to put as large a margin of profit as possible onhis books, and an average of sixpence each has to be added to theoriginal cost of every item catalogued. The bookstall-man is, naturally, handicapped in many ways, and if he finds the sweepings of his morearistocratic _confrères'_ shops a long time on his hands, he, at allevents, makes as large a profit with much fewer liabilities. We have referred to Hodgson's as the centre from which nearly all thebookstalls are supplied. Occasionally, however, the barrow-man buys atSotheby's, and frequently so at Puttick and Simpson's. Sometimes themore adventurous spirits attend auctions in private houses in thesuburbs, and occasionally those held a few miles out of town. Theseexpeditions are more often than not 'arranged, ' and usually resolvethemselves into 'knock-outs. ' It is a by no means unknown contingencyfor two or three men to purchase, against all comers, the entire lot ofbooks at figures which invariably put the auctioneer into an exceedinglygood humour; neither is it an unknown event for these men to decampwithout the books, and also without leaving their addresses or deposit!Such tricks, however, are not the work of the tradesmen who have a_locus standi_, but of the better class of book-jackals, who, failing toget the books for next to nothing, outbid everyone else, and leave theauctioneer to get out of the dilemma as he best can. [Illustration: _The late Edmund Hodgson, Book-auctioneer. _] For many years the weekly cattle-market at Islington has been a happyhunting-ground of the bookstall-keeper. Books are among the hundred andone articles which are brought from every conceivable source, and manyvery good things have doubtless been picked up here. But it is alwaysthe early prowler who gets the rarities--the man who gets there at eightor nine o'clock in the morning. There is very little but absoluterubbish left for the post-prandial visitor. A few inveteratebook-hunters have journeyed thither at various times and in a spasmodicmanner, but the hope of anything worth having has usually turned out tobe a vain one: they have always been anticipated. Between the more ambitious shop and the nondescript bookstall, there isa class or species of bookseller who deserves a niche in this place. Werefer to men like Purcell, in Red Lion Passage, Red Lion Square, Holborn, who are almost as much printsellers as booksellers. They makeone book by destroying many others. Grangerizing is the proper name ofthis practice; but as the Rev. Mr. Granger has been productive of morecurses than a dozen John Bagfords--an evil genius of the same type--theprocess is now termed extra-illustrating. However much one may denouncethe whole system, it is impossible, whatever a particular book-hunter'sidiosyncrasy may be, not to feel interested in some of the collectionswhich these enterprising and ruthless biblioclasts manage to gettogether. Mr. Purcell is an adept at this game, of which, doubtless, Mr. F. Harvey, of St. James's Street, is one of the most clever, as he iscertainly the most eminent of professors. Mr. Purcell's collection ofprints, engravings, press-cuttings, and so forth, cover anextraordinarily wide field. In fifty cases out of a hundred, booksellerswho make grangerizing a speciality find it pays far better to break upan illustrated book than to sell it intact. When they purchase a book, it is obviously their own property, to preserve or destroy, as they findmost agreeable. Personally, we regard the system as in many ways apernicious one, but it is one upon which a vast amount of cant has beenwasted. But bookshops and stalls are obviously not the only places at whichbargains in books are likely to be secured, as the following anecdotewould seem to prove: 'A writer and reader well versed in the works ofthe minor English writers recently entered a newspaper-shop at the EastEnd and purchased a pennyworth of snuff. When he got home he found thatthe titillating substance was wrapped in a leaf of Sir Thomas Elyot'sblack-letter book, "The Castell of Helth. " The next day the purchaserwent in hot haste to the shop and made a bid for the remainder of thevolume. "You are too late, sir, " spoke the shopkeeper. "After you hadgone last night, a liter_airy_ gent as lives round the corner gave metwo bob for the book. There was only one leaf torn out, which you got. The book was picked up at a stall for a penny by my son. " The purchaserof the pennyworth at once produced the leaf, with instructions for it tobe handed to his forestaller in the purchase of the volume, togetherwith his name and address; and next day he received a courteous note ofthanks from the "liter_airy_ gent" aforesaid. ' Nothing is so uncertainas one's luck in book-hunting, but, without entirely discrediting theforegoing story, we can only say that it is an old friend with a newface. We have heard the same thing before. Not so very long ago, acertain bookseller thought he had at last got a prize; it was one of therarest Shakespeare quartos, and worth close on £100. He had purchased itamong a lot of other dirty pamphlets. He looked the matter up, andeverything seemed to point to the fact that his copy was genuine inevery respect--a most uncommon stroke of luck indeed. The preciousquarto was in due course sent to Puttick's, and the modest reserve of£70 was placed upon it. The quarto was genuine in every respect, but itwas a _facsimile_! It may be taken for granted that genuine Shakespeare quartos do notoccur on bookstalls, and even a rare Americana tract only occurs in thewildest dreams of the book-hunter. Nevertheless, 'finds' of more or lessinterest continue to be made by keen book-hunters. Dr. Garnett tells howa tradesman at Oswestry had in his possession books to which he attachedno importance, but which, a lady informed him, must be very rare. Theywere submitted to the authorities of the British Museum, who gave ahigh price for them. One was Sir Anthony Sherley's 'Wits New Dyall, 'published in 1604, of which only one other copy is known to be inexistence. As a rule, offers of rare books come from booksellers, who donot always say how they become possessed of them. Among the privatepeople who offer books to the Museum for sale are a large proportion whothink that a book must necessarily be rare because it is a hundred yearsold or more. Before the great catalogue was made, finds wereoccasionally made in the Museum itself, and even now a volume willoccasionally be found which has special interest and value on account ofits binding. In other cases a book will be found to be in a binding madeup of leaves of some rare work far more valuable than the book itself. [Illustration] [Illustration] SOME BOOK-HUNTING LOCALITIES. LITTLE BRITAIN AND MOORFIELDS. THERE are few more attractive phases in the history of book-hunting inLondon than that of localities. Up to nearly the end of the lastcentury, these localities were for the most part, and for close on 350years, confined to within a narrow area. With the rapid expansion ofLondon north, east, south, and west, the 'trade' has not only expanded, but its representatives have sprung up in every district, whilst many ofthe older ones have forsaken the limits of the City, and pitched theirtents in Greater London. For centuries bookselling and publishingflourished side by side in St. Paul's Churchyard, Fleet Street, andtheir immediate neighbourhoods. [Illustration: _St. Paul's Churchyard, 1606. From the CraceCollection. _] Of all the old bookselling localities close to the heart of London, nonewere more famous than Little Britain and Moorfields. Three years beforethe Great Fire of London--in 1663--Sorbière, in his 'Journey toEngland, ' made the following observation: 'I am not to forget the vastnumber of booksellers' shops I have observed in London: for besidesthose who are set up here and there in the City, they have theirparticular quarters, such as St. Paul's Churchyard and Little Britain, where there is twice as many as in the Rue Saint Jacque in Paris, andwho have each of them two or three warehouses. ' The bookselling zenithof Little Britain was attained in the seventeenth century; it may almostbe said to have commenced with the reign of Charles I. , and to havebegun a sort of retrogression with the Hanoverian succession. But therewere printers and booksellers here at the latter part of the sixteenthcentury. From a newspaper published in this district in 1664, we learnthat no less than 464 pamphlets were published here during four years. It was a sort of seventeenth-century combination of the Paternoster Rowand Fleet Street of the present day. It is the place where, according toa widely circulated statement, first made in Richardson's 'Remarks onParadise Lost, ' 1734, an Earl of Dorset accidentally discovered, when ona book-hunt in 1667, a work hitherto unknown to him, entitled 'ParadiseLost. ' He is said to have bought a copy, and the bookseller begged himto recommend it to his friends, as the copies lay on his hand like somuch wastepaper. The noble Earl showed his copy to Dryden, who isreported to have exclaimed: 'This man cuts us all out, and the ancientstoo. ' Though this anecdote may be apocryphal, certain it is the poem isin a way connected with the neighbourhood, inasmuch as Simmons' shop wasin Aldersgate Street. In addition to this fact, Richardson also tells usthat Milton lodged for some time in Little Britain with Millington, thefamous book-auctioneer, who had then quitted the rostrum and followedthe more peaceful vocation of a dealer in old books. Roger North, in his 'Life of the Right Hon. Francis North, ' has anoft-quoted reference to Little Britain. From this interesting account welearn that during the latter part of the seventeenth century it was aplentiful and perpetual emporium of learned authors, and that men wentthither as to a market. The trade of the place was, in consequence, animportant one, the shops being large, and much resorted to by literarypersonages, wits, men-about-town, and fashionable notabilitiesgenerally. The booksellers then were men of intellect. But referring, byway of contrast, to the place during the earlier half of the eighteenthcentury, he laments that 'this emporium is vanished, and the tradecontracted into the hands of two or three persons, who, to make goodtheir monopoly, ransack, not only their neighbours of the trade that arescattered about the town, but all over England, ay, and beyond sea, too, and send abroad their circulators, and in this manner get into theirhands all that is valuable. The rest of the trade are content to taketheir refuse, with which, and the fresh scum of the press, they furnishone side of the shop, which serves for the sign of a bookseller, ratherthan a real one; but instead of selling, deal as factors, and procurewhat the country divines and gentry send for; of whom each hath hisbook-factor, and, when wanting anything, writes to his bookseller andpays his bill. And it is wretched to consider what pickpocket work, withthe help of the press, these demi-booksellers make. They crack theirbrains to find out selling subjects, and keep hirelings in garrets, athard meat, to write and correct by the groat; and so puff up an octavoto a sufficient thickness; and there is six shillings current for anhour and half's reading, and perhaps never to be read or looked uponafter. One that would go higher, must take his fortune at blank walls, and corners of streets, or repair to the sign of Bateman, King, and oneor two more, where are best choice, and better pennyworths. I mighttouch other abuses, as bad paper, incorrect printing, and falseadvertising; and all of which and worse are to be expected, if a carefulauthor is not at the heels of them. ' We get an interesting glimpse of a meeting of two book-lovers in thislocality from Izaak Walton. In his 'Life of Bishop Sanderson, ' Waltonwrites that about the time Sanderson was printing this excellent preface('before his last twenty Sermons, ' 1655), 'I met him accidentally inLondon, in sad-coloured clothes, and, God knows, far from costly. Theplace of our meeting was near to Little Britain, where he had been tobuy a book, which he then had in his hand. ' The house of Bateman is worthy of an important chapter in thebookselling annals of Little Britain, and the best-known member(Christopher) of the family is described in the usual sugared style ofJohn Dunton: 'There are few booksellers in England (if any) thatunderstand books better than Mr. Bateman, nor does his diligence andindustry come short of his knowledge. He is a man of great reputationand honesty. ' Nichols states that Bateman would allow no person to lookinto books in his shop, and when asked a reason for this extraordinaryrule, he answered: 'I suppose you may be a physician or an author, andwant some recipe or quotation; and, if you buy it, I will engage it tobe perfect before you leave me, but not after, as I have suffered byleaves being torn out, and the books returned, to my very great loss andprejudice. ' Bateman's shop was a favourite resort of Swift, who severaltimes speaks of it in his 'Journal to Stella:' 'I went to Bateman's, thebookseller, and laid out eight and forty shillings for books. I boughtthree little volumes of Lucian, in French, for our Stella, and so, andso' (January 6, 1710-11); and again: 'I was at Bateman's, to see a fineold library he has bought, and my fingers itched as yours would do at achina-shop' (July 9, 1711). One of the most frequent visitors to Bateman's shop was Thomas Britton, 'the small-coal man, ' who died in September, 1714. His knowledge ofbooks, of music and chemistry was certainly extraordinary, having regardto his ostensible occupation. His collection of manuscripts and printedmusic and musical instruments was very large. Lord Somers gave £500 forhis collection of pamphlets, and Sir Hans Sloane was also a purchaser ofmany curious articles. He was a very well-known character, and 'was somuch distinguished that, when passing through the streets in his bluelinen frock, and with his sack of small coal on his back, he wasfrequently accosted with the following expression: "There goes thefamous small-coal man, who is a lover of learning, a performer in music, and a companion for gentlemen. "' Saturday, when Parliament was notsitting during the winter, was the market day with the booksellers ofLittle Britain; and in the earlier part of the last century, thefrequenters of this locality included such worthies as the Duke ofDevonshire, Edward, Earl of Oxford, and the Earls of Pembroke, Sunderland, and Winchelsea. After the 'hunt' they often adjourned to theMourning Bush in Aldersgate, where they dined and spent the remainder ofthe day. [Illustration: _Thomas Britton, 'the small-coal man, ' Collector ofMusical Instruments and MSS. _] Another famous Little Britain bookseller was Robert Scott whose sisterwas the Hon. And Rev. Dr. John North's 'grandmother's woman. ' Scott wasa man of 'good parts, ' and was in his time, says Roger North, the'greatest librarian in Europe; for besides his stock in England, he hadwarehouses at Frankfort, Paris, and other places, and dealt by factors. 'When an old man, Scott 'contracted with one Mills, of St. Paul'sChurchyard, near £10, 000 deep, and articled not to open his shop anymore. But Mills, with his auctioneering, atlases, and projects, failed, whereby poor Scott lost above half his means. . . . He was not only anexpert bookseller, but a very conscientious, good man, and when he threwup his trade, Europe had no small loss of him. ' The most celebrated family of booksellers, perhaps, who lived in LittleBritain, was that of Ballard, or Bullard, as the original name appearsby the auction catalogues. The family were connected with the trade forover a century, and were noted, says Nichols, 'for the soundness oftheir principles in Church and State. ' One Henry Ballard lived at thesign of the Bear without Temple Bar, over against St. Clement's Church, in 1597, but whether he was an ancestor of the family in question is notcertain. Thomas Ballard, the founder of the bookselling branch, wasdescribed by Dunton, in 1705, as 'a young bookseller in Little Britain, but grown man in body now, but more in mind: 'His looks are in his mother's beauty drest, And all the Father has inform'd the rest. ' Samuel Ballard, for many years Deputy of the Ward of Aldersgate Within, died August 27, 1761, and his only son, Edward, January 2, 1796, agedeighty-eight, in the same house in which he was born, having outlivedhis mental faculties. He was the last of the profession in LittleBritain. Among the scores of Little Britain men who combined publishing withsecond-hand bookselling, one of the more interesting is William Newton, who resided there during the earlier years of the last century. In 1712he published Quincy's 'Medicina Statica, ' at the end of which is thiscurious 'Advertisement' (minus the superfluity of capitals): 'Thosepersons who have any Librarys (_sic_) or small parcels of old books todispose of, either in town or countrey, may have ready money for them ofWill. Newton, Bookseller in Little Britain, London. Also all gentlemen, and schoolmasters, may be furnished with all sorts of classics, in usumDelphi, Variorum, etc. Likewise, he will exchange with any person, forany books they have read and done with. ' It was from the Dolphin, in Little Britain, that Samuel Buckley firstissued the _Spectator_, March 1, 1711, _et seq. _ Tom Rawlinson residedhere for some years, as did another and different kind of celebrity, Benjamin Franklin, who worked at Palmer's famous printing-house inBartholomew Close. 'While I lodged in Little Britain, ' says Franklin, inhis 'Autobiography, ' 'I made an acquaintance with one Wilcox, abookseller, whose shop was at the next door. He had an immensecollection of second-hand books. Circulating libraries were not then inuse; but we agreed that, on certain reasonable terms, which I have nowforgotten, I might take, read, and return any of the books. This Iesteemed a great advantage, and made as much use of as I could. ' [Illustration: _Duke Street, Little Britain, formerly called DuckLane. _] But by Franklin's time the book trade of Little Britain had declinedbeyond any hope of recovery. In 1756 Maitland describes the place as'very ruinous'; the part from 'the Pump to Duck Lane is well built, andthough much inhabited formerly by booksellers, who dealt chiefly in oldbooks, it is now much deserted and decayed. ' A few years before Nicholspublished his 'Literary Anecdotes, ' two booksellers used to sport theirrubric posts close to each other here in Little Britain, and theserubric posts[176:A] were once as much the type of a bookseller's shop asthe pole is of a barber's. Nearly all the numerous lanes and alleys immediately contiguous toLittle Britain were more or less inhabited by second-hand booksellers. The most important in every respect of these was Duck Lane, subsequentlyrechristened Duke Street, and in 1885 as a part and parcel of LittleBritain. It is the street which leads from West Smithfield to one end ofLittle Britain, and the change was a very foolish one. It was to thisstreet that Swift conjectured that booksellers might send inquiries forhis works. 'Some county squire to Lintot goes, Inquires for Swift in verse and prose. Says Lintot, "I have heard the name, He died a year ago. " "The same. " He searches all the shops in vain: "Sir, you may find them in Duck Lane. "' And Garth tells how the learned Dr. Edward Tyson filled his library fromthe Duck Lane shops: 'Abandoned authors here a refuge meet, And from the world to dust and worms retreat Here dregs and sediments and authors reign, Refuse of fairs and gleanings of Duck Lane. ' Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt has noted the fact that a copy of Zach. Ursinus''Summe of Christian Religion, ' translated by H. Parry (1617), containson the first leaf this note: 'Mary Rous her Booke, bought in Duck Lanebey Smithfelde, this year, 1644. ' Not very far from Little Britain is the Barbican, which at the earlierpart of the century contained several bookshops, but has sincedegenerated into forbidding warehouses. Charles Lamb, under date March25, 1829, writes: 'I have just come from town, where I have been to getmy bit of quarterly pension, and have brought home from stalls inBarbican the old "Pilgrim's Progress, " with the prints--Vanity Fair, etc. --now scarce. Four shillings; cheap. And also one of whom I have oftheard and had dreams, but never saw in the flesh--that is insheepskin--"The Whole Theologic Works of Thomas Aquinas. " My arms achedwith lugging it a mile to the stage, but the burden was a pleasure, suchas old Anchises was to the shoulders of Æneas, or the lady to the loverin the old romance, who, having to carry her to the top of a highmountain (the price of obtaining her), clambered with her to the top andfell dead with fatigue. ' [Illustration: _Charles Lamb, after D. Maclise. _] The district to which the name of Moorfields was once applied has nogreat historic interest. It remained moorfields until it was firstdrained in 1527. In the reign of James I. It was first laid out intowalks, and during the time of Charles II. Some portions of it were builtupon. It soon became famous for its musters and pleasant walks, itslaundresses and bleachers, its cudgel-players and popular amusements, its bookstalls and ballad-sellers. Writing at the beginning of the lastcentury, that pungent critic of the world in general, Tom Brown, observes: 'Well, this thing called prosperity makes a man strangelyinsolent and forgetful. How contemptibly a cutler looks at a poorgrinder of knives; a physician in his coach at a farrier a-foot; and awell-grown Paul's Churchyard bookseller upon one of the trade that sellssecond-hand books under the trees in Moorfields!' In Thoresby's 'Diary'we have an entry under the year 1709 of a very rare edition of the NewTestament in English, 1536, having been purchased in Moorfields. [Illustration: _Old Houses in Moorfields. _] By the middle of the last century Moorfields became an assemblage ofsmall shops, particularly booksellers', and remained such until, in1790, the handsome square of Finsbury arose on its site. That some ofthese booksellers of Moorfields had considerable stocks is seen by thefact that that of John King, of this place, occupied ten days in thedispersal at Samuel Baker's in 1760. Perhaps one of the most famous ofthe Moorfields booksellers was Thomas King, who published pricedcatalogues of books from 1780 to 1796, and who deserted Moorfields atabout the latter date, to take premises in King Street, Covent Garden, as a book-auctioneer. Horace Walpole, referring to James West's sale in1773, says: 'Mr. West's books are selling outrageously. His family willmake a fortune by what he collected from stalls and Moorfields. ' Thissale, which occupied twenty-four days, included, as we have said on aprevious page, books by Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and others, and alsoworks on Old English literature, voyages and travels, not a few of whichwere undoubtedly picked up in Moorfields. The Rev. John Brand, secretaryof the Society of Antiquaries, who died in 1806, visited almost dailythe bookstalls between Piccadilly and Mile End, and may be regarded asanother Moorfields book-hunter; he generally returned from theseexcursions with his deep and wide pockets well laden. His books werechiefly collected in this way, and for comparatively small sums. Brandcared little for the condition of his books, many of which wereimperfect, the defects being supplied in neatly-written MS. (See p. 190. ) John Keats, the poet, was born in Moorfields, and Tom Dibdin wasapprenticed to an upholsterer in this district. FINSBURY. [Illustration: _Interior of Lackington's Shop. _] When Moorfields became improved into Finsbury Circus, the booksellingelement was by no means extinguished. James Lackington (1746 to 1816), who had established himself as a bookseller in Chiswell Street, wasissuing catalogues from that address from 1779 to 1793. He first startedselling books on Midsummer Day, 1774, in Featherstone Street, St. Luke's. It was from Chiswell Street that Lackington dated those ramblingletters which he styles 'Memoirs of the Forty-five First Years' of hislife. In twelve years he had progressed so rapidly, from the sack of oldrubbish for which he paid a guinea and with which he began business as abookseller, that a move to more commodious premises became necessary. In1794 he transferred his stock to one of the corners of FinsburySquare--which had been then built about five years--and started his'Temple of the Muses. ' The original building was burnt down some yearsago, but the late Charles Knight has left on record an interestingsketch of the place as it struck him in 1801: 'Over the principalentrance is inscribed, "Cheapest Booksellers in the World. " It is thefamous shop of Lackington, Allen and Co. , "where above half a million ofvolumes are constantly on sale. " We enter the vast area, whosedimensions are to be measured by the assertion that a coach and sixmight be driven round it. In the centre is an enormous circular counter, within which stand the dispensers of knowledge, ready to wait upon thecounty clergyman, in his wig and shovel hat; upon the fine ladies, infeathers and trains; or upon the bookseller's collector, with his dirtybag. If there is any chaffering about the cost of a work, the shopmanpoints to the following inscription: "The lowest price is marked onevery book, and no abatement made on any article. " We ascend a broadstaircase, which leads to "The Lounging Rooms" and to the first of aseries of circular galleries, lighted from the lantern of the dome, which also lights the ground-floor. Hundreds, even thousands, of volumesare displayed on the shelves running round their walls. As we mounthigher and higher, we find commoner books in shabbier bindings; butthere is still the same order preserved, each book being numberedaccording to a printed catalogue. . . . The formation of such anestablishment as this assumes a remarkable power of organization, aswell as a large command of capital. ' [Illustration: _Jones and Co. (successors to Lackington). _] Six years after he had started, Lackington, who had been joined by hisfriend, John Denis--a man of some capital--published his first catalogue(1779), the title of the firm being Lackington and Co. , and the listenumerating some 12, 000 volumes. Denis appears to have been a genuinebook-collector and a man of some taste, with the very natural resultthat they soon parted company. Lackington was as vain and officious acharlatan as ever stepped in shoe-leather--a trade to which he had beenbrought up, by the way--but that he had organizing abilities of a veryuncommon order there can be no question. He found the catalogue businessa great success, and in due course issued one of 820 pages, withentries of nearly 30, 000 volumes and sets of books, all classified undersubjects as well as sizes. For thirteen years (after 1763) Lackingtondid all his own cataloguing. In 1798 the Temple of the Muses was madeover to George Lackington, Allen and Co. The former was a third cousinof the founder of the firm, and is described by John Nichols as 'welleducated and gentlemanly. ' [Illustration: _Lackington's Halfpenny. _] When he retired from the business, Lackington enjoyed himself to the topof his bent, travelling all over the kingdom in his state coach andscribbling. His 'Confessions' appeared in 1804, and form a sequel to his'Memoirs, ' already mentioned. He died on November 22, 1815, and isburied at Budleigh Salterton, Devon. As a bookseller, he certainly was asuccess--perhaps, indeed, one of the most successful, all thingsconsidered, that ever lived in London. He is a hero in pretty much thesame sense as James Boswell. He had, as a matter of course, hisdetractors. His contemporary booksellers loved him not, for his methodsof quick sales and small profits were things unheard of until heappeared on the scene. Peter Pindar's 'Ode to the Hero of FinsburySquare, 1795, ' is a choice specimen of this witty writer. It begins: 'Oh! thou whose mind, unfetter'd, undisguised, Soars like the lark into the empty air; Whose arch exploits by subtlety devised, Have stamped renown on Finsbury's New Square, Great "hero" list! Whilst the sly muse repeats Thy nuptial ode, thy prowess great _in sheets_. ' Accompanying this ode was a woodcut, which represents Lackingtonmounting his gorgeous carriage upon steps formed by Tillotson's'Sermons, ' a Common Prayer, and a Bible; from one of his pockets thereprotrudes a packet of papers, labelled 'Puffs and lies for my book, ' andfrom the other 'My own memoirs. ' The 'Co. ' of George Lackington, Allen and Co. Was a Mr. Hughes. At thenext shuffling of cards the firm consisted of Lackington, A. Kirkman, Mavor--a son of Dr. Mavor, of Woodstock--and Jones. In 1822 the firmconsisted of Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Lepard, andsubsequently of Harding and Lepard (who had absorbed the importantbusiness of Triphook, the Cunning Bookseller of Beloe, and it was thistrio who published the second edition of Dibdin's 'Library Companion'), by whom the business was transferred to Pall Mall East. GeorgeLackington died in March, 1844, aged seventy-six. In the _Bookseller_ ofDecember 16, 1886, there is an interesting memoir of Kames James Ford, 'the last of the Lackingtonians, ' who died at Crouch Hill five dayspreviously, aged ninety-four. CENTRAL AND EAST LONDON. [Illustration: _The Poultry in 1550. _] Cheapside had never much attraction to the book-collector, but thePoultry (which is in reality a continuation of the Cheapsidethoroughfare) was for two and a half centuries a bookselling locality. In 1569, for example, John Alde was living at 'the long shop adjoiningto St. Mildred's Church in the Poultry. ' From the middle to the end ofthe seventeenth century the locality had become quite famous for itsbookshops. Nat Ponder, who 'did time' for publishing a seditiouspamphlet, was Bunyan's publisher. John Dunton's shop was at the sign ofthe Black Raven. No. 22 was the residence of the brothers Charles andEdward Dilly, and it was here, at a dinner, that Dr. Johnson'sprejudices against Wilkes were entirely broken down by the latter'sbrilliant conversation. The Dillys were great entertainers, and all themore notable literary people of the period were to be met at theirhouse. They amassed a very large fortune. Edward died in 1807, havingrelinquished the business some years previously to Joseph Mawman, whodied in 1827. Mawman, it may be mentioned, wrote an 'Excursion to theHighlands of Scotland, ' 1805, which the _Edinburgh_ furiously assailed:'This is past all enduring. Here is a tour, _travelled_, _written_, _published_, _sold_, and, for anything we know, _reviewed_ by one andthe same individual! We cannot submit patiently to this monstrousmonopoly. ' No. 31 was the shop of Vernor and Hood, booksellers. Thelatter was father of the facetious Tom Hood, who was born here in 1798. Spon, of 15, Queen Street, Cheapside, was issuing, half a century ago, his 'City of London Old Book Circulars, ' which often contained excellentbooks at very moderate prices. [Illustration: _The Old Mansion House, Cheapside. _] The district more or less immediately contiguous to the Bank of Englandwas for a long period a favourite bookselling locality, but heavy rentsand crowded thoroughfares have completely killed the trade in the heartof commercial London. Early in the seventeenth century, Pope's HeadAlley, a turning out of Cornhill, contained a number of booksellers' andpublishers' shops. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, ThomasGuy, with a capital of about £200, started selling books at 'the littlecorner house of Lombard Street and Cornhill'; but his wealth was notderived from this source. It is interesting to note, however, that thislittle corner shop existed so recently as 1833 or 1834. AlexanderCruden, of 'Concordance' fame, settled in London in 1732, and opened abookstall under the Royal Exchange, and it was whilst here that hecompiled the 'Concordance' which ruined him in business and deranged hismind. William Collins, whose catalogues for many years 'furnishedseveral curiosities to the literary collectors, ' started selling booksin Pope's Head Alley, in or about 1778, but was burnt out in thefollowing year, when he removed to Exchange Alley, where he remaineduntil the last decade of the last century. John Sewell, who died in 1802(aged sixty-eight), was one of the last to sport the rubric posts, andhis shop in Cornhill was a highly popular resort with book-buyers; hewas succeeded by another original character in the person of JamesAsperne. J. And A. Arch were in Cornhill contemporaneously with Asperne, and it was to these kindly Quakers that Thomas Tegg turned, and not invain, after being summarily dismissed from Lane's, in Leadenhall Street, and with whom he remained for some years. It was not until some timeafter he had started on his own account that Tegg commenced his nightlybook-auctions at 111, Cheapside, an innovation which resulted in Teggfinding himself a fairly rich man. His next move was to the old MansionHouse, once the residence of the Lord Mayor, and here he met with anincreased prosperity and popularity. He was elected a Common Councillorof the ward of Cheap, and took a country house at Norwood. Up to theclose of 1840, Tegg had issued 4, 000 works on his own account (chiefly'remainders'), and not 'more than twenty were failures. ' The morenoteworthy second-hand booksellers of this neighbourhood half a centuryago were Charles Davis, whose shop was at 48, Coleman Street, and T. Bennett, of 4, Copthall Buildings, at the back of the Bank, each of whompublished catalogues. A quarter of a century ago the last-named addresswas still in possession of second-hand booksellers--S. And T. Gilbert, and subsequently of Gilbert and Field. One of the oldest booksellingfirms in the City is that of Sandell and Smith, of 136, City Road, whichdates back to 1830. It was whilst exploring in some of the upper roomsof this shop that a well-known first-edition collector, Mr. ElliotStock, came upon an incomparable array of the class of book for which hehad an especial weakness. He obtained nearly a sackload at an average oftenpence or a shilling each, and as many of these are now not only veryrare, but in great demand at fancy prices, it is scarcely necessary tosay that the investment was a peculiarly good one. The 'haul' includedworks by Byron, Bernard Barton, Browning, Barry Cornwall, Lytton, Cowper, Dryden, Hogg, Moore, Rogers, Scott, Wordsworth, and a lot ofeighteenth-century writers. Half a century ago Edwards' 'Cheap RandomCatalogues' were being issued from 76, Bunhill Row. [Illustration: _Gilbert and Field's Shop in Copthall Court. _] [Illustration: _E. George's (late Gladding's) Shop, Whitechapel Road. _] So far as the East End of London is concerned, there is not, perhaps, very much to say. The second-hand bookselling trade for the pasthalf-century has been confined in a large measure to three firms--R. Gladding, an octogenarian, who dealt almost exclusively in theologicalbooks, whose shop was at 76, Whitechapel Road, and who retired at theend of 1893; E. George and Sons, who have been for many yearsestablished at 231, Whitechapel Road, and have lately acquiredGladding's shop; and Joseph Smith, 2, Oxford Street, Whitechapel. Thetwo last-named firms are, in their respective ways, of more than usualinterest. Mr. E. George, whose father, William George, was also abookseller, started in business on his own account between thirty andforty years ago, his stock-in-trade consisting of four shillings' worthof miscellaneous volumes, which he exposed for sale on a barrow closeto the old Whitechapel workhouse, which occupied the ground on which oneof Mr. George's shops now stands. Mr. George has built up one of themost remarkable and extensive business connections in existence. Hisstock may be roughly calculated at about 700, 000 or 800, 000 volumes orparts, two large houses and warehouses being literally crammed full fromtop to bottom. There is scarcely any periodical or transactions of anylearned society which they are unable to complete, and in manyinstances--_Punch_, for example--they have at least a dozen completesets, besides an infinity of odd numbers and parts. It is scarcelynecessary to point out that Messrs. George's business has very little todo with the locality in which their shops are situated. They are thewholesale firm of the trade, and the larger part of their business isdone in the United States and among the provincial booksellers of GreatBritain, ten huge cases and a complete set of Hansard being on the eveof exportation to America at the time of our visit. It is a curiousfact, and one well worth mentioning, that until last year (1894) thisfirm never issued a catalogue. It is also interesting to point out thattheir shop at 76, Whitechapel Road is one of the most admirably arrangedbookstores in the country. It was specially constructed, and is notunlike a miniature British Museum Reading-room; there are two galleries, one above the other. The second East End worthy has a literary as wellas a bibliopolic interest. Joseph Smith will be better remembered byposterity as the compiler of a 'Catalogue of Friends' Books, ' and of the'Bibliotheca Anti-Quakerana, ' than as a bookseller. He was twenty yearscompiling the former, and is perhaps one of the most strikingillustrations of the wisdom of the theory that the bookseller who wishesto be a success should never read! Joseph Smith is of the Society ofFriends, and among his schoolfellows were John Bright and W. E. Forster. Second-hand bookselling in the East End has declined during the pastquarter of a century from several causes, the chief and most importantbeing the almost complete withdrawal of moderately well-to-do peoplefrom the locality. The neighbourhood has become so exclusively inhabitedby the poorest of the poor, and by the desolate immigrants from allcountries, that the higher phases of bookselling have little chance offlourishing. Mr. E. George informs us that fifteen or twenty years agohe frequently sold in one day books to the value of £15 to genuineresidents of the East End, but that he now does not sell fifteenshillings' worth. So far as local customers are concerned, he might justas well have nothing more elaborate than a warehouse. Many interesting bookish events have, nevertheless, transpired in whatis now the slummiest district of London, and if the best of theseanecdotes were collected they would fill quite a big volume. They arevery varied in character, and some of the stories have very differentmorals. Here is one related concerning the Rev. Mr. Brand, to whom wehave already referred. He was a clergyman of that district, and, it isfeared, sometimes neglected his religious duties for the more engrossingcharms of the chase. One Friday afternoon he was roaming in theneighbourhood of his church, when his eye fell on the shop of a Jewbookseller which he had not before noticed, and was astonished to seethere a number of black-letter volumes exposed for sale. But the sun wasrapidly going down, and the Jew, loath to be stoned by his neighboursfor breaking the Sabbath, was hastily interposing the shutters betweenthe eyes of the clergyman and the coveted books. 'Let me look at theminside, ' said the Rev. Mr. Brand; 'I will not keep you long. ''Impossible, ' replied the Jew. 'Sabbath will begin in five minutes, andI absolutely cannot let myself be drawn into such a breach of DivineLaw. But if you choose to come early on Sunday morning you may see themat your leisure. ' The reverend gentleman accordingly turned up at eighta. M. On Sunday, intending to remain there till church-time, he having todo duty that day. He had provided himself with the overcoat which hewore on his book-hunting expeditions, and which had pockets large enoughto swallow a good-sized folio. The literary treasures of the son ofIsrael were much more numerous than the Gentile expected. At this timethere was not such a rush for Caxtons as we have witnessed since theRoxburghe sale. Mr. Brand found one of these precious relics in a verybad condition, although not past recovery, paid a trifling price for it, and pocketed it. Then he successively examined some rare productions ofthe presses of Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, and so forth. The clergyman'spurchases soon began to assume considerable proportions. Archimedes wasnot more fully absorbed in his geometrical problems when the Romansoldier killed him, than the East End clergyman in his carefulcollations. He was aroused, however, from his reveries by the Jewesscalling out: 'Mike, dinner is ready. ' 'Dinner!' exclaimed the parson. 'At what time do you dine?' 'At one o'clock, ' she replied. He looked athis watch. It was too true. He hastened home. In the meantime, thebeadle had been to his house, and finding he had left it in his usualhealth, it was feared some accident had happened. The congregation thendispersed, much concerned at the absence of the worthy pastor, who, however, atoned in the evening, by unwonted eloquence, for hisunpremeditated prank of the morning. HOLBORN AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. As a second-hand bookselling locality, Holborn is one of the oldest ofthose in which the trade is still carried on vigorously. As abookselling locality it has a record of close on three centuries and ahalf. As early as 1558, a publisher was issuing cheap books inconnection with John Tisdale, at the Saracen's Head, in Holborn, near tothe Conduit, and in one of these booklets we are enjoined to 'Remember, man! both night and day, Thou needs must die, there is no Nay. ' Probably the earliest, and certainly one of the earliest, bookspublished in Holborn was the 'Vision of Piers Plowman, ' 'now fyrstimprinted by Robert Crowley, dwellyng in Ely-rents in Holburne, ' in1550, which contains a very quaint address from the printer. In andabout the year 1584, Roger Warde, a very prolific publisher, wasdwelling near 'Holburne Conduit, at the sign of the "Talbot, "' and astill more noteworthy individual, Richard Jones, lived hard by, at thesign of the Rose and Crown. Early in the seventeenth century, several members of the fraternity hadestablished themselves in and around Gray's Inn Gate, then termed, moreappropriately, Lane. Henrie Tomes published 'The Commendation of Cocksand Cock-fighting' (1607), which, no doubt, the 'young bloods' of theperiod perused much more diligently than more instructive and edifyingbooks with which Mr. Tomes also could have supplied them. Its most famous bibliopolic resident, however, is Thomas Osborne, or TomOsborne, as he was called in the trade and by posterity. Tom Osborne'sfame began and ended with himself. Nobody knew whence he came, andprobably nobody cared. His catalogues cover a period of thirtyyears--1738-1768--and include some very remarkable libraries of manyfamous men. In stature he is described as short and thick, so that Dr. Johnson's famous summary method of knocking him down[192:A] was notperhaps so difficult a feat as is generally supposed. To hisinferiors--including, as he apparently but ruefully thought, Dr. Johnson--he generally spoke in an authoritative and insolent manner. Asignorant as Lackington, he was considerably less aware of the fact. Osborne's shop, like that of Jacob Tonson[192:B] at the end of theseventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, was at the Gray'sInn Road gate of, or entrance to, Gray's Inn. His greatest _coup_ wasthe purchase of the Harleian Collection of books--the manuscripts werebought by the British Museum for £10, 000--for £13, 000, in 1743. It issaid on good authority that the Earl of Oxford gave £18, 000 for thebinding of only a part of them. In 1743-44, the extent of thisextraordinary collection was indicated by the 'Catalogus BibliothecaHarleianæ, ' in four volumes. The first two, in Latin, were compiled byDr. Johnson at a daily wage, and the third and fourth (which are arepetition of the first two), in English, are by Oldys. A charge of 5s. Was made for the first two volumes, which caused a good deal ofgrumbling among the trade, and was resented 'as an avariciousinnovation, ' but Osborne replied that the volumes could be eitherreturned in exchange for books or for the original purchase-money. Hewas also charged with rating his books at too high a price, but a glancethrough the catalogue will prove this to be an unjust accusation. Thecopy of the Aldine Plato, 1513, on vellum, for which Lord Oxford gave100 guineas, is priced by Osborne at £21. The sale of the books appearsto have been extremely slow, and Johnson assured Boswell that 'there wasnot much gained by the bargain. ' Nichols' 'Literary Anecdotes' (iii. 649-654) gives a list of the libraries which Osborne absorbed into hisstock at different times, but few of these are anything more than namesat the present day. Osborne is satirized in the 'Dunciad, ' but, according to Johnson, was so dull that he could not feel the poet'sgross satire. Sir John Hawkins states that Osborne used to boast that hewas worth £40, 000, and doubtless this was true. His 'Bushy bob, well powder'd every day, Bloom'd whiter than a hawthorn hedge in May, ' was one of his acquired peculiarities. Nichols tells us that theexpression 'rum books' arose from Osborne's sending unsaleable volumesto Jamaica in exchange for rum. But whilst Tom Osborne was _the_ bookseller of Holborn, there were manyothers well established here during the last century, and whose nameshave been handed down to us by the catalogues which they published. William Cater, for instance, was issuing catalogues from Holborn in1767, when he sold the libraries of Lord Willoughby, president of theSociety of Antiquaries, and in 1774 of Cudworth Bruck, anotherantiquary. Cater was succeeded in 1786 by John Deighton, of Cambridge. In the person of Henry Dell we get a literary bookseller, who hadestablished himself first in Tower Street, and in or about 1765 inHolborn, where, Nichols tells us, he died very poor. He wrote 'TheBooksellers, a Poem, ' 1766, which has been pronounced 'a wretched, rhyming list of booksellers in London, and Westminster, with sillycommendations of some and stupid abuse of others. ' Other Holbornbooksellers were: William Fox, 1773-1777; John Hayes, who died November12, 1811, aged seventy-four, and 'whose abilities were of no ordinaryclass, and his erudition very considerable'; John Anderson, of HolbornHill, 1787-1792, who sold the library of the Hon. John Scott, of Gray'sInn; Francis Noble, who, besides being a bookseller, kept for many yearsan extensive circulating library in Holborn, but who, in consequence ofhis daughter's obtaining a share in the first £30, 000 prize in thelottery, retired from business, and died at an advanced age in June, 1792; Joseph White, 1779-1791; and William Flexney, who died January 7, 1808, aged seventy-seven, and who was the original publisher ofChurchill's 'Poems, ' and is thus immortalized by that versatile 'poet': 'Let those who energy of diction prize, For Billingsgate, quit Flexney, and be wise. ' Percival Stockdale, in his 'Memoirs, ' speaks highly of his 'old friend'Flexney, 'with whom I have passed many convivial and jovial hours. ' J. H. Prince, of Old North Street, Red Lion Square, Holborn, who wroteand published his own eccentric 'Life' in 1806, and who, trying andfailing in nearly everything else, took to bookselling and book-writing, evidently, like many other authors before and since, found solicitingsubscriptions for his book 'a most painful undertaking to a susceptiblemind. ' His motto was, 'I evil ni etips, ' or 'I live in spite. ' A muchmore important bookseller of Holborn was John Petheram, who lived at 94, High Holborn in the fifties, and whose catalogues were styled 'TheBibliographical Miscellany'; for some time, with each of his catalogueshe issued an eight-page supplement, which consisted of a reprint of somevery rare tract; the selection of some of these was in the hands of Dr. E. F. Rimbault. A complete set of these catalogues would be extremelyinteresting; we have only seen half a dozen of them, and these are inthe British Museum. A somewhat similar effort to give an extra interestto catalogues was made a few years ago by J. W. Jarvis and Son, of KingWilliam Street, and also by Pickering and Chatto, the Haymarket; but theexperiment apparently did not succeed. [Illustration: _Middle Row, Holborn, 1865. _] Apart from Holborn, properly so called, Middle Row, an insulated row ofhouses, abutting upon Holborn Bars, and nearly opposite Gray's InnRoad, claims a notice here, for it was long a book-hunting locality, andtwo bookshops, at least, existed there until the place was demolished inAugust, 1867. Perhaps its most famous bookseller was John Cuthell, whocame to London from Scotland in 1771, and became assistant to Drew, ofMiddle Row, whom he succeeded. He was publishing catalogues here from1787, and did a very large export business with America. He was notedfor his stock of medical and scientific books. He was still at MiddleRow in 1813, when John Nichols published his 'Literary Anecdotes, ' towhich he was a subscriber. Cuthell died at Turnham Green in 1828, agedeighty-five. He was succeeded by Francis Macpherson, who issued thethirtieth number of his catalogue in April, 1840, from No. 4, MiddleRow. The works offered comprised a selection of theological, classical, and historical books. One of the most curious entries relates to anextensive collection of books and pamphlets by and concerning the famousDr. Richard Bentley, five volumes in quarto, and thirty-one more inoctavo and duodecimo; the set (now, we believe, in the British Museum), doubtless the most complete ever offered for sale, was priced at £25, and was probably utilized in Dyce's editions of Bentley's'Dissertations, ' and in an edition of Bentley's 'Sermons at Boyle'sLecture, ' both of which Macpherson published. This catalogue isinteresting from the number of illustrations which it affords of thetransition period of English book-collecting; the various editions ofthe classics are priced at very moderate figures, whilst Englishclassics are offered at comparatively 'fancy' sums. For example, a veryneat copy of the first edition of 'Tom Jones' is offered at 18s. , and afine copy of John Bale's 'Image of Both Churches, ' without date, butprinted by East at the latter part of the sixteenth century, at £1 7s. J. Coxhead is another Holborn bookseller who may be regarded as a linkbetween the old and the new. He was at 249, High Holborn in 1840, andhad been established forty years. His lists were apparently issued onlyonce or twice a year; one of the notices in his catalogue may be quotedhere, as showing the chief medium by which country book-collectors weresupplied with their books: 'Gentlemen residing in the country had betterapply direct to J. Coxhead for any articles from this list, or they canobtain them by giving the order to their country bookseller, and it willbe sent in their weekly parcel from London. ' At about the same time, andfor nearly the same period, David Ogilby was selling second-hand booksat the same locality. One of the most interesting of the Holborn booksellers was WilliamDarton, of 58, Holborn Hill, of whose shop we give an 'interior' viewfrom a plate engraved by Darton himself. William was a son of WilliamDarton, who founded the famous publishing house of Darton and Harvey, of55, Gracechurch Street, in the latter part of the last century, theirspeciality being children's books, which had a fame almost as extensiveas those of the great Mr. Newbery himself. He was joined by his brotherThomas, and for two generations a successful business was carried on inthis place; the three generations of Dartons were prominent members ofthe Society of Friends. The house chiefly devoted itself to publishing, but it had a fairly large trade in selling the books issued by otherpublishers. The firm ceased to exist about the time when the HolbornValley improvements swept away so many of the old landmarks of thatlocality. Mr. Joseph W. Darton, the sole partner in Wells Gardner, Darton and Co. , is a grandson of the founder of the Holborn Hill houseand a great-grandson of the original William Darton. A history of theDartons would form as interesting a volume as that on John Newbery. [Illustration: _William Darton, Bookseller_, The Founder of the House ofDarton and Harvey. ] Holborn is an additionally interesting book-locality from the fact thatit was from here that some of the first book-catalogues were issued. This important innovation owes much to Charles Davis, whose shop was'against Gray's Inn. ' The earliest of these catalogues which we haveseen is a very interesting list of 168 pages octavo, and includes'valuable libraries, lately purchased, containing near 12, 000 volumes inHebrew, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, and English, ' 'whichwill be sold very cheap, the lowest price fix'd in each book, onThursday, May 7, 1747. ' The list is in many respects very curious, notthe least of which is that not one of the items offered is priced. Oneof the facts which strike one most forcibly in this connection is thelarge capitals which must have been sunk in books even at this earlyperiod. Davis, like all the other booksellers--notably Tonson andLintot--of that period, was a bookseller as well as publisher. [Illustration: _Interior of Darton's Shop, Holborn Hill. _] Moving further westward, we find records of bookselling for just acouple of centuries back. Robert Kettlewell was established at the Handand Sceptre, King's Street, Bloomsbury, whence he issued his kinsman'sapparently useful, and certainly very dull, pamphlet, entitled 'DeathMade Comfortable; or, The Way to Die Well, ' and sold a variety of otherbooks besides. Making a leap of nearly a century, we meet with SamuelHayes, of Oxford Street, and evidently a relative of John Hayes, to whomwe have already referred. Samuel Hayes--when not in a French prison, forhe was actually incarcerated by Napoleon when on a visit to France--wasat this place of business for sixteen years, 1779 to 1795, and publishedseveral catalogues. Isaac Herbert, nephew of the editor of Ames''Typographical Antiquities, ' was selling books in Great Russell Streetin and about 1795; Joseph Bell was established as a bookseller in OxfordStreet in the earlier part of the present century; Shepperson andReynolds were in the same thoroughfare from 1784 to 1793, and soldseveral very good libraries within the period indicated. Writing in1790, Pennant mentions that the chapel of Southampton, or Bedford House, Bloomsbury, was at that time rented by Lockyer Davis as a magazine ofbooks. How long it had been in Davis's tenancy is not certain, but hedied in 1791. William Davis, the author of several interestingbibliographical books, including two 'Journeys Round the Library of aBibliomaniac, ' was at the Bedford Library, Southampton Row, Holborn, during the early part of the century. Name after name might be quoted ifany useful purpose would be served. [Illustration: _James Westell's, 114, Oxford Street. _] There are many links which still connect the Holborn of to-day with theHolborn and immediate district of the past. Three have, however, passedaway within recent years. Edward W. Stibbs, whose death occurred in thespring of 1891, at the age of eighty, and whose stock was sold atSotheby's in the following year, was one of the veterans of the trade, and was essentially of the old school--the school which confined itselfalmost exclusively to classics. The second removal is that of Mr. J. Brown, whose shop was nearly opposite the entrance to Chancery Lane, andwas for nearly thirty years an exceedingly pleasant rendezvous ofbook-collectors, and whose proprietor was one of the most genial ofbibliopoles. The third is Edward Truelove, of 256, High Holborn, thewell-known agnostic bookseller, who removed here from the Strand, andwho had been in business over forty years. Mr. Truelove retired two orthree years since. Further up the road, in New Oxford Street, we findthe shop of Mr. James Westell, whose career as a bookseller embraces aperiod of over half a century, having started in 1841. Mr. Westellfirst began in a small shop in Bozier's Court, Tottenham Court Road, andthis shop has been immortalized by Lord Lytton in 'My Novel, ' for it ishere that Leonard Fairfield's friendly bookseller was situated. [201:A]Bozier's Court was a sort of eddy from the constant stream which passesin and out of Oxford Street, and many pleasant hours have been spent inthe court by book-lovers. After Mr. Westell left, it passed into thehands of another bookseller, G. Mazzoni, and finally into that of Mr. E. Turnbull, who speaks very highly of it as a bookselling locality. Mr. Turnbull added another shop to the one which was occupied by Mr. Westell; but when the inevitable march of improvements overtook thisquaint place three or four years ago, Mr. Turnbull had to leave, and hethen took a large shop in New Oxford Street, where he now is. During Mr. Turnbull's tenancy in Bozier's Court several rivals started round abouthim; but one after another failed to make it pay, and retired, leavinghim eventually in entire possession. Another old Holborn bookseller, Mr. George Glashier, who started in 1841, still has a large shop inSouthampton Row; not the shop which he occupied for very many yearswithin a few yards of Holborn, but nearer Russell Square, a less crowdedthoroughfare than the old place in the same street or row. The shop nowoccupied by Mr. A. Reader, in Orange Street, Red Lion Square, has been abookseller's for over half a century, one of the most noted tenants ofit being Mr. John Salkeld, who removed nearly twenty years since toClapham Road, and whose charmingly rustic shop, 'Ivy House, ' is quiteone of the sights of bookish London. [Illustration: _Salkeld's Shop--'Ivy House'--in Clapham Road. _] Indeed, nearly every by-street, [202:A] as well as the public highway inand around Holborn, has had its bookseller ever since the beginning ofthe century. Lord Macaulay, C. W. Dilke, W. J. Thoms, Edward Solly, JohnForster, and the visions of many other mighty book-hunters, crowd onone's memory in grubbing about after old books in this ancient andattractive, if not always particularly savoury, locality. The twoTurnstiles have always been favourites with bibliopoles. Writing in1881, the late Mr. Thoms said: 'Many years ago I received one of thecurious catalogues periodically issued by Crozier, then of LittleTurnstile, Holborn. From a pressure of business or some other cause, Idid not look through it until it had been in my possession for two orthree days, and then I saw in it an edition of "Mist's Letters" in threevolumes! In two volumes the book is common enough, but I had never heardof a third volume; neither does Bohn in his edition of Lowndes mentionits existence. Of course, on this discovery, I lost no time in making myway to Little Turnstile; and on asking for the "Mist" in three volumes, found, as I had feared, that it was sold. "Who was the lucky purchaser?"I asked anxiously; adding, "Aut Dilke aut Diabolus!" "It was notDiabolus, " was Crozier's reply; and I was reconciled when I found thebook had fallen into such good hands, and not a little surprised whenCrozier went on to say, "But he was not the first to apply for it. Mr. Forster sent for it, but would not keep it, because it was not asufficiently nice copy. "' Both the Great and the Little Turnstiles, Holborn, have always been, as we have said, famous as book-huntinglocalities, and they still preserve this reputation. In 1636 apublisher and bookseller, George Hutton, was at the 'Sign of the Sun, within the Turning Stile in Holborne. ' J. Bagford, the celebratedbook-destroyer, was first a shoemaker in the Great Turnstile, a callingin which he was not successful. Then he became a bookseller at the sameplace, and still success was denied him. At Dulwich College is a librarywhich includes a collection of plays formed by Cartwright, a booksellerof the Turnstile, who subsequently turned actor. [Illustration: _John Bagford, Shoemaker and Book-destroyer. _] [Illustration: _Mr. Tregaskis's Shop--'The Caxton Head'--in Holborn. _ (After a Drawing by E. J. Wheeler. )] The chief and most enterprising firm of booksellers in Holborn proper isthat of Mr. And Mrs. Tregaskis, at No. 232, the corner of the NewTurnstile. The house itself is full of interest, and is quite a coupleof hundred years old. A century ago one of the most eventful scenes ofDavid Garrick's career was enacted here, for it was from this house thatthe great actor was buried. Mrs. Tregaskis first started, as Mrs. Bennett, at the corner of Southampton Row, and some time after removingto her present shop, married Mr. James Tregaskis, and the two togetherhave built up a business which is scarcely without a rival in London. The shop is literally crammed with rare and interesting books, whilst'The Caxton Head Catalogues' are got up with every possible care. Almostnext door to the shop for many years occupied by the late EdwardStibbs, Mr. Walter T. Spencer carries on a trade which is almostentirely confined to first editions of modern authors. From Mr. R. J. Parker's shop at 204, the present writer has picked up a very largenumber of rare and interesting books, including a first edition ofGoldsmith--not, however, the 'Vicar'--at exceedingly moderate sums. Mr. E. Menken, of Bury Street, New Oxford Street, is one of the mostsuccessful booksellers of recent years, and his stock is both large andselect. Mr. Menken first started in Gray's Inn Road, nearly opposite theTown Hall, five or six years ago, subsequently removing to Bury Street;but his business grew so rapidly that he had to take the adjoining shopinto his service. Mr. Menken's model catalogues invariably containsomething which every book collector feels it is absolutely necessaryto have. He is a man of versatile abilities, literary and otherwise, andincludes among his customers no less a person than Mr. Gladstone. Messrs. Bull and Auvache, of 35, Hart Street, Bloomsbury, are extensivedealers in editions of the classics and Bibles. At one time there wereno less than four second-hand booksellers in Hyde Street, New OxfordStreet, but at present there is only one. Next door but one to Mudie's, we have the shop of Mr. James Roche, who is a link with the past, havingstarted in 1850, and for many years carried on business in a littlecorner shop in Southampton Row, one door from the Holborn highway. Messrs. J. Rimell and Sons, noted for their extensive collection ofworks on the fine arts and architecture, are at 91, Oxford Street. Amongthe literary booksellers of the first quarter of the present century, William Goodhugh, of 155, Oxford Street, deserves a mention here. 'TheEnglish Gentleman's Library Manual, ' 1827, is his best-known work, although from a literary standpoint it is a poor concern; he also wrote'Gates' to the French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac, 'unlocked by new and easy methods. ' Goodhugh was conversant with severalof the Oriental and many European languages. His knowledge of books wasa very extensive and profound one, and as a literary bookseller he is aninteresting figure in the annals of bibliopolic history. Fifty years agomany good books were picked up out of 'Miller's Catalogue of CheapBooks, ' which appeared monthly from 404, Oxford Street, that forSeptember, 1845, being numbered 127. A quarter of a century ago therewere several booksellers in Oxford Street, _e. G. _, G. A. Davies, at 417;W. Heath, at 497; J. Kimpton, at 303; E. Lumley, at 514; J. Pettit, at528; and Whittingham. [Illustration: _Day's Circulating Library in Mount Street. _] The further west one goes, the less interesting do the annals ofbookselling become, for Oxford Street is essentially a modern locality, and second-hand bookselling never has thrived much in new localities. Itwas, however, when rummaging over the contents of a stall in a WardourStreet alley that Charles Lamb lighted upon a ragged duodecimo, whichhad been the delight of his infancy. The price demanded was sixpence, which the owner, himself a squab little duodecimo of a character, enforced with the asseverance that his own mother should not have it fora farthing less, supplementing the assertion with an oath and 'Now, Ihave put my soul to it. ' The book was the 'Queen Like Closet, ' which, itis scarcely necessary to say, Elia rescued from the man of profanity. Soho has long been more or less of a bookselling quarter. John PaulManson, who was in King Street, Westminster, in 1786, and issued fromthence 'A Summer Catalogue' in 1795, subsequently removed to GerardStreet, Soho, and died in 1812. He was especially well versed, not onlyin Caxtons, but in all the best works of the early printers, and manyEnglish black-letter books passed through his hands. Dibdin observesthat Professor Heyne could not have exhibited greater signs of joy atthe sight of the Towneley manuscript of Homer than did Manson on thediscovery of Rastell's 'Pastyme of the People' among the books of Mr. Brand. Two sons of this Manson subsequently became partners in the firmof Christie, the art auctioneers. The first Sampson Low started as abookseller in Berwick Street, Soho, in or about 1790. Day's Library, the second oldest existing circulating library in London(the oldest is that of Cawthorn and Hutt, established in 1744, CockspurStreet), has continued from the year 1776 within a few hundred yards ofits present situation. In that year a Mr. Dangerfield established it onthe north side of Berkeley Square, and it was purchased from him by Mr. Rice in 1810 or 1811, under whom it largely developed in extent andreputation. In 1818 he removed into the adjoining Mount Street at No. 123 (south side), where for about fifty years the library remained. Meanwhile it became the property of Mr. Hoby, and after one or twochanges successively of Mr. John and Mr. Charles Day, father and son. InMr. John Day's hands it crossed the road to No. 16 on the north side, and remained there about twenty-four years, till that part of MountStreet was cleared to make way for the present Carlos Place. Then in theyear 1890 it again crossed the road to No. 96, where Mr. Charles Dayholds a long lease. An early catalogue of the institution shows that theeighteenth-century circulating libraries contained a portion of theweightier works, such as history, biography, travels, etc. , a fact whichis rarely realized in the face of the popular impression that it wasleft to the late Mr. C. E. Mudie to supply such works. ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. [Illustration: Paternoster Row on a Bank Holiday. ] The bookselling and book-hunting annals of the district which startswith St. Paul's, and terminates at Charing Cross, might occupy agoodly-sized volume. We must of necessity be brief, chiefly because bothPaternoster Row and St. Paul's Churchyard have been, for the most part, book-publishing rather than second-hand bookselling localities. As aliterary highway, Paternoster Row is of considerable antiquity, forRobert Rikke, a paternoster-maker and citizen, had a shop here in thetime of Henry IV. , and there can be no question that its name originatedfrom the fact that it was at a very early period the residence of themakers of paternosters, or prayer-beads. Before the Great Fire of 1666, Paternoster Row was not much of a bookselling centre, for it wasinhabited chiefly by mercers, silkmen, and lacemen, whose shops were afashionable resort of the gentry who resided at that time in theimmediate vicinity. After the Fire, the Row gradually became famous forits booksellers, or rather publishers, who resided at first near theeast end, and whose large warehouses were 'well situated for learned andstudious men's access thither, being more retired and private. ' Althoughthe book-annals of Paternoster Row chiefly deal with matters subsequentto the Great Fire, there were many publishers and booksellers there overa hundred years before that calamity. In and about 1558 there were, forexample, two of the fraternity here established--Richard Lant and HenrySutton, the latter's shop being at the sign of the Black Morion. Forover twenty years, 1565 to 1587, Henry Denham was at the Star inPaternoster Row, whence he issued, among a large number of other books, George Turberville's 'Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs, and Sonnets' in 1570. The last century, however, witnessed the rise of Paternoster Row as apublishing locality. From 1678 and onwards book-auctions were held atthe Hen and Chickens at nine in the morning; at the Golden Lion overagainst the Queen's Head Tavern, Paternoster Row, at nine in the morningand two in the afternoon, and at other places both in the Row and in itsnumerous tributaries, such as Ivy Lane, Ave Maria Lane, etc. Althoughsome of the earliest book-auctions held in this country took place inthe immediate vicinity of Paternoster Row, and although it had attaineda world-wide celebrity as a publishing centre, it has very fewinteresting records as a second-hand bookselling locality. Awnsham andJohn Churchill were located at the Black Swan in 1700; William Taylor, the publisher of 'Robinson Crusoe, ' 1719, was here at the sign of theShip early in the last century, and was succeeded by Thomas Longman in1725, the present handsome pile of buildings, erected in 1863, being onthe original spot occupied in part by the founder of the firm. TheLongmans had a second-hand department attached to their house in theearly part of the present century, as we have already seen. Others whichmay be here mentioned as being connected with the Row are Baldwin andCradock; and Ralph Griffiths, of the 'Dunciad'--'those significantemblems, the owl and long-eared animal, which Mr. Griffiths so sagelydisplays for the mirth and information of mankind'--for whom Goldsmithwrote reviews in a miserable garret. The last firm of second-handbooksellers of note who thrived in Paternoster Row was that of WilliamBaynes and Son; and the last of the race is still remembered by theolder generation of book-collectors, with his old-time appearance infrills and gaiters. In 1826 Baynes published one of the most remarkablecatalogues (254 pages) of books printed in the fifteenth century whichhas ever appeared. It is full of extremely valuable bibliographicalinformation. For many years John Wheldon, the natural historybookseller, had a shop, chiefly for the sale of back numbers ofperiodicals, at 4, Paternoster Row (as well as in Great Queen Street), and this little shop subsequently passed into the tenancy of JesseSalisbury, who was there until six or seven years ago. The ChapterCoffee-house, where so many important publishing schemes have beenmooted and carried out, still lingers in the Row, but modernized out ofall recognition. The chief interest of St. Paul's Churchyard as a book locality centresitself in the publishing rather than the second-hand bookselling phase. One of our earliest printer-publishers, Julian Notary, was 'dwellynge inpowles chyrche yarde besyde ye weste dore by my lordes palyes' in 1515, his shop sign being the Three Kings. At the sign of the White Greyhound, in St. Paul's Churchyard, the first editions of Shakespeare's 'Venus andAdonis' and 'Rape of Lucrece' were published by John Harrison; at theFleur de Luce and the Crown appeared the first edition of the 'MerryWives of Windsor'; at the Green Dragon the first edition of the'Merchant of Venice'; at the Fox the first edition of 'Richard II. ';whilst the first editions of 'Richard III. , ' 'Troilus and Cressida, ''Titus Andronicus, ' and 'Lear' all bear Churchyard imprints. Not only were there very many booksellers' shops around the Yard, but atthe latter part of the sixteenth century bookstalls started up, first atthe west, and subsequently at the other doors of the cathedral. From aletter addressed by Sir Clement Edmonds, March 28, 1620, to the LordMayor, we gather that two houses were erected at the west gate of St. Paul's without the sanction of the authorities, and these were orderedto be removed, as were also certain 'sheds or shops that were beingerected near the same place. ' A chief portion of the stock of theseshops and stalls would naturally be devotional books of variousdescriptions. That these books were not always to be relied on we inferfrom an amusing anecdote in the Harleian manuscripts, related by SirNicholas L'Estrange, to the effect that 'Dr. Us[s]her, Bishop of Armath, having to preach at Paules Crosse, and passing hastily by one of thestationers, called for a Bible, and had a little one of the Londonedition given him out, but when he came to looke for his text, that veryverse was omitted in the print. ' [Illustration: _John Evelyn, Book-collector. _] Mr. Pepys' bookseller, Joshua Kirton, was at the sign of the King'sArms. Writing under date November 2, 1660, Pepys chronicles: 'In Paul'sChurchyard I called at Kirton's, and there they had got a masse book forme, which I bought, and cost me 12s. , and, when I come home, sat up lateand read in it with great pleasure to my wife, to hear that she was longago acquainted with it. ' Kirton was one of the most extensive sufferersof the bookselling fraternity in the Great Fire; from being asubstantial tradesman with about £8, 000 to the good, he was made £2, 000or £3, 000 'worse than nothing. ' The destruction of books and literaryproperty generally, in and around St. Paul's, in this fire was enormous, Pepys calculating it at about £150, 000, and Evelyn putting it at£200, 000, or, in other words, about one million sterling as representedby our money of to-day. Evelyn tells us that soon after the fire hadsubsided the other trades went on as merrily as before, 'only the poorbooksellers have been indeed ill-treated by Vulcan; so many nobleimpressions consumed by their trusting them to y{e} churches. ' [Illustration: _Newbery's Shop in St. Paul's Churchyard. _ From an old woodcut. ] One of the most considerable of the Churchyard booksellers after theGreat Fire was Richard Chiswell, the father or progenitor of a numerousfamily of bibliopoles. John Dunton, indeed, describes him as welldeserving of the title of 'Metropolitan Bookseller of England, if not ofall the world. ' He was born in 1639, and died in 1711. In 1678 he sold, in conjunction with John Dunmore, another bookseller, the libraries ofDr. Benjamin Worsley and two other eminent men. At St. Paul'sCoffee-house, which stood at the corner of the entrance from St. Paul'sChurchyard to Doctors' Commons, the library of Dr. Rawlinson was, in1711, sold--'at a prodigious rate, ' according to Thoresby--in theevening after dinner. Although not quite _à propos_ of our subject, wecan scarcely help mentioning the name of so celebrated a Churchyardpublisher as John Newbery, who lived at No. 65, the original site beingnow covered by the buildings of the R. T. S. ; his successors, Griffith andFarran, were at No. 81 until the year 1889, when they moved westward. F. And C. Rivington were at No. 62 for many years, as Peter Pindar tellsus: 'In Paul's churchyard, the Bible and the Key, This wondrous pair is always to be seen, -- Somewhat the worse for wear--a little grey-- One like a saint, and one with Cæsar's mien. ' A mere list of the Churchyard booksellers would fill a goodly-sizedvolume. In addition to those already mentioned, one of the most famousand successful families who resided here were the Knaptons, where, during the first three quarters of the last century, they built up anenormous trade, and were succeeded by Robert Horsfield, who carried onthe business in Ludgate Street, and died in 1798. We possess one of theinteresting catalogues of James and John Knapton, whose shop was at thesign of the Crown. It runs to twenty pages octavo, and enumerates anextraordinary variety of literature. The books written and sermonspreached by right reverends and reverends occupy the first five pages, arranged according to the authors' names; and then follow the works ofordinary, commonplace mortals, sermons and Aphra Behn's romances, Mr. Dryden's plays and the 'Whole Duty of Man' appearing cheek-by-jowl. The most important contribution to the earlier history of booksellingappeared from St. Paul's Churchyard in the shape of Robert Clavell's'General Catalogue of Books printed in England since the Dreadful Fire, 1666, to the End of Trinity Term, 1676. ' This catalogue was continuedevery term till 1700, and includes an abstract of the bills ofmortality. The books are classified under their respective headings ofdivinity, history, physic and surgery, miscellanies, chemistry, etc. , the publisher's name in each case being given. Dunton describes Clavellas 'an eminent bookseller' and 'a great dealer, ' whilst Dr. Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, distinguished him by the term of 'the honestbookseller. ' Clavell's shop was at the sign of the Stag's Head, whilsthis partner in many of his projects was Henry Brome, of the Sun, also inthe Churchyard. Joseph Johnson, the Dry Bookseller of Beloe, demands a short noticehere. He was born at Liverpool in 1738, and after serving anapprenticeship with George Keith, Gracechurch Street, began business forhimself on Fish Street Hill, which, being in the track of the medicalstudents at the hospitals in the Borough, was a promising locality. After some years here, he removed to Paternoster Row, where he had aspartners first a Mr. Davenport, and then John Payne; the house and stockwere destroyed by fire in 1770, after which he removed to St. Paul'sChurchyard, where he continued until his death in 1809, the father ofthe trade. He was a considerable publisher, and 'two poets of greatmodern celebrity were by him first introduced to the publick--Cowper andDarwin. ' Whilst at Fish Street Hill he took over the stock of John Ward, of which he issued a catalogue. Ludgate Hill to a certain degree not unnaturally secured a little of the'bookish' brilliancy which diffused itself round and about theChurchyard. The highway to the cathedral was naturally a good businessquarter, and there can be very little doubt that some of the stalls orbooths, which formed a sort of middle row in Ludgate, were occupied bystationers and booksellers, who are not usually indifferent to theadvantages of a good thoroughfare. It never, however, came up to St. Paul's Churchyard, either as a publishing or as a bookselling locality;but many retailers were here during the latter part of the last century. Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. , is reported by Robert Huish tohave said to Mrs. Delany: 'You cannot think what nice books I pick up atbookstalls, or how cheap I buy them. ' The Rev. Dr. Croby, in his 'Lifeof George IV. , ' tells us that Queen Charlotte was in the habit of payingvisits, in company with some lady-in-waiting, to Holywell Street andLudgate Hill, 'where second-hand books were exposed for sale during thelast half of the eighteenth century. ' During the earlier part of thisperiod, among the booksellers of note in Ludgate Street were RobertHorsfield, William Johnston, and Richard Ware (who was a considerableadventurer in new publications). The business established at about thesame period and in the same locality by Richard Manley, was considerablyextended by John Pridden (1728-1807). The libraries of many eminent anddistinguished characters passed through his hands, Nichols tells us. Hisoffers in purchasing them were liberal, and, being content with smallprofits, 'he soon found himself supported by a numerous and respectableset of friends, not one of whom ever quitted him. ' Jonah Bowyer was at the Rose, in Ludgate Street, in and about the year1706, when he published the Lord Bishop of Oxford's 'Sermons preachedbefore the Queen' at St. Paul's in May of that year; and it was eitherthis Bowyer or William Bowyer--the two were not related--who establisheda bookselling department on the frozen Thames in 1716. William Johnston, who died at a very advanced age in 1804, was one of the most successfulof Ludgate Hill booksellers, and his employées included George Robinsonand Thomas Evans, each of whom became the founder of a very extensivebusiness. George Conyers was at the Ring, Ludgate Hill, for some yearsduring the last quarter of the seventeenth century, and prior to hisremoval to Little Britain. Conyers dealt chiefly in Grub Streetcompilations, which included cheap and handy guides to everything onearth, and it is likely that his shop was a literary or book-collectingresort. The most famous bibliopole who had a shop in Ludgate is perhapsWilliam Hone, to whom the liberty of the press owes so much, and whoremoved here from his house at the corner of Ship Court, Old Bailey. Trübner and Co. Left Ludgate Hill soon after they amalgamated with KeganPaul, Trench and Co. FLEET STREET. The Churchyard is, of course, the home of bookselling, but, as we haveseen, as time went on, its children, so to speak, repudiated theirbirthplace. In the middle of the sixteenth century, for example, FleetStreet contained nearly as many bookshops as the parent locality. Inaddition to this, England's second printer, Wynkyn de Worde, abandoningthe Westminster house of his master, William Caxton, took up hisresidence in Fleet Street in or about the year 1500. The sign of hisshop was the Sun, 'agaynste the Condyte, ' and as the Conduit stood atthe lower end of Fleet Street, a little eastward of Shoe Lane, we getsome idea of the exact locality. He was buried in St. Bride's Churchyardin 1534. W. Griffith was busy at the sign of the Falcon, near St. Dunstan's Church, printing booklets about current events with 'flowery'titles, and these books he sold at his second shop, designated theGriffin, 'a little above the Conduit, ' in Fleet Street. William Powell, at the George, was publishing religious books of various sorts, and a'Description of the Countrey of Aphrique, ' a translation of a Frenchbook on Africa, which was perhaps the very first on a topic now prettynearly threadbare. Richard Tottell was dwelling at the Hand and Star, between the two temple gates, and just within Temple Bar, [217:A] whencehe sent forth books by a score and more distinguished men, and whosename is worthily linked with those of Littleton, More, Tusser, Grafton, Boccaccio, and many others. In 1577 Elizabeth granted the sameindividual the privilege of printing 'all kinds of "Law bookes, " whichwas common to all printers, who selleth the same bookes at excessiveprices, to the hindrance of a greate nomber of pore students. ' OtherFleet Street booksellers were William Copland, who issued a number ofbooks, T. And W. Powell, and Henry Wykes. Two of the earliest Fleet Street booksellers, Robert Redman and RichardPynson, quickly got at loggerheads, the bone of contention beingPynson's device or mark, which his rival stole. These are theneighbourly terms which Pynson applies to Redman; they occur at the endof a new edition of Littleton's 'Tenures, ' 1525: 'Behold I now give tothee, candid reader, a Lyttleton corrected (not deceitfully) of theerrors which occurred in him. I have been careful that not my printingonly should be amended, but also that with a more elegant type it shouldgo forth to the day: that which hath escaped from the hands of RobertRedman, but truly Rudeman, because he is the rudest out of a thousandmen, is not easily understood. Truly I wonder now at last that he hathconfessed it his own typography, unless it chanced that even as theDevil made a cobbler a mariner, he hath made him a Printer. Formerlythis scoundrel did profess himself a Bookseller, as well skilled as ifhe had started forth from Utopia. He knows well that he is free whopretendeth to books, although it be nothing more. ' This pretty littlequarrel continued some time, and broke out with renewed vigour on one ortwo subsequent occasions; but the rivals ultimately became friends, andwhen Pynson retired from business, he made over his stock to 'thisscoundrel' Redman, who then removed to Pynson's shop, next to St. Dunstan's Church. The bibliopolic history of Fleet Street is almost synonymous with theliterary history of this country. Anything like an exhaustive account, even so far as relates to the bookselling side of the question, would bequite out of place in a work of this description. A few points, therefore, must suffice. Apart from the booksellers already mentioned, the following are also worthy of notice. At the latter part of thesixteenth century Thomas Marsh, of the Prince's Arms, near St. Dunstan's, issued Stow's 'Chronicles, ' and was the holder of severallicenses for printing; for nearly half a century J. Smethwicke (who diedin 1641) had a shop 'under the diall' of St. Dunstan's, whence he issuedShakespeare's 'Hamlet, ' 'Love's Labour Lost, ' 'Romeo and Juliet, ''Taming of the Shrew, ' as well as works by Henry Burton, Drayton, Greene, Lodge, and others; Richard Marriot was in St. Dunstan'sChurchyard early in the seventeenth century, and his ventures includedQuarles' 'Emblems, ' 1635, Dr. Downes' 'Sermons, ' 1640, and Walton's'Compleat Angler, ' 1653, for which 1s. 6d. Was asked, and for a goodcopy of which £310 has been recently paid; Marriot was also the sponsorof the first part of Butler's 'Hudibras, ' 1663. Thomas Dring, of theGeorge, near Clifford's Inn; John Starkey, of the Mitre, between theMiddle Temple Gate and Temple Bar, the publisher of Shadwell's plays, and for some time an exile at Amsterdam; Abel Roper, of the Black Boy, over against St. Dunstan's Church, and publisher of the _Post Boy_newspaper; Thomas Bassett, with whom Jacob Tonson was apprenticed;Tonson himself, of the Judge's Head, near the Inner Temple Gate (hestarted in Chancery Lane), are Fleet Street booksellers of the latterhalf of the seventeenth century. Early in the following century we getsuch names as Benjamin Tooke, of the Middle Temple Gate; Edmund Curll, whose chaste publications appeared from the sign of the Dial and Bible, against St. Dunstan's Church; Bernard Lintot, Tonson's great rival andPope's publisher, of the Cross Keys, between the Temple Gates; BenMotte, who succeeded Tooke; Andrew Millar, Samuel Highley, John Murray, and many others who might be mentioned, but who were publishers ratherthan second-hand booksellers. One of the earliest, and perhaps the very first, of the Fleet Streetcontingent of booksellers who advertised their stock through the mediumof priced catalogues was John Whiston, the younger son of the famousWilliam Whiston. Whiston sold several important libraries, includingthose of such eighteenth-century celebrities as D'Oyly, Dr. Castell, Wasse, Chishull, Dr. Banks, Prebendary John Wills, Adam Anderson (authorof 'The History of Commerce'), and many others; he included a largenumber of literary men among his acquaintances. From 1756 to 1765 heappears to have been in partnership with Benjamin White, and thelibraries which they sold during this period included those of the Rev. Stephen Duck; Thomas Potter, Esq. , M. P. , son of the Archbishop ofCanterbury; Charles Delafaye, Esq. , of the Secretary of State's Office;Dr. James Tunstall, Vicar of Rochdale, etc. Of all the second-handbooksellers of the latter half of the last century the most considerablewas the Benjamin White above mentioned, whose shop was at the sign ofHorace's Head, in Fleet Street, and whose bulky catalogues, oftenincluding over 10, 000 lots, are now very rare and exceptionallyinteresting. The contents of these catalogues were classified, firstinto three divisions, folio, quarto, and octavo and duodecimo, and thenagain into numerous sections according to the subject-matter of thevolumes. 'The sale will begin' on such and such a day, and 'cataloguesmay be had' at various stated booksellers' shops in London, and atOxford, and 'the principal towns of England. ' From 1716 to 1792 BenjaminWhite and his son and namesake issued catalogues of various collectionsof books, including the libraries (or selections from) of Dr. Thomas, Bishop of Salisbury; Sir William Calvert, M. P. For London; Dr. Secker;Rev. Joseph Spence; Dr. Hutchinson, editor of Xenophon; Dr. WilliamBorlase; Dr. Matthew Maty, Secretary of the Royal Society, and PrincipalLibrarian, British Museum; Sir Richard Jebb; Rev. John Bowles, editor of'Don Quixote'; Rev. John Lightfoot, chaplain to the Countess Dowager ofPortland, and author of the 'Flora Scotica. ' One of White's best customers was the eccentric George Steevens, who, however, discontinued his daily visits, after many years' regularattendance, for no real cause. He then transferred his attentions toStockdale's, whom in turn he abruptly forsook. The elder Benjaminretired from business with 'a plentiful fortune, ' and died at his housein South Lambeth in March, 1794, and Benjamin junior retired toHampstead a few years after his father, leaving the business to ayounger brother, John, who continued bookselling until the earlier partof the present century, when he, in his turn, gave up active work forthe 'enjoyment of a country life' with 'an easy competence. ' In one ofthe catalogues of this celebrated firm--our copy is minus thetitle-page, but it was evidently issued about 1790--four of the mostinteresting entries occur among the folios: Caxton's 'Lyfe of theFaders, ' with 'curious old wooden plates, not quite perfect, in Russia, 'is priced at £5 5s. ; Caxton's 'Lyfe of our Lady, ' by John Lydgate, isoffered at 10s. 6d. ; a _fair_ copy of Caxton's 'Lyfe of St. Katherineof Senis' is figured at £10 10s. , the price asked also for a 'fair, notquite perfect' example of the 'Golden Legende. ' A Second FolioShakespeare is priced at £4; a Fourth Folio at £1 7s. The same catalogueincludes a copy of the famous 'Book of Hawking and Hunting, ' printed atSt. Albans in 1486, but unfortunately the price is omitted, as is thecase with several other important rarities. The Whites published somefine natural history books, including those of Pennant, Latham, andWhite of Selborne; the last was a relative of the booksellers. Whistonwas succeeded by Nathaniel Conant, who sold, _inter alia_, the libraryof Samuel Speed, 1776, and John White was succeeded by his partner, J. G. Cochrane. Sixty years ago Charles Tilt, afterwards Tilt and Bogue, occupied 85, Fleet Street, and a charming view of this shop appears inCruikshank's 'Almanack' for March, 1835. [Illustration: _Charles Tilt's Shop. _ From Cruikshank's 'Comic Almanac. '] Although the bookselling history of Fleet Street did not cease with thegeneral migration of booksellers, from the end of the last to thebeginning of the present century much of its glory as such haddeparted. During the second and third quarters of the nineteenth centuryits bibliopolic annals are indeed few. One of its most interestinghouses was situated at No. 39, upon part of the site of the presentbanking-house of Messrs. Hoare. Here formerly stood the famous MitreTavern; this place was much damaged during the Great Fire, and waspartly rebuilt. In the last century it was a favourite resort of Wanley, Vertue, Dr. Stukeley, Hawkesworth, Percy, Johnson, Boswell, and manyother celebrities. Johnson and Boswell first dined here in 1763. It washere that the 'Tour to the Hebrides' was planned; it was here also, at asupper given by Boswell to the Doctor, Goldsmith, Davies, thebookseller, Eccles, and the Rev. John Ogilvie, that Johnson deliveredhimself of the theory that 'the noblest prospect which a Scotchman eversees is in the highroad that leads to England. ' From 1728 to 1753 theSociety of Antiquaries met here, and for some time also the RoyalSociety held its meetings in this place. In 1788 the tavern ceased toexist, and the house became the 'Poets' Gallery' of Macklin, whoseedition of the Bible is described as an unrivalled monument of his tasteand energy. Thomas Macklin died in 1800, and the erstwhile Mitre gaveplace--possibly not at once, but certainly very soon after--to Saunders'Auction-rooms. The most important sale which occurred here, and of whichwe have discovered any record, was an anonymous one in February, 1818;the catalogue was entitled 'Bibliotheca Selecta: Library of an eminentCollector, removed from the North of England. ' This sale occupied sixdays, and comprised a very fine series of books of old English poetry, history, topography, and illustrated books. For instance, a very finecopy in a genuine state of the First Folio Shakespeare realized the thenhigh figure of £121 16s. A copy of Yates's 'Castell of Courtesie, ' 1582, sold for £23 2s. , Steevens' copy eighteen years previously going for £210s. A large number of other excessively rare books, several of whichwere unique, were sold here at the same time; but whose they were, orhow they could have drifted into such an unimportant auction centre asSaunders', are questions which we are not able to answer. Fifty yearsago there were at least three important firms of literary auctioneers inFleet Street--Henry Southgate (who eventually turned author, and whodied about three years ago), at No. 22; L. A. Lewis, at No. 125; and E. Hodgson, referred to on p. 116. At each of these three centres manyextensive collections of books came under the hammer. When the elderSouthgate died or retired, in about 1837, two of his assistants, Grimston and Havers, left, and started on their own account at 30, Holborn Hill, making the auction of books a speciality; but theirexistence appears to have been brief. The neighbourhood had, however, a book-auction repute long before thepresent century dawned, and the Rose Tavern, near Temple Bar, was afavourite locality for this method of selling books. Samuel Baker heresold the entire library ('Bibliotheca Elegans') of Alderman Sir RobertBaylis in 1749, and that of Conyers Middleton, Principal Librarian ofthe University of Cambridge, March 4, 1750-51, and nine followingdays--by order and for the benefit of the widow, who in the preface'takes this opportunity to assure the public that this cataloguecontains the genuine library of Dr. Middleton, without any alteration, and is sold for my advantage'--there were 1, 300 lots. THE STRAND. [Illustration: _Butcher Row, 1798. _] The modernization of the Strand, but more particularly the erection ofthe New Law Courts from Temple Bar to Clement's Inn, has destroyed verymany book-hunting and literary localities. This project involved theobliteration of thirty-three streets, lanes and courts, and thelevelling of 400 dwelling, lodging and ware houses, and so forth, sheltering over 4, 000 individuals. It has entirely altered the aspect ofthe place; not perhaps before it was necessary, for the wholeneighbourhood had degenerated into rookeries of the vilest description. Among the localities swept away, a brief reference may be made to onewhich has a twofold interest--Butcher Row--first, because Clifton'sEating-house, one of Dr. Johnson's favourite resorts, was in this Row, and secondly because one of the earliest catalogues of second-hand bookswas issued from within a yard or two of Clifton's. J. Stephens' shop wasat the sign of the Bible in Butcher Row, and towards the latter part of1742 he published 'a catalogue of several libraries of books latelypurchased, in several languages, ' etc. , the price of each book being, asusual, marked on the first leaf before the sale commenced, which salewas announced to begin 'on Tuesday, the 2nd of November, 1742, ' and 'tocontinue till all are sold. ' For a copy of this exceedingly rare andinteresting catalogue we are indebted to Mr. Dobell, the bookseller. Itcomprises twenty-six pages octavo, and enumerates over 1, 300 books, themajority of which are priced. There are very few volumes in this listwhich are now included in anyone's desiderata, but the list itself is avery good indication of the book-buying tastes of our forbears of acentury and half ago. Butcher Row, it may be mentioned, was immediatelybeyond St. Clement's Church (on the northern side of the Strand), and bythe end of the last century had degenerated into a number of wretchedfabrics and narrow passages, the houses greatly overhanging theirfoundations; in or about 1802, this street was pulled down and gaveplace to Pickett Street, so named because the improvement was the schemeof Alderman Pickett. [Illustration: _Charles Hutt's House in Clement's Inn Passage. _] One of the last bookselling haunts to be pulled down was the quaint oldshop occupied by the late Charles Hutt (who, by the way, was born in thevestry of the Clare Market chapel-of-ease) where many famousbook-hunters had picked up bargains. Charles Hutt, had he lived, wouldhave become one of the leading booksellers of the day. He was for someyears at Hodgson's, and possessed a remarkable taste for, and knowledgeof, books. He left Hodgson's and started on his own account in the oldramshackle house already referred to. This shop presented sounfavourable an exterior that even the Income-tax Fiend never 'calledin, ' although at one time there were several thousands of pounds' worthof books in it. Hutt did a very extensive trade, not only in thiscountry, but in America. He had an especial aptitude at completing setsof particular authors--Landor, Leigh Hunt, Byron, Shelley--andcontributed much to the prevailing taste for modern first editions. Ayounger brother, Mr. F. H. Hutt, has been for some years established at10, Clement's Inn Passage, within a few yards of the old shop. Theassociations of the past half-century of this neighbourhood include twoother well-known firms of booksellers. Theophilus Noble, who had removedfrom 114, Chancery Lane, was at 79, Fleet Street for some years untilhis death in 1851, and a member of the same family is still asecond-hand bookseller opposite St. Mary-le-Strand Church. Reeves andTurner removed from Noble's old house in Chancery Lane, to the house onthe west side of Temple Bar and adjoining it on the north, erected onthe site of the famous old bulk-shop, the last of its race, where at onetime Crockford, 'Shell-fishmonger and gambler, ' lived. When Temple Barwas removed, this shop came down, and Reeves and Turner (who for thesecond time had to bow to the necessities of 'improvements') openedtheir well-known place on the south side of the Strand, facing St. Clement's Church. Their spacious shop here for about a quarter of acentury was a famous book-haunt, and one of the very few successful oneswhich have existed in a crowded thoroughfare. It always contained animmense variety of good and useful books, priced at exceedingly moderateamounts, and the poorer book-lover could always venture, generallysuccessfully, on suggesting a small reduction in the prices markedwithout being trampled in the dust as a thief and a robber. A year ortwo ago, when the lease of the shop expired, Messrs. Reeves and Turnerbibliopolically ceased to exist--there not being a Reeves or a Turner inthe Chancery Lane firm of booksellers of that name--but Mr. DavidReeves, a son of Mr. William Reeves, started in Wellington Street, Strand, the latter, the _doyen_ of London booksellers, occupying aportion of the house as a publisher and a dealer in remainders. [Illustration: _Mr. William D. Reeves, Bookseller. _] The most famous bookselling locality in this district is HolywellStreet, or, as it is now generally called, Booksellers' Row. This streethas always been afflicted with a questionable repute, not without cause, and much of the ill-odour of its past career still clings to it. Evensecond-hand bookselling has not purged it entirely. Half a century agoits shops were almost entirely taken up with the vendors of second-handclothes, and the offals of several other more or less disreputabletrades. Above these shops resided the Grub Street gentry of the period. 'It was, ' says one who knew it well, 'famous for its houses of call forreporters, editors and literary adventurers generally, all of whomformed a large army of needy, clever disciples of the pen, who lived bytheir wits, if they had any, and in lieu of those estimablequalifications, by cool assurance, impudence, and the gift of theirmother tongue in spontaneous and frothy eloquence. ' It was also a famousand convenient place 'for literary gentlemen and others, who weredesirous of evading bailiffs and sheriffs' officers who might be anxiousof making their acquaintance, ' for even if they were traced to theHolywell Street entrance of any particular house, they could easilyescape into Wych Street, and so slip the myrmidons of the law. It nextbecame the emporium of indecent literature (from which charge it is notyet quite free), but much of this peculiar trade was suppressed by LordCampbell's Act. For nearly half a century the place has been growing inpopularity as a _locus standi_ of the reputable second-hand book trade. Every book-hunter of note has known, or knows, of its many shops. Macaulay, for example, obtained many of his books from Holywell Street. The late Mr. Thoms related, in the _Nineteenth Century_, a very curiousincident which put the great historian in possession of some French_mémoires_ of which he had long been endeavouring to secure a copy. Macaulay was once strolling down this street, when he saw in abookseller's window a volume of Muggletonian tracts. 'Having gone in, examined the volume, and agreed to buy it, he tendered a sovereign inpayment. The bookseller had not change, but said if he (Macaulay) wouldjust keep an eye on the shop, he would step out and get it. His name, Ithink, was Hearle, and he had some relatives of the same name who hadshops in the same street. This shop was at the west end of the street, and backed on to Wych Street; and at the back was a small recess, lighted by a few panes of glass, generally somewhat obscured by thedust of ages. While Macaulay was looking round the shop, a ray ofsunshine fell through this little window on four little duodecimovolumes bound in vellum. He pulled out one of these to see what the workwas, and great was his surprise and delight at finding these were thevery French _mémoires_ of which he had been in search for many years. ' More rare and interesting books have been picked up in this streetduring the past forty years than in any other locality. Rumour, whichsometimes tells the truth, says that Shelley's copy, with his autographon the title-page, of Ossian's 'Poems' was picked up here for a fewpence. A book with Shakespeare's autograph on the title-page was alsosaid to have been rescued from among a lot of cheap books in thislocality a few years ago. We are not certain, but we believe that theShakespeare autograph has been proved to be a forgery. If that is so, then perhaps the honour of being the greatest 'find' ever discovered, about four years ago, in Holywell Street, pertains to a perfect copy of'Le Pastissier François, ' 1655, the most valuable of all the Elzevirs, its value being from about £60 to £100. The copy in question was boundup with a worthless tract, and history has not left on record what thebookseller thought when he discovered his ignorance. A copy of the firstedition of Horne's 'Orion, ' 1843, was purchased in this street for 2d. In 1886, its market value being about £2. It was originally issued at1/4d. , by way of sarcasm on the low estimation of epic poetry. TheHolywell Street bookseller did not appraise it at a much higher figurethan the author. Scarcely a week passes without a volume possessinggreat personal or historic interest being 'bagged' in this narrow butdelightful thoroughfare. Many of these finds, it is true, may not be ofgreat commercial value, but they are oftentimes very desirable books inmore respects than one. The present writer has been fortunate in thismatter. No person would now rank James Boswell, for instance, amonggreat men, but a book in two volumes, with the following inscription, 'James Boswell, From the Translator near Padua, 1765, ' would not bereckoned costly at 1s. , the book in question being a beautiful copy ofCesarotti's translation into Italian of Ossian's 'Poems. ' David Hume'sown copy of 'Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise, ' par le Sieur Amelot dela Houssaie, 1677, was not dear at 6d. , and at a similar price wasobtained an excessively rare volume (for which a well-knownbook-collector had been on the look-out in vain for many years), whosecontents are little indicated by the title of 'Roman Tablets, ' 1826, butwhose nature is at all events suggested by the sub-title of 'Facts, Anecdotes, and Observations on the Manners, Customs, Ceremonies andGovernment of Rome. ' It is a terrific exposure (originally written inFrench), for which the author was prosecuted at the solicitation of thePope's Nuncio at Paris. The late John Payne Collier has told of aHolywell Street 'find' as far back as January 20, 1823, when he pickedup a very nice clean copy of Hughes' 'Calypso and Telemachus, ' 1712, forwhich he paid 2s. 6d. It was not, however, until he reached home that hediscovered the remarkable nature of his purchase, which had belonged toPope, who had inscribed in his own autograph thirty-eight couplets, addressed 'To Mr. Hughes, On His Opera. ' These are only a selection froman extensive series of more or less interesting 'finds, ' of which everycollector has a store. Two of the earliest and best-known of the more important Holywell Streetbooksellers passed away some years ago. 'Tommy' Arthur, who made arespectable fortune out of the trade, and whose shop and connections arenow in the possession of W. Ridler, who is a successful trader, and aman of considerable independence as regards the conventionalities ofappearances. (Our artist's portrait of this celebrity in his brougham, indulging in the extravagance of a clay pipe, had not arrived at thetime of going to press, so it must be held over until the next editionof this book. ) Joseph Poole was another Holywell Street bookseller of anoriginal type, with his quaint semi-clerical attire. This bibliopole'srelatives still carry on business in this street, school-books beingwith them a speciality. The _doyen_ of the street is Mr. Henry R. Hill, whose two shops are at the extreme east end of the street. Mr. Hill hasbeen here for about forty years, and has seen many changes, not only inthe general character of the street, but also of the tastes inbook-fancies. Mr. Hill's shops, with Mrs. Lazarus's three hard by, arefull of interesting books, priced at very moderate figures. The latterhas been established here for about fifteen years. Messrs. Myers, whoalso occupy three bookshops in this street, were for some years withMrs. Lazarus; and Mr. W. R. Hill acquired a great deal of hisbook-knowledge at Reeves and Turner's. Mr. Charles Hindley has been longestablished in this street. [Illustration: _Messrs. Hill and Son's Shop in Holywell Street. _] The step from fifth-rate book-making to second-hand bookselling is not agreat one, and just as Holywell Street sheltered the Grub-writers ofhalf a century ago, so Drury Lane and its immediate vicinity was theirrecognised locality in the earlier part of the last century. It isimpossible to associate respectability, to say nothing of fashion, withthis evil-smelling, squalid thoroughfare. And yet there can be noquestion about its having been at one time an aristocratic quarter. Until within the last few years, the Lane itself, and its numeroustributaries, contained many second-hand bookshops. The most celebrated, and, indeed, almost the only one of any interest, was Andrew Jackson, who made a speciality of old and black-letter books. Nichols tells usthat for more than forty years he kept a shop in Clare Market, and here, 'like another Magliabecchi, midst dust and cobwebs, he indulged hisappetite for reading; legends and romances, history and poetry, wereindiscriminately his favourite pursuits. ' In 1740 he published the firstbook of 'Paradise Lost' in rhyme, and ten years afterwards a number ofmodernizations from Chaucer. The contents of his catalogues of the years1756, 1757, 1759, and one without date, were in rhyme. He retired in1777, and died in July, 1778, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Charles Marsh, another literary bookseller, was for some time a friendand neighbour of Jackson's. Marsh (who afterwards removed to a shop nowswallowed by the improvements in Northumberland Avenue, Charing Cross)was situated at Cicero's Head, in New Round Court, off the Strand, andis described by one who knew him as being afflicted with 'a very unhappytemper, and withal very proud and insolent, with a plentiful share ofconceit. ' He wrote a poem entitled 'The Library, an Epistle from aBookseller to a Gentleman, his Customer; desiring him to discharge hisbill, ' 1766. He was originally a church-clerk. The only catalogue ofthis celebrity which we have seen is a bulky one, over 100 pages octavo, enumerating 3, 000 books, 'among which are included the libraries of theRev. Mr. Gilbert Burnet, Minister of Clerkenwell, and an eminentapothecary, both lately deceased. ' The date is May 7, 1747. Some of theprices in this catalogue can only be described as absurd; for example, Lydgate's 'Bochas; or, The Fall of Princes, ' 1517, 5s. ; a collection ofold plays and poems, two volumes, 1592, 6s. ; Tusser's 'Five HundredPoints of Good Husbandry, ' 1574, 2s. 6d. ; and black-letter books by thescore are here offered at sums from one to three or four shillings each. The neighbourhood has for many years ceased to be a booksellinglocality, for although book-hunters prefer side-streets and quietthoroughfares for the prosecution of their hobby, the pestiferousvapours of Drury Lane would kill any bibliopolic growth more vigorousthan a newsvendor's shop. [Illustration: _Messrs. Sotheran's Shop in Piccadilly. _] When, by slow degrees, the various trades moved in a direction west ofTemple Bar, it was only natural that the trade in second-hand booksshould be similarly attracted. The Strand itself, which, at the end ofthe last century and beginning of the present, was a much narrowerstreet than it is now, is not, and never has been, a greatbook-emporium, for a reason which we have more than once pointed out. But the immediate vicinity has been for over a century and a half, as itstill continues to be, the favourite locality of some of the chiefbooksellers. To-day the Strand proper only contains threerepresentatives, in Messrs. H. Sotheran and Co. , the finer of whose twoshops is in Piccadilly, and Mr. David Nutt (both of whom are, however, vendors of new books, and often act as publishers), and Messrs. Walford. Within a stone's-throw of the main thoroughfare we have JohnGalwey and Suckling and Galloway, Garrick Street; James Gunn andNattali, Bedford Street; B. F. Stevens, Trafalgar Square; H. Fawcett, King Street; W. Wesley and Sons, Essex Street; and many others. One ofthe most interesting incidents in connection with the Strand relates toa house which stood between Arundel and Norfolk Streets, where, at theend of the seventeenth century, lived the father of Bishop Burnet. 'Thishouse, ' says Dr. Hughson, writing in 1810, 'continued in the Burnetfamily till within living memory, being possessed by a bookseller of thesame name--a collateral descendant of the Bishop. ' Of much moreimportance, however, is the fact that at 132, Strand a bookseller namedWright started, about 1730, the first circulating library in London. About ten years afterwards he was succeeded by William Bathoe ('a veryintelligent bookseller' who died in October, 1768), who carried on thecirculating library in addition to bookselling. Bathoe was abook-auctioneer as well as a retail vendor; he sold the books of'William Hogarth, Esq. , sergeant-painter, ' under the hammer. In or aboutthe year 1747 he had established himself 'in Church Lane, near St. Martin's Church in the Strand, almost opposite York Buildings, ' whencehe issued a thirty-eight-paged (octavo) catalogue, comprising the'valuable library of the learned James Thompson Esq. , deceased, with thecollection of a gentleman lately gone abroad'; this list enumeratesnearly 1, 000 items, the prices, ranging from 6d. Upwards, beinguniformly low. Walton's 'Compleat Angler, ' 1661, 'with neat cuts, ' wouldnot be long unsold at 3s. 6d. ; and the same may be said of Purchas's'Pilgrimage, ' 1617, 2s. 6d. ; of Rochester's complete poems at 2s. ; andvery many others. At 'No. 18 in the Strand' lived J. Mathews, thebookseller, and father of Charles Mathews, the actor; and in this housethe latter was born. Jacob Tonson was at 'Shakespeare's Head, overagainst Catherine Street, in the Strand, ' now 141; the house, sincerebuilt, was afterwards occupied by Andrew Millar, who deposedShakespeare, and erected Buchanan's Head instead. Millar was succeededby his friend and apprentice, Thomas Cadell (who became a partner in1765), in 1767; he retired in 1793. Cadell's son then became head of theconcern, and took William Davies into partnership. The firm of Cadelland Davies existed until the death of the latter in 1820, after whichCadell (the Opulent Bookseller of Beloe) continued it in his own nameuntil his death in 1836. Samuel Bagster; Whitmore and Fenn; J. Walter(an apprentice of Robert Dodsley, and the founder of the _Times_);William Brown (an apprentice of Sandby), Essex Street, who died in 1797, and who was succeeded by Robert Bickerstaff; Henry Chapman, ChandosStreet, 1790-1795; W. Lowndes; and Walter Wilson, of the Mews Gate, wereStrand booksellers of more or less note during the latter part of thelast, and the earlier part of the present, century. CHARING CROSS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. John Millan was one of the most famous of Charing Cross or Whitehallbooksellers, for he was located here for over half a century, dying in1784, aged over eighty-one years. Richard Gough drew the followingpicture of Millan's shop in March, 1772: 'On my return from Westminsterlast night, I penetrated the utmost recesses of Millan's shop, which, ifI may borrow an idea from natural history, is incrusted with literatureand curiosities like so many stalactitical exudations. Through a narrowalley, between piles of books, I reached a cell, or _adytum_, whosesides were so completely cased with the same _supellex_ that thefireplace was literally _enchâsse dans la muraille_. In this cell satthe deity of the place, at the head of a whist party, which wasinterrupted by my inquiry after _Dillenius_ in sheets. The answer was, he "had none in sheets or blankets. " . . . I emerged from this shop, which I consider as a future Herculaneum, where we shall hereafter rootout many scarce things now rotting on the floor, considerably sunk belowthe level of the new pavement. ' Millan was succeeded by Thomas and JohnEgerton, the latter being 'a bookseller of great eminence'--theBlack-letter Bookseller of Beloe--whose death occurred in 1795. 'It wasin his time, ' says Beloe, 'that Old English books, of a particulardescription both in prose and verse, were, for some cause orother--principally, perhaps, as they were of use in the illustration ofShakespeare--beginning to assume a new dignity and importance, and toincrease in value at the rate of 500 per cent. ' Another Charing Crossbookseller, Samuel Leacroft (who succeeded Charles Marsh), died in 1795, and it is rather curious that John Egerton was a son-in-law of LockyerDavis, whilst his neighbour was an apprentice. Of Samuel Baker, whose shop was in Russell Street, Covent Garden, wehave already spoken in our account of book-auctioneers. One of hisearly--May, 1747--catalogues (not auction) comprises the libraries ofDr. Robert Uvedale, and of this divine's son and namesake, also a D. D. , of Enfield; it enumerates over 3, 000 items. Thomas Becket (an apprenticeof Millar, and Sterne's first publisher) and P. De Hondt were successfulStrand booksellers; the former finally settled himself in Pall Mall, andwas one of the first to make a speciality of foreign books, of which heimported large quantities between 1761 and 1766. C. Heydinger, of theStrand, was a German bookseller who issued catalogues from 1771 to 1773, and who died in distressed circumstances about 1778. Henry LasherGardner, who died at a very advanced age in 1808, was a venerablebookseller, whose shop was opposite St. Clement's Church, Strand; hepublished catalogues between 1786 and 1793. William Otridge, at firstalone, and afterwards in partnership with his son, issued cataloguesfrom the Strand during the last quarter of the last century. In 1796Joseph Pote was selling books at the Golden Door, over against SuffolkStreet, Charing Cross. John Nourse (died 1780), bookseller to hisMajesty, was another celebrated bibliopole of the Strand, and isdescribed by John Nichols as 'a man of science, particularly in themathematical line. ' Francis Wingrave succeeded Nourse. One of the most celebrated booksellers of this neighbourhood during thelast half of the eighteenth century was Tom Davies, who sported hisrubric posts[237:A] in Russell Street, Covent Garden, and who was drivenfrom his position as actor in Garrick's company by Churchill's killingsatire: 'He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone. ' In spite of satirists, the verdict of his contemporaries is ratified, soto speak, in voting Tom Davies a good fellow. Dr. John Campbelldescribed him as 'not a bookseller, but a gentleman dealing in books';and the Rev. P. Stockdale described him as 'the most gentleman-likeperson of that trade whom I ever knew. ' Dr. Johnson said he was 'learnedenough for a clergyman, ' which was an equivocal compliment, for theclergymen of the period were not, as a rule, learned. Davies wasgenerally talkative, but at times quite the reverse, and sometimesuttered pious ejaculations. Between 1764 and 1776 Davies sold a numberof interesting and valuable libraries--those, for example, of WilliamShenstone and William Oldys. Davies, like many other contemporarybooksellers, was fond of scribbling, and was the author of 'Memoirs ofGarrick, ' and other books. Probably the most famous bookseller of the Strand is Thomas Payne, whofor over half a century (1740-1794) was selling books in this locality. 'Honest Tom Payne' started business in or about 1740, for in February ofthat year he issued a catalogue of 'curious books in divinity, history, classics, medicine, voyages, natural history, ' etc. , from the 'RoundCourt, [237:B] in the Strand, opposite York Buildings. ' About ten yearslater (January, 1750) he had removed to the Mews Gate to a shop shapedlike the letter L, which became one of the most famous literary resortsof the period. Just before leaving Round Court, Tom Payne issued a sortof clearance catalogue, comprising 10, 000 volumes, 'which will be soldvery cheap. ' The Mews Gate was near St. Martin's Church, and probablyclose to the bottom of the new thoroughfare, Charing Cross Road. It wasat this shop that all the book-collectors of the day most congregated, for it was to Tom Payne's that the majority of libraries wereconsigned--_e. G. _, those of Ralph Thoresby, Sir John Barnard, FrancisGrose, Rev. S. Whisson, and many others whose names are now nothing butnames, but who were at the time well-known collectors. Tom Payne'scustomers included all the bibliophiles of the period. 'Must I, ' asksMathias in the 'Pursuits of Literature'-- 'Must I, as a wit with learned air, Like Doctor Dewlap, to Tom Payne's repair, Meet Cyril Jackson and mild Cracherode, 'Mid literary gods myself a god? There make folks wonder at th' extent of genius In the Greek Aldus or the Dutch Frobenius, And then, to edify their learned souls, Quote pleasant sayings from _The Shippe of Foles_. ' [Illustration: _Honest Tom Payne. _] Mathias describes Tom Payne as 'that Trypho emeritus, ' and as 'one ofthe honestest men living, to whom, as a bookseller, learning is underconsiderable obligations. ' Beloe, in his 'Sexagenarian, ' states that atTom Payne's and at Peter Elmsley's, in the Strand, 'a wandering scholarin search of pabulum might be almost certain of meeting Cracherode, George Steevens, Malone, Wyndham, Lord Stormont, Sir John Hawkins, LordSpencer, Porson, Burney, Thomas Grenville, Wakefield, Dean Dampier, Kingof Mansfield Street, Towneley, Colonel Stanley, ' and others. Savageprofessed to have picked up his 'Author to Let' at 'the Mews Gate on myway from Charing Cross to Hedge Lane. ' Tom Payne (who was a native ofBrackley) came into possession of his famous shop at the Mews' Gatethrough his marriage with Elizabeth Taylor, whose brother built and forsome time occupied it. About 1776 Tom Payne ('Bookseller Extraordinaryto the Prince Regent, and Bookseller to the University of Oxford') tookhis son into partnership, to whom fourteen years later he relinquishedthe business, and died in February, 1799, in his eighty-second year. Thomas Payne the younger (to whom Dibdin dedicated his 'LibraryCompanion, ' 1825) remained here until 1806, when he removed to PallMall; in 1813 he took Henry Foss, who had been his apprentice, intopartnership. The former died in 1831, and was succeeded by his nephew, John Payne, and Henry Foss, who retired from the trade in 1850, whentheir stock came under the hammer at Sotheby's. In the preface to his'Library Companion, ' 1825, Dibdin speaks very highly of the catalogue ofPayne and Foss: 'Since the commencement of this work, Messrs. Payne andFoss have published a catalogue of 10, 051 articles. I have smiled, incommon with many friends, to observe rare and curious volumes sellingfor large sums at auctions, when sometimes _better_ copies of them maybe obtained in that incomparable repository in Pall Mall at two-thirdsof the price. Whoever wants a _classical fitting out_ must betakethemselves to this repository. ' The bibliopolic history of the Mews Gate did not terminate with theyounger Tom Payne. When he removed to a more aristocratic quarter, theshop passed into the occupation of William Sancho, the negro bookseller, whose father, Ignatius, was born in 1729 on board a ship in the slavetrade soon after it had quitted the coast of Guinea. William Sancho diedbefore 1817, and was succeeded at the Mews Gate by James Bain, whoafterwards removed to No. 1, Haymarket, where the business is stillcarried on, 'in accordance with the best bookselling traditions, by hisyounger son, the second James Bain having died early in 1894. ' The Mewswas taken down in 1830, and was used in its latter days to shelterCross's Menagerie from Exeter 'Change. One of the oldest firms of Strand booksellers was that started in 1686by Paul Vaillant, who, at the time of the revocation of the Edict ofNantes, escaped to England. His shop was opposite Southampton Street, and his chief dealings were in foreign books. He was succeeded by hissons Paul and Isaac, and then by his grandson, Paul III. , the son ofPaul II. The second Paul purchased a quantity of books at Freebairn'ssale for the Earl of Sunderland, and his joy at securing the copy ofVirgil's 'Opera, ' printed 'per Zarothum, ' 1472, is duly chronicled byNichols; he was one of the booksellers employed by the Society for theEncouragement of Learning. He died in 1802, aged eighty-seven, and asboth of his two sons had elected to follow other occupations, thebusiness passed into the hands of Peter Elmsley, the great friend andcompanion of Gibbon, whose 'Decline and Fall, ' however, he did not seehis way to publish; he was a great linguist, and possessed 'an amount ofgeneral knowledge that fitted him for conversation and correspondenceupon a familiar and equal footing with the most illustrious andaccomplished of his day. ' At the end of the last century he resignedthe business to his shopman, David Bremner, 'whose anxiety for acquiringwealth rendered him wholly careless of indulging himself in the ordinarycomforts of life, and hurried him prematurely to the grave. ' He wassucceeded by James Payne (the youngest son of the famous Tom) and J. Mackinlay, both of whom also came to premature ends, the former throughbeing long confined as a prisoner in France. Among the most famous of the Strand booksellers of the earlier part ofthe present century were Rivington and Cochran, of No. 148 (nearSomerset House), and Thomas Thorpe, of 38, Bedford Street. With thesetwo firms it really seemed a question as to which could issue the mostbulky catalogues. The earliest example which we have seen of the formeris dated 1825; it extends to over 800 pages, and comprises nearly 18, 000items in various languages and in every department of literature. ThomasThorpe was undoubtedly the giant bibliopole of the period. If anythingstriking or original occurred in the bookselling world, it was generallyThorpe who did it. Dibdin describes him as 'indeed a man of might. ' Hiscatalogues, continues the same writer, 'are of never-ceasing production, thronged with the treasures which he has gallantly borne off, at thepoint of his lance, in many a hard day's fight, in the Pall Mall andWaterloo Place arenas. But these conquests are no sooner obtained thanthe public receives an account of them, and during the last year onlyhis catalogues, in three parts, now before me, comprise no fewer than179, 059 articles. What a scale of buying and selling does this factalone evince! But in this present year two parts have already appeared, containing upwards of 12, 000 articles. Nor is this all. On September 24, 1823, there appeared the most marvellous phenomenon ever witnessed inthe annals of bibliopolism. [241:A] The _Times_ had four of the fivecolumns of its last page occupied by an advertisement of Mr. Thorpe, containing the third part of his catalogue for that year. On a moderatecomputation, this advertisement comprised 1, 120 lines. The effect wasmost extraordinary. Many wondered, and some remonstrated; but Mr. Thorpewas master of his own mint, and he never mentions the circumstance butwith perfect confidence, and even gaiety of heart, at its success. 'Thorpe issued catalogues from 1829 to 1851, and during one year alone, 1843, his lists comprised over 16, 000 lots. In 1836 he removed fromBedford Street to 178, Piccadilly. Thorpe was the first _merchant_ inautographs, and Sir Thomas Phillipps was one of the first _collectors_who flourished in the iniquity of the pursuit, and it was the latter whoon one occasion purchased the entire contents of one of Thorpe'sautograph catalogues. Another distinguished bibliopole of this locality, or, more correctly, of Great Newport Street, was Thomas Rodd, who died in April, 1849, inhis fifty-third year. The business was really started by his father andnamesake, who was a man of considerable literary ability, and whoabandoned his intention of entering the Church when he became possessedof a secret for making imitation diamonds, rubies, garnets, etc. In 1809he added bookselling to that of manufacturing sham stones. After gettinginto trouble with the Excise on account of the latter accomplishment, hedevoted himself entirely to the book-trade. The elder Rodd died in 1822, and his son, the more famous bibliopole, succeeded to the business, which he developed in an extraordinary manner within a few years. Hismemory and knowledge of books were almost limitless, and, like ThomasThorpe, most of his schemes were on a scale to create a sensation. Rodd's catalogues are of great bibliographical value. In spite of hisextensive connections, his stock at the time of his death was enormous. It was sold, in ten different instalments, at Sotheby's, betweenNovember, 1849, and November, 1850. [Illustration: _Henry G. Bohn, Bookseller. _] [Illustration: _John H. Bohn. _] Henry G. Bohn may be regarded as the connecting link between the old andthe new school of booksellers. He was born in London on January 4, 1796, and died in August, 1884. His father was a bookbinder of Frith Street, Soho, but when he removed to Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, he added(in 1814) a business in second-hand books. Between this year and 1830, H. G. Bohn paid repeated visits to the Continent as his father's buyer. In 1831 he married a daughter of Mr. Simpkin, of Simpkin, Marshall andCo. He started in business for himself, and rapidly built up anextensive trade, far exceeding any of his rivals. At about the same timehis brother James also started on his own account, at 12, King WilliamStreet, Charing Cross, whilst the third brother, John Hutter Bohn, whohas been for nearly forty years the cataloguer at Sotheby's and is stillliving, attended to the original business. Bohn's famous 'GuineaCatalogue' was deservedly regarded as a great triumph in its way, although it has been far surpassed by the splendid catalogues of hiswhilom apprentice, B. Quaritch. Bohn's fame now rests almost exclusivelyin his publishing ventures, which proved a veritable gold-mine to theoriginator, and are still highly lucrative investments in the hands ofMessrs. George Bell and Sons. He 'edited' an edition of Lowndes''Bibliographer's Manual, ' and his name occurs on the title-pages of agreat many books dealing with an extensive variety of subjects. It isscarcely necessary to say that Bohn has very little claim to be regardedeither as an editor or as an author, unless the cash purchase of theproduct of other men's brain and study conferred either of these titlesupon him. He was, however, a remarkable person, with a very wideknowledge of books. While quite a young man he catalogued the books ofDr. Parr. The growing extent of his publishing business killed thesecond-hand trade, so far as he was concerned, and his stock wasdisposed of at Sotheby's in the years 1868, 1870, and 1872, occupyingfifty days in selling, and realizing a total of over £13, 300. Both HenryG. Bohn and his brother James dealt largely in remainders, and of thisclass of merchandise each issued catalogues early in the year 1840 (andat other times), and the difference in the extent of the trade done bythe two brothers may be indicated by the fact that the catalogue of theformer extends to 132 pages, whilst that of the latter is only 16 pages. In this, as in everything else which he undertook, H. G. Bohn was firstand his rivals nowhere. One of Bohn's rivals in the 'forties' was JosephLilly, who once undertook to purchase everything important in the bookline which was offered, but he soon gave up the idea. His shop was forsome time at 19, King Street, Covent Garden, and his catalogues alwayscontained a large number of select books. He had served a short time atLackington's, and was distinguished for the zeal with which he purchasedFirst Folio Shakespeares. Lilly died in 1870, and his vast stock cameunder the hammer at Sotheby's in six batches, 1871-73. [Illustration: _Mr. F. S. Ellis. _] King William Street, Strand, until the last three or four years, hadbeen for nearly a century a famous emporium of second-hand bookshops. Its most famous inhabitant in this respect was Charles John Stewart(whom Henry Stevens, of Vermont, described as the last of the learnedold booksellers), who was born in Scotland at the beginning of thepresent century, and died on September 17, 1883. He was one ofLackington's pupils, and started as a second-hand bookseller withHowell, subsequently carrying on the business alone. His chief commoditywas theological books, and when his stock--perhaps the largest of itskind known--came to be sold, it realized close on £5, 000. Joel Rowsellwas another famous bibliopole who resided in this street, and he, likeStewart, retired in 1882. G. Bumstead (whose speciality was curious oreccentric books; he was distinctly an 'old' bookseller, for he rarelybought anything printed after 1800), Molini and Green, J. M. Stark, andJ. W. Jarvis and Sons, were also, at one time or another, in thisbookselling thoroughfare, which is now entirely deserted by thefraternity. Doubtless one of the most successful of modern bibliopoleswho lived in the vicinity of the Strand is Mr. F. S. Ellis, who was anapprentice of James Toovey, and who in a comparatively few years builtup a business second only to that of Quaritch. Mr. Ellis (who purchasedthe valuable freewill of T. And W. Boone's connection) compiled thegreater portion of the catalogue of the celebrated Huth Library, andsince he has retired to Torquay has taken up book-editing with all thezeal which characterized his earlier career as a bookseller. Mr. Ellis'sshop was at 33, King Street, Covent Garden, and afterwards at 29, NewBond Street, and the prestige of his name is worthily maintained by hisnephew, Mr. G. I. Ellis (with whom is Mr. Elvey), at the latter address. The whole neighbourhood of which Covent Garden may be taken as thecentre, is full of a bibliopolic history, which dates back to thebeginning of the last century. The time when Aldines were to be pickedup at 1s. 6d. Each, and when Shakespeare Folios were to be had for 30s. Each round about the Piazza, has, it is true, long gone by; but a verylarge library, in almost any branch of literature, may be easily formed, at a very moderate cost, any day within a stone's-throw of London'sgreat vegetable market. It may be mentioned, _en passant_, that GeorgeWillis, the editor-publisher of _Willis's Current Notes_, was for manyyears at the Great Piazza, Covent Garden. The firm subsequently becameknown as Willis and Sotheran, and is now Sotheran and Co. : this highlyrespectable house was established in Tower Street, E. C. , as far back as1816. [Illustration: _A Corner at Ellis and Elvey's. _] WESTMINSTER HALL. [Illustration: _Westminster Hall when occupied by Booksellers andothers. _ From a Print by Gravelot. ] There is not, perhaps, in the whole world, a more interestingbookselling locality than Westminster Hall. This place is redolent withhistorical associations, with parliaments, coronations, revelries, andimpeachments. Stalls for books, as well as other small merchandise, werepermitted in the hall of the palace of Westminster early in thesixteenth century. The poor scholars of Westminster also were employedin hawking books between school-hours. In the procession of sanctuarymen who accompanied the Abbot of Westminster and his convent, December6, 1556, was 'a boy that killed a big boy that sold papers and printedbooks, with hurling of a stone, and hit him under the ear in WestminsterHall. ' In the churchwardens' accounts of the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, there is, under date 1498-1500, an entry: 'Item, Receivedfor another legende solde in Westmynster halle, v_s. _ viij_d. _, ' the'legende' being one of the thirteen copies of 'The Golden Legend'bequeathed by Caxton to the 'behove' of the parish of St. Margaret's. Towards the end of the sixteenth century Tom Nash wrote: 'Looke to it, you booksellers and stationers, and let not your shop be infested withany such goose gyblets, or stinking garbadge as the jygs of newsmongers;and especially such of you as frequent Westminster Hall, let them becircumspect what dunghill papers they bring thether: for one badpamphlet is inough to raise a dampe that may poyson a whole towne, ' etc. At first the shops or stalls were ranged along the blank wall on thesouthern side of the hall. Subsequently they occupied not only the wholeof the side, but such portion of the other as was not occupied by theCourt of Common Pleas, which then sat within the hall itself, as did theChancery and King's Bench at its farther end. Gravelot's print of thehall during term-time shows this arrangement. The stationers and othertradespeople in the hall were a privileged class, inasmuch as they wereexempt from the pains and penalties relative to the license andregulation of the press. Here as elsewhere there were plenty of inferiorbooks obtainable; Pepys, writing October 26, 1660, and referring to somepurchases made in the hall, remarks: 'Among other books, one of the lifeof our Queen, which I read at home to my wife, but it was so sillilywrit that we did nothing but laugh over it. ' The stalls weredistinguished by signs. One of the early issues of 'Paradise Lost, '1668, contains the name, among others, of Henry Mortlock, of the WhiteHart, Westminster Hall, but whose shop was at the Phoenix, St. Paul'sChurchyard; Raleigh's 'Remains, ' 1675, was printed for Mortlock. Themajority of the hall booksellers had regular shops in St. Paul'sChurchyard or elsewhere, for it is scarcely likely that they would openthese stalls during vacation. Matthew Gilliflower, of the Spread Eagleand Crown, was one of the most enterprising of his class during the lastquarter of the seventeenth century. James Collins, of the King's Head, was here contemporaneously with Gilliflower. C. King and Stagg were alsoextensive partners in 'adventures' in new books, and were among the'unprejudiced booksellers' who acted as agents for the _Gentleman'sMagazine_ during the first year of its existence. At about the same timealso, B. Toovey and J. Renn, were selling books here. Early in the reignof George III. The traders were ousted from Westminster Hall; and in1834 the dirty and mutilated vast parallelogram was thoroughly cleanedand repaired. Westminster Hall as a bookselling centre bears the sameaffinity to the trade proper as the sweetmeat stalls at a fair bear toconfectionery. The books exposed for sale would only by a rare chance bechoice or notable, and it was certainly not a likely place for folios orquartos. BOND STREET AND PICCADILLY. At the latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning of theeighteenth century, several booksellers had established themselves inBond Street and Pall Mall. One of the best known is John Parker, 'anhonest, good-natured man, ' with whom was apprenticed, in 1713, HenryBaker, the antiquary, a friend of John Nichols. Parker's shop was inPall Mall. At No. 29, New Bond Street, in 1730, we find J. Brindley, areputable bookseller of his time, and who was one of a society formed in1736 'for the encouragement of learning, ' which had a chequered and anundignified career. His shop was at the sign of the Feathers, and in1747 he describes himself as 'Bookseller to H. R. H. The Prince of Wales. 'The only example of his catalogue which we have seen is dated 1747, andit includes 4, 289 lots, among which were long selections of books at 1s. Each, or 10s. Per dozen, and of others at 6d. Each or 5s. Per dozen. Brindley was succeeded in 1759 by his apprentice, a much more celebratedbibliopole, James Robson, who built up a very extensive connection anddied in 1806. In company with James Edwards and Peter Molini (the ExoticBookseller of Beloe), Robson, in 1788, undertook a journey to Venice forthe purpose of examining the famous Pinelli Library, which was purchasedfor about £7, 000; it was safely transferred to London and sold byauction in Conduit Street, the total result being £9, 356. A largenumber of more or less famous collections of books passed throughRobson's hands, notably those of Sir John Evelyn; Edward Spelman, thetranslator of Xenophon; the Duke of Newcastle (1770); W. Mackworth Praed(1772); Joseph Smith, Consul at Venice; Dr. Samuel Musgrave; J. Murray, Ambassador at Constantinople. Messrs. Robson and Clark were succeededearly in this century by Nornaville and Fell, who in 1830 made way forT. And W. Boone, who were, as we have said, succeeded by Mr. F. S. Ellis; it is interesting to note that this house had been in theoccupation of booksellers for over a century and a half. The bookselling fraternity had, however, obtained no definite footinguntil shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century, when JamesAlmon began to acquire notoriety, his political fearlessness more thanonce bringing him at loggerheads with the authorities. When he firstcame to London, he worked as a printer at Watts', in Wild's Court, Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he had the frame which had been occupied byBenjamin Franklin. His shop was opposite Burlington House, and for manyyears this was the meeting-place of the leading Whig politicians. Hedied in 1805, and was succeeded by J. Debrett, a name still associatedwith publishing. During the last few years of the last century, and probably inconsequence of the greatly improved condition of the place, Piccadillyand neighbourhood became favourite spots with booksellers, the morenotable being James Ridgway, whose 'repository of loyalty' was in YorkStreet, St. James's Square, who died in 1838, aged eighty-three years;T. Hookham, Old Bond Street; and Stockdale, whose name will be for everassociated with that of Erskine in connection with the liberty of thepress. Stockdale's shop, No. 178, Piccadilly, was for a long time in thepossession of Thomas Thorpe; the place has since been rebuilt. R. Faulder, of New Bond Street, also deserves mention as being one of fortybooksellers against whom actions were brought for selling the 'Baviadand Mæviad. ' He is the Cunning Bookseller of Beloe, and appears to havebeen one of the most assiduous frequenters of 'forced' sales ofhousehold furniture, etc. , where he often happened on books of rarityand value. He 'accumulated a very large property and retired, ' but the_auri sacra fames_ pursued him to the end. William Clarke, of New BondStreet, best remembered as the compiler of that very valuable work, 'Repertorium Bibliographicum, ' 1819, was established as a bookseller in1793. During the second half of the last century Samuel Parker andWalter Shropshire were selling second-hand books in New Bond Street. Thomas Beet, who retired from business ten years ago, was a well-knownbookseller of Bond Street and Conduit Street, and was a considerablepurchaser at the leading auction sales. He frequently had the honour ofsubmitting various special old books for the inspection of the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and other members of the Royal Family, whilst hisshop in Conduit Street was a very popular resort of bookish men. Robert Dodsley, of Tully's Head, is one of the most famous of the PallMall booksellers. His shop was next to the passage leading into KingStreet, and now known as Pall Mall Place. He is perhaps betterremembered as an author and compiler than as a bookseller, and best ofall as a friend of Dr. Johnson, Pope, Spence, and other literarycelebrities; he it was who first urged Johnson to start the famous'Dictionary. ' Dodsley died in 1764, and his business was taken over byhis brother James, who survived the founder thirty-three years. Thecelebrated firm of G. And W. Nicol, booksellers to his Majesty, for manyyears carried on in Pall Mall in Dodsley's shop, originated with DavidWilson and his nephew George Nicol, who started in the Strand about1773, and who sold, _inter alia_, the library of Dr. Henry Sacheverell. George Nicol married the niece of the first Alderman Boydell, and wasone of the executors of James Dodsley, who left him a legacy of £1, 000. He is described as 'a most agreeable companion, ' as a member of many ofthe literary clubs of his day, and enjoyed the friendly confidence ofthe Duke of Roxburghe, Duke of Grafton, and other eminent book-lovers. He died in Pall Mall, 1829, aged eighty-eight years. Nicol's stock wassold by auction at Evans's in 1825. [Illustration: _John Hatchard (1768-1849). _] The most ancient book-business in Piccadilly is that of Hatchard's, which dates back to 1797. It was started by John Hatchard, who had beenan assistant at Tom Payne's. Hatchard was patronized by Queen Charlotte, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Canning, and Dr. Keate. Hatchard is theGodly Bookseller of Beloe; he was a Conservative, dressed like a bishop, and published for Hannah More and the Evangelicals. Zachary Macaulay, Wilberforce, and the other opponents of slavery, once involved Hatchardin a libel action, in which he was found guilty. Hatchard published forCrabbe and for Tupper, and, according to Mr. Humphreys' interesting'Piccadilly Bookmen, ' Liston, Charles Kemble, and other actors, frequented the shop. So did the Duke of Wellington, who, 'when thelibrary of the Duke's brother was sold at Evans's Auction Rooms in PallMall, where now stands the Carlton Club . . . Sent several opencommissions for books which he wished secured. Among these was ashilling pamphlet by A. G. Stapleton, with the late owner's notes inpencil. This was put up at 2s. 6d. , and ultimately knocked down for £93to Hatchard, the under-bidder being Sir A. Alison. The Duke, though verymuch astonished at the price such a mere fragment had fetched, yetadmired the obedience to his orders. ' The Horticultural Society took itsrise in a meeting at Hatchard's, and he also seems to have lent hispremises to the 'Outinian Society, ' a species of matrimonial agency, which did not last long; but the wonder is how so respectable andcautious a personage ever harboured it. Among his assistants wereFraser, afterwards noted for his magazine, and Tilt. [Illustration: _James Toovey, Bookseller. _] The two great second-hand booksellers of the Piccadilly of the latterhalf of the present century are James Toovey and Bernard Quaritch. Toovey's shop at 177, Piccadilly (once occupied by William Pickering, the famous publisher), was for about forty years a favourite haunt ofbooksellers, for Toovey was a bibliophile as well as a bibliopole. Hiswhole life was spent among books. He was apprenticed at fourteen to abookseller, and for some time had a shop of his own in St. James'sStreet. He published Newman's 'Lives of the English Saints, ' and otherworks by the leaders of the Tractarian movement, in addition to a veryfine reprint of the 'Aberdeen Breviary, ' of the original of which onlyfour imperfect copies exist. An obituary notice describes him as 'veryparticularly the great authority on bindings. He made a strongspeciality in old French red morocco bindings, and during his frequentvisits to France brought back large buyings of them. Toovey boughtnotable books, but unless they had the second qualification of being ina good state, and the bindings valuable, he was less anxious about them. Given a notable book in a notable binding, he would buy it at almost anycost. When the present Mr. James Toovey--James Toovey _fils_--came intothe business, he made a feature of those quaint sport and pastime bookswhich every stroller along the south side of Piccadilly has been wont tostay and look at in Toovey's window. Ten years before his death the oldman retired from the business in favour of his son, but his devotion torare books and rare bindings was his ruling passion to the last. Toovey's, during its career, has known all the prominent book-huntersand a legion of eminent people who have been more than book-collectors. In the leisured times, Toovey's, like Hatchard's further along thestreet, was something of a resort for literary folk generally, and manypeople we who are younger are familiar with have been accustomed to findtheir way across Toovey's doorstep. Mr. Gladstone has visited the shop, and so has Cardinal Manning, and Prince Lucien Bonaparte, and Henry Huthoften. ' Having acquired a considerable fortune in business, he was ableto indulge in the luxury, rare amongst booksellers, of collecting aprivate library for his own entertainment. He retired from activebusiness several years ago, and passed his remaining days in theever-delightful society of his bibliographical treasures. He died inSeptember, 1893, in his eightieth year, and his stock of books cameunder the hammer at Sotheby's in March, 1894, when 3, 200 lots realizedjust over £7, 090. His very choice private library is still in thepossession of his son, and among its chief cornerstones is the finestFirst Folio Shakespeare known. Toovey, like the elder Boone, securedmany excessively rare books during his personal visits to the Continent. Pickering's son, Basil Montagu Pickering, remained with Toovey for a fewyears after his father retired, but eventually opened a shop on his ownaccount at 196, Piccadilly, next to St. James's Church, and possessed atone time and another many exceedingly rare books. The name is stillcontinued under the title of Pickering and Chatto, of 66, Haymarket, whocontinue to use the Aldine device employed both by William Pickering andhis son. There is no Pickering in the present firm. [Illustration: _James Toovey's Shop, Piccadilly. _] [Illustration: _Bernard Quaritch, the Napoleon of Booksellers. _] Of all second-hand booksellers, living or dead, Bernard Quaritch isgenerally conceded to be the king. Mr. Quaritch was born in 1819 atWorbis, Prussia, and after serving an apprenticeship to a booksellercame over to England in 1842, and obtained employment at H. G. Bohn's, with whom he remained (exclusive of two years in Paris) until 1847. Heleft Bohn's in April of that year, with the observation: 'Mr. Bohn, youare the first bookseller in England, but I mean to be the firstbookseller in Europe. ' Quaritch started with only his savings ascapital, and his first catalogue was nothing more than a broadside, withthe titles of about 400 books, the average price of which ranged from1s. 6d. To 2s. His first big move was made in 1858, when the Bishop ofCashel's library was sold, when he purchased a copy of the Mazarin Biblefor £595. In the same year appeared his first large catalogue of books, which comprised nearly 5, 000 articles; two years later his catalogue hadincreased from 182 to 408 pages, and included close on 7, 000 articles;in 1868 his complete catalogue consisted of 1, 080 pages, and 15, 000articles; in 1880 it had extended to 2, 395 pages, describing 28, 000books; but seven years later his General Catalogue consisted of 4, 500pages, containing 40, 000 articles. As a purchaser, Mr. Quaritch puts thewhilom considered gigantic purchases of Thomas Thorpe entirely into theshade. In July, 1873, he purchased the non-scientific part of the RoyalSociety's Norfolk Library; a few weeks later at the Perkins sale hebought books and manuscripts to the extent of £11, 000; at the sale ofSir W. Tite's books in 1874 the Quaritch purchases amounted to £9, 500;at the two Didot sales in 1878 and 1879 his purchases exceeded £11, 000in value; at the Beckford sale in 1882 a little more than half of thetotal (£86, 000) was secured by Mr. Quaritch; at the Sunderland sale, 1881-83, Mr. Quaritch's bill came to over £33, 000; at all the othergreat sales of the past twenty years the largest buyer has invariablybeen 'B. Q. ' In an announcement 'To Book Lovers in all Parts of theWorld, ' the Napoleon of bibliophiles makes the following statement: 'Iam desirous of becoming recognised as their London agent by all menoutside of England who want books. The need of such an agent isfrequently felt abroad by the heads of literary institutions, librarians, and book-lovers generally. They shrink from giving troubleto a bookseller in matters which require more attention and effort thanthe mere furnishing of some specific article in his stock, and they mustoften wish that it were possible to have the services of a man ofability and experience at their constant command. Such services I freelyoffer to anyone who chooses to employ them; no fee is required to obtainthem, and not a fraction will be added to the cost of the supplies. Thefriendly confidence which is necessarily extended to one's agent at adistance will undoubtedly in time bring an ample return for my labours, but so far as the present is concerned, I ask for nothing but thepleasure of attending to the wants of those who are as yet without anagent in London. Whether the books to be procured through myintervention be rare or common, single items or groups, the gems ofliterature and art or the popular books of the day, I shall be happy towork in every way for book-lovers of every degree. Commissions of anykind may be entrusted to me; I will venture to guarantee satisfaction inevery case, even in the delicate matter of getting books appropriatelybound. It may likewise be well to state that my offer of agency extendsto the selling of foreign books here, as well as to the supply ofEnglish books hence. ' There is not much that is architecturallybeautiful about Mr. Quaritch's shop at 15, Piccadilly, but its interestto the book-lover needs but little emphasis after what has been said. Like all great men, Bernard Quaritch has his little eccentricities, intowhich we need not now enter. We apologize to him for publishing thefollowing extract, which is, however, not our own, but comes (of course)from an American source: 'Bernard Quaritch's antiquated hat is afavourite theme with London and other bookmen. A committee of theGrolier Club once made a marvellous collection of newspaper clippingsabout it, and a member of the Société des Bibliophiles Contemporainswrote a tragedy which was a parody of Æschylus. In this tragedy Powerand Force and the god Hephaistos nail the hat on Mr. Quaritch's head, like the Titan on the summit of overhanging rocks. Divinities of theStrand and Piccadilly, in the guise of Oceanidæ, try to console the hat;but less fortunate than Prometheus, the hat knows it is for ever nailed, and not to be rescued by Herakles. However, _tout passe, tout casse, tout lasse_, as Dumas said, for Mr. Quaritch has bought a new hat, and ajournal of London announces that the epic hat is enshrined in glass inthe bibliopole's drawing-room. ' One of the most modern of book-thoroughfares deserves a brief referencehere. Charing Cross Road has for some years been a popular andsuccessful resort of booksellers and book-hunters. It is withinconvenient reach of both the Strand and Holborn, and is only two orthree minutes' walk from Piccadilly Circus. The books offered for salehere are, for the most part, priced at exceedingly moderate rates. Mr. Bertram Dobell may be regarded as the chief of the trade here, possessing, as he does, two large shops well filled with books of alldescriptions. Mr. Dobell's catalogues are very carefully compiled, andpossess a literary flavour by no means common; his lists ofprivately-printed books form a most valuable contribution to thebibliography of the subject. Mr. John Lawler, for many years chiefcataloguer at Puttick's, and more recently at Sotheby's, had a shop inCharing Cross Road, which he has just given up; and Mr. A. E. Cooper, who makes a speciality of first editions of modern authors and curiousand out-of-the-way books, both French and English. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [176:A] Sewell, Cornhill, and Becket and De Hondt, Strand, were amongthe last to use these curious trade signs. [192:A] The identical book with which Johnson knocked down Osborne, 'Biblia Græca Septuaginta, ' folio, 1594, Frankfort, was at Cambridge inFebruary, 1812, in the possession of J. Thorpe, bookseller, whoafterwards catalogued it. [192:B] Timbs, writing in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1868, identifiedthe house at which Tonson probably lived, and this house was in Timbs'stime a bookseller's. Gray's Inn Lane has become so thoroughly renovatedand improved that it is no longer possible to point to any particularspot where any celebrity lived. [201:A] 'One day [writes Lytton] three persons were standing before anold bookstall in a passage leading from Oxford Street into TottenhamCourt Road. Two were gentlemen; the third, of the class and appearanceof those who more habitually halt at old bookstalls. '"Look, " said one of the gentlemen to the other; "I have discovered herewhat I have searched for in vain the last ten years--the Horace of 1580, the Horace of the Forty Commentators--a perfect treasury of learning, and marked only fourteen shillings!" '"Hush, Norreys, " said the other, "and observe what is yet more worthyour study;" and he pointed to the third bystander, whose face, sharpand attenuated, was bent with an absorbed, and, as it were, with ahungering attention over an old worm-eaten volume. '"What is the book, my lord?" whispered Mr. Norreys. 'His companion smiled, and replied by another question: "What is the manwho reads the book?" 'Mr. Norreys moved a few paces, and looked over the student's shoulder. "'Preston's Translation of Boethius, ' 'The Consolations of Philosophy, '"he said, coming back to his friend. '"He looks as if he wanted all the consolations philosophy could givehim, poor boy!" * * * * * 'When Mr. Norreys had bought the Horace, and given an address where tosend it, Harley (the second gentleman) asked the shopman if he knew theyoung man who had been reading Boethius. '"Only by sight. He has come here every day the last week, and spendshours at the stall. When once he fastens on a book, he reads itthrough. " '"And never buys?" said Mr. Norreys. '"Sir, " said the shopman, with a good-natured smile, "they who buyseldom read. The poor boy pays me twopence a day to read as long as hepleases. I would not take it, but he is proud. "' [202:A] It was in one of these alleys or tributaries that a lawyer'sclerk, returning from his office, carried home in triumph to Camden Towna copy of Marlowe's 'Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, ' 1663, which hebought for 1s. [217:A] Concerning the Hande and Starre, Fleet Street, and the renownedRichard Tottell, 'printer by special Patentes of the bokes of the CommonLawe in the several Reigns of King Edw. VI. And of the quenes Marye andElizabeth, ' it may be pointed out that this house, 7, Fleet Street, exists as before, the only modern addition being the half-brick frontwhich was placed there more than a hundred years ago. Jaggard, thebookseller, lived there after Tottell, and from thence he issued thefirst edition of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet, ' actually printed inthe rear (now Dick's Coffee-house), and the possibility of Shakespearehaving often called to correct the proof-sheets is conjured up. Thehouse was in turn occupied by many eminent law publishers andbooksellers, and of late years by the late Mr. Henry Butterworth, whobecame himself the Queen's law publisher. [237:A] One of the reviewers of Nichols' 'Literary Anecdotes' says: 'Howoften have we seen him standing betwixt these, bidding "his friendsgood-morrow with a cheerful face, " and pulling down his ruffles, alreadytoo long, till they covered his fingers. Davies had, even while incommon conversation, as much of the old school of acting in his manneras his friend Gibson had upon the stage; though he is said not to havebeen so pompous as Berry, to whose parts he succeeded; and Berry, inthis respect, was thought to have declined from Bridgewater. ' [237:B] Now covered by Charing Cross Hospital. At the commencement ofthe third quarter of the sixteenth century, Thomas Colwell, abookseller, had a shop at the sign of 'St. John the Evangelist, ' in St. Martin's parish, near Charing-Cross, and a shop with the same sign inFleet Street, near the Conduit. It must be remembered that at thisperiod Holborn and Charing Cross were quite suburban villages, theformer noteworthy as the thoroughfare from Newgate to Tyburn, and thelatter as a sort of halfway place of stoppage between the City andWestminster. [241:A] Not quite so unprecedented as Mr. Dibdin thought. The _GrubStreet Journal_ of February 3, 1731, contained an entire page devoted tothe books advertisement of Tom Osborne, a much more remarkable feat, allthings considered, than Thorpe's. [Illustration] WOMEN AS BOOK-COLLECTORS. IT seems a curiously contradictory fact that, although Englishwomen areon the whole greater readers than men, they are, as book-collectors orbibliophiles, an almost unknown quantity. In France this is not thecase, and several books have been published there on the subject of _lesfemmes bibliophiles_. An analysis of their book-possessions, however, leads one to the conclusion that with them their sumptuously-boundvolumes partake more of the nature of bijouterie than anything else. Many of the earlier of these bibliophiles were unendowed with any keenappreciation for intellectual pursuits, and they collected pretty booksjust as they would collect pretty articles of feminine decoration. Theytherefore form a little community which can scarcely be included in thehigher category of intellectual book-collectors. It would be much easierto assert that Englishwomen differ from Frenchwomen in this respect thanit would be to back up the assertion with material proof. Indeed, afterall that could possibly be said in favour of our own countrywomen asbook-collectors, we fear that it would not amount to very much. It iscertain that our history does not afford any name of the firstimportance, certainly none which can be classed with Anne of Austria(wife of Louis XIII. ), the Duchesse de Berry, Catherine de Médicis, Christina of Sweden, Diane de Poitiers, the Comtesse Du Barry, MarieAntoinette, the Marquise de Pompadour, or of at least a dozen otherswhose names immediately suggest themselves. The only English name, infact, worthy to be classed with the foregoing is that of QueenElizabeth, who, in addition to her passion for beautiful books, may alsobe regarded as a genuine book-lover and reader. There were, however, Englishwomen who collected books long beforeElizabeth's time. In the year 1355, Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady ofClare--the foundress of Clare Hall, Cambridge--bequeathed to herfoundation 'Deux bons antiphoners chexun ove un grayel (Gradule) enmesme le volum, 1 bone legende, 1 bone messale, bien note, 1 autremessale coverte de blank quir, 1 bone bible coverte de noir quir, 1hugueion [? Hugh de Voræillis on the Decretals], 1 legende sanctorum, 1poire de decretals, 1 livre des questions, et xxii quaires d'un livreappella, De causa Dei contra Pelagianos. ' About seventy years after Elizabeth de Burgh's bequest, we learn that in1424 the Countess of Westmoreland presented a petition to the PrivyCouncil representing that the late King Henry had borrowed from her abook containing the Chronicles of Jerusalem and the Expedition ofGodfrey of Boulogne, and praying that an order might be issued under thePrivy Seal for the restoration of the said book. With much formality thepetition was granted. But we might go back several hundred years priorto either of these dates, for the Abbess Eadburga not only transcribedbooks herself and kept several scholars for a similar purpose, but fedthe bibliomaniacal zeal of Boniface, the Saxon missionary, by presentinghim with a number of books. Appropriately enough, he presented theAbbess on one occasion with a silver pen. Two historic illuminated manuscripts, formerly the property ofdistinguished women, were sold from the Fountaine Collection atChristie's, in July, 1894. The more interesting item was Henry VIII. 'sown copy of the 'Psalmes or Prayers taken out of Holye Scripture, 'printed on vellum, by Thomas Berthelet, 1544. This book is of greathistoric interest. Shortly before his death he gave it to his daughter, Princess Mary (afterwards Queen Mary), who subsequently presented it toQueen Catherine Parr, with the following inscription: 'Madame, I shalldesyer yor grace most humbly to accepte thys ritde hande and unworthywhose harte and servyce unfaynedly you shall be seur of duryng my lyfcontynually. Your most humble dowghter and servant, Marye. ' On the backof the leaf containing the foregoing inscription is written: 'Mors estingressus quidam immortalis future quæ tamen est maxime horribilis carniCatherina Regina K. P. ' On a small piece of vellum inside the cover theKing has written: 'Myne owne good daughter I pray you remember me mosthartely wen you in your prayers do shew for grace, to be attaynedassurydly to yor lovyng fader. Henry R. ' This book contains quite anumber of other inscriptions by Henry, Catherine, and others, and is, onthe whole, of peculiarly striking interest. It was purchased by Mr. Quaritch for 610 guineas. A beautiful companion to the foregoing is amanuscript 'Horæ' of the fifteenth century, on very pure vellum, consisting of 176 leaves (8-1/2 inches by 6 inches). This manuscriptformerly belonged to Margaret, mother of King Henry VII. , and has at theend this inscription, in her handwriting, addressed to Lady Shyrley, towhom she presented it: 'My good Lady Shyrley pray for Me that gevythe you thys booke, And hertely pray you (Margaret) Modyr to the kynge. ' Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, was the only daughter and heirof John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and was not only distinguished forher piety and charity, but was a great patron of Caxton, whosesuccessor, Wynkyn de Worde, styled himself 'Her printer. ' This beautifulmanuscript was probably written and illuminated by her command in thereign of her son, Henry VII. It realized £350. [Illustration: _Queen Elizabeth's Golden Manual of Prayers. _ Front Cover. ] For all practical purposes, Queen Elizabeth may be regarded as the firstdistinguished _femme bibliophile_. Of this truculent and strong-mindedpersonage much has been written, and it is scarcely likely that there ismuch unpublished material respecting her library. It is not necessarynor desirable to enter exhaustively into even so fascinating a topic. Afew generalizations will not, however, be unwelcome. The books which shepossessed before she ascended the throne are excessively rare, and eventhose owned by her after that event are by no means common. Elizabethherself embroidered several books with her own hands, the most beautifulexample of her work being a copy of the Epistles of St. Paul, now at theBodleian. The black silk binding is covered with devices embroidered bythe Princess during her sequestration at Woodstock, representing theJudgment of Solomon and the Brazen Serpent, and these have beenreproduced by Dibdin in 'Bibliomania. ' From an inventory published in_Archæologia_ we learn that, in the sixteenth year of her reign, theQueen possessed a book of the Evangelists, of which the covers weredecorated with a crucifix and with her arms in silver, weighing, withthe wood corners, 112 ounces. Among the books which the notorious Libri'conveyed' were two which appear to have belonged to Elizabeth, first avolume containing Fenestella's 'De Magistratibus SacerdotusqueRomanorum' (1549), and another tract, which realized £5; and Jones's'Arte and Science of Preserving Bodie and Soul in Healthe, Wisdome, andCatholicke Religion' (1579), beautifully bound 'à petit fers, ' whichrealized close on £20. [Illustration: _Queen Elizabeth's Golden Manual of Prayers. _ Back Cover. ] The British Museum contains several books, including one or two verybeautiful ones, which were formerly the Queen's, and among these perhapsthe most notable is an imperfect copy of Coverdale's New Testament(_circa_ 1538). Upon the inside of the cover is the following manuscriptnote: 'This small book was once the property of Q. Elizabeth, andactually presented by her to A. Poynts, who was her maid of Honor. In itare a few lines of the Queen's own hand writing and signing. Likewise asmall drawing of King Edward the 6th when very young [of Windsor Castle]and one of the Knights in his robes. ' The 'few lines' of the Queen's areas follows: 'Amonge good thinges | I prove and finde, the quiet | lifedothe muche abounde | and sure to the contentid | mynde, ther is noriches | may be founde | your lovinge | mistress Elizabeth. ' Aninteresting point is raised in the _Library_ (ii. 65, 66), by Mr. W. G. Hardy, relative to the books of the Earl of Essex, which were believedto have become the property of Elizabeth after the unfortunatefavourite's execution in 1601. The finest as well as the best known ofthe Queen's embroidered books, now in the British Museum, is ArchbishopParker's 'De Antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ, ' 1572, presented by theauthor to Elizabeth, for whom also he had it specially bound. It iscovered in green velvet. We give facsimiles of the two sides of thecover of the manual of prayers which the Queen is said to have carriedabout with her, attached by a gold chain to her girdle. It is bound ingold and enamelled, said to be the workmanship of George Heriot. Theprayers were printed by A. Barker, 1574. The front side of the covercontains a representation of the raising of the serpent in thewilderness; whilst on the back is represented the judgment of Solomon. This book was for many years in the Duke of Sussex's collection; it wassold with the rest of the collection of the late George Field, atChristie's, June 13, 1893, for 1, 220 guineas, to Mr. C. J. Wertheimer. [Illustration: Elizabeth P. ] The Marquis of Salisbury's library at Hatfield contains a number ofbooks which belonged to two distinguished ladies of the Elizabethanperiod. Lady M. Burghley's many book-treasures included a number oflearned works which we do not usually associate with the women of thetime. There were, for instance, Basil, 'Orationes, ' 1556; Bodin, 'LaRépublique, ' 1580; Erasmus, 'De Copia Verborum, ' 1573; Fernelius, 'Medecina, ' 1554; Hemming, 'Commentarius in Ephesios, ' 1574; Haddon, 'Contra Osorium, ' 1557; Jasparus, 'Encomium, ' 1546; Valerius, 'TabulæDialectices, ' 1573; Velcurio, 'Commentarius in Aristotelis, ' 1573;Whitgift's 'Answer to Cartwright, ' 1574, and several others. A few ofthe books which were once possessed by Anne Cecil (sister of Sir RobertCecil), Countess of Oxford, are also at Hatfield, notably a 'GrammaireFrançaise, ' 1559, and an edition of Cicero 'Epîtres Familières. ' [Illustration: _The Frontispiece to 'The Ladies' Library' of Steele. _ Engraved by L. Du Guernier. ] During the eighteenth century, the taste for books was by no meansuncommon among women, although only a bold man would declare that thatperiod produced a genuine _femme bibliophile_. The idea of a lady'slibrary was first suggested by Addison in the _Spectator_, No. 37. InNo. 79 Steele takes up the thread of the subject, to which Addisonreturns in No. 92, and Steele again in No. 140. These papers created awant which Richard Steele, with a doubly benevolent object, essayed tofill. 'The Ladies' Library, ' ostensibly 'written by a lady, ' and'published by Mr. Steele, ' was issued by Jacob Tonson in 1714. It was inthree volumes, each of which had a separate dedication; the first isaddressed to the Countess of Burlington, the second to Mrs. Bovey, alearned and very beautiful widow, by some supposed to be identical withSir Roger de Coverley's obdurate _veuve_, whilst the third, in a strainof loyal and affectionate eulogy, is to Steele's own wife, who may besupposed to be depicted in Du Guernier's frontispiece in the firstvolume. The 'Ladies' Library' and the _Spectator_ papers assist ussomewhat in forming an opinion as to the most popular books among theladies of the earlier part of the last century. The library of the ladywhom Addison visited is described as arranged in a very beautiful order. 'At the end of the folios (which were finely bound and gilt) were greatjars of china, placed one above the other, in a very noble piece ofarchitecture. The quartos were separated from the octavos by a pile ofsmaller vessels, which rose in a delightful pyramid. The octavos werebounded by tea dishes of all shapes, colours and sizes. . . . That partof the library designed for the reception of plays and pamphlets wasinclosed in a kind of square, consisting of one of the prettiestgrotesque works that ever I saw, and made up of scaramouches, lions, monkeys, and a thousand odd figures in chinaware. In the midst of theroom was a little Japan table, with a quire of gilt paper upon it, andon the paper a silver snuff-box fashioned in the shape of a littlebook. ' On the upper shelves Addison noticed the presence of a number ofother counterfeit volumes, all the classic authors, and a set of theElzevir first editions in wood, only the titles meant to be read. Amongthe books Addison mentions are Virgil, Juvenal, Sir Isaac Newton'sworks, Locke on 'Human Understanding, ' a spelling-book, a dictionary forthe explanation of hard words, Sherlock on 'Death, ' 'The FifteenComforts of Matrimony, ' Father Malebranche's 'Search after Truth, ' 'ABook of Novels' [? Mrs. Behn's], 'The Academy of Compliments, ' 'Clelia, ''Advice to a Daughter, ' 'The New Atalantis' (with key), a Prayer-book(with a bottle of Hungary water by the side of it), Dr. Sacheverel'sspeech, Fielding's Trial, Seneca's 'Morals, ' Taylor's 'Holy Living andDying, ' and La Ferte's 'Instruction for Country Dances, ' etc. [Illustration: ELIZABETH PINDAR. God's providence is mine inheritance. Elizabeth Pindar me jure possidet. Anno Dom. 1608] The list is a quaint bit of Addisonian satire, almost worthy to rank bythe side of Sir Roger de Coverley. Addison had no very elevated opinionof the intellectual gifts of his women contemporaries, as thejuxtaposition of the Prayer-book with the bottle of Hungary waters (apopular stimulating perfume of the day) shows. The books above namedwere at that time to be found in nearly every gentleman's library, andthat they should be found in the possession of women is not surprising. Addison's 'intellectual lady' and her library are a fiction, but acharming fiction withal. In spite of the literary glories of her reign, 'Glorious Anna' can scarcely be regarded as a book-collector. QueenCaroline, the consort of George II. , was an enthusiastic bibliophile. Her library was preserved until recently in a building adjoining theGreen Park, called the Queen's Library, and subsequently the Duke ofYork's. An interior view of the building is given in Pyne's 'RoyalResidences. ' We give on page 267 a reproduction of one of the earliestEnglish bookplates engraved for a lady. It was discovered a few yearsago in a volume of title-pages collected by John Bagford, and now in theBritish Museum. Of Elizabeth Pindar as a book-collector, or, indeed, asanything else, we are without any record. [Illustration: _The Eshton Hall Library. _] The present century has produced two of the most distinguished _femmesbibliophiles_ which this country has ever known. The earlier collector, Miss Richardson Currer (1785-1861), of Eshton Hall, in the Deanery ofCraven, York, was the owner of an exceedingly rich library of books. Ofthese, two catalogues were printed. The first, in 1820, under thesuperintendence of Robert Triphook, extended to 308 pages; the secondwas drawn up by C. J. Stewart in 1833. That of the latter included foursteel engravings of her library. This library was especially strong inBritish history, and it included a copy on vellum of the St. Albansreprint of Caxton's 'Chronicle' (wanting only the last leaf), whichrealized £365 at her sale; of Higden's 'Polychronicon, ' printed byCaxton, 1482 (not quite perfect); one of the most perfect copies ofCoverdale's Bible, 1535, which sold for £250; of Norden's 'Voyaged'Egypte, ' on large paper, and many other fine books. It was also richin natural science, topography, and antiquities. Dibdin describes her as'at the head of all the female collectors of Europe. ' Miss Currer, whosuffered from deafness, was an intimate friend of Richard Heber, and itwas rumoured at one time that this distinguished bibliomaniac wasengaged to be married to Miss Currer, but the event did not transpire. Miss Currer's books were sold at Sotheby's in July and August, 1862, andrealized nearly £6, 000, the 2, 681 lots occupying ten days in selling. Miss Currer was great-niece of Dr. Richardson, whose correspondence wasedited by Dawson Turner in 1835. Two of the views of Miss Currer's finelibrary in Stewart's catalogue are reproduced by Dibdin in his 'LiteraryReminiscences. ' Before passing on to the second famous lady book-collector--Mrs. JohnRylands--a few more or less important names may be mentioned inconnection with the subject. In August, 1835, Evans sold the 'valuable'library of the late Dowager Lady Elcho, but as her books were mixed withother properties, it is not now possible to distinguish one from theother. Lady Mark Sykes' musical library was sold at Puttick's in March, 1847, and eleven months later Sotheby sold some valuable books and booksof prints, the property of a Miss Hamlet. H. R. H. The Princess Elizabeth, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg, and daughter of George III. , was aconfirmed book-collector, and her library, divided into 1, 606 lots, cameunder the hammer at Sotheby's in April, 1863. It occupied four days indisposal, and realized £915 12s. 6d. The books, which were chiefly inelegant bindings, were for the most part illustrated works, illuminatedmanuscripts, and books dealing with a very wide variety of topics;whilst many of them had an extraneous value from the fact that theycontained signatures and interesting notes of the Princess and othermembers of the Royal Family. The libraries of the late Lady FrancisVernon Harcourt (August, 1873); of the late Mrs. Ellis, of BernardStreet, Russell Square (November, 1871); and of the late Miss Beckles(December, 1868), have been dispersed at Sotheby's. Lady Morgan'slibrary, comprising the principal works in French, English, and Italianliterature, and many scarce and curious books relating to Irishhistory--many of the books had the owner's autograph--was sold at thesame place in April, 1863, but the 396 lots only realized £70. Thelibrary of another literary woman, Miss Agnes Strickland, the historianof the Queens of England, was dispersed at the same place in May, 1876, when a few hundred books realized £60. Some very choice books (many ofthem enriched with the notes of H. T. Buckle) were included in theportion of the library of the late Mrs. Benzon, of 10, Kensington PalaceGardens, sold at Sotheby's on June 14, 1880, when 379 lots realizedover £775. Some books from Mrs. Jameson's library were sold at Puttick'sin October, 1882, the more important items being annotated orextra-illustrated copies of her own books. The collection formed by MissDrummond, of Berkeley Square, Bristol, and sold at Sotheby's in May, 1862 (1, 339 lots realizing £1, 316 6s. ), was a remarkably choice library, the whole in elegant bindings, presenting a great variety of patterns, tooled in gold, with appropriate devices and other decorations. Therewere splendid 'Galleries, ' and books of 'picturesque sceneries, 'magnificent volumes on natural history, some beautiful Persianmanuscripts, and the best works in standard literature. Mrs. Brassey, ofLower Seymour Street, had some good books, which were sold by Bates onDecember 23, 1814, and included 'The Golden Legend, ' by Caxton, whichrealized 93 guineas. Mrs. John Rylands is the widow of the late Mr. John Rylands, of LongfordHall, near Manchester. Mrs. Rylands' career as a _femme bibliophile_ maybe briefly summarised thus: In 1889 this lady formed the plan oferecting in Manchester a memorial to her late husband, which shouldembody one main purpose of his life, as carried out by him veryunostentatiously, but with great delight, during the greater part of hiscareer. To make the highest literature accessible to the people was withhim a cherished aim, and it was accordingly resolved by his widow thatthe memorial should be in the form of a library. To this end Mrs. Rylands took into her confidence four gentlemen whose names are wellknown, and for whom the late Mr. Rylands had the greatest respect andadmiration, namely, the Rev. Dr. S. G. Green, of London; the late Rev. Dr. MacFadyen, of Manchester; Mr. W. Carnelly and Mr. W. Linnell, bothalso of Manchester, with whose aid the preliminaries for carrying outher purpose were speedily arranged. The site in Deansgate, lying betweenWood Street and Spinningfield, was purchased, and after visits toseveral great libraries and other public buildings, Mrs. Rylandsinstructed the architect of Mansfield College, Oxford, Mr. BasilChampneys, of London, to execute plans for a suitable structure, to bearthe name of the John Rylands Library. About the same time she commencedthe purchase of books, being aided in this by her friend, Mr. J. ArnoldGreen, son of the Rev. Dr. Green, who, putting himself in communicationwith various agents, collected a large number of standard books inEnglish and foreign literatures, including early Bibles, first editions, and many other rare and valuable works, with several choice manuscriptsand autographs. The number of volumes purchased reached many thousands, one of the acquisitions being the celebrated copy of the 'BibliaPauperum, ' once belonging to the Borghese Library in Rome, at the saleof which it fetched 15, 800 francs. Up to this time a considerable amounthad been spent. When the announcement was made in 1892 that EarlSpencer, the owner of the Althorp Library, was willing to dispose ofthat famous collection, Mrs. Rylands at once felt that its possessionwould be the crown of her whole scheme--accomplishing it with acompleteness of which she never dreamed when first she formed her plans. Mr. Arnold Green accordingly at once communicated on her behalf with Mr. Railton, of Messrs. Sotheran and Co. , a firm which had been largelyemployed by her in previous purchases of books. The result is that theAlthorp Library passed into Mrs. Rylands' possession, the price paidbeing close on a quarter of a million sterling. The transaction is byfar the largest of its kind which has ever taken place in this or anyother country. It has been calculated that the Althorp Library cost itsfounder about £100, 000, and that it should have more than doubled invalue in less than a century is an extremely gratifying fact. Itcontains a large number of unique and excessively rare books, whichnothing short of an upheaval in this country similar to the FrenchRevolution could place on the market. Those who depend upon such acontingency to obtain a few of these splendid books are likely to waitfor a very long time. But even with the striking examples of Miss Currer and Mrs. Rylandsbefore us, the conclusion still forces itself upon one that the _femmebibliophile_ is an all but unknown quantity. The New Woman may developinto a genuine book-lover; it is certain that the old one will not. TheChinese article of belief that women have no souls has, after all, something in its favour. Bookstall-keepers have a deep contempt for women who patronize them byturning over their books without purchasing. It would not be possible torepeat all the hard things they say about the sex. In the words of one:'They hang around and read the books, and though I have a man to watchthem, while he is driving away one another is reading a chapter. Theycan read a chapter in a minute. ' 'Does that not interest them in thebook, so that they buy it?' asked an interlocutor. 'No, sir; it don't. It only makes them go to the other stall and read the last chapterthere. Not once in a blue moon, sir, does womenfolk buy a book. A pennyweekly is what they buy, and before they fix on one they read half adozen. You take my word for it, sir, it takes a woman half an hour tospend a penny at a bookstall. ' A characteristic incident once happenedto an old judge's clerk who had a stall a few years ago in Gray's InnRoad. A lady, with whom there were two or three children, after waitingabout the pavement, at length suddenly became interested in the humblebookstall. Several pretty picture-books attracted the attention of thechildren, and they became clamorous to possess them. The stall-keeper, in the politest possible manner, offered the books at her own price. Thereply was: 'Oh no, thanks. We are only looking over the books to killtime. ' 'Much obliged to you, ma'am, for your kindness andconsideration, ' was the prompt reply. [Illustration] [Illustration] BOOK THIEVES, BORROWERS, AND KNOCK-OUTS. 'FACILIS descensus Averni' might well be the motto for any article orchapter dealing with the above comprehensive 'avocations. ' Once startedon his career, the book-thief may be regarded as entirely lost. At theMiddlesex Sessions a few years ago a genius of the name of Terry wassentenced to six years' imprisonment for stealing books. On inquiry itwas found that this same person had already been in prison six times, two terms of eighteen months each, one term of five years' penalservitude, and another of seven years, all for stealing books. Each thief has his own special _modus operandi_, which he variesaccording to circumstances. There are those who do it without anyadventitious aid, and those who cover their sin with variousaccessories. First, the ordinary book-thief, who watches his opportunitywhen the shopkeeper is not looking, and simply slips the book quicklyunder his coat and departs. This method is plain and simple inexecution, but sometimes dangerous in practice. Then there is the manwho wears an overcoat, the lining of the pocket of which he haspreviously removed, so that he can pass his hand right through whileapparently only standing still looking on, with his hands quietly in hispocket, possibly with one hand openly touching something, whilst theother is earning his dinner. [Illustration: '_Earning his Dinner. _'] An amusing incident was once the experience of a London bookseller. While sitting behind his counter inside the shop, he was amazed one dayat seeing a man running at a tremendous rate, and, momentarilyslackening his speed to seize a book off the stall, he had disappearedbefore the astounded bookseller was able to get to the door. And it isremarkable that, though many people were about, no one seems to havenoticed the thief take the book, though they saw him running. Anotherfavourite device is to carry a newspaper in the hand, and when no one islooking deposit the paper on a carefully-selected book within the folds;or having an overcoat carried on the arm to quickly hide somethingunder cover of it. This latter method requires, of course, awell-to-do-looking man, and obviously is chiefly confined to thestealers of the higher class of valuable books. It also requires, likeevery well-managed business, a certain amount of capital, for it isabsolutely necessary--in order to lull suspicion--that small purchasesshould be made from time to time in the hunting-ground that has beenchosen for the season. [Illustration: _The King's Library, British Museum. _] Then there is the mean man who, having money, is yet lacking in the willto spend it. Such individuals in these days of disguising bad deedsunder grand names are euphemistically designated kleptomaniacs. MostLondon booksellers have had experience of this class. It is a known factthat a literary man whose name is familiar to many readers was expelledfrom the reading-room of the British Museum for this sort of conduct, stealing small trifling things that could easily have been bought, andmutilating other books by cutting out passages which he was too lazy totranscribe, and too mean, although a well-to-do man, to employ anamanuensis. 'Steal?' quoth ancient Pistol. 'Foh! a fico for the phrase. Convey thewise it call. ' Had Pistol lived in these days he would have said, 'Kleptomania the wise it call. ' Some years ago there resided in theWest End of London a Belgian gentleman well known in literary circles, and a man of good position to boot. He possessed a valuable library, andwas a frequent visitor at shops where he could add to his collections. One dealer noticed that, whenever Monsieur Y. Called upon him, one ortwo valuable books mysteriously disappeared, and he was not long beforehe arrived at the conclusion that his Belgian customer appropriated hiswares without attending to the customary, but disagreeable, process ofexchanging the coin of the realm for his bargains. Our friend thedealer, an honest but remarkably plain-spoken and fearless individual, made careful notes of all his losses and their prices. One day he stopped Monsieur Y. Just as he was leaving the shop, andremarked that he might as well pay for the little volumes he had stowedaway in the pockets of the capacious overcoat he almost invariably wore. Great was the assumed indignation of the Belgian bibliophile, whoasserted that he had no books on him but those he had already accountedfor. 'Come, come, ' said the dealer, 'that won't do; I left you alone inthe room upstairs, but I watched you through the door, and saw youpocket the books, of which the price is so much. Unless you pay for themI shall send for a policeman; and whilst I am on the topic you may aswell settle for those other books you have taken from my shelves atvarious times. ' Here he produced his list, with the prices all affixed, and a certain small sum added by way of interest. Hereupon Monsieur Y. Stormed and raved, swore it was an attempt to extort money from him, andthreatened legal proceedings. 'If, ' said the dealer, 'you can empty yourpockets now without producing any book of mine, except those you havepaid for, I will withdraw my claim and apologize, otherwise I shall atonce send my man' (whom he then called) 'for a policeman. ' WhereuponMonsieur Y. Paid the full claim, walked out of the shop, and neverentered it again. But the catalogues were regularly sent to him, and asthe dealer constantly had books that he required, he ordered what hewanted by post, so that in the long-run the bookseller really lostlittle or nothing by his boldness. The same bookseller complained thatpeople often ordered his books but neglected to pay for them, whilstintending purchasers who meant to pay ready money, and called at theshop for the books, had to be sent away disconsolate, sometimes afterhaving come long distances to secure the long-wished-for volume. 'Butfirst come, first served, is my motto, and if six orders come for thesame book, it goes to the man whose letter or card I first receive. ' Asturdy John Bull sort of man this, with a great knowledge of books, whohas had to fight a long uphill battle, and is perhaps one of thebest-known men in the trade. An awkward incident for the thief happened once. A bookseller, theproprietor of two or three shops, was in one of them, when a personentered and offered for sale a couple of books. The proprietorrecognised one of them as being his property, he having that morningsent it to the other of his shops, from which it had been apparentlyalmost immediately removed. When questioned, the intending vendorpretended to be much insulted, and asserted the book had been in hispossession for some considerable time, and even threatened thebookseller, when he insisted on detaining the book, with the police. This was rather unfortunate, for at that moment a constable passing bywas called in, and, in spite of a great deal of bluster and manythreats, the thief was marched off to the nearest police-station. Theother book, it was found, had also been stolen that morning from anothershop, and the result was four months' imprisonment. The remarkable fact is that book-thieves are nearly always well-to-dopeople; if hunger induced them to steal a book to get a dinner, theywould come in the category of ordinary thieves. If they stole booksbecause they wanted to read them, and were unable to pay for them, onemight overlook their crime. One of the most remarkable illustrations ofthe past few years is that in which an ex-lieutenant in the Royal ScotsGreys was implicated. The books belonged to a lady who had let her houseto the prisoner's father. She left a number of books, which were inthree bookcases. They were locked, and contained valuable books. She wasinformed (so runs the report) that several of the books were missing, and a few weeks after she saw a number of books, including Ruskin's'Stones of Venice' and 'Modern Painters, ' which she identified as herproperty. The law was put into motion, and the case came into thecourts. The value of the two books mentioned she estimated at £60, andthe other books at £50. Mr. Reeves, bookseller, then of 196, Strand, deposed that he could identify the prisoner, and on June 21 he purchasedfive volumes of Ruskin's 'Modern Painters, ' and gave a cheque for £16. He understood that the accused had come into possession of them througha death. On that occasion the prisoner asked the witness what he wouldgive for three volumes of 'The Stones of Venice. ' Witness offered him£9. On June 28 the prisoner brought the book, and finding it not to bein such good condition, witness offered him £7 10s. This was accepted, and witness handed a cheque to the prisoner for that amount. Witnessbought other books from the prisoner for £3 2s. 6d. Mr. Reeves said thathe sold 'Modern Painters' for £18, and 'The Stones of Venice' for £810s. Here is another illustration, gleaned from the Greenwich Police Court: Aperson, forty-six, of ladylike appearance, and no occupation, wascharged at Greenwich with stealing a book, valued 4d. , from outside theshop of Charles Humphreys, 114, South Street. She was seen to take abook from a stall, place it in a novelette, and walk away. Prosecutorfollowed, stopped her, and said, 'I've got you now. ' She cried out, 'Oh, for God's sake, don't, don't! Let me pay for it. ' But he said, 'No, notfor £5, as you are an old thief. ' At her house he found over a hundredbooks bearing his private mark, but he could not swear that they had notbeen bought. Once he bought some books from the prisoner which she hadstolen from his shop, but he did not know that when he bought them. Prisoner pleaded guilty to stealing one book, and on her behalf asolicitor produced a certificate from a medical man, stating that shewas suffering from general weakness of system, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, and evident mental disorder. Those symptoms he attributedto causes which induced the magistrate to deal leniently, and a fine of£5 was imposed. [Illustration: '_Steals a book, places it in a novelette, and walksaway. _'] About a couple of years ago, two maiden sisters, Grace and Blanche ----, were charged at Bow Street with theft. To all appearances they werehighly respectable members of the community. Grace was seventy-four;Blanche had only seen sixty summers. They visited Shoolbred's, apparently wanting to buy some Prayer-books and Bibles. They looked atmany, but none suited them. They left without purchasing anything, nosuspicions being aroused on the part of the attendants. But DetectiveButler and Constable 173 D, who had taken great interest in the oldladies' movements, saw Grace hand a Book of Common Prayer, a hymn-book, and ladies' companion to her sister. Shoolbred's manager identified thearticles as the property of the firm, but declined to prosecute onaccount of the old ladies' ages. Grace admitted the theft, but said shedid not know what she was doing. A small fine was inflicted. Even so astute a tradesman as Bernard Quaritch has been victimized bythe book-thief. These are his own words: 'A little dark man, of aboutforty-five years of age, with a sallow complexion, apparently a Dutch orGerman Jew, speaking in broken English in an undertone, introducedhimself, showing me a business card, "Wunderlich and Co. " The followingday the pretended Wunderlich selected books from my stock to the amountof £270, and said he would come again and select more. At the same timethe little dark, sallow man saw, but refused to buy, a very sweet little"Livre d'Heures, " with lovely miniatures in _camaïeu-gris_, bound inblack morocco, with silver clasp. The price of this lovely MS. Was 50guineas. Since then this mysterious little dark man has disappeared, andmy very sweet little "Livre d'Heures, " with its lovely miniatures, hasdisappeared also. ' In 1891 Messrs. Sotheran and Co. Discovered that a number of rare bookshad been abstracted from their Strand shop, including a first edition ofBurns's 'Poems, ' 1786; Shakespeare's 'Poems, ' 1640, first edition, withportrait by Marshall, and eleven extra leaves at the end; Heywood's'Thyestes of Seneca, ' 1560; and Piers Plowman's 'Vision and Crede, '1561--all choice volumes. The Burns was valued at £30, and this wastraced a month or two after its sudden disappearance to a bookbinder, who offered it to Mrs. Groves, who, however, wisely declined to lendmoney on it. Subsequently the book was sent to Mr. Pearson, Exmouth, who, knowing it had been stolen, at once communicated with theprosecutors. Two of the other books were traced to New York, and werereturned to the firm at cost price. The enterprising bookbinder receivedtwelve months' hard. Mr. Waller, the bookseller, formerly of Fleet Street, relates a ratheramusing incident connected with Thackeray: 'I think it was a book of"Services" in four small volumes, two of which he already possessed, andone, completing the set, he saw in my window. He came in, said he wantedthat book, and gleefully told how he had picked up the third a fewminutes before in Holywell Street. He dived into his pocket to show mehis precious "find. " It was not there! Between Holywell Street and FleetStreet someone had relieved him of it, in the belief, apparently, thatit was an ordinary pocket-book with valuables in it!' [Illustration: '_He had placed the book in his pocket. Someone hadrelieved him of it. _'] A by no means uncommon person is what may be described as theconscientious thief, or the man who steals one book and replaces it byanother, which he considers to be of equal value. But a much clevererdodge was that of a wily villain who selected a book from the stock of afirm of booksellers in the Strand, asking one member of the firm tocharge it to him, and then selling it to the other partner at theopposite end of the shop a few minutes later! This can scarcely bedescribed as book-stealing, for there is no proof that the 'book-lover'did not intend paying for the article ultimately. In this case theassumption was distinctly against his doing anything of the sort. It will be seen from the foregoing facts that the book-thief hesitatesat no class of book. But would he draw the line at stealing a book whichdeals with thieves? The late Charles Reade appears to have thought thathe would not, for he has inscribed not only his name, but the followingsomewhat plaintive request, 'Please not to steal this book; I value it, 'in a volume which Mr. Menken once possessed. The book in question isentitled 'Inventaire général de L'Histoire des Larrons, ' Rouen, 1657. This singular work gives at length the stratagems, tricks, andartifices, the thefts of and assassinations by thieves, with a fullaccount of their most memorable exploits in France. One cannot helpwondering if a copy of this extraordinary book has ever been stolen froma book-collector, and of the remorse which must have overtaken the thiefwhen he discovered the character of his prize. That indeed would be astrange irony! But the book-thief is not by any means one of the numerous penalties ofmodern civilization. He has an antiquity which almost makes himrespectable. Hearne, in his 'Johannes Glastoniensis, ' states that SirHenry Saville once wrote a warning letter to Sir Robert Cotton, who hadoffered some additions to the library of the founder of the Bodleian. Anappointment had been made with Sir Robert to give Bodley an opportunityof inspecting the treasures on his shelves, and it was in anticipationof this that Saville thought it his duty to warn his friend in thefollowing terms: 'And remember I give you faire warning that if you holdany booke so deare as that you would bee loath to have him out of yoursight, set him aside beforehand. ' On the authority of the above extract, Gough has charged Bodley with being a suspicious character--or, in otherwords, a thief; but the complete letter puts a very different complexionon the extract. He tars with the same brush Dr. Moore, Bishop of Ely, Dr. Rawlinson, and his friend Umfreville. In connection with thefirst-named, Gough repeats an anecdote which crops up every now and thenas authentic, for these half-truths have an extraordinary vitality. Theanecdote runs as follows: 'A gentleman calling on a friend who had achoice library, found him unusually busy in putting his best books outof sight; upon asking his view in this, he answered, "Don't you knowthat the Bishop of Ely dines with me to-day?"' There can be only oneinference, of course. As a matter of fact, we do not believe that thereis any truth in either rumour. So far as Dr. Moore, 'the Father ofBlack-letter Collectors, ' is concerned, there can be no doubt that hehad a fairly elastic conscience in the matter of book-collecting. He issaid to have collected his library by plundering those of the clergy ofhis diocese, justifying himself by the cynical remark, _Quid illiteraticum libris?_ We do not vouch for the truth of this anecdote, any morethan for the graver charge, but probably there is some foundation forit. In the Harleian MSS. There is an interesting account of the severallibraries, public and private, which existed in London during theearlier part of the last century. From this source we learn that 'in thedays of Edward VI. , in the chapel adjoining to the Guildhall, called myLord Maiors Chapell, was a library well furnisht, being all MSS. Stowsays the Duke of Somerset borrowed them, with a design never to returnthem, but furnisht his own study in his pompous house in the Strand;they were five cartloads. ' Horace Walpole expressed his opinion to the effect that virtuosi havebeen long remarked to have little conscience in their favouritepursuits. A man will steal a rarity, who would cut off his hand ratherthan take the money it is worth. Yet in fact the crime is the same. Hetells us of a 'truly worthy clergyman, who collects coins and books. Afriend of mine mentioning to him that he had several of the StrawberryHill editions, this clergyman said, "Aye, but I can show you what it isnot in Mr. Walpole's power to give you. " He then produced a list of thepictures in the Devonshire, and other two collections in London, printedat my press. I was much surprised. It was, I think, about the year 1764, that, on reading the six volumes of "London and its Environs, " I orderedmy printer to throw off one copy for my own use. This printer was thevery man who, after he had left my service, produced the noted copy ofWilkes's "Essay on Woman. " He had stolen one copy of this list; and Imust blame the reverend amateur for purchasing it of him, as it was likereceiving stolen goods. ' The number of book-thieves has increased with the extension of public(or free) libraries. Here, the accumulated ingenuity of the literarythief has an ample scope, and he is not the man to let an opportunityescape. Some of the tribe have a mania for old directories; but novelsare the most popular. The clerical thief with a thirst for sermons andtheological literature is a by no means infrequent customer--and trulythe indictment of a thief of this description ought to bear the fatalendorsement continued almost up to our own times, _sus. Per coll. _--'lethim be hanged by the neck. ' At one time nearly all the volumes in the very useful Bohn's Libraryseries were kept in the Reading-room of the British Museum, but they sofrequently disappeared that the authorities decided upon their permanentsequestration to a less handy part of the building. Last year Mr. C. Trice Martin's new 'Record Interpreter' was so highly appreciated bothat the Record Office and at the Reading-room, that the copy at eachinstitution was stolen from the shelves within twenty-four hours of itsbeing placed there. Women more or less respectably dressed are often objects of suspicion topublic librarians; they are also a class infinitely more difficult todeal with than men, for, whilst the receptivity of their cloaks isinfinite, their 'feelings' have to be considered. Whether guilty orinnocent, the suspected party is bound to create a 'scene, ' probablyhysterics--and what is a public librarian, or, indeed, any other man, todo under such circumstances? Libri was unquestionably the most accomplished and wholesale book-thiefthat ever lived. As Inspector-General of French Libraries under LouisPhilippe, he had special facilities for helping himself--his knownthefts have been valued at £20, 000. We mention him here because hiscollections were sold at Sotheby's in 1860. One of the most interestingillustrations of this man's depredations was exposed in 1868, when LordAshburnham issued a translation of the Pentateuch from a Latin MS. Whichhad been purchased by a previous holder of the title from Libri, whosold it under the condition that it was not to be published for twentyyears. It had been stolen in 1847 from the Lyons Library, and the clausein the agreement, therefore, is easily understood. Libri evidently wasnot one of those whom Jules Janin describes as 'people who don't thinkit thieving to steal a book unless you sell it afterwards. ' Unfortunately, education has knocked all the virtue out of charms andincantation. Madame de Genlis is said to have fenced the greater part ofher library with the following lines: 'Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis; Dismas, et Gesmas, media est Divina Potestas; Alta petit Dismas, infelix infima Gesmas. Nos et res nostras conservet Summa Potestas!-- Hos versus dicas, ne tu furto tua perdas. ' Quite a long chapter could be made up of the doggerel rhymes frequentlymade use of in bygone days in which the prospective thief was warned offunder penalties of a prison, or even of a worse end. Here is one: 'Si quisquis furetur This little Libellum Per Phoebum, per Jovem, I'll kill him--I'll fell him-- In ventrem illius I'll stick my scalpellum, And teach him to steal My little Libellum. ' And here is another: 'Qui ce livre volera, Pro suis criminibus Au gibet il dansera, Pedibus pendentibus. ' A curious and interesting chapter in the history of book-stealing isfurnished us by Mr. F. S. Ellis. 'Some thirty years since I was talkingwith Mr. Hunt, for many years Town Clerk of Ipswich, who was an ardentbook-collector, and in the course of conversation he lamented how someten years previously he had missed an opportunity of buying a firstedition of "Paradise Lost" under the following circumstances. There wasa sale in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, in which a number of books wereincluded. These were all tied in bundles and catalogued simply as somany books in one lot. Going over one of these bundles, what was hissurprise to find a first edition of "Paradise Lost, " with the firsttitle-page, and in the original sheepskin binding! He said nothing, butwent round to the auctioneer's house and asked him if he would bewilling to sell him a particular book out of the collection previous toauction. "Oh, by all means, " said the auctioneer; "just point me out thevolume and say what you are willing to give me for it, and you can takeit out at once. " What was Mr. Hunt's chagrin and disappointment, onagain taking up the bundle, to find that the number of books was allright according to the catalogue, but Milton's "Paradise Lost" haddisappeared. Someone with as keen an eye as the Town Clerk had alsodiscovered the jewel, and had put in practice the theory that exchangeis no robbery, and had substituted some other volume for the Miltonwithout going through the formality of a consultation with theauctioneer. Not long after this, a "Paradise Lost, " which I have everyreason to believe was _the_ "Paradise Lost" described above, in theoriginal sheepskin binding, and having the "first" title-page, wasoffered for sale to Mr. Simpson, who carried on an old-book business forMr. Skeat, in King William Street, Strand. He purchased it for what inthose days was considered a high price; but how much it was below whatis now esteemed its value is witnessed by the fact that he offered it tothe late Mr. Crossley, of Manchester, and after much haggling sold it tohim for £12 12s. When Mr. Crossley had secured it, he quietly remarked, "And now let me tell you that if you find a dozen more copies in similarcondition, I will give you the same price for every one. " It remained inMr. Crossley's library for many years, and at the sale of his books in1884 realized what was considered the very high price of £25. Eightyears after it had advanced to £120. ' The book-borrower is, perhaps, a greater curse than the thief, for hesimulates a virtue to which the latter makes no pretension. Thebook-plate of a certain French collector bore this text from the parableof the Ten Virgins: 'Go ye rather to them that sell, and buy foryourselves. ' 'Sir, ' said a man of wit to an acquaintance who lamentedthe difficulty which he found in persuading his friends to return thevolumes that he had lent them, 'Sir, your acquaintances find, I suppose, that it is much more easy to retain the books themselves than what iscontained in them. ' A certain wise physician took a gentle way ofreminding the borrower who dog-eared or tore the pages of his books:pasted on the fly-leaf of each of his books is a printed tag, bearingthis legend: 'Library of Galen, M. D. "And if a man borrow aught of hisneighbour and it be hurt, he shall surely make it good, " Exodus xxii. 14. ' A much more effective plan is that described some time ago in the_Graphic_ by Mr. Ashby Sterry. In all the books of a certain cunningbibliophile he had the price written in plain figures; when anyone askedhim for the loan of a book he invariably replied, 'Yes, with pleasure, 'and, looking in the volume, further added, 'I see the price of this workis £2 17s. 6d. '--or whatever the value might happen to be--'you may takeit at this figure, which will, of course, be refunded when the volume isreturned. ' If a person really wished to read the volume he would ofcourse be glad to leave this deposit; and if he did not return it hewould not be altogether an unmitigated thief. Mr. John Ashton relates, in his volume on the 'Wit, Humour, and Satire of the SeventeenthCentury, ' a curious anecdote which may be here quoted: 'Master Mason, ofTrinity Colledge, sent his pupil to another of the Fellows to borrow aBook of him, who told him, _I am loathe to lend my books out of mychamber, but if it please thy Tutor to come and read upon it in mychamber, he shall as long as he will. _' When Harrison Ainsworth was a youth and living at Manchester, hecontracted an enthusiastic admiration for Elia, to whom he sent somecurious books on loan. One of these was a black-letter volume entitled'Syrinx or a sevenfold History, handled with a variety of pleasant andprofitable both comical and tragical Arguments, ' etc. , by W. Warner, 1597. Lamb replied, December 9, 1823: 'I do not mean to keep the book, for I suspect you are forming a curious collection, and I do notpretend to anything of the kind. I have not a black-letter book amongmine, old Chaucer excepted, and am not bibliomanist enough to likeblack-letter. It is painful to read; therefore I must insist onreturning it, at opportunity, not from contumacy and reluctance to beobliged, but because it must suit you better than me. ' The copy ofWarner's 'Syrinx' Ainsworth had borrowed from Dr. Hibbert-Wade, andtherefore it was not the future novelist's book to give. Ignoring, however, his expressed determination to return it, Elia lent the book toanother friend, who shortly after went to New York, and may have takenthe Warner with him, much to Dr. Hibbert-Wade's annoyance, of which hedid not, it is said, fail to let Harrison Ainsworth know. It appears, however, to have returned again--indeed, it is probable that the booknever left England--for it is now in the Dyce Collection at SouthKensington, with 'Mr. Charles Lamb' written on one of the fly-leaves, and Dyce's note, 'This rare book was given to me by Mr. Moxon afterLamb's death. ' The ranks of London book-borrowers, as those of book-thieves, haveincluded a number of men eminent or distinguished in some particularway. The Duke of Lauderdale was one of these. Evelyn tells us that hewas a dangerous borrower of other men's books, as the diarist knew tohis cost. Coleridge was a wholesale book-borrower, and the manner inwhich he annotated the books of his friends caused much strong and deeplamentation at the time. These 'annotated' books have now acquired avery distinct commercial and literary value. The _London Chronicle_ of December 3-5, 1767, contains a curiousadvertisement, headed 'Book-Missing. ' It goes on, 'Whereas there ismissing out of the late Dr. Chandler's Library the _fifth Volume ofCardinal Pool's Letters_, and it is presumed that the said volume ofLetters was borrowed by some friend of the Doctor's; it is earnestlyrequested by the Widow and Executrix of the said Dr. Chandler thatwhoever is in possession of the said volume would be so kind asimmediately to send it to Mr. Buckland, Bookseller, Paternoster Row, and the favour will be gratefully acknowledged. ' When Sir Walter Scott lent a book, he put in its place a wooden blockbearing the name of the borrower and the date of the loan. Charles Lamb, tired of lending his books, threatened to chain Wordsworth's poems tohis shelves, adding, 'For of those who borrow, some read slow; some meanto read, but don't read; and some neither read nor mean to read, butborrow to give you an opinion of their sagacity. I must do mymoney-borrowing friends the justice to say that there is nothing of thiscaprice or wantonness of alienation in them. When they borrow money theynever fail to make use of it. ' Just as the difference between the book-thief and the book-borrower isof too slight a nature to warrant independent chapters, so the hero whoindulges in the luxury of a 'knock-out' is more or less of a thief, andthis company is, essentially, a very proper place in which to find him. A 'knock-out, ' it may be briefly explained to the uninitiated, is asystem by which two or more booksellers--or, for the matter of that, anyother tradesmen--combine to procure certain books at a lower than normalauction value. An American paper stated, some time ago, and among manyother remarkable things, that 'a private buyer cannot obtain a book byauction in London at any price. ' The extreme foolishness of such astatement need not be enlarged upon in this place. That the knock-outsystem does exist in London no one but a fool would deny. That it doesoccur now and then at such places as Sotheby's, Christie's, Puttick andSimpson's and Hodgson's, is without any manner of doubt, but not to anyextent worth mentioning. Where the system is in vogue is at sales heldin private houses, and at auction-rooms where books are not generallysold. At such places books are usually knocked down at absurdly lowfigures, until the private person steps in, when the prices begin to goup with a bound; they then realize oftentimes figures far above those atwhich they may be acquired at the shops. After the private bidder hasbeen excited into paying an excessive price for his lots, he realizesthat he is doing a foolish thing, and resigns the game into the hands ofthe trade, when the prices again begin to assume their former very lowlevels. The knock-out books are taken away by their nominal purchaser, and in a convenient back parlour of some handy 'pub' they are put upagain for competition among the clique, when all profits realized arethrown into a pool, and afterwards equally divided. 'The two books you commissioned me to get were knocked down at £1 15s. And 10s. Respectively, ' said a bookseller to a well-known collector onlythe other day; 'and if you insist upon having them at these prices, plusthe commission, you must have them. But as a matter of fact they cost me£1 over and above the total of £2 5s. ' The reply to the collector'sdemand for an explanation was, 'Smith agreed to let me have these twobooks if I did not oppose his bidding for the Fielding. ' It is scarcelynecessary to say that the total cost, with the £1 thrown in, was muchbelow the original commission, whilst the Fielding ran up toconsiderably over the price Smith intended to have given. By striking abalance, the two cronies each obtained what he wanted. An arrangement ofthis sort is nearly invariably the explanation of two extreme pricesbeing paid for equally good copies of one book in a single season. In 1781 a portion of the library formed by Ralph Sheldon, of Weston, Warwickshire, chiefly in the third quarter of the seventeenth century, was sold at Christie's, but the auctioneer throughout appears to havebeen victimized by the knock-out system. One of the lots, comprising alarge collection of scarce old plays in fifty-six volumes, quarto, wasknocked down to one bookseller for £5 5s. ; he then passed it on toanother for £18, and the collection was sold on the spot to Hendersonthe actor for £31 10s. At this same sale the English Bible, 1537, realized 13s. ; two copies of the Common Prayer Book, 1552, 8s. ; theFirst Folio Shakespeare, with two other books, £2 4s. ; the 'LegendaAurea, ' printed by Notary, 1503, 10s. 6d. It would not be difficult toextend this list of illustrations, but perhaps one example is as good asa hundred. We may, appropriately enough, conclude this brief but sufficientlylengthy notice of the knock-out system with an anecdote which showsthat, in this case, a 'knock-out' would have been justifiable. At acertain famous book-sale a few years ago, a volume of no particularinterest, except that it contained the autograph of the Earl ofDerwentwater, was possibly worth £5. But the bidding was brisk, two ofthe dealers being evidently bent on having the prize. To theastonishment of everybody, the price went up to about 120 guineas, whenone of the dealers gave in. Taking the other man aside, he said, 'Whohave you been bidding for?' 'Mr. So-and-So. ' 'So have I. ' Anotherillustration of the unexpected and incomprehensibly sudden rise in theauction value of books is explained in the following extract of a letterfrom Horace Walpole: 'I cannot conclude my letter without telling youwhat an escape I had, at the sale of Dr. Mead's library, which goesextremely dear. In the catalogue I saw Winstanley's "Views of AudleyEnd, " which I concluded was a thin dirty folio, worth about fifteenshillings. As I thought it might be scarce, it might run to two or threeguineas; however, I bid Graham _certainly_ buy it for me. He came thenext morning in a great fright, said he did not know whether he had doneright or very wrong; that he had gone as far as _nine and fortyguineas_. I started in such a fright! Another bookseller had, luckily, as unlimited a commission, and bid fifty. I shall never give anunbounded commission again. ' [Illustration] [Illustration] SOME HUMOURS OF BOOK-CATALOGUES. AN interesting and curious pendant to Mr. H. B. Wheatley's 'LiteraryBlunders' might be made up of the errors which have occurred from timeto time in booksellers' catalogues. These errors are sometimesgrotesquely amusing, and are perhaps as often attributable to theingenuity of the printer as to the ignorance of the cataloguer. Booksellers usually content themselves with seeing one proof of theircatalogues, and as the variety of books dealt with is so great, it wouldneed at least half a dozen careful revisions to secure anything likecorrectness. As a general rule, the catalogues of London booksellers areexceptionally free of blunders, provincial compilers (notably one or twoin Birmingham) being far behind their Metropolitan rivals. The exampleof 'Mill, John S. , On Liberty, " " On the Floss, ' is almost too well known to again bear repeating; the same may be saidof the instance in which Ruskin's 'Notes on the Construction ofSheepfolds' was catalogued as a book for farmers, and of that in whichSwinburne's 'Under the Microscope' was classed among opticalinstruments. The cross-reference of 'God: _see_ Fiske, J. , ' is a gem of absent-mindedness. Here are four more gems which appeared inthe catalogue of a public library: 'Aristophanes: The Clouds of the Greek Text. ' 'Boy's Own Annual: Magazine of Gymnastics. ' 'Swedenborg: Conjugal Love and its Opposite. ' 'Tiziano (Titian), Vicelli Da Cadore. ' The following is a good specimen of a bookseller's inspiration inreference to the entry 'Bible--2 vols. , 12mo. , _Edin. _, 1811' in hiscatalogue: 'Sir Brunet and Dibdin in praise of this beautiful edition. As most nearly approaching unimaculateness a better copy than thepresent one could not be found. ' This example is on a par with that inwhich an early Missal is catalogued as an 'extremely rare old printingand engraved work, ' its author being 'Horæ B. V. Mariæ and usumRomanum, ' whilst it is stated to be bound by 'Chamholfen Duru, ' whoeverhe may be. Equally intelligent is another item from the same source, 'Newcastle (Marguis de Methode, etc. ), oeuvre auquel on apprende, ' etc. Perhaps it was the cheapness--sixpence each--which prevented two itemsfrom having fuller descriptions: 'Horace, the Poems of, very interesting. ' 'Jokely, very interesting, 12 months. ' Perhaps '12 months' is the term of imprisonment which any booksellerdeserves for publishing such absurdities. Another gem in the way ofblunders is the following: 'There's (Lord and Lady) Legends of the Library at Lilies, 2 vols. , 8vo. , bds. , 2s. 6d. , 1832. ' The book catalogued in this puzzling manner is by Lord and Lady Nugent, and is entitled 'Legends of the Library at Lilies [the Nugents'residence], by the Lord and Lady thereof. ' A similar carelessnessresulted in Sir Astley Cooper's 'Treatise on Dislocations, ' 1822, beingcatalogued as follows: 'Bart (C. A. ), a Treatise on Discolourations andFractures of the Joints, ' etc. , and also of books by Sir James Y. Simpson, Bart. , as by 'Bart (S. )' and 'Bart (J. ). ' The following entriesspeak for themselves: 'Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Pottery. ' 'The New Wig Guide. ' 'The Rose and the Ring by R. Browing. ' 'Marryat's "Pirate and Three Butlers. "' Under 'Devil, The, ' we find the following entry: 'Le Deuil souobservation dans tous les Temps, ' 1877; and under Numismatics thefollowing delightful bull: 'Money, a comedy, a poor copy, 1s. ' As an instance of official cataloguing, it would be difficult to beatthe following description of a familiar classic which appeared in a listissued a few years ago (according to a writer in _Notes and Queries_) ina certain presidency of India, 'by order of the Right Hon. The Governorin Council': 'Title--Commentarii (_sic_) De Bello Gallico in usum Scholarum, Liber Tirtius (_sic_). Author--Mr. C. J. Caesoris. Subject--Religion. ' Nichols, in his 'Literary Anecdotes' (iv. 493), mentions that Dr. Taylor, who about the year 1732 was librarian at Cambridge, used torelate of himself that one day throwing books in heaps for the purposeof classing and arranging them, he put one among works on Mensuration, because his eye caught the word _height_ in the title-page, and anotherwhich had the word _salt_ conspicuous he threw among books on Chemistryor Cookery. But when he began a regular classification, it appeared thatthe former was 'Longinus on the Sublime, ' and the other a 'TheologicalDiscourse on the _Salt_ of the World, that good Christians ought to beseasoned with. ' Thus, in a catalogue published about eighty years agothe 'Flowers of Ancient Literature' are found among books on Gardeningand Botany, and Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy' is placed among workson Medicine and Surgery. Some blundering bibliographer has classed the'Fuggerarum Imagines, ' the account of the once mighty Italian family, among botanical works, under the 'Resemblance of Ferns. ' Dibdin statesthat he once saw the first Aldine Homer in a country bookseller'scatalogue described as 'a beautiful copy of the _Koraun_. ' The Rev. JohnMitford sent to a Woodbridge bookseller for a copy of Shelley's'Prometheus Unbound, ' and received the answer that no copy of'Prometheus' _in sheets_ could be obtained--a misconception whichBernard Barton promptly forwarded to London, to Charles Lamb's greatcontent. We have heard of the following blunder, but have never actuallyseen it: 'SHELLEY--Prometheus, unbound, ' etc. ' ---- ---- another copy, olive morocco, ' etc. The nearest approach to it occurred a few years ago in a Glasgowauctioneer's catalogue: 'Lot 282, Sir Noel Paton's Illustrations, Shelley's _Prometheus_, unbound, 12 plates, N. D. ' As a matter of fact, the copy was bound in cloth. 'Please send the ax relating to a justuspease' is a phrase which will be remembered by readers of 'GuyMannering. ' Only recently a post-card reached Messrs. Smith, Elder andCo. Requesting the immediate despatch of a copy of 'Hard on Horace, 'which was the inaccurate, or perhaps waggish, sender's rendering of the'Hawarden Horace. ' This will be remembered with the request for 'TheCrockit Minister, ' by Stickett, and 'Sheep that Pass in the Night. ' Someof the foregoing budget can scarcely be placed to the discredit of thecataloguer, but they are sufficiently _apropos_ to be included here. The following amusing entry occurs in the sale catalogue of the libraryof the late Mr. R. Montgomery, which was dispersed by auction at Antwerpthe other day: 'Plain or Ringlets? by Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate, with illustrations by John Leech. London, s. D. , 8{o} d. Rel. Dos etcoins chagr. Rouge, tête dorée, figg. Coloriées et noires. ' Messrs. Longmans had a letter a few weeks ago asking for a copy of 'Chips from aGerman Workshop, ' by Max Müller, for review in a trade paper dealingwith carpentering, etc. ! This reminds one of the story of Edwardes, theRepublican bookseller of a century ago, who put a Government spy toconfusion by re-binding a Bible and giving it the seditious title, 'TheRights of Man. ' Burke's 'Thoughts on the French Revolution' wasadvertised by him as 'The Gospel according to St. Burke. ' Outside acertain bookseller's shop, Mr. R. C. Christie once saw a book in sixduodecimo volumes, bound in dark antique calf, and lettered 'CalviniOpera. ' Knowing of no edition of the works of Calvin in that form, Mr. Christie took down a volume, and found it was 'Faublas!' It was theoriginal edition in thirteen parts, with the seventeen engravings, andwas so lettered, no doubt, by its former owner to shelter it fromindiscreet curiosity! The practice of giving books of poetry, novels, etc. , what may bedescribed as floricultural titles, has landed cataloguers into anastonishing number and variety of errors, some of which have beenpointed out by Mr. B. Daydon Jackson in the _Bibliographer_. The chiefsinners have been foreign bibliographers, who, not being able to examinethe books which they catalogue, depend entirely upon the titles. Thesame error occurs frequently here in this country. An English tradejournal included Dr. Garnett's selection from Coventry Patmore's poems, 'Florilegium Amantis, ' under 'Botany, Farming, and Gardening. ' Two ofMayne Reid's novels, 'The Forest Exiles' and 'The Plant-Hunters, ' havebeen included among scientific books, but in these cases the errors seemto have arisen from the misleadingly translated titles, the former inItalian ('Gli esuli nella foresta; cognizioni di scienza fiscia enaturale'), and the latter in French, 'Le Chasseur de Plantes. ' Thelearned Pritzel included among botanical treatises 'The Lotus, or FaeryFlower of the Poets. ' In the earlier part of the century a story was incirculation relative to an erudite collector who was accustomed to boastof his discoveries in Venetian history from the perusal of a rarequarto, 'De Re Venaticâ. ' A brother bibliographer one day lowered hispretensions by gravely informing him that the historical discoveries towhich he laid claim had been anticipated by Mr. Beckford, who, towardsthe close of the last century, published them to the world under theanalogous title of 'Thoughts on Hunting. ' There is a good deal of amusement to be got sometimes out of even suchan unpromising source as an auctioneer's catalogue, especially when itincludes books. The list of a miscellaneous lot of things lately sold ata South London depository comes in this category. One of the items, forexample, is entered as 'Dickin's works bound in half, ' but who Mr. 'Dickin' is, or was, or what the 'half' indicates, the reader is left tofind out. 'Goldsmith lover' also seems a trifle confusing, until the lotis hunted up and the discovery made that Goldsmith's 'Works' isintended. Lytton's 'King John' suggests a work hitherto unknown toreaders of the author of 'My Novel, ' until examination proves it to be'King Arthur, ' and 'McCauley's History of England' is rather suggestiveof a scathing indictment of English misrule by an author from the'distressful country' than of the picturesque prose of the whilom Whigstatesman and book-collector. [Illustration] [Illustration] SOME MODERN COLLECTORS. WE have already referred, in a preceding chapter, to the origin andearly history of the Roxburghe Club, and also to the disrepute in whichits too zealous members, Hazlewood and Dibdin, contrived to place it. The club still exists, and flourishes in a manner which renders itunique among book-clubs. A complete set of its privately-printedbooklets is an almost impossible feat of book-collecting, and anexpensive luxury in which but few can afford to indulge. The presentconstitution of the club, the members of which dine together once ayear, is as follows: President: The Marquis of Salisbury, K. G. ; S. A. R. Le Duc D'Aumale; the Duke of Buccleuch, K. T. ; the Duke of Devonshire, K. G. ; the Marquis of Bute, K. T. ; the Marquis of Lothian, K. T. ; theMarquis of Bath; Earl Cowper, K. G. ; Earl of Crawford; Earl of Powis;Earl of Rosebery; Earl of Cawdor; Lord Charles W. Brudenell Bruce; LordZouche; Lord Houghton; Lord Amherst of Hackney; the Lord Bishop ofPeterborough; the Lord Bishop of Salisbury; the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, M. P. ; Sir William R. Anson, Bart. ; Charles Butler, Esq. ; IngramBywater, Esq. ; Richard Copley Christie, Esq. ; Charles I. Elton, Esq. ;Sir John Evans, K. C. B. ; George Briscoe Eyre, Esq. ; Sir AugustusWollaston Franks; Thomas Gaisford, Esq. ; Henry Hucks Gibbs, Esq. (vice-president); Alban George Henry Gibbs, Esq. ; A. H. Huth, Esq. (treasurer); Andrew Lang, Esq. ; J. Wingfield Malcolm, Esq. ; John Murray, Esq. ; Edward James Stanley, Esq. ; Simon Watson Taylor, Esq. ; Sir EdwardMaunde Thompson (principal librarian of the British Museum); Rev. EdwardTindal Turner, Esq. ; V. Bates Van de Weyer, Esq. ; and W. Aldis Wright, Esq. [Illustration: _The late Henry Huth, Book-collector. _] The finest and most select, and perhaps the most extensive, collectionof books owned by any member of the Roxburghe Club is the noble libraryof Mr. Huth, whose father, the late Henry Huth, founded it. A veryinteresting account of this library, from two points of view--Mr. F. S. Ellis's and Mr. A. H. Huth's--appears in Part II. Of Quaritch's'Dictionary of English Book-collectors, ' whilst the fullest account ofall the rarities which it contains is comprised in the catalogue in fiveimperial octavo volumes. It is impossible to do justice to it in thebrief space at our disposal. But a few rarities may be enumerated asshowing its extremely varied nature. Nearly all the early printers arerepresented in the Huth Library--there are the Gutenberg and Fust andSchoeffer Bibles; the Balbi Catholicon, 1460; there are over seventyAldines, including the rare Virgil of 1501, with the bookplate ofBilibald Pirkheimer. There are no less than a dozen fine examples ofCaxton's press; the only known copy on vellum of the 'Fructus Temporum'of the St. Albans press; about fifty works from the press of Wynkyn deWorde, of which several are unique; and sixteen works printed by RichardPynson. Of Shakespeare quartos the late Mr. Huth secured a very fineseries at the Daniel sale in 1864, including 'Richard II. , ' 1597; 'HenryV. , ' 1600; 'Richard III. , ' 1597; 'Romeo and Juliet, ' 1599; 'MidsummerNight's Dream, ' 1600; 'Merchant of Venice, ' 1600; 'Merrie Wives ofWindsor, ' 1602; 'Othello, ' 1622; 'Titus Andronicus, ' 1611; and'Pericles, ' 1609. The library is equally rich in the production ofElizabethan and Jacobean literature, many of the items being eitherunique or very nearly so; it is especially rich in first editions of theEnglish poets from the earliest times down to Goldsmith, Keats, Shelley, etc. Indeed, the collection seems to contain the first or best editionsof every English work of note; there are many fine manuscripts, and somehighly interesting autographs. Mr. Ellis tells us that Mr. Huth alwaysbought on his own judgment, without consultation and without hesitation, 'and I believe it may be safely affirmed that it would be difficult toname any collector who made fewer errors in his selection. He was neverknown to bargain for a book or to endeavour to cheapen it. The pricenamed, he would at once say 'Yea' or 'Nay' to it, and though it wassupposed at the time that he paid high prices for his books, it may beconfidently asserted that as a whole they are worth very much more thanhe paid for them, which, I think, could not have been much lessaltogether than £120, 000. ' Joseph Lilly is said to have sold to orpurchased for Mr. Huth books to the value of over £40, 000. Mr. Huth wasborn in 1815, and died in 1878. The library is, as we have said, now theproperty of his son, Mr. Alfred H. Huth, who has made a number ofimportant additions to it, and who is as ardent and as genuine abibliophile as his father. [Illustration: _Mr. Henry H. Gibbs, Book-collector. _] Without approaching either in size or interest to that of Mr. Huth, thechoice collection of books formed by Mr. Henry Hucks Gibbs, and lodgedat his town-house at St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park, is full of attractionto the student of English literature. Early in the present century St. Dunstan's was inhabited by the Lord Steyne of Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair, 'and it was here that the orgies took place which resulted in thesensational trial of Nicholas Suisse, the confidant of Lord Hertford. The library at St. Dunstan's is a lofty, well-lighted room of about 28feet by 20 feet, and the bookcases are made of Thuya wood fromAustralia, a wood which is exceedingly beautiful when polished. Mr. Gibbs's first book of note was purchased at Bright's sale in 1845, andwas St. Augustine's 'De Arte Predicandi, ' a volume of twenty-two leaves, and of well-known interest to students of early typography. Of Biblesthere are over fifty examples, including Coverdale's, 1535, Matthew's, 1537, Cromwell's, 1539, a very large copy, and Cranmer's, 1540. The fineseries of Prayer-Books comprises forty-seven in English, from the timeof Edward VI. (1549) to that of Queen Victoria, whilst thirty-fiveothers are in foreign languages. There are nine Primers from the time ofHenry VIII. To Elizabeth; and there are no fewer than thirty-oneeditions of the New Testament. Examples of some of the choicest knownBooks of Hours and Missals are also in this collection, whilst among thesix editions of the 'Imitatio Christi' there is a sixteenth-centurymanuscript on two hundred and forty-seven folios of paper, written byFrancis Montpoudie de Weert, for the use of Bruynix, Priest, Dean ofChristianity. Among the _incunabula_ there is a very large copy of the'Chronicon Nurembergense, ' 1495, and two Caxtons: first, the'Polychronicon' of Ralph Higden, 1482; and, secondly, the 'GoldenLegend, ' 1483, which latter was successively in the Towneley and theGlendening collections. The other more notable articles include finecopies of the four Folio Shakespeares, first editions of Milton's'Comus, ' 'Lycidas, ' 'Eikonoklastes, ' 'Paradise Lost, ' and 'ParadiseRegained, ' several Spensers, and very complete sets of theprivately-printed books edited by the Rev. A. B. Grosart, Halliwell-Phillipps, H. Huth, E. Arber, and E. W. Ashbee. A veryinteresting _catalogue raisonné_ of Mr. Gibbs's choice library has beenprinted, to which the reader is referred for further particulars. [Illustration: _Mr. R. Copley Christie, Book-collector. _] Just as the minds of no two men run in precisely similar grooves, so notwo libraries are found to be identical. Many bear a very strikingresemblance to one another, but in more than one respect they will befound to differ. The splendid library formed by Mr. R. Copley Christie, the president or past-president of quite a number of learned societies, is altogether unique, so far as this country is concerned, and hislibrary in a garden--truly the _summum bonum_ of human desires!--atRibsden, near Bagshot, is certainly one of the most remarkable which ithas been our privilege to examine. Mr. Christie has not endeavoured tocollect everything, but he has no rival in the specialities to which hehas devoted his particular attention. He is the author of the onlycomplete monograph on Etienne Dolet, which has been translated intoFrench, and of which M. Goblet, when Minister of Public Instruction, caused 250 copies to be purchased for distribution among the publiclibraries of France. Of the eighty-four books (many of which are nowlost) printed by Dolet, there are three collections worthy of the name, and the relative value of these will be seen when we state that Mr. Christie possesses copies of forty-four, the Bibliothèque Nationalethirty, and the British Museum twenty-five. Mr. Christie's collection ofthe editions of Horace is probably the finest in existence outside oneor two public libraries; he has about 800 volumes, and among these aretranslations into nearly every European language. He has upwards of 300Aldines, nearly forty of which are _editiones principes_. The works ofthe early French printers generally are objects of special interest; hehas, for example, about 400 volumes printed by Sebastian Gryphius, atLyons, from 1528 to 1556. Mr. Christie's library is also very rich inworks of or relating to Pomponatius, Hortensio Landi, Postel, Ramus, J. Sturm, Scioppius, Giulio Camillo, and particularly Giordano Bruno. A considerable number of the members of the Roxburghe Club come in thecategory of book-lovers rather than book-collectors. The Earl ofRosebery is understood to possess many valuable books and manuscriptsrelating to Scottish literature, particularly in reference to RobertBurns; but beyond this he has no fixed rule regarding additions to hislibrary, 'except his course of reading for the moment. ' The father ofthe present Lord Zouche formed a small but valuable library, which isnow at Parham Park, Steyning, Sussex; it consists of some rare Syriac, Greek, Coptic, Bulgarian, and other manuscripts, of a Biblical nature, some of which are now on loan to the British Museum. In addition tothese, there are a good many early printed books, first editions, and soforth, and also an extensive reference library, to which the presentLord Zouche has made some important additions. The extensive library ofthe Marquis of Bath, at Longleat, Warminster, has been formed atdifferent times and by different persons; and what the present holder ofthe title has added has been bought without any method on varioussubjects in which his Grace happened to take an interest at the time. Sir John Evans's library is for the most part comprised ofarchæological, numismatical, and geological publications, with a certainnumber of old volumes 'which, though of intrinsic interest, cannot beregarded as bibliographical treasures. ' Both Sir William Reynell Ansonand the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, M. P. , possess good working libraries, but disclaim the possession of what are known as 'collector's' books. The present Marquis of Bute possesses several extensive libraries ofbooks at his various seats, and chiefly composed of works relating toScottish history, to liturgical, philological, and archæologicalsubjects. The first Marquis of Bute formed an excellent collection ofSpanish, Italian, and French classics, of books of memoirs, and of worksrelating to the English Reformation. The third Marquis formed anotherlibrary, chiefly of a historical character, an exceedingly importantportion of it being an extensive series of books and pamphlets relatingto the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune. The Duke of Buccleuch hasalso several fine libraries at his various seats, the chief collectionsbeing at Dalkeith and Bowhill, Selkirk; his Grace keeps very few booksin London. The books at Dalkeith have been catalogued by Mr. A. H. Bullen, who proposes to print some notes on the subject. The Duke of Devonshire's library at Chatsworth is one of the most variedand extensive in the kingdom. An admirable catalogue of it was printedin four volumes in 1879, and its value as a bibliographical compilationmay be estimated by the fact that the only copy which occurred in themarket during the past eight years fetched £10. The library has beenformed by the taste and learning of several generations of the Cavendishfamily, from the middle of the sixteenth century to the present day. Therarest book which it contains is the 'Liber Veritatis, ' or collectionof original designs of Claude Lorraine. The greatest additions weremade to the library by William Spencer, sixth Duke, who, indeed, may becalled its founder in its present form. This nobleman, on the advice ofTom Payne, offered £20, 000 for the purchase of Count McCarthy'scelebrated collection. The offer was declined, but the Duke was apurchaser to the extent of £10, 000 of the choicer portions of thelibrary of Thomas Dampier, Bishop of Ely, composed, for the most part, of Greek and Latin classics. The Duke bought largely at the Stanley, Horn Tooke, Towneley, Edwards, and Roxburghe sales. The librarypossesses the unique collection of plays formed by John Philip Kemble, and for which £2, 000 were paid in 1821. The chief features of thelibrary comprise a fine series of the editions of the Bible and ofBoccaccio; there are also twenty-three works of Caxton, the mostextensive in private hands, now that the Althorp collection has, or isabout to, become public property. There are two dozen books from thepress of Wynkyn de Worde, and no less than 200 editions of Cicero, including a magnificent copy of the _editio princeps_. The libraries of two members of the Roxburghe Club have been dispersedby auction during the last few years--the Earl of Crawford's, in 1887and 1889, to which reference has already been made; and Mr. ThomasGaisford's, in 1890. The former has still a considerable number ofimportant books, to which he is constantly adding; whilst his eldest sonis worthily sustaining the reputation of the family for its love of rareand beautiful books. Mr. Gaisford has also a very large library, but hehimself describes the books as of no special interest. The Marquis of Salisbury possesses, at Hatfield, a fine library, which, like that of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, is rather theaccumulation of centuries than the formation of any particular head ofthe house. Many of the oldest and rarest books were at one time theproperties of either Lord Burghley, Sir Robert Cecil, or of some otherdistinguished member of the family. We may mention a few of the_incunabula_: Æneas Silvius, 'Epistolæ, ' 1496; St. Augustine, 'DeCivitate Dei, ' 1477; a copy of the magnificently-printed edition ofAulus Gellius, 'Noctes Atticæ, ' Jenson, 1477, a very rare work; Cicero, 'Ad Atticum, ' 1470, also printed by Jenson; an example of the _editioprinceps_ Homer, Florence, 1488; Juvenal, 'Satyræ, ' 1474; the very raresecond edition of Lactantius, 'Opera, ' printed at Rome by Sweynheym andParmartz, 1468; Livy, 'Historiarum Romanorum, ' printed by Zarothus, 1480; Pomponius Mela, 'Cosmographia, ' 1482; Ruffus, 'Opera, ' 1472. LordSalisbury's library includes several books which once belonged to RogerAscham, notably a copy of Aristophanes, 'Comodiæ, ' 1532; Aristotle, 'Opera, ' 1531; Peter Martyr, 'Tractatio et Disputatio de SacramentoEucharistiæ, ' etc. , 1549, one of the only two copies of which we haveany record, the other example being in the Lambeth Library; and a largenumber of tracts of the time of Henry VIII. Of about 200 books whichbelonged to Sir Robert Cecil, we may mention two editions of Aristotle, 'Ethica, ' 1572 and 1575; Baret, 'An Alvearie, or triple Dictionarie, ' inEnglish, Latin, and French, 1573; French Bible, 1546; Bodin, 'LaDemonomanie des Sorciers, ' 1580; Brache, 'Epistolarium Astronomicorum, '1596; 'Astronomiæ Instauratæ, ' 1602, and 'De Mundi Ætherei, ' 1603; twoeditions of Cicero, 'Rhetorica, ' 1552, 1562; Henning's 'TheatrumGenealogicum, ' 1598; Galen, 'De Alimentis, ' 1570; three editions of'Natura Brevium, ' one of 1566, and two of 1580; Ubaldino, 'Lo StataDella Tre Corti, ' 1594. The books of Lord Burghley include Aristotle, 'Ethica, ' 1535; 'Opera, ' 1539; 'Politica, ' 1543; Ashley, 'Mariner'sMirror, ' 1586; Basilius, 'Homiliæ, ' 1528, and 'Opera, ' 1551; Beda, 'Historia Ecclesiastica'; St. Chrysostom, 'Opera, ' 1536; Cyrillus, 'Opera, ' 1528; Demosthenes, 'Orationes, ' 1528. The edition ofDioscorides, 'Opera, ' 1529, belonged, respectively, to Lord Burghley andSir John Cheke. The library of Mr. John Murray, the eminent publisher, of AlbemarleStreet, is a small one, but every item is either excessively rare orunique. Its formation was begun by Mr. Murray's grandfather, whilst hisfather made considerable additions. Naturally, it is very strong inmanuscripts and first editions of Byron. It contains, for example, notonly the original manuscript of 'The Waltz, ' but the severalproof-sheets up to a very fine copy of the perfect book. There are alsothe manuscript of the four cantos of 'Childe Harold' and the variousproof corrections. There are also first editions of Goldsmith's'Traveller, ' 'The Deserted Village, ' 'The Haunch of Venison, ' and 'TheCaptivity, ' with the receipt for the ten guineas which Goldsmithreceived for it from Dodsley. Mr. Murray possesses the entire manuscriptof Sir Walter Scott's 'Abbot. ' This was originally minus three leaves. One of these leaves occurred in the market a few years ago, and passedinto the possession of an American collector for £17 10s. ; a second wassecured, also at an auction, for £6 by Mr. Murray, so that themanuscript is only now wanting two leaves. The very interestingcommonplace book of Robert Burns was given by Mr. Murray's grandfatherto J. G. Lockhart, who left it to his son-in-law, Mr. Hope-Scott, fromwhom it again passed into the possession of the late Mr. John Murray. The manuscript 'Journal' of Thomas Gray's travels in England, for themost part unpublished, is also in Albemarle Street, as is also themanuscript of Washington Irving's 'Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey. ' Thefirst edition of Pope's 'Dunciad, ' successively in the possession ofMalone, Elwin and Peter Cunningham; Pope's own copy of Sir RichardBlackmore's 'Paraphrase of Job, ' 1700, with numerous suggested improvedreadings in Pope's own handwriting; the _Quarterly Review_ article ofSouthey on Nelson, with the extensive elaborations from which theprinted edition of the book was set up; a fine copy of the First FolioShakespeare, 1623; a very fine copy of the _editio princeps_ St. Augustine, 'De Civitate Dei, ' Rome, 1468; the _editio princeps_ Homer, Florence, 1488; a good copy of the first edition of Shakespeare's'Midsummer-Night's Dreame, ' James Roberts, 1600; a copy of the PrinceConsort's 'Speeches, ' presented to Mr. John Murray, with an autographletter from the Queen--these are a few of the many notable books ofwhich Mr. Murray is the fortunate owner. But among the more interestingof the manuscripts are the volumes of notes made at various times and ondivers occasions by the late John Murray in his travels in NorthGermany, France, Switzerland, and South Germany, and from which thecelebrated guide-books were printed--practically every word in the firstand early editions of these widely-known books was written by thecompiler. New Lodge, Windsor Forest, the residence of Colonel Victor Bates Van deWeyer, contains a collection of books of a unique character, collectedat vast trouble and expense by his father, the late M. Sylvain Van deWeyer, one of the founders of the Belgian monarchy, and for many yearsAmbassador to the Court of St. James's. M. S. Van de Weyer, who was bornin 1802, and died in 1874, stood in the front rank of modernbibliophiles, and the magnitude of his collections may be estimated fromthe fact that, with town and country house full to overflowing, he had30, 000 volumes in the Pantechnicon when it was burnt down. He was anindefatigable and discriminating reader as well as a munificentpurchaser. The library is rich in rare editions beautifully bound by menwhose names rank first in the art of bibliopegy. There is a wonderfulcollection of fables, and a most complete library of _ana_. Thepresentation copies of books are numerous and interesting, bearing asthey do the autographs of individuals famous in politics, literature, and art. The present owner, who succeeded his father as a member of theRoxburghe Club, has had the books in the library catalogued, and thewelfare of this noble collection is well thought of. Both Lord Houghton and Lord Amherst of Hackney possess fine libraries ofrare and interesting books. That of the latter includes a Caxton, 'TheLaste Siege and Conquest of Jherusalem, ' 1481; Henry VIII. 's copy ofErasmus, 'Dialogi, ' 1528; the same King's copy of Whytforde's 'The Bokecalled the Pype or Toune of the Lyfe of Perfection, ' 1532; Grolier'scopies of Stoplerinus, 'Elucidatio fabricæ usuque Astrolabii, ' 1524, andof 'Prognosticatio Johannis Liechtenbergers, ' 1526; Maioli's copy of'Clitophonis Narratio Amatoria, ' Lyons, 1544; books bound by NicholasEve; early English bindings; and many others. Mr. C. I. Elton, Q. C. , M. P. , has a fine library, of which a _catalogue raisonné_ has been drawnup and printed. Mr. Charles Butler and Mr. Ingram Bywater possess anumber of interesting and rare books. Many of the more notable specimensof the bindings in the libraries of the three last-mentioned gentlemenwere exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1891, and aredescribed in the catalogue. Mr. Andrew Lang is not only a distinguished bibliophile, but a prolificwriter on the subject of books. He is understood to have an extensivelibrary of an exceedingly miscellaneous character. He has an especialliking for books which bear the traces of former distinguished owners. He himself has pointed out that, 'as a rule, tidy and self-respectingpeople do not even write their names on their fly-leaves, still less dothey scribble marginalia. Collectors love a clean book, but a bookscrawled on may have other merits. Thackeray's countless caricatures adda delight to his old school books; the comments of Scott are always tothe purpose; but how few books once owned by great authors come into thegeneral market. Where is Dr. Johnson's library, which must bear tracesof his buttered toast? Sir Mark Sykes used to record the date and placeof purchase, with the price--an excellent habit. The selling value of abook may be lowered even by a written owner's name, but many a book, otherwise worthless, is redeemed by an interesting note. Even theuninteresting notes gradually acquire an antiquarian value, ifcontemporary with the author. They represent the mind of a dead age, andperhaps the common scribbler is not unaware of this; otherwise he is, indeed, without excuse. For the great owners of the past, certainly, weregret that they were so sparing in marginalia. But this should hardlybe considered as an excuse for the petty owners of the present, with"their most observing thumb. "' Mr. Lang is the lucky owner of a copy ofStoddart's poem, 'The Death Wake' (1831), that singular romantic ornecromantic volume, which wise collectors will purchase when they can. It is of extreme rarity, and the poetry is no less rare, in the Frenchmanner of 1830. On this specimen Aytoun has written marginalia. Wherethe hero's love of arms and dread of death are mentioned, Aytoun haswritten 'A rum cove for a Hussar, ' and he has added designs of skeletonsand a sonnet to the 'wormy author. ' 'A curse! a curse!' shrieks thepoet. 'Certainly, but why and wherefore?' says Aytoun. There is nothingvery precious in his banter; still it is diverting to follow in thefootsteps of the author of 'Ta Phairshon. ' Mr. Lang also possesses JohnWilkes' copy of the second edition of 'Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, ' inFrench, with Eisen's plates; he has Leon Gambetta's copy of the 'JournéeChrétienne, ' Collet's copy of his friend Crashaw's 'Steps to theTemple, ' and a copy of Montaigne, with the autograph of Drummond ofHawthornden. [Illustration: _The late Frederick Locker-Lampson. _ From a Portrait by Mr. Du Maurier. ] The late Frederick Locker-Lampson, whose lamented death occurred whilstthe earlier pages of this book--in which he took much interest--werepassing through the press, was an ideal book-collector. He cared onlyfor books which were in the most perfect condition. The unique characterof the Rowfant library, its great literary and commercial value, and itswide interest, may be studied at length in its admirable catalogue, which of itself is a valuable work of reference. Mr. Locker, for it isby this name, and as the author of 'London Lyrics, ' that he will be bestremembered, devoted his attention almost exclusively to Englishliterature, although of late years he had devoted as much attention ashis frail health would allow to the formation of a section of rare booksin French literature. It would be impossible to describe in this placeall the many book rarities at Rowfant; we must be content, therefore, with indicating a few of the more interesting ones: Alexander Pope's owncopy of Chapman's translation of Homer, 1611; one of the largest knowncopies of the First Folio Shakespeare, 1623; an extensive series of thefirst or early quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays, about fifty innumber--including the spurious plays--many of which were at onetime in the collections of Steevens, George Daniel, Tite, orHalliwell-Phillipps. The library is rich in other writers of theElizabethan period--of Nash, Dekker, Greene, Gabriel Harvey. There arealso a long series of the first editions of Dryden; the earliest issuesof the first complete edition of 'Pilgrim's Progress'; of 'RobinsonCrusoe' (the three parts); of 'Gulliver's Travels, ' besides about ascore of other _editiones principes_ of Swift, Pope, Goldsmith, Fielding, Richardson, Johnson, Gay, Gray, Lamb, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Thackeray, Dickens and many others. The two early printedbooks of especial interest are the 'De Senectute, ' printed by Caxton, 1481, and Barbour's 'Actis and Lyfe of the maist Victorious Conquerour, Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, ' printed at Edinburgh by Robert Lepruikin 1571. The room in which the books are kept is virtually a huge safe;it was at one time a small ordinary room, and it has been converted intoa fireproof library, with brick walls within brick walls; the floor ofconcrete, nearly two feet thick, and a huge iron door, complete aningenious and effective protection against the most destructive of allenemies of books--fire. [Illustration: _Portrait Bookplate of Mr. Joseph Knight. _] The library of Mr. Joseph Knight, the editor of _Notes and Queries_, more nearly resembles a select and orderly bookseller's premises than aprivate individual's. It seems almost impossible to believe that thecomparatively small house in Camden Square could contain between 12, 000and 13, 000 volumes, and yet such is undoubtedly the case. Every room iscrowded, and all the sides of the staircases are crowded with booksfrom top to bottom. Mr. Knight's library is essentially a working one, but it is also something more. It is rich in editions of Froissart's'Chronicles'; in editions of Rabelais--notably the excessively rare oneprinted by Michel le Noir, 1505; in Elzevir editions it includes a veryextensive series; the series of the 'Restif de la Bretonne' includesabout 200 volumes, being one of the few complete sets in London. A fewof Mr. Knight's greatest rarities have come to him at very cheaprates--_e. G. _, the 'Apologie pour Herodote, ' 1566, without any of the_cartons_, or cancels, upon which the Genevese authorities insisted. This little volume, of which there are very few copies known, cost Mr. Knight 16s. , neither buyer nor seller knowing its value at the time ofthe transfer. Another 'bargain' is the fine copy of Baudelaire, 'LesFleurs de Mal, ' 1857, which was fished out of a fourpenny box in HighStreet, Marylebone! Mr. Knight's collection of French plays and of worksrelating to the French stage is, like that of the Englishdramatists--ancient and modern--exceedingly extensive. He possesses, also, a few good Aldines, a number of Bodonis, and some books of LeGason. Mr. Gladstone is, of course, a book-collector, as well as an omnivorousreader. The Grand Old Book-hunter's literary tastes cover almost everyconceivable phase of intellectual study. His library contains about30, 000 volumes, to which theology contributes about one-fourth. Theworks are arranged by Mr. Gladstone himself into divisions and sections. For many years he was an inveterate bookstaller, a practice which oflate years has brought with it a certain amount of inconvenience. Afterattending Mr. H. M. Stanley's wedding, for example, in 1890, Mr. Gladstone went on one of his second-hand book expeditions, this time toGarratt's, in Southampton Row. The right hon. Gentleman walked with hiscustomary elasticity, and was followed to the shop by a large crowd ofadmirers, chiefly consisting of working men, whose enthusiasm was keptin order by three policemen. Outside the bookseller's several hundredpeople gathered, and they were not disappointed in their wish to seethe Grand Old Man, for Mr. Garratt's shop does not boast of a back-doorthrough which fame can escape its penalties. On coming out, Mr. Gladstone, looking, as a working man standing on the kerb expressed it, 'as straight as a new nail, ' received quite an ovation, the peoplewaving their hats and cheering vigorously as he drove away in a cab. Mr. Gladstone's marked catalogues are a familiar and a peculiarly welcomefeature with second-hand booksellers, who proudly expose them in theirwindows. A bookseller who exhibited one of these catalogues before theOld Man retired from the Premiership was accosted by a strong Tory withthe remark: 'I see you've got a list marked by Gladstone's initials inthe window;' and then, whispering fiercely in the bookseller's ear, headded, 'Does he pay you?' We give a facsimile of one of Mr. Menken'scatalogues with an order for books from Mr. Gladstone. [Illustration: '_An Order from Mr. Gladstone. _'] Mr. Henry Spencer Ashbee, of Bedford Square, has a small but charminglibrary, nearly every volume being beautifully bound. The books are, forthe most part, modern, and chiefly French. There are, for example, Sainte-Beuve's 'Livre d'Amour, ' which was suppressed after a few copieswere struck off, with the author's own corrections; the Fortsas'Catalogue, ' the cruel joke of M. Renier Chalon; first editions of 'TheEnglish Spy, ' an exceptionally fine copy; Coryat's 'Crambe, or, hisColwork, ' 1611; Roger's 'Poems' and 'Italy'; a number of booksillustrated by Chodowiecki, the Cruikshank of Germany; practically allthe books published by M. Octave Uzanne and Paul Lacroix in the finestpossible states. Mr. Ashbee possesses several extra-illustrated orgrangerized books of exceptional interest--the nine volumes of Nichols''Literary Anecdotes' are extended to thirty-four, there being upwards of5, 000 additional portraits, views, and so forth. Mr. Ashbee's librarycomprises several thousand volumes, the binding alone of which must havecost a small fortune. [Illustration: _Portrait Bookplate of Mr. H. S. Ashbee. _] [Illustration: _Mr. T. J. Wise, Book-collector. _] The libraries of Mr. Thomas J. Wise and Mr. Walter Slater may bebracketed together, partly because they have been formed side by side. They differ in many respects, however. Mr. Wise's is a small but choicecollection of books, autographs, and manuscripts of modern writers. Hepossesses, for the most part, in first editions of the finest quality, practically everything written by Matthew Arnold, William Blake, RobertBrowning and Mrs. Browning, Byron, Coleridge, Shelley, George Eliot, Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, Landor, Meredith, William Morris, John Ruskin, Swinburne, and Tennyson. Of Shelley, for example, Mr. Wise has acollection of 400 books and pamphlets by or concerning him. There isonly one other collection comparable to it, and it is that possessed byMr. Buxton Forman. Of Byron Mr. Wise has everything, including 'TheWaltz, ' 'Poems on Various Occasions, ' and all the other excessivelyrare publications of this prolific poet, the only exception, indeed, being 'The Curse of Minerva, ' 1812. Mr. Wise's collection of Ruskinianais practically complete, and includes a number of privately-printedpamphlets issued to a few personal friends. Mr. Walter Slater's booksand manuscripts include a unique series of both Dante G. Rossetti andWalter Savage Landor. Of the former, it contains the manuscript ofthree-fourths of the 'House of Life' series of sonnets, the manuscriptof 'St. Agnes, ' and the whole of the extant manuscript of 'The King'sTragedy'; these manuscripts usually include not only the 'copy' as itwas sent to the printer, but usually the first and second drafts. Theseries of Landor books and pamphlets is quite complete, from his firstbook of poems, 'Moral Epistles, ' issued in 1795, and the equallyexcessively rare 'Poems from the Arabic and Persian, ' issued at Warwickin 1800, to 'Savonarola, ' in Italian, 1860. Mr. Slater has a completeseries of the first editions of the curious works of Mrs. Behn. [Illustration: _Mr. Clement Shorter's Bookplate. _] Mr. Clement K. Shorter, the editor of the _Illustrated London News_, the_Sketch_, and several other publications, is a book-collector who, likeMr. Wise and Mr. Slater, has pitched his 'tent' on the northern heightsof London. Mr. Shorter has an unusually complete set of the works ofThomas Hardy, George Meredith, Sir Walter Scott, CharlotteBrontë--besides the 'Cottage Poems' of old Mr. Brontë--and MatthewArnold. Of the last named there are copies of the very limited editionsof 'Geist's Grave, ' 'St. Brandran, ' 'Home Rule for Ireland, ' and 'Alaricat Rome. ' Mr. Shorter's Ruskin treasures include a volume of the platesof 'Modern Painters, ' on India paper, bound up in vellum. There are alsoseveral first editions of the earlier works of Carlyle, and WilliamWatson's 'Lachrymæ Musarum, ' on vellum, with the original manuscriptbound up with it. Mr. Shorter has many interesting manuscripts and booksby Oliver Wendell Holmes, R. L. Stevenson, and A. C. Swinburne, withautographs or notes by their respective authors. Mr. Richard leGallienne, the well-known author, has for many years been a confirmedbook-hunter, and has come across some rare and interesting finds. Mr. Henry Norman, the traveller and assistant editor of the _DailyChronicle_, has a number of choice and rare books, chiefly firsteditions of American authors--J. Russell Lowell, Longfellow, O. W. Holmes, Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Whittier--nearly all of whom werepersonal friends of Mr. Norman's. Mr. Norman has gone to theextravagance of two sets of the first editions of Thomas Hardy's books, whilst of George Meredith there is one complete set. [Illustration: _Mr. A. Birrell, Book-collector. _] The House of Commons contains several men who have very excellentlibraries and excellent judgments of books. Mr. Leonard Courtney hasbeen guilty of bookstalling a good many times in his successful career, and is, perhaps, an exception to the general rule that good politicaleconomists usually make poor book-hunters. Mr. Courtney possesses a goodmany uncommon books, which he has picked up from time to time. Mr. Augustine Birrell, Q. C. , the author of 'Obiter Dicta, ' and son-in-law ofthe late Frederick Locker-Lampson, has a good library of from 5, 000 to6, 000 books. Among these may be noticed the first edition of Gray's'Elegy, ' picked up at Hodgson's for 3s. 6d. ; first edition of Keats''Endymion, ' purchased off a stall in the Euston Road for 2s. 6d. ; firstedition of 'Wuthering Heights'; and an extensive series of booksrelating to or by Dryden, Pope, Swift, and others of that period, aswell as a number of presentation copies of books by Matthew Arnold, Browning, and Tennyson, etc. Mr. T. R. Buchanan, M. P. , who was for manyyears librarian of All Souls' College, Oxford, has a small but selectlibrary of books which are, for the most part, remarkable on account ofthe beauty or rarity of their bindings. It is especially strong in finespecimens of early English and Scotch bindings; there are a few examplesfrom De Thou's library, and a few characteristic specimens of Italianand Flemish bindings of the best periods. The books themselves areprincipally editions of the classics; but the section of Bibles printedin England and Scotland is a full one. There are also many volumes witha personal interest; for example, the copy of Locke's 'Essay concerningthe Human Understanding' was once Coleridge's, and contains a note byhim to this effect: 'This is, perhaps, the most admirable of Locke'sworks; read it, Southey, ' etc. ; and the copy of the 'Libri Carolini, '1549, was Scaliger's. Captain R. S. Holford, of Dorchester House, Park Lane, has a choicelibrary of beautiful and rare books, formed by his father, the late H. S. Holford. For many years its chief treasure was the only known firstedition of 'Pilgrim's Progress, ' 1678, which was valued at £50; duringthe last few years, however, four other copies have turned up, without, however, lessening the commercial value of the Holford copy, which wouldprobably fetch two or three times the amount at which it was valuedthirty years ago. The facsimile of the first edition issued a few yearsago was made from Mr. Holford's copy. A few other treasures of CaptainHolford's library may be briefly mentioned as follows: Afifteenth-century manuscript of Livy's 'Historia, ' on vellum, in aVenetian binding, with the arms of Aragon; Cardinal Hippolyto d'Este'scopy of Rhinghier, 'Cento Giuochi Liberali, et d' Ingegno, ' Bologna, 1551; Grolier's copy of Pliny, 'Epistolæ, ' etc. , Venice, 1518; ofValerius Maximus, Venice, 1534; and of 'Epitomes des Roys de France, 'Lyons, 1546; the Maioli copy of Homer, 'Odyssea, ' Paris, 1538; DuBellay's 'Memoirs, ' 1572, with the arms of Henri de Bourbon, Prince deCondé; and the copy of 'Liber Psalmorum Davidis, ' 1546, bound byNicholas Eve for De Thou. [Illustration: _Facsimile of Title-page, 'Pilgrim's Progress, ' FirstEdition. _] Dr. W. H. Corfield, Mr. C. E. H. Chadwyck-Healey, Q. C. , Sir JulianGoldsmid, M. P. , Mr. C. F. Murray, Mr. George Salting, Mr. SamuelSandars, Mr. H. Yates Thompson, Mr. H. Virtue Tebbs, and Mr. T. FosterShattock, are understood to possess choice libraries of books notedchiefly for the beauty or rarity of their bindings. M. John Gennadius, late Greek Minister at the Court of St. James's, possessed one of thefinest libraries formed during recent years. This collection wasdestined to supplement and ornament the National Library of Greece, founded at Athens by his Excellency's father, on the very morrow of herliberation. Fate, however, ordered otherwise, and these beautiful bookswere, consequently, dispersed at Sotheby's, from March 28 to April 9, the eleven days' sale of 3, 222 lots realizing £5, 466. The library of Mr. W. Christie-Miller, of Britwell Court, Maidenhead, is understood toinclude many choice books, particularly early printed works, but noparticulars of it are available. Holland House Library is one of great historic value and interest. It isfully described by the Princess Marie Liechtenstein, in her monograph onthe place. Macaulay has described the appearance of the library in hisfamous essay on Lord Holland. It is rather a collection formed by astatesman and a literary man than by a bibliophile; there are over10, 000 volumes, many of which are privately printed books, presentationcopies; there is a large collection of historical works relating toItaly, Portugal, and France; Spanish literature, a memento of the tasteof the third Lord Holland, is well represented; the collection ofElzevirs is very fine, as is also that of the Greek and Latin classics, and the highly curious collection of various copies of Charles JamesFox's 'James II. , ' which belonged to different celebrities, is housedhere. Mr. C. J. Toovey inherited from his father, the late James Toovey, afine library of exceptionally choice books; it is rich in monuments ofthe Early English printers, one of its gems being a fine copy of the'Boke of St. Albans'; Aldines probably form one of its largest sections, whilst in bindings by the great masters of the French school ofbibliopegic art the library has very few equals. Many of these werepurchased by the late Mr. Toovey in Paris, long before the present ragefor them had commenced, so that, as an investment, they will doubtlessyield a handsome profit if they ever come into the market. The series ofWalton's 'Angler' includes the first edition, with a presentationinscription by the author; there is also the largest known First Folioedition of Shakespeare, to which reference has already been made. [Illustration] [Illustration] INDEX. ADDISON, JOSEPH, 39, 108, 265, 267 Advocates, Library of the College of, 116 Ainsworth, W. Harrison, 83, 288, 289 Alchorne, S. , 109 Alcuin, 2, 3, 139 Alde, John, 183 Aldersgate Street, 39 Aldine editions, 129-131, 300, 304 Aldus, 129 Alfred, 3 Allen, Thomas, 31 Almon, J. , 250 Althorp Library, the, 50, _et seq. _ America, book trade with, 189 America, tracts on, 90 Amherst of Hackney, Lord, 309 Anacreon, Stephen edition, 129 Anderson, Adam, 219 Anderson, G. B. , 94 Anderson, John, 193 Anglesey, Earl of, 27, 101 _note_ Angling books, Francis's, 93 Anson, Sir W. R. , 305 'Anthologia Græca' (1494), 130 'Apologie pour Herodote, ' 314 Arch, J. And A. , 186 Archaica Club, 79 Archer, Sir Anthony, 16 'Aristophanes' (1498), 129 Aristotle (1495-98), 130 Arthur, Thomas, 230 Arundel, Henry, Earl of, 15, 16, 18 Ascham, Roger, 307 Ascham's 'Toxophilus, ' 120 Ashbee, Mr. H. S. , 315 Ashburnham, Lord, 126, 285 Ashmole, Elias, 18 Askew, Dr. A. , 41 Askew Sale, the, 128, _et seq. _ Asperne, James, 186 Athelstan, 3 'Atticus, ' 46 Auctions, book, 98, _et seq. _, 210 Aulus Gellius, 'Noctes, ' 307 Aylesford, Earl of, 89, 117 Bacon, Francis, 19 Bacon, Roger, 6 Bagford, John, 30, 31, 204, 268 Bagster, S. , 235 Bain, James, 240 Baker, Mr. E. E. , 91 Baker, H. , 249 Baker, Samuel, 100 _note_, 102, 103, 223 Baker, Thomas, 34 'Balbi Catholicon, ' the, 127, 300 Baldwin and Cradock, 210 Bale, John, 13 Bale's 'Image of Both Churches, ' 196 Balfour, Mr. A. J. , 305 Ballads, 74 Ballard, T. And E. , 103 Ballards of Little Britain, 173 Banks, Dr. , 219 Bannatyne Club, the, 62 _note_ Baptist Library at Bristol, 138 Barbican, the, 176, 177 Barclay's 'Ship of Fools, ' 120, 121 Barnard, Sir John, 238 Barnfield's 'Encomion of Lady Pecunia, ' 41 'Baroccio, ' 69 Barrett, Thomas, 35 Barton, Bernard, 76, 296 Bassett, Thomas, 219 Batemans of Little Britain, 171 Bates, Dr. , 39 Bath, Marquis of, 304, 305 Bathoe, Sam. , 103 Bathoe, W. , 234 Baudelaire, 'Les Fleurs de Mal, ' 314 Bauduyn (Piers), stationer, 10 Baylis, Alderman, 223 Baynes, W. , 211 Beauclerk, Topham, 55 and _note_, 111 Beckett-Denison, C. , 117 Becket, Thomas, 176 _note_, 236 Beckford, Peter, 49, 297, 298 Beckford, William, 48-50, 256 Bede, the Venerable, 3 Bedford, Francis, 87 Bedford, John, Duke of, 9, 17 Bedford Missal, the, 9, 109 Bedford Street, Strand, 241 Beet, Thomas, 251 Bell and Sons, George, 244 Benedict Biscop, 2, 3 Bennett, T. , 187 Bentham, W. , 61 Bentley, Dr. R. , 116, 195, 196 Benzon, Mrs. , 270 Berkeley, Earl of, 25 Bernard, Dr. Francis, 34, 132 Bernard, Sir Thomas, 71 Berthelet, Thomas, 261 Bibles and New Testaments, 136-140, 212, 261, 262, 285, 291, 302, 306 'Biblia Pauperum, ' 272 Coverdale's (1535), 72, 89, 138, 263, 268, 302 Cranmer's (1540 and 1553), 72, 302 Cromwell's (1539), 302 Douay (1663), 120 Eliot's Indian, 119 Fust and Schoeffer (1462), 126, 300 German, 95 Græca Septuaginta, 192 _note_ Gutenberg (or Mazarin) (1455), 58, 72, 89, 90, 114, 125, 126, 255, 300 Hayes (1674), 21 Matthew's (1537), 72, 302 Tyndale's (1525-1526, 1533), 89, 137, 138 St. Jerome's MS. , 140 Bibliomania, the decay of, 69 Bibliomaniac, A, 78 Bibliomaniac, the 'Library' of a, 200 Bibliophile, A, 78 Bibliophobia, 108 Bindley, James, 43, 66, 108, 109 Birrell, Mr. A. , 145, 319 Bishopsgate Churchyard, 161 Black-letter books, 136 Black-letter booksellers, the, 236 Black-letter collectors, 'Father' of, 27 _note_ Black-letter mania, 59 Blackwell's 'Herbal, ' 105 Blake, W. , 93 Blandford, Marquis of, 61 _note_, 109, 124 Block book, 89 Bloomfield, R. , 154 Boccaccio, the Valdarfer, 52, 61, 93, 123-125 Boccaccio, 'Les Illustres Malheureux, ' 50 Bodleian, the, 23, 67 Bodley, Sir T. , 22, 283 Boethius, 'Consolation of Philosophy, ' 4 Bohn, H. G. , 50, 243, 244, 255 Bohn, James, 243 Bohn, J. H. , 243, 244 'Boke of St. Albans, ' 136, 322 Bolland, Sir W. , 61, 69 Bonaparte, Prince L. L. , 95, 96, 254 Bonaventure's 'Life of Christ, ' 9 Bond Street, 249, _et seq. _ Book auctions and sales, 98, _et seq. _ Book-borrowers, 274, _et seq. _ Book catalogues, some humours of, 293-298 Booker, John, 18 Book-ghouls, 160 Book-hunting, early, 1 Book-marking, Lamb's notion of, 76 Book-pluralists, 46 Books and their prices, 118, _et seq. _ 'Booksellers, ' the, a poem, 193 Booksellers' Row. _See_ Holywell Street Bookstalls and bookstalling, 149-167 Book-thieves, 274, _et seq. _ Boone, T. And W. , 246, 250 Booth, Lionel, 116 Boswell, James, 108, 229 Boucher, Jonathan, 70 Bourne, Zacharius, 100 Bovey, Mrs. , 265 Bowles, Rev. J. , 220 Bowyer, Jonah, 216 Bowyer, William, 216 Boydell, Alderman, 251 Bozier's Court, 201 Brabourne, Lord, 93, 106 Bradbury and Evans, 116 Brand, Rev. John, 112, 179, 190, 207 Brassey, Mrs. , 271 Bremner, David, 241 Bridges, John, 34, 121, 122 Bright, B. H. , 108, 143 _note_, 302 Brindley, J. , 249 Bristol, Earl of, 26, 31 British Museum copies of the classics, 128-131, 139, 166 British Museum, 276 Britten, Mr. James, 151 Britton, Thomas, 172, 173 Broadly, John, 109 Brooke, Lord Warwick, 100 Brown, Mr. J. , 200 Brown, 'Old, ' 157 Bruck, Cudworth, 193 Bruscambille on 'Long Noses, ' 152 Bryant, W. , 112 Brydges, Sir Egerton, 47, 59 Buccleuch, Duke of, 90, 305 Buchanan, Mr. T. R. , 319 Buckley, Samuel, 174 Buckley, W. E. , 94 Bull and Auvache, 206 Bumstead, G. , 245 Bunyan, John, 183 Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress, ' 145, 146, 312, 320, 321 Burbidge, Prebendary E. , 18 Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 141, 142 Burgess, F. , 95 Burghley, Lady M. , 264 Burghley, Lord, 306 Burlington, Countess of, 265 Burnet, Bishop, 234 Burnet, Rev. Gilbert, 232 Burney, Dr. , 238 Burns, R. , 281, 304, 308 Burton, Robert, 23 Butcher Row, 223-225 Bute, Marquis of, 305 Butler, Mr. Charles, 310 Butler's 'Hudibras, ' 219 Butterworth, Henry, 217 _note_ Byng, Mr. , 144 Byron, Lord, 109, 316 Byron's 'Childe Harold, ' 308 Byron's 'English Bards, ' 85 Byron's 'Waltz, ' 308 Bywater, Mr. Ingram, 310 Cadell, Thomas, 235 Cadell and Davis, 235 Cæsar's (Sir Julius) Travelling Library, 22, 23, 110 Cæsar's 'Commentaries, ' 55 Caldecott, Thomas, 68 Camden, W. , 21 Campbell, Mr. Dykes, 106 Canonbury Tower, 72 and _note_, 73 Carbery, Lord, 31 Caroline, Queen, 268 Casaubon, Dr. M. , 25 Cashel, Bishop of, 255 Cassell and Co. , 116 Castell, Dr. , 100 Catalogues. _See_ Book Catalogues Cater, W. , 193 Caviceo, 'Dialogue, ' etc. , 93 Cawthorn and Hutt, 208 Caxton, W. , 12, 30, 60, 61, 72, 109, 111, 132, 135, 190, 247, 248, 262, 268, 300, 306 'Arthur, King, ' 133 'Book called Cathon, ' 132, 133 (_bis_) 'Book of Chivalry, ' 136 'Book of Good Manners, ' 33 'Chastising of God's Children, ' 13, 132 'Christine of Pisa, ' 89 Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales, ' 136 'Chronicles of England, ' 90, 132, 133 Cicero ('De Senectute'), 'Of Old Age, ' 89, 132, 133, 313 'Dictes and Sayings, ' 90, 132 'Doctrinal of Sapience, ' 132, 133 'Faits d'Armes et de Chevalerie, ' 13 'Game and Playe of Chesse, ' 90, 132, 133, 135 'Godfrey of Bulloigne, ' 13, 33, 132 'Golden Legend, ' 13, 93, 133, 271, 303 Gower's 'Confessio Amantis, ' 133 Higden's 'Description of Britayne, ' 90 Higden's 'Polychronicon, ' 89, 303 'Historyes of Troy, ' 132 (_bis_) 'History of Blanchardyn and Eglantine, ' 133 'History of Jason, ' 132, 133 (_bis_) 'Life of St. Katherine, ' 220, 221 Lydgate's 'Life of our Lady, ' 220 'Lives of the Fathers, ' 220 'Mirrour of the World, ' 90, 95, 133 'Royal Book, or Book for a King, ' 90 Russell's 'Propositio, ' 134 'Siege and Conquest of Jerusalem, ' 309 'Troylus and Creside, ' 133 Virgil's 'Æneid, ' 13, 133 Caxton Head Catalogues, 204 Caxton, the highest paid for a, 133 Caxtons, the Althorp, 133 Cecil, Sir Robert, 306 Chadwyck-Healey, Mr. E. H. , 320 Chained books at Hereford Chalmers, George, 69, 70 Champernoun, Mr. , 57 Chandler, Dr. , 289 Chapman, Henry, 235 Charing Cross, 235-246 Charing Cross Road, 258 Charles I. 's Prayer-Book, 87 Charles II. , 21 Charlotte, Queen, as a book-hunter, 215 Charnock, Dr. S. , 100 Cheapside, 184, 185 Chetham Library, the, 118 Child, Alderman, 56 Chiswell, R. , 33, 100, 213 Chodowiecki, 316 Christ Church (Canterbury), Books at, 7, 9 Christ's Hospital, Newgate Street, 8 Christie, James, 100 _note_, 103, 117, 291 Christie, Manson and Woods, 117 Christie, Mr. R. C. , 297, 303 'Chronicon Nurembergense, ' 303 Churchill, A. And J. , 210 Cicero, 306. _See_ also Caxton Cicero, 'Ad Atticum, ' 307 Circulating Library, the first, 234 Clare Hall, Cambridge, 260 Clare Market, 232 Clarendon, Earl of, 117 Clarke, W. , 135, 251 Classics, their market value, 127-131 Claude's 'Liber Veritatis, ' 305 Clavell, Robert, 214 Clement's Inn Passage, 225, 226 Clovio, Giulio, 57 Cochrane, J. G. , 113, 221 Cock, auctioneer, 103 Cockaine, Sir Aston, 36 Coke, Sir Edward, 25 Colebrook Row, Islington, 76, 77 Coleridge, S. T. , 76-78, 289, 320 Collier's 'Ecclesiastical Library, ' 16 Collier, John Payne, 74-76, 230 Collins, Mr. Victor, 95, 96 Collins, W. , 185 Columbus letter, the, 94 Comerford, James, 86 Compton, 113 Conant, N. , 221 Conway, Lord, 24 Conyers, George, 216 Cooke, R. F. , 94 Cook, Sir Robert, 25 Cooper, Mr. A. E. , 258 Cooper, William, 99, 100 Copinger, Dr. , 97 Corfield, Dr. W. H. , 320 Corney, Bolton, 71 Cornhill, 184-186 Cosens, F. W. , 93 Cosin, Dr. , 24, 26 Cotton, Charles, 36 Cotton, Sir Robert, 21, 22, 283 Courtney, Mr. Leonard, 319 Cowper, W. , 215 Coxhead, J. , 196 Cracherode, C. M. , 64-66, 238 Craig, J. T. Gibson, 88, 89 Cranmer, Archbishop, 16, 18 Crawford, Earl of, 88, 89, 126, 306 Crawford, W. H. , 93 Crockford's, 226 Crofts, Rev. Thos. , 111 Croker, Thomas C. , 81, 82 Crossley, James, 287 Crowinshield, Edward, 115 Crowley, Robert, 191 Crozier, of the Little Turnstile, 202, 203 Cruden, Alexander, 185 Cruikshankiana, 90 Cunning bookseller, the, 250 Curll, Edmund, 219 Currer, Miss R. , 268-270 Dalrymple, Alex. , 56 Dampier, Dean, 238, 306 Daniell, Mr. E. , 106 Daniel, G. , 72-74, 141-143, 143 _note_ Daniel's, 'Delia, ' 87 Dante, the Landino edition, 93 Darton and Hodge, 116 Darton, W. , 196-198 Davies, Tom, 237 Davis, Arthur, 28 Davis, Charles, 187, 197 Davis, Lockyer, 199, 236 Davis, W. , 199 Day and Son, 116 Day's circulating library, 208 Debrett, J. , 250 De Bury, Richard, 7 Dee, Dr. , 18 Defoe, Daniel, 156 Delafaye, Charles, 219 Denbigh, Lord, 31 Denham, Henry, 210 Denis, John, 181 Dent, J. , 61, 62, 68, 69 Derby, Lord, 31 Dering, Sir Edward, 115 Derwentwater, Earl of, 292 Devonshire, Dukes of, 61 _note_, 124, 133, 141, 142, 173, 305, 306 Dibdin, T. F. , 57, 61, 63, 64, 109 Dickens, Charles, 83, 86 Digby, Sir Kenelm, 26, 31, 100, 120 Dilke, C. W. , 64, 202, 203 Dilly, C. And E. , 183, 184 Dimsdale sale, the, 108 Diodorus Siculus (1539), 130 D'Israeli, Isaac, 71 Dobell, Mr. B. , 106, 258 Dobson, Mr. Austin, 45 Dodsley, James, 251 Dodsley, R. , 251 Dolben, Sir John E. , 56 Dolet, Etienne, 304 Dorset, Earl of, 170 Douce, Francis, 67 Drake, Sir Francis, 19 Dramatic library of F. Burgess, 95 Dramatic library of F. Marshall, 93 Drama, works on the, 68, 291, 306 Drayton, M. , 84, 158 Droeshout portrait of Shakespeare, 91 Drummond of Hawthornden, 311 Drummond, Miss, 271 Drummond's 'Forth Fasting, ' 86 Drury, H. J. T. , 70 Dryden, John, 35 Duck Lane, 175, 176 Duck, Stephen, 219 Duerdin, J. , 115 Duke Street, Little Britain, 175, 176 Dulwich College Library, 204 Dunmore, John, 213 Dunton, John, 100-102 Dutens, Rev. L. , 117 Dyce, Alexander, 47, 83-85, 289 Dyson, H. , 35 Eadburga, Abbess, 260 East End, book-hunting in, 155, _et seq. _ _Editiones Principes_, 128-131 Edmonds, Sir Clement, 211 Edward I. , 3 Edward IV. , 10, 33 Edward VI. , 13 Edwards, E. , 7, 31 Edwards, James, 117, 249 Egbert, 2 Egerton, T. And J. , 113, 236 'Eikon Basilike, ' 101 _note_ Elcho, the Dowager Lady, 270 Eliot's Indian Bible, 119 Elizabethan literature, 301 Elizabeth de Burgh, 260 Elizabeth (Princess), of Hesse-Homburg, 270 Elizabeth, Queen, 17, 18, 260, 262-264 Ellis, Mr. F. S. , 35, 245, 246, 286, 300, 301 Ellis, Mr. G. I. , 106, 246 Elmsley, Peter, 238, 240 Elton, Mr. C. I. , 310 Elyot's 'Castell of Helth, ' 166 Erasmus' 'Enchiridion Militis Christiani, ' 119 Eshton Hall Library, the, 268-270 Essex, Earl of, 264 Eton College Library, 17 Euripides (1503), 129 Evans, R. H. , 109, 110 Evans, Sir John, 305 Evans, Thomas, 110, 216 Evelyn, John, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 37, 212 Evelyn, Sir, 250 Exeter 'Change, 105, 154, 155 Extra-illustrating, 165 Fabyan's 'Chronicle, ' 120 Fagel Collection, 111 Fairfax, Bryan, 56 Farmer, Dr. R. , 41, 112 Farnese, Cardinal, 57 Farringdon Road, 158, 159 Fathers, the, 120 Faulder, R. , 250 Felton, John, 23, 24 Fenestella, 'De Magistratibus, ' 263 Fielding, Henry, 44, 45, 94, 108, 196 'Finds, ' some book, 149, 150, 229, 230 Finsbury Square, 178, 179-183 Fire, the great, 212, 213 Flatman's 'Poems, ' 85 Fleet Street, 216-223 Fleetwood, Bishop, 17 Fletcher, J. And F. , 114 Flexney, W. , 194 Folkes, Martin, 108 Fonthill, 49 Foote, Samuel, 163 Ford, K. J. , 183 Forster, John, 83-85, 202, 203 'Fortsas Catalogue, ' the, 315 Foss, Henry, 239 Foster, Birket, Mr. , 94 Fountaine Collection, the, 261 Fox's 'Reign of James II. , ' 86 Fox, William, 193 Francis, Francis, 93 Franklin, B. , 175, 250 Freebairn's sale, 38, 240 Freeling, Francis, 61 Freeling, Henry, 61 French Revolution, 58, 67 Fresnile, John, 8 Froissart's 'Chronicles, ' 314 'Fructus Temporum, ' 300 Fuller's 'Church History, ' 14 Fuller's 'David's Hainous Sinne, ' 151 Funnibus, L. , 147 Gainsborough, Earl of, 117 Gaisford, Mr. Thomas, 93, 306 Galwey, Mr. J. , 234 Gambetta, Leon, 311 Gardner, H. L. , 236 Garnett, Dr. R. , 166 Garrick, D. , 85 Garth, Samuel, 176 Gataker, Dr. Thos. , 100 Genlis, Madame de, 286 Gennadius, M. J. , 320-322 George and Sons, E. , 187-189 George III. , 53, 54, 130, 135, 141 Gibbon, E. , 44, 240 Gibbs, Mr. H. H. , 301, 302 Gifford, Dr. , 139, 140 Gilbert and Field, 186, 187 Gilbert, S. And T. , 187 Gilliflower, M. , 248 Gladding, R. , 187, 188 Gladstone, W. E. , 86, 95, 254, 314, 315 Glashier, George, 202 Glasse's 'Art of Cookery, ' 150 Gloucester, Humphrey, Duke of, 9, 10 Goldsmid, Sir Julian, 320 Goldsmith, Oliver, 44 Goldsmith's 'The Haunch of Venison, ' 308 Goldsmith's 'The Deserted Village, ' 308 Goldsmith's 'Traveller, ' 308 Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield, ' 94, 146 Gomme, Mr. G. L. , 151 Goodhugh, W. , 206 Gordon, Sir Robert, 113 Gosford, Earl of, 114 Gosset, Dr. Isaac, 70 Gough, R. , 67, 103 Gower, Lord, 61, 62 Grafton, Duke of, 109 Grafton, R. , 74 Grangerizing, 165, 316 Gravelot's print of Westminster Hall, 247, 248 Gray, Mr. H. , 114 Gray's Inn Gate and Road, 191, 192, 273 Gray's MSS. , 81, 146, 308 Gray, T. , 84, 85, 319 Green, Mr. J. Arnold, 272 Greenhill, Rev. W. , 100 Grenville, Thos. , 69, 75, 238 Greville, C. F. , 117 Griffith, W. , 216 Griffiths, Ralph, 210 Grolier, 65, 309 Grose, Francis, 238 _Grub Street Journal_, 241 _note_ Gryphius, S. , 304 Guilford, Earl of, 109 Guilford, Francis, Baron, 31 Gulston, Joseph, 113 Guy de Beauchamp, 6 Guy, Thomas, 184 Gwillim's 'Display of Heraldry, ' 156 Gyles, Fletcher, 123 Hailstone, Edward, 93 Halifax, Lord, 31 Hall, Virtue, and Co. , 116 Halliwell-Phillipps, J. O. , 71, 74, 90-92 Hamilton, Dukes of, 48, 50 Hamilton, Sir W. , 117 Hammers, auctioneers, 100 and _note_ Hannay's 'Nightingale, ' 70 Hanrott, 71 Harcourt, Lady F. V. , 270 Harding and Lepard, 183 Harding's 'Chronicle, ' 121 Hardouyn, G. , 17 Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor, 89 Hardy, Sir William, 88 Harleian Library, The, 192 Harley, Earl of Oxford, 31, 34, 38 Hartley, L. L. , 87, 114 Harvey, Gabriel, 19 Harvey, Mr. F. , 165 Harwood, Dr. , 128-131 Hatchards, 252-254 Hawkins, Rev. W. B. L. , 117 Hawkins, Sir John, 193, 238 Hawtrey, Dr. , 71 Hayes, John, 193, 199 Hayes, Samuel, 199 Hazlewood, Joseph, 61, 63, 64 Hazlitt MSS. , The, 94 Hazlitt, William, 77 Hearle of Holywell Street, 228 Hearne, Thomas, 27 _note_, 34, 35, 122, 283 Heath, Benjamin, 122, 123 Heathcote, Robert, 68 Heber, Richard, 45-48, 61, 62, 108, 110, 268 Heber, Thomas C. , 61 Heliconia Club, 79 Henderson, the actor, 291 Henry, Prince, 20, 21 Henry IV. , 9 Henry V. , 9, 260 Henry VI. , 9, 10 Henry VII. , 12, 13 Henry VIII. , 13, 17, 261, 309 Herbert, Isaac, 199 Heriot, George, 264 Herodotus (1502), 129 Heydinger, C. , 236 Hibbert-Wade, Dr. , 289 Highest price paid for a book, 126 Hill, Mr. H. R. , 231 Hill, Thomas, 78-80, 110 Hindley, Mr. C. , 106, 231 Hoare, Richard, 28 Hodge, Mr. E. Grose, 105, 106 Hodgson and Co. , 116, 146, 162-164 Hogarth, W. , 234 Holborn, 191-208 Holford, Captain, 146, 320 Holgate, W. , 71 Holinshed's 'Chronicle, ' 33 Holland's 'Heröologia, ' 118 Holland House Library, 322 Holland, Lord, 86, 322 Hollingbury Copse, 91 Holywell Street, 153, 154, 215, 227-231 Homer, the _editio princeps_ (1488), 119, 128 Homer, 120, 311 Homer, the Foulis edition, 129 Hone, W. , 216 Hood, Tom, 184 Hookham, T. , 250 Hopetoun, Earl of, 126 Hopetoun House Library, 90 Horace, _editio princeps_, 130 Horæ, 261 Horne's 'Orion, ' 229 Horsfield, R. , 214, 215 Hotten, J. C. , 115 Houghton, Earl of, 309 Hume, David, 44, 230 Hunter, Mr. , 130 Hunt, Leigh, 149 Hutchinson, Joshua H. , 94 Huth, Mr. A. H. , 301 Huth, H. , 254, 300, 301 Hutt, Charles, 225 Hutt, Mr. F. H. , 225 Hutton, George, 204 'Imitatio Christi, ' the, 96, 97, 302 Ina, King of the West Saxons, 3 Inglis, C. B. , 108 Irving (Washington), 'Abbotsford, ' 308 Islington, cattle market at, 164 Isocrates (1493), 129 Isted, G. , 61 Jackson, Mr. B. Daydon, 297 Jackson, 17 Jackson, Andrew, 232 Jacobean literature, 301 James, Haughton, 68 James I. , 20 James II. , 20 Jameson, Mrs. , 271 Janin, Jules, 286 Jarvis (J. W. ) and Son, 194, 245 Jeffrey, Edward, 113 Jerrold, Douglas, 71 Jersey, Earl of, 56, 133 Johnson, Dr. , 23, 44, 117, 237 Johnson and Osborne, 192 and _note_ Johnson, Joseph, 214, 215 John of Boston, 8, 9 Johnston, William, 215, 216 Jolley, Thomas, 143 _note_ Jones and Co. , 180 Jones, Owen, 116 Jones, Richard, 191 Jonson, Ben, 19, 84 Juvenal and Persius (1469), 131 Keats, John, 94, 179, 319 Kempis, Thomas à, 96, 97 Kettlewell, Robert, 199 Kidner, Thomas, 100 King, John, 178 King, Thomas, 111-113, 178 King and Lochée, 56, 112 King of Mansfield Street, 239 Kirton, Joshua, 212 Knaptons, the, 214 Knight, Charles, 116 Knight, J. P. , 117 Knight, Mr. Joseph, 313, 314 Knock-outs, 121, 164, 290-292 Lackington, George, 182, 183 Lackington, James, 179-183, 245 Lactantius, 'Opera, ' 307 'Ladies' Library, ' the, 265-267 Lakelands Library, 93 Lamb, Charles, 76-78, 176, 177, 207, 288-290, 296 Lamb's 'Beauty and the Beast, ' 150 Lambeth Library, 5, 6 Landor, Walter Savage, 317 Lang, Mr. Andrew, 310 Lang, R. , 61 Langford, auctioneer, 103, 111, 139 Lansdowne, Marquis of, 58, 108, 111 Lant, R. , 210 Larking, John W. , 94 Larrons, 'L'Histoire des, ' 282 Laud, Archbishop, 23 Lauderdale, Duke of, 27, 28, 289 Law books, printers of, 217 Lawler, Mr. John, 99, 100, 102, 119, 258 Lawrence, E. H. , 94 Lazarus, Mrs. , 231 Leacroft, S. , 236 Le Gallienne, Mr. R. , 318 'Legenda Aurea' (1503), 291 Leigh, George, 103, 104 Leighton, Mr. , 106 Leland, John, 15 Lemoine, Henry, 161 'Leontes, ' 66 Lepruik, Robert, 313 Lever, Charles, 83 Lewis, L. A. , 223 Libraries and book-thieves, 284, 285 Library, the Sunderland, 36-38 Libri Collection, the, 114, 263, 285 Lilly, John, 18 Lilly, Joseph, 74, 244, 245, 301 Lintot, B. , 219 Lisburne, Lord, 129 Little Britain, 33, 99, 167-175 Littleton's 'Tenures, ' 217 Liverpool, Earl of, 117 Livy, the Sweynheim and Pannartz, 69 Localities, some book-hunting, 166 Locke, John, 85, 320 Locker-Lampson, F. , 106, 311-313 Lodge's 'Rosalynd, ' 86 London House, Aldersgate Street, 39 Longman and Co. , 80, 210 Longueville, Lord, 31 Lovelace's 'Lucasta, ' 145 Lowndes, W. , 235 Lowndes's 'Bibliographer's Manual, ' 244 Low, Sampson, and Co. , 116, 208 Loyalty, the 'repository' of, 250 Ludgate Hill, 215 Lumley, Lord, 16, 21 Luttrell, N. , 22 Lydgate's 'Bochas, ' 232 Lydgate's 'Hystory, Sege, and Destruccion of Troye, ' 9 Lysons, D. And S. , 110 Lytton, Lord, 150 Macaulay, Lord, 71, 149, 202, 228, 229 Mackenzie, J. Mansfield, 90 Mackinlay, I. , 241 Macpherson, F. , 195 Macready, W. , 117 Maddison, John, 112 Magdalen College, 29, 30 Maitland, Lord, 27 Malone, E. , 41, 43, 67, 108, 238 Manley, Richard, 215 Mann, John, 122 Mansion House, the old, 185, 186 Manson, J. P. , 207 Manton, Dr. Thomas, 100 Manuscript, the textual value of a, 128 Markland, J. H. , 61 Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus, ' 202 _note_ Marlowe's 'Tragedie of Richard, Duke of York, ' 70 Marriot, Richard, 218 Marsh, Charles, 232 Marshall, Frank, 93 Martial's 'Epigrammata, ' 132 Martyr (Peter), 'De Sacramento Eucharistiæ, ' 307 Mary of Este, 17 Mary, Queen, 261 Mason, George, 53 Mather, Increase, 151 Mathews, J. , 234 Mathias, 'Pursuits of Literature, ' 238 Matthew of Westminster, 'Flores, ' 17 Matthews, Charles, 74 Maty, Dr. M. , 220 Mawman, Joseph, 184 Maximilian, Emperor, 115 Mayhew, Henry, 161 Mazarin Bible. _See_ Bible Mazzoni, G. , 201 McCarthy, Count, 108 Mead, Dr. R. , 40, 105, 127, 292 Menken, Mr. E. , 205, 206, 282, 315 Mews Gate, the, 238-240 Middle Row, Holborn, 194-196 Middleton, Conyers, 223 Millan, J. , 235 Millar, Andrew, 235 Millington, E. , 100 _note_, 101 and _note_, 170 Milton, J. , 81, 95 Milton's 'Comus, ' 303 Milton's 'Eikonoklastes, ' 303 Milton's 'Lycidas, ' 303 Milton's 'Paradise Lost, ' 41, 120, 145, 170, 232, 286, 287, 303 Milton's 'Paradise Regained, ' 303 Mitre Tavern, the, 116, 222 Modern Collectors (Some), 299-322 Molini, Mr. , 106, 245 Molini, Peter, 249 Monasteries, the dissolution of, 13, _et seq. _ Moore, Dr. John, 27 and _note_, 30, 283 Moore, Tom, 81 Moorfields, 168, 177-179 More, Sir Thos. , 15, 96, 97 Morgan, Lady, 270 Morpeth, Lord, 61 Moxon and Co. , 116 MSS. , the Hamilton, 50 Muggletonian tracts, 228 Murray, J. , ambassador, 250 Murray, John of Sacomb, 137, 138 Murray, Mr. C. F. , 320 Murray, Mr. John, 307, 308 Musgrave, Dr. S. , 250 Musæus (1494), 130 'My Novel, ' extract from, 201 Napoleon I. , 107 Napoleon of booksellers, the, 256 Nash, Tom, 19, 20 Neligan, Dr. , 106 Nelson, Viscount, 117 Newbery, John, 213 New Cut, the, 157 Newton, Isaac, 85 Newton, W. , 174 Nicholas de Lira, 8 Nicol, George, 59, 110, 124, 126, 251, 252 Noble, Francis, 194 Noble, Theophilus, 225, 226 Norgate, Mr. F. , 110 Norman, Mr. Hy. , 318 Nornaville and Fell, 250 North, Francis, 170 North, Dr. John, 31, 32 North, Roger, 32, 170 Notary, Julian, 211, 291 _Notes and Queries_, 88 Nourse, John, 236 Novimagus, Society of, 83 Ogilby, David, 196 Oldys, W. , 192, 237 Orange Street, Red Lion Square, 202 'Orlando, ' 57 Osborne, Tom, 34, 55, 191-193, 241 _note_ Ossian's 'Poems, ' 229, 230 Osterley Park Library, 56 Otridge, W. , 236 Ottley, W. Y. , 71 Ouvry, Frederick, 86, 87 Ovid (1471), 131 Oxford, Anne Cecil, Countess of, 265 Oxford, Books at, 7, 9 Oxford, Edward, Earl of, 52, 122, 124, 139, 173, 192, 193 Oxford Street, 199-202 Pall Mall, 113, 249, 251 Pamphlets, Dr. Johnson on, 23 Pamphlet shops, 155 Papillon, David, 55, 56 Parker, Archbishop, 'De Antiquitate, ' 264 Parker, Archbishop, 17, 19 Parker, Mr. R. J. , 205 Parker, John, 249 Parker, Samuel, 251 Parr, Catherine, 261 Parr, Dr. , 244 Parsons the Jesuit, 119 Passavant, Speyr, 140 'Pastissier François, ' Le, 229 Paternoster Row, 209, _et seq. _ Paterson, S. , 23, 55 _note_, 103, 110, 111 Patmore, Thomas, 16 'Paul Pry, ' 78 Payne, James, 241 Payne, John, and Foss, 239 Payne, Thomas, 110, 237-240, 252, 306 Peacham's 'Compleat Gentleman, ' 24 Peacham's 'Valley of Varietie, ' 46 Pellet, Thomas, 105, 155 Pembroke, Lord, 31, 173 Penn, W. , 115 Pepys, Samuel, 25, 29, 120, 212, 248 Perkins, Frederick, 92 Perkins, Henry, 71, 126, 256 Perry, James, 66, 74, 80, 126, 133 Petheram, John, 194 Phelps, J. D. , 61 Phillipps, Sir Thomas, 87, 242 Piccadilly, 249, _et seq. _ Pickering, Basil M. , 255 Pickering, W. , 253 Pickering and Chatto, 194, 255 'Piers Plowman's Vision, ' 120, 191 Piggott, J. H. Smyth, 71 'Pilgrim's Progress. ' _See_ Bunyan Pindar, Elizabeth, 267, 268 Pinelli, M. , 111, 249 Pitt, Moses, 100 Plato, 130 Pliny, 'Historia Naturalis, ' 131 Poetry, old English, 145 Poet's Gallery, the, 116, 222 Ponder, Nathaniel, 183 'Pontevallo, ' 69 Ponton, T. , 61 Pope, Alexander, 44, 151, 230, 308, 311 Porson, 238 Pote, J. , 236 Poultry, the, 183 Powell, W. , 217 Praed, W. M. , 250 Prayer Books, 87, 302 Price, the highest paid for a book, 126 Price's 'Historiæ Britannicæ, ' 120, 121 Pridden, John, 215 Prince, J. H. , 194 'Prospero, ' 67 Psalmorum Codex, 126, 127 Pulteney, Sir James, 117 Purcell, of Red Lion Passage, 165 Purcell's 'Orpheus Britannicus, ' 35 Purchas, 'His Pilgrims, ' 118, 120, 234 Puritan divines, books of, 119 Puttenham's 'Art of English Poesie, ' 145 Puttick and Simpson, 112, 113-115 Pye, John, stationer, 10 Pynson, R. , 217, 218, 301 Quakers, the bibliographer of, 189 Quaritch, Mr. B. , 106, 253, 255-258, 261, 280 Queensberry, Duke of, 108 Rabelais, François, 314 Railton, Mr. , 106 Raleigh's 'Prerogative of Parliaments, ' 119 Ramirez, Jose F. , 115 Rastell's 'Pastyme of the People, ' 207 Ratcliffe, John, 132 Rawlinson, T. And R. , 39, 40, 122, 136, 213, 283 Reade, Charles, 282 Reader, Mr. A. , 202 Redman, R. , 217, 218 Reed, Isaac, 42, 112, 145 Reeves and Turner, 226 Reeves, Mr. W. , 106, 227 Rewiczki, Count, 51 Reynolds, Sir J. , 113 Richard of Peterborough, 4 Richard III. , 10 Richardson's 'Remarks on Paradise Lost, ' 170 Richmond, Margaret, Countess of, 261 Ridgway, James, 250 Ridler, W. , 230 'Rig, ' a bookseller's, 101 Rikke, R. , 208 Rimbault, E. F. , 194 Rimell, Mr. J. , 106, 206 Ritson, Joseph, 108 Rivington and Cochrane, 241 Rivington, F. C. , 213 Robins, 113 'Robinson Crusoe, ' 89 Robinson, George, 216 Robinson's 'Handefull of Pleasant Delites, ' 145 Robson, James, 249, 250 Robson, Mr. , 106 Roche, Mr. J. , 106, 206 Rodd, Thomas, 74, 75, 242 Rogers, Samuel, 80-82, 87 Roper, Abel, 219 Rosebery, Earl of, 304 Rossetti, D. G. , 317 Rowfant Library, the, 311 Rowlandson, Thomas, 108 Rowsell, Joel, 245 Roxburghe Club, the, 61-64, 299, _et seq. _ Roxburghe, John, Duke of, 52, 53, 124, 141 Rubric posts, 176 and _note_, 237 Ruskin, Mr. John, 279 Rylands, Mrs. , 50, 146, 270, 271, 272 Rymer's 'Foedera, ' 8 Sacheverell, Dr. Henry, 251 Sala, Mr. G. A. , 150, 157 Sainte-Beuve's 'Livre d'Amour, ' 315 Salisbury, Mr. J. , 211 Salisbury, Marquis of, 264, 306 Salkeld, Mr. John, 202, 203 Salmon, Dr. , 31 Salting, Mr. G. , 320 Sancho, W. , 240 Sandars, Mr. S. , 320 Sandell and Smith, 187 Sanderson, Bishop, 171 Saunders, Robert, 116 Savage, 'Author to Let, ' 239 Saville, Sir Henry, 25, 283 Scarborough, Sir Charles, 37 Scotland Yard, 113 Scott, Dr. John, 194 Scott, R. , 120, 173 Scott's, Sir Walter, MSS. , 87, 89, 290, 308 Scott's 'Vision of Don Roderick, ' 150 Scotus Erigena, 3 Scriptorium, 2 Seile, Henry, 24 Selden, John, 23, 30 Selsey, Lord, 133 Seneca, 'Tragoediæ' (1475), 131 Severne, F. E. , 57 Sewell, John, 176 _note_, 186 Shakespeare, W. , 19, 70, 72, 74, 75, 91, 92, 93, 141-143 First Folio (1623), 42, 72, 87, 92, 95, 114, 141, 222, 291, 303, 311, 322 Second Folio (1632), 42, 75, 87, 95, 120, 141-143, 221, 303 Third Folio (1664), 42, 87, 95, 141-143, 303 Fourth Folio (1685), 42, 87, 95, 141-143, 221, 303 Quarto editions, 72, 90, 92, 93, 311 'Hamlet, ' 143 '2 Henry IV. , ' 92, 143 'Henry V. , ' 92, 143, 301 'Henry VI. , ' 143 'Lear, ' 95, 143, 211 'Love's Labour Lost, ' 93, 143 'Merchant of Venice, ' 92, 93 (_bis_), 95, 143, 211, 301 'Merry Wives of Windsor, ' 93, 143, 211, 301 'Midsummer Night's Dream, ' 70, 95, 143, 308 'Much Ado About Nothing, ' 93, 143 'Othello, ' 143, 301 'Pericles, ' 143, 301 'Poems, ' 93, 143 'Rape of Lucrece, ' 69, 93, 143, 211 'Richard II. , ' 143, 211, 301 'Richard III. , ' 143, 211, 301 'Romeo and Juliet, ' 92, 143, 217 _note_, 301 'Sonnets, ' 70, 143 and _note_ 'Titus Andronicus, ' 301 'Troilus and Cressida, ' 143, 211 'Venus and Adonis, ' 143 and _note_, 211 Shandy, Mr. , 152 Shattock, Mr. T. F. , 320 Shelburne, Earl of, 111 Sheldon, Ralph, 291 Shelley, P. B. , 316 Shelley's copy of Ossian's Poems, 229 Shenstone, W. , 237 Sheridan, R. B. , 85 Sherley's 'Wits New Dyall, ' 167 Shoreditch, 155 Shorter, Mr. C. K. , 317, 318 Shropshire, Walter, 251 Sidney's 'Arcadia, ' 89 Silius Italicus, 131 Simpson, Mr. W. , 114 Singer, S. W. , 71 Skeat, of King William Street, 287 Slater, Mr. J. H. , 150 Slater, Mr. Walter, 316, 317 Sloane, Sir Hans, 30, 31, 172 Smith, Horace, 78, 80 Smith's, Captain John, 'History of Virginia, ' 20 Smith, Joseph, English Consul, 41, 250 Smith, Joseph, bookseller, 187 Smith, or Smyth, Richard, 32, 33 Smollett, Tobias, 44 Smyth, Sir Thomas, 119 Snowden, Mr. G. S. , 106 'Snuffy Davy, ' 135 Soho, 207 Solly, Edward, 46, 88, 202 Somers, Lord, 31, 172 Somerset, Duke of, 284 Sophocles (1502), 129 Sotheby, John, 103, 104 Sotheby, Samuel, 103, 104 Sotheby, S. Leigh, 104, 105 Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, 103-108, and _passim_ Sotheran and Co. , Messrs. , 97, 233, 246, 272, 281 Sotheran, Mr. H. , 106 Southampton Row, 314 Southey, Robert, 76, 308 _Spectator_, the, 175, 265 Spelman, Edward, 250 Spelman, Sir Henry, 21 Spence, Joseph, 220 Spencer, Earl, 50-52, 53, 61, 109, 124, 238, 272 Spencer, W. T. , 205 Spenser's 'Faërie Queene, ' 87, 145 Spenser, E. , 35 Spon, of Cheapside, 184 St. Albans, Abbot of, 7 St. Albans, books printed at, 136, 137, 268, 301 St. Alban's Tavern, 61 St. Augustine, 'De Arte Predicandi, ' 302 St. Augustine, 'De Civitate Dei, ' 307, 308 St. Bernard's Seal, 43 St. Dunstan, 3 St. Francis, 6 St. Paul's Cathedral, 4 St. Paul's Churchyard, 153, 168, 208-216 Stanley, Colonel, 110, 239 Staple Inn, 42 Stapleton, A. G. , 252 Stark, J. M. , 245 Steele, Richard, 84, 265 Steevens, George, 42, 112, 220, 238 Stephens, J. , 224 Sterne, L. , 236 Stevens, Henry, 106, 115 Stewart, Charles J. , 245, 268 Stewart, founder of Puttick's, 112, 114 Stibbs, E. W. , 106, 200 Stock, Mr. Elliot, 96, 187 Stormont, Lord, 238 Stow's 'Survey, ' 8 Strand, the, 153, 223-235 Strange, John, 111 Strickland, Agnes, 270 Suckling and Galloway, 234 Sullivan, Sir E. , 92, 93 Sunderland Library sale, 114, 256 Sunderland, Earl of, 31, 36, 52, 124, 173 Sunderlin, Lord, 68 Sussex, Duke of, 109, 126, 264 Sutton, Henry, 210 Swift, Jonathan, 85, 172, 176 Swift, MS. Of Scott's 'Life' of, 87 Sydenham Tusculum, Hill's, 79 Sydney, Sir Robert, 142 Sykes, Lady Mark, 270 Sykes, Sir M. M. , 58, 61 _note_, 110, 310 Syston Park Library, 126 Talleyrand, Prince, 108 Taylor, Watson, 133 Taylor, William, 210 Tebbs, Mr. H. V. , 320 Tegg, Thomas, 186 Temple Bar, 223 'Temple of the Muses, ' the, 182 Tenison, Archbishop, 39 Testament. _See_ Bible Thackeray, W. M. , 83 Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3 Theocritus (1495), 130 Thompson, Mr. H. Yates, 320 Thoms, W. J. , 88, 156, 202, 228 Thoresby, Ralph, 178, 238 Thorpe, Thomas, 64 and _note_, 241, 242, 250 Thorold, Sir John, 126 Thurlow, Lord, 112 Tilt, Charles, 221, 253 Tisdale, John, 191 Tite, Sir William, 74, 256 Tobin, Sir J. , 109 Tomes, H. , 191 'Tom Folio, ' 39 Tom's Coffee-house, 102 Tonson, Jacob, 35, 192, 219, 234 Tooke, Benjamin, 219 Tooke, John Horne, 54, 112 Toovey, B. , 249 Toovey, J. , 106, 142, 253-255, 322 Tottell, R. , 217 and _note_ Towneley, J. , 57, 61, 110, 239 Townsend, Marquis of, 108 Tradescant, Mrs. , 18 Tregaskis, Mr. And Mrs. , 204, 205 Triphook, R. , 183, 268 Truelove, E. , 200 Turberville's 'Epitaphs, ' 210 Turnbull, Mr. E. , 201, 202 Turner, Dawson, 114 Turner, R. S. , 89 Turnstiles, Holborn, 202-204 Tunstall, James, 219 Tusser's 'Good Husbandry, ' 232 Tyndale, John, 16 Tyndale's 'Practyse of Prelates, ' 119 Tyrill, Sir T. , 26 Tyson, Dr. E. , 176 Tyssen, Samuel, 108, 111 Udal, Nicholas, 74 Upcott, W. , 27, 70 Usher, Archbishop, 26 Usher, Bishop, 212 Utterson, E. V. , 61 Uvedale, Robert, 236 Vaillant, Paul, 240 Valdarfer Boccaccio, the, 52, 61, 93, 123-125 Valerius Maximus (1471), 131 Valesius, 25 Van de Weyer, Col. V. W. Bates, 309 Vérard, Antoine, 13 Vernor and Hood, 184 Vespucci, 'Mundus Novus, ' 94 Vossius, Isaac 25 Wakefield, 238 Walford, Cornelius, 88, 151, 152 Walford, Mr. E. , 106 Walker, John, 112, 113 Wallden, a Carmelite Friar, 8 Waller, Mr. John, 281 Walpole, Horace, 284, 292 Walter, John, of the _Times_, 235 Walton Hall library, 93 Walton, Izaak, 35, 36, 85, 171 Walton's 'Compleat Angler, ' 144, 145, 218, 234, 322 Wanley, Humfrey, 34, 38, 122 Ward, Mr. W. , 106 Wardour Street, 206 Warde, Roger, 191 Ware, Richard, 215 Warner's 'Syrinx' (1597), 288 Warwick, Earl of, 106 Waterton, E. , 96, 97 Watson, Dr. T. , 100 Weskett, 'On Insurances, ' 152 Wesley, Charles, 35 Wesley and Sons, 234 West, James, 59, 60, 111, 179 Westell, Mr. J. , 106, 200, 201 Westminster Hall, 247-249 Westmoreland, Countess of, 9, 260 Wheare's 'Method and Order of Reading Histories, ' 85 Wheatley, Benjamin, 69, 114 Wheatley, Mr. H. B. , 100 _note_, 293 Wheldon, John, 211 Whethamstede, 10 Whiston, John, 103, 219 Whitechapel, 155, 187, 188 White, Benjamin (Sr. And Jr. ), 219-221 White, Gilbert, 221 White, John, 221 White, Joseph, 194 White Knights Library, 109 Whittington, Sir Richard, 8 Whytforde's 'Lyfe of Perfection, ' 309 Wilbraham, R. , 61 Wilcox, Thomas, 103 Wilkes, John, 54, 55, 108, 183, 311 Wilkinson, John, 105 Williams, Dr. David, 39 Willis, G. , 246 Willoughby, Lord, 31, 193 Willoughby, Sir H. , 84 Wills, John, 219 Wilson's 'Art of Logic, ' 74 Wimpole Library, the, 89, 90 Winchelsea, Earl of, 173 Wingrave, F. , 236 Winstanley's 'Views of Audley End, ' 292 Wise, Mr. T. J. , 316, 317 Wodhull, Michael, 57, 58, 128 Women as book-collectors, 259-273 Women as book-thieves, 279-280, 285 Wood, Anthony à, 8, 21, 32 Wordsworth, W. , 76, 78 Worsley, Dr. B. , 100, 213 Wulfseg, Bishop of London, 3 Wyndham, 238 Wynkyn de Worde, 54, 111, 119, 216, 301, 306 Yates's 'Castell of Courtesie, ' 222 York, Duke of, 108 Zouche, Lord, 304 [Illustration] _Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row, London. _ [Illustration: '_Must I, as a wit with learned air, Like Doctor Dewlap, to Tom Payne's repair?_'] _Uniform with 'The Book-Hunter in London. '_ THE BOOK-HUNTER IN PARIS. BEING Studies Among the Bookstalls of the Quays. By OCTAVE UZANNE. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, AUTHOR OF 'OBITER DICTA, ' 'RES JUDICATÆ, ' ETC. _AND 144 CHARACTERISTIC ILLUSTRATIONS INTERSPERSED IN THE TEXT_. [Illustration] EVERY bibliophile who by chance finds himself in Paris, whether onurgent affairs or on pleasure intent, invariably manages to visit thatrichest of hunting-grounds, the book-lined quays, where, perhaps, moreunexpected treasures have been picked up than in any other city ofEurope. It is of this happy hunting-ground and those who haunt it--thebook-hunters and the bookstall-keepers; the books they buy and the booksthey sell; whence they come and whither they go; the finds, the losses, the disappointments, and red-letter days--that M. Uzanne writes in thisattractive volume, in that felicitous and suggestive manner which hasmade him so well known in present-day literature. Opinions of the Press on 'The Book-Hunter in Paris. ' 'A very interesting book. Mr. Birrell's introduction is a pleasant anduseful explanation of the volume, which is presented in a form fullydeserving of its literary merits. '--_Times. _ 'M. Uzanne's chapters are full of curious information, which will havespecial attraction for those English book-hunters to whom Paris isunknown. The style is agreeably anecdotic, and the numerous woodcuts arequaint and graphic. '--_Globe. _ 'With real regret we lay down so charmingly written a volume, and it iswith no small satisfaction that we note the publisher's announcementthat a companion volume on "The Book-Hunter in London" will shortly beissued. '--_St. James's Budget. _ 'M. Uzanne's book is delightful, with never a heavy touch, but crammedwith quaint traditions, humorous characteristics, charminggossip. '--_Graphic. _ 'M. Uzanne sets forth with a good deal of pathos, happily leavened withhumour, the history, past and present, of the stall-keepers and thequays of the Seine, in whose trays many a notable _trouvaille_ has beenmade in other times. '--_Pall Mall Gazette. _ 'The interest of the book is heightened by the characteristic vignetteswhich are interwoven with the text on almost every other page. '--_TheStandard. _ 'Lightly does he carry his learning and brightly does he sketch thebookmen and their riverside market. Of present interest to allbook-lovers are his piquant contrasts of the old order and thenew. '--_Saturday Review. _ 'To collectors the book will appeal with special force, but the generalreader, if he be gifted with ordinary intelligence, will also enjoy it. It is not dry; in fact, to use the familiar expression, it is "asinteresting as a novel. "'--_Publishers' Circular. _ 'The book is full of stories of the characteristics of the fraternity, anecdotes, and biographical sketches of past stall-keepers and theirmost famous patrons. '--_Daily Graphic. _ 'Everybody knows M. Uzanne's pleasant, garrulous style--how he takes hisreaders into his confidence, how he spins phrases lovingly, and alwayskeeps you in good spirits. He was just the man to write such abook. '--_Bookman. _ 'The work is always learned, and (what is not so easy) always light. Everybody who is the least of a book-hunter ought to read it at once, orrather, ought to hunt for it first; and then, to show that it is abetter sort of book than many that are hunted, read it. '--_Scotsman. _ [Illustration] TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: Characters superscripted in the original are inclosed in {} brackets. Variations in spelling have been left as in the original. Examplesinclude the following: Crede Creede Creside Cressida Faerie Faërie Magliabecchi Magliabechi Polychronicon Policronicon Schoeffer's Schoëffer Schoeffer with an oe ligature Sweynheim Sweynheym Troilus Troylus Zarothum Zarothus The following words used an oe ligature in the original: d'oeuvre Foedera Oeconomiques oeuvre Oeuvres Phoebum Phoenix Schoeffer Tragoedie The following words appear with and without hyphens. They have been leftas in the original. book-buyer bookbuyer book-buying bookbuying book-case bookcase book-plate bookplate book-selling bookselling Coffee-house Coffeehouse sale-room saleroom waste-paper wastepaper The following corrections have been made to the text: page xiv: Purcell (p. 165)[original has 164] page xv: necessarily a learned man. [original is missing period] page 24: 1 Peers pennylesse supplication[original has supplicati[=o] to indicate there wasn't room for the final n] [=o] is equivalent to o with a macron over it page 33: the '[opening quote is missing in original]Godfrey of Bulloigne' selling for 18s. page 40: early age of forty-four[original has fourty-four] page 74: duplicate of my wooden leg. "[original has extraneous single quote] page 81: the MSS. Of Gray, in their perfect calligraphy[original has caligraphy] page 142: Rowfant[original has Rowfont] Library page 146: where a sale of books was in progress[original has progess] page 147: on the Banks of Lake Liman, near Geneva, "[ending quotation mark missing in original] page 194: For Billingsgate, quit Flexney, and be wise. '[ending quotation mark missing in original] page 232: like another Magliabecchi, [removed extraneous quotation mark after Magliabecchi] page 260: Countess of Westmoreland[original has Westmorland] page 264: We give facsimiles[original has facsimilies] page 294: '[quotation mark missing in original]Jokely, very interesting page 295: 'The Rose and the Ring by R. Browing. '[original has comma] page 303: catalogue raisonné[original has raisonnée] page 310: 'The Death Wake' (1831), [original has period] page 322: Princess Marie Liechtenstein[original has Leichtenstein] page 323: Arch, J. And A. [original has J. ] page 323: Bannatyne[original has Bannantyne] Club, the page 324: under Bibles and New Testaments-- Fust and Schoeffer (1462) was out of alphabetical order in the original in the Gutenberg sub-entry, the pages numbers were out of order in the original page 324: Brooke[original has Brook], Lord Warwick, 100 page 325: under Caxton-- 'Book of Good Manners, '[comma missing in original] Godfrey of Bulloigne[original has Bulloyne] Higden's 'Polychronicon[original has Polycronicon] History of Blanchardyn[original has Blanchardin] 'Troylus and Creside, '[ending quote missing in original and spelling is Cressid] Virgil's 'Æneid'[original has Ænid] page 326: Drummond's 'Forth[original has Fourth] Fasting, ' 86 page 327: Finsbury Square, 177, 179-183[removed extraneous period] page 327: Glashier, [comma missing in original] George, 202 page 327: Guilford[original has Guildford], Earl of page 327: Guilford[original has Guildford], Francis, Baron page 328: Johnson, Joseph[original has John], 214, 215 page 328: Johnston[original has Johnstone], William page 328: Kempis, Thomas à[original has á] page 330: Nornaville[original has Nornanville] and Fell page 330: Nourse[original has Nowise], John, 236 page 331: Rewiczki[original has Rewicski], Count page 331: Loyalty[original has Royalty--entry has been moved to maintain alphabetical order], the 'repository' of, 250 page 332: Stibbs[original has Stibbes], E. W. page 332: Thackeray, W. M. , 83[out of alphabetical order in original] page 332: Tyndale[original has Tyndall], John, 16 page 332: Tyson, Dr. E. , 176[out of alphabetical order in original] page 333: Vérard[original has Verard], Antoine page 333: entries for Walford, Cornelius, Walford, Mr. E. , Walker, John, Warde, Roger, and Ward, Mr. W. , were out of alphabetical order in the original page 333: Weskett, [comma missing in original] 'On Insurances, ' 151 In the index on page 328, there is an entry for Thomas à Kempis. Hisname is not mentioned in the book, but he is the author of "ImitatioChristi" which is discussed in the text on the referenced pages. In the index, many of the page references were incorrect. Correctionshave been made as indicated in the following table. Original Correct Entry Page # Page # Aldine editions, 128-131 129-131 Aldus, 128 129 Alfred, 2 3 Anacreon, Stephen edition, 128 129 Anthologia Græca' (1494), 129 130 Archaica Club, 78 79 'Aristophanes' (1498), 128 129 Aristotle (1495-98), 129 130 Askew Sale, the, 127, et seq. 128, et seq. Bannatyne Club, the, 62 62 note Baptist Library at Bristol, 137 138 Barbican, the, 175, 176 176, 177 Batemans of Little Britain, 170 171 Becket, Thomas, 175 note 176 note Bernard, Dr. Francis, 131 132 Bibles and New Testaments Coverdale's (1535), 113 138 Græca Septuaginta, 192 192 note St. Jerome's MS. , 139, 140 140 Bishopsgate Churchyard, 160 161 Black-letter books, 135 136 Blandford, Marquis of, 61 61 note Bloomfield, R. , 153 154 'Boke of St. Albans, ' 135, 136 136 Book-ghouls, 159 160 Bookstalls and bookstalling, 148-166 149-167 Brabourne, Lord, 106 107 Britten, Mr. James, 150 151 Britton, Thomas, 171, 172 172, 173 Brown, 'Old, ' 156 157 Bruscambille on 'Long Noses, ' 151 152 Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress, ' 144, 145 145, 146 Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 140, 141 141, 142 Butterworth, Henry, 217 217 note Campbell, Mr. Dykes, 106 107 Caxton, W. 131 132 'Arthur, King, ' 132 133 'Book called Cathon, ' 131, 132 132, 133 'Book of Chivalry, ' 135 136 'Chastising of God's Children, ' 131 132 Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales, ' 135 136 'Chronicles of England, ' 131, 132 132, 133 Cicero ('De Senectute'), 'Of Old Age, ' 90, 131, 132 132, 133 'Dictes and Sayings, ' 131 132 'Doctrinal of Sapience, ' 131, 132 132, 133 'Game and Playe of Chesse, ' 131, 132, 134 132, 133, 135 'Godfrey of Bulloigne, ' 131 132 'Golden Legend, ' 132 133 Gower's 'Confessio Amantis, ' 132 133 Higden's 'Description of Britayn' 132 ? Higden's 'Polychronicon, ' 80 89 'Historyes of Troy, ' 131 132 'History of Blanchardyn and Eglantine, ' 132 133 'History of Jason, ' 131, 132 132, 133 'Mirrour of the World, ' 132 133 Russell's 'Propositio, ' 133 134 'Troylus and Creside, ' 132 133 Virgil's 'Æneid, ' 132 133 Caxton, the highest paid for a, 132 133 Caxtons, the Althorp, 133 134 Chained books at Hereford, 274 ? Chandler, Dr. , 287 289 Clarke, W. , 134 135 Daniel, G. , 140-142 141-143 Daniell, Mr. E. , 106 107 Day's circulating library, 207, 208 208 Defoe, Daniel, 155 156 Devonshire, Dukes of, } 61, 132 61 note, 133 } 140, 141, 172 141, 142, 173 Diodorus Siculus (1539), 129 130 Dobell, Mr. B. , 106 107 Dorset, Earl of, 169 170 Drayton, M. , 157 158 Duck Lane, 174, 175 175, 176 Duke Street, Little Britain, 174, 175 175, 176 East End, book-hunting in, 154, et seq. 155, et seq. Editiones Principes, 127-131 128-131 Ellis, Mr. G. I. , 106 107 Elyot's 'Castell of Helth, ' 165 166 Euripides (1503), 128 129 Exeter 'Change, 153, 154 154, 155 Extra-illustrating, 164 165 Farringdon Road, 157, 158 158, 159 Finsbury Square, 177 178 Foote, Samuel, 162 163 Franklin, B. , 174 175 Fuller's 'David's Hainous Sinne, ' 150 151 Funnibus, L. , 146 147 Garnett, Dr. R. , 165 166 Garth, Samuel, 175 176 George III. , 129, 134, 140 130, 135, 141 Gifford, Dr. , 138, 139 139, 140 Glasse's 'Art of Cookery, ' 149 150 Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield, ' 145 146 Gomme, Mr. G. L. , 150 151 Grangerizing, 164 165 Gray's MSS. , 145 146 Gwillim's 'Display of Heraldry, ' 155 156 Harleian Library, The, 193 192 Harvey, Mr. F. , 164 165 Harwood, Dr. , 127-130 128-131 Hatchards, 253, 254 252-254 Heliconia Club, 78 79 Herodotus (1502), 128 129 Hindley, Mr. C. , 106 107 Hodge, Mr. E. Grose, 106 107 Hodgson and Co. , 145, 161-163 146, 162-164 Holford, Captain, 145 146 Holywell Street, 152, 153 153, 154 Homer, the Foulis edition, 128 129 Horace, editio princeps, 129 130 Hunter, Mr. , 129 130 Hunt, Leigh, 148 149 Islington, cattle market at, 163 164 Isocrates (1493), 128 129 Jeffrey, Edward, 112 113 Jersey, Earl of, 132 133 Johnson, Dr. , 257 237 Jolley, Thomas, 142 note 143 note Juvenal and Persius (1469), 130 131 King, John, 177 178 King, Thomas, 177 178 Knock-outs, 163 164 Lamb, Charles, 175, 176 176, 177 Lamb's 'Beauty and the Beast, ' 149 150 Langford, auctioneer, 138 139 Leighton, Mr. , 106 107 Lemoine, Henry, 160 161 Lisburne, Lord, 128 129 Locker-Lampson, F. , 106 107 London House, Aldersgate Street, 40 39 Longman and Co. , 79, 80 80 Lovelace's 'Lucasta, ' 144 145 Lytton, Lord, 149 150 Macaulay, Lord, 148 149 Manuscript, the textual value of a, 127 128 Martial's 'Epigrammata, ' 131 132 Mather, Increase, 150 151 Mayhew, Henry, 160 161 Millington, E. 169 170 Milton's 'Paradise Lost, ' 144, 169 145, 170 Molini, Mr. , 106 107 Moorfields, 167, 176-179 168, 177-179 Murray, John of Sacomb, 137, 138 138, 139 Musæus (1494), 129 130 Neligan, Dr. , 106 107 New Cut, the, 156, 157 157 Newton, W. , 173 174 Nicol, George, 127 126 North, Francis, 169 170 North, Roger, 169 170 Novimagus, Society of, 82 83 Ovid (1471), 130 131 Oxford, Edward, Earl of, 138, 172 139, 173 Pamphlet shops, 154 155 Passavant, Speyr, 139 140 Pellet, Thomas, 154 155 Pembroke, Lord, 172 173 Pepys, Samuel, 249 248 Perry, James, 132 133 Plato, 129 130 Pliny, 'Historia Naturalis, ' 130 131 Poetry, old English, 144 145 Pope, Alexander, 150 151 Purcell, of Red Lion Passage, 164 165 Puttenham's 'Art of English Poesie, ' 144 145 Quaritch, Mr. B. , 106, 281 107, 280 Railton, Mr. , 106 107 Ratcliffe, John, 131 132 Rawlinson, T. And R. , 135 136 Reed, Isaac, 144 145 Reeves, Mr. W. , 106 107 Richardson's 'Remarks on Paradise Lost, ' 169 170 Rimell, Mr. J. , 106 107 Robinson's 'Handefull of Pleasant Delites, ' 144 145 Robson, Mr. , 106 107 Roche, Mr. J. , 106 107 Rogers, Samuel, 79-82 80-82 Roxburghe, John, Duke of, 140 141 Rubric posts, 175 176 Rylands, Mrs. , 145 146 Sacheverell, Dr. Henry, 257 251 Sala, Mr. G. A. , 149, 156 150, 157 Salisbury, Mr. J. , 209, 211 211 Sanderson, Bishop, 170 171 Scott, R. , 172 173 Scott's 'Vision of Don Roderick, ' 149 150 Scriptorium, 1, 2 2 Selsey, Lord, 132 133 Seneca, 'Tragoediæ' (1475), 130 131 Sewell, John, 175 176 note Shakespeare, W. , 140-142 141-143 First Folio (1623), 140 141 Second Folio (1632), 140-142 141-143 Third Folio (1664), 140-142 141-143 Fourth Folio (1685), 140-142 141-143 Quarto editions 'Hamlet, ' 142 143 '2 Henry IV. , ' 142 143 'Henry V. , ' 142 143 'Henry VI. , ' 142 143 'Lear, ' 142 143 'Love's Labour Lost, ' 142 143 'Merchant of Venice, ' 142 143 'Merry Wives of Windsor, 142 143 'Midsummer Night's Dream' 142 143 'Much Ado About Nothing, ' 142 143 'Othello, ' 142 143 'Pericles, ' 142 143 'Poems, ' 142 143 'Rape of Lucrece, ' 142 143 'Richard II. , ' 142 143 'Richard III. , ' 142 143 'Romeo and Juliet, ' 142 143 'Sonnets, ' 142, 143 note 143 and note 'Troilus and Cressida, ' 142 143 'Venus and Adonis, ' 142, 143 note 143 and note Shandy, Mr. , 151 152 Sherley's 'Wits New Dyall, ' 166 167 Shoreditch, 154 155 Silius Italicus, 130 131 Slater, Mr. J. H. , 149 150 Sloane, Sir Hans, 171 172 'Snuffy Davy, ' 134 135 Solly, Edward, 47 46 Somers, Lord, 171 172 Snowden, Mr. G. S. , 106 107 Sophocles (1502), 128 129 Sotheran, Mr. H. , 106 107 Spectator, the, 174 175 Spenser's 'Faërie Queene, ' 144 145 St. Albans, books printed at, 135, 136 136, 137 St. Paul's Churchyard, 152 153 Stevens, Henry, 106 107 Staple Inn, 43 42 Stibbs, E. W. , 106 107 Strand, the, 152 153 Sunderland, Earl of, 172 173 Swift, Jonathan, 171, 175 172, 176 Sydenham Tusculum, Hill's, 78 79 Sydney, Sir Robert, 141 142 Sykes, Sir M. M. , 61 61 note Taylor, Watson, 132 133 Theocritus (1495), 129 130 Thoms, W. J. , 155, 156 156 Thoresby, Ralph, 177 178 Toovey, J. , 106, 141, 145 107, 142 Tyson, Dr. E. , 175 176 Valerius Maximus (1471), 130 131 Vérard, Antoine, 12 13 Walford, Mr. E. , 106 107 Walton, Izaak, 170 171 Walton's 'Compleat Angler, ' 143, 144 144, 145 Walford, Cornelius, 150, 151 151, 152 Walker, John, 114 113 Ward, Mr. W. , 106 107 Warwick, Earl of, 106 107 Weskett, 'On Insurances, ' 151 152 Westell, Mr. J. , 106 107 Whitechapel, 154 155 Winchelsea, Earl of, 172 173 Women as book-thieves, 278-280 279-280 Wynkyn de Worde, 118 111 Ellipsis are represented as in the original.