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The   Bookworm. 


AN   ILLUS'TRA'TEB    TREASURT 


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OLD-TIME    LITERATURE, 


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ELLIOT  STOCK,  62,  PATERNOSTER  ROW. 

1893. 


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Our  Note-Book. 


LTHOUGH  it  is  not  so  stated  on  the  title-page,  it  is  never- 
theless a  fact  that  Mr.  James  Baldwin's  "  The  Book-Lover : 
A  Guide  to  the  Best  Reading,"  which  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 
have  just  issued,  is  a  new  and  cheaper  edition  of  a  book  which  has 
had  a  very  considerable  popularity  in  a  more  expensive  form.  We 
are  not  at  all  surprised  that  it  has  sold  well,  for  it  is  exceedingly 
entertaining  as  well  as  useful.  Personally,  we  dislike  Courses  of 
Reading  and  Schemes  for  Practical  Study  to  which  Mr.  Baldwin 
refers,  but  when  such  things  have  been  decided  upon  it  is  at  all 
events  very  desirable  to  have  a  competent  guide,  and  Mr.  Baldwin 
may  certainly  claim  to  be  this.  The  elder  Pliny  declared  that  no 
book  was  so  bad  but  that  some  part  of  it  might  be  read  with  profit, 
but  amid  the  high  pressure  at  which  every  phase  of  life  is  now  carried 
on  we  cannot  afford  to  read  every  book  we  come  across  upon  the 
plea  that  it  may  contain  something  of  profit  for  us.  This  was 
possible  at  a  period  when  half  a  dozen  books  were  considered  a  fairly 
extensive  library  even  for  a  man  of  means  and  culture.  Now,  it  is 
necessary  to  obtain  the  greatest  amount  of  knowledge  with  the  least 
possible  waste  of  time.  After  a  chapter  of  wise  hints  as  to  the  choice 
of  books,  Mr.  Baldwin  gives  some  equally  solid  advice  as  to  the  best 
manner  of  reading,  and  then  on  the  value  and  use  of  libraries.  We 
might  traverse  a  good  many  of  the  hints  he  lays  down  in  his  chapter 
on  "  Books  for  every  Scholar,"  but  our  disagreements  would  perhaps 
be  more  matters  of  opinion  than  of  fact.  After  several  practical 
chapters,  Mr.  Baldwin  comes  to  the  almost  inevitable  question  as  to 
"The  Best  Hundred  Books,"  and  into  this  extremely  debatable 
matter  we  do  not  now  propose  to  enter.     We  can  thoroughly  com- 

I 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 


I 


mend  Mr.  Baldwin's  little  book,  which  is  daintily  got  up  and  deserves 

an  extensive  sale. 

sic  *  -:=  =:= 

The  annual  volume  of  Messrs.  Macmillan  &  Co.'s  English  Illus- 
trated Magazine  is  not  nearly  so  interesting  from  a  purely  literary 
point  of  view  as  some  of  its  predecessors.  The  articles  which  will 
attract  the  reader  of  literary  or  artistic  tastes  are  few  indeed  as  com- 
pared with  previous  years.  Archdeacon  Farrar's  paper  on  three 
portraits  of  Milton  is  good,  and  that  on  Messrs.  W.  H.  Smith  & 
Sons  is  graphic  and  exceedingly  interesting.  But  even  this  article 
does  not  give  a  full  idea  of  the  wonderful  order  and  magnitude  of  W. 
H.  Smith  &  Sons'  business.  The  astonishment  is  that  there  should 
be  so  few^  mistakes,  and  that  every  blunder  is  so  readily  traced  to  its 
immediate  source.  To  every  one  interested  in  athletic  sports,  in 
natural  history,  and  in  railways,  this  volume  will  be  especially  wel- 
come ;  whilst  for  any  one,  old  or  young,  it  would  be  difficult  to  name 
a  handsomer  presentation  book. 


It  has  become  an  annual  pleasure  both  to  read  and  to  praise  Mr. 
Joseph  Jacob's  charming  books  of  fairy  tales.  This  year  he  has  gone 
to  Indian  sources  for  his  inspiration,  and  it  is  almost  needless  to  say 
that  the  field  is  peculiarly  rich.  Most  authorities,  including  our 
friend  Mr.  Clouston,  argue  that  India  is  the  home  of  the  Fairy 
Tale,  and  we  think  that,  on  the  whole,  their  arguments  have  a  great 
deal  of  force  in  them.  The  examples  which  Mr.  Jacobs  has  selected 
for  his  book  are  not  unfamiliar  to  students  of  the  science  of  Folk- 
Lore,  but  they  will  not  on  that  account  be  less  welcome  to  readers 
who  do  not  consider  themselves  as  coming  within  that  category.  A 
few  years  ago  the  fairy  story  was  regarded  as  peculiarly  the  property 
of  young  people,  but  this  can  no  longer  be  said  to  be  true.  The 
subject  has  now  become  almost  an  exact  science,  and  the  origin  of 
many  of  the  stories  a  matter  of  study  and  inquiry  as  keen  as  the 
most  important  branches  of  historic  doubt.  So  long  as  men  like 
Mr.  Jacobs  and  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  take  up  the  subject  there  will  be 
no  want  of  grown-up  readers,  and  their  books  will  continue  to  receive 
their  proper  position  on  the  bookshelves  of  both  old  and  young. 
Mr.  Jacobs  has  been  again  fortunate  in  having  the  co-operation  of 
Mr.  J.  D.  Batten  in  giving,  by  his  beautiful  pictures,  a  vivid  reality 
to  these  stories ;  and  Mr.  David  Nutt,  the  publisher,  is  doubly  for- 
tunate in  having  two  such  harmonious  collaborators. 


I 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK.  5 

A  prefatory  note  to  "  The  London  and  Middlesex  Note-book " 
(Elliot  Stock)  tells  us  that  the  experiment  of  publishing  a  work 
devoted  solely  to  the  antiquarian  and  historical  interests  of  London 
and  Middlesex  has  been  carried  out  in  the  volume  now  before  us, 
and  though  it  does  not  compass  all  that  the  editor  intended,  he 
hopes  that  it  will  meet  with  the  approval  of  those  who  are  interested 
in  the  records  of  the  past,  and  that  much  of  its  contents  will  prove 
of  permanent  value  to  students.  A  mere  glance  through  this  hand- 
some volume  will  prove  that  the  editor,  Mr.  W.  P.  W.  Phillimore,  has 
succeeded  in  compiling  a  volume  of  very  wide  interest  and  perma- 
nent value  as  a  book  of  reference.  To  an  Englishman  no  city  in  the 
world  possesses  the  attractions  of  London,  and  in  spite  of  t?ie  innu- 
merable histories,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  there  are  still  vast 
quantities  of  important  facts  which  only  need  gathering  together  and 
digesting  to  throw  many  side-lights  on  the  history  of  this  the  most 
extensive  city  which  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Mr.  PhiUimore  has 
commenced  to  do  this  useful  work,  and  we  hope  he  will  be  encour- 
aged to  continue  it. 

;;;  >}{  ;;<  -k- 

The  late  Mr.  William  Blades's  "  Books  in  Chains  "  is  a  very  wel- 
come addition  to  Mr.  Elliot  Stock's  Book-Lover's  Library,  and  Mr. 
Wheatley's  introduction  is  an  excellent  resume  of  the  lamented 
author's  life-work  by  one  who  knew  him  well.  The  subject  from 
which  the  book  derives  its  title  occupies  two  chapters,  dealing 
respectively  with  chained  books  at  Wimborne  Minster  (see  Book- 
worm, vol.  ii.,  p.  153),  and  in  England  and  Abroad.  The  other 
essays  which  go  to  make  up  the  book  have  appeared  in  various 
quarters,  the  most  important  of  them,  "  De  Ortu  Typographiae," 
having  first  seen  light  in  The  Bookworm  during  1888.  Mr.  Blades 
has  not  by  any  means  exhausted  the  subject  of  books  in  chains  so 
far  as  regards  foreign  examples,  there  still  being  several  of  the 
highest  interest  and  importance  in  various  parts  of  the  continent. 
We  trust  that  at  some  not  far  distant  period  the  custodians  of  these 
chained  books  will  publish  articles  descriptive  of  them;  and  the 
interest  would  be  rendered  still  greater  if  collectors  would  publish 
accounts  of  books  in  their  possession  which  still  carry  marks  of 
having  at  one  time  been  in  chains.  These  occur  occasionally  in  the 
auction  room,  and  a  couple  of  examples  were  recorded  in  The  Book- 
worm, vol.  iv.,  p.  339. 

■sc^  t-  >|:  H- 

Mr.  George  H.  Ellwanger's  "  Story  of  My  House,"  which  Messrs. 


4  OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 

George  Bell  &  Sons  have  issued  in  this  country,  is  almost  too 
a  book  to  handle.  It  is  as  pretty  to  look  at  as  it  is  charming  to 
read,  and  that  is  saying  a  good  deal.  Mr.  Ellwanger  deals  with  a 
variety  of  topics,  on  every  one  of  which  he  is  equally  at  home  and 
entertaining.  We  prefer,  however,  the  chapters  dealing  with  the 
"  Magicians  of  the  Shelves,"  on  "  Authors  and  Readers,"  and  on 
"  My  Indoor  Garden,"  in  each  of  which  the  author  is  particularly 
happy.  Mr.  Ellwanger  writes  with  equal  taste  and  fluency  on  nature, 
art,  and  literature,  the  one  adding  to  rather  than  (as  is  sometimes 
the  case)  detracting  from  his  appreciation  of  the  other.  "  The  Story 
of  My  House  "  is  not  a  book  to  be  picked  up  and  read  through  with 
the  dreary  industry  of  the  subscriber  to  a  circulating  library.  It  is 
essentially  a  book  for  which  one  must  feel  in  the  humour  to  appre- 
ciate properly,  and  under  such  conditions  it  is  not  likely  to  be 
dropped  quickly.  It  only  wants  to  be  known  to  be  appreciated  on 
this  side  of  the  water,  its  popularity  in  America  having  been  quite 
phenomenal.  We  may  mention  that  the  quaint  and  appropriate 
headings  and  tail-pieces  have  been  specially  designed  by  Mr.  Alan 
Wright,  and  that  it  contains,  as  frontispiece,  a  view  of  the  author  in 

his  study. 

-:«  *  *  >:-> 

We  have  already  called  attention  to  Mr.  Quaritch's  admirable 
*'  Dictionary  of  English  Book-Collectors,"  of  which  the  second  and 
third  parts  have  appeared.  The  collectors  dealt  with  in  these  two 
parts  are  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  Charles  Spencer  Third  Earl  of 
Sunderland,  Sir  James  Thorold,  Colonel  T.  Stanley,  James  and 
Thomas  Edwards,  John  Rennie,  Henry  Perkins,  Henry  Huth, 
Thomas  Allen,  John  Home  Tooke,  B.  H.  Malkin,  George  John 
Earl  Spencer,  and  Mrs.  John  Rylands.  The  illustrations  to  the  two 
parts  include  a  facsimile  of  the  cover  of  a  copy  of  Paradin's  "  Chro- 
nique  de  Savoye  "  (Lyon,  1552),  bound  for  Mary  Queen  of  Scots, 
and  now  in  the  possession  of  Lord  Rosebery  ;  a  steel  engraved  por- 
trait of  Henry  Huth ;  a  portrait  of  Earl  Spencer  ;  and  facsimiles  of 
the  first  and  last  pages  of  the  Mentz  Psalter  of  1459,  J^ow  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Quaritch.  With  one  exception,  all  the  notices 
are  written  by  Mr.  Michael  Kerney,  than  whom  there  is  no  greater 
living  authority  on  book  matters,  not  even  excepting  Mr.  Quaritch 
himself.  The  Huth  article  is  written  in  part  by  Mr.  F.  S.  Ellis  and 
by  Mr.  Alfred  H.  Huth,  the  son  and  present  owner  of  the  magnificent 
library  which  is  said  to  have  cost  his  father  about  ^120,000,  and  of 
which  an  account  appeared  in  The  Bookworm,  vol.  iii.  pp.  225,  327. 


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Small  Books. 


HE  French  equivalent  to  our  own  JVofes  and  Queries^ 
V Intermediaire  des  Chercheurs  et  des  Curieux,  recently  pub- 
lished the  following  note  on  a  subject  to  which  we  have 
made  frequent  reference  in  The  Bookworm  : — 

The  smallest  work  I  know  of  is  a  tiny  child's  prayer-book  printed 
in  Paris,  without  date,  by  Firmin-Didot.  It  is  27  millimetres  in 
height,  and  25  wide,  including  margin.  Is  any  other  book  known  of 
smaller  than  this  ? 

In  one  of  the  following  issues  several  readers  gave  an  enumeration 
of  books  still  smaller.     We  give  the  answers  of  M.  de  la  Coussiere. 

The  following  is  a  description  of  a  book  still  more  microscopic 
than  that  alluded  to  in  the  question.  "  The  Little  Fabulist."  Paris  : 
Firmin-Didot,  56,  Rue  Jacob.  No  date;  87  pages;  wood  engrav- 
ings. The  two  copies  I  know  have  the  back  and  guards  covered 
with  satin,  and  the  flat  sides  are  ivory.  One  of  them  measures  23 
millimetres  by  19;  the  other,  less  cut  in  the  binding,  25  millimetres 
by  20. 

"The  Joujou  Amusant":  New  Almanack  for  the  Year  1803. 
Paris :  Marcilly,  Rue  Julien-le-Pauvre.  64  pages ;  engravings, 
calendar,  and  songs ;  29  millimetres  by  20. 

"  Little  Child's  Prayer-Book."  Paris.  Printing  Works  of  Ad.  B. 
Laine,  19,  Rue  des  Saints-Peres.  92  pages,  copper-coloured  metal 
binding  and  clasp  ;  26  millimetres  by  20. 

"  The  Necessaire  d^un  homme  de  bien"  Paris.  Jaunet,  late  Joubert ; 
64  pages,  21  millimetres  by  17. — This  book  was  printed  before  1790, 
as  the  last  page  contains  a  notice  to  lords  of  the  court. 


SMALL  BOOKS. 


The  measure  I  employed  being  rather  defective,  the  measurements' 
given  may  be  accepted  as  correct  within  a  millimetre. 

Subsequently,  M.  de  la  Coussiere  added  to  the  preceding  remarks 
the  following  note  : — 

"  When  I  answered  the  question  I  had  not  looked  in  one  of  my 
glass  cases,  where  I  have  two  books,  one  of  which  is  smaller  than 
any  of  those  already  mentioned,  being  only  19  millimetres  by  14.  It 
is  entitled  the  'Alarm  Almanack  for  1781.'  Paris  :  Boulanger,  Rue 
du  Petit-Pont :  Le  Mercier  (sic\  64  pages.  There  are  some  engrav- 
ings and  quatrains  for  singing  regarding  it.  The  book  has  guards  of 
silk,  and  is  encased  in  a  beautiful  little  gilt  trinket,  2 1  millimetres  by 
18,  embellished  by  pretty  ornaments  of  Louis  XVI. 

"I  have  also  a  small  child's  prayer-book,  no  date,  printed  by 
Firmin-Didot,  containing  five  engravings,  and  measuring  25  milli- 
metres by  17.  It  has  ninety-eight  pages,  although  there  are  only 
ninety-two  numbered,  and  it  is  bound,  velvet  back  and  ivory  sides. 
These  little  books  were  given  to  us,  when  children,  in  Easter  eggs." 

Most  of  these  little  books  are  not  printed  typographically,  but  in 
copper-plate  drawn  on  hollow  engraved  plates,  like  those  used  for 
visiting  cards.  There  are  some,  however,  of  similar  form  in  print. 
We  may  mention,  in  particular,  "  The  Christian's  Exercise,"  printed 
at  Paris,  in  1757,  with  no  less  than  192  pages.  The  copy  in  M. 
Coussiere's  possession  measures,  with  its  original  binding,  35  milli- 
metres in  length,  20  in  width,  and  not  more  than  10  in  thickness. 
There  is  also  "  The  Little  Fabulist,"  no  date,  Paris.  This  Httle  book 
is  about  the  size  of  the  preceding,  containing  engravings  on  wood, 
and  is  printed  typographically. 

A  large  number  of  microscopic  books  are  Missals,  Prayer-books ; 
they  are  often  in  leather  cases  or  metal,  and  then  sometimes  form 
trinkets.  There  are  some  noted  collectors  of  these  little  books.  M. 
Salomon,  a  well-known  Parisian  amateur,  for  instance,  has  about  200 
specimens.  Are  the  curious  books  we  have  just  enumerated  actually 
the  smallest  made  ?  We  should  not  like  to  say  so.  A  Parisian  book- 
seller assured  us  recently  that  a  book  passed  through  his  hands  which 
was  smaller  than  any  of  them.  Perhaps  some  of  our  readers  may  be 
able  to  answer  a  question  of  interest  to  bibhophihsts  and  virtuosos — 
Which  is,  really,  the  smallest  book  in  the  world  ? 


London    Booksellers. 

MR.  EUGENE  FIELD'S  experience  of  the  London  bookshops 
has  not  been  a  happy  one,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  following 
which  appears  in  Geyer^s  Stationer  :■ — Nearly  every  book-dealer  in 
London  is  a  publisher.  Consequently,  if  you  seek  a  particular  book, 
it  is  hard  to  procure  it  at  once  unless  you  know  the  name  and  loca- 
tion  of  the  publishing  house.  There  are  certain  dealers — notably 
Hatchard,  in  Piccadilly — who  will  get  any  book  there  is  in  print  and 
can  be  got ;  but  they  require  time.  Go  into  any  shop  and  ask  for 
an  item,  and  the  chances  are  nine  to  one  that  the  answer  will  be, 
"  No,  we  haven't  it,  but  we  can  get  it  for  you."  In  every  little  nine- 
by-four  shop  you  hear  talk  about  "our  factory."  "We  shall  have 
to  send  down  to  our  factory  "  for  this  article  or  that.  This  sort  of 
thing  makes  even  strong  men  very  weary.  After  inquiring  in  vain 
at  half  a  dozen  shops  for  a  copy  of  James  Whitcomb  Riley's  poems, 
I  made  the  long  journey  to  Paternoster  Row,  and  applied  for  the 
book  at  Longmans',  the  publisher.  I  was  referred  to  a  dealer  in  St. 
Paul's  Churchyard.  Thither  I  proceeded.  They  were  all  out  of  the 
book,  but  could  get  me  one.  "  How  soon  can  you  get  it  ?  "  I  asked. 
"  In  a  week  or  ten  days,"  they  said.  "  Where  do  you  have  to  go  for 
it  ?  "  I  asked.  "  To  the  publishers,"  they  answered.  *'  My  friends," 
said  I,  "  I  have  travelled  four  miles  for  that  book,  and  I  am  going  to 
camp  here  till  I  get  it.  The  publishers  are  only  one  minute's  walk 
from  here — now  fetch  me  that  book  ! "  Very  few  of  the  second- 
hand book  shopkeepers  know  what  they  have  in  stock.  You  ask 
them  for  a  certain  book,  and  they  shake  their  heads,  when  the 
chances   are  that   several  copies  of  the  book  you   want  are  con- 


8  LONDON  BOOKSELLERS. 

spicuously  displayed  upon  their  shelves.  Their  so-called  catalogues 
are  not  worth  much,  because  they  include,  in  most  cases,  only  the 
high-priced  books.  The  real  curiosities  are  to  be  found,  not  in  the 
catalogues,  but  upon  the  top  and  bottom  shelves  of  the  dusty 
stalls. 

[We  quote  the  above  more  as  a  curiosity  than  anything  else.  Its 
absurdities  are  too  numerous  and  too  obvious  to  be  worthy  of 
categorical  replies,  and  Mr.  Field's  unhappy  and  quite  needless 
troubles  will  afford  amusing  reading  to  those  who  know  the  real  facts 
of  the  case. — Ed.  Bookworm.] 


Real    Bookworms . 

TWO  fine  specimens  of  the  genuine  bookworm  were  discovere 
recently  by  Mr.  Benjamin,  of  New  York,  embedded  in  a 
precious  copy  of  "Seneca,"  dated  London,  1675,  and  belonging  to 
John  Carey  in  1782,  One  small  white  worm  had  entered  at  the 
lower  right-hand  corner,  the  conical  cocoon  from  which  it  had 
emerged  still  adhering  to  the  leaves  of  the  book  without.  With  its 
fellow,  which  was  working  towards  it  from  the  back  of  the  book,  no- 
cocoon  was  found.  The  former,  three-eighths  of  an  inch  long  and 
one-eighth  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  was  unwittingly  killed  by  the 
disturbance  of  its  shell,  but  the  remaining  member  of  the  family  is 
still  alive  and  healthy.  This  book-destroyer  is  now  exceedingly  rare ;. 
so  much  so  that  when  Mr.  Bernard  Quaritch  found  one  five  years 
ago,  in  one  of  his  treasured  volumes,  he  celebrated  the  discovery  by- 
giving  a  dinner  to  a  large  party  of  his  principal  clients. 


The  Friendship  of  Books. 


ROBABLY  no  cultivated  person  can  be  more  eloquent  than 
when  talking  about  books ;  and  as  the  subject  is  one  at  all 
times  pleasant  to  read  about  as  well  as  to  listen  to,  we  have 
pleasure  in  reproducing  the  gist  of  two  lectures  delivered  during 
October.  The  first  was  delivered  by  Sir  John  Lubbock  to  the 
students  of  the  Morley  Memorial  College,  Waterloo  Road,  London. 
Beginning  with  a  reference  to  the  praise  bestowed  on  books  more 
than  four  hundred  years  ago  by  Richard  De  Bury,  Bishop  of 
Durham,  Sir  John  said : — Consider  how  much  better  off  we  are 
now  than  he  was  then.  You  may  buy  for  the  price  of  a  pot  of  beer 
or  one  or  two  pipes  as  much  as  you  could  read  in  a  month.  Again, 
while  our  books  are  small  and  handy,  theirs  were  ponderous,  im- 
mense— very  inconvenient  either  to  hold  or  to  read.  Even  our 
deepest  books  are,  in  a  sense,  light.  But,  what  is  far  more  im- 
portant, we  have  not  only  all  the  most  interesting  books  which  De 
Bury  could  command,  but  many  more  also.  Even  of  ancient 
literature  m.uch  has  been  discovered.  Again,  in  his  day,  one  might 
almost  say  that  the  novel  was  unknown.  In  poetry  he  lived  before 
Shakespeare  or  Milton.  In  science,  chemistry  and  geology  have 
been  created,  and,  indeed,  the  progress  of  discovery  has  made  all 
the  rest — natural  history,  astronomy,  geography,  and  others — far 
more  interesting.  I  have  already  mentioned  novels,  and  I  think 
those  who  cry  down  public  libraries  because  many  novels  are  read 
in  them  make  a  great  mistake.  I  believe  we  have,  most  of  us,  to 
confess  the  truth,  learned  more  English  history  from  Shakespeare 
and  Scott  than  from  Stubbs  or  Green.  Moreover,  good  novels 
teach  us,  what  is  very  important,  a  knowledge  of  human  knowledge. 
Books  are  peculiarly  necessary  to  the  working  men  in  our  towns. 
Their  life  is  one  of  much  monotony.  We  look  down  upon  less 
civilised  races,  but  yet  the  savage  has  a  far  more  varied  existence. 
He  must  watch  the  habits  of  the  game  which  he  hunts,  their  migra- 
tions and  feeding  grounds.  He  must  know  where  and  how  to  fish. 
Every  month  brings  him  some  change  of  occupation  and  of  food. 

2 


lo  THE  FRIENDSHIP  OF  BOOKS. 

He  must  prepare  his  weapons  and  build  his  own  house.  Even  the 
lighting  of  a  fire,  so  easy  now,  is  to  him  a  matter  of  labour  and 
knack.  The  agricultural  labourer  turns  his  hand  to  many  things. 
He  ploughs  and  sows,  and  mows  and  reaps.  He  plants  at  one 
season,  and  uses  the  bill-hook  and  the  axe  at  another.  He  looks 
after  the  sheep,  and  pigs,  and  cows.  To  hold  the  plough,  to  lay  a 
fence,  or  tie  up  a  sheaf  is  by  no  means  so  easy  as  it  looks.  It  is 
said  of  Wordsworth  that  a  stranger  having  on  one  occasion  asked  to 
see  his  study,  the  maid  said,  "This  is  master's  room,  but  he  studies 
in  the  fields,"  The  agricultural  labourer  learns  a  great  deal  in  the 
fields.  He  knows  much  more  than  we  give  him  credit  for,  only  it 
is  field  learning,  not  book  learning — and  none  the  worse  for  that. 
But  the  man  who  works  in  a  shop  or  manufactory  has  a  much  more 
monotonous  existence.  He  is  confined,  perhaps,  to  one  process,  or 
even  one  part  of  a  process,  from  year's  end  to  year's  end.  He 
acquires,  no  doubt,  a  skill  little  short  of  the  miraculous,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  very  narrow.  If  he  is  not  himself  to  become  a  mere 
animated  machine  he  must  generally  obtain,  and  in  some  cases  he 
can  only  obtain,  the  necessary  variety  and  interest  from  the  use  of 
books. 

And  if  reading  is  an  advantage  anywhere,  it  is  especially  and 
peculiarly  so  in  London.  Our  climate  does  not  permit  us  to  sit 
out  in  the  open  air  so  often  as  in  southern  countries,  our  river  is 
not  so  pure,  our  air  not  so  clear  as  in  the  country  or  smaller  towns. 
Nor  can  you  escape  to  the  woods  and  fields  so  easily  as  the  people 
of  villages  and  smaller  cities.  Books,  however,  will  transport  you  to 
the  green  fields  and  downs,  the  woods  and  rivers,  mountains  and 
seashores.  They  will  even  take  you  abroad,  and  bring  before  you 
other  countries — the  sunny  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  lakes 
and  mountains  of  Switzerland,  the  beautiful  islands  of  the  Pacific ; 
you  may  travel  all  over  the  world,  without  suffering  from  the  heat  of 
the  tropics  or  the  cold  of  the  poles ;  you  may  visit  Rome  and  Greece, 
and  the  wonderful  cities  of  Egypt.  Nowhere,  again,  is  it  possible  to 
read  with  more  profit  than  in  London,  because  in  the  British  Museum 
— the  most  magnificent  museum  in  the  world — in  our  picture  galleries 
and  elsewhere,  you  have  specimens  and  monuments  and  pictures 
which  do  much  to  illustrate  the  books.  We  hear  much  now  about 
the  creation  of  a  great  university  for  London.  But  after  all,  as 
Carlyle  well  said,  you  have  a  university  where  you  have  a  library. 
I  have  been  subjected  to  some  good-humoured  ridicule  for  having 
said  that  I  beheved  the  time  would  come  when  working  men  would 
be  the  great  readers.     But  I  adhere  to   the  opinion.     You  have 


THE  FRIENDSHIP  OF  BOOKS,  ii 

shorter  hours  than  doctors,  or  lawyers,  or  merchants,  and  when  you 
have  done  your  day's  work  you  have  had  plenty  of  exercise,  while 
we  have  still  ours  to  get. 

To  whom  do  we  owe  our  national  progress  ?  Partly,  no  doubt, 
to  wise  sovereigns  and  statesmen,  partly  to  our  brave  army  and  navy, 
partly  to  gallant  explorers  who  paved  the  way  to  our  Colonial 
Empire,  partly  to  students  and  philosophers.  But  while  we  re- 
member with  gratitude  all  they  have  accomplished,  we  must  not 
forget  that  the  British  workman,  besides  all  he  has  done  with  his 
strong  right  arm,  has  used  his  brains  also  to  great  advantage.  Watt 
was  a  mechanical  engineer ;  Henry  Cort,  whose  improvements  in 
manufactures  are  said  to  have  added  more  to  the  wealth  of  England 
than  the  whole  value  of  the  National  Debt,  was  the  son  of  a  brick- 
maker  ;  Huntsman,  the  inventor  of  cast  steel,  was  a  poor  watch- 
maker ;  Crompton  was  a  weaver ;  Wedgewood  was  a  potter  ;  Brind- 
ley,  Telford,  Mushat,  and  Neilson  were  working  men;  George 
Stephenson  began  life  as  a  cowboy  at  twopence  a  day,  and  could 
not  read  till  he  was  eighteen  ;  Dalton  was  the  son  of  a  poor  weaver, 
Faraday  of  a  blacksmith,  Newcomen  of  a  blacksmith  \  Arkwright 
began  life  as  a  barber.  Sir  Humphrey  Davy  was  an  apothecary's 
apprentice,  and  Bolton,  "the  father  of  Birmingham,"  was  a  button 
maker.  We  ought  to  be  as  proud  of  them  as  of  any  of  our  generals 
or  statesmen.  Those  who  love  reading  are,  to  a  great  extent,  inde- 
pendent of  the  caprices  or  tyranny  of  their  fellow-men.  Indeed, 
there  is  hardly  any  trouble  which  an  hour's  reading  will  not  diminish. 
A  library,  indeed,  is  not  only  the  best  university ;  it  is  a  true  fairy- 
land, a  Paradise  upon  earth,  a  Garden  of  Eden  without  its  one 
drawback,  for  all  is  free  to  us,  especially  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge  for  which  we  are  told  that  our  first  mother  abandoned 
all  the  pleasures  of  Paradise. 

The  second  lecture  was  delivered  by  the  Rev.  S.  A.  Barnett  at 
the  opening  of  the  Whitechapel  Free  Library,  and  was  very  happily 
described  by  Lord  Roseberry  as  an  "  exquisite  little  speech."  The 
subject  was  "  Books  and  their  Uses." 

The  uses  of  books,  Mr.  Barnett  said,  were  innumerable,  but  their 
chief  use  was  to  be  our  friends.  All  of  us  put  friendship  at  the  top 
of  our  possessions,  and  valued  above  all  things  a  good  friend.  East 
London  suffered  most  of  all  from  the  loss  of  the  friendship  of  West 
London,  and  no  amount  of  gifts,  no  kind  words,  no  number  of 
missions  and  no  laws,  were  they  for  relief  or  coercion,  could  ever 
make  up  for  that  loss  of  friendship.     The  chief  use  of  books  was  to 


12  THE  FRIENDSHIP  OF  BOOKS. 

be  our  friends,  and  books  made  very  often  the  turning-point  in  "a" 
man's   life.      For   himself   he   remembered   how   reading   Seeley's 
"Ecce  Homo  "  gave  him  a  new  foothold  for  faith,  and  how  Maine's 
"  Ancient  Law  "  made  his  life  travel  back  to  the  very  beginnings  of 
things,  and  how  Browning's  poems  gave  him  a  ladder  on  which  to 
step  from  the  common  things  of  earth  to  the  glories  of  heaven. 
They  were  friends  which  inspired  and  rebuked  and  never  wearied, 
which  never  sulked  and  never  had  any  moods  ;  they  were  friends 
which  gave  and  took,  and  there  must  be  reciprocity  in  true  friend- 
ship.    They  gave  to  the  readers  what  their  readers  needed  with  an 
exquisite  sympathy,  but  they  also  took  something  from  the  reader. 
Books  were  faithful — they  spoke  alike  to  rich  and  poor,  in  sickness 
and  in  health — they  were  the  comforters  of  many  sick  beds,  and  it 
was  a  striking  fact  that  Tennyson,  a  man  with  many  friends,  asked 
on  his  death-bed  for  a  book,  and  that  his  last  words  were,  "  I  have 
opened  the  book."     The  best  books,  like  the  best  people,  needed 
to  be  introduced — their  exterior  was  not  always  attractive.     There 
were  books  which  needed  no  introduction — pleasing  books  which 
made  good  company  for  the  idle  hour ;  but  those  books  which  stood 
by  a  man  in  his  hours  of  trouble  and  helped  him  in  times  of  diffi- 
culty, in  sorrow,  and  death,  were  friends  who  very  often  needed  an 
introduction.     Now,  introducers   were   not  very   common  in  East 
London — those  people  who,  knowing  the  life  within  the  books,  were 
able  to  introduce  them  to  people  who  had  no  knowledge  of  the 
books.     Happily  they  were   becoming  more  common,  and  people 
were  beginning  to   recognise  the   fact   that  they  in  East  London 
needed  some  other  knowledge  than  how  to  increase  their  earnings. 
All  labour  had  its  best  comfort  in  enabling  great  men  to  live.     The 
Greeks  and  Jews  stood  high  above  other  nations,  not  because  they 
achieved  great  conquests,  but  because  they  left  us  great  lives  on 
which  we  could  feed  our  character.     No  accumulation  of  wealth,  no 
aggrandisement  of  empire  would  enable  the  English  nation  to  bear 
great  men.     They  wanted  more  men  who  would  come  amid  them 
who,  knowing  something  of  the  books  themselves,  would  introduce 
them  to  readers.     There  were  10,000  books  in  that  library.     Among 
them  it  was  certain  there  were  friends  to  suit  all  characters,  and  all 
men,  and  all  times.     Light  books — novels  and  tales — books  to  be 
men's  companions,  and  to  take  them  from  their  surroundings — these 
books  had  their  value,  and  a  very  great  value,  in  their  neighbour- 
hood.    But  it  was  the  solid  books,  the  philosophies,  the  histories, 
the  poetry — it  was  these  that  could  help  them  in  their  trouble,  and 
it  was  these  that  he  urged  his  friends  in  Whitechapel  to  seek. 


Biblioincineration. 

[Among  a  very  varied  collection  of  "  Bibliopoliana,''  we  pos- 
sess a  broadside  with  the  somewhat  startling  title  of  "  Biblio- 
conflagratio."  It  is,  of  course,  American,  for  only  an  American 
genius  could  invent  such  a  title,  to  begin  with.  The  following 
is  the  leading  article,  so  to  speak,  of  the  broadside,  and  was 
indited  from  the  "Temporary  Sanctum"  about  three  years  ago.  Its 
chief  fault  is  its  length,  but  we  prefer  to  give  it  in  toto  to  a  garbled 
condensation,  inasmuch  as  Mr.  Ruggles  is  only  at  his  best  when  at 
at  his  worst,  or,  in  other  words,  when  he  can  scorn  any  fear  of  the 
editorial  blue-pencil. — Ed.  Bookworm.] 


RIENDS  AND  PATRONS : 

Instead  of  reclining  "among  the  roses  of  relaxation  "  as 
we  had  purposed  briefly  doing,  we  must  still  remain  at  the 
front,  and  again  mount  the  editorial  tripod  for  the  purpose  of  inditing 
our  first  5-(?wz-annual  message.  As  sooner  or  later  befalls  the  lot  of 
most  business  men,  and  especially  those  of  this  historic  town,  we  too 
have  undergone  the  ordeal  of  fire,  have  passed  through  the  crucible 
of  conflagration.  On  the  night  of  February  20,  our  Bookery,  Knick- 
nackatory  and  Sanctum  Sanctorum  were  entirely  consumed,  thus 
sweeping  away  in  a  few  brief  moments  the  vast  literary  accumulations 
of  a  busy  lifetime.  Our  tons  of  book  stock,  and  valuable  private 
library  of  choice  new  and  "  O.  P."  works  on  peculiar  subjects  and 
ordinary  topics  treated  in  an  uncommon  manner  (dating  from  1473), 
the  most  of  which  were  extra  matterated  and  enriched  with  clippings 
akin  to  the  subjects  treated  gummed  to  the  covers  and  fly  leaves,  and 
favourite  passages  carefully  marked  ;  of  prized  bibliographical  works 
and  finding  lists  containing  the  titles,  authors,  publishers,  sizes, 
prices  and  date  of  publication  of  nearly  every  book  issued  in  America 


14 


BIBLIOINCINERA  TION. 


I 


since  the  discovery  of  the  Continent,  of  costly  extra  illustrated 
volumes,  Confederate  States  imprints,  "  Juniana,"  "  Baconiana," 
"Facetia,"  etc.;  our  cords  of  periodicals,  embracing  original  issues 
back  to  1 714,  and  mzny  facsi7iiiles  of  others  more  ancient,  including 
a  fine  selection  of  papers  with  singular  titles ;  our  profusion  of 
fascinating  pictures  and  statuary,  hundreds  of  photographic  and 
stereoscopic  views  gathered  by  years  of  travel,  thousands  of  portraits 
of  celebrities  and  pictures  for  purposes  of  illustration,  our  aggrega- 
tion of  numismatic  treasures,  (some  ante-dating  the  Christian  era), 
numerous  acquisitions  in  philately,  glittering  specimens  of  the 
mineral  kingdom,  our  wonderful  accumulation  of  autograph  letters, 
documents  and  signatures,  our  avalanche  of  quaint  bric-a-brac  and 
souvenirs  of  eccentricity,  our  omnium  gatherum  scrap  books  of 
psychological  oddities,  local  history  archives,  and  our  own  twenty- 
three  years'  literary  contributions,  our  common-place  books  filled 
with  uncountable  intellectual  notes,  our  oceans  of  newspaper  clip- 
pings and  gleanings  of  a  third  of  a  century,  and  unedited  material 
filed  away  for  use  in  the  near  future,  our  miles  of  correspondence 
with  names  and  addresses  of  myriads  of  bibliophiles,  biblioworms, 
and  warm  personal  friends,  our  electrotypes,  printed  advertising 
matter,  circulars  and  stationery,  our  worlds  of  old  book  catalogues  in 
various  languages,  all  our  account  books,  invoices,  and  office  records 
generally,  together  with  furniture,  clothing,  trunks,  satchels  and 
packing  cases,  while  last  in  enumeration,  but  first  of  all  in  senti- 
mental value,  the  original  Webster's  Elementary  Spelling  Book,  in 
which  we  conned  our  letters,  with  our  other  old  text  books  of  school- 
boy days,  and  several  generations  of  family  heirlooms  that  are  hope- 
lessly unduplicatable,  have  all  been  reduced  to  ashes  by  the  chemical 
action  of  the  devouring  element. 

The  old  mansion  and  landmark  that  has  withstood  the  vicissitudes 
of  wind  and  storm,  the  lightning's  threatening  flash,  and  human 
carelessness  for  over  half  a  century,  at  last  has  been  forced  to  sur- 
render to  the  insinuating  fury  of  the  remorseless  fire  fiend,  and  is  now 
but  a  mass  of  smouldering  ruins.  Originally  constructed  for  and 
occupied  as  a  caravansary,  it  has  for  lo  these  many  years,  in  its  lower 
regions  served  for  families  therein  to  dwell,  while  six  of  the  upper 
apartments  have  been  occupied  by  our  constantly  accumulating 
stock  and  steadily  increasing  business.  The  chimney  "  burned  out  " 
and  ignited  the  building,  and  soon  the  great  depository  of  the  wis- 
dom of  the  ages  went  down  in  the  maelstrom  of  destruction.  Charred 
fragments  of  books  were  wafted  on  the  wings  of  the  winds  for  miles 
around. 


BIBLIOINCINERATION.  15 

The  families  barely  escaped  with  their  lives,  one  heroic  woman 
working  barefooted  in  the  snow  and  cold  with  the  thermometer 
marking  zero,  and  her  Hmbs  congealing. 

Our  patient  pets,  however,  exhibited  the  composure  of  unmurmur- 
ing stoics ;  the  ebony  blackbird  looked  on  undismayed,  the  usually 
timid  partridge  ne'er  moved  a  muscle,  the  modest  meadow  lark 
showed  no  embarrassment,  the  shy  prairie  dog  uttered  not  a  single 
bark,  nor  did  the  duck  quack,  or  the  new-born  chicken  even  peep, 
the  "  guinea  pig  "  calmly  submitted  to  the  roasting  process  without  so 
much  as  a  grunt  or  squeal,  while  the  great  horned  owl,  our  "  god  of 
wisdom,"  looked  on  undismayed  as  the  terrible  incineration  was 
swiftly  progressing,  and  all  endured  the  great  transition  so  calmly 
as  to  cast  no  reflections  whatever  on  the  clever  specimens  of  the 
deft  taxidermist's  skill  that  they  were.  How  like  unto  the  para- 
lysis of  death  in  the  human  is  the  great  equalizer  cremation,  and  our 
worshipped  curios  and  sainted  volumes,  whether  arrayed  in  cloth  or 
leather  garments,  in  plain  paper  or  sumptuous  morocco  apparel, 
have  all  been  reduced  to  a  common  level  and  met  a  uniform  fate. 

He  who  pilfers  our  wallet  gets  trash,  but  cruel  fate  that  robs  us  ot 
our  mind's  gods  and  jewels  that  had  been  gathered  by  years  of  toil 
and  hardships,  of  feverish  brain  tension  and  physical  perspiration, 
commits  to  us  the  unpardonable  sin  indeed  ! 

It  is  a  calamity  that  we  long  have  feared  and  have  seen  in  both 
dreams  by  night  and  daytime  reveries,  and  as  we  had  frequently  fore- 
told, nothing  would  be  saved  in  case  of  our  absence.  It  is  not  the 
regular  stock  in  trade,  that  will  take  several  months  to  have  re-manu- 
factured, that  we  so  much  regret  as  the  sacrificing  of  curio  accumula- 
tions. But  bad  as  the  calamity  is  it  might  have  been  much  worse. 
We  feel  very  thankful  that  no  lives  were  lost  and  no  one  even 
seriously  hurt. 

The  pecuniary  loss  is  upwards  of  $5,000,  upon  which  we  have  an 
insurance  of  $3,000.  Had  the  fire  occurred  earherin  the  season  the 
loss  would  have  been  much  heavier,  considerable  quantities  of  stock 
having  been  shipped  out  during  the  winter.  The  sentimental  loss 
and  consequential  damages  are  simply  incomputable. 

The  ruins  have  been  thoroughly  dug  over  and  proved  to  be  a 
miniature  gold  mine,  as  considerable  quantities  of  old  and  new  coins, 
in  various  stages  of  preservation,  have  been  unearthed. 

Having  a  large  amount  of  unfinished  business  in  the  west,  (where 
we  were  fortunate  in  getting  goods  shipped  in  advance  of  the  confla- 
gration), we  concluded  reluctantly  to  remain  and  complete  before 
returning  to  the  scene  of  devastation.     But  oh,  what  a  month  of  sus- 


1 6  BIBLIOINCINERATION. 

pense  and  anxiety  it  has  been  to  us  !  What  with  telegrams  awaiting 
in  town  after  town,  constant  reminders  from  customers  about  local 
fires,  the  burning  prairies,  etc.,  we  have  veritably  been  fire-haunted, 
and  experienced  a  sublunary  inferno.  We  are  now,  however,  taking 
the  matter  philosophically,  and  feel  that  we  but  assumed  unnecessary 
risks  and  have  reaped  the  usual  outcome ;  for  have  we  not  in  life 
a  surfeit  of  unavoidable  chances  to  incur  without  burdening  ourselves 
with  others  that  can  be  evaded.  We  had  long  contemplated  the 
erection  of  a  brick  building,  a  removal  "  from  the  old  house  into  "  a 
new,  and  was  just  reaching  our  hope's  fruition,  and  well  thought  our 
plans,  when  trusting  against  fate  for  a  few  months  longer,  the  devour- 
ing demon,  whose  coming  can  never  be  definitely  prognosticated, 
appeared  upon  the  scene  with  the  usual  result.  But  away  with 
useless  regrets  and  manfully  survey  the  future !  So  we  are  now 
giving  our  thoughts  to  perfecting  safer  arrangements. 

Do  we  purpose  phcenixising  f  Most  assuredly  the  answer  must  be 
in  the  affirmative,  for  are  we  not  "  in  for  life  "  and  *'  wedded  to  our 
idols  until  death  do  us  part?"  Moreover,  with  orders  and  letters  of 
cheer  and  sympathy  rolling  in  by  every  mail,  how  could  we  retire, 
even  did  we  so  desire?  " 

We  shall  at  least  for  a  while  longer  remain  in  this  unique  anti- 
quarian town,  and  have  consequently  established  new  headquarters  at 
the  corner  of  Chicago  and  Matteson  streets,  and  shall  at  once  begin 
new  acquisitions,  and  as  far  as  practicable  duplicate  the  old  curiosity 
shop  as  speedily  as  cash  and  the  "  gift  of  continuance  "  will  accom- 
pHsh  the  splendid  desideratum.  We  intend  to  make  it  a  great 
educational  institution  for  the  rising  generation  and  a  philosophical 
Mecca  to  which  enthusiastic  bibliophiles  can  sojourn  with  both 
pleasure  and  profit.  Like  Barnum's  show,  everything  will  be  new, 
fresh,  and  sparkling,  but  we  fear  on  the  contrary  that  as  Carlisle 
remarked  of  his  History  of  the  French  Revolution,  (the  manuscript 
of  which  was  burned  and  afterwards  re-written  from  memory),  "  it's 
pretty  good,  but  ah  !  ah  !  it  is  not  Uke  the  old  one  !  " 

So  you  see,  friends,  we  are  not  crushed,  nor  even  despondent ; 
our  plans  have  only  been  disarranged,  causing  much  temporary  in- 
convenience and  some  delay,  but  not  frustrated  nor  abandoned. 
Having  for  years  possessed  all  assets,  no  liabilities,  the  loss  will  not 
affect  our  financial  standing,  and  we  shall  continue  to  purchase  and 
sell  goods  for  cash  as  heretofore,  and  proceed  on  our  mission  of 
diffusing  intelligence,  handling  the  most  precious  goods  on  earth,  the 
ink-preserved  brain-drops  of  the  "Knights  of  the  Pen,  the  Monarchs 
of  the  mind  !  "  until  comes  the  time  to  close  the  volume  of  Existence 


BIBLIOINCINERATION.  17 

when  the  future  scribe  can  truthfully  write  upon  the  final  stage,  *'  He 
fought  the  great  battle  of  Life,  he  kept  the  moral  faith,  fire  could  not 
conquer  him,  the  idiotic  mouthings  of  blatherskiting  empty  heads 
could  not  swerve  him  from  his  purpose,  and  he  never  got  off  from 
his  hobby  until  the  grim  monster  did  them  separate."  Thus  with  a 
goodly  amount  of  insurance,  a  comfortable  bank  account,  valuable 
real  estate  and  outside  resources,  we  purpose  keeping  step  to  the 
music  of  progress,  and  ever  retaining  as  our  watch-word,  Biblio- 
polenildesperandu7n  ! 

Yours  for  the  Conflict, 

J.  Francis  Ruggles. 


Franklin's    Favourite    Books . 

THE  following  is  a  Hst  of  "favourite"  books  drawn  up  by 
Benjamin  Frankhn  in  the  year  1722,  published  in  the  New 
York  Courant^  reprinted  in  the  New  York  Critic  of  August  20: — 
Pliny's  "Natural  History,"  Aristotle's  "Politicks,"  "Roman  His- 
tory," "  Athenian  Oracle,"  "  Sum  of  Christian  Theology,"  Cotton 
Mather's  "  History  of  New  England,"  Oldmixon's  "  History  of 
American  Colonies,"  Burnet's  "  History  of  the  Reformation," 
Virgil,  Milton,  "The  Guardian,"  "Art  of  Thinking,"  "The 
Reader,"  Cowley's  Works,  "The  Ladies'  Pacquett  Broken  Open," 
"  History  of  the  Affairs  of  Europe,"  "  The  Tale  of  a  Tub,"  Josephus' 
"Ant.,"  ''History  of  France,"  Herr.  Moll's  Geography,  "British 
Apollo,"  Heylin's  "Cosmography,"  "  Sandy's  Travels,"  Du  Bartas, 
"Theory  of  the  Earth,"  "  Hudibras,"  "The  Spectator,"  "The 
Turkish  Spy,"  "Art  of  Speaking,"  "The  Lover,"  Oldham's  Works, 
"  The  Ladies'  Calling,"  Shakespeare's  Works,  St.  Augustine's  Works. 


jg  ^^K  MISCELLANEA. 

Lord    Tennyson's    Masters . 

ABOUT  three  years  ago  a  statement  appeared  in  a  weekly 
journal,  Wit  and  Wisdo77i^  to  the  effect  that  "  Lord  Tennyson 
said  that  he  attributed  his  command  of  metrical  language  to  his 
acquaintance  with  Horace."  This  statement  was  challenged  by  a 
correspondent,  whose  letter  was  forwarded  to  the  Poet  Laureate,  for 
the  accompanying  facsimile  of  whose  reply  we  are  indebted  to  the 
above-mentioned  periodical : — 


u  ^< 


t^/^/t^ 


II 


i^i^^ 


The  Works  of  Sir  William  Jones. 


A   PROTEST. 


N  the  issue  of  The  Bookworm  for  September  last  an  article, 
descriptive  of  some  of  the  treasures  in  the  Althorp  Library, 
is  reproduced  from  The  Times,  in  which  occurs  the  follow- 
ing passage  (p.  318):— 

"And  these  seven  gorgeous  folios  in  crimson  and  gold?  Is  it 
Homer,  Dante,  or  Shakespeare,  or  even  Buffon,  that  has  been 
thought  worthy  of  such  honour  ?  No ;  these  volumes  are  the 
works  of  Sir  William  Jones.  He  was  almost  a  great  man  once ; 
he  helped  to  found  a  Sanskrit  scholarship,  and  he  wrote  one 
solemn  little  poem  which  is  printed  in  most  of  the  anthologies; 
but  his  works,  it  is  to  be  feared,  have  long  since  become  mere 
furniture,  and  not  even  in  this  splendid  form  will  they  tempt  the 
Manchester  reader.  But  perhaps  the  Althorp  Library  is  not  richer 
in  dead  reputations  than  any  other  collection  of  its  size."  ^ 

Such  an  unjust — even  ignorant  and  flippant — estimate  of  the 
writings  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  Englishmen  of  his  day, 
or  indeed  of  any  period,  might  be  allowed  to  pass  with  the  contempt 
which  it  so  well  deserves,  had  it  been  confined  to  the  ephemeral 
columns  of  a  newspaper  which  seems  likely  soon  to  degenerate  (if 
the  catastrophe  have  not  already  taken  place)  from  the  whilom 
"Thunderer"  to  a  mere  "ancient  dodderer,"  as  Sir  Richard  Burton 

^  The  works  of  Jones  are  not  in  "  seven  folios,"  but  in  six  vols.  4°,  published  in 
1799,  and  there  is  another  edition  in  13  vols.  8°,  published  in  1807.  Two  ad- 
ditional vols.  4°  were  issued  in  1801. 


2^^     THE   WORKS  OF  SIR   WILLIAM  JONES. 


I 


once  styled  another  celebrated  public  print.  But  when  it  is  placed 
on  permanent  record,  so  to  speak,  in  the  pages  of  The  Bookworm, 
the  case  is  very  different,  and  I  feel  it  necessary  to  enter  my  indig- 
nant protest  against  these  misleading  remarks. 

The  writer  of  The  Times  article  shows  one  thing  very  conclusively 
— that  a  man  may  know  a  great  deal  about  the  several  editions  of 
certain  books,  and  little  or  nothing  of  their  contents — like  the  book- 
collector  in  the  "  Ship  of  Fools," 

"What  they  mean,  does  he  not  understand." 

Before  speaking  of  the  works  of  Jones  as  "mere  furniture,"  and  of 
his  "dead  reputation,"  he  had  penned  another  choice  passage,  in 
reference  to  the  Caxtons  in  the  Althorp  collection,  which,  accord- 
ing to  him,  are  good  for  nothing  but  to  be  looked  at  and  devoutly 
handled;  "a  modern  reader,"  he  sagaciously  opines,  "would  hesitate 
long  before  fairly  sitting  down  to  read  '  The  Four  Sons  of  Aymon.' " 
If  by  "modern  reader"  he  means  the  fatuous  devourer  of  current 
frothy  fiction,  this  may  be  true  enough  ;  but  does  he  not  know  that 
the  romance  he  mentions  is  considered  by  students  of  mediaeval 
European  literature  as  a  very  important  composition,  and,  moreover, 
that  it  forms  one  of  the  excellent  publications  of  the  Early  English 
Text  Society,  ably  edited  and  annotated  by  an  eminent  living  English 
scholar  ?  ^ 

If  Sir  William  Jones  was  not  a  great  man,  in  the  strictest  sense  of 
the  term,  it  was  probably  only  because  he  diffused  his  vast  erudition 
over  many  different  subjects,  instead  of  concentrating  his  extraordinary 
abilities  on  a  single  important  department  of  research  and  study.  It 
was  not  a  "  Sanskrit  scholarship,"  however,  that  Jones  founded,  but 
the  Asiatic  Society,  through  which  the  priceless  riches  of  the  litera- 
tures of  Eastern  countries  began  to  be  known  to  some  extent  in 
England,  and  which  largely  encouraged  the  study  of  Oriental  lan- 
guages throughout  Europe. 

^  Henry  Stephens,  in  his  "  Introduction"  to  his  "  Apology  for  Herodotus  "  (a 
separate  work  from  the  **  Apology,"  be  it  known  to  whom  it  may  concern),  relates 
a  droll  noodle  story  which  shows  the  widespread  popularity  of  this  romance  :  A 
youth  went  before  the  bishop  as  a  candidate  for  holy  orders,  and  his  lordship,  to 
test  his  intellect,  asked  him,  "  Who  was  the  father  of  the  Four  Sons  of  Aymon?" 
Being  unable  to  answer,  he  was  dismissed,  and  returning  home  told  his  father  of 
the  bishop's  puzzling  question.  '*  Thou  fool,"  says  the  enraged  parent,  "  canst 
thou  not  tell  that  ?  See — there  is  great  John  the  Smith ;  he  hath  four  sons. 
Prithee,  who  is  their  father?"  Quoth  the  youth,  "I  understand  it  now,"  and 
next  day  he  again  went  before  the  bishop,  and  when  once  more  asked  who  was 
the  father  of  the  Four  Sons  of  Aymon,  promptly  answered,  "  Great  John  the 
Smith." 


THE  WORKS  OF  SIR   WILLIAM  JONES.  21 

Sir  William  Jones  wrote  many  things  much  more  important,  in- 
teresting, and  valuable  than  "  one  solemn  little  poem  which  is 
printed  in  most  of  the  anthologies  "  (save  the  mark !).  I  suppose 
the  writer  refers  to  the  well-known  lines,  found  among  Jones'  papers 
after  his  death,  in  which  certain  hours  of  each  day  are  set  apart  for 
different  purposes,  and  "  all  for  Heaven."  It  is  true  that  Jones  was 
no  poet,  and  indeed  he  published  very  little  "original"  verse;  but 
his  metrical  paraphrases  of  poetical  pieces,  from  the  Sanskrit,  Arabic, 
Persian,  and  other  Asiatic  languages,  are  exceedingly  graceful ;  each 
of  them  "  dwells,  hke  bells,  upon  the  ear."  ^ 

The  writings  of  Sir  William  Jones,  notwithstanding  the  immense 
progress  that  has  been  made  within  our  own  time  in  those  rich  and 
varied  fields  where  he  first  broke  ground  more  than  a  hundred  years 
syne,  are  still,  many  of  them,  of  value  to  earnest  seekers  after  know- 
ledge, and  form  very  useful  stepping-stones  to  more  extended  studies 
in  Oriental  literature. 

Jones  was,  I  believe,  the  first  European  to  discover  the  existence 
of  a  Sanskrit  dramatic  literature,  dating  long  before  the  commence- 
ment of  our  era,  and  to  publish  a  complete  English  translation  of  one 
of  the  oldest  extant  Hindu  dramas — that  of  "  Sakuntala,"  by  Kali- 
dasa,  fondly  styled  by  his  Western  admirers  "the  Shakespeare  of 
India."  ^ 

He  was  also  the  first  to  introduce  into  Europe,  through  an  English 
rendering,  the  "  Hitopadesa  "  of  Vishnusarman,  a  Sanskrit  version  of 
the  celebrated  collection  of  apologues  and  tales  commonly  known  as 
the  Fables  of  Pilpay,  or  Bidpai — a  work  which,  in  various  forms,  but 
with  the  same  fundamental  outline,  has  probably  been  rendered  into 
more  languages  than  any  other  book  in  the  world,  with  exception  of 
the  Bible,  and  which  contains  prototypes  of  several  of  the  so-called 
.^sopian  fables  and  other  European  popular  fictions. 

He  also  published  the  famous  Muallakdt,  the  Seven  Arabic  Prize 
Poems,  which  were  suspended  on  the  Temple  at  Mecca,  before  the 

^  A  fine  example  of  Jones'  charming  versification  is  the  "  Persian  Song  of 
Hafiz,"  an  elegant  paraphrase  of  one  of  the  ghazels  of  "  the  Anacreon  of  Persia," 
one  line  of  which,  "  orient  pearls  at  random  strung,"  is  among  our  most  *'  familiar 
quotations."  His  "  Ode  to  Spring,"  from  the  Turkish  poet  Mesihi,  is  another 
delightful  piece,  but  this  will  be  found  more  closely  rendered  by  Mr.  E.  J.  W. 
Gibb,  in  his  **  Ottoman  Poems"  (Triibner,  1883),  with  the  peculiar  rhythm  and 
rhyme  movement  of  the  original  nmrebba  cleverly  reproduced. 

*  It  seems  the  text  used  by  Jones  was  not  quite  accurate  in  some  places.  This 
fine  drama  has  been  elegantly  rendered-  into  English  prose  and  verse,  as  in  the 
original,  by  Sir  Monier  Williams,  and  printed  in  splendid  style  by  Messrs.  Stephen 
Austin  and  Sons,  Hertford. 


H 


22 


THE   WORKS  OF  SIR   WILLIAM  JONES, 


advent  of  Muhammed,  transliterated  into  Roman  characters,  with  a 
prose  English  translation.  Was  it  no  great  thing  to  introduce  to 
mere  English  readers  the  spirited  strains  of  the  renowned  Bedouin 
poet-hero  Antar — the  Bayard  of  the  Arabian  desert,  which  was  the 
cradle-land  of  European  chivalry  ?  ^ 

His  eleven  annual  discourses  before  the  Asiatic  Society  at  Calcutta, 
on  the  Philosophy  of  the  Hindus,  on  the  Arabs,  the  Persians,  the 
Tartars,  the  Chinese,  &c.,  afford  much  interesting  information.  His 
"  Poeseos  Asiaticse  Commentariorum  Libri  Sex,"  and  so  forth,  and 
his  "  Traite  sur  la  Poesie  Orientale  "  are  excellent  pieces  of  work, 
and  it  is  not  easy  to  understand  why  they  have  not  been  done  into 
English  for  the  special  benefit  of  "unlearned  "  readers.  But  it  would 
be  tedious  to  enumerate  all  the  important  writings  of  the  pioneer  of 
English  orientalism,  for  which  he  found  time  amidst  his  onerous 
judicial  duties  and  during  a  too  brief  lifetime. 

Many  eminent  scholars,  and  others  who  have  in  humbler  ways  at- 
tempted to  popularise  Oriental  literature  in  this  country,  have  grate- 
fully acknowledged  their  indebtedness  to  the  writings  of  Jones.  The 
late  Sir  James  Redhouse  in  his  letters  to  me  always  referred  to  Jones 
in  terms  of  the  highest  respect  and  admiration.  My  venerable, 
amiable,  and  learned  friend  Mr.  Samuel  Robinson,  who  died  at 
Wilmslow,  in  December,  1885,  at  the  great  age  of  91,  his  fine 
intellect  unimpaired  and  his  warm  heart  filled  with  benevolence  to 
the  last,  has  recorded,  in  the  preface  to  his  "Persian  Poetry  for 
EngUsh  Readers" — printed  in  1883,  for  private  circulation,  but  ac- 
cessible at  the  principal  public  libraries — that  through  the  perusal  of 
Jones'  commentaries  on  Asiatic  poetry  he  was  "  bitten  with  a  taste 
for  Oriental  literature,"  and  induced  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the 
Persian  language.  I  was  Mr.  Robinson's  happy  guest  a  few  days 
before  his  death,  and  found  him  as  fond  as  ever  of  Firdausi,  Hafiz, 
Nizami,  Jami,  and  other  famous  poets  of  Iran.  I  trust  it  may  not 
be  considered  as  "  bad  form  "  for  me  to  add  that  it  was  Jones'  trans- 
lation of  the  "  Hitopadesa  "  that  gave  my  mind  its  bent  for  the  study 
of  comparative  folk-lore. 

W.  A.  Clouston. 

^  The  Seven  Arabic  Prize  Poems  are  reproduced  in  my  privately-printed 
"Arabian  Poetry  for  English  Readers,"  1881,  vi^hich  may  be  consulted  at  most  of 
the  great  public  libraries.  It  also  contains  an  epitome  of  the  "  Romance  of 
Antar." 


d 


A^^^] 

^ 

f^)^^^ 

^^ 

^^^ 

^^^^^B^ 

^^r 

^^m 

^ 

S 

/0i^^^M 

^ 

3 

^ 

^^m 

The  "  Poeticon  Astronomicon. 


MONG  what  may  be  termed  the  minor  incunabula^  few 
possess  so  many  points  of  interest  as  the  "  Poeticon  Astro- 
nomicon "  of  Caius  JuHus  Hyginus.  Tiie  first  edition,  which 
is  extremely  rare,  and  of  which  we  beUeve  there  is  no  copy  in  this 
country,  was  printed  at  Ferrara  in  1475.  ^^  consists  of  66  foHos  or 
leaves — of  which  the  first  is  quite  blank,  whilst  the  second  commences 
thus  :  •*  Hyginus  M.  Fabio.  Salutem,  F."  There  are  27  lines  to  the 
page,  and  at  the  back  of  the  last  leaf  comes  the  following  : 

"  Sidera  cum  causis  celo  translata  sub  alto, 

Scire  cupit  quisquis  perlegat  iginium  ; 
Hunc  Augustinus  Bernardi  impressit  alumnus 

Dum  pius  Alcides  regna  secunda  tenet  : 
Roma  suos  spectet :  Venetumg  potentia  libros 
Hos  Augustini  nobile  vincit  opus. 

M.CCCC.LXXIIIII." 

The  second  addition  appeared  at  Venice  in  1482,  and  had  neither 
title-page,  pagination  nor  catchwords.  There  are  57  lines  to  the  page, 
each  of  which  is  made  up  of  31  lines.  The  printer's  name  occurs 
in  some  verses  preceding  the  colophon  of  which  two  lines  run : 

**  Hoc  Augustensis  ratdolt  germanus  Erhardus 
Dis  positis  signis  indig  pressit  opus." 

It  was  edited  by  J.  Sentinus  and  J.  L.  Santritter,  and  the  chief 
interest  about  it  turns  upon  the  excellently  designed  if  unskilfully 
engraved  woodcuts  which  make  the  book  of  exceptional  interest  in 
the  early  history  of  wood  engraving.  In  the  same  year  and  place 
Ratdolt  printed  the  first  edition  of  Euclid's  "  Elementa  Geometriae," 
the  first  book  to  appear  with  woodcut  diagrams.     Three  years  later 


24 


THE  "  POETICON  ASTRONOMICONr 


Eo  fpcctas  ad  occalom  fupra  corpus  by dr^  a  capi  / 
te  qua  cancer  infta^.u(cp  ad  media  parte  eius  con  / 
ftimfmcdius  fftiuo  circulo  diuiditiir:ut  fub  ipfo 
orbc  jHiorcs  pedes  babeat  collocates.  Occidens 

a  capite  Arexories^Hic  babet  in  capite  ftellas  tres 

In  ceniidb'duas»In  pectore  imam.  Inteifcapilio  tres  Jn  media 
Cauda  una.  In  extrema  altera  magna.  Sub  pectore  duas.In  pe/ 
de  priore  una  clara.In  uentre  clari  unam.  Et  itifra  alteram  ma/ 
gnam  unam.In  lumbis  unam.  In  pofterioregenu  unam.  In  pe/ 
de  pofteriore  daram  imam.Et  ita  eft  omnino  numerus  ftellaril 
decern  fl^nouem. 


THE  "  POETICON  ASTRONOMICONr  25 

another  edition  of  the  "  Poeticon  "  was  called  for,  and  in  which  the 
same  illustrations  were  used,  whilst  the  text  was  practically  unaltered, 
except  so  far  as  regards  the  typography,  the  Gothic  character 
of  the  earlier  edition  giving  place  to  Roman  type.  The  British 
Museum  possesses  a  copy  of  both  these  editions.  It  appeared 
again  in  1488  (p  Thomem  de  blavis  de  Alexandia)  and  again  in 
15 1 2.  During  the  year  1517  two  impressions  were  struck  off  at 
different  places,  one  in  Paris  by  Pasquier  Lambert,  and  the  other  in 
Venice  "  per  M.  Sessam  and  P.  de  Raramis."  All  these  were  in 
quarto,  the  first  and  only  folio  edition  having  been  printed  at 
Cologne  in  1539,  by  J.  Soteris. 

Great  as  was  the  English  taste  for  astrological  works,  it  is  strange 
that  there  should  be  not  the  slightest  trace  of  the  "  Poeticon  Astrono- 
micon  "  ever  having  been  translated  into  our  language.  Its  interest  is 
now  purely  antiquarian,  but  we  are  glad  to  have  the  opportunity  of 
reproducing,  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Tregaskis,  bookseller,  of 
Caxton  Head,  High  Holborn,  one  of  the  most  characteristic  illustra- 
tions. Mr.  Tregaskis's  copy  is  the  1485  edition,  and  is  in  extremely 
fine  state,  with  ample  margins  and  spotless  leaves. 


Some  Odd  Books. 

MRS.  H.  E.  TABOR  writes  : — "  Looking  over  some  back  num- 
bers of  The  Bookworm,  I  came  across  an  article  in  the  May 
number  (vol.  v.,  p.  173)  with  the  heading 'Some  Odd  Books,'  and  re- 
lating to  the  curiously  original  collection  of  books,  being  really  a 
botanical  collection,  at  Warsenstein  in  Germany.  It  particularly 
interested  me,  having  this  autumn  made  a  tour  in  Germany,  Austria, 
and  Bohemia,  and  having  visited  the  fine  Strahower  Library  in  Prague, 
the  largest  in  Bohemia,  in  the  Monastery  of  the  Premonstratensians. 
Amongst  the  many  treasures  which  were  shown  us  by  one  of  the 
order,  whose  courtesy  made  it  one  of  our  most  agreeable  visits,  was 
a  Botanical  Bibliographical  collection  (to  which  he  called  our  atten- 
tion), exactly  corresponding  to  the  one  mentioned  in  the  number 
already  referred  to." 

4 


MISCELLANEA. 


First  Editions  of  Tennyson. 

THE  first  sale  by  public  auction  of  the  earliest  editions  of  Tenny- 
son's works,  after  the  poet's  death,  took  place  recently  at 
Messrs.  Puttick  and  Simpson's  rooms,  in  Leicester  Square.  The 
sums  realised  in  each  case  indicate  a  decided  upward  tendency, 
whilst  the  competition  for  the  possession  of  two  or  three  of  his  earliest 
works  is  as  keen  as  the  demand  for  the  later  issues  is  flacid.  The 
explanation  is  obviously  found  in  the  fact  that  of  recent  years — indeed 
for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century — each  of  the  familiar  volumes 
has  been  issued  in  extremely  large  numbers,  and  that  in  every  instance 
within  the  period  indicated  the  market  is  stocked  with  sufficient  first 
editions  to  satisfy  collectors  for  many  generations  to  come.  With 
"  Poems  by  Two  Brothers  "  and  a  few  others  it  was  very  different, 
and  whatever  changes  may  occur  in  the  fashion  of  book-collecting, 
they  are  not  likely  to  affect  the  commercial  value  of  the  first-fruits  of 
the  dead  Laureate.  In  regard  to  the  now  historic  little  volume  which 
first  saw  light  at  Louth  in  1827 — "Poems  by  Two  Brothers" — the 
copy  which  came  under  the  hammer  yesterday  was  bought  by  Mr. 
Bumpus  for  ;^3o,  and  this  figure  represents  up  to  the  present  the 
high-water  mark  of  its  value,  being  £^2  in  excess  of  the  highest  figure 
paid  hitherto. 

The  copy  of  the  ''Poems,  chiefly  Lyrical"  (1830),  which  was  the 
unaided  work  of  Alfred  Tennyson,  was  an  exceptionally  pretty  one, 
being  bound  in  green  morocco  extra,  double  with  water-silk  linings, 
and  having  gilt  edges.  This  went  for  jT^^  los.  The  next  edition  of 
this  book,  which  Moxon  published  in  1833,  contained  three  sonnets 
and  two  other  pieces  which  were  afterwards  suppressed,  a  fact  which 
alone  gives  it  an  extraneous  value,  and  a  copy  of  this  was  knocked 
down  foTCj^'j.  The  first  collective  edition  of  Tennyson's  "Poems" 
1842,  in  two  volumes,  in  cloth  and  uncut,  with  the  author's  autograph 
attached,  sold  for  ;^io  5s. ;  whilst  a  first  edition,  in  similar  condition, 
of  "  In  Memoriam,"  went  for  ;^5. 


The  Devil's  Library. 


jN  old-time  catalogue,  in  a  New  York  library,  of  **  the  most 
valuable  books  relating  to  the  Devil,  his  origin,  greatness, 
and  influence,"  contains  the  titles  of  over  five  hundred 
volumes,  and  does  not  presume  to  be  complete.  It  is  introduced 
by  the  motto,  "  Fools  deride — Philosophers  investigate,"  and  by  four 
motto  verses,  including  the  fine  epigram  by  Defoe  : 

'*  Bad  as  he  is,  the  Devil  may  be  abused, 
Be  falsely  charged  and  causelessly  accused, 
When  men,  unwilling  to  be  blamed  alone, 
Shift  off  those  crimes  on  him  which  are  their  own." 

A  series  of  introductory  illustrations  show  the  Devil  as  he  has  been 
variously  delineated  by  various  races.  The  Egyptian  Devil  seems 
to  have  been  a  cross  between  a  dog  and  a  hog,  walking  on  his  hind 
legs  with  the  assistance  of  a  staff.  The  Assyrian  has  a  lion's  body 
with  wings,  a  scaly  neck,  and  a  dragon's  head  with  horns.  The 
Cingalese  Satan  has  two  heads  with  tusks,  four  arms,  sits  on  a  colt, 
and  has  venomous  snakes  climbing  all  over  him  !  The  French  is  the 
first  of  the  old  devils  to  exhibit  the  combined  traits  so  familiar  to  us 
now.  He  has  horns,  the  ears  of  an  ass,  a  goat's  tail,  and  rooster's 
claws,  but  his  body  and  head  are  human,  with  bat's  wings  growing 
from  the  shoulders.  This  enemy  of  man  is  shown  in  the  cut  to  be 
grinning  in  a  most  malignant  and  diabolical  manner,  and  scattering 
gold  around  to  tempt  his  victims  within  the  clutches  of  his  claws. 

But  Beelzebub  has  been  represented  in  other  and  far  more  polite 
forms.  There  is  a  print  from  the  illustrations  of  Goethe's  "  Faust," 
which  shows   him  as   a   courtly  gentleman,  elegant   in   dress   and 


28 


THE  DEVILS  LIBRARY. 


polished  in  manners.  It  seems  as  if  mankind,  as  it  advanced  in 
refinement,  improved  its  great  foe  as  it  has  improved,  or  at  least 
refined,  the  vices  with  which  it  pays  him  tribute.  Thus,  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  the  English  devil  was  a  horrible  monster,  with 
the  distorted  body  of  a  man,  the  horned  head  of  a  bull,  a  docked 
tail  like  a  hackney  horse,  only  three  fingers  and  toes  on  each 
extremity,  spikes  at  its  knees,  and  shins  like  the  spurs  of  a  game- 
cock. 

By  Thomas  Landseer's  time,  however,  the  artist  had  elevated  him 
to  a  quite  genteel  sort  of  person,  with  a  sardonic  leer,  but  good 
clothes  and  an  unblemished  anatomy.  Landseer — the  brother  of 
Sir  Edwin,  it  should  be  stated — once  made  ten  etchings,  called 
"  The  Devil's  Walk,"  which  are  very  rare  and  valuable.  The  most 
industrious  and  extensive  of  all  artistic  glorifiers  of  his  satanic 
majesty,  however,  has  been  George  Cruikshank.  That  ingenious 
draughtsman  has  pictured  him  in  every  conceivable  form,  as  long  as 
it  was  hateful,  for  he  has  always  been  too  conscientious  to  paint  the 
Devil  as  an  attractive  being.  "The  True  Legend  of  St.  Dunstan 
and  the  Devil "  is  one  of  Cruikshank's  most  humorous  works,  and 
his  *'  Gentleman  in  Black  "  is  almost  inimitable,  as  far  as  the  unique 
grotesqueness  of  the  plates  is  concerned. 

The  catalogue  contains  a  choice  assortment  of  proverbs  applying 
to  the  ruler  of  the  infernal  regions.  All  are  quaint,  and  some  are 
very  curious  indeed.  Thus  one  tells  us,  "  The  Devil  is  good  when 
he  is  pleased,"  another  that  "Satan  is  all  Christianity,"  and  another 
still  that  "The  Devil  is  ever  God's  ape."  "'Tis  a  sin  to  belie  the 
Devil,"  "  An  idle  brain  is  the  Devil's  workshop,"  "  Idle  men  are  the 
Devil's  playfellows,"  "  What  is  gotten  over  the  Devil's  back  is  spent 
under  his  belly,"  "It's  an  ill  battle  when  the  Devil  carries  the 
colours,"  "  He  must  have  a  long  spoon  that  must  eat  with  the 
Devil,"  "Where  God  builds  a  church,  there  the  Devil  builds  a 
chapel,"  and  "  Hell  and  chancery  are  always  open,"  are  some  odd 
sayings.  Odder  still  are,  "  The  Devil's  meal  is  half  bran,"  "Seldom 
lies  the  Devil  dead  in  a  ditch,"  and  "  Hell  is  useless  to  the  sages, 
but  necessary  to  the  blind  populace,"  which  latter  is  a  very  true  and 
philosophic  statement  indeed. 

These  are  only  a  few  of  their  kind.  "  Hell's  prince,  sly  parent  of 
revolt  and  lies,"  is  one  of  many  names  applied  to  him.  "Fear  made 
the  devils,  and  weak  hope  the  gods,"  and  "  The  Devil  tempts  all, 
but  the  idle  tempt  the  Devil,"  are  among  the  statements  laid  down 
in  these  wise  saws.  One  tells  us,  "  Resist  the  Devil  and  he  will  flee 
from  you;"  and  another,  "He  that  takes  the  Devil  into  his  boat 


i 


THE  DEVILS  LIBRARY.  29 

must  carry  him  over  the  sound."  It  is  unpleasant  to  reflect  that 
"  Hell  is  wherever  heaven  is  not,"  but  the  proverb  says  it  is,  and  of 
course  it  must  be  so.     A  verse  by  an  old  English  writer  tells  us 

"  The  Devil 

Is  civil 
And  mighty  polite, 

For  he  knows 

That  it  pays, 
And  he  judges  men  right ; 

So  beware 

And  take  care 
Or  your  hair  he  will  singe ; 

And  moil  you 

And  soil  you. 
And  cause  you  to  twinge." 

Better  poetry,  though  no  better  sense,  is  the  following,  by  Hone : 

"  Good  people  all,  who  deal  with  the  Devil, 

Be  warned  now  by  what  I  say,  v 

His  credit's  long  and  his  tongue  is  civil, 
But  you'll  have  the  Devil  to/aj." 

"  The  Devil's  Memorandum  Book  "  was  published  in  London  in 
1832.  It  had  eighty  illustrations,  mostly  caricature  portraits  of 
public  characters. 

[The  reader  who  desires  a  fuller  acquaintance  with  the  extremely 
curious  subject  dealt  with  in  the  foregoing  article,  is  referred  to 
Bookworm,  vol.  vi.,  where  Mr.  J.  Herbert  Slater  devotes  three 
interesting  papers  to  "A  Bibliograph  of  the  Devil." — Ed.  Bookworm.] 


Of  my  Books. 


Around  the  narrow  circuit  of  the  room 

Breast-high  the  books  I  love  range  file  on  file  ; 
And  when,  day-weary,  I  would  rest  awhile, 

As  once  again  slow  falls  the  gathering  gloom 
Upon  the  world,  I  love  to  pass  my  hand 
Along  their  serried  ranks,  and  silent  stand 
In  breathless  heark'ning  to  their  silent  speech. 
With  rev'rent  hand  I  touch  the  back  of  each 
Of  these  my  books.     How  much  of  their  dead  selves — 

The  hand  that  held  the  pen,  the  brain  that  wrought 

The  subtle  fancies  on  these  pages  caught — 
Have  men  immortal  left  upon  my  shelves  I 

And  then  sometimes  a  sudden  chill  doth  strike 

My  heart  with  very  horror,  and  I  shrink 

Away  from  their  dull  touch,  shudd'ring  to  think 
How  much  of  human  life  that,  vampire-like, 
These  books  have  sucked  beneath  their  leathern  wings, 

How  brains  have  broken  and  frail  bodies  bent 
To  feed  with  human  blood  these  bloodless  things. 

In  this  thin  book  of  poesy  is  pent 
A  beautiful  young  life  ; — imperial  Rome 

Holds  what  was  mortal  of  it.     Then  I  see, 

All  withered  at  the  top,  a  noble  tree 
Here  in  the  scathing  scorn  of  this  dark  tome. 
By  this  long  line  of  books  that  mutely  stands 

A  master-mind  was  wrecked,  so  that  in  years 

He  sat  a  poor  old  man  in  doting  tears. 
Because  his  dogs  in  pity  licked  his  hands. 

But  then  again  there  comes  a  rushing  thought. 

And  to  my  living  books  my  arms  I  raise 

In  loving  fellowship  of  life  and  breath. 
And,  like  poor  Southey  when  his  brain  was  naught 

Save  a  pale  glimmering  light  of  other  days, 

I  touch  them  tenderly.     My  spirit  saith  : 

*'  Who  gave  their  lives  for  these  can  know  no  death. 
For  I  have  walked  with  them  in  mortal  guise 

Through  woodland  ways  and  swarming  city  streets  ; 
Yea,  have  I  met  the  gaze  of  Shelley's  eyes. 

And  in  '  Hyperion  '  kissed  the  lips  of  Keats." 

Charles  Washington  Coleman. 


^^^ 

^s 

^^S 

^^^^^^ 

^^^ 

s>^^^^^ 

Tennysoniana. 

A    BOOK   WITH   A    STRANGE    HISTORY. 

N  interesting  incident  has  been  communicated  to  the 
Brighton  Herald  by  Mr.  W.  J.  Smith,  the  well-known 
bookseller  of  Brighton.  Some  years  ago,  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  his  business,  he  came  into  possession  of  a  copy  of 
"  Remains  in  Verse  and  Prose  of  Arthur  Henry  Hallam,"  the 
subject  of  the  Laureate's  "  In  Memoriam."  It  had  had  a  romantic 
history,  which  was  thus  set  forth  in  Mr.  Smith's  catalogue,  the 
"  Brighton  Book  Circular,"  for  1874  : — 

"  The  interest  of  this  book  is  largely  increased  from  its  being  the 
presentation  copy  to  'Alfred  Tennyson  with  the  Editor's  most 
affectionate  Regards.'  It  was  found  among  the  effects  of  a  poor 
French  teacher,  who  died  from  starvation  at  Worthing,  a  few  months 
since.  She  was  missed  by  her  neighbours  for  a  few  days,  and  as  a 
signal  of  distress  she  hung  a  white  handkerchief  from  her  window, 
and  when  visited  was  found  in  a  complete  state  of  exhaustion — she 
died  in  a  few  hours.  The  book  will  be  sold  if  a  good  sum  is  offered, 
not  otherwise." 

Before  placing  the  volume  in  his  catalogue  Mr.  Smith  wrote  to  Mr. 
Tennyson  (as  he  then  was),  telling  him  that  the  book  was  in  his 
possession,  but  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  letter.  Later  on,  how- 
ever, he  received  the  following  letter  : — 

^^  Dece?nder  1^,  1875. 

"Sir, — I  observe  that  in  the  catalogue  of  your  books,  which  I  believe 
you  were  good  enough  to  send  me,  there  is  one  (No.  492)  belonging 
to  me,  'The  Remains  of  Arthur  Hallam.' 

"Many  years  ago  it  was  lent  by  my  sister  to  a  music-mistress. 


32 


TENNYSONIANA. 


I 


She  was  often  requested  to  return  it.  Since  that  time  having  lost 
sight  of  the  lady,  I  had  despaired  of  ever  again  getting  back  my 
book,  until  I  saw  it  advertised  in  your  catalogue  the  other  day.  On 
receiving  this  I  wrote  at  once  to  a  friend  of  mine  at  Brighton  asking 
her  to  call  upon  you,  and  explain  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
book  was  lost,  but  she  had  already  left  the  place.  Of  course  I  shall 
be  very  glad  to  pay  any  expenses  that  you  may  have  incurred  withj 
regard  to  this  book,  and  shall  be  very  much  obliged  to  you  if  youj 
will  forward  it  to  me  here. — I  am,  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

*'  A.  Tennyson." 

"The  friend  of  mine"  thus  referred  to  was  Miss  Thackeray,  who, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  called  on  Mr.  Smith,  who  explained  the  circum- 
stances to  her.  Several  other  letters  followed,  and  the  upshot  of 
the  correspondence  was  that  the  Laureate  once  again  found  himself 
in  possession  of  a  volume  to  which  so  curious  and  special  interest 
was  attached. 


A  Musical  Celebrity. 


MR.  W.  H.  JAMES  WE  ALE,  keeper  of  the  National  Art  Library, 
South  Kensington,  writes  : — "  In  the  October  number  of 
The  Bookworm  (vol.  v.,  p.  345)  is  an  article  headed  'A  Musical 
Celebrity  of  the  Eleventh  Century.'  Will  you  allow  me  to  point  out 
that  the  identity  of  Guy  d'Arezzo  with  Guy  de  Saint  Maur  des  Fosses 
was  proved  by  a  learned  Benedictine,  Dom  Germain  Morin  of  the 
abbey  of  Maredsous,  in  an  article  published  more  than  four  years  ago 
in  the  Revue  de  VArt  Chretien  (New  Series,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  333-338)? 
From  that  source  '  A  Super '  has  evidently  derived  his  information, 
but  not  his  spelling,  e.g.  (Earius  for  Oacrius." 


An  Almanac  of  Three  Centuries  Ago. 


T  is  not  so  many  years  since  the  Worshipful  Company  of 
Stationers,  London,  issued,  with  all  the  factitious  importance 
of  their  official  imprimatur,  almanacs  containing  forecasts 
of  the  weather  and  prophecies  of  future  events,  those  under  the 
auspices  of  that  eminent  and  most  ancient  humbug,  Francis  Moore, 
physician,  being  the  most  generally  known.  In  a  letter  dated 
November  14,  1868,  a  prominent  member  of  the  bookselling  trade 
addressed  a  formal  protest  to  the  Company,  petitioning  them  "  to 
discontinue  such  pernicious  nonsense  as  '  Vox  Stellarum,'  Hiero- 
glyphics, and  other  antiquated  rubbish."  A  published  copy  of  this 
letter  bears  the  endorsement,  "  They  made  no  reply."  But,  whether 
influenced  by  the  aforesaid  impeachment,  or  from  the  gradual 
change  of  public  opinion,  soon  after  the  above  date  Moore's 
Almanac,  and  its  fellows,  appeared  shorn  of  their  prophetic  readings 
to  the  satisfaction  of  most  people,  but  the  great  annoyance  of 
a  minority  who  to  this  day  bewail  the  loss  of  the  old  prognostications. 
Even  amongst  educated  people  at  the  present  time,  in  face  of  the 
craze  for  spiritualism  and  the  occult  sciences  that  finds  favour  in 
very  cultured  circles,  it  would  seem  premature  to  think  that  the 
disappearance  of  the  old  prophetic  calendars  is  a  decided  proof 
of  the  advance  of  common  sense.  For  if  the  modern  almanacs  for 
"  the  classes  "  no  longer  pose  as  emanations  from  inspired  sybils, 
yet,  in  England  at  least,  Zadkiel,  Raphael,  and  other  collateral  des- 
cendants of  the  once  omnipotent  Francis  Moore,  sell  their  thousands 
of  copies  annually.  These  are  full  of  pictorial  hieroglyphics  in- 
geniously vague  in  their  message,  accompanied  by  wordy  sentences 
presaging  as  loosely  as  possible  the  calamities  and  troubles  of  the 
future.     Consequently,  in  the  turgid  confusion  of  their  ambiguous 

5 


34      AN  ALMANAC  OF  THREE  CENTURIES  AGO. 

phrases,  which  may  be  interpreted  by  the  light  of  after  events  to 
have  denoted  the  conflagration  of  a  city — or  a  cowshed,  the  death 
of  an  emperor — or  his  most  distantly  removed  cousin,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  if  the  oracle  now  and  again  makes  a  palpable  hit.  In 
such  a  case,  the  one  fulfilled  forecast  not  only  augments  the 
credulity  of  those  who  before  believed  in  the  soothsayers,  but  wins 
a  new  army  of  converts  willing  to  ignore  the  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  failures  for  the  sake  of  the  single  success. 

It  is  noticeable  that  "  Prophesy  to  us  smooth  things  ! "  is  evidently 
not  the  cry  of  those  to  whom  these  almanacs  look  for  support.  If  it 
were  so,  doubtless  their  shrewd  projectors,  who  turn  an  honest 
penny  by  giving  superstitious  folk  the  nutriment  they  crave,  would  be 
quite  ready  to  discover  all  sorts  of  pleasing  surprises  looming  in  the 
future.  As  it  is,  beyond  a  very  vague  reservation — that  notwith- 
standing the  untoward  influence  of  certain  planets,  death  and 
disaster  may  after  all  be  avoided  ;  or,  that  in  spite  of  seeing  only 
red  ruin  ahead,  yet  if  the  stars  ultimately  escape  this,  that,  or  the 
other,  peace  and  plenty  may  after  all  be  our  portion — they  all  unite 
in  foretelHng  every  form  of  ill,  from  mild  epidemics  to  disasters  that 
paralyse  a  continent.  There  is  undoubted  wisdom  in  this  gloomy 
warning ;  if  having  foretold  good  it  arrived  not,  those  defrauded  of 
the  promised  joy  might  reasonably  grumble;  but  if,  although  evil 
were  foretold,  good  came  in  its  place,  the  recipient  would  forgive 
and  forget  the  doubtful  augury.  Human  nature  at  all  ages  loves 
to  terrify  itself  with  vague  presentiments  of  evil.  From  the  child 
who  conjures  up  bogeys  in  the  back  garden,  and  demons  in  dark 
corners,  to  the  older  fanatic  who  reads  doom  (in  big  letters)  in 
every  political  incident,  or  the  brave  patriots  who  constantly  fore- 
cast defeat  by  land  or  sea,  there  is  a  distinct  pleasure  of  a  morbid 
sort  to  be  found  in  contemplation  of  imaginary  disasters  close  at 
hand.  By  a  curious  fatality,  those  who  have  least  occasion  to  add  to 
the  sum  of  their  miseries  appear  to  be  the  very  class  most  eager  to 
detect  dark  days  ahead.  The  poorly-paid  artisan,  or  the  half-starved 
widow,  who  might  be  satisfied  with  the  present  woe  without  anticipa- 
ting worse,  are  the  types  of  the  readers  and  supporters  of  these 
nineteenth-century  Cassandras. 

But,  in  spite  of  the  coincidence  that  has  been,  now  and  again,  on 
the  side  of  the  almanac-makers,  from  Murphy's  often-quoted  stroke 
of  luck,  to  Zadkiel's  happy  divination  in  recent  times  of  a  dissolution 
of  parliament,  which  most  unexpectedly  occurred  on  the  day  he  had 
named,  those  who  continue  to  doubt  these  seers  are  in  no  way  dis- 
comfited.     The  laws  of  statistics,  which  show  a  regularly  recurrent 


AN  ALMANAC  OF  THREE  CENTURIES  AGO.      35 

proportion  of  accidents  in  the  streets,  and  a  curiously  equal  supply 
of  events  that  appear  to  be  governed  by  pure  chance,  might 
reasonably  be  brought  forward  to  support  a  theory  that  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  the  guesses  at  truth  made  by  these  modern  prophets 
would  be  found  to  be  lucky  ones.  The  wonder  is  rather  that  with 
such  a  scope,  and  the  event  couched  always  in  such  misty  terms, 
that  a  far  greater  number  of  really  startling  coincidences  do  not 
occur.  Nor  should  we  too-hastily  condemn  the  unlettered  for  their 
wish  to  raise  a  corner  of  the  veil  and  peep  through  such  very  faulty 
horoscopes  into  the  dim  future.  The  man  of  letters  who  attempts  to 
apportion  the  exact  share  of  future  immortality  to  his  contemporaries, 
although  he  couch  his  predictions  in  sonorous  Enghsh,  and  brings 
formidable  evidence  to  support  his  forecast,  is  hardly  more  scientific 
in  his  process  of  reasoning  than  those  humble  chronologists  who 
would  fain  map  out  the  eccentric  career  of  an  English  summer,  or  an 
English  parliamentary  session,  a  year  in  advance. 

The  so-called  "  weather-forecasts  "  issued  by  the  Meteorological 
Department  day  by  day  have  little  but  the  bare  name  in  common 
with  their  predecessors.  They  merely  look  a  few  hours  ahead,  and 
from  ascertained  records  of  former  seasons  choose  the  most  likely 
sequence  of  weather  in  view  of  its  behaviour  on  parallel  occasions  in 
the  past.  In  fact  their  knowledge  is  but  a  larger  and  more  widely 
extended  use  of  that  knowledge  gained  from  out-of-doors  life  and  study 
of  the  atmosphere,  which  we  term  weatherwise.  When  in  a  summer 
shower  a  crowd  waits  under  a  friendly  shelter,  some  one  more 
knowing  than  his  fellows  in  the  signs  of  the  sky  confidently  predicts 
it  will  soon  clear  up  (or  the  reverse),  and  is  more  often  than  not 
exactly  correct  in  his  judgment.  So  the  officials  who  have  charge  of 
the  Meteorological  Department,  having  by  inter-telegraphic  com- 
munication a  vast  portion  of  the  sky  brought,  as  it  were,  under  their 
notice,  are  able  to  predict  with  some  certainty  the  general  tendency 
of  the  next  few  hours,  and  sometimes  to  hazard  a  tolerably  precise 
statement  of  the  conduct  of  the  weather  for  the  next  few  days  ahead. 

But  the  old  "astrologers,"  as  they  loved  to  style  themselves, 
although  the  weather  was  as  often  in  their  mouths  as  in  those  of  the 
other  old  women  of  their  time,  were  fond  of  casting  larger  issues, 
and  posed  not  only  as  seers,  but  as  ambassadors  of  destiny,  able  not 
merely  to  mark  the  coming  of  the  storm,  but,  if  not  to  divert  its 
course,  at  least  to  supply  timely  hints,  whereby  those  menaced  could 
escape  the  predicted  woes. 

Before  me,  as  I  write,  is  one  of  these  old  books,  not  precisely  an 
almanac,  as  we  now  define  them,  nor  entirely  an  astrological  treatise, 


AN  ALMANAC  OF  THREE  CENTURIES  AGO. 


but  both  in  part,  and  a  popular  medicinal  handbook,  compendium 
of  history,  and  many  other  things  besides.  The  well-thumbed  state 
of  its  pages  show  clearly  how  many  have  consulted  "The  Book  of 
knowledge — both  Necessary  and  Useful  for  the  Benefit  of  all  People," 
as  its  modest  title  runs.  Its  title  page  is  gone,  but  from  internal 
evidence  it  would  be  easy  to  refer  it  to  the  later  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  if  it  were  not  so  well  known  that  such  analysis  is 
needless. 

It  strikes  the  key-note  boldly  and  firmly  in  its  opening  paragraph. 
No  wavering,  indecision,  or  purposely  involved  phraseology  confuses 
its  statements.  With  all  the  artificial  importance  of  black  letter, 
strengthened  by  the  employment  of  ordinary  Roman  type  by  way  of 
emphasis  for  certain  words,  it  says,  "If  the  nativity  of  our  Lord 
come  on  Sunday,  winter  shall  be  good,  the  spring  windy,  sweet, 
and  hot,"  and  so  on  through  eight  lines  of  detail.  Its  unswerving 
asservation  of  what  will  be  if  the  nativity  of  our  Lord  fall  on 
Monday — come  on  Tuesday — and  so  on  for  the  remaining  days  of 
the  week,  is  equally  dogmatic.  Now  concerned  with  seasons,  and 
now  with  individuals,  some  of  its  axioms  may  be  quoted.  It  says  : 
If  Christmas  Day  happen  on  a  Wednesday,  '*  theft  done  by  a  child 
shall  be  proved  "  ;  "good  wit  easily  found."  If  the  calendar  speaketh 
truly  here,  how  long  must  have  passed  since  Christmas  fell  on 
Wednesday.  At  times  it  lapses  into  oracular  sentences  of  gloomy 
import,  "kings  and  princes  in  hazard,"  for  example. 

The  division  entitled,  "  Of  the  birth  of  children  in  the  days  of  the 
week,"  is  like  most  great  works  of  art,  at  once  broad  and  precise, 
touching  things  great  and  small  with  equal  audacity.  If  a  child  be 
born  on  a  Sunday  it  promises  "  He  shall  be  great  and  shining," 
whether  bodily  or  mentally  is  not  hinted.  If  on  a  Monday  "  He 
shall  prosper,  if  he  begin  a  work  on  that  day  "  (Can  this  be  a  sly 
stroke  dealt  at  ancient  devotees  of  Saint  Monday?).  If  on  a 
Tuesday  "  He  shall  be  courteous  and  perish  with  iron,  and  hardly 
come  to  the  last  age ;  and  to  begin  all  things  is  good  " — an  inconse- 
quent conclusion  to  an  otherwise  impressive  sentence,  that  suggests 
the  Duchess's  logical  reflections  imparted  to  Alice  in  Wonderland. 
The  lucky  scholar  born  on  a  Wednesday  "  shall  lightly  learn  words." 
If  on  Thursday"  he  shall  be  stable  and  worshipful."  If  on  a  Friday, 
oddly  enough,  in  view  of  popular  superstition,  so  generally  marking 
out  that  day  as  unlucky,  it  says,  "  He  shall  be  of  long  life  and 
letcherous;  and  to  begin  all  things  is  good" — a  still  more  curiously 
inverted  sequence  of  effect  and  cause.  On  Saturday  the  oracle  is 
cautious :  "  He  shall  seldom  be  profitable,  but  if  the  course  of  the 


AN  ALMANAC  OF  THREE  CENTURIES  AGO.      37 

moon  bring  it  hitherto" — a  saw  that  recalls  a  remark  of  one  of 
Mr.  Gilbert's  characters  in  Princess  Toto,  "  That  your  words  are 
wise  I  feel  sure,  for  I  cannot  make  head  or  tail  of  them." 

The  next  chapter  is  devoted  to  somewhat  similar  subjects :  "  Of 
the  nature  and  disposition  of  the  moon  in  the  birth  of  children." 
Each  of  the  thirty  days  he  aims  to  foreshadow  are  considered  by 
this  would-be  inspired  prophet,  in  paragraphs  of  some  length,  some- 
times important  and  swelling  into  fateful  phases,  more  often,  it  must 
be  confessed,  as  prosy,  as  though  he  were  a  penny-a-liner  of  to-day. 
But  among  the  haystack  of  his  musty  maxims  there  are  needles  of 
'wit,  although  one  doubts  that  he  who  hid  them  guessed  of  their  pointed 
presence.  The  initial  facts,  necessarily,  stated  in  the  titles  to  each  of 
the  days  of  the  month,  are  a  sore  trial  to  a  cynically-disposed  reader. 
The  compiler  has  fibbed  more  ingenuously  than  ingeniously.  When 
you  read  that  "on  the  first  day  of  the  moon  Adam  was  born,"  there 
is  a  certain  feeling  of  fitness,  and  you  pass  that  statement  without 
suspicion — for  who  shall  say  he  was  not? — but  when  you  find  Eve  was 
born  on  the  2nd,  you  begin  to  doubt,  remembering  that,  if  so,  and 
the  new  world  began  with  a  new  moon,  it  was  rather  unkind  to 
the  happy  pair,  who,  like  other  young  things,  might  have  been  nervous 
in  the  dark.  Yet  the  strain  is  not  too  great,  although  Cain's  birth- 
day on  the  3rd,  and  Abel's  on  the  4th,  awaken  suspicions  that  no 
after-reading  dispels ;  not  even  the  cautious  utterance  that  the  5th 
"do  begin  nothing  certain,"  artistically  as  the  confession  of  ignorance 
is  put  in,  by  way  of  being  a  foil  to  the  knowledge  displayed  concerning 
the  first  four  days.  But  this  is  not  the  worst  slip  of  the  compiler  of 
this  early  birthday  book  of  "  men  of  their  time."  You  find,  with 
fine  decorative  instinct,  he  has  grouped  sets  of  people  together ;  for 
instance,  the  9th,  Lamech;  the  loth,  Noah;  the  nth,  Shem ;  the 
1 2th,  Cannan,  son  of  Cham  (where  is  Japhet?);  yet  on  the  i6th, 
mirabile  dicUi^  we  meet  with  Pythagoras,  a  curious  intruder  into  bib- 
lical company.  On  the  21st,  Saul;  Joseph,  on  the  22nd;  Benjamin, 
for  the  23rd  ;  Gohah  (?),  on  the  24th  ;  Samuel,  on  the  30th.  The 
happy-go-lucky  choice  of  celebrities,  the  odd  interruption  of  Pytha- 
goras, and  the  orderly  arrangement  of  the  others,  is  extremely  funny 
in  its  effect  upon  a  modern  reader.  It  has  been  happily  said  that 
the  "  credulity  of  ignorant  belief  has  given  place  to  the  incredulity 
of  ignorant  unbelief;"  yet  a  volume  like  this  tries  the  most  wiUing 
faith. 

But  after  all  such  fun  is  apt  to  become  wearisome,  yet  from  the 
many  pages  of  this  chapter  a  few  extracts  plead  for  quotation.  The 
advice  for  the  2nd  day — "To  enterprise  anything  is  profitable;  as  to 


n 


SS      AN  ALMANAC  OF  THREE  CENTURIES  AGO. 

buy  and  sell,  and  fly  into  a  ship  to  make  away  ;  and  to  sow  seeds  "- 
is  a  beautiful  lesson,  especially  valuable  to  those  in  training  to  become 
absconding  cashiers,  the  seeds  evidently  referring  to  their  future 
pastoral  home,  safely  settled  beyond  extraditional  limits.  The 
homily  for  the  3rd  day  holds  out  direct  encouragement  to  sluggards, 
"for  to  all  born  on  the  3rd  day  of  the  moon"  it  says,  "Abstain 
from  doing  of  anything,  except  thou  wouldst  not  have  it  prosper." 
The  dark  meaning  of  the  final  clause  is  beyond  conjecture,  for  who 
wants,  or  ever  did  want,  to  undertake  a  fore-ascertained  failure.  Yet 
if  the  whole  be  true,  we  understand  why  the  indolence  of  so  many  of 
our  friends  has  puzzled  us — they  were  evidently  born  on  the  3rd  of 
the  month.  For  the  5th  day,  both  the  heading  and  subsequent 
amplification  in  the  text  agree  that  "  to  take  the  Sacrament  is 
dangerous."  On  the  6th,  "  to  send  children  to  school  is  good,  and 
use  hunting,"  which  suggests  that  it  is  not  wise  to  join  in  pursuit  of 
the  wily  fox  or  harmless  hare,  during  the  holidays  of  the  children. 
On  the  7th  we  are  informed,  as  if  it  were  a  rare  feature  of  that  day 
only,  "  that  to  take  all  nourishment  is  good,"  which  seems,  to  put  it 
mildly,  to  be  limiting  excellent  advice  most  unnecessarily.  On  the 
8th  day  we  are  told,  "  Whatever  thou  wilt  do  is  good,  to  buy 
manciples  and  beasts."  Manciple  being  usually  understood  to  be 
the  purchaser  at  an  auction,  we  are  in  doubt  whether  this  is  an 
indirect  support  of  slavery,  or  is  simply  rather  mixed  prosody.  By 
the  15th  day,  and  long  before  it  is  clear  that  the  prophet  has 
forgotten  his  stated  purpose  to  divine  the  future  of  children,  and  is 
harking  back  to  the  style  of  his  previous  chapter,  for  he  says,  *'  Do 
no  work,  it  is  a  grievous  day'' — which  is  hardly  in  accordance  with 
his  self-imposed  limit.  On  the  28th  he  wildly  remarks  en  passant^ 
"War  may  begin  and  tabernacles  fixed  in  the  desert."  The  first 
half  of  his  prophecy  is  true  enough,  of  course.  On  any  day  "  War 
may  begin,"  and  to  flippantly  rejoin,  "It  may  not!"  is  merely 
quibbling  unworthily  with  the  fateful  presage ;  but  what  in  heaven 
or  earth  does  his  context  signify  ? 

Naturally  we  discover  throughout  his  thirty  days'  lucubrations  the 
significance  of  dreams  and  their  interpretations  continually  reiterated. 
But  the  really  poetic  wording  of  his  trial  flight  in  this  direction  on 
the  first  day,  "  What  thou  seest  in  thy  sleep,  shall  turn  into  joy,"  soon 
yields  place  to  the  most  prosaic  and  curt  form  of  "dreams  come  true," 
or  the  reverse,  whichever  his  mood  may  be  for  the  time.  Blood-letting 
is  also  a  subject  of  his  diurnal  monition,  buying  cattle,  taking  journeys, 
and  wives,  being  equally  often  considered.  This  social  and  domestic 
gossip  is  exactly  the  material  we  should  expect  to  find  demanded 


AN  ALMANAC  OF  THREE  CENTURIES  AGO.      39 

from  such  a  book,  and  the  significance  of  natural  phenomena  is 
also  evidently  in  accordance  with  the  need  of  his  readers.  Thus, 
"  What  thunder  signifies  in  every  month  of  the  year  "  is  the  subject  of 
his  Fifth  Chapter.  But  after  giving  such  frequent  place  to  the  same 
subjects  in  the  days  of  the  week,  and  the  days  of  the  month,  it  is 
rather  surprising  to  find  Chapter  VI.  devoted  to  "  Good  days  for 
Bleeding."  His  lengthy  Seventh  Chapter — "  To  know  how  a  man 
shall  keep  himself  in  health,"  is  enunciated  in  biblical  cadences, 
no  doubt  adding  greatly  the  effect  of  dignity  and  importance 
of  statement  to  its  hearers.  Then  follow  many  pages  on  the  cut- 
and-dried  stock  in  trade  of  books  of  this  type.  The  signs  of  the 
Zodiac,  and  their  supposed  influence  on  mankind,  and  other  brain- 
numbing  and  mystifying  topics.  Chapter  XII.  is  extremely  curious, 
but  not  quotable ;  for  its  frank  insistency  of  outspoken  detail 
coQcerning  certain  homely  medical  advice  could  not  be  made 
public  to-day  so  easily  as  in  the  time  it  was  written.  In  the  chapter 
on  "  Phlebotomy  "  some  novel  facts  are  given.  *'  In  the  neck  are  the 
veins  called  Originals "  reads  like  an  excerpt  from  Mark  Twain's 
"  English  as  She  is  Taught." 

"The  Rutter  of  the  Distances  of  Harbours  and  Havens  and  most 
parts  of  the  World"  is  the  title  of  Chapter  XXVI.,  which  is  accom- 
panied with  a  most  extraordinary  map,  wherein  is  no  continent  or 
island  known  to  us  to-day.  The  next  section  "Of  the  Axle-tree  and 
Poles,''  has  naught  to  do  with  chariots  or  coaches,  but  refers  to  the 
geographical  poles.  ''  Of  the  twelve  winds  "  is  the  penultimate  sec- 
tion, and  very  long  it  is,  crammed  full  of  outlandish  names,  real  and 
imaginary,  that  were  no  doubt  once  each  as  the  "blessed  word 
Mesopotamia  "  to  their  readers. 

Finally,  "  Strange  Wonders  Worthy  of  Note "  begins,  "  as   the 

worthy  Cosmographer  Pomponeus  Mela  reports."     But  remembering 

that  even  Herodotus  palls  after  a  time,  and  that  the  worthy  scribe 

herein  held  responsible  for  so  many  strange  facts  is  no  Herodotus  in 

the  charm  of  his  unveracious  statements,  although  he  comes  very 

near  his  ideal  of  veracity,  it  were  best  to  bid  him  return  to  rest  in  the 

lumber-room  of  the  past. 

Gleeson  White. 


40  MISCELLANEA. 

Printing  in  Finland. 

FINLAND  has  just  been  celebrating  the  250th  anniversary 
of  the  establishment  of  printing  in  that  country.  The  first 
book  printed  for  Finnish  use  was  the  "Missale  Aboense,"  a  mass 
book  for  the  Abo  Church,  in  1488.  This  order  was  executed  by  a 
printing  establishment  owned  by  one  Bartholomeus  Ghoten,  of 
Liibeck.  The  first  book  printed  in  the  Finnish  tongue  was  an 
alphabetic  lesson  book,  pubhshed  in  1542,  and  the  first  printing 
establishment  was  set  up  in  Abo  in  1642,  by  a  Swede,  Peter  Wald. 
The  first  newspaper  was  published  in  Abo,  on  January  15,  1771. 
Five  years  earlier,  in  1766,  a  decree  was  issued,  whereby  the  system 
of  a  free  press  was  established,  and  although  the  Finnish  press  has, 
since  it  came  under  Russian  control,  had  great  difficulties  and 
degrading  officialism  to  deal  with,  it  has  kept  its  free  spirit  as  much 
as  circumstances  will  allow,  and  speaks  plainly  whenever  it  can. 
There  is  now  not  a  town  without  its  newspaper;  and  most  towns  in 
Finland  have  papers  in  Swedish  and  Finnish. 


A  "  Criminal's  Dictionary/' 

HALF  a  century  ago  an  interesting  volume  was  published  at 
the  head-quarters  of  the  Berlin  criminal  police.  It  was  called 
the  ''  Criminal's  Dictionary,"  and  contained  all  the  slang  expressions 
used  among  the  criminal  classes  at  Berlin.  It  appears  that  in  the 
course  of  fifty  years  the  vocabulary  of  the  burglar  and  assassin  has 
received  considerable  additions,  and  Count  Piickler,  the  head  of 
the  criminal  police  department,  has  just  decided  to  have  a  new 
edition  issued  of  this  interesting  work,  one  of  his  reasons  being  that 
"  there  is  a  very  great  demand  for  the  book  from  all  parts  of  the 
country."  A  work,  which  is  practically  identical  with  the  foregoing, 
has  long  enjoyed  a  wide  popularity,  the  "  Slang  Dictionary,"  originally 
published,  and  we  believe  chiefly  compiled  by,  the  late  John  Camden 
Hotten,  the  well-known  publisher. 


Our  Note  Book. 


HE  most  important  of  recent  incidents  in  the  literary  world 
is  undoubtedly  the  exposure  of  the  wholesale  forgeries  of 
letters  and  manuscripts  purporting  to  be  the  work,  princi- 
pally of  Burns  and  Scott,  but  incidentally  also  of  other  eminent 
authors.  As  this  manufactory  has  had  Edinburgh  for  its  head- 
quarters, and  a  no  less  e  machina  deus  than  a  native  of  the  modern 
Athens,  it  is  only  consistent  that  the  task  of  exposure  should  have 
become  the  proper  work  of  the  Edinburgh  people.  This  has  been 
done,  and  through  the  energies  of  Mr.  Reach,  editor  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Evening  Dispatch — the  evening  offshoot  of  the  Scotsman — the 
task  has  been  performed  with  a  thoroughness  and  an  exhaustiveness 
which,  while  leaving  nothing  to  be  desired,  places  all  former  literary 
forgeries  in  the  background.  Up  to  the  middle  of  December  the 
extent  of  this  systematic  trade  had  been  shown  to  be  extraordinarily 
wide,  the  greatest  sufferers  being  American  collectors,  who  possess, 
perhaps  to  a  chronic  degree,  the  peculiar  temperament  or  weakness 
which  is  the  forger's  great  opportunity.  But  the  number  of  English 
and  Scotch  collectors  who  have  been  completely  taken  in  is  also 
large — how  large  probably  will  never  be  quite  known,  as  an  auto- 
graph collector  only  resembles  other  human  beings  in  disliking 
publicity  as  the  victim  of  a  fraud.  The  majority,  therefore,  will  be 
willing  to  swallow  the  bitter  pill  in  silence,  and  to  quietly  remove 
all  traces  of  their  want  of  judgment.  The  remarkable  thing  in 
connection  with  these  forgeries  is  that  they  should  have  existed  for 
so  long  a  period,  considering  that  from  the  very  first  their  authenticity 
has  been  repudiated  in  unqualified  terms  by  every  London  expert. 
The  British  Museum  authorities,  who,  since  the  notorious  Piggot 
business,  can  scarcely  be  expected  to  give  an  opinion  on  the  subject 
of  forged  manuscripts,  tacitly  expressed  their  judgment  when,  some 
time  ago,  they  refused  to  purchase  a  single  item  from  batches  sub- 
mitted to  them.   The  self-satisfaction,  to  which  Rochefoucauld  refers 

6 


42  OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 

in  one  of  his  most  brilliant  phrases,  which  a  man  feels  at  a  neigh- 
bour's disaster  makes  the  whole  story  of  these  forgeries  very  ex- 
hilarating reading  to  those  who  have  not  been  taken  in — and  perhaps 
equally  so  to  those  whose  enthusiasm  has  outrun  their  discretion, 
but  from  a  very  different  standpoint. 

V  H*  H'  '!« 

Mr.  xA.ndrew  W.  Tuer,  who  apparently  divides  his  energy  between 
printing,  publishing,  writing  books  on  art,  and  "plunging"  in  the 
matter  of  "  missing  word  "  competitions,  has  found  time  to  issue  a 
book  on  a  subject  concerning  which  he  candidly  admits  knowing 
"nothing  at  all."  This  is  probably  the  first  time  that  our  versatile 
confrere  has  ever  admitted  ignorance  on  any  subject  under  the  sun, 
and  this  fact  alone  is  sufficient  to  give  the  book  an  individuality  all 
its  own.  But  "  The  Book  of  Delightful  and  Strange  Designs,  Being 
One  Hundred  Facsimile  Illustrations  of  the  Art  of  the  Japanese 
Stencil-cutter"  (Leadenhall  Press,  E.G.),  does  not  need  any  extra- 
neous help  to  its  appreciation  by  the  lover  of  the  beautiful.     That 


*'  provokingly  incorruptible  and  absolutely  necessary  person,  the 
gentle  reader,"  to  whom  Mr.  Tuer  dedicates  this  book,  must  be 
indeed  a  "capricious  and  never-to-be-understood"  person  if  he 
fails  to  appreciate  this  astonishing  array  of  quaint  designs,  scarcely 
two  of  which  have  the  remotest  similarity  with  one  another.  It  is 
comforting  to  know  that  these  stencil  plates  are  really  from  Japan, 
and  are  not  "  manufactured  in  Germany  " — the  home  of  so  many 
"  souvenirs  from  Japan  "  and  from  so  many  other  places.  Mr.  Tuer  has 
kindly  permitted  us  to  reproduce  one  of  the  smaller  examples,  which 
gives  a  very  good  idea  of  the  intricacy  of  the  workmanship ;  but  the 
effect  is  best  when  the  design  is  printed  on  a  black  background,  as  is 
seen  in  the  book  itself.     Mr.  Tuer  supplies  an  extremely  readable 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK.  43 

and  entertaining  introduction,  which,  to  give  the  book  the  univer- 
sahty  it  deserves  to  enjoy,  is  printed  in  three  languages,  English, 
German,  and  French.  As  the  issue  is  limited  in  number,  we  should 
advise  those  of  our  readers  who  enjoy  "the  good  things  and  the 
pretty  things  of  this  life  "  to  secure  a  copy  without  delay. 

•¥         :;?  :;:  =;< 

While  on  the  subject  of  art  we  may  call  attention  to  the  subject  of 
Christmas  and  New  Year's  Cards,  whicli  are  now  brought  to  such  a 
high  pitch  of  beauty.  In  these  matters  there  can  be  no  question 
that  Messrs.  Raphael  Tuck  and  Sons  take  the  lead,  whether  on  the 
score  of  variety  or  on  that  of  artistic  excellence.  To  any  one  who  has 
seen  their  vast  stock  it  will  appear  doubtful  as  to  whether  any  future 
novelties  are  possible,  but  ingenuity  is  the  child  as  necessity  is  the 
mother  of  invention,  and  it  would  be  very  rash  to  prophecy  in  this 
matter.  So  far  as  the  present  season's  designs,  however,  are  concerned, 
it  can  only  be  said  that  their  originality  is  quite  equalled  by  the  refine- 
ment of  design,  and  the  perfection  which  has  been  observed  in  the 
printing.  In  a  word,  they  are  genuine  fine  art  productions,  and  as 
such  they  are  perhaps  best  left  to  speak  for  themselves  in  their  own 
way. 

4(  n^  'r  >K 

A  contemporary  has  been  asking.  Whence  comes  the  collector's 
love  for  the  first  edition  of  an  illustrated  book,  and  why  is  it  that 
the  pictures  are  invariably  more  artistically  rendered  ?  It  is  because 
the  proofs  of  the  engravings  pass  under  the  illustrator's  hand,  and  are 
subjected  to  his  corrections.  If  the  reader  can  get  a  proof  of  one  of 
the  Turner's  Tours,  it  will  be  found  to  be  almost  a  network  of  cor- 
rections and  of  suggestions.  Some  of  the  woodcuts  of  Birket 
Foster's  pictures  tell  the  same  tale ;  so  do  Randolph  Caldecott's 
and  those  of  Mr.  Edward  Whymper.  But  more  than  this,  blocks 
of  illustrations  are  even  more  susceptible  to  wear  and  tear  than  type, 
and  it  follows  as  a  matter  of  course  that  each  succeeding  impression 
is  in  some  respects  not  so  good  as  that  which  preceded  it. 

*  ^:  *  :{: 

It  is  as  a  bibliographical  curiosity  that  we  call  attention  to  "  Old 
Mother  Hubbard's  Fairy  Tale  Book,"  which  Messrs.  D.  Bryce  and 
Sons,  of  Glasgow,  have  sent  us.  It  measures  3^x2^  inches,  and 
contains  eight  of  the  most  popular  fairy  tales,  in  a  size  which  children 
can  carry  in  their  pockets  or  put  in  their  doll's  house.  The  tiny 
coloured  illustrations  are  extremely  quaint.  When  little  books  be- 
come popular  with  collectors,  doubtless  this  example  will  sell  for 
much  more  than  its  published  price. 


44        ^^^^^    MISCELLANEA, 

The  Book  Thief  Again. 

MR.  C.  TRICE  MARTIN'S  new  "Record  Interpreter"  was 
so  highly  appreciated  in  the  search-room  at  the  Pubhc 
Record  Office  and  the  Reading-room  of  the  British  Museum,  that 
the  copy  at  each  institution  was  stolen  from  the  shelves  within 
twenty-four  hours  of  its  being  placed  there.  We  should  dearly  like 
(writes  a  correspondent)  to  hang  one  or  two  of  these  book  thieves  as 
an  example  to  their  sneaking  brethren. 


Mary  Stuart's  Copy  of  "  Ronsard." 

PIERRE  LOUYS,  one  of  the  most  charming  of  the  young  poets 
of  France,  communicates  to  Mr.  R.  H.  Sherard  the  news  of  a 
literary  discovery  of  some  interest  which  he  has  just  made  at 
one  of  the  public  libraries  here.  At  this  library  he  came  across 
a  copy  of  Ronsard's  "Hymnes,"  which  he  says  he  has  every 
reason  to  believe  is  the  identical  copy  which  consoled  poor  Mary 
Stuart  in  her  captivity.  It  may  be  remembered  that  when  the 
luckless  Queen  of  Scots  was  asked  whether  she  wished  for  a  Bible 
to  read  in  prison,  she  replied  that  her  volume  of  Ronsard  sufficed 
her.  The  volume  in  question,  which,  according  to  the  catalogue 
of  the  library,  was  purchased  in  England,  bears  on  the  fly-leaf,  in 
female  penmanship,  the  inscription  *'  Per  far'  il  mio  cattivo  tempo 
piu  suave."  There  is  also  other  contributory  evidence  as  to  the 
origin  of  this  book. 


A  Sultan's  Library. 

THE  library  of  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  contains  between  two  and 
three  thousand  volumes,  all  written,  bound  in  leather.  At  the 
time  of  the  Renaissance,  all  eyes  in  Europe  watched  this  collection, 
because  it  was  thought  there  were  amongst  them  the  books  of  the 
Byzantine  emperors,  and  many  unknown  and  unpublished  works  of 
the  classic  Greek  and  Roman  authors,  but  no  one  was  ever  allowed 
in  that  library,  even  Ludwig  XIV.  being  refused  entrance.  Now  it 
is  generally  believed  that  there  is  no  genuinely  classical  manuscript 
in  the  collection,  but  no  one  can  be  certain,  for  no  profane  eye  has 
been  allowed  a  glance  inside  the  mysterious  volumes. 


Unpublished  Letters  of  Byron. 


The 


E  give  below  the  gist  of  three  unpublished  letters  of  Lord 
Byron,  which  appeared  in  the  market  on  November  30, 
1892. 

first,    consisting    of    four    quarto    pages,    is  addressed   to 


Hodgson  and  dated  November  3,  1808  : — 

"...  Hobhouse  and  your  humble  are  still  here.  Hobhouse 
hunts,  &c.  and  I  do  nothing,  we  dined  the  other  day  with  a  neigh- 
bouring Esquire  (not  Collet  of  Staines)  and  regretted  your  absence, 
as  the  Banquet  of  Staines  was  scarcely  to  be  compared  to  our  last 
*  Feast  of  Reason.'  You  know  laughing  is  the  sign  of  a  rational 
animal,  so  says  Dr.  Smollett ;  I  think  so  too,  but  unluckily  my  spirits 
don't  always  keep  pace  to  my  opinions.  I  had  not  so  much  scope 
for  risibility  the  other  day  as  I  could  have  wished,  for  I  was  seated 
near  a  woman,  to  whom  when  a  boy  I  was  as  much  attached  as  boys 
generally  are,  and  more  than  a  man  should  be.  I  knew  this  before 
I  went,  and  was  determined  to  be  valiant,  and  converse  with  sang 
froid,  but  instead  I  forgot  my  valour  and  my  nonchalance^  and  never 
opened  my  lips  even  to  laugh,  far  less  to  speak,  &  the  lady  was 
almost  as  absurd  as  myself,  which  made  both  the  object  of  more 
observation,  than  if  we  had  conducted  ourselves  with  easy  indiffer- 
ence. You  will  think  all  this  great  nonsense,  if  you  had  seen  it  you 
would  have  thought  it  still  more  ridiculous.  What  fools  we  are ! 
We  cry  for  a  plaything,  which  like  children  we  are  never  satisfied  till 
we  break  it  open,  though,  like  them,  we  cannot  get  rid  of  it,  by  put- 
ting it  in  the  fire.  I  have  tried  for  GifforSs  epistle  to  Pitidar  and  the 
Bookseller  says  the  copies  were  cut  up  for  waste  paper,  if  you  can  pr(h 
cure  me  a  copy,  I  shall  be  much  obliged" 


46 


UNPUBLISHED  LETTERS  OF  BYRON. 


\ 


The  second  is  addressed  to  Sir  James  Wedderburn,  and  is  dated 
February  lo,  1823.     It  consists  of  three  octavo  pages  : — 

**  The  bankers  have  answered  that  as  yr  own  Banker  had  declined 
— ^and  also  another  (Quastana  by  name)  it  could  hardly  be  expected 
that  they  should  run  the  risk  for  a  Stranger  not  recommended  by 
their  Correspondents.  I  shall  however  send  down  again  to  them — 
enclosing  your  book  which  proves  the  sums  paid  or  received  by  you 
in  1823 — through  Hammersley,  and  so  far  indicates  yr  correspon- 
dence with  that  House.  I  have  added  whatever  I  could  say  on  the 
occasion  but  I  regret  that  I  cannot  myself  either  endorse  bills,  nor 
cash  them,  nor  advance  the  amount  after  the  heavy  expenses  of  last 
year  in  England — and  the  many  claims  of  different  kinds  which  I 
have  had  to  satisfy,  and  some  (I  am  sorry  to  say)  to  refuse.  I  assure 
you  that  at  this  very  fjtojtiejtt — /  have  Jive  different  letters  before  me — 
all  requiring  money — by  the  last  two  days'  posts — on  one  pretext  or 
another — and  they  are  but  Jive  of  fifty  of  the  same  kind  (my  own 
interference  therefore  is  out  of  the  question).  I  have  no  doubt  that 
the  bill  is  a  good  bill,  but  I  really  have  not  the  amount  to  spare  even 
for  a  week,  and  I  have  already  become  responsible  for  two  hundred 
and  fifty  drawn  on  England  by  Mr.  besides  having 

to  fee  lawyers  for  his  Council  in  his  coming  on  Cause,  in  London. 
Within  the  last  January  I  have  to  pay  upwards  of  one  thousand 
pounds  in  London,  the  greater  part  of  a  lawyer's  bill.  You  may 
imagine  then,  how  far  I  am  in  a  situation  to  turn  banker." 

The  third  is  addressed  from  Genoa,  March  17,  1823,  to  John 
Hunt,  the  brother  of  Leigh  Hunt,  and  consists  of  four  quarto 
pages : — 

"Your  brother  will  have  forwarded  by  the  post  a  corrected  proof 
of  *  the  Blues '  for  some  ensuing  number  of  the  Journal — but  I 
should  think  that  ye  Pulchi  translation  had  better  be  preferred  for 
the  immediate  number,  as  'the  Blues'  will  only  tend  further  to  indis- 
pose a  portion  of  your  readers.  I  still  retain  my  opinion  that  my 
connection  with  the  work  will  tend  to  anything  but  its  success.  Such 
I  thought  from  the  first,  when  I  suggested  that  it  would  have  been 
better  to  have  made  a  kind  of  literary  appendix  to  the  Examiner,  the 
other  expedient  was  hazardous  and  has  failed  hitherto  accordingly, 
and  it  appears  that  the  two  pieces  of  my  contribution  have  precipi- 
tated that  failure  more  than  any  other.  It  was  a  pity  to  print  such 
a  quantity,  especially  as  you  might  have  been  aware  of  my  general 
unpopularity,  and  the  universal  run  of  the  period  against  my  produc- 


UNPUBLISHED  LETTERS  OF  BYRON.  47 

tions,  since  the  publication  of  Mr.  Murray's  last  volume.  My  talent 
(if  I  have  any)  does  not  lie  in  the  kind  of  composition  which  is  most 
acceptable  to  periodical  readers,  by  this  time  you  are  probably  con- 
vinced of  this  fact.  The  Journal  if  continued  (as  I  see  no  reason 
why  it  should  not  be)  will  find  much  more  efficacious  assistance  in 
the  present  and  other  contributors  than  in  myself.  Perhaps  also  you 
should  for  the  present  reduce  the  number  printed  to  two  thousand, 
and  raise  it  gradually  if  necessary.  It  is  not  so  much  against  you  as 
against  me  that  the  hatred  is  directed,  and  I  confess  I  would  rather 
withstand  it  alo7ie,  and  grapple  with  it  as  I  may.  Mr.  Murray,  partly 
from  pique — for  he  is  a  mortal,  mortal  as  his  publications — though  a 
bookseller,  has  done  more  harm  than  you  are  fully  aware  of,  or  I 
either — and  you  will  perceive  this  probably  as  my  first  separate  pub- 
lication, no  less  than  in  those  connected  with  'The  Liberal.'  He 
has  the  Clergy  and  the  Government  and  the  Public  with  him.  I  do 
not  much  embarrass  myself  about  them  while  alone^  but  I  do  not  wish 
to  drag  others  down  also.  I  take  this  to  be  the  fact,  for  I  do  not 
recollect  that  so  much  odium  was  directed  against  your  family  and 
friends,  till  your  brother,  unfortunately  for  himself,  came  in  literary 
contact  with  myself.  I  will  not,  however  quit  *  The  Liberal,'  without 
mature  consideration,  though  I  feel  persuaded  that  it  would  be  for 
your  advantage  that  I  should  do  so.  Time  and  truth  may  probably 
do  away  with  this  hostility,  or  at  least  its  effects,  but  in  the  interim 
you  are  the  sufferer.  Every  publication  of  mine  has  latterly  failed. 
I  am  not  discouraged  by  this,  because  writing  and  composition  are 
habits  of  my  mind,  with  which  success  or  publication  are  objects  of 
remoter  references,  not  causes  but  effects,  like  those  of  any  other  pur- 
suit. I  have  had  enough  both  of  praise  and  abuse  to  deprive  them 
of  their  novelty,  but  I  continue  to  compose,  for  the  same  reason  that 
I  ride  or  read,  or  bathe,  or  travel — it  is  a  habit. 

"  I  want  sadly  '  Peveril  of  the  Peak,'  which  has  not  yet  arrived 
here,  and  I  will  thank  you  much  for  a  copy ;  I  shall  direct  Mr. 
Kinnaird  to  reimburse  you  for  the  price.  It  will  be  useless  to  for- 
ward 'The  Liberal,'  the  insertion  of  which  will  only  prevent  the 
arrival  of  any  other  books  in  the  same  parcel.  That  work  is  strictly 
prohibited,  and  the  packet  which  came  by  sea  was  extracted  with  the 
greatest  difficulty.  Never  send  by  sea^  it  is  a  loss  of  four  months : 
by  la7id  a  fortnight  is  sufficient." 

It  is  understood  that  these  three  letters  were  not  sold,  owing  to  the 
reserve  price  not  having  been  reached. 

A  fourth  letter,  hitherto  unpublished,  of  Lord  Byron's,  has  been 


48  UNPUBLISHED  LETTERS  OF  BYRON. 

found  in  the  office  of  the  Celestial  Empire^  of  Shanghai.  It  is 
addressed  to  Monsieur  Gahgnani,  i8  Rue  Vivienne,  Paris,  and  runs 
as  follows : — 

%  "  Sir, — In  various  numbers  of  your  journal  I  have  seen  mentioned 
a  work  entitled  *  The  Vampire,'  with  the  addition  of  my  name  as  that 
of  the  author.  I  am  not  the  author,  and  never  heard  of  the  work  in 
question  until  now.  In  a  more  recent  paper  I  perceive  a  formal 
annunciation  of  *  The  Vampire,'  with  the  addition  of  an  account  of 
my  'residence  in  the  Island  of  Mitylene,'  an  island  which  I  have 
occasionally  sailed  by  in  the  course  of  travelling  some  years  ago 
through  the  Levant — and  where  I  should  have  no  objection  to  reside 
— ^but  where  I  have  never  yet  resided.  Neither  of  these  perform- 
ances are  mine,  and  I  presume  that  it  is  neither  unjust  nor  ungracious 
to  request  that  you  will  favour  me  by  contradicting  the  advertise- 
ment to  which  I  allude.  If  the  book  is  clever  it  would  be  base  to 
deprive  the  real  writer — whoever  he  may  be — of  his  honours  \  and  if 
stupid,  I  desire  the  responsibility  of  nobody's  dulness  but  my  own. 
You  will  excuse  the  trouble  I  give  you — the  imputation  is  of  no  great 
importance — and  as  long  as  it  was  confined  to  surmises  and  reports 
I  should  have  received  it  as  I  have  received  many  others — in  silence. 
But  the  formality  of  a  public  advertisement  of  a  book  I  never  wrote, 
and  a  residence  where  I  never  resided,  is  a  little  too  much — particu- 
larly as  I  have  no  notion  of  the  contents  of  the  one  nor  the  incidents 
of  the  other.  I  have,  besides,  a  personal  dislike  to  '  Vampires,'  and 
the  little  acquaintance  I  have  had  with  them  would  by  no  means 
induce  me  to  divulge  their  secrets.  You  did  me  a  much  less  injury 
by  your  paragraphs  about  *  my  devotion  '  and  *  abandonment  of 
society  for  the  sake  of  religion  ' — which  appeared  in  your  Messe?2ger 
during  last  Lent — all  of  which  are  not  founded  on  fact ;  but  you  see 
I  do  not  contradict  them,  because  they  are  merely  personal — whereas 
the  others  in  some  degree  concern  the  reader.  You  will  oblige  me 
by  complying  with  my  request  of  contradiction.  I  assure  you  that  I 
know  nothing  of  the  work  or  works  in  question,  and  have  the  honour 
to  be — (as  the  correspondents  of  the  magazines  say) — '  Your  constant 
reader '  and  very  obedient,  humble  servant, 

"  Byron. 
"To  the  Editor  of  Galig7iatiVs  Messenger^  &c." 


A  New  York  Book  Sale  Fifty  Years  Ago. 


HE  New   York  Herald  of  January  28,   1841,  contains  the 
following  spirited  account  of  a  book  sale,  which  it  entitles 
M  orals  of  Fashionable  Literature  "  : — 

"  New  York  is  one  of  the  strangest  of  strange  places  in  every 
respect,  but  in  no  one  more  so  than  as  regards  sales  at  auction,  and 
particularly  book  auctions.  The  Yorkers  are  great  at  bargaining, 
and  crazy  for  bargains.  They  never  read  Dr.  Johnson's  definition 
of  a  bargain,  or,  if  they  have,  they  take  no  heed  to  it.  The  old 
cynic  said  that  a  bargain  is  an  article  worth  ten  shillings  bought  for 
nine,  which  we  never  want,  keep  seven  years  and  never  find  use  for 
— in  preference  to  buying  an  article  worth  five  which  we  cannot 
well  do  without,  for  the  sum  asked  for  it  by  an  honest  tradesman. 

"  Among  the  many  sales  of  rare  and  extraordinary  articles  that 
have  lately  taken  place,  the  one  which  has  excited  the  greatest 
attention  among  the  literati,  millionaires,  bibliomanists,  and  fashion- 
able would-be  wits  and  can't-be  gentlemen,  was  the  sale  of  old  books 
at  Royal  Gurley's  last  week.  Here  were  collected  about  one  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  volumes,  which  were  sold  in  three  evenings,  and 
the  total  proceeds  of  the  sales  amounted  to  $1,765,  or  very  nearly  an 
average  of  $1  per  volume.  The  book  which  brought  the  highest 
price  was  '  Freheri  Theatrum,'  which  was  sold  for  $26  to  Mr.  Rems- 
den,  a  fashionable  millionaire,  and  the  lowest  priced  book  was  the 
'  Whole  Body  of  Divinity ;  or,  Christian's  Sure  Guide  to  Heaven,' 
which  was  bought  for  i  o  cents  by  an  Infidel ;  while  the  '  Amours  of 
Cupid  and  Pysche,'  and  *  Lives  and  Surprising  Amours  of  the  Em- 
presses of  the  Twelve  Caesars,'  and  similar  books,  brought  from  $2 
to  $3  for  every  small  i2mo  volume,  old,  dirty  and  torn;  and  the 
poetical  works  of  C.  Colton,  a  small  i2mo  book  of  a  similar  charac- 
ter, brought  $3.25. 

**  Among  the  purchasers  at  this  curious  sale  was  the  agent  of  the 
New  York  Lyceum,  Mr.  Embury,  the  Cashier  at  Brooklyn,  W.  Cole- 

7 


50     A  NEW  YORK  BOOK  SALE  FIFTY  YEARS  AGO. 


man,  the  Bookseller,  General  Whitcomb  of  the  Land  Office,  Wash- 
ington, John  Forsyth,  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Langtree  (who,  it  is 
said,  bought  for  Martin  Van  BuFen,  and  who  bid  high  for  a  work 
called  *  The  Labours  of  Hercules,  or,  the  Augean  Stable  Cleansed  '), 
Mr.  Rosencrantz,  and  Mr.  O'Herne,  merchants,  a  young  millionaire 
named  Remsden,  the  heir  to  the  late  Peter  Remsden's  wealth.  Town, 
the  architect,  and  old  book  and  painted  pannelomanist,  Amos  Ken- 
dall, Dr.  Sawyer,  the  great  preacher  against  a  place  of  eternal  tor- 
ment, young  Mr.  Cram,  the  distiller,  the  celebrated  curiosity  collec- 
tor, Billy  Hilton,  Major  Douglas,  the  Engineer,  Capt.  Hastings,  one 
of  the  engineers  of  the  Croton  Water  Works,  Loring  D.  Chapin,  late 
member  of  Assembly,  Kerrigan,  the  celebrated  collector  of  travels, 
Maccabe,  the  collector  of  curious  works  on  divinity,  &c.,  &c. 

"  The  struggle  for  some  of  the  books  was  tremendous,  and  the  vast 
disparity  between  the  prices  brought  by  various  books  of  the  same 
size,  age,  and  relative  cost  of  publishing  occasioned  general  com- 
ment. 

"The  competition  for  several  of  the  books  elicited  some  curious 
scenes ;  for  many  of  the  scarce  books  there  were  several  claimants, 
and  they  had  to  be  put  up  again  and  sold  much  higher.  Gurley 
being  proverbial  for  his  integrity  and  straightforward  business-like 
conduct,  many  persons  left  orders  with  him  to  buy  books  at  any 
price,  which  they  would  never  have  done  to  his  shaving  predecessor, 
Gowan,  who  was  noted  for  his  queer  tricks  in  knocking  down  books 
to  Bunkum — a  practice  now  exploded  in  the  Long  Room.  The 
young  millionaire,  Remsden,  ordered  the  *  Chevalier  de  Faublas  '  at 
any  price  ;  and  some  scamp,  who  had  more  indecent  curiosity  than 
honesty,  clapped  the  four  volumes  under  his  cloak  and  walked  off 
with  them.  As  there  is  but  this  one  English  copy  of  this  work  in 
the  country,  and  as  the  thief  has,  no  doubt,  shown  it  to  some  one, 
he  can  easily  be  detected. 

"  There  never  was  a  finer  opportunity  to  study  human  nature ; 
violent  professors  of  religion  buying  very  queer  books  ;  and  persons 
not  suspected  of  an  over-stock  of  brains  buying  mathematical  works. 
About  a  dozen  books  were  stolen.  Some  brought  prices  double  and 
treble  those  marked  in  the  catalogues  of  the  London  booksellers, 
Bartlett  and  Welford,  Appleton's,  or  any  of  the  depositories  of  old 
books.  Most  of  them  sold  higher  than  their  first  cost  price,  and 
even  much  of  the  divinity  sold  so  well  that  it  is  believed  the  public 
taste  has  been  turned  from  the  drama  to  be  buried  in  old  books. 
Perhaps,  after  all,  this  is  only  the  forerunner  of  some  violent  earth- 
quake in  the  morals  of  literature." 


The  MS.  of  "  Poems  by  Two  Brothers." 


HE  original  autograph  manuscript  of  the  epoch-making 
"  Poems  by  Two  Brothers,"  Alfred  and  Charles  Tennyson, 
comes  into  the  market  at  Sotheby's  on  the  Friday  before 
Christmas  Day,  and  some  time  after  these  lines  have  gone  to  press. 
This  manuscript  is  entirely  in  the  handwriting  of  the  two  Tennysons, 
but  principally  in  that  of  the  late  Laureate.  It  consists  of  eighty- 
eight  leaves,  exclusive  of  the  covers  of  the  volume,  on  which  are 
written  part  of  the  poems  and  other  matter;  also,  apart  from  the 
volume,  the  title,  advertisement,  errata,  and  the  introductory  poem, 
"  'Tis  Sweet  to  Tread  from  Stage  to  Stage."  On  the  reverse  of  the 
title  is  an  autograph  letter  to  the  publishers,  Messrs.  J.  and  J.  Jack- 
son, referring  to  the  omission  of  a  poem  from  the  portion  of  the 
volume  in  type.  "  The  contents,"  or  order  of  printing,  is  on  a 
separate  sheet,  in  the  body  of  a  most  interesting  letter  in  the  hand- 
writing of  Alfred  Tennyson,  respecting  the  copyright  and  other 
matters  relative  to  the  forthcoming  volum.e.  With  this  manuscript 
is  included  the  original  receipt  given  to  the  Jacksons  for  ^20,  the 
amount  agreed  upon  for  the  copyright  of  the  volume  entitled, 
"  Poems  of  Two  Brothers,"  and  signed  by  the  joint  authors.  On 
the  reverse  of  the  leaf  with  the  "Errata"  is  an  interesting  note, 
signed  "  C.  and  A.T.,"  referring  to  the  publication  of  their  signa- 
tures. Three  of  the  autograph  poems  do  not  appear  in  the  published 
work.  As  if  all  this  were  insufficient  to  render  the  lot  all-embracing, 
accompanying  these  exceedingly  important  and  valuable  manuscripts 
is  the  publisher's  reserved  copy  of  the  "Poems  by  Two  Brothers." 
The  British  Museum  is  the  proper  place  for  this  splendid  lot,  and 
we  trust  that  it  may  be  secured  for  the  national  collection.  It  may 
be  added,  in  conclusion,  that  the  existence  of  this  manuscript  has 
only  been  known  to  a  very  few  people,  and  that  it  has  been  in  the 
possession  of  the  original  proprietors  until  the  other  day,  when  the 
executors  of  the  last  of  the  Messrs.  Jackson — whose  death  occurred 
a  few  months  ago — handed  it  to  Messrs.  Sotheby,  Wilkinson,  and 
Hodge.     The  result  will  be  announced  in  our  next  issue. 


52 


MISCELLANEA. 


Early  Christian  Manuscripts. 

PROFESSOR  HARNACK,  who  (says  the  Standard's  Berlin 
correspondent)  is  very  prominent  just  now,  owing  to  his  essay 
on  the  Apostolic  Creed,  and  to  the  resulting  controversy,  has  made 
what  he  regards  as  an  important  discovery.  In  a  grave  in  Upper 
Egypt,  apparently  of  the  twelfth  century,  some  French  savants  lately 
found  certain  old  codices,  which  they  published  without,  apparently, 
appreciating  their  full  importance.  In  these  codices  Professor 
Harnack  asserts  that  he  has  recognised  literary  monuments  of  the 
oldest  Christianity,  which  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  full  or  partial 
authenticity  in  Christian  communities  at  the  time  when  the  canon 
of  the  New  Testament  was  being  formed,  but  were  afterwards  rejected 
and  lost.  They  are  three  in  number.  One  of  them  bears  the  title 
"  The  Revelation  of  Peter."  It  is  a  prophetic  book,  resembling  the 
Apocalypse  of  St.  John,  and  was  quoted  as  a  sacred  ''scripture"  by 
the  great  Christian  teacher,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  in  the  second 
century  after  Christ.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  by  the 
Apostle  Peter.  Another  is  "  The  Gospel  of  Peter,"  a  narrative  of 
the  life  of  Christ,  similar  to  those  of  the  four  Gospels.  It  was  in  use 
in  the  second  century,  especially  in  the  Syrian  communities,  and  was 
at  first  admitted  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  but  afterwards 
stigmatised  as  gnostic.  It,  too,  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  by 
St.  Peter.  The  third  codex  contains  considerable  fragments  of  the 
Book  of  Enoch,  a  prophetic  book,  which  was  of  high  authority 
among  the  early  Christians,  but  the  origin^of  which  is  not  cleared  up. 
The  ascription  to  the  Old  Testament  patriarch,  "  who  walked  with 
God,"  is,  of  course,  a  mere  literary  fiction.  Professor  Harnack 
intends  to  publish  a  full  report  of  this  important  discovery  in  the 
January  num.ber  of  the  Preussische  Jahrbitcher^  edited  by  Professor 
Hans  Delbriick. 


Book  Borrowers. 


N  The  Bookworm  ii,  p.  37,  we  published  a  number  of 
versified  warnings  as  to  the  present  or  future  doom  of  the 
bookborrower.  These  warnings  are  usually  characterised 
more  for  the  force  of  their  threats  than  for  the  inspiration  of  their 
lines.     We  give  below  a  few  additional  examples. 

An  old  Harleian  MS.  contains  a  warning  which,  in  those  days, 
would  not  be  disregarded,  and  of  which  the  following  is  a  transla- 
tion':— 

"The  booke  of  St.  Mary  and  St.  Nicholas  of  Arranstein,  the 
which  if  anyone  shall  purloin  it,  may  he  die  the  death,  may  he  be 
cooked  upon  a  gridiron,  may  falling  sickness  and  fevers  attack  him, 
and  may  he  be  broken  Upon  the  wheel  and  hung."  Books  were 
valuable,  and  possessed  by  few  save  the  priests  and  the  very  wealthy; 
hence  the  dread  anathema. 

The  following  lines  are  commonly  in  one  form  and  another : — 

*'  Steal  not  this  book,  my  worthy  friend, 
For  fear  the  gallows  will  be  your  end  ; 
Up  the  ladder,  and  down  the  rope, 
There  you'll  hang  until  you  choke  ; 
Then  I'll  come  along  and  say — 
'  Where's  that  book  you  stole  away  ?  ' " 

In  a  volume  of  sermons,  from  the  pen  of  a  divine  who  has  long 
since  gone  to  rest,  some  irreverent  reader  had  written  the  following, 
which,  if  not  quite  a  propos^  may  be  here  quoted  : — 

**  If  there  should  be  another  flood, 
For  refuge  hither  fly  ;  , 

Though  all  the  world  should  be  submerged, 
■    This  book  would  still  be  dry." 

In  one  or  two  cases  scripture  texts  have  supplied  the  required 
warning  against  the  crime  of  peculation,  or  the  less  heinous  sin  of 
omitting  to  return  a  borrowed  volume. 


54  BOOK  BORRO  WERS, 

The  author  of  the  following  evidently  had  no  very  high  opinion 
of  book-borrowers  generally  : — 

"  My  master  never  lends  me, 
So  if  I'm  found  elsewhere, 
A  thief  is  my  possessor  ; 
Therefore,  ye  knaves,  beware  !  " 

About  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  an  eccentric  physician,  who 
possessed  a  good  library,  had  on  the  inside  cover  of  all  his  books  a 

label  bearing  the  words,   "Stolen  from  the  library  of  Dr. , 

."     These  notices  are  on  all  fours  with  a  practice  observed  in 

certain  hospitals  where  the  medicine  bottles  for  indoor  patients  have 

the  words,  "Stolen  from Hospital"  engraved  on  them  in  large 

letters. 

Sometimes  verses  very  much  to  the  point  are  found,  ns  for  ex- 
ample : — 

"  Small  is  the  wren,  black  is  the  rook, 
Great  is  the  sinner  who  steals  this  book." 

Book-lovers  who  have  evidently  suffered  from  lending  their  precious 
volumes,  often  burst  into  verse,  of  which  the  following  example  is 
only  one  of  many  that  might  be  quoted : — 

' '  If  you  borrow  me,  I  pray, 
Treat  me  as  a  friend  ; 
Keep  me  by  your  own  fireside. 
And  to  no  others  lend. 

Guard  my  leaves,  and  keep  them  clean, 

Do  not  turn  them  down  ; 
"With  no  pencil  marks  deface, 

Nor  with  thumb-marks  brown." 

Probably  the  verse  following  derived  its  inspiration  from  the  well- 
known  motto,  "x\nyone  may  borrow  a  book,  but  a  gentleman 
returns  "  : — 

' '  Kind  friends  to  whom  my  master  lends 
His  choicest  books, 
"When  they  are  read,  return  at  once, 

And  save  black  looks. 
Fools  many  borrow  them,  but  'tis 
The  gentleman  returns." 

One  motto  which  might,  with  advantage,  be  used  in  public  library 
books,  and  may  be  commended  to  all  borrowers,  both  from  public 
and  private  collections : — 

"  Whenever  you  borrow  me, 
I  hope  you'll  keep  me  clean  ; 
For  I  am  not  a  linen  rag 
That  can  be  washed  ajrain." 


The  Kelmscott  Press. 


MONG  the  many  private  presses  which  have  at  various 
times  been  estabUshed  in  this  country,  the  most  important 
is  unquestionably  that  of  Mr.  William  Morris,  the  well- 
known  poet.  An  evening  contemporary  writes  as  follows  in  reference 
to  a  ** private  view"  of  an  advance  copy  of  his  reprint  of  Caxton's 
"  Recueil  of  the  Historyes  of  Troye."  On  looking  through  it,  Dr. 
Furnivall  said  enthusiastically,  "  It's  the  most  beautiful  book  I  ever 
saw ;  it's  the  most  beautiful  book  ever  printed ! "  Mr.  F.  S.  Ellis, 
through  whose  hands  every  book  treasure  in  England  for  the  last 
forty  years  has  passed,  cordially  agreed  in  this  opinion,  and  so  did  Mr. 
Emery  Walker,  the  art  editor  of  the  English  Illustrated  Magazine^ 
and  Mr.  Theodore  Watts,  the  friend  of  poets  and  artists,  and  poet 
himself.  This  delightful  "  Recueil  "  volume  is  in  quarto,  in  a  brand- 
new  pica  type  designed  by  Mr.  WilHam  Morris,  with  some  of  the 
beautiful  borders  used  by  him  in  his  handsome  "  Golden  Legend," 
with  admirably  designed  capitals  and  "  weepers  "  or  side  ornaments, 
all  of  Mr.  Morris's  design  and  drawing,  and  with  a  very  fine,  bold 
title.  The  volume  is,  indeed,  a  credit  to  English  craftsmanship,  and 
assuredly  stands  at  the  head  of  all  specimens  of  typography  hitherto 
produced.  Mr.  Tunstall  has  the  sale  of  the  work.  Mr.  William 
Morris  has  just  finished  a  reprint  of  Caxton's  "  Book  of  Chivalry  " 
in  the  new  type  he  has  designed  for  his  grand  folio  "  Chaucer,"  for 
which  Mr.  Burne  Jones  is  making  fifty  large  drawings  on  wood,  and 
the  text  of  which  Mr.  F.  S.  Ellis  is  preparing  from  the  parallel  text 
issued  by  the  Chaucer  Society.  The  "  Book  of  Chivalry  "  is  in  small 
pica  type,  somewhat  of  the  character  of  the  "  Recueil  "  fount,  and 


56 


THE  KELMSCOTT  PRESS. 


is  an  extremely  pretty  little  book.     It  waits  for  an  introduction  by 
Mr.  F.  S.  Ellis. 

Mr.  Morris  has  at  press  Caxton's  "Godfrey  of  BuUoyn ;  or,  the 
Conquest  of  Jerusalem."  This  will  be  followed  by  Lord  Berners's 
"  Huon  of  Bordeaux,"  and  possibly  his  "  Golden  Book"  of  Marcus 
Aurelius.  Caxton's  "  Historye  of  Reynard  the  Foxe "  is  nearly 
ready.  Wynkyn  de  Werde's  *'  Vitas  Retrum  "  is  in  course  of  trans- 
cription. And  when  the  grand  "Chaucer"  is  done — it  will  be  a 
magnificent  book — the  probability  is  that  Mr.  William  Morris  will 
venture  on  Lord  Berners's  *'  Froissart,"  a  great  favourite  of  his.  Not- 
withstanding the  high  prices  at  which  the  productions  of  Mr.  Morris's 
Kelmscott  Press  are  published,  buyers  are  not  likely  to  suffer  from 
purchasing  them.  "  The  Golden  Legend,"  issued  a  few  weeks  ago  at 
five  guineas,  is  now  obtainable  only  at  ten  or  twelve  guineas.  All 
Mr.  Morris's  own  poems  on  sale  by  Reeves  and  Turner  are  now 
worth  double  their  published  price.  A  new  era  has  dawned  in 
English  printing.  Shakespeare's  poems  are  soon  to  go  to  press  in  a 
handsome  quarto  at  the  Kelmscott  Press,  and  we  hope  that  a  volume 
of  Tennyson  will  not  be  long  in  following  it.  Mr.  Morris  will,  of 
course,  gradually  issue  all  his  own  works  in  his  new  superb  style. 


Dickens*s  ^'Little  Nell." 


• 

ss  Mamie    ■ 


WHO  was  the  original  of  Dickens's  Little  Nell  ?  Miss 
Dickens,  in  an  article  on  "  My  Father  as  I  Recall  Him,"  in 
an  American  contemporary,  says  she  has  no  doubt  that  it  was  Mary 
Hogarth,  a  sister  of  his  wife.  Mary  Hogarth,  who  died  young,  was 
of  a  charming  and  lovable  disposition,  and  was  personally  very 
beautiful.  She  was,  in  short,  Dickens's  ideal  of  what  a  young  girl 
should  be.  She  was  buried  at  Kensal  Green,  and  her  grave  bears  the 
following  inscription  written  by  the  novelist: — "Young,  beautiful  and 
good,  God  in  His  mercy  numbered  her  among  His  angels  at  the 
early  age  of  seventeen." 


The  Bibliographical  Society. 


R.  W.  A.  COPINGER,  F.S.A.,  the  first  president  of  the 
Bibhographical  Society,  delivered  the  inaugural  address  on 
November  21st,  at  the  meeting-room  in  Hanover  Square, 
London.  He  congratulated  the  members  on  the  fact  that  they  were 
now  over  160  strong,  and  among  them  were  the  best-known  and 
most  scientific  bibliographers  of  this  country.  There  could  be  no 
doubt  that  bibliography  was  now  in  process  of  development,  and 
was  fast  becoming  an  exact  science.  It  must  be  recognised  as  some- 
thing very  different  from  mere  cataloguing.  It  had  become  a 
necessity  to  the  author,  the  scholar,  the  librarian,  and  the  collector. 
No  library  worthy  of  the  name  should  be  without  its  twofold  cata- 
logue— the  one  raiso7i7ie^  or  bibliographical,  and  the  other  its  index, 
the  latter  being  so  constructed  as  to  be  for  all  practical  purposes  an 
ordinary  reference  catalogue.  In  proportion  to  the  advancement  of 
civilisation  and  the  diffusion  of  literature  ought  to  be  the  references 
to  and  accounts  of  the  thousands  of  works  which  have  been  the  pro- 
duct of  the  past,  and  we  need  not  be  surprised  if  the  particular  need 
of  the  present  day  was  an  exact  knowledge  of  those  repositories  which 
had  enlightened  and  benefited  mankind.  Bibliography  dealt  with  a 
vast  variety  of  subjects,  and  the  Society  should,  while  maintaining 
the  highest  standard  with  accuracy  in  detail,  be  essentially  broad  in 
its  scope.  In  other  words,  every  work  taken  in  hand,  or  over  which 
the  mantle  of  the  Society  might  be  cast,  should  be  in  the  highest 
degree  of  merit — such,  in  fact,  as  bibliographers  and  others  might 
depend  upon  as  being  as  nearly  perfect  as  learning  and  industry 
could  render  it :  and  yet  the  breadth  of  subjects  covered  should  be 

8 


58  THE  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY. 

sufficient  to  permit  the  introduction  of  matters  of  interest  to  engage 
the  attention  of  others  than  speciah'sts.  One  of  the  most  important 
matters  for  the  consideration  of  the  Society  would  be  a  general  cata- 
logue of  English  literature.  The  catalogue  of  the  British  Museum 
was  now  nearly  completed.  Half  the  labour  of  the  compiling  of  a 
general  catalogue  was  thus  probably  saved,  and  a  basis  in  existence 
on  which  the  complete  catalogue  might  be  reared.  It  would  be 
matter  for  consideration  whether  the  general  catalogue  should  be  on 
the  same  lines  as  the  Museum  catalogue,  and  also  whether  a  system 
of  registration  of  all  new  books  should  not  be  arranged  as  from  the 
date  to  which  the  general  catalogue  was  to  be  compiled,  and  whether 
this  should  not  be  the  very  first  step  to  take.  The  want  experienced 
was  a  catalogue  of  the  literature  of  the  nation,  with  an  indication  of 
its  precise  nature  and  where  it  could  be  found.  All  the  larger  public 
libraries  must  be  put  under  contribution,  and  means  should  be  taken 
for  obtaining  a  list  of  the  special  collections  of  books  in  the  United 
Kingdom,  the  owners  being  invited  to  contribute  lists  towards  the 
preparation  of  the  general  catalogue.  Another  subject  which  would 
require  serious  attention  by  the  Society  was  early  printed  books. 
This  it  was  proposed  to  have  considered  by  a  special  committee. 
What  was  really  wanted  was  something  more  than  a  mere  supple- 
ment, or  even  a  new  edition,  of  Hain's  "Reportorium,"  which  no 
doubt  was  the  best  we  had  on  fifteenth  century  books,  but  there  were 
three  main  objections  to  it — (i)  the  order  and  arrangement;  (2)  the 
information  from  a  typographical  aspect  was  not  up  to  date;  and  (3) 
there  must  be  at  least  some  five  or  six  thousand  volumes  issued  be- 
fore 1500  not  noticed  by  the  author.  The  first  step  would  seem  to 
be  the  identification  of  the  printers  of  the  various  books  bearing  no 
printer's  name  and  not  identified  by  Hain.  Both  Bradshaw  and 
Blades  had  shown  how  much  aid  might  be  obtained  in  settling  the 
dates  of  early  printed  books  by  noticing  the  habits  of  the  printers 
and  their  gradual  improvement  in  working  ;  indeed  where  we  had  no 
date  on  the  face  of  the  book  the  unconscious  evidence  afforded  by 
the  method  of  working  was  of  the  greatest  value.  If  that  Society 
should  be  instrumental  in  obtaining  recruits  for  this  work — those 
who  would  make  a  study  of  some  particular  press,  specifying  the 
variations  of  the  type,  and  identifying  the  works  issued  from  that 
press,  coupled  with  an  exhaustive  list  of  the  works  issued  therefrom 
— the  Society  would  have  set  on  foot  a  much-needed  work.  The 
result  of  these  studies  should  be  published  by  the  Society.  Having 
indicated  in  some  detail  the  lines  on  which  he  would  proceed  with 
this  work,  the  President,  in  conclusion,  reminded  the  members  that 


II 


THE  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY.  59 

the  objects  of  the  Society  were  broad  and  the  field  of  labour  great. 
Success  depended  mainly  on  united  effort.  The  formation  of  the 
Society  should  mark  an  epoch  in  the  literature  of  the  country.  He 
urged  them  to  labour  steadily  until  bibliography  was  established  as 
an  exact  science  and  occupied  that  proper  position  in  the  realm  of 
literature  from  which  it  had  been  so  long  by  ignorance  excluded. 


Censorship  in  Russia. 

MSKABICHEWSKY,  the  literary  critic  of  the  Novostt,  has 
•  just  published  a  curious  volume  on  the  history  of  the 
Censorship  in  Russia.  He  shows  how  the  Czar  Nicolas  saved  some 
of  the  works  of  Joukowsky,  Puskine,  and  Gogol  from  the  severities 
of  the  Censorship.  Karamzine's  "History  of  Russia"  likewise  owed 
its  life  to  Nicholas.  The  censors,  it  appears,  are  generally  well- 
informed,  cultured,  and  eminently  sociable  men,  who  receive  a  good 
salary  for  the  pleasure  of  forming  a  library  gratuitously  of  the  books 
they  approve,  and,  above  all,  of  the  books  they  forbid  others  to  read. 
They  are  often  very  leisurely  in  their  reading  of  the  works  whose  fate 
they  have  to  decide,  whereat  authors,  publishers,  and  booksellers 
fret  and  fume,  to  say  nothing  of  the  public  who  have  to  await  the 
good  pleasure  of  these  keepers  of  the  Hterary  conscience.  When  the 
souvenirs  of  Tourgdnieif  appeared  in  French,  the  censors  made  a 
descent  on  the  booksellers,  and  excised  the  two  pages  in  which  that 
author  condemned  the  censure  and  declared  that  he  would  not  return 
to  Russia  until  it  was  abolished.  One  of  them  said,  "  I  am  quite  of 
the  opinion  of  Tourg^nieff,  but  I  am  a  censor  above  all."  And  he 
mercilessly  wielded  his  scissors. 


6o 


MISCELLANEA. 


A  Fourteenth  Century  Library. 

THE  following  is  a  list  of  books  which  belonged  to  Bishop  John 
Trevaur  in  1357  : — 

I  Biblia  in  asseribus  cum  nigro  corio  prec.  40^. 

I  liber  prec.  265-.  Zd.  cui  incipit  "  Abbas  "  in  asseribus  cum  albo 
corio. 

I  liber  voc.  Psalterium  glossatum  in  asseribus  cum  albo  corio 
prec.  1 3 J.  4^. 

I  liber  voc.  Ronafil.  [Rationale]  Divinor.  Officior.,  pr.  20s.  in 
asseribus  cum  albo  corio. 

I  parvus  liber  sermonum  qui  incipit  "si  vis  ad  vitam  ingredi  "  in 
asseribus  cum  rub.  corio  pr.  40^. 

I  liber  Semmentor  (?)  in  asseribus  cum  viridi  corio  pr.  i3i-.  4^. 

I  lib.  voc.  Legenda  Sanctorum  in  asseribus  cum  rubeo  corio 
pr.  26.9. 

Calumpniat.  per  fratres  de  Ragh  .  .  .  biblia  in  asseribus  cum 
albo  corio  in  magno  volumine  pr.  dos. 

I  parvus  libellus  in  asseribus  rubeis  de  officio  episcopi,  pr.  2s. 

I  canucoi  (?)  de  subpr.  et  vigil,  in  asseribus  sine  corio  pr.  45-. 

I  liber  voc.  Comeiccu  super  viij  libros  Physicorum  in  asseribus 
sine  corio  pr.  6i-.  Zd. 

I  liber  voc.  diversa  originalia  Anselmi  et  Damaceni  in  asseribus 
cum  viridi  corio  pr.  135-.  4^. 

I  liber  voc.  Catholicon  pr.  66j.  Zd. 

I  liber  voc.  Concordanc.  in  asseribus  cum  albo  corio  pr.  (i(is.  %d. 

I  liber  histor.  in  asseribus  cum  corio  rubeo  Abbas  de  Basingwerk 
vendicat. 

I  parvus  lib.  de  officio  eru  (?)  in  asseribus  cum  albo  corio  pr.  \s. 

I  liber  qui  voc.  E  .  .  .  er  dulua  (?)  asseribus  cum  viridi  corio 
pr.  IS. 

I  p.  decretorum  vetus  in  asseribus  de  viridi  corio  et  i  p.  i  decretal. 
nov.  in  asseribus  cum  .  .  . 


Archbishop  Williams. 


S  library  work  so  closely  affects  bookworms  in  general,  a 
short  account  of  the  efforts  of  an  untiring  founder  may  be 
interesting  to  readers  of  The  Bookworm.  The  man  I 
refer  to  was  an  English  Prelate,  Archbishop  Williams,  who  lived  at 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

His  first  effort  was  at  Westminster,  where  he  made  a  very  good 
library  for  the  benefit  of  the  college  in  "  a  great  room  on  the  east 
side  of  the  cloysters,"  and  to  the  extent  of  over  ;£'5oo  furnished  it 
with  "  desks,  chains,  and  other  necessaries."  Not  content  with  what 
he  had  done  already,  he  gave  a  further  testimony  of  his  benevolence 
by  placing  his  choicest  manuscripts  and  parchments  in  the  library. 

Another  design  of  his  was  the  building  and  establishing  of  a  library 
at  Lincoln,  but  although  it  was  begun  with  good  prospects,  he  never 
realised  his  wishes. 

Such  was  the  progress  at  first  made,  that  the  books  were  purchased, 
the  timber  bought  and  worked,  and  other  necessaries  ready,  but 
"  the  founder's  troubles  coming  thick  now  upon  him,"  the  proceed- 
ings were  stopped.  The  doom  of  this  attempt  seems  to  have  been 
fairly  sealed  now,  for  not  only  did  the  books  soon  disappear,  but  the 
timber  which  was  to  have  been  used  for  the  building  was  used  by 
the  soldiers  during  the  civil  war  for  fortifications. 

His  other  great  work  was  at  his  old  college,  St.  John's,  Cambridge. 
It  appears  that  they  had  a  library  which  was  much  too  small ;  this 
fact  seems  to  have  been  recognised,  for  I  find  that  they  were  "casting 
about  by  what  means  they  might  procure  a  new  library."  Such  was 
the  known  munificence  of  Dr.  Williams  (who  was  at  that  time  Bishop 


62 


ARCHBISHOP  WILLIAMS. 


of  Lincoln  and  Lord  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal),  that  the  society- 
thought  that  they  could  not  ask  a  more  likely  person  than  him  to 
carry  on  to  completion  such  an  expensive  work.  Dr.  Williams,  on 
being  asked,  consented,  and  entered  into  the  work  with  a  will,  and 
during  the  years  1623  and  1624  gave  supplies  of  money  to  the 
extent  of  ;^2,oii  13s.  4d.  The  total  cost  of  the  building  was 
;^2,99i  los.  lod,  the  difference  being  made  up  by  Sir  Ralph  Hace, 
of  Stow-Bardolf,  Norfolk,  as  to  ;£"i92  for  the  foundation  of  the 
building;  the  balance,  amounting  to  £,1^1  6s.  6d.,  "besides  the  daily 
allowance  of  bread  and  beer  to  the  workmen,"  being  borne  by  the 
college  itself.  It  will  be  seen  that  a  good  two-thirds  of  the  cost  fell 
on  Bishop  WiUiams,  so  that  he  is  generally  said  to  be  the  founder  of 
the  building. 

Now,  as  to  the  furnishing  this  new  building  with  books,  Dr. 
Williams  shows  his  extraordinary  generosity  and  zeal  in  the  cause 
of  library-making.  At  first  he  made  over  his  own  collection  of  books 
to  the  librar}^  but  afterwards  countermanded  the  gift,  and  made  an 
indenture  by  which  he  bound  himself  to  the  annual  payment  for  ten 
years  of  ;^ioo,  so  that  the  society  should  be  able  to  buy  books  for 
the  library,  and  as  security  for  such  payment  he  again  made  over  his 
own  books,  and  furnished  the  college  with  a  catalogue  thereof,  to 
be  kept  amongst  the  records  of  the  college.  The  Bishop  having 
sundry  troubles  at  this  time,  no  part  of  the  ;^i,ooo  was  ever  paid, 
and  foreseeing  his  inability  to  ever  do  so,  ordered  his  library  to  be 
delivered  to  the  college  in  satisfaction.  His  library  suffered  much 
from  then  to  the  time  of  his  death,  being  seized  by  Parliament  and 
shifted  from  place  to  place,  but  eventually  the  "  Mangled  Library  " 
was  consigned  to  the  college  for  good,  on  the  death  of  this  worker 
in  the  cause  of  hbrary-establishing. 

Victor  J.  Moulder. 


The  Preservation  of  Autographs. 


fHE  proposal  to  form  a  society,  to  be  called  "The  Society 
of  Archivists  and  Autograph  Collectors,"  is  one  that 
deserves  the  attention  of  authors.      Perhaps  by  the  time 


these  lines  meet  the  eye  of  the  reader,  the  new  society  may  have 
been  already  happily  inaugurated,  and,  if  so,  literature  will  be  pro- 
vided with  one  more  handmaid  very  usefully  devoted  to  her  service. 
It  is  true  that  a  great  number  of  learned,  antiquarian,  and  literary 
societies  already  exist,  so  many,  indeed,  that  there  is  occasion  to  fear 
that  they  may  sometimes  rather  divide  than  concentrate  the  energies 
of  their  supporters.  None,  however,  has  exactly  the  same  aims  as 
those  which  the  new  society  proposes  to  itself,  and  those  aims  are 
most  undeniably  useful.  Commencing  from  the  banding  together 
"  for  mutual  benefit  "  of  collectors  of  autographs,  whether  those  who 
are  very  seriously  engaged  in  that  valuable  pursuit,  or  those  who 
have  taken  it  up  more  lightly,  as  a  tasteful  hobby  or  occasional 
pastime,  the  Society  of  Archivists  proposes  also  to  attempt  some- 
thing towards  educating  the  public  into  regarding  "  old  papers  "  with 
more  of  the  reverence  due  to  them,  to  exchange  views  as  to  the  col- 
lection and  preservation  of  manuscripts,  and  to  compile  a  reference 
catalogue,  as  complete  as  possible,  of  the  many  valuable  MSS. 
scattered  about  the  country  in  private  and  other  collections.  The 
last  mentioned  undertaking  would  be  gigantic,  but  the  society's  pro- 
gramme is  certainly  an  admirable  one,  and  one  that  should  command 
the  sympathies  of  all  authors  and  literary  men. 

For  the  whole  world  of  letters  has  no  greater  or  more  terrible  foe 
than  this  ignorance  of  the  respect  due  to  "  old  papers,"  which  the 
new  society  arms  itself  to  fight.  This  ignorance,  public  and  private, 
has  robbed  us  of  what  we  can  neither  replace  nor  afford  to  lose,  and 


64  THE  PRESER  VA TION  OF  A  UTOGRAPHS. 


I 


is  robbing  us  still.  Ever  since  man  first  discovered  a  device  for 
scratching  a  record  of  his  thoughts  on  a  stone,  to  the  present  hour, 
parallel  with  all  the  labours  of  the  student,  the  scholar,  the  historian, 
and  the  poet,  of  every  one  who  has  ever  written  anything,  has 
marched  unspeakable  ignorance,  more  ready  than  wanton  malice  to 
destroy  anything  set  forth  in  letters,  from  the  grandest  flights  of 
poetic  genius  to  the  humblest  '■^ Hie  jacet "  that  records  the  shedding 
of  a  tear. 

Indeed,  it  would  hardly  be  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  ignorance 
has  had  things  all  its  own  way.  If  aught  has  survived  of  the  labours 
of  authors  for  thousands  of  years,  that  has  been  due  rather  to  blessed 
chance  than  to  any  momentary  abstention  on  the  part  of  ignorance 
from  its  passion  to  destroy.  Neglect  has  sometimes  proved  more 
safe  than  care,  and  idle  time,  a  faithful  custodian  of  treasures,  man 
had  cast  aside. 

[The  proposal  to  form  a  Society  of  Archivists  and  Autograph 
Collectors  could  not  be  promulgated  at  a  more  opportune  moment 
than  the  present,  when,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  first  paragraph  in 
"  Our  Note  Book,"  collectors  are  just  now  waking  up  to  the  fact 
that  the  market  has  been  inundated  with  forgeries.  We  wish  the 
Society  every  success. — Ed.,  Bookworm.] 


Plowden's  ''  Treatise." 

AVERY  curious  and  interesting  unpublished  autograph  manu- 
script has  been  sold  at  Sotheby's.  It  was  written  in  or  abouti 
the  year  1580,  by  Plowden,  a  very  prominent  Roman  Catholic 
politician  and  compiler  of  Law  Reports  (in  French)  of  the  period. 
The  manuscript  in  question  is  a  "Treatise,"  in  which  the  author 
proves  that  if  Queen  Elizabeth  ("  whome  God  blesse  with  longe  life 
and  many  children  ")  should  die  without  issue,  there  is  no  law  which 
prevents  the  Queen  of  Scotland  from  receiving  the  crown  of  England. 
The  fact  that  it  was  never  printed  can  only  be  attributed  to  the  ex- 
treme probability  that  the  author  could  find  no  printer  sufficiently 
careless  of  his  personal  comforts  to  run  the  risk  of  imprisonment. 
The  lot  realised  ;£8,  which  was  extremely  cheap. 


Our  Note  Book. 


N  a  decade  hence,  when  the  literature  of  the  year  1892  i» 
weighed  up,  as  it  were,  by  the  historian,  the  book  upon 
which  the  greatest  amount  of  unquahfied  praise  is  bestowed 
will,  we  have  no  doubt,  be  the  Rev.  Stopford  A.  Brooke's  "  History 
of  Early  English  Literature,"  which  Messrs.  Macmillan  and  Co.  pub- 
lished in  December  last.  The  two  volumes  bring  the  subject  from 
its  beginnings  up  to  the  accession  of  King  Alfred,  and  from  the 
thoroughness  of  his  knowledge  we  trust  that  Mr.  Brooke  will 
continue  to  publish  the  result  of  his  studies  up  to  at  least  the 
time  of  Chaucer.  To  the  bibliographer  the  interest  of  Mr.  Stop- 
ford  Brooke's  important  contribution  to  the  handbooks  of  to-day 
will  to  a  great  extent  lie  in  the  sources  of  his  information.  From 
the  very  nature  of  the  conditions  of  life  in  this  country  eight 
hundred  or  a  thousand  years  ago,  these  sources  are  few.  But  Mr. 
Stopford  Brooke  has  made  the  most  of  his  opportunities,  qualifying 
himself  at  the  outstart  by  mastering  the  Anglo-Saxon  language.  One 
of  the  most  important  sources  of  this  History  is  "  The  Exeter  Book," 
which  formed  part  of  the  library  which  Leofric,  the  first  Bishop  of 
Exeter,  collected  and  left  to  his  cathedral  church.  He  catalogued 
it  himself,  under  a  designation  which  may  be  translated  "  A  mickle 
Enghsh  book  on  all  kinds  of  things,  wrought  in  verse."  It  is  still 
kept  in  Exeter  Cathedral,  and  has  been  there  since  the  first  bishop 
died  in  107 1.  Mr.  Brooke  describes  it  as  a  varied  anthology,  and  as 
containing  poems  which  range  from  the  eighth  to  the  tenth  or  eleventh 
century.  One  or  two  may  belong  to  the  seventh  century,  and  some 
others  may  even  be  of  greater  antiquity.  It  will  be  interesting  to  quote 
the  titles  of  some  of  these  poems,  and  among  others  occur  "The 
Christ,"  ''The  Phoenix,"  " The  Wanderers,"  "Gifts  of  Men,"  "The 

9 


66 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK, 


^f^W 


Seafarer,"  "The  Fates  of  Men,"  "Gnomic  Verses,"  "  The  Panther,  the 
Whale,  and  Partridge,"  "The  Soul  to  its  Body,"  "The  Message  of  a 
Lover,"  and  "  The  Descent  into  Hell." 


Another  of  Mr.  Stopford  Brooke's  sources,  "  The  Vercelli  Book," 
was  discovered  in  the  Capitular  Library  at  Vercelli,  in  Upper  Italy, 
in  1832.  Its  presence  there  is  an  entire  mystery;  but  Wiilker  con- 
jectures that  a  hospice  existed  in  that  town  for  Anglo-Saxon  pilgrims 
who  went  on  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  and  who  crossed  by  the  Mont 
Cenis  or  the  Great  or  Little  St.  Bernard  Passes,  and  that  this  manu- 
script may  have  been  left  there  by  some  English  voyager.  It  consists 
principally  of  Anglo-Saxon  homilies,  but  interspersed  are  six  poems, 
in  the  handwriting  of  the  eleventh  century.  Among  these  are  "  The 
Fates  of  the  Apostles  "  and  "  The  Address  of  the  Soul  to  the  Body." 
The  manuscript  of  Beowulf  in  the  British  Museum,  and  the  Junian 
manuscript  of  the  Caedmonian  poems  in  the  Bodleian,  have  also 
been  consulted.  With  one  of  the  poems  which  occur  in  "  The 
Exeter  Book,"  "  Widsith  "  — which  means  "  Far-Traveller  "— Mr. 
Stopford  Brooke  starts  his  History ;  and  a  careful  examination  of 
this  poem  amply  proves  its  antiquity,  for  much  of  the  verse  which  it 
contains  was  undoubtedly  made  in  the  Old  Angle  land  over  the  seas. 
It  is  the  personal  habits,  adventures,  and  impressions  of  a  wandering 
minstrel.  Mr.  Brooke  then  gives  us  several  exhaustive  and  interesting 
chapters  dealing  with  "  Beowulf,"  its  mythical  and  other  elements; 
the  Conquest  and  literature,  armour  and  war  in  poetry,  Christianity 
and  literature  and  monasticism  and  literature,  and  various  other  attri- 
butes of  Enghsh  life  up  to  the  year  800.  The  second  volume 
discusses,  after  a  general  view  of  the  rise  of  literature,  and  literature 
in  Northumbria,  Caedmon,  Cynewulf  and  his  signed  poems,  as  well 
as  a  number  of  unsigned  poems  either  by  this  writer  or  by  men  of 
his  school,  concluding  with  perhaps  the  most  interesting  chapter 
of  the  book — that  which  deals  with  the  school  of  York.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  overpraise  this  "  History  of  Early  English  Literature," 
which  differs  from  so  many  works  of  the  same  genre  in  being  as 
delightful  to  read  as  it  is  reliable  as  a  book  of  reference.  No  library, 
public  or  otherwise,  should  be  without  it,  and  we  can  strongly  com- 
mend it  to  the  attention  of  Home  Reading  Societies  generally. 


An  exceedingly  well-written  and  entertaining  book  is  Mr.  Gilbert 
R.   Redgrave's   "History  of  Water-Colour   Painting   in  England," 


THE^MONK,   BY  W.   H.   HUNT. 


68 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK, 


which  Messrs,  Sampson  Low,  Marston,  and  Co.  have  just  added  to 
their  series  of  Art  Text-Books.  It  adequately  fills  a  long-felt  want, 
and  it  may  be  questioned  whether  any  other  writer  on  art  matters 
could  have  turned  out  so  good  a  book  as  the  one  before  us,  for  it  is 
readable,  reliable,  and  sufficiently  comprehensive.  There  are  33 
plates  from  pictures  by  the  more  eminent  of  English  artists  in  water- 
colours,  each  being  a  representative  example,  the  whole  being,  it  is 
true,  for  the  most  part  either  at  South  Kensington  or  in  the  British 
Museum — a  fact  which  is  but  poor  consolation  to  those  who  live 
away  from  the  metropolis.  Of  one  of  these  we  are  enabled,  through 
the  courtesy  of  the  publishers,  to  give  an  example  which  will  have  a 
peculiar  attraction  to  the  readers  of  the  Bookworm — William  Henry 
Hunt's  painting  of  "The  Monk."  In  his  Introduction,  Mr.  Red- 
grave gives  a  full  description  of  the  various  methods  of  water- 
colour  painting,  which  will  have  the  effect  of  disabusing  the  lay  mind 
of  many  erroneous  ideas.  An  entire  chapter  is  devoted  to  Turner ; 
and  the  founders  of  the  various  societies  of  water-colour  painters  are 
fully  dealt  with,  both  in  reference  to  their  official  as  well  as  to  their 
private  work.  The  last  of  the  1 7  chapters  deals  with  the  materials 
used  by  water-colour  artists,  with  the  subject  of  the  permanence  of 
water-colour  drawings,  the  reports  from  a  committee  of  experts,  and 
the  stabihty  of  single  colours  and  mixed  colours. 

^  ^  ^  ^ 

Mr.  F.  B.  F.  Campbell,  an  assistant  in  the  British  Museum 
Library,  has  reprinted  in  pamphlet  form  two  papers  which  he  has, 
on  different  occasions,  read  at  meetings  of  the  Library  Association 
of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  earher  of  these  is  entitled  "  An 
Introduction  to  the  Theory  of  a  State-Paper  Catalogue,"  and  the 
second  is  "  A  Plea  for  Annual  Lists  of  State-Papers  and  Annual 
Reviews  of  State-Papers,  as  being  essential  preliminaries  to  State- 
Paper  Catalogues."  It  is  almost  superfluous  for  us  to  say  that  we 
are  in  entire  accord  with  Mr.  Campbell's  strongly  reasoned  argu- 
ments, for  the  State-Papers  of  this  country  are  simply  heart-breaking 
in  their  almost  completely  unworkable  character.  To  obtain  a  single 
fact  one  has  often  to  consult  a  score  or  two  bulky  volumes  of 
reports  on  subjects  entirely  foreign  to  the  one  desired.  This  serious 
loss  of  time  would  be  obviated  if  the  Reports  were  bound  up 
according  to  the  subjects  ;  but  the  existing  system  of  binding  the 
Reports  up  according  to  the  years  in  which  they  are  issued  would  be 
much  less  objectionable  if  there  existed  a  thoroughly  good  index  or 
Catalogue  Raisonne  to  every  ten  years'  publication.  The  State- 
Papers,  under  these  conditions,  would  be  readily  accessible,  and 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 


69 


the  vast  expense  which  is  every  year  expended  on  these  official 
Reports  would  be  money  well  spent,  and  the  results  as  accessible  to 
the  general  public  as  to  the  student.  There  is  nothing  but  sound, 
practical  common  sense  in  Mr.  Campbell's  proposals,  and  if  the 
Library  Association  can  assist  in  bringing  this  matter  to  a  successful 
issue  it  will  have  succeeded  in  effecting  a  most  important  Revolution. 


Small  books  are  the  order  of  the 
day ;  and,  barring  the  small  type, 
they  have  much  to  commend  them. 
The  latest  effort  in  this  direction 
comes  from  the  Queen's  Printers, 
Messrs.  Eyre  and  Spottiswoode,  of 
Great  New  Street,  E.G.,  whose  "dia- 
mond 48mo"  Bible  is  a  triumph. 
The  thinness  of  the  paper  is  only 
less  marvellous  than  its  extreme 
toughness  ;  and  when  it  is  stated 
that  this  complete  Bible  of  1535 
pages  can  be  almost  stowed  away 
in  a  waistcoat  pocket,  its  extreme 
portability  will  be  at  once  evident. 
The  type,  if  small,  is  beautifully 
clear;  and  we  have  no  doubt  that 
the  enterprise  of  the  printers  will 
be  rewarded  by  a  big  sale.  We 
give  a  facsimile  of  one  of  the  pages. 


GALATIAN8, 4. 


22  But  tlie  icripture  bath 
concluded  all  under  sin^  that 
the  promise  b;  t'aitb  of  Jesus 
Christ  might  be  giveu  to  them 
that  believe. 

23  But  before  faith  came,  we 
were  kept  under  the  law,  shut 
up  unto  the  faith  which  should 
afterwards  be  revealed. 

24  Wherefore  the  law  was  our 
schoolmaster  to  bring  h»  un- 
to Christ,  tliat  we  might  be 
justified  by  faith. 

25  But  after  that  faith  is 
come,  we  are  no  longer  under 
a  schoolmaster. 

26  For  ye  are  all  the  chil- 
dren of  God  by  faith  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

27  For  as  many  of  you  as 
haTe  been  baptised  into  Christ 
have  nut  on  Christ. 

28  Tnere  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  there  is  neither  bond 
nor  free,  tliere  is  neither  male 
nor  female  :  for  ye  are  all  one 
in  Christ  Jesus. 

29  And  if  ye  bt  Christ's,  then 
are  ye  Abraham's  seed,  and 
heirs  according  to  the  promise. 

CHAPTER  4. 

NOW  I  say,  rh.ai  the  heir, 
as  long  as  he  is  a  child, 
difiereth  nothing  from  a  ser- 
vant, though  he  be  lord  of  all ; 

2  But  is  under  tutors  and 
governors  until  the  time  ap- 
pointed of  the  father. 

3  Kven  so  we,  when  we  were 
children,  were  in  bondage  un- 
der the  elements  of  the  wnrld: 

4  Hut  when  the  fulness  of 
the  time  was  come,  God  sent 
forth  his  Son,  made  of  a  wo- 
man, made  under  the  law, 

5  To  redeem  them  that  were 
under  the  law,  that  we  might 
receive  the  adoption  of  sons. 

6  And  because  ye  are  sons, 
God  hath  sent  forth  the  Spirit 
of  his  Son  into  your  hearts, 
crying,  Abba,  Father. 

7  Wherefore  thou  art  no  more 


a  servant,  but  a  ion ;  and  if 
a  son,  then  au  heir  of  God 
through  Christ. 

8  Uowbeit  then,  when  ye 
knew  not  God,  ye  did  service 
unto  them  which  by  nature 
are  no  gods. 

9  But  now,  after  that  ye 
have  known  God,  or  rather 
are  known  of  God,  how  turn 
ye  again  to  the  weak  and  beg- 

Sarly  elements,  whereunto  ye 
esire  again  to  be  in  bondage? 

10  Ye  observe  days,  and 
mouths,  and  times,  and  years. 

11  I  am  afraid  of  you,  lest  I 
have  bestowed  upon  you  la- 
bour in  vain. 

12  Brethren,  I  beteech  you, 
be  as  I  am;  for  I  am  a*  ye 
are:  ye  have  not  injured  me 
at  all. 

13  Ye  know  how  through  In- 
firmity of  the  llesh  I  preached 
the  gospel  unto  you  at  the  first. 

14  And  my  temptation  which 
was  in  my  flesh  ye  despised 
not,  nor  rejected ;  but  receiv- 
ed me  as  an  angel  of  God, 
tven  as  Christ  Jesus. 

15  Where  is  then  the  bless- 
edness ye  spake  of?  for  I  bear 
you  record,  that,  if  it  hoi 
been  possible,  ye  would  have 
plucked  out  your  own  eyei. 
and  have  given  them  to  me. 

16  Am  1  therefore  become 
your  enemy,  because  I  tell 
you  the  truth ' 

17  Tliey  zealously  affect  you, 
but  not  well ;  yea,  they  would 
exclude  you,  that  ye  might 
affect  them. 

18  But  it  t«  good  to  be  zeal- 
ously affected  always  in  a  good 
thing,  and  not  only  when  I 
am  present  with  you. 

19  My  little  children,  of  whom 
T  travail  in  birth  again  until 
Christ  be  formed  in  you, 

20  I  desire  to  be  present  with 
you  now,  and  to  change  tny 
voice;  for  I  stand  in  doubt 
of  you. 


The  sale  of  the  original  manuscript  of  "  Poems  by  Two  Brothers," 
to  which  full  reference  was  made  in  the  last  issue,  attracted,  as  was 
expected,  a  large  number  of  people  to  Messrs.  Sotheby's  Rooms,  in 
Wellington  Street,  Strand,  on  December  23rd.  On  the  lot  coming 
up  for  sale,  and  a  question  of  literary  proprietorship  having  been 
raised,  the  auctioneer  said  he  only  sold  the  copyright  of  the  pub- 
lished poems,  as  the  representatives  of  the  late  Lord  Tennyson 
claimed  rights  in  the  three  unpublished  pieces.  That  difficulty 
having  been  settled,  the  lot  was  put  in  at  a  reserve  of  ;jf  100 — a 
needless  caution,  because  in  a  few  moments  the  bids  reached  ;£'4oo, 
and  finally  the  lot  was  knocked  down  to  Messrs.  Macmillan  and 
Bowes,  the  well-known  booksellers  of  Cambridge,  for  ;£^48o. 


70 


OUR  NOTE'BOOK. 


The  Paris  Figaro  devotes  a  monthly  supplement  to  questions  and 
answers,  and  the  idea  has  distinctly  "  caught  on»"  In  reply  to  the 
demand,  "Quelles  sont  les  cent  ceuvres  d'art  les  plus  belles  du 
monde  ?  "  the  following  manuscripts  and  books  are  included  in  the 
list :  The  "  Book  of  Hours  "  of  the  Due  de  Berri,  with  miniatures  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  and  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Due 
d'Aumale  at  Chantilly,  is  the  most  beautiful  manuscript  known.  At 
the  same  chateau,  also,  are  found  the  marvellous  series  of  forty 
miniatures  which  Jean  Fouquet  executed  for  Etienne  Chevallier ; 
and  the  "  folles  entreprises  du  pobte  Gringore,"  printed  on  vellum, 
in  Gothic  characters,  ornamented  with  twenty-two  miniatures  of  great 
beauty,  and  bound  in  morocco  with  the  arms  and  the  device  of 
Diana  of  Poitiers.  At  the  Biblioth^que  Nationale  there  are  the 
"  Heures  d'Anne  de  Bretagne,"  with  fifty-one  whole-page  paintings 
done  in  1507  by  Jehan  Bourdichon  ;  the  two  Bibles  of  Charles  le 
Chauve,  which  are  considered  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
monuments  of  art  of  the  Carlovingian  period :  the  first  of  which, 
executed  for  Charlemagne  under  the  direction  of  Alcuin,  came  from 
St.  Martin-de-Tours,  and  the  second,  with  the  arms  of  Henri  IV.,  was 
written  for  Charles  le  Chauve,  and  at  one  time  belonged  to  the 
Abbey  of  St.  Denis  ;  the  unique  copy  of  the  Pentateuch  of  the  fifth 
century,  formerly  the  property  of  Libri — *'  de  funeste  m^moire ;  " 
and  the  "  Livre  d'Heures  "  of  Grimani,  at  the  Palace  of  the  Doge  of 
Venice.  Among  the  printed  books  in  the  National  Library  at  Paris, 
the  three  most  notable  are  the  Mazarine  Bible ;  an  edition  of 
St.  Gerome  with  the  binding  signed  and  dated  1469 — the  earliest 
known  instance  of  the  kind — by  Jean  Richenbash,  at  Geislingen, 
near  Stuttgart  ;  and  the  Ptolemy  with  the  sixteenth  century  mosaic 
binding  executed  for  Diana  of  Poitiers. 


Book  Collecting  in  America. 


]HE  book  connoisseur  is  rarely  in  an  explanatory  mood ;  he 
has  grown  so  familiar  with  his  theme  that  he  cannot  under- 
stand why  the  great  mass  of  book  readers  know  but  little  of 
the  range  and  possibilities  of  book  collecting  and  embellishment. 
He  does  not  readily  diffuse  his  knowledge  in  an  appreciable  way, 
stripped  of  the  technical  verbiage  of  his  avocation,  and  he  cannot 
make  himself  believe  that  the  madding  crowd  outside  his  special 
domain  summarise  book  collecting  as  simply  the  getting  together  of 
a  library  of  works  of  more  or  less  value. 

And  yet  it  is  a  fact  that  this  is  the  epitome,  the  popular  mind, 
the  veriest  sum  and  substance  of  all  there  is  of  the  entire  field  of 
literature  in  this  phase  of  its  preservation.  Moreover,  among  many 
persons  of  more  than  ordinary  intelligence  in  other  fields,  but  httle 
is  known  of  the  ramifications  of  the  book  collector.  And  yet,  in 
truth,  there  are  not  two  book  collectors  who  collect  just  alike.  There 
is  a  tendency,  to  be  sure,  when  one  connoisseur  discovers  some 
new  way  of  manipulating  or  collecting  books,  for  others  to  follow  in 
his  wake.  But  this  is  not  to  be  commended.  The  man  that  strikes 
out  for  himself  comes  nearest  the  ideal  of  the  true  bibliophile. 

There  are  amateurs  that  gather  works  of  Americana  exclusively 
or  as  an  important  part  of  a  great  collection ;  others  will  collect  rare 
books  of  early  English  literature ;  others  still  will  make  a  specialty 
of  choice  works  of  poetry  and  the  drama.  There  is,  indeed,  just  now 
a  strong  feeling  among  collectors  of  dramatic  works  for  books  dating 
from  1550  to  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Nell  Gwynne  flourished  about  1660,  and  the  records  of  her  career 


72  BOOK  COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA. 

are  eagerly  sought.  The  demand  takes  every  now  and  then  a  tangent 
into  special  fields,  and  at  present  there  seems  to  be  a  rage  for  the 
annals  of  stage  folk. 

Undoubtedly  the  finest  private  library  in  this  country  is  that  of 
Robert  Hoe.  It  embraces  missals,  manuscripts,  and  rare  books  of 
every  kind.  Mr.  Hoe  is  omnivorous.  He  collects  everything  that 
is  fine.  Every  branch  is  invaded  by  him.  His  collection  of  manu- 
scripts is  the  most  complete  in  America.  There  are  a  half-dozen 
Groliers  of  great  value  on  his  shelves,  and  he  now  possesses  the 
Pembroke  Missal,  for  which  he  must  have  paid  a  comparatively 
fabulous  price,  placed  by  experts  at  such  a  figure  as  $10,000. 

Will  Loring  Andrews  prides  himself  upon  having  the  finest  collec- 
tion of  Roger  Paine  bindings.  His  especial  fad,  however,  and  a 
unique  one  it  is,  is  the  getting  of  a  great  deal  of  value  into  a  small 
compass.  This  collector  may  like  a  book ;  it  may  be  a  rare  book, 
but  if  it  is  large  he  will  not  buy.  He  would  willingly  pay  so  great  a 
sum  as  $1,200  for  a  book  that  was  rare  enough  and  small  enough. 
The  rarest  things  in  dimensions  above  the  average  would  not  tempt 
him.  But  if  the  object  were  small,  no  figure  representing  its  value 
would  be  too  high  to  debar  him  from  purchase.  He  is  what  is  tech- 
nically known  among  bibliophiles  as  a  cabinet  collector. 

George  B.  De  Forest  collects  foreign  books  in  which  he  finds 
continued  incitement  for  additions  of  a  similar  nature  to  his  library. 
Peter  Marie  prefers  works  in  the  French  tongue  relating  more  par- 
ticularly to  romance  and  poetry. 

Augustin  Daly  is  one  of  the  most  liberal  purchasers  of  books 
bearing  upon  the  drama.  "  The  Life  of  Peg  Woffington,"  written  by 
himself  from  the  most  carefully  acquired  data,  was  limited  to  an 
edition  of  115  copies,  printed  on  wide-margined  paper.  His  own 
special  copy  he  has  had  illustrated  in  aquarelles,  the  margins  being, 
beautifully  treated  in  colours,  while  portraiture  has  been  inlaid  from 
time  to  time.  Already  Mr.  Daly  has  expended  over  two  thousand 
dollars  upon  the  embellishment  of  this  book,  and  further  additions 
will  be  made  whenever  feasible.  Grivaz,  the  Swiss-French  king  of 
Aquarellists,  is  now  in  this  country  doing  Daly's  book  decoration. 

There  is  called  to  mind  one  of  the  most  enthusiastically  followed 
fads  in  book  collecting.  It  is  the  idea  of  pasting  and  elaborating.  In 
this  way  rare  old  books  may  be  enriched  until  they  become  almost 
priceless  in  their  enhanced  value. 

The  literary  aspirations  of  William  Waldorf  Astor  found  their  first 
vent  during  the  period  of  his  residence  in  Italy  as  American  Minister^ 
It  took  the  form  of  an  historical  novel,  and  copies  were  put  on  sale* 


BOOK  COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  73 

Mr.  Astor  had  reserved  for  himself,  however,  one  especially  printed 
wide  marginal  copy,  and  this  he  has  had  decorated  in  the  most  lavish 
manner. 

A  water-colour  picture  from  the  brush  of  some  prominent  American 
artist  is  inserted  below  each  chapter  of  the  book,  depicting  a  scene 
described  in  it,  for  which  the  honorarium  was  $500.  The  book  is 
being  continually  added  to  with  new  decorative  ideas,  and  is  rapidly 
becoming,  so  far  as  expenditure  and  expert  development  is  concerned, 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  books  in  the  world.  The  margins  are 
treated  with  sketches  and  border  designs  of  the  most  beautiful 
character. 

Some  of  the  favourite  books  of  collectors  were  illustrated  in  illu- 
minated decorations  apparently  raised  and  embossed  upon  the  margin 
of  the  pages,  which  in  the  text  are  in  initial  letters  worked  in  the 
most  beautiful  and  apt  conceptions.  There  is  also  a  special  penchant 
for  sketches  and  marginal  treatments  in  pen  and  ink. 

The  most  popular  form  of  book  illustrating  at  present  is  with  prints. 
The  portraits  and  localities  mentioned  in  the  book  are  eagerly  sought 
out  and  added  between  those  pages  in  most  appropriate  placement. 
In  the  pursuit  of  this  cult  it  is  not  unusual  to  break  up  an  old  book  to 
get  tlie  portraits  or  pictures  out  of  it.  The  broken  book,  though  it 
may  have  been  valuable,  is  now  imperfect,  but  the  book  formed  is 
greatly  enriched  by  the  addition,  and  without  doubt  the  prints  are 
best  pleased  in  their  new  position. 

Most  interesting  is  this  phase  of  bibliography,  and  keen  indeed  are 
the  enthusiasts  upon  the  trail  of  an  old  print  that  will  yield  a  unique 
value  to  some  cherished  book.  So  much  a  distinct  part  of  the 
treatment  of  old  books  has  this  interpolating  process  become,  that 
Chalcographimania  in  the  vocabulary  of  book-lore  stands  acceptedly 
for  the  art  of  print  collecting. 

The  insertion  of  prints,  if  properly  done,  is  an  art — and  a  delicate 
art  at  that — of  itself.  When  the  prints  have  been  pasted  on  upon 
the  middle  of  the  sheet,  there  is  naturally  a  slighter  thickness.  This, 
when  a  number  are  inserted,  would  cause  the  book  to  bulge  in  the 
centre,  and  thus  be  imperfect.  To  obviate  this,  the  process  of 
inlaying  has  been  brought  down  to  almost  a  fine-art  significance.  It 
consists  in  scraping  the  print  thinner  at  the  back  with  the  sharpest  of 
tools  in  the  most  skilful  hands,  and  shaving  its  dimensions  also  upon 
the  sheet,  so  that  it  will  set  in  exactly  even  all  over  the  surface.  So 
successfully  is  this  done  nowadays  that,  after  the  print  has  been 
pasted  in  and  ironed  down,  by  passing  the  hand  over  the  surface  the 
jointure  cannot  be  felt. 

10 


74  BOOK  COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA. 

The  restoration  of  prints  is  even  a  more  difficult  matter.  There 
are  two  men  living  in  Brooklyn  that  are  pre-eminent  as  inlayers. 
One  is  an  Englishman  and  the  other  a  Hanoverian.  They  work 
in  secret,  and  the  tools  they  use  are  only  known  to  themselves. 
They  have  no  apprentices  or  aids,  and  when  they  pass  away  it  is  not 
known  who  will  fill  their  places. 

A  collector  that  naturally  has  a  fancy  for  well-illustrated  books  is 
Samuel  P.  Avery.  If  a  book  is  badly  printed,  he  will  not  have  it  at 
any  price.  It  is  readily  understood  that  Mr.  Avery's  congeniality 
with  pictorial  art  would  lead  him  into  like  paths  in  his  book 
collecting.  It  takes  form  aptly  in  special  bindings.  He  has  the 
most  extravagant  wardrobe  in  the  city  upon  his  library.  To  the 
novice,  therefore,  his  collection  represents  superlative  value.  The 
arrangement  of  colours  is  most  harmonious  and  pleasing  to  contem- 
plate. 

There  is  another  important  pictorial  phase  of  rare  old  books  besides 
that  of  inlaying  of  portraits  and  scenes — the  decoration  of  margins 
and  the  harmony  in  bindings.  It  is  the  regard  that  artists  have  for 
books — more  particularly  those  that  have  luminous  bindings — and 
the  utilisation  they  are  given  in  the  enhancement  of  composition  of 
many  a  canvas  that  has  been  painted. 

The  book  indeed  is  as  much  an  artistic  property  to  the  painter  as 
the  wig  is  to  the  paid  player  of  the  stage.  He  has  continual  use  for 
it.  In  portraits  he  secures  a  thoughtful  expression  from  the  subject 
by  its  utilisation.  It  gives  a  lightsome  touch  of  colour  to  an  interior 
where  such  is  needful.  In  exclusively  still-life  pictures  the  book  has 
been  dealt  with  in  art  at  its  most  important  decorating  phase.  W.  M. 
Harnett,  who  paints  with  such  marvellous  conciseness  and  absolute 
perspective  fidelity  still-life  pictures,  utilises  a  book  or  books  as  a 
leading  or  at  least  an  important  feature  in  almost  every  composition 
he  undertakes.  In  his  "  Music  and  Literature  "  there  is  a  vellum 
book  that  is  painted  perfectly,  and  other  books  in  leather  and  cloth, 
these  being  really  the  dominant  objects,  although  the  pen  and  ink- 
stand, the  music,  the  ivory  and  ebony  of  the  flute  and  the  silver 
candlestick,  are  treated  with  equal  artistic  exactness. 

That  is  a  fine  group  of  rare  old  books  that  the  painter  has  subtitled 
facetiously,  "  Job  Lot,  cheap."  Some  of  them  are  very  valuable  works 
that  have  been  loaned  for  this  purpose,  and  the  different  colours  of 
the  binding  are  brought  out  with  fine  pictorial  effect  in  the  painting. 
One  of  Harnett's  most  important  works  is  his  "Old  Friends,"  which 
in  its  details  is  most  happily  balanced.  The  torn  vellum  cover  of 
the  book  is  original  in  conception,  and  the  grouping  of  the  other 


BOOK  COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  75 

books  artistic,  and  grouped  in  a  manner  calculated  to  tax  the 
painter's  skill  to  the  utmost.  The  pipe,  flute,  loving-cup,  and  bronze 
object  are  wonderfully  exact. 

But  a  meagre  idea,  however,  of  the  truth  and  delightful  colour- 
scheme  can  be  had  of  these  paintings,  elucidating  books,  as  they  do, 
at  their  highest  pictorial  aspect  in  a  reproductive  drawing ;  but  they 
give  an  interesting  semblance  of  notable  pictures  in  which  books 
are  prominently  employed. 

So  far  as  the  material  for  binding  is  concerned,  the  French  have 
the  advantage,  for  they  get  the  first  choice  of  skins.  The  English 
are  next  in  line  for  the  opportunity  of  selection,  and  American  book- 
binders must  be  content  with  what  is  left. 

Roger  Paine  was  the  first  man  to  put  his  name  on  his  bindings, 
and  was  a  pioneer  in  assisting  the  artistic  clothing  of  books.  His 
bills  that  have  been  preserved  are  curiously  itemised.  Some  of  them 
read  after  this  fashion :  "  I  put  into  this  book  silk  thread  to  the 
value  of  4s.  6d.,  and  I  honestly  believe  that  the  time  spent  in  sewing 
should  be  placed  at  los.  6d." 

Grolier,  who  is  popularly  misunderstood  as  being  a  bookbinder, 
was  not  an  artisan  that  constructed  bindings,  but  an  amateur  that 
suggested  designs.  He  was  practically  the  first  patron  of  book- 
binders. The  Groliers  are  generally  Venetian  bindings  in  morocco 
and  stamped  with  gold  tools,  each  figure  being  embedded  separately. 
There  is  no  likeness  of  Groher  in  existence,  but  from  description 
and  what  can  be  learned  of  the  man  an  etching  has  been  prepared 
under  the  direction  of  the  Grolier  Club  of  this  city,  showing  its 
patron  saint  in  the  house  of  his  friend,  the  binder  Aldus,  furthering 
some  new  design. 

The  Grolier  binding  that  is  here  reproduced  bears  the  mark  of  the 
original  possessor,  that  for  its  suggestion  of  unselfishness  has  had 
much  to  do  with  the  commemoration  of  his  name  by  advanced  book 
collectors.  Upon  the  upper  edge  appears  the  line  Grolier  et  Ami- 
coru7n^  Grolier  and  his  friends. 

Another  example  of  forethought  and  regard  for  others  in  the 
gathering  of  books  is  instanced  by  Richard  Heber,  who  was  wont  to 
secure  the  three  first  copies  of  the  rare  books  he  bought — one  to 
keep,  one  to  read  and  one  to  lend. 

A  rare  old  binding,  the  lustre  of  material  nor  the  beauty  of  its 
conception  the  centuries  may  not  dim,  is  the  morocco  book  with 
gilt  tooling  executed  for  the  joint  hbrary  of  Henry  11.  and  Diane  de 
Poitiers.  In  the  design  the  interlaced  crescents  of  Diane  and  the 
crown  of  Henry  II.  are  plainly  discernible. 


76 


BOOK  COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA. 


The  Gutenberg  Bible  of  the  recent  Ives  sale  had  the  original 
binding,  consisting  of  thick  oak  boards  covered  with  stamped  calf, 
ornamented  with  brass  corners  and  centre  pieces,  with  bosses  affixed 
to  protect  the  book  from  the  table  and  keep  the  binding  from 
wear.  The  colour  is  brown  and  the  material,  the  usual  binding  of 
that  period,  was  calf  or  hogskin.     The  date  is  1455. 

The  old  prints  of  the  printers  are  among  the  rarities  of  to-day  and 
eagerly  sought  after  by  collectors.  There  is  a  portrait  of  Gutenberg, 
from  an  authentic  print,  showing  the  great  German  printer,  matrix 
in  hand. 

Laurenz  Jans  Koster  is  claimed  by  the  Dutch  to  antedate  Guten- 
berg as  the  first  printer.  The  claim  has  never  been  fully  substan- 
tiated, but  there  is  certainly  ground  for  argument,  and  the  Dutch 
evidently  believe  in  their  theory,  for  they  have  erected  a  monument 
to  his  memory  in  Haarlem. 

William  Caxton  was  the  first  English  printer,  and  his  portrait  is 
reproduced,  with  his  famous  mark  attached.  The  first  printed  book 
by  Caxton  was  begun  in  1465  and  took  two  years  to  finish.  The 
first  book  printed  by  Caxton  with  a  date  was  in  1474.  Its  title  was 
"The  Game  and  Playe  of  Chesse."  The  Caxton  printings  have 
been  adequately  estimated  in  value  at  $10  per  page.  If  the  book  is 
of  600  pages  the  value  is  $6,000,  and  a  single  page  will  bring  the 
same  ratio.  For  its  printing,  as  the  work  of  the  first  English 
printer,  and  for  its  marvellous  and  true  execution,  the  type  being  fine 
and  the  matrices  perfect,  it  is  a  work  of  remarkable  interest  and 
value. 

The  facilities  are  greater  nov/adays,  but  no  appreciable  strides 
have  been  made  since  Caxton's  time  in  excellence  of  printing.  The 
De  Vinne  "  Richard  De  Bury  Philobiblom  "  is  a  work  of  to-day, 
however,  prepared  especially  for  the  Grolier  Club  that  should  be  the 
pride  of  our  book  lovers.  It  is  done  in  the  reddest  and  blackest  of 
inks,  and  will  easily  stand  comparison  with  any  book  of  any  period. 

While  book  collecting  is  carried  to  a  greater  degree  in  detail  in 
this  country,  it  is  more  general  in  England.  There  the  library  in  a 
family  mansion  means  that  there  is  an  aggregation  of  favourite 
authors,  at  all  events.  But  here  the  designation  is  more  than  often 
a  pseudonym.  I  have  frequently  been  invited  into  the  "  library  "  of 
a  man  of  means  to  find  the  appellation  an  empty  phrase,  as  the 
apartment  does  not  reveal  a  book  in  sight. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  mention  more  than  a  few  of  the  impor- 
tant collectors  in  the  various  fields,  and  a  mere  reference  to  the  rare 
books  may  only  be  made  to  illustrate  the  fads  and  fancies  of  biblio- 


BOOK  COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  77 

maniacs.  The  late  John  Carter  Brown  was,  and  his  son  Nicholas 
Brown,  following  his  lead,  is,  a  collector  of  Americana,  and  the 
collection  of  Brayton  Ives  was  strong  in  this  respect.  The  late  Earl 
of  Crawford  had  a  very  complete  collection  of  Americana. 

The  first  letter  of  Columbus,  consisting  of  four  leaves,  is  worth 
more  than  a  thousand  times  its  weight  in  gold.  The  Mazarin  Bible 
by  Gutenberg  in  the  Lenox  library,  although  the  binding  is  not 
contemporaneous,  is  valued  at  $20,000. 

The  Gutenberg  Bible  in  the  Ives  sale,  now  in  the  possession  of 
James  W.  Ellsworth,  of  Chicago — an  excellent  reproduction  of  its 
cover  being  subjoined — is  a  valuable  book,  and  illustrates  how  the 
master  printers  of  long  ago  did  work  that  has  not  been  excelled  in 
the  present  time. 

It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  Ward  McAllister  is  not  only 
an  author  but  a  book  fancier  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term.  He  re- 
joices to  be  among  rare  books,  relishing  embellished  work  and  fine 
bindings.  In  furtherance  of  this  penchant  he  has  had  a  copy  of 
"  Society  Just  as  I  Found  It "  bound  in  costly  form,  with  wide- 
margined  leaves,  upon  which  he  has  caused  illustrations  of  the 
dishes  mentioned  and  the  costumes  worn  and  other  apt  decoration 
to  be  placed  upon  the  pages  of  the  subject  matter.  He  is  adding 
constantly  to  its  decorations,  and  this  special  work  is  rapidly  attaining 
a  unique  value. 

The  library  in  the  residence  of  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  is  no  mis- 
nomer. It  is  finished  in  light  oak  and  terra-cotta  relief.  It  is  due, 
it  is  said,  to  Mrs.  Vanderbilt  that  here  is  gathered  the  most  complete 
library  in  this  wealthy  family.  The  Vanderbilts  have  travelled  the 
world  over,  and  many  of  the  valuable  books  have  been  secured 
abroad.  The  library  is  arranged  in  suites — each  suite  being  filled 
with  books  treating  of  some  special  subject.  The  shelves  are  lined 
with  hangings,  and  cut-glass  sliding  doors  give  access  to  the  hand- 
somely bound  volumes. 

The  Belmont  library  is  another  apartment  that  realises  its  title  in 
the  full  meaning  of  the  word.  There  was  originally  furnishings  in 
exclusively  blue  and  gold  bindings,  but  other  fine  bindings  were 
added  and  gave  pungency  to  the  colour  scheme.  What  is  more  to 
the  credit  of  the  collector  here  is  that  the  books  are  readily  acces- 
sible and  show  evidence  of  having  been  read  and  frequently  handled. 
Mrs.  Paran  Stevens  has  gathered  a  notable  collection  of  rare  and 
standard  works. 

There  are  discouragements  in  book  collecting  more  than  in  any 
other  branch  of  research.     Men  that  have  gone  into  certain  phases 


78 


BOOK  COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA. 


have  stopped  because  it  was  impossible  to  secure  prints  or  editions 
that  were  essential  to  the  perfection  of  their  idea.  But  the  faint- 
hearted should  not  enter  upon  this  field.  It  is  full  of  disappoint- 
ments, and  when  they  fall  by  the  wayside  the  example  is  a  warning  to 
others  that  might  have  attempted  and  had  the  stamina  to  continue 
and  succeed. 

New  discoveries  are  constantly  being  brought  to  light  by  the 
careful  scrutiny  of  old  books  and  manuscripts.  James  Carson 
Brevoort  quite  accidentally  came  across  a  reference  in  an  old  book 
of  the  fifteenth  century  relating  to  the  discovery  of  the  Bermudas 
by  one  of  the  lieutenants  of  Columbus  at  that  time  who  went  ashore 
and  left  some  pigs  on  the  islands.  Years  after,  when  the  islands 
were  rediscovered,  the  animals  having  been  prolific,  were  so  highly 
regarded  by  the  population  that  they  incorporated  the  pig  as  part  of 
the  Bermuda  coat-of-arms. 

And  so  as  much  for  future  generations  as  for  the  present  will  book 
collecting  be  identified  with  the  higher  civilisation  and  intelligence 
of  the  people  as  a  direct  means  of  enlightenment  and  a  factor  of  in- 
struction upon  the  history  of  these  times.  The  men  who  collect 
books  to-day  may  not  appreciate  how  well  they  are  building  for 
posterity,  but  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  our  bibliomaniacs  will  be 
in  centuries  to  come  venerated  for  their  acquisitions  as  are  those  of 
the  past. 


Fifteenth  Century  Block-Books. 


N  connection  with  the  above  subject,  to  which  reference  is 
made  on  pp.  159  and  160  of  the  last  volume  of  The 
Bookworm,  our  readers  will  be  glad  to  read  the  following 
extract  from  Mr..  W.  J.  Linton's  "Masters  of  Wood-Engraving": — 
"  Biblia  Pauper  urn, ^' — Very  excellently  engraved  is  the  best  copy 
(that  in  the  Print  Room)  at  the  British  Museum  of  the  "  Biblia 
Pauperum."  The  subject  matter  affirms  its  purpose.  It  is  a  series 
of  skeleton  sermons  in  cramped  or  abbreviated  Latin,  a  store  of  texts 
and  sermon-suggesting  pictures,  scenes  illustrative  of  the  Bible 
history,  and  embellished  with  "portraits"  of  the  patriarchs  and 
prophets — David  and  Isaiah  being  allowed  to  stand  for  many. 

This  book,  Netherlandish  work,  according  to  Passavant,  is  a  small 
folio  of  forty  leaves,  printed  in  distemper  or  water-colour,  and,  as  the 
Apocalypse  and  Song  of  Songs,  on  one  side  only — a  necessary  course 
with  no  means  of  registering  to  make  the  second  impression  exactly 
back  the  first.  On  each  page  are  four  portraits,  two  at  the  top  and 
two  at  the  bottom,  above  and  below  a  central  picture  taken  from  the 
New  Testament.  On  either  side  of  this  picture  is  another,  out  of 
the  Old  Testament,  elucidating  or  in  some  way  related  to  the 
teaching  of  the  New :  for  instance,  at  page  10  we  have  in  the  middle 
Christ  tempted,  the  Devil  bidding  him  make  bread  of  stones,  and  at 
the  sides  the  Temptation  in  Paradise  and  Esau  selling  his  birth- 
right. The  principal  portions  of  the  text,  probably  to  be  enlarged 
and  expounded  at  the  preacher's  discretion,  are  at  the  top  of  the 
page  on  each  side  of  the  upper  portraits.  Below  each  side-picture 
is  a  Leonine  or  rhyming  Latin  verse,  and  a  third  verse  is  at  the  foot 
of  the  page ;  while  Scripture  texts  and  moral  sentences,  having  regard 


8o 


FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  BLOCK-BOOKS. 


to  the  three  pictorial  compartments,  appear  on  scrolls  proceeding 
from  under  each  of  the  four  portraits. 

'•'•  Ars  Moriendi" — The  Museum  copy  is,  I  believe,  the  only 
perfect  copy  known.  It  was  bought  at  the  sale  of  the  Weigel  collec- 
tion, at  Leipsic,  in  1872,  for  ;^i,o72  los.  The  excellence  of  the 
engraving  suggests,  Mr.  Bullen  thinks,  that  it  is  of  later  date  than 
the  block-books  we  have  been  considering.  "  The  manufacture  of 
block-books,"  he  remarks,  "  begun  in  Holland  and  afterward  prac- 
tised in  Belgium,  appears  to  have  travelled,  about  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  into  Germany  and  fixed  itself  at  Cologne,  where 
this  edition  was  in  all  probability  executed.  Herr  Weigel's  copy 
[this  in  our  Museum]  was  acquired  by  him,  he  informs  us,  from  a 
private  person  in  that  city."  The  designs,  Mr.  Bullen  adds,  are 
"  of  the  Lower  Rhenish  School  of  Art,  practised  at  Cologne  up  to 
about  the  second  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when,  according 
to  Weigel,  the  native  German  art  is  shown  to  have  been  influenced 
by  the  school  of  Roger  Van  der  Weyde." 

The  subject  of  the  "  Ars  Moriendi  "  is  of  the  five  Temptations  of 
a  man  during  a  mortal  sickness — Abandonment  of  Faith,  Despair, 
Impatience,  Vain-Glory,  and  Avarice :  the  Devil,  by  agency  of  his 
demons,  at  his  work  in  five  designs  ;  in  five  alternate  confronted  by 
the  man's  Good  Angel.  The  eleventh  picture  is  of  the  sick  man's 
death. 

"  Canticum  Canticorum." — This  book  deserves  more  notice,  though 
it  is  but  a  small  folio,  of  only  sixteen  leaves,  printed  on  one  side,  the 
ink  used  seeming  of  very  poor  consistency,  as  it  varies  in  an  un- 
coloured  copy  in  the  British  Museum  from  j^ale  brown  to  almost 
black.  Each  page,  or  folio,  contains  two  distinct  pictures  of  equal 
size,  filling  the  upper  and  lower  halves  of  the  page :  figure-subjects 
with  scrolls  above  or  between  the  figures.  Some  brief  account  of 
the  whole  series  may  be  worth  giving,  if  only  for  the  sake  of  the 
curiously  quaint  and  daring  adaptation  of  Solomon's  Love-Song,  as 
prefiguring  Christ's  love  for  His  Church,  The  title,  "  Providentia 
Virginis  Marise,  prefixed  to  the  first  cut  in  a  copy  belonging  to  the 
city  of  Haarlem,  accepted  by  Heinecken  and  repeated  everywhere 
without  thought,  is  a  misnomer.  The  queenly  Bride  can  be  con- 
sidered as  typifying  the  Church ;  but  the  story  surely  is  not  that  of 
the  Mother  of  Jesus.  The  book  is  indeed  nothing  else  but  the  Song 
of  Solomon  in  pictures :  Christ  instead  of  Solomon  as  the  Bride- 
groom. 

^^  Speculum  Humance.   Saivattonis" — The  first  press-printed  book 
really  important  for  its  wood-engraving  is  the  "  Speculum  Humanae 


FIFTEENTH  CENTUR  Y  BLOCK-BOOKS.  8i 

Salvationis"  (or  Mirror  of  Human  Salvation),  a  small  folio  with 
neither  date  nor  printer's  name.  It  has  been  placed  wrongly  among 
block-books,  since  three  of  the  four  known  editions  (which  we  may 
call  primary,  to  keep  them  clear  from  later  issues)  and  part  of  the 
fourth  have  been  printed  from  movable  types.  Of  these  four 
editions  two  are  in  Latin  and  two  are  in  Dutch.  In  the  Latin  copies 
the  book  consists  of  sixty-three  leaves,  five  of  an  introduction  (the 
Dutch  sixty-two,  the  introduction  taking  only  four)  and  fifty-eight  of 
wood-cuts  and  text,  the  cuts  to  the  width  of  the  page,  occupying  its 
upper  half,  two  subjects  in  each  framed  in  architectural  borders,  and 
the  text  of  Latin  verse  in  two  columns  beneath.  The  purport  of  the 
book  is  apparent  in  the  first  lines  under  the  first  subject — Casus 
Luciferi  (Lucifer's  fall  from  heaven).  I  may  freely  English  them 
thus — 

"  The  Mirror  of  Man's  Salvation  maketh  plain 
His  fall  and  how  he  may  return  again." 


A  Bibliography  of  Card  Games. 

MR.  N.  T.  HORR,  a  collector  of  books  treating  of  the  history 
of  playing  cards  and  card  games,  found  the  pursuit  of  his 
hobby  difficult  by  reason  of  the  entire  lack  of  a  printed  bibliography 
of  these  subjects.  The  result  is  the  preparation  of  this  list,  contain- 
ing over  1,300  titles  of  works  treating  of  card  games  or  throwing 
historical  light  on  the  use  of  playing  cards.  The  compiler  beheves 
his  lists  of  Hoyle's,  Seymour's,  Cotton's,  &c.,  to  be  complete,  having 
had  the  privilege  of  using  the  manuscript  list  of  Mr.  John  G.  White, 
of  Cleveland,  O.,  whose  collection  of  treatises  on  games,  including 
chess,  is  nowhere  surpassed,  and  the  lists  of  many  private  collectors 
and  publishers  of  card  books.  The  bibliography  is  especially  com- 
plete in  English  and  American  card  books,  but  it  also  includes  many 
hundred  French  and  German  publications,  besides  the  leading  works 
in  Swedish,  Dutch,  Norwegian,  Danish,  Italian,  Spanish,  and  other 
languages.  It  contains,  among  others,  785  Whist  titles,  33  Pole 
titles,  78  Hoyles,  38  Dicks,  46  Hombre  books,  53  Academie  des 
jeux. 

II 


82 


MISCELLANEA, 


Libraries  for  Manchester. 


MR.  QUARITCH  (according  to  a  coirespondent  of  the  Echo) 
takes  a  somewhat  different  view  of  the  Spencer  Library  to 
what  has  already  been  expressed.  He  maintains  that  the  library  has 
been  much  over-praised,  and  that  three-quarters  of  a  million  sterling 
will  be  requisite  to  render  it  harmonious  in  its  new  abode.  He 
laments  that  it  contains  no  valuable  manuscripts,  which  to  students 
are  so  invaluable,  and  he  emphasises  the  fact  that  the  collection  is 
rich  only  in  books  from  the  years  1 450-1 600.  The  books  which 
come  after  1600  possess  little  real  value;  of  course,  prior  to  1450 
there  were  no  printed  books,  but  still  there  might  have  been  manu- 
scripts. To  people  in  general,  he  is  of  opinion  that  the  library  will 
be  but  a  nine  days'  wonder,  whilst  to  students  it  will  not  be  half  so 
useful  as  the  historical  collection  of  the  late  Mr.  Freeman,  which 
is  also  to  be  housed  in  Manchester.  Mr.  Freeman's  library  is  valued 
at  ;£^5oo,  and  that  of  Lord  Spencer  at  a  quarter  of  a  million  sterling. 
In  order  to  help  round  off  the  library,  Mr.  Quaritch  thinks  such 
manuscripts  as  the  Townley  Mysteries,  Chaucer,  and  Gower  MSS., 
the  Huntingfield  Salter,  an  illustrated  Hogarth,  with  a  great  variety 
of  original  drawings,  and  so  forth,  should  be  added,  to  render  the 
library  of  real  value  to  the  student,  as  well  as  instructive  and  useful 
to  the  general  public.  Then  a  reserve  fund  must  be  forthcoming  of 
;£"i  20,000  for  the  permanent  preservation  of  the  books  and  the 
building  in  which  they  are  housed.  When  this  is  done,  Mr. 
Quaritch  thinks  it  will  indeed  be  a  worthy  memorial  of  the  late  Mr. 
John  Rylands. 


The  "  Kilmarnock  "  Burns. 


THE  gradual  rise  in  the  price  given  for  copies  of  the  Kilmarnock 
edition  of  Burns's  poems,  which  consisted  of  only  612  copies, 
is  shown  by  the  following  notes  of  sales: — In  Edinburgh,  1858, 
£,1  I  OS.  was  given  for  a  copy;  Glasgow,  1859,  ;^8;  Edinburgh, 
1S69,  ;^io  and;£"i4;  Glasgow,  1871,  £\1 ;  Edinburgh,  1874, 
;^i9;  London,  1876,  ;^33  ;  London,  i88i,;^49;  1882,  ;^67  and 
;^73;  i888,;^86and;^iii;  1890,  ;£72,  ;£'ioo,  ;^io7,  and^i2o. 
In  1832  a  copy  was  sold  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  for  is.  6d.  ! 


A  Prayer-Book  of  Edward  VI.  for  Household  Use. 


^RITING  to  the  Academy  from  Blechingley  Rectory,   Mr. 
W.  C.  Bishop,  jun.,  says  : — 

I  have  noticed  a  copy  of  the  first  Prayer-book  of  King 
Edward  VI.  in  the  old  library  now  kept  in  the  vestry  of  the  parish 
church,  Reigate,  of  an  edition  which  I  have  never  before  seen,  and 
which  may  possess  some  interest  for  your  readers.  It  is  not  an 
ordinary  edition  of  the  Prayer-book  at  all,  but  a  special  form  of  it 
adapted  for  private  and  household  use,  designed  for  binding  up  with 
a  Bible,  and  containing  little  more  than  those  parts  actually  needed 
for  the  private  recitation  of  Mattins,  Evensong,  and  Litany. 

The  volume  containing  it  is  a  quarto,  printed  in  two  columns, 
which  now  begins  with  "A  Table  of  the  Principal  matters  conteyned 
in  the  Byble,  in  which  the  Readers  maye  fynde  and  practise  many 
commune  places  "  (two  sheets,  last  leaf  blank).  Then  follows  the 
Prayer-book  (three  sheets,  A.  B.  C.  fols.  1-12).  There  appears 
never  to  have  been  any  title  page,  table  of  Psalms,  or  Calendar  ;  but 
folio  I  begins  with  "  The  Order  of  Common  Prayer,  for  Mattins  and 
Evensonge  thorowe  oute  the  whole  yere.  ^  Here  after  foloweth  a 
general  rule  for  the  seruice  of  the  whole  yeare,  wherein  everye  man 
may  knowe  as  wel  the  proper  service  appoynted  for  the  princypall 
feastes  of  the  yeare,  as  also  all  Sondayes  and  other  dayes  of  the 
yeare ;  as  it  is  appoynted  by  the  Table  and  Kalender  ordayned  for 
the  same.  An  order  for  Matyns  daylye  through  the  yeare,  to 
begynne  with  the  Lordes  prayer  called  the  Fater  nosier^  as 
foloweth." 

Then  follows  the  Mattins  (beginning  with  the  Lord's  Prayer),  as 
in  the  ordinary  editions,  but  the  rubric  is  altered,  as  will  be  described 
presently.     Mattins  is  followed  by  Evensong  and  Athanasian  Creed. 


34 


A  PRAYER-BOOK  OF  EDWARD   VI, 


Then  comes  the  Proper  of  the  Season  and  of  the  Saints,  without 
heading,  except  "  H  The  fyrste  Sonday  in  Aduente,"  but  having  the 
Epistles  and  Gospels  omitted  and  also  the  Introits,  although  the 
titles  of  the  Introits  are  given,  e.g.,  "  Beatus  vir  Psalm  i."  At  the 
end  of  this  part,  without  any  space  left  in  the  printing,  follows  this 
rubric  (from  the  Communion  Service),  "Then  shall  folowe  the 
collecte  of  the  daye,  with  one  of  these  ii.  collectes  folowynge  for  the 
kynge"  ;  and  then  the  two  collects  are  given  in  full.  Then  follows 
"  A  generall  confession  to  be  made  before  we  recey ve  the  holy  Com- 
munion. Almyghtye  God,  father  of,  &c.  A  prayer  to  be  sayde 
before  the  receyuung  of  the  holye  communion.  We  do  not 
presume,  &c.  A  thankesgeuyng  unto  God  after  the  recyuynge 
of  the  hoyle  Communion.  Almyghtye  and  everlyvynge  God,  &c. 
U  The  Letany  and  Suffrages.  O  God  the  Father,  &c.  IT  Im- 
printed at  London  by  Nycholas  Hyll  for  Abraham  Veale, 
dwelling  in  Pauls  churche  yarde  at  the  sygne  of  the  Lambe.' 
Then  follows  the  Bible,  with  a  fresh  registration  (no  title). 
There  is  a  title  before  the  Psalms — "  The  thyrd  part  of  the 
Byble  contaynynge  these  bookes :  the  Psalter,  the  Proverbs, 
Ecclesiastes,  Cantica  Canticorum,  the  Prophets,  Esay,  &c.";  and 
at  the  end  "  A  Table  to  fynde  the  Epistle  and  Gospel  usually  read 
in  the  Church." 

That  this  edition  of  the  Prayer-book  was  intended  for  private  and 
household  use  is  shown  not  only  by  the  omission  of  the  Communion 
Service  and  occasional  offices,  but  by  the  rubrics,  which  are  syste- 
matically altered  throughout  to  suit  the  circumstances  of  lay  people 
who  wished  to  say  the  daily  services  at  home.  All  mention  of  the 
priest  or  clerks  is  omitted,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  opening  rubrics 
which  I  give  above;  for  example,  instead  of  "Priest"  and 
"  Aunswere,"  this  edition  uniformly  reads  "  Versicle  "  and  "Aun- 
swere."  The  directions  that  the  minister  shall  read  the  lessons 
with  a  loud  voice,  that  he  shall  turn  himself  so  as  he  may  best  be 
heard,  and  that  the  lessons  shall  be  sung  in  a  plain  tune — all  these 
are  omitted. 

The  Psalter  was,  of  course,  to  be  found  in  the  Bible ;  but  it  is 
curious  that  there  should  be  no  Table  of  Psalms  nor  Calendar  with 
the  lessons,  especially  as  some  such  "  general  rule  "  is  alluded  to  at 
the  beginning  of  the  book. 

In  conclusion,  I  must  ask  pardon  for  any  mistakes  which  may  be 
found  in  this  description,  as  I  had  but  a  short  time  at  my  disposal  in 
which  to  examine  the  book  and  to  make  notes,  and  am  anything  but 
a  practised  bibliographer. 


Books  I  Have  Rambled  With. 


HEN  I  go  away  from  my  bookshelves  of  a  night,  if  it  is  only 
to  go  through  the  streets,  or  to  watch  a  sunset  down  beyond 
the  trees,  I  usually  put  a  book  in  my  pocket  with  the  pre- 
text that  I  might  be  detained  somewhere,  and  might  have  a  half-hour 
to  while  away  with  it ;  but  with  the  real  motive  of  carrying  a  token 
of  that  nook  where  so  much  pleasure  lies  into  those  out-of-door 
places  where  other  and  different  entertainment  awaits  me.  I  have 
gone  so  far,  to  tell  truth,  that  I  buy  books  adapted  to  the  size  of  my 
well-bagged  pockets. 

There  are  two  or  three  books  so  obtained  and  so  treated  in  the 
past  years  which  have  come  to  have  a  value  far  above  that  of  their 
contents,  precious  as  that  is.  There  is  a  battered  and  misshapen 
"  Golden  Treasury,"  which  has  been  the  companion  of  many  a  good 
fellow  in  overland  rambling,  and  has  borne  away  upon  its  surface 
and  the  browned  edges  of  its  leaves  a  whole  diary  of  knobs  and  dis- 
colourations.  What  poem  within  the  covers  could  do  more  than 
this  towards  peopling  "  that  inward  eye,  which  is  the  bliss  of  soli- 
tude," with  visionary  images  ?  There  is  a  rough  sketch  on  its 
first  blank  leaf  which  talks  pleasantly  to  me  of  a  walk  begun  before 
dawn  in  the  early  spring.  The  ''subject"  is  a  tall  figure  in  very 
loose  dress,  wearing  a  Tarn  o'Shanter  hat,  and  drawing,  with  atten- 
tive face  pointing  up  a  hilly  road.  He  is  sketching — I  remember, 
with  this  talisman  before  me — a  little  toll-house  so  thickly  em- 
bowered in  vines  that  its  brick  chimney  and  an  angle  or  two  of  its 
frame  structure  alone  escaped  the  amiable  embrace  of  the  leaves. 
How  fresh  and  green  it  looked  in  the  early  sunlight !     Afterwards 


86 


BOOKS  I  HA  VE  RAMBLED  WITH. 


we  lay  at  full  length  in  the  midst  of  the  rain-washed  turnpike — un- 
sullied by  a  single  wheel  on  that  quiet  Sunday  morning — and  gazed 
upwards  through  the  depths  of  foliage,  thoughtful  and  tired  with  night 
travel.  But  each  stain  or  pencilled  line  has  its  endeared  association, 
and  there  are  a  hundred  unnumbered  leaves  not  in  the  contents  of 
my  "  Golden  Treasury." 

There  is  another  book  which  I  must  take  down  from  its  shelf  and 
read  the  cover  of  to  you.  It  is  a  copy  of  "White  of  Selborne," 
which  has  not  been  so  much  out-of-doors  as  the  "  Golden  Treasury," 
but  which  yet  has  "  places  of  nestling  green  "  scattered  all  over  its 
blue  boards.  Gilbert  White,  with  his  wise  remarks  on  the  habits 
of  bats,  his  controversy  over  the  flight  of  swallows,  and  his  careful 
observations  on  the  weather — his  love,  in  short,  of  the  *'  great  round- 
about " — could  he  have  had  more  pleasant  profit  out  of  his  rambles 
by  Wolmer  Pond  ?  His  delightful  record  of  wholesome  days  spent 
in  companionship  with  birds — wandered  away  in  the  leafy  closes  of 
Enghsh  woods ;  devoted  to  insect  and  beast  with  kindly  curiosity — 
his  "  Natural  History  of  Selborne "  has  few  charms  between  its 
covers  finer  than  those  which  hover  about  the  surfaces  of  my  well- 
worn  copy. 

A  tiny  specimen  of  "The  Complete  Angler"  has  also  had  its 
experiences  in  my  company.  It  is  a  compact  little  volume,  like 
good  Isaac  Walton  himself,  in  its  lustiness  and  ability  to  enjoy  itself 
by  streamsides.  Its  very  diminutiveness  is  of  course  a  friendly 
characteristic  to  me.  But,  withal,  it  has  a  good  clear  face  of  type 
which  looks  into  your  eyes  in  so  honest,  irresistible  a  way  that  you 
are  bound  to  take  it  with  you  if  sport  be  on  foot  with  some  "  brother 
of  the  angle."  It  is  like  a  companionable  httle  pug  or  Skye  terrier 
which  has  an  instinct  that  some  jaunt  is  contemplated,  and  dances 
into  your  lap,  with  appealing  eyes  and  placative  nestling  nose,  eager 
for  the  road.  To  leave  such  a  booklet  behind  would  be  to  leave  a 
shade  of  blue  out  of  the  sky,  a  tint  of  emerald  out  of  the  leaves. 
To  take  it  along  is  to  take  "  a  procurer  of  contentedness  " — a  skein 
of  attachment  to  that  gasHt  corner  where  it  rests  contemplative  of 
indoor  happiness,  or  is  sometimes  taken  down  to  bring  green  boughs 
and  running  streams  across  the  snow  of  winter. 

How  it  has  made  after-dinner  tranquillity  for  us  in  remote  inns  ! 
There  is  a  whole  day's  pleasure  in  that  broken  corner ;  a  morning's 
scene  of  dripping  leaves  and  damp  brown  roads  lies  there  in  the  long 
scratch  on  the  back.  And  here — from  dalliance  with  the  luncheon 
cheese — is  a  ring  of  stain  which  holds  a  picture  of  a  noisy  dam  and 
the  canal  locks  in  its  circumference.     Could  any  mere  diary  of  the 


II 


BOOKS  I  HA  VE  RAMBLED   WITH,  87 

"  yesterday  went  a-fishing  "  character  ever  recall  to  me  those  great 
stone  barriers  with  the  yellow  houses  atop ;  the  tumbling  waters  with 
their  consequent  row  of  fishermen  above  and  the  slanted  lines  tugging 
with  the  foam  reaching  below ;  the  blatant  din  of  the  onward  canal 
boat ;  or  the  pretty  nymph  in  blue  boating  dress  who  watched  so 
attentively  the  operation  of  "locking  "  that  my  own  attractive  tresses 
were  unavailing  ?  No ;  such  pictures  are  the  possession  of  the  backs 
of  books — they  like  the  air  and  light,  and  will  not  submit  to  be 
pencilled  on  inner  pages  in  company  with  the  weather. 

Harrison  S.  Morris. 


The  Buckley  Library. 

THE  most  important  book  sale  of  the  present  season  will,  so  far 
as  can  now  be  seen,  be  that  of  the  library  of  the  late  Rev.  W. 
E.  Buckley,  rector  of  Middleton  Cheney,  Banbury.  It  will  occupy 
about  thirty  days,  and  will  commence  next  month  at  Messrs.  Sotheby's. 
In  the  matter  of  books  printed  at  or  relating  to  Oxford  there  is 
believed  to  be  no  private  library  in  existence  at  all  comparable  with 
it,  whilst  many  of  the  items  are  of  great  rarity  and  are  absent  from 
the  public  collections  where  one  would  expect  to  find  them.  In 
large-paper  editions  of  the  classics  this  library  is  also  singularly 
rich,  whilst  the  late  owner's  wide  learning  is  amply  testified  by  the 
fact  that  his  books  include  representative  examples  in  nearly  all 
languages.  The  late  Mr.  Buckley  was  a  genuine  book-lover,  and 
began  acquiring  when  a  lad  at  Eton. 


88 


MISCELLANEA. 
Books  of  Lace  Patterns. 


OF  the  numerous  sections  into  which  the  subject-matter  of  books 
might  be  divided,  few  are  more  curious  or  more  beautiful 
than  those  of  lace  patterns.  The  best  examples,  which  appeared, 
during  the  sixteenth  century,  are  also  among  the  rarest  of  biblio- 
graphical treasures,  and  a  mere  handful  of  these  are  worth  a  small 
fortune.  It  is  only  within  the  last  few  years  that  they  have  become 
objects  of  keen  competition  among  collectors,  and  many  of  them 
have  been  reproduced  in  facsimile.  Even  in  this  counterfeit  state 
these  little  brochures  sell  in  the  auction-room  for  from  jQ\  to^^*!  los. 
each.  Among  thirteen  of  the  original  editions  which  came  up  for 
sale  in  December  last  at  Sotheby's,  at  least  four  were  of  excessive 
rarity,  two  of  them  being  quite  unknown  to  Brunet ;  and  of  another, 
only  two  examples  appear  to  be  known,  of  which  one  was  in  the 
library  of  Baron  James  de  Rothschild.  The  best  of  the  examples 
bear  the  imprint  of  Venice,  and  range  in  date  between  the  second 
and  third  quarters  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  most  notable  of 
the  two  examples  with  French  titles,  Vinciolo's  "  Singuliers  et 
Nouveaux  Pourtraicts  pour  toutes  sortes  d'Ouvrages  de  Lingerie," 
was  issued  at  Turin  in  1589,  and  in  addition  to  its  112  patterns  of 
lace,  contains  woodcut  portraits  of  Henri  III.  and  Queen  Louise  de 
Lorraine.  A  second  edition  of  this  book,  with  the  same  portraits,^ 
was  issued  in  Paris  nine  years  later.  Perhaps  the  most  beautiful  of 
the  Italian  examples  is  Cesare  Vecellio's  "  Corona  delle  nobili  et 
Virtuose  Donne,"  the  four  parts  of  which  appeared  at  Venice  1591-92, 
and  is  especially  valuable  on  account  of  the  woodcut  of  women  at 
work.  This  book  has  109  exquisite  designs  for  lace,  and  the  last 
copy  sold  realised  i,26of.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  a  more 
beautiful  Christmas  present  for  a  lady  than  one  of  these  books,  but 
unfortunately  their  rarity  and  expensiveness  place  them  quite  beyond 
the  reach  of  ordinary  bookbuyers,  for  the  fifteen  examples  (among 
which  were  two  reprints)  fetched  a  lump  sum  of  ;^i65,  and  were  all 
knocked  down  to  one  private  buyer. 


An  Antiquary  of  the  Last  Century.— I. 

[The  exceedingly  interesting  letters  which  follow  are  copied  from 
the  originals  in  the  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford,  and  were  written  by 
the  well-known  literary  antiquary,  Thomas  Hearne,  who  was  born  in 
1678  and  died  in  1735.  They  reflect  in  a  very  plain  and  straight- 
forward manner  the  vicissitudes  of  an  industrious  man  of  letters  in 
the  early  part  of  the  last  century.  Not  a  little  of  their  piquancy  lie 
in  the  quaintness  of  the  diction,  which  it  has  not  been  thought 
necessary  to  alter.  As  a  chapter  in  the  History  of  English  Book- 
making,  they  are,  we  think,  quite  with  ut  a  rival. — Ed.] 

I.     To  Dr.  Richard Mead^  January  20,  17 14-15. 

"  Yesterday  the  University  did  me  the  honour  of  chosing  me 
architypographus  and  superior  beadle  of  the  civil  law.  My  com- 
petitor, Mr.  Terry,  had  78  votes,  and  myself  179.  I  return  you  my 
hearty  thanks  for  the  great  concern  you  showed  for  me  on  this 
account.  I  should  have  desired  some  letters  from  you  in  my  behalf 
had  I  known  time  enough  of  the  day  of  election.  I  am,  with  my 
best  respects  to  your  excellent  brother,  &c." 

2.     To  T.  jRawlmso?t,  March  14,  17 15-16. 

"...  The  vice-ch.  and  several  others  have  not  used  me  very 
worthily.  The  vice-chancellor  at  the  meeting  in  the  library 
threatened  twice,  in  a  great  passion,  to  send  me  to  the  castle.  He 
and  some  others  were  angry  at  the  words  in  the  preface  to  Rowse,^ 

^  Joannis  Rossi  Antiquarii  Warwicensis  Hist.  Reg.  Anglice. 

12 


90         AN  ANTIQ  UAR  Y  OF  THE  LAST  CENTUR  Y, 

p.  xii.  about  Orator  Sarisb.,  as  also  those  in  p.  ix.  about  St.  Mildred's 
Ch.  and  those  in  p.  xx.  about  Bp.  Fleetwood  (who  hath  been  very 
generous  to  me)  and  those  in  p.  xxi.  about  the  architypographus. 
They  are  withal  angry  at  my  note  in  p.  222,  and  at  some  other 
things.  These  men  will  not  let  me  be  either  grateful,  or  in  a  modest 
manner  to  express  my  sentiments." 

3.     To  the  Satney  March  27,  17 16. 

"  Just  now  I  received  your  note-books,  M.  and  CC.  I  had  before 
delivered  to  Mr.  Clements  L.  I  find  in  them  the  five  shillings,  viz. 
four  shiUings  for  Mr.  Midleton's  subscription,  and  one  shilling  that 
was  omitted.  I  haye  only  ninety-eight  subscribers  as  yet.  There 
are  very  few  in  Oxford.  I  print  192  copies.  The  book  goes  on 
apace,  ^  for  though  I  am  forced  to  skulk  and  to  hide  myself  in  the 
country  (whither  I  am  now  going  all  day),  yet  I  come  home  in  the 
evening,  on  purpose  to  correct  the  press.  I  shall  think  of  tran- 
scribing Aluredus  in  a  little  time.  I  hope  to  have  other  MSS.  of  our 
history  either  from  yourself  or  others.  Then  I  shall  not  give  occa- 
sion to  our  illiterate  Heads  of  hindering  me  from  transcribing  out  of 
Bodley.  I  thought  it  had  been  a  great  piece  of  service  both  to  the 
library  and  to  learning  to  have  MSS.  published  that  are  worth  seeing 
the  light.  But  the  truth  of  it  is,  whereas  they  do  nothing  this  way 
themselves  they  think  it  a  great  reproach  (as  without  doubt  it  is)  to 
themselves,  that  others  should  do  anything  in  that  way.  We  want 
Archbishop  Laud,  &c.  I  am  mightily  pleased  with  your  notes. 
Nor  do  I  think  that  the  accounts  of  your  maps  and  prints  are  use- 
less.    I  can  make  great  use  of  them,  and  so  may  others." 


4.     To  the  Same,  3fay  26,  17 16. 

"...  Since  that  Mr.  Murray  hath  delivered  me  your  letter  of  the 
19th  inst.,  I  have  put  you  down  for  twelve  1.  and  six  sm.  of  Alure- 
dus, though  if  the  large  should  not  hold  out  I  must  request  some 
friends  to  be  contented  with  small. 

"  Aluredus,  as  I  have  told  you  already,  will  be  an  excellent  book. 
It  will  be  much  for  your  honour,  and  add  to  the  reputation  you  have 
deservedly  established  already.  I  shall  have  another  opportunity  of 
expressing  my  gratitude  to  you  in  my  preface. 

"  I  am  much  obliged  to  Mr.  Peters  for  his  present  of  excellent 
tobacco.     I  met  with  it  upon  my  return  from  the  ruins  of  Godstowe, 

^  "  Livius  Foro-Juliensis." 


AN  ANTIQUARY  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY.         91 

where  I  often   refresh   myself,  and  think   upon    yourself  and   the 
excellent  Dr.  Mead  and  his  brother,  and  other  friends." 

5.      To  the  Same^  April  i,  171 7. 

"...  'Twas  with  very  great  satisfaction  that  I  read  over  your  last 
letter,  with  which  I  received  some  books  that  you  lent  me.  Your 
opinion  is  excellent.  I  have  returned  my  answer  that  I  cannot  think 
of  a  journey  at  present,  Camden  being  in  the  press,  and  my  presence 
absolutely  necessary  here.  Indeed,  the  proposal  was  so  couched,  as 
that  I  might  return  when  I  pleased  if  I  should  not  like.  But  there 
is  no  doubt  but  such  a  return  would  disoblige.  Besides,  perhaps 
upon  my  absence,  my  chamber  might  be  seized  upon,  or  at  least 
rifled.  I  will  not  rely  upon  uncertainties.  But  then  there  is  one 
thing  which  I  must  provide  against  here,  and  that  is  the  security  of 
my  papers  in  case  of  mortality.  I  must  think  of  some  proper  per^ 
son  to  leave  them  to  in  that  case.  I  know  of  no  one  more  proper 
than  yourself.  You  can  give  me  some  advice  in  this  momentous 
affair.  I  have  a  great  number  of  things  that  I  would  have  carefully 
transmitted  to  posterity,  by  some  person  of  true  integrity;  and 
unless  I  make  provision,  if  I  should  die  they  may  be  seized  upon 
and  embezzled.  You  see  I  disclose  my  heart  to  you,  and  you  will 
make  a  right  use  of  it. 

"  I  do  not  send  you  my  list  now  because  there  is  so  little  addition 
the  last  month." 

6.      To  the  Same,  April  16,  171 7. 

' '  I  heartily  thank  you  for  your  good  advice  about  my  papers.  But 
what  place  to  pitch  upon  I  cannot  tell.  Nor  indeed  can  I  be  from 
them,  my  own  remarks  (made  for  many  years)  being  of  daily  use  to 
me.  I  do  not  design  to  leave  my  chamber  here,  it  being  my  best 
refuge  at  present.  Some  time  ago  I  was  warned  by  two  or  three 
particular  friends  to  take  care  of  my  collections.  For  (said  they)  it 
hath  been  rumoured  that  the  V.  Chancellor  (Dr.  Baron)  hath  a  design 
to  search  your  room.  It  was  a  good  caution.  And  what  reason  I 
have  not  to  trust  the  V.  Chanc.  may  appear  from  former  practices. 
His  honesty  is  manifest  from  the  order  before  Mr.  Dod's  weak,  dull 
sermon.  I  am  very  glad  you  will  be  here  in  the  approaching  holy- 
days.  I  shall  stay  at  home  on  purpose  to  wait  upon  you.  Now  the 
weather  begins  to  grow  better  I  shall  think  of  walking  out  sometimes. 
I  have  a  mind  to  walk  to  Creekdale.  There  is  a  constant  tradition 
that  our  University  was  first  settled  there,  and  many  chronicles  con- 


92         AN  ANTIQUARY  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY. 

firm  the  tradition.  I  hear  of  a  passage  to  the  same  purpose  in  Mr. 
Thin's  account  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury.  The  said  account 
is  printed  in  the  castrated  sheets  of  HoUingshede,  I  shall  consider 
the  matter  further  hereafter.  I  defer  what  I  have  further  to  say  till 
our  meeting.     I  long  till  the  time  comes,  and  am,  &c." 


7.     To  the  Same,  April  21,  17 18. 


"  'Tis  now  a  pretty  while  since  I  writ  to  you.  I  find,  by  some 
intelligence,  that  I  am  still  in  great  danger  of  being  sent  to  the  castle 
the  2d  of  May  next,  unless  further  application  be  made  to  prevent  it. 
But  I  know  not  what  method  to  take.  I  have  writ  to  our  great 
friend  Dr.  Mead,  to  let  him  know  the  danger.  I  suppose  you  have 
some  interest  with  your  President,  Dr.  De  Laune.  It  may  be  if  a 
letter  were  written  by  some  friend  to  him  it  might  be  of  service.  Sir 
Thomas  Sebright  has  writ  to  the  V.  Chancellor  about  Neubrigensis. 
Mr.  Hunt  of  Balliol  delivered  the  letter.  But  the  V.  Chancellor 
answered  I  should  do  nothing  till  I  had  made  satisfaction.  I  do  not 
find  that  they  can  produce  any  precedents  to  justify  the  methods  of 
proceeding  against  me.  I  am  sure  'tis  unreasonable,  in  a  criminal 
case,  to  insist  upon  answering  on  oath  to  interrogatories,  nor  can  I 
think  that  they  would  have  put  it  in  practice  themselves.  It  is 
withal  contrary  to  the  method  mentioned  in  the  articles  exhibited 
against  me,  where  an  answer  in  writing  is  demanded.  Besides,  if  I 
am  not  mistaken,  they  have  extended  their  power  too  far  in  pretend- 
ing to  prosecute  me,  without  so  much  as  pretending  that  any 
particular  person  is  injured,  and  without  considering  that  I  have 
not  been  a  member  of  any  college  or  hall  for  these  two  years. 
Ant.  a  Wood's  case  was  difi"erent  from  mine.  An  action  of  defama- 
tion was  brought  against  him  by  a  particular  person  that  pretended 
injury,  though  after  all  he  had  very  hard  measure." 


"  I  was  not  sent  to  the  castle  as  I  expected  last  Friday.  For  the 
matter  about  answering  on  oath  to  interrogatories  was  quite  dropt. 
The  V.  Chancellor  sat  himself.  This  point  gained  is  very  material. 
Yet  those  who  were  for  putting  the  oath  are  pleased  now  to  say  they 
never  designed  any  such  thing.  Thus  they  act  backwards  and  for- 
wards. I  thought  the  whole  aifair  would  have  been  now  ended, 
especially  since  I  was  willing  that  sentence  should  be  given  without 
further  trouble,  the  V.  Chancellor  being  both  prosecutor  and  judge. 
But  this  was  denied,  and  I  was  ordered  to  bring  in  an  answer  next 
Friday.     I  had  an  answer  then  by  me.     But  'twas  rejected  because 


AN  ANTIQUARY  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY.        93 

not  written  upon  stampt  paper,  which  should  have  been  done  had  I 
expected  that  they  would  have  insisted  upon  an  answer  in  writing. 
The  answer  is  negative,  and  so  I  have  deHvered  it  to  my  proctor.  I 
deny  the  things  charged  upon  me  in  the  articles,  which  are  a  down- 
right libel.  I  leave  it  to  them  to  prove  that  I  writ  what  is  charged 
there.  I  take  this  method,  because  I  was  so  advised  formerly,  being 
assured  that  if  I  owned  anything  I  must  look  for  the  worst,  there 
being  no  favour  to  be  expected.  I  had  in  my  pocket  a  declaration 
and  submission,  which  I  desired  of  the  V.  Chancellor  that  I  might 
read.  But  this  was  also  denied.  The  V.  Chancellor  said  nothing 
would  do  but  to  confess  all  to  be  true  charged  upon  me  in  the 
articles.  But  this  must  never  be  expected,  the  whole,  as  I  said 
before,  being  a  libel,  and  therefore  false.  The  declaration  and  sub- 
mission I  had  in  my  pocket  is  as  follows  : 

"  '  The  Declaration  and  submission  of  Thomas  Hearne^  M.A. 

"  '  I  Thomas  Hearne,  M.A.,  do  hereby  declare,  that  out  of  a  prin- 
ciple of  doing  service  to  the  learned  world,  and  honour  to  my 
country,  I  have  published  several  books ;  that  I  have  had  antiquity 
and  truth  (which  I  am  very  sorry  any  one  is  displeased  at)  in  my 
view,  and  a  particular  regard  to  those  remarkable  words  of  TuUy, 
"  Ne  quid  falsi  dicere  audeat,  ne  quid  veri  non  audeat,"  in  all  my 
writings ;  that  I  never  designed  to  defame,  slur,  or  any  otherwise 
abuse  (as  some  have  insinuated)  either  the  University  of  Oxford  (to 
which  I  am  eternally  obliged,  and  which  I  believe  to  be  in  a  very 
flourishing  condition)  or  its  founders  and  benefactors,  or  any  par- 
ticular member  of  it;  that  I  am  ready  to  correct  whatever  shall 
appear  to  me  to  be  wrong  in  the  things  which  I  have  either  written 
or  published :  and  that  I  submit  myself  to  the  censure  of  impartial 
and  judicious  readers. 

'''May  2d,  1718.' 

"  I  have  written  to  Dr.  Mead  to  know  his  opinion  whether  I  may 
now  send  Neubrigensis  to  London  to  be  printed.  I  expect  no  ease 
here.  Mahce  will  still  work.  I  heartily  thank  you  for  the  provision 
you  are  making  for  me  either  in  London  or  ten  miles  from  it.  I 
believe  it  will  be  more  agreeable  to  my  health  to  be  out  of  the  city, 
and  therefore  I  should  rather  fix  upon  the  place  ten  miles  from  it. 
I  suppose  sheets  from  the  press  may  easily  be  sent  thither.  This 
matter  must  be  managed  very  privately,  and  I  must  be  assured  of  all 
security  when  I  coii.e  thither  before  I  venture,  for  I  saw  a  letter 


94        AN  ANTIQUAR  V  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY. 


lately,  in  which  it  was  said  that  if  I  presumed  to  leave  Oxford,  both  my 
open  enemies  and  pretended  friends  would  be  exasperated  to  that 
degree,  that  they  would  do  me  all  mischief  that  possibly  they  could. 
''May  4th,  1718. 

"  I  am  apprehensive  that  whether  they  can  prove  it  or  not  they 
will  take  it  for  granted  that  I  wish  the  things  charged  in  the  articles, 
and  that  then  they  will  insist  upon  another  answer,  and  upon  my 
refusing  to  give  it  (for  to  what  purpose  should  I  give  answer  upon 
answer,  when  they  are  both  accusers  and  judges  ?)  they  will  send  me 
to  the  castle  for  contumacy." 


8.      To  the  Same^  January  15,  1719-20. 

"All  things  came  safe,  and  I  thank  you.  I  have  sent  you  dis- 
tinct receipts  for  the  money.  I  took  \s.  6d.  of  the  over-plus,  so  now 
there  is  only  sixpence  on  that  account  standing.  I  designed  to  have 
sent  you  a  box,  of  the  books  you  sent  me,  on  last  Tuesday ;  but 
walking  out  of  town  I  returned  too  late  to  deliver  it,  so  it  must  lay 
till  next  week,  when  Sprott  will  also  come  to  you.  'Tis  kind  of  my 
Lord  Pembroke.  But  what  means  the  other  Lord  you  mention? 
You  certainly  returned  him  a  very  good  answer.  Can  I  make  use  of 
better  MSS.  than  I  can  come  at  ?  Why  did  he  not  tell  the  names  of 
the  better  MSS.  he  would  have  me  print,  and  if  he  had  done  so,  why 
does  not  he  and  others  let  me  have  them?  Do  they  think  to  be 
looked  upon  as  encouragers  and  great  patrons  of  learning,  for  stifling 
their  MSS.  if  they  have  them  ?  Or  do  they  think  that  scholars  must 
cringe,  and  beg,  and  use  all  the  pitiful,  paltry,  mean  tricks  to  get 
the  loan  of  them,  as  they  will  to  keep  places  and  to  acquire  wealth  ? 
I  cannot  do  this.  I  will  make  use  of  the  MSS.  and  books  that  come 
in  an  easy  fair  way  (for  I  will  not,  while  I  am  serving  the  public, 
sneak),  and  if  they  will  publish  better,  in  God's  name  let  them  do  it." 

9.     To  Mr.  Frewin,^  October  i,  1723. 

**I  received  the  box  and  the  broken  books  in  it,  and  I  thank  you. 
I  shall  observe  the  secret  you  enjoin,  with  respect  to  the  sheets  of 
your  catalogue.  But  I  am  surprised  to  find  you  soothing  one,  that 
honest  men  have  reason  to  abhor.  Mentioning  the  Parochial  Anti- 
quities, you  say,  O  si  sic  omnia.  The  title  had  been  enough,  without 
saying  a  word  more.  Methinks  you  should  print  the  leaf  over  again, 
and  leave  out  the  compliment.     However,  whatever  you  do,  I  shall 

^  A  bookseller  in  London. 


AN  ANTIQ  UAR  V  OF  THE  LAST  CENTUR  V.         95 

beg  leave,  upon  occasion  of  your  soothing  words  (for  which,  I  sup- 
pose, you  imagine  the  book  will  bring  the  more  money)  to  send  you 
a  memorandum,  viz. 

"  AVhen  the  author  first  began  this  book,  he  proposed  about  four 
or  five  sheets,  and,  under  pretence  that  it  should  be  a  small  book,  he 
prevailed  with  the  University  to  print  it.  But  when  the  University 
found  that  it  swelled  to  a  great  thing,  they  would  go  on  no  farther. 
So  that  only  one  vol.  came  out,  whereas,  had  the  author  went  on  in 
the  method  he  took  of  publishing  all  the  farrago  he  met  with,  it 
would  have  made  a  vast  deal  more,  especially  considering  that  mate- 
rials increased  the  lower  he  came.  When  it  came  out  it  was  a  drug, 
and  sold  for  waste  paper,  and  was  looked  upon  as  such  by  excellent 
judges.  One  of  the  best  scholars  and  judges  of  books  I  ever  knew 
(Dr.  Aldrich,  late  Dean  of  Ch.  Church),  threw  it  among  his  offal 
books,  as  waste  paper,  and  there  I  saw  it  unbound,  lying  upon  the 
floor,  after  his  death.  It  is  one  of  the  most  inaccurate  things  I  have 
seen.  Some  years  ago,  when  I  examined  a  place,  printed  in  it,  with 
the  MS.  he  had  taken  it  from,  I  found  it  all  wrong,  and  several 
strange  faults  in  every  line.  His  derivation  of  Amersden  from 
Ambrosden  is  absurd.  It  was  so  called  from  the  marshiness  of  the 
place,  not  from  Ambrosius.  As  ridiculous  is  it  to  derive  Bicester 
from  Birinus.  It  was  called  from  its  situation  upon  the  river  Breurn 
or  Bourn.  The  true  writing,  therefore,  is  Bruerncester  or  Bourn- 
cester.  The  book  was  all  transcribed,  and  the  several  papers 
digested  and  methodised  for  the  press,  by  Mr.  James  Gibson,  Minis- 
ter of  Wootton  Underwood,  near  Brill,  in  Bucks,  who  speaks  with 
the  greatest  indignation  against  K.,  says  that  he  never  rewarded  him 
for  his  great  pains,  that  he  set  up  for  an  Antiquary  merely  to  get  a 
httle  money  and  to  carry  a  cause  at  Amersden.  Indeed  this  I  know 
full  well,  that  the  best  of  all  the  stock  of  his  antiquities  is  nothing  but 
the  gleanings  of  Dr.  Hutton's  papers.  So  much  with  respect  to  your 
O  si  sic  omnia,  which  certainly  you  would  not  have  said,  had  you 
considered  what  hath  been  told  to  you  by,  &c." 

To  the  Same,  Deceinber  13,  1723. 

"  'Tis  some  time  ago  since  I  received  the  second  part  of  your  cata- 
logue, with  the  box  and  things  in  it,  for  all  which  I  thank  you.  You 
say  the  book  I  spoke  of  will  still  be  looked  upon  as  goodness.  I  do 
not  doubt  so.  So  too  will  his  other  things,  especially  if  honest  men 
begin  once  to  extol  them.  Such  characters  will  make  those  vile 
writers  proud.     You  know  his  letters  about  honest  Bishop  Merkes. 


96        AN  ANTIQ  UAR  Y  OF  THE  LAST  CENTUR  V. 


n 


Why  don't  you  say,  O  si  sic  Omnia  !  of  them  too  ?  Since  he  is 
known  to  be  such  a  writer,  things  should  be  well  weighed  before  he 
be  praised.  I  should  have  told  you  before  that  the  index  was  drawn 
up  by  one  of  Corpus  Christi,  viz.  his  brother  Basil  Kennett,  who  was 
a  modest,  humble,  learned  man,  so  that  one  would  think  they  had 
been  begot  by  two  different  men ;  and  that  the  glossary  was  in  a  good 
measure  taken  from  some  MSS.  notes  in  the  copy  of  Skinner's 
Etymologicon,  that  belonged  to  Dr.  Mill.  The  text  of  Robert  of 
Glou.  is  all  printed,  and  the  appendix  is  now  doing.  I  like  your  way 
of  putting  little  notes  in  your  printed  catalogues,  nor  do  I  at  all  dis- 
prove the  titles  being  at  large,  provided  it  be  of  advantage  to  the 
honest  collector  of  those  books,   whom  I  wish  I  could  see  once 


more. 


{To  be  concluded.^ 


Our   Note   Book. 


PLAISANTE, 

ET    lOYEVSE 

hiftoyre  du  grand 

Gcant  Gargantua. 

Piochsincmentreueue  &  de  beaucoup 
augmcncic  par  I'Auheut  mc(mc. 


A  Valence, 

Ch6  Claude  La  YiU'e. 

1547 

edition,  however,  the  copious,  racy  vocabulary 

13 


In  the  fourth  volume 
of   The    Bookworm 
(p.   152),  we  gave  a 
brief  account   of  the 
first  English  translator 
of  Rabelais.     We  are 
glad  now  to  have  the 
opportunity  of  calling 
attention   to    a     new 
edition  of  this  Anglo- 
French  classic,  issued 
by  Messrs.  Lawrence 
&  Bullen,   who  have 
kindly  allowed  us  to 
reproduce  a  facsimile 
of   the    title-page    of 
thehttle  i6mo  edition 
printed  at  Valence  in 
1547,  in  two  volumes. 
This    impression    in- 
cluded the  first  three 
books,  and  a  part  of 
the    fourth,   and,    al- 
though  an  extremely 
poor  specimen  of  typo- 
graphy, is  very  rare. 
As  regards  the  English 
of  Urquhart,  and  the 


98  OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 

gusto  and  swing  of  the  rollicking  narrative,  will  for  all  time  render 
it  a  prime  favourite  with  all  liberal-minded  readers.  Messrs. 
Lawrence  &  Bullen  have  certainly  dealt  handsomely  with  both 
Rabelais  and  Sir  Thomas  Urquhart.  They  invited  a  distinguished 
French  artist,  M.  L.  Chalon,  to  paint  a  series  of  oil  pictures,  which 
have  been  reproduced  by  Dujardin,  the  originals  having  attracted 
a  good  deal  of  attention  when  exhibited  at  the  Cercle  Artistique, 
Paris,  a  few  months  ago.  In  addition  to  this  the  publishers  have 
given  facsimilies  of  the  title-pages  of  a  number  of  the  earlier  French 
editions,  a  phase  which  adds  greatly  to  the  value  and  interest  of  the 
book.  Prefixed  to  the  translation  is  an  essay  on  Rabelais  by  M. 
Anatole  de  Montaiglon,  whose  knowledge  of  early  French  literature 
is  of  European  repute. 

»  ;':  A  ;';  :>£ 

We  have  received  several  communications  in  connection  with  the 
article  "Unpublished  Letters  of  Lord  Byron,"  published  in  our  issue 
of  January,  but  more  particularly  in  reference  to  the  letter  addressed 
to  M.  Galignani.  This  letter  was  published  some  years  ago,  a  fact  to 
which  several  correspondents  have  called  our  attention.  Mr.  John 
HalU  of  The  Grange,  Hale,  Altrincham,  possessed  what  was  be- 
lieved to  be  the  original  of  this  letter,  but  on  the  appearance  of  our 
article  Mr.  Hall  submitted  it  to  an  expert  at  the  British  Museum, 
who  at  once  pronounced  it  to  be  a  forgery.  It  would  be  interesting 
to  know  the  exact  source  of  this  forgery,  which  Mr.  Hall  has  had  in 
his  possession  for  many  years.  Had  it  been  a  recent  acquisition, 
there  would  be  no  hesitation  in  attributing  it  to  the  Edinburgh  firm 
of  autograph  letter  manufacturers,  to  which  reference  has  already 
been  made  in  these  columns. 

♦        *         *        * 

Mr.  Falconer  Madan's  paper,  read  at  a  recent  meeting  of  the 
Bibliographical  Society,  on  "  Method  in  Bibliography,"  was  both 
lucid  and  practical.  In  its  printed  form  it  ought  to  have  a  wide  cir- 
culation, and  be  productive  of  a  considerable  amount  of  good. 
After  laying  down  the  principle  that  a  perfect  bibliography  should 
not  only  give  a  technical  description  of  a  book,  but  also  endeavour 
to  appreciate  it,  he  pointed  out  that  one  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
attaining  this  ideal  was  avoidable,  namely  difference  of  method.  If 
certain  disturbing  tendencies,  such  as  lead  to  inaccurate  and  in- 
complete descriptions,  superfluity  of  information,  artificiality  in  the 
use  of  symbols  and  want  of  balance  and  proportion  in  the  result — 
which  he  illustrated  by  examples — were  recognised  as  erroneous  and 
avoided,  there  might  be  tolerable  agreement  as  to  the  residuum  of 


\ 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK.  99 

right  method.  The  paper  went  on  to  suggest  with  details  a  normal 
plan  for  bibliographical  description,  which  might  be  identical  in 
framework  for  all  cases,  but  parts  of  which  could  be  omitted  under 
varying  circumstances,  and  concluded  with  a  proposal  that  a  com- 
mittee of  the  society  should  prepare  for  issue  an  authorised  scheme 
for  the  use  of  intending  bibliographers. 


We  congratulate  our  friend  Mr.  Robert  Steele  on  his  extremely 
clever  epitome  of  one  of  the  most  interesting,  as  it  is  also  one  of  the 
most  important,  of  mediaeval  books — the  Encyclopedia  of  Bartho- 
lomew Anglicanus,  "  De  Proprietatibus  Rerum,"  or  the  Properties 
of  Things.    In  many  respects,  this  book  is  without  a  compeer,  coming 
as  it  does  between  the  New  world  and  the  Old,  the  Classic  and 
the  Modern.     As  Mr.  William  Morris,  the  poet,  who  contributes  a 
graceful  and  all-too-brief  preface,  so  clearly  points  out,  the  reader 
will  have  to  disabuse  his  mind  of  very  many  preconceived  ideas 
respecting  the  Middle   Ages  before  he   can   fully   appreciate  this 
epitome.     So  far  from  being  either  ignorant  or  without  able  teachers, 
our  forefathers  of  six  centuries  ago  were  amply  supplied  in  this  respect, 
the  teachers  in  fact,  of  whom  Bartholomew  the  English  Franciscan  was 
the  most  distinguished  example,  possessing  an  industry  and  a  diligence 
at  times  truly  appalling.     The  work  of  Bartholomew  is  a  case  in 
point,  for  even  the  second  and  considerably  reduced   edition  in 
English,  1535  (the  first  edition  in  English  was  printed  by  Wynkynde 
Worde  in  1495,  noteworthy  as  being  the  first  book  printed  on  paper 
of  English  manufacture),  consists  of  nearly  700  pages  folio,  and,  taken 
in  its  entirety,  is  in  more  senses  than  one  a  heavy  book.     Mr.  Steele 
is  doubtless  correct  in  assigning  its   composition  to  a  period  not 
later  than  1267,  a  fact  which  at  once  suggests  the  probability  that 
Roger   Bacon   derived  much  of  his  learning   from   it.     The  first 
printed  edition  of  the  book  in  its  Latin  form  appeared  at  Cologne 
in  1470,  the  printer  being  Ulrich  Zell,  and  from  that  date  to  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century  over  twenty  editions,  in  Latin,  French, 
Spanish,  Dutch,  and  English,  appeared.     It  was  first  translated  into 
French  in  1372,  by  Fr.  Jehan  Corbichon,  for  Charles  V.  of  France ; ' 
and  into   English   in  1397,  by  John   of  Trevisa,  for  Sir  Thomas 
Berkeley,  and  this  translation  is  the  basis  of  the  editions  published 
in  London  in  1495,   i535>  ^^id  1582.     We  have  only  to  add  that 
Mr.  Steele's  epitome  is  very  neatly  printed,  and  is  published  by  Mr. 
Elliot  Stock. 


100 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 


At  their  worst  second-hand  booksellers'  catalogues  are  interesting, 
and  at  their  best  they  are  fascinating — to  the  booklover,  at  all  events. 
An  example  of  the  latter  class  has  just  been  received  in  the  form  of 
a  little  volume  of  340  pages  from  Messrs.  Pickering  and  Chatto,  of 
the  Haymarket,  London.  Nearly  3,000  old  and  rare  books  are 
herein  described,  sometimes  with  a  fulness  which  becomes  little 
less  than  an  essay  on  the  particular  book  catalogued.  Opinions  may, 
of  course,  differ  on  the  subject,  but  we  believe  that  a  descriptive 
note,  properly  done,  goes  a  very  long  way  towards  selling  a  book 
which  often  fails  to  find  a  buyer  at  a  much  smaller  figure  when 
catalogued  in  the  ordinary  way.  There  are  very  many  exceedingly 
interesting  books  in  this  catalogue  of  Messrs.  Pickering  and  Chatto, 
and  as  a  guide  to  the  current  market  value  of  first  editions  generally 
it  will  be  found  exceedingly  useful ;  and  the  notes,  if  they  sometimes 
exceed  the  sober  tone  of  the  scientific  bibliographer,  are  generally 
accurate  and  always  readable. 


^^mm^ 


i 


Letters  of  Mrs.  Browning. 


N  exceedingly  interesting  and  important  series  of  letters  of 
Miss  Elizabeth  Barrett,  who  subsequently  became  wife  of 
Robert  Browning,  came  under  the  hammer  at  Messrs. 
Puttick  Simpson's  sale  recently.  They  were  all  written  between 
1842  and  1845,  to  Mr.  Cornelius  Mathews,  of  New  York.  The 
first  is  a  charming  epistle,  dated  November  3,  1842,  in  which  the 
writer  says  :  "  It  is  delightful  and  encouraging  to  me  to  think  that 
there,  among  the  cataracts  and  mountains  which  I  never  shall  see, 
there  in  *  dreamland,'  sound  the  voices  of  friends,  and  it  shall  be  a 
constant  effort  with  me  to  deserve  presents  in  some  better  measure, 
the  kindness  for  which  I  never  can  be  more  grateful  than  now." 
The  second,  written  on  the  25th  of  the  same  month,  mentions  Miss 
Metford,  Charles  Dickens,  and  others,  and  concludes,  "  It  is  better, 
however,  to  want  criticism  than  to  want  poetry,  and  poetry  is  rising 
with  us,  be  sure.  And  I  would  solicit  your  reverence  for  our  Tenny- 
son and  our  Browning  (who  though  he  speaks  obscured  yet  delivers 
oracles),  and  also  dramatic  sketches  and  tragedies  of  Mr.  Home. 
Mr.  Tennyson  is  a  great  poet,  notwithstanding  that  very  scornful 
word  which  I  was  very  sorry  to  see  in  the  North  American  Revieiv.^' 
The  next  letter  was  written  in  February  of  the  following  year,  and 
deals  chiefly  with  critics  and  criticism,  and  in  the  course  of  which 
she  says,  "  I  admire  '  Boz  '  with  everybody  who  can  read,  think,  and 
feel,  and  I  do  not  doubt  that  he  was,  as  you  say,  '  honest ' — />., 
true-hearted — in  those  Notes  for  General  Circulation.  Still  he 
knows  mankind  in  the  mass  too  well  to  be  quite  justified,  I  fancy, 
in  passing  such  a  set  of  judgments,  authorised  by  such  a  set  of 
evidences,  formed  upon  such  a  set  of  opportunities  upon  the  special 


102  LETTERS  OF  MRS.  BROWNING. 

humanity  of  a  nation,  and  even  the  nascent  Pecksniffs  and  Pinches 
have  not  quite  restored  my  good  humour  to  him."  In  the  next 
letter,  March  14,  1843,  she  asks,  "Why  do  not  men  remember  that 
every  mind  must  be  original  if  it  deUvers  frankly  its  individual 
impressions  ?  "  and  in  a  letter  of  the  28th  of  the  following  month  she 
has  an  exceedingly  curious  reference  to  "  Mr.  Browning's  '  Blot  on 
the  'Scutcheon,'  which  would  make  one  poet  furious,  the  *infelix 
Talfourd,'  and  another  a  little  melancholy,  namely,  Mr.  Browning 
himself."  In  a  letter,  dated  October  i,  1844,  she  expresses  annoyance 
at  being  called  a  follower  of  Tennyson,  her  "  habit  of  using  com- 
pound words,  noun  substantives,  which  I  used  to  do  before  I  knew 
a  page  of  Tennyson.  The  custom  is  so  far  from  being  peculiar  to 
Tennyson,  that  Shelley  and  Keats  and  Leigh  Hunt  are  all  redolent 
of  it."  One  of  the  longest,  and  certainly  the  most  interesting,  is 
the  last  of  the  series,  and  is  dated  December  5,  1845  :  "  You  amuse 
me  when  you  say  that  Mr.  Poe  has  dedicated  a  book  to  me  and 
abused  me  in  the  preface.  That  I  should  not  think  human  justice 
— if  it  were  not  American.  ...  I  understand  Mr.  Browning  has  just 
published  another  volume  of  '  Bells  and  Pomegranates,'  in  which  his 
great  original  faculty  throws  out  new  colours  and  expands  in  new 
combinations.  A  great  poet  he  is — a  greater  poet  he  will  be — for  to 
work  and  to  live  are  one  with  him.  .  .  .  Walter  Savage  Landor  has 
lately  addressed  the  following  verses  to  him  : — 

"*TO  ROBERT  BROWNING. 

' ' '  There  is  delight  in  singing  though  none  hear 
Beside  the  singer,  and  there  is  delight 
In  praising,  though  the  praiser  sit  alone 
And  see  the  praised  far  off  him,  far  above.'" 
&c.,  &c. 

The  letter  concludes — 

"  Mr.  Tennyson  has  a  pension,  you  see,  but  for  the  rest,  is  said 
rather  to  smoke  than  to  make  poems.  .  .  .  Dickens  is  about  to  cast 
himself  headlong  into  the  doubtful  undertaking  of  the  new  daily 
paper  The  Daily  NewsP 

The  fourteen  letters  realised  a  total  of  ^6i  4s.  n^Hj 


Human  Skin  as  a  Binding. 

D 


HE  late  M.  Camille  Flammarion  was  the  possessor  of 
a  very  interesting  specimen  of  reliure  humaine.  Some 
years  ago  the  eminent  astronomer,  turning  his  eyes  for  a 
moment  from  the  contemplation  of  celestial  to  terrestrial  objects,  was 
struck  with  admiration  of  the  white  and  gleaming  shoulders  of  a 
countess  whom  he  met  in  society.  A  long  period  elapsed,  and  he 
had  quite  forgotten  this  little  incident,  when  he  received  one  day  a 
parcel,  accompanied  by  a  note  explaining  its  contents.  The  lovely 
countess  was  dead,  and  had  bequeathed  to  him  the  skin  that  once 
covered  the  back  on  which  he  had  gazed  with  so  much  pleasure, 
desiring  him  to  bind  therein  the  work  in  which  he  speaks  so 
eloquently  of  the  glimmering  world  of  stars.  M.  Flammarion  did 
not  hesitate  to  carry  out  the  last  wishes  of  his  departed  friend,  and 
the  integument  of  the  countess  now  clothes  a  copy  of  his  well-known 
volume,  "  Ciel  et  Terre."  Referring  to  the  strange  feeling  he  expe- 
rienced on  first  touching  the  skin  of  the  dead  woman,  Flammarion 
expressed  it  as  his  firm  conviction  that  there  is  a  kind  of  electricity 
of  which  science  knows  nothing  as  yet.  Other  instances  of  this 
gruesome  application  of  the  human  cuticle  are  not  far  to  seek,  but 
history  probably  does  not  record  another  instance  in  which  a  charm- 
ing woman  voluntarily  supplies  the  material.  In  the  library  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  at  Marlborough  House  there  are  said  to  be  two 
volumes  bound  in  leather,  which  was  prepared  from  the  skin  of  Mary 
Patman,  a  Yorkshire  witch,  hanged  for  murder  early  in  the  century.  It 
is  rumoured  that  a  London  bookseller,  having  on  order  a  fantastic  bind- 
ing in  this  style  for  Holbein's  "  Dance  of  Death,"  despatched  a  com- 
missioner to  Paris,  with  a  view  of  securing  the  skin  of  one  of  the 


I04  HUMAN  SKIN  AS  A  BINDING. 

petroleuses  shot  during  the  bloody  week  of  the  Commune.  The  agent 
himself  only  escaped  by  the  skin  of  his  own  teeth  from  sharing  the  fate 
of  the  object  of  his  search.  By  far  the  most  famous  specimen,  how- 
ever, is  "The  Constitution  of  1793,"  which  has  provoked  impassioned 
discussion,  because  the  leather  in  which  it  is  encased  was  believed 
to  have  been  prepared  at  a  tannery  for  human  skin  established  under 
the  Reign  of  Terror  at  Meudon.  According  to  popular  tradition, 
Robespierre,  Collot  d'Herbois,  Billaud-Varennes,  and  Barrere  had 
the  bodies  of  their  victims  transported  thither,  in  order  that  the  skin 
might  be  dressed  and  cut  up  into  breeches  for  the  sans-culottes.  The 
Comte  d'Artois  was  believed  to  have  revived  this  ingenious  notion. 
This  preposterous  legend  has  been  utterly  exploded  by  subsequent 
investigations,  which  prove  that  there  never  existed  at  Meudon  any 
establishments  save  those  which  still  flourish  there — namely,  the 
Schools  of  Military  Experiment  and  of  Ballooning.  But  it  died 
hard. 

[A  reference  to  this  somewhat  gruesome  subject  occurs  in  Th 
Bookworm,  vol.  iv.  p.  148.] 


A  Curious  Gift, 

THE  Fraternity  of  Collectors  sometimes  follow  strange  aims. 
One  of  them  has  presented  his  collection  to  the  library  of  the 
Institute  de  France  at  Paris,  that  is,  to  the  French  Academy,  which 
may  consider  it  as  a  monument  erected  to  human  weakness.  It 
consists  of  cuttings  from  letters,  books,  papers,  and  the  like,  which 
have  been  written  or  printed  by  members  of  that  learned  body,  all  of 
which  contain  faults  of  writing,  language,  or  style,  committed  in  their 
own  French  language  by  the  members  of  the  Academy.  As  one  of 
the  most  curious  may  be  considered  the  lapsus  of  the  Duke  d'Audif- 
fret-Pasquier,  who,  in  his  letter  of  application  concerning  the  member- 
ship of  the  Academy,  spelled  the  French  word  "academie"  with 
double  c,  that  is  "  accademie." 


French  and  English  Bookplates. 


The  public  taste  is  said  to  grow  upon  what 
it  feeds,  and  this  has  been  proved  in 
nothing  so  much  as  in  the  passion  for 
bookplates.  A  few  years  ago  the  book- 
plate collector  was  regarded  as  only  a 
stamp  collector  of  a  larger  growth.  The 
hobby,  however,  has  made  wonderful  strides 
within  the  past  four  or  five  years,  owing, 
doubtless,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  Ex- 
Libris  Society,  which  at  once  placed  the 
subject  on  a  scientific  basis,  and  gave  it  an 
impetus  which  surprised  no  one  more  than 
the  "promoters."  It  may  be  safely  said 
that  neither  of  the  two  charming  books 
which  Messrs.  George  Bell  and  Sons  have 
just  published  would  have  been  issued  but 
for  the  existence  of  the  Ex-Libris  Society, 
and  as  a  matter  of  fact  each  book  is  written  by  leading  lights  of  the 
"  incorporation,"  Mr.  Walter  Hamilton,  the  author  of  "  A  Handbook 
to  French  Book-Plates,"  being  the  honorary  treasurer. 

The  more  important  of  the  two  volumes,  so  far  as  the  majority  of 
collectors  in  this  country  are  concerned,  is  Mr.  Egerton  Castle's 
"  English  Bookplates."  The  author's  aim  has  been  to  supply  a 
general  account  of  many  interesting  facts  in  connection  with 
examples  produced  in  this  country.  In  this  Mr.  Castle  has  un- 
doubtedly succeeded,  for  his  book  is  at  once  popular  and  definite, 
and  as  comprehensive  as  it  could  possibly  have  been  made  within  a 

14 


BOOKPLATE   OF   EDWARD 

FITZGERALD. 

BY   W.    M.   THACKERAY. 


io6        FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  BOOKPLATES, 
limited  compass.     The  scope  of  the  work  may  be  gathered  from  t 


^^ 


BOOKPLATE  OF  JOHN  ANDERSON,  JUNR.      BY  THOMAS   BEWICK.      CIRCA    180O. 

following  synopsis  of  its  contents  : — Consideration  of  the  bookplate 

qua  bookplate ;  the  inte- 
rest and  use  of  its  study; 
various  causes  which 
brought  it  into  existence  in 
the  earliest  days  of  the 
printed  book,  and  have  pro- 
moted its  use  at  all  times 
since ;  the  literature  of 
bookplates ;  early  history 
of  their  use  on  the  Conti- 
nent, before  their  general 
adoption  by  English  book 
owners ;  external  causes 
which  have  influenced  the 
fashion  in  heraldic  and 
artistic  compositions  of 
bookplates  at  various  times; 
specification  of  "styles  "  and 
"  classes  ; "  classification, 
chronological  and  artistic^ 
and  determination  of  the 
Iff        '7/'A/x>u//l  main  characteristics  which 

A  jfCA  :  (y  may  be  taken  as  criteria  to 

BOOKPLATE  OF  THE  LATE  LORD  TENNYSON,  determine    datcs ;   modern 

bookplates  classified   and  exemplified  by  specimens  designed  for 


FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  BOOKPLATES. 


107 


men  of  note,  and  by  well-known  artists,  and  consideration  of  the 
spirit  of  a  modern  bookplate ;  the  suitability  of  different  classes  of 
plates  to  different  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  To  make  the  little 
handbook   still  more   complete  «,„^^. 


and   valuable   to  the  beginner, 

there  are  full  hints  as  to  col- 
lecting, and  a  complete  biblio- 
graphy on  the  subject.     Among 

the    120   typical  examples,   we 

have  those  of  Sir  Thomas  Tre- 

sham,  one  of  the  earliest  personal  ^^^ 

bookplates   of    Mr.    Gladstone, 

Lord   Salisbury,   the  late   Lord 

Tennyson,    Mr.    Henry  Irving; 

and  in  proof  of  the   fact  that 

some    of    four    most    eminent 

artists  have  not  considered  the 

bookplate  too  trivial  a  thing  for 

their  talents,  we  have  examples  J' 

from   the  designs  of  Sir   John 

Millais,  R.A.,  H.  Stacey  Marks, 

R.A..,   Randolph    Caldecott,   E. 

A.  Abbey,   Alfred    Parsons,   S. 

Solomon,  not  to  mention  many  others.     Through  the  courtesy  of 

the  publishers  we  are  enabled  to  reproduce  three  extremely  different 

examples,  the  earliest  being  a 
charming  little  landscape  by 
Thomas  Bewick,  in  which  the 
owner's  name  is  inscribed  on 
a  rock;  the  second  was  de- 
signed by  W.  M.  Thackeray 
for  his  friend  Edward  Fitzgerald, 
the  distinguished  translator  of 
Omar  Khaiyam,  and  the  third 
is  that  of  the  late  Lord  Tenny- 
son. 

In  his  "Handbook  to  French 
Bookplates "    our    friend    Mr. 
Walter    Hamilton,    an    article 
from  whose  pen,  "  A  Hunt  for 
BOOKPLATE  OF  VICTOR  HUGO.  Bookplatcs  in  Paris,"  appeared 

in  the  last  volume  of  The  Bookworm,  supplies  full  information 


BOOKPLATE  OF  LEON   GAMBETTA. 


io8        FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  BOOKPLATES. 


concerning  the  history  of  their  origin  and  use  in  France.  His  work 
is  at  the  same  time  sufficiently  popular  in  its  descriptions  to  form 
a  handybook  of  reference  to  the  book-lover  who  merely  takes  a 
desultory  interest  in  the  subject.  Not  only  (writes  Mr.  Hamilton) 
have  the  principle  works  on  French  Ex-Libris  by  Poulet-Malassis, 
Henri  Bouchot,  Octave  Uzanne,  and  Pere  Ingold  remained  hitherto 
untranslated,  but  they  are  mostly  out  of  print  and  difficult  to  obtain. 
So  that  in  embodying  all  accessible  facts  in  a  concise  and  orderly 
way  in  one  volume,  his  book  claims  to  be  the  first  devoted  solely 
to  French  bookplates  ever  published  in  English.  Whilst  heraldic  and 
technical  descriptions  have  been  avoided  as  far  as  possible,  sufficient 

space  has  been  devoted  to  the 
consideration  and  enumeration 
of  the  main  differences  between 
the  systems  of  the  two  countries 
to  enable  a  collector  of  French 
bookplates  to  understand  the 
meaning  of  certain  characteristics 
not  found  in  English  armorial 


AVE  *  VZA 


\bz?- 


BOOKPLATE  OF  OCTAVE  UZANNE. 


bearings.  The  early  history  of 
the  subject  in  France  takes  a 
much  more  definite  and  wide- 
spreading  interest  than  it  does 
in  this  country,  as  will  at  once 
be  seen  from  the  chapter  dealing 
with  the  examples  dated  between 
1574-1650  and  1650-1700  re- 
spectively. There  are  also 
chapters  dealing  with  the  Book-Plate  under  the  First  Republic  and 
the  First  Empire,  on  those  of  the  Frontier  Provinces,  on  those  of 
Ecclesiastics,  on  "  Canting  Arms  and  Punning  Plates,"  and  on  those 
of  famous  modern  men.  From  the  last  section  we  reproduce  three 
examples,  each  of  which  is  interesting  for  both  the  originality  of  the 
design  and  the  eminence  of  the  owners.  There  are  about  100 
illustrations  in  Mr.  Hamilton's  book,  including  reproductions  of 
some  of  the  rarest  and  finest  old  examples.  It  may  be  mentioned, 
as  showing  the  wide-spread  interest  at  present  taken  in  bookplates^ 
that  the  first  editions  of  these  two  books  were  exhausted  within  a 
few  weeks  of  their  pubHcation,  and  that  they  are  now  being  sold  at 
a  premium. 


Women's  Books  for  Chicago. 


HE  exhibit  of  books  to  be  sent  to  the  Chicago  Exhibition 
can  only  have  the  effect  of  heightening  one's  opinion  of 
that  indomitable  sex.     The  sight  of   six  hundred   books 
written  by  women  in  spite  of  every  disadvantage — in  spite  of  mascu- 
line discouragement  and   derision,  of   defective  education,  of  an 
uncertain  temper,  of  the  importunate  claims  of  the  kitchen,  the 
nursery,  and  the  millinery — opens  out  endless  vistas  of  what  she 
might  achieve  in  this  direction,  if  economically  managed.     But  to 
confess  to  an  enlarged  appreciation  is  not  to  be  able  to  explain  why 
all  these  books  are  to  be  sent  over  to  Chicago.     In  many  cases  the 
Americans  have  seen  them  before,  at  a  very  much  lower  price.     To 
exhibit  to  them  in  a  superior  binding  the  books  they  have  pirated 
may  be  a  gentle  feminine  reproach,  but  it  will  be  quite  lost  on  the 
American  publisher.     Apart  from  the  doubt  why  the  books  are  sent, 
the  collection  is  well  enough.     It  is  comprehensive,  too.     You  may 
pass  from  the  lady  who  went  through  England  on  a  side-saddle  in 
the  days  of  Queen  Mary  II.  to  the  girl  who  went  up  the  Karpathians 
on  the  other  sort  in  our  own.    You  may  glide  down  an  uninterrupted 
stream  of  purling  fiction,  from  "The  Mysteries  of  Udolpho  "  down 
to  those  of  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward.     You  may  even  see  some  of  this 
lady's  own  MS. ;  also  autotype  reproductions  of  MSS.  in  the  hands 
of  Fanny  Burney,  Charlotte  Bronte,  and  Marian  Evans.     There  is 
also  the  first  edition  of  the  poems  of  Charlotte  and  her  two  sisters. 
A  brand  new  copy  of  the  first  book  ever  written  in  English  by  an 
Indian  woman  appears  to  deal  with  the  history  of  a  native  Christian, 
giving  rich  promise  of  a  new  crop  of  missionary  tracts  against  the 
time  when  Europe  shall  be  played  out.    But  the  most  interesting  are 


no  WOMEN'S  BOOKS  FOR  CHICAGO. 

certainly  the  older  books.  Here  you  see  the  first  steps  of  woman  in 
literature,  though  to  do  her  justice  they  are  firm  and  confident 
enough.  "The  Whole  Duty  of  Man  "  is  complacently  attributed  to 
Lady  Packington,  Sterne,  Bancroft,  Frewen,  Chapel,  and  the  other 
right  reverend  claimants  being  set  aside ;  it  is,  perhaps,  significant 
that  no  one  has  yet  ventured  to  assert  that  any  but  a  divine  or  a 
woman  could  write  so  positive  a  book.  Why  are  the  women  of 
England  sending  the  women  of  America  "  A  Discourse  of  Auxiliary 
Beauty;  or,  Artificiall  Handsomenesse  ?  "  Is  this  a  feline  amenity  ? 
Finally,  we  may  notice  the  oldest  book  of  all  on  "  Hunting,  Hawking, 
and  Cote  Armour,"  attributed  to  Dame  Juliana  Berners. 


The  Books  of  To-day. 

EXPERTS  are  predicting  that  the  books  of  to-day  will  fall  to 
pieces  before  the  middle  of  the  next  century.  The  paper  in 
the  books  that  have  survived  two  or  three  centuries  was  made  by 
hand  of  honest  rags  and  without  the  use  of  strong  chemicals,  while 
the  ink  was  made  of  nut-galls.  To-day  much  of  the  paper  for  books 
is  made,  at  least  in  part,  of  wood  pulp  treated  with  powerful  acids, 
while  the  ink  is  a  compound  of  various  substances  naturally  at  war 
with  the  fiimsy  paper  upon  which  it  is  laid.  The  printing  of  two 
centuries  ago  has  improved  with  age;  that  of  to-day,  it  is  feared, 
will,  within  fifty  years,  have  eaten  its  way  through  the  pages  upon 
which  it  is  impressed. 


A  Nurse's  Library. 


ISS  LINA  MOLLETT  gave,  in  a  recent  number  of 
Nursmg  Record^  some  advice  as  to  the  kind  of  books  most 
necessary  in  the  library  for  hospital  nurses.  "A  nurse's 
library  should  not,"  she  says,  "be  too  exclusively  professional  and 
scientific.  It  should  not,  of  course,  be  wanting  in  good  reference- 
books,  which,  by  preference,  should  be  modern — in  touch  with  the 
times.  Standard  works  of  fiction  will  never  be  out  of  fashion.  The 
immortal  '  Pickwick  '  and  *  Ivanhoe  '  can  be  purchased  for  less  than 
a  shilling  at  the  stores  (I  think  y^d.  is  now  the  net  price  for  each). 
Theological  works  should  be  books  of  religious  literature — literature, 
not  '  word-smoke.'  They  should  be  first-rate  in  every  sense,  and 
not  controversial.  Poetry  should  be  introduced  but  sparsely,  and 
then  only  of  the  best.  Interest  in  our  old  writers  is  more  fashionable 
just  now  than  it  was  some  years  ago,  when  fourpenny  Chancers, 
shilling  Spensers,  ninepenny  Miltons  were  unknown,  and  the  host 
of  other  songsters,  whose  poems  we  purchase  for  pence  to-day,  were 
rare  and  costly.  Works  on  botany,  astronomy,  zoology,  and  allied 
subjects  should  always  be  of  a  popular  nature,  as  not  one  woman  in 
a  hundred  among  nurses  has  sufficient  leisure,  or  a  sufficiently 
mathematical  mind  to  grapple  with  the  subject  from  its  purely 
scientific  point  of  view.  Popular  works  on  light  geology,  botany, 
&c.,  are  sure  to  find  readers,  and  many  of  our  cleverest  scientists 
feign  to  give  us  information  in  a  palatable  form.  Popularity  need 
by  no  means  be  synonymous  with  frivolity.  With  regard  to  essays, 
the  rule  applied  to  poetry  will  answer  for  them  :  Quality  rather  than 
quantity.     The  theological,  novel-reading,  poetical,  scientific,  social- 


112 


A  NURSE'S  LIBRARY. 


economical,  and  matter-of-fact  nurse  are  types  that  exist,  and  their 
special  tastes  should  be  considered  where  their  recreation  is  con- 
cerned. Something  for  everybody,  and  that  something  the  best  of 
its  kind,  is  what  the  organiser  should  keep  in  mind.  Then  the 
woman  who  is  a  devotee  of  Browning,  and  delights  in  the  'Ring 
and  the  Book,'  will  not  be  expected  to  satisfy  herself  with  a  volume 
of  Tit-Bits  or  '  Queechy.'  The  admirers  of  Donovan  and  Zoroaster 
will  have  their  tastes  considered,  and  the  'all-round'  readers  who 
devour  everything  will  be  satisfied  with  the  provision  made." 


An  Old  Bookseller's  Soliloquy. 


us  adver-    ■ 


THE  City  News  of  November  26th  contained  a  curious 
tisement  of  an  old  Manchester  bookseller.     Here  follow  some 
lines  inscribed  to  another  old  Manchester  bookseller,  Mr.  William 
Ford,  on  parting  with  his  library  and  collection  : — 

To  sell,  or  not  to  sell,  that  is  the  question — 

Whether  'tis  nobler  in  the  mind  to  suffer 

The  stings  and  arrows  of  outrageous  dunnings, 

Or  to  take  pen  against  this  sea  of  volumes, 

And  by  exposing,  sell  them  ?     To  sell — to  part, — 

No  more  ?    And  by  that  sale  to  say  we  end 

The  heart-ache  and  a  thousand  natural  shocks 

Poverty's  heir  to — 'tis  a  consummation 

Devoutly  to  be  wish'd.     To  mark,  to  sell ; 

To  sell — perchance  to  trust ;  aye,  there's  the  rub  ; 

For  in  that  sale  of  sales,  what  debts  may  come, 

When  I  have  shuffled  off  this  dirty  pile, 

Must  give  me  pause  ;  there's  the  respect 

That  makes  my  catalogue  have  such  slow  birth. 

For  who  would  bear  the  whips  and  scorn  of  time, 

Bookbinder's  wrongs,  the  proud  man's  contumely, 

The  pangs  of  despis'd  love,  the  law's  delay. 

The  insolence  of  agents,  and  the  spurns 

That  country  biblios  twice  a  year  must  take. 

When  he  himself  might  his  quietus  make 

With  a  grey  goose  quill  ?    Who  would  folios  bear 

And  groan  and  sweat  under  a  heavy  stock. 

But  that  the  dread  of  something  when  'tis  sold — 

That  vile  insatiate  credit  from  whose  grasp 

No  volume  e'er  returns — puzzles  the  will 

And  rather  makes  one  keep  those  books  I  have, 

Than  wait  for  others  that  I  know  not  of. 

Fred  Leary, 


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Richard  Franck,  Philanthropus. 

VEN  the  most  enthusiastic  angler  has  to  admit  that  the 
bibliography  of  his  favourite  pursuit  contains  a  number  of 
exceedingly  dull  books.  Dexterity  in  successfully  landing 
a  fine  salmon  does  not  at  all  times  coincide  with  the  possession  of 
literary  skill  in  committing  experiences  to  paper,  and  even  the  verbal 
eloquence  of  an  enthusiast  often  becomes  flat  and  tedious  when 
"put  into  a  book."  This  is  particularly  the  case  with  a  work  written 
by  one  of  Izaak  Walton's  most  devoted  followers.  The  full  title  of 
this  book  is  as  follows : — 

"  Northern  Memoirs,  calculated  for  the  meridian  of  Scotland  : 
wherein  most  or  all  of  the  cities,  citadels,  seaports,  castles,  forts, 
fortresses,  rivers,  and  rivulets  are  compendiously  described.  Together 
with  choice  collections  of  various  discoveries,  remarkable  observa- 
tions, theological  notions,  political  axioms,  national  intrigues,  polemick 
inferences,  contemplations,  speculations,  and  several  curious  and 
industrious  inspections,  lineally  drawn  from  antiquaries,  and  other 
noted  and  intelligent  persons  of  honour  and  eminency.  To  which 
is  added,  The  Contemplative  and  Practical  Angler,  by  way  of  diver- 
sion. With  a  narrative  of  the  dextrous  and  mysterious  art,  experi- 
mented in  England,  and  perfected  in  more  remote  and  solitary  parts 
of  Scotland.  By  way  of  Dialogue.  Writ  in  the  year  1658,  but  not 
till  now  made  public,  by  Richard  Franck,  Philanthropus.  Plures 
necat  Gula  quam  Gladius." 

It  was  "  printed  for  the  author  "  in  1694,  and  sold  by  a  well-known 
bookseller,  Henry  Mortlock,  whose  shop  was  at  the  sign  of  the  Phcenix, 
St.  Paul's  Churchyard ;  and  it  is  not,  perhaps,  a  matter  for  much 
surprise  that  the  first  edition  was  likewise  the  last — until,  in  fact,  the 

15 


114  RICHARD  FRANCE,  PHILANTHROPUS, 


modern  reprint  in  182 1  under  the  editorship  of  Sir  Walter  Scott. 
Of  the  author,  very  httle  is  known.  He  appears  to  have  been  born 
about  the  year  1624,  and  it  is  quite  certain  that  he  acted  as  a  captain 
in  the  service  of  Cromwell  during  the  Civil  War.  He  may  have 
distinguished  himself  in  this  great  struggle  between  the  nation  and 
one  of  the  most  cowardly  kings  that  ever  held  a  sceptre,  but  history 
on  this  point  is  silent.  The  captain  was  of  a  temperament  little 
suited  to  the  stern  and  exacting  discipline  of  the  battlefield.  After 
the  war,  Franck  appears  to  have  had  plenty  of  time  on  his  hands, 
and  in  1656  he  started  on  an  angling  tour  through  Scotland,  return- 
ing in  the  following  year.  The  mania  for  rambling  again  seized  him 
in  1690 — in  his  sixty-fourth  year — when  he  crossed  over  to  America. 
How  long  he  remained  in  the  colony  is  not  known,  but  by  1694  he 
had  returned  and  was  living  in  the  Barbican,  at  that  time  a  fashion- 
able locality. 

In  the  meantime  he  had  written  the  *' Northern  Memoirs,"  but 
seventeen  years  elapsed  between  the  period  of  writing  and  the  time 
of  arranging  the  MS.  for  the  press,  and  another  nine  years  before 
the  book  made  its  bow  to  the  public.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue 
between  Theophanes,  Agrippa  (a  servant),  Aquila  (a  friend),  and  the 
author,  under  the  fanciful  designation  of  Arnoldus.  There  are 
xxxix,  304  pages  octavo,  the  preliminary  matter  being  made  up  in 
the  following  manner  :  there  are  four  dedications,  the  first  to  **  J. 
W.,  Merchant  of  London ; "  the  second  to  the  "  virtuosos  of  the 
Rod  in  the  British  Metropolis,  the  famous  city  of  London ; "  the 
third  to  the  "  Academicks  in  Cambridge,  the  place  of  my  nativity  ;  " 
and  the  fourth  to  the  "  gentlemen  piscatorians  inhabiting  in  or  near 
the  sweet  situations  of  Nottingham,  North  of  Trent" — sufficiently 
comprehensive,  in  all  conscience,  to  have  ensured  the  whole  of  a 
large  edition  being  quickly  exhausted,  if  every  person  included  in 
the  foregoing  categories  did  his  duty  by  purchasing  at  least  one 
example.  Then  follow  three  prefaces  before  the  text  of  the  book  is 
reached. 

It  would  be  out  of  place  here  to  attempt  the  almost  impossible 
task  of  furnishing  our  readers  with  a  complete  or  even  brief  synopsis 
of  this  extremely  rambling  and  incoherent  book.  Our  author  pledged 
himself  up  to  the  extent  of  the  title-page,  and  those  who  have 
read  his  book  through  will  have  a  somewhat  mournful  duty  to  per- 
form in  admitting  that  Captain  Franks  carried  out  this  pledge  to  the 
letter.  We  agree  with  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  his  introduction  to  the 
reprint  already  referred  to,  that  Franck's  contests  with  salmon  are 
painted  to  the  life,  and  his  directions  to  the  angler  are  generally 


RICHARD  FRANCE,  PHILANTHROPUS.  115 

given  with  great  judgment.  Walton's  practice  was  entirely  confined 
to  bait-fishing,  and  even  Cotton,  his  disciple  and  follower,  though 
accustomed  to  fish  trout  in  the  Dove  with  artificial  fly,  would  have 
been  puzzled  by  a  fish  of  2olbs.  in  weight.  For  the  benefit  of  those 
of  our  readers  to  whom  the  original  is  inaccessible — it  does  not 
often  occur  in  the  market,  and  when  it  does  it  sells  for  about  eight 
guineas — we  quote  a  characteristic  extract. 

The  travellers  rest  for  a  night  at  Berwick  on  Tweed,  and  "bid  a 
farewell  to  Scotland."  Theophilus  declares  his  opinion  that  "rest 
and  refreshment  are  the  relatives  to  travellers,"  and  that  without  them, 
the  day's  journey  had  broke  his  heart.     Our  author  continues  : — 

"  Then  to  cement  it  again,  what  if  I  proceed  to  instruct  you  on 
all  those  eminent  rivers  and  rivulets,  in  our  passage  southward,  till 
we  arrive  at  the  beautiful  streams  of  triumphant  Trent ;  the  amorous 
fields,  and  England's  Elisium,  the  forest  of  Sherwood ;  whose  shady 
trees,  as  a  pavilion,  shelter  and  solace  the  contemplative  angler : 
there  it  is  that  Philomel  melts  the  air  in  delightful  groves  ;  there  the 
hills  will  shelter  us  and  the  rocks  surround  us,  and  the  shady  woods 
relieve  and  retrieve  us,  whilst  Nottingham,  that  nonsuch,  doth  sweeten 
our  ears  with  delicious  concerts,  and  our  eyes  with  variety  of  buildings, 
that  stand  in  a  serene  and  wholesome  air.  But  their  cellarage,  beyond 
compare,  is  the  best  in  England,  and  most  commodious,  and  the 
whole  town  situated  on  a  whole  rock  ;  where  the  streets  are  adorned 
with  beautiful  houses,  the  florid  fields  filled  with  aromas  ;  and  the 
exuberant  meadows  enriched  with  fragrant  perfumes,  that  will  ravish 
the  angler,  if  when  to  trace  and  examine  the  gliding  silver  streams  of 
famous  Trent." 

An  Angler. 


ii6 


MISCELLANEA. 


The  Book  of  the  Future. 


MR.  HENRY  BLACKBURN,  lecturing  at  the  London  Insti- 
tution, Finsbury  Circus,  said  English  people  were  not  an 
artistic  nation,  and  instead  of  getting  better  they  appeared  to  be 
rapidly  getting  worse.  The  author  of  the  present  day  was  losing 
the  sincerity  and  the  individuality  which  ought  to  characterise  him. 
Clothed  in  a  degrading,  characterless  costume,  which  took  all  appear- 
ance of  manliness  and  suppleness  from  his  figure,  living  in  houses 
and  in  cities  in  which  nearly  everything  ornate  or  beautiful  had  been 
stolen,  borrowed,  or  copied  from  another  country  or  period,  the  man 
of  letters  was  found  engaged  in  the  production  of  books  in  which,  as 
far  as  the  mechanical  parts  were  concerned,  nearly  everything  was  a 
sham.  The  nineteenth-century  author's  love  for  the  literature  of  the 
past  had  led  him  to  imitate  not  only  the  style,  but  the  outward 
aspect,  of  old  books.  He  produced  in  his  book  a  series  of  frauds  : 
the  engravings,  the  so-called  "hand-made"  paper  with  its  rough 
edge,  the  vellum  binding,  and  the  gold  illuminations  on  the  cover 
were  all  frauds.  He  very  strongly  deprecated  the  use  of  the  type- 
writer by  authors.  Should  they  rather  not  reform  their  own  hand- 
writing, once  for  all  ?  They  should  first  study  a  system  of  shorthand 
for  rapid  notes,  and  then  learn  to  write  with  Gothic  taste  and  expres- 
sion. The  poet  or  the  scholar  who  gave  a  book  to  the  world  should 
free  himself  as  much  as  possible  from  mechanical  trammels,  and 
boldly  set  to  work  to  present  himself  in  appropriate  guise.  What 
they  should  aim  at  in  the  book  of  the  future  was  the  artistic  effect 
and  balance  of  the  page ;  and  the  harmony  of  writing  and  ornament 
should  be  one  of  the  principal  charms.  There  was  very  little 
harmony  of  style  in  the  modern  book,  many  artists  and  illustrators 
of  books  showing  that  they  did  not  care  for  the  '*  look  "  of  a  printed 
page.  They  must  unlearn  much  that  had  been  taught  them,  and, 
taking  the  best  models  of  the  past  and  the  lawyer's  engrossing  hand 
of  the  present,  create  a  letter  and  a  style  which  should  belong  to  the 
present  age. 


An  Eighteenth-Century  Chap-Book. 


HE  LAIRD  O'  COUL'S  GHOST  "  was  one  of  the  most 
popular  chap-books  in  Scotland  and  the  north  of  England 
during  the  last  century.  Like  many  others  of  the  most 
popular  of  these  stories,  which  were  the  delight  of  the  poor  and  the 
profit  of  the  hawker,  it  has  been  nearly  worn  out  of  existence,  and  it 
is  now  very  difficult  to  get  a  copy  even  at  a  handsome  price.  No 
doubt  its  popularity  has  been  largely  owing  to  its  supernatural  cha- 
racter, and  the  eagerness  with  which  the  uneducated  devoured  such 
works  and  the  full  credence  which  was  given  to  them. 

This  reprint,  which  is  issued  by  Mr.  EHiot  Stock,  has  been  made 
from  the  original  MS.,  which  is  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Gordon,  of  St. 
Andrew's,  Glasgow.  This  MS.  was  found  among  the  papers  of 
collector  Hamilton,  of  Dalzell,  when  he  died  in  the  summer  of  1788, 
aged  91  years;  he  was  thus  25  years  old  when  this  story  was  written, 
which  was  in  1722.  In  1733  Lady  Anne  Spencer,  Duchess  of 
Hamilton,  came  to  Hamilton  Palace,  and  the  collector  gave  to  Her 
Grace  this  story  to  read.  The  duke,  to  play  a  practical  joke  on  the 
collector,  caused  one  of  his  servants  to  whisper  to  him  while  at 
supper  that  there  was  a  gentleman  calling,  who  desired  to  see  him 
immediately.  Being  asked  who  he  was,  the  valet  answered,  "The 
Laird  o'  Coul."  The  guests  were  all  rarified  at  the  collector's  embar- 
rassment, who  sat  still  and  allowed  the  "  gentleman  "  to  await  in  the 
hall  ! 

"The  Laird  o'  Coul's  Ghost"  first  appeared  in  type  in  1750,  and 
was  eagerly  bought  by  all  and  sundry  from  the  "Flying  Stationers  " 
who  hawked  it  about  the  country.  Mrs.  Ogilvie  delivered  it  to 
Watkins,  the  king's  printer,  and  it  was  published  from  Newcastle. 


ii8      AN  EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  CHAP-BOOK. 

In  1788  a  fanatical  character,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Steuart,  of  Coltness, 
termed  "Aunt  Betty,"  became  a  convert  to  the  halcyon  notions  of 
Emmanuel  Swedenborg,  founder  of  "  the  New  Jerusalem  Sect." 
This  personage  was  related  to  Henry  Erskine,  Lord  Advocate  for 
Scotland,  and  was  enraptured  with  the  penny  chap-book ;  so  much 
so,  that  she  embodied  it  in  her  '*  Remarks  and  Illustrations  of  the 
World  of  Spirits,"  which  she  strictly  enjoined  her  nephew  to  print 
after  her  decease.  Not  a  copy  of  this  brochure  of  206  pages  is  in 
any  of  our  university  libraries,  and  a  few  weeks  ago  jQz  3S-  were  paid 
for  a  soiled  copy.  "Aunt  Betty"  does  not  miss  to  note  one  point 
in  "  The  Laird  o'  Coul's  Ghost  "  that  may  insinuate  her  imaginations 
about  angels  and  the  unseen;  while  she  adverts  to  the  ghosts  of 
Lord  Clarendon,  Sir  George  Villiars,  the  father  of  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  and  to  the  dialogue  of  Dives  and  Lazarus,  in  that 
remarkable  parable.  She  ferreted  out  from  Mrs.  Henrietta  Hog, 
Edinburgh,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ogilvie,  Innerwick,  that  the 
sequel  was  undoubtedly  the  genuine  copy  in  her  father's  handwriting. 
No  declaration  has  been  given  how  the  MS.  came  into  collector 
Hamilton's  possession.     Mr.  Ogilvie  died  soon  after  the  conference. 


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An  Antiquary  of  the  Last  Century. — II. 

10.     To  T.  Rawlinson,     [Without  date.] 

"  I  return  your  note  books  B.P.  and  C.C.C.  with  many  thanks. 

**  You  desire  something  about  the  proceedings  against  me.     I  will 
only  mention  what  hath  been  done  about  the  library. 

"  On  Friday,  March  2d  last,  the  visitors  of  the  library  met,  being 
called  together  by  Dr.  Hudson,  who  had  declared  almost  a  year 
before  that  I  should  be  turned  out  of  both  my  places,  and  at  the  same 
time  spoke  in  very  indecent  language.     This  meeting  was  wholly 
without  me.     There  were  only  five  of  the  eight  (for  eight  is   the 
whole  number)  there,  viz.  Dr.  Baron,  Vice-Chanc,  Dr.  Clavering, 
Reg.  Prof,  of   Hebr.,  Dr.  Terry,  Reg.  Prof,  of  Gr.,  Dr.  Bouchier, 
Reg.  Prof,  of  Law,  and  Mr.  Dod,  the  junior  Proctor.     They  met  in 
the  study  of  the  Library  Gallery,  which  study  belongs  to  the  under- 
librarian,  though  Dr.  Hudson  had  hindered  me  the  use  of  it  for 
some  time.     I  was  writing  out  the  old  monuments  upon  the  wall 
opposite  to  the  study.     After  some  time  they  sent  for  me,  and  the 
Vice-Chancellor  told  me  that  I  had  printed  Rowse  without  leave, 
and  Dr.  Bouchier  said  that  the  MSS.  of  the  library  ought  not  to  be 
transcribed.     I  said  I  had  done  nothing  against  statute.     The  Vice- 
Chancellor  said  I  had  reflected  in  my  preface  to  Rowse,  in  page  ix. 
(though  this  objection  was  not  mentioned  when  I  was  before  him  a 
day  or  two  before,  when  the  objections  were  started  at  a  meeting  of 
the  delegates  of  the  press)  upon  the  University's  not  keeping  up  tlie 
exercise.     If  it  be  a  reflexion,  I  am  sure  it  is  too  true.     After  several 
warm  words  from  the  V.  Ch.,  though  I  behaved  myself  very  coolly, 
he  told  me  Dr.  Hudson  had  complained  that  I  had  not  done  the 


1 20      AN  ANTIQ UAR  Y  OF  THE  LAST  CENTUR  V. 

duty  for  some  time  of  hypo-bibliothecarius,  and  that,  therefore, 
another  must  be  put  in,  and  that  they  would  make  an  order  for  it 
I  gave  him  my  reasons  why  I  did  not  act,  viz.,  first  because  I  was 
excluded  by  Dr.  Hudson  (though  I  neither  had  resigned  nor  intended 
It),  new  keys,  different  from  mine,  being  made  by  him.  2dly.  Because 
I  had  not  taken  the  oaths,  and  so  could  not  act  unless  I  would  hazard 
the  danger  of  forfeiting  five  hundred  pounds,  and  of  incurring  other 
penalties.  I  desired  them  to  express  these  reasons  in  their  order,  if 
they  thought  fit  to  make  any.  But  this  the  Vice-Chanc.  denied,  and 
said  that  they  would  only  insist  upon  my  neglect  of  duty.  I  was 
desired  to  withdraw,  and  after  a  long  hour  (all  which  time  I  spent 
opposite  to  the  study  writing  out  the  old  monuments)  I  was  called  in 
again.  The  V.-Ch.  told  me  they  had  allowed  me  time  till  Lady- 
Day,  and  that  they  had  made  an  order  that  if  after  that  time  there  was 
any  complaint  of  neglect.  Dr.  Hudson  should  be  at  liberty  of  putting 
in  a  proper  person  into  my  room.  I  told  them  that  I  could  not  act 
for  the  reasons  before-mentioned,  and  I  desired  to  have  a  copy  of 
the  order.  This  was  also  denied.  But  at  last  the  Vice-Chanc. 
showed  it  at  a  distance.  ^  Fray^  said  I  ^  Mr.  V.  Ch.,  let  me  have  it 
in  my  hands.  I  am  short-sighted^  and  I  cannot  see  at  a  distance.^ 
This  he  denied.  *  Then,'  said  I,  '  /  will  use  my  glass ; '  which, 
when  I  spoke  of,  he  vouchsafed  to  let  me  have  it  in  my  hands,  and 
I  read  it  aloud  just  as  it  was  writ  (by  Dr.  Hudson,  who  was  employed 
to  pen  it),  there  being  false  spellings  in  it,  particularly  agread,  for 
agreed.  Towards  the  bottom  there  was  upder  library  keeper^  and  so  I 
read  it,  at  which  the  Vice-Chanc.  was  in  a  passion,  and  took  the  book 
out  of  my  hands.  They  were  all  amazed  at  this  word  tipder^  because 
that  may  be  understood  of  the  upper  as  well  as  the  under  library 
keeper.  I  desired  the  book  again  to  make  an  end  of  my  reading. 
At  last  it  was  delivered  me,  and  then  I  read  out  aloud  as  before,  and 
pronounced  it  as  written  upder  library  keeper^  at  which  the  V.  Ch.  was 
in  a  passion  again,  and  said  among  other  things,  '  Sir,  I  will  send  you 
to  the  castle  for  all  you  are  a  Master  of  arts.  We  do  not  come  hither 
to  be  drolled  at.''  I  omit  several  merry  particulars.  I  was  dismissed 
at  last,  and  they  broke  up  and  went  away.  They  all  set  their  hands 
to  Hudson's  ill-spelt  record,  of  which,  before  I  went  I  desired  a  copy, 
alleging  that  my  memory  was  bad,  and  that  I  could  not  otherwise 
observe  it.     But  this  was  absolutely  denied. 

"  Lady  Day  being  come,  Dr.  Hudson,  without  any  regard  to  the 
order  (by  virtue  of  which  I  should  have  had  another  admonition,  as 
I  remember),  put  Mr.  Fletcher  of  Queen's  (A.M.  and  Chaplain  of 
that  college)  into  my  place.     I  have  resigned  nothing,  but  must 


^L 


AN  ANTIQ  UAR  V  OF  THE  LAST  CENTUR  Y.       121 

submit  to  everything  without  any  stir  in  the  aflfair.  By  the  bye,  Dr. 
Hudson  being  marriedj  is  not  a  statutable  librarian,  marriage  is 
express  against  statute,  and  though  Sir  Thomas  Bodley  with  great 
unwillingness  gave  way  to  Dr.  James's  marriage,  yet  he  declared  it 
should  be  no  precedent  for  the  future." 

II.     To  Dr.  R,  Rawlinson^  Nove7nber  27,  1727. 

"I  received  both  your  letters,  viz.  that  of  the  2 2d  and  that 
of  the  25th  inst.,  and  thank  you  for  your  designed  present.  I 
wanted  much  to  hear  from  yourself  how  matters  went  in  your 
auctions,  and  was  glad  at  last  to  have  one,  though  I  am  very  sorry  to 
find  you  ;,have  such  bad  usage,  when  you  act  so  very  honourably. 
But  I  am  too  sensible,  that  booksellers  and  others  are  in  a  combina- 
tion against  you.  Booksellers  have  the  least  pretence  of  any  to  act 
so.  Your  brother  (whom  I  shall  always  call  my  friend)  did  them 
unspeakable  kindnesses.  By  his  generous  way  of  bidding,  and  by 
his  constant  buying,  he  raised  the  value  of  books  incredibly,  and 
there  is  hardly  such  another  left.  The  booksellers  (who  got  so  much 
by  him)  owe  him  a  statue,  the  least  they  can  do.  But  instead  of 
that,  they  neither  speak  well  of  him,  nor  do  you  (as  I  verily  believe) 
common  justice.  You  have  my  letter  to  your  brother,  in  which 
matters  between  him  and  me  were  justly  stated  to  his  great  satisfaction. 
I  know  not  what  he  did  with  the  books  of  mine  he  was  concerned  for. 
I  fear,  however,  that  some  gentlemen,  that  subscribed  for  them  to 
him,  had  not  their  books.  But  that  was  not  my  fault.  I  sent  them 
all  up  to  him,  and  I  am  fully  satisfied  (had  he  lived)  he  would  have 
paid  the  arrears  and  have  let  all  persons  (if  he  did  not  do  so)  have 
their  copies.  I  do  not  at  all  doubt  but  you  will  act  with  the  friend- 
ship that  hath  always  passed  between  as,  and  I  return  you  my  thanks 
for  your  design  of  keeping  up  the  prices  of  my  books,  in  order  to 
which  I  send  you  the  several  prices  (which  you  desire)  of  what  I 
have  published  since  Leland's  Itin.  I  printed  but  a  small  number 
of  any  of  them,  but  I  see  no  occasion  to  specify  what  the  particular 
numbers  were.  This  is  sometimes  done  in  the  books  themselves, 
though  not  in  all.  I  would  fain  have  those  bawked  that  expect 
great  bargains  from  the  falsely  supposed  great  numbers.  As  I  have 
hitherto  printed  but  a  few,  so  I  shall  continue  the  same  method, 
having  no  manner  of  reason  to  brag  of  encouragement.  'Tis  love  to 
our  history  and  antiquities,  not  prospect  of  gain,  of  which  I  meet 
with  so  very  little,  that  makes  me  go  on.  But  I  had  rather  acquiesce 
and  be  content,  than  complain.     Reward  is  to  be  expected  in  a 

16 


1 2 2       AN  ANTIQ  UAR  V  OF  THE  LAST  CENTUR  Y. 


better  place.  What  you  say  of  nonsensical  and  whimsical  books 
bringing  the  best  prices,  is  one  plain  sign  (among  many)  of  the  great 
decay  of  learning.  'Twas  otherwise  some  years  ago,  when  trifles 
were  looked  upon  as  a  disgrace  to  good  catalogues." 


Dodwell  de  Parma,  ( Large  paper 

8vo.  1 713.         (  Small 
Leland's  Coll.  ( Large  paper 

9  vols.        (  Small 

Acta  Ap.  1715     

Rossi  Hist.  (  Large  paper   . . . 

1 7 16.       (  Small      

T.  Livius  Foro  Jul.  ( Large  paper 

1716.  (Small... 

Aluredus  Bev.  ( Large  paper 

1716.  (Small 
Roperi  Vita  Thom.  Mori.  (  Large  paper 

17 16.  I  Small 

Camdeni  Eliz.  i  Large  paper 

1 71 7.  (Small 

Gul.  Neubrig.  j  Large  paper 

1 7 19.  \  Small 

Sprotti  Chron.  (  Large  paper 

1719.         I  Small 

Curious  Discourses  i  Large  papei 

2  vols.  1720.       (Small... 
Textus  Roff.  i  Large  paper  ... 

1720.  (Small    

Rob.  of  Avesbury  i  Large  paper 

1720.  (Small    ... 

Fordun.      ( Large  paper... 

5  vols.  1722.  (  Small 

Antiq.  of  Glast.  (  Large  paper     . 

1722.  (Small 

Hemingi  Chart.  (  Large  paper    . 

2  vols.  1723.    (Small 
Rob.  Glouc.  j  Large  paper  ... 

2  vols.  1724.  (Small     

Peter  Langtoft  i  Large  paper 

2  vols.  1724.   (Small 

Letter   of  Antiq.    between    Windsor    and 
Oxford,  1725       


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AN  ANTIQ  UAR  Y  OF  THE  LAST  CENTUR  Y.       123 

John  of  Glast.  ( Large  paper       02  02  00 

2  vols.  1726.  (Small 01  01  00 

Adam  de  Domerham  ( Large  paper  ...     ,..  02  02  00 

2  vols.  1727.         (Small      01  01  00 

[Hearne  printed  very  few  copies  of  any  of  his  works,  seldom  more 
than  were  subscribed  for.  Of  Leland's  Collectanea,  there  were 
printed  only  156.  Of  the  Acta  Apostolorum,  120.  Of  Rossi.  Hist, 
only  60.  Of  Aluredus  Beverlacenis  148  \  and  of  Roper's  Life  of  Sir 
Thomas  More,  148.] 

12.     To  Mr,  Ballard. 

"...  Mr.  Wood  never  wanted  industry ;  but  then  his  judgment 
was  nothing  equal  to  his  dihgence.  Nor  indeed  had  he  any  stock  of 
true  learning,  which  is  the  reason  that  his  antiquities  were  translated 
into  Latin  by  other  hands,  he  being  not  capable  of  doing  it  himself. 
Yet  after  all,  both  his  works  are  very  useful  and  curious,  and  will 
always  be  esteemed  as  such  by  such  as  esteem  our  history  and 
antiquities,  and  have  any  just  honour  for  the  University  of  Oxford, 
which  Mr.  Wood  endeavoured  to  promote  so  much,  and  'tis  pity  that 
he  received  no  better  reward  at  last  than  expulsion." 

13.     To  T  Rawlinson^  December  20,  17 17. 

"  I  received  the  parcel  of  books  very  safe,  for  which  I  thank  you. 
I  will  take  occasion  them  over.  I  hope  I  shall  find  many  things  in 
them  that  may  be  of  use  in  my  designs.  As  to  your  query  at 
Num.  33,  oi Rustica  Descriptio  Visitationis  fanaiicoe  Oxon,  Mr.  Collier 
(commonly  called  honest  Will.  Collier)  was  strangely  tortured  in 
New  College,  where  he  was  imprisoned  and  condemned  to  be 
hanged,  but  freed  after  he  was  up  the  ladder.  So  ^des  nan  unquam 
senescentes^  is  exactly  New-House^  or  as  we  call  it,  New-College^  which 
indeed  is  the  true  way  of  writing  it,  and  not  Neot-College,  as  some 
would  have  it,  as  if  it  were  called  from  St.  Neot,  which  is  a  ridiculous 
supposition.  They  may  as  well  say  Newburgh  and  Newbury  were 
denominated  from  the  same  saint.  The  foresaid  Will.  Collier,  who 
was  a  right  cavalier,  (and  therefore  made  yeoman  beadle,  Dr.  Peter 
Mew,  and  others,  having  a  true  value  for  his  loyalty,  which  made 
Dr.  Peter  Mew  always  use  him  as  a  familiar,  as  well  before  as  after 
he  was  bishop ;  I  say  this  Will.  Collier)  being  a  hard  drinker,  had  a 
room  at  the  tavern  which  was  always  called  Will.  Collier's  room,  and 
often  old  Collier's  room,  which  nobody  whatsoever  was  to  use,  but 
himself  and  such  as  came  to  him.     Here  he  constantly  sat  when  the 


124       AN  ANTIQUARY  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY. 


business  of  the  University  was  over,  unless  he  was  obUged  to  go 
some  other  place,  and  would  drink  and  be  very  merry.  And  'twas 
the  same  thing  whether  he  had  company  or  not,  hither  he  would 
come,  and  take  possession  of  the  room,  and  sit  and  enjoy  himself. 
There  are  many  stories  going  about  this  honest  old  cavalier,  several 
of  which  I  have  often  heard  from  Frank  Harding,  who  died  of  the 
stranguary  about  a  year  since,  whose  father  was  particularly  ac- 
quainted with  Will,  and  a  suffering  cavalier  with  him. 

"  I  thought  upon  the  first  sight  of  your  parcel  that  it  had  been  the 
cuts,  but  my  expectation  was  soon  deceived  upon  opening  it.  I 
find  by  your  letters  that  they  will  come  as  soon  done.  So  I  acquiesce. 
Seventy-two  pages  of  Neubrigensis  are  printed." 

[The  Rustica  Academics  Oxomensis  nuper  reformatce  DescriptiOy 
alluded  to  in  the  above  letter,  was  written  by  John  Allibond,  who 
was  born  in  Buckinghamshire,  and  educated  at  Magdalen  College; 
of  the  school  belonging  to  which  he  was  for  some  time  master,  and 
afterwards  became  rector  of  Bradwell,  in  Gloucestershire,  where  he 
died  in  1658.] 

14.     To  T  Rawlins^  May  12,  171 7. 

*'I  had  not  written  to  you  to-day,  were  it  not  to  acquaint  you  that 
yesterday  died  Mr.  James  Badger,  school-master  of  New-College, 
who  hath  left  behind  him  a  good  collection  of  printed  books.  I 
know  not  as  yet  how  they  will  be  disposed  of.  But  if  they  should 
be  sold,  I  perceive  already  that  several  curious  men  (that  have 
money)  will  be  puttting  in  for  them. 

*' .  .  .  In  Finchley  Church  you  take  notice  of  a  brass  plate  on  the 
wall  containing  the  will  of  Thomas  Sanney.  But  you  give  us  but 
half  the  will.  It  is  very  remarkable  to  have  a  will  published  in  this 
manner.  I  wish  I  had  it  entire.  I  do  not  know  but  I  may  have 
occasion  to  make  public  mention  of  it  in  some  discourse  or  other. 
In  the  meantime  I  wish  you  would  endeavour  to  get  the  remaining 
part  of  it.  I  find  it  is  difficult  to  be  made  out  by  what  you  say. 
But  sure  somebody  or  other  that  goes  that  way  will  be  able  to  read  it. 

*' .  .  .  I  have  had  some  thoughts  of  having  a  title-page  engraved 
for  Cambden's  Eliz.  as  I  did  for  Roper.  I  would  have  it  done  in 
my  chamber  for  fear  it  should  be  made  public  by  the  engraver. 
Burghers  did  that  for  Roper  in  my  own  chamber,  and  by  that  means 
no  copies  could  be  disposed  of  but  what  came  from  me.  But 
Burghers  now  refuses  to  do  anything  in  my  own  chamber,  but  says 
he  must  have  it  home.  It  may  be  some  head  of  a  house  or  other 
hath  advised  him.     But  indeed  I  cannot  trust  this  Dutchman  with 


AN  ANTIQUARY  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY.       125 

anything  in  his  own  lodging,  he  having  formerly  played  me  a  trick. 
Perhaps,  after  all,  a  plain  title-page,  printed  at  the  common  press, 
may  be  better.  I  do  not  design  any  dedication  or  inscription,  but 
will  only  write  a  preface." 

15.     To  T.  RawlmsoHy  March  19,  17 18-19. 

"...  I  find  in  one  of  the  books  of  your  iid  cargo  mention  of 
Medley.  I  was  well  pleased  with  it.  It  was  in  old  time  a  most 
famous  place.  The  nuns  of  Godstowe  (to  whom  it  belonged)  used 
to  solace  themselves  there.  It  belonged  to  the  Wighthams.  The 
nuns,  at  the  same  time  that  they  came  hither,  used  likewise  to  divert 
themselves  at  Binsey,  and  to  discourse  much  about  St.  Frideswide. 
'Tis  probable  that  I  may  have  some  remarks  upon  this  subject  in 
Neubrigensis.  Your  little  old  thing  called  Pierce,  the  Plowman's 
Crede,  is  excellent.  We  learn  many  things  from  it  relating  to  the 
monastic  buildings  and  customs,  particularly  about  their  fine  paintings 
I  think  the  author  had  a  particular  regard  to  the  Carmelite  of  White 
Friers,  at  Oxford,  the  building  of  which  place  were  very  curious, 
especially  on  account  of  the  royal  palace  there,  called  the  Beaumonts. 
Indeed,  there  are  none  of  the  books  you  sent  but  I  pick  something 
of  history  out  of  them ;  and  this  I  do  sometimes  at  Haddington, 
sometimes  at  Ifley,  sometimes  at  Blind  Pinnocks,^  sometimes  at 
Antiquity-Hall,^  and  sometimes  in  other  places  ;  at  all  which  times 
I  remember  Dr.  Richard  Mead,  yourself,  and  other  friends.  This 
is  no  small  comfort  of  my  life,  after  the  ill-treatment  I  have  met 
with  from  an  ungrateful,  wicked  people.  I  wish  you  could  be  some- 
times with  me.  We  should  have  good,  useful,  diversion  in  going  and 
rambhng  about  together,  and  in  descanting  upon  the  several  remarks 
we  should  make.  For  the  truth  is,  I  find  something  almost  every 
time  at  the  places  I  go  to  that  I  had  not  remarked  before ;  and  to 
be  sure  you  would  do  the  same.  I  long  to  be  turning  over  the 
antiquities  of  Berkshire,  when  I  can  have  the  opportunity.  I  am 
thinking  of  going  into  that  county  at  Easter,  when  I  shall  have  a 
respite,  you  know,  for  three  or  four  days." 

16.     Account  of  Hearne's  deaths  in  a  letter  from  Mr,  Brotne  to 

Mr.  Rawlins. 

'"  T.  H  [earne]   had  his  death  stroke  the  day  I  left  Oxford.     I 

Blind  Pinnock  kept  an  ale-house  in  Cumner  parish. 

Antiquity  Hall  was  an  ale-house  near  Rewley.  It  had  the  sign  of  Whitting- 
ton  and  his  Cat.  It  was  more  anciently  known  by  the  name  of  the  Hole  in 
the  Wall. 


126      AN  ANTIQUAR  Y  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY. 

visited  him  in  his  illness,  and  sent  often  to  him  what  I  thought  might 
be  agreeable  to  one  in  his  condition,  and  he  could  not  conveniently 
have  at  Edmund  Hall.  I  never  entered  into  any  discourse  with  him 
about  his  temporal  affairs,  or  making  his  will ;  which  I  thought  he  was 
so  considerate  a  man  as  to  settle  before  his  decline.  I  was  in  hopes 
that  he  had  saved  out  of  the  kindness  of  his  benefactors,  and  the 
profit  of  his  printing,  some  little  matter ;  but  was  surprised  to  hear 
of  the  great  sum  found  on  his  decease.  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  his 
MS.  collections  are  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  prudent  gentleman : 
for  though  I  doubt  not  but  that  among  them  there  are  many  useful 
memoirs  and  historical  notes ;  yet  you  know  this  friend  of  ours  had 
some  peculiarities  \  all  of  which  would  not  be  perhaps  for  his  credit 
to  be  made  public.  I  am  truly  concerned  for  the  loss  his  friends  and 
the  public  have  in  the  death  of  so  industrious  a  man  and  faithful 
editor.  I  am  glad  he  has  ordered  some  of  his  curiosities  for  the 
place  he  once  loved,  the  Bodleian  Library.  I  would  willingly  have 
offered  him  the  best  of  my  assistance  as  a  minister  during  his  decline ; 
but  knowing  his  way  of  thinking,  thought  1  should  not  be  accepted. 
However,  I  was  sorry  to  hear  he  declined  the  prayers  of  also  a  non- 
juring  clergyman ;  and  by  allowing  a  popish  priest  to  be  with  him 
alone  for  two  hours,  3  or  4  days  before  he  died,  has  given  occasion 
to  talk.  My  old  friend  Ant.  Wood,  how  much  soever  some  counted 
him  a  papist,  had  the  prayers  of  our  church  read  to  him  by  me  and 
another  clergyman  twice  a  day ;  and  received  the  sacrament  on  his 
death-bed  with  seemingly  great  devotion.' — Thus  the  Bishop.  This, 
dear  Sir,  I  have  thought  fit  to  communicate  to  one  from  whom  I 
apprehend  no  ill  use  of  it  to  the  Bishop  and  others.  It  may  seem 
perhaps  extraordinary  that  our  friend  should  refuse  N.  I.  clergy  \  but 
I  am  well  satisfied  he  had  objections  against  that  clergyman  for  some 
compliances,  and  I  really  believe  he  adhered  to  the  last  to  the  strict 
Cyprianic  principles.  The  many  favourable  expressions  as  to  the 
Church  of  England,  its  bishops,  &c.  incline  me  to  judge  thus  chari- 
tably of  him.  The  emissaries  of  the  Church  of  Rome  are  very  busy, 
when  our  senses  and  faculties  decline ;  and  it  was  Sir  Roger 
L'Estrange's  desire  (after  his  daughter  had  been  seduced  into  that 
communion)  that  all  those  gent,  should  be  kept  from  his  dying  bed; 
he  being  no  stranger  to  their  compassing  sea  and  land  to  gain 
proselytes." 


Another  Link  with  Dickens  Gone. 


HE  Manchester  Guardian  reports  the  death,  at  Tichfield, 
Hampshire,  in  his  eighty-second  year,  of  Mr.  Henry  Bur- 
nett, formerly  a  well-known  tenor  singer  and  teacher  of 
music  in  Manchester,  and  the  husband  of  Fanny  Dickens,  eldest 
sister  to  the  novelist.  Mr.  Burnett  was  born  in  the  same  year  as  his 
wife  (1810)  at  Brighton,  but  spent  most  of  his  childhood  at  Gosport. 
He  was  subsequently  taken  in  hand  by  Sir  George  Smart,  then 
organist  of  the  Chapels  Royal,  "who,"  we  are  told,  "took  great 
dehght  in  his  young  pupil's  precocious  powers  of  voice."  "  He  be- 
came," it  is  added,  "  noticed  in  musical  parties  in  Brighton  as  a  dis- 
tinguished young  singer,  and  at  about  ten  years  of  age  he  was  intro- 
duced to  the  Pavilion,  and  he  remembered  well  standing  on  a  table 
in  the  drawing-room  at  the  Pavilion  to  sing  a  solo  before  the  Court, 
and  seeing  George  IV.,  who  was  suffering  with  gout,  wheeled  into 
the  room."  About  1822  he  was,  on  the  recommendation  of  Sir 
George  Smart,  elected  a  pupil  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Music,  his 
future  wife,  Fanny  Dickens,  being  elected  a  pupil  of  the  Academy 
about  the  same  time.  On  leaving  the  Academy  he  was  engaged  as 
a  principal  tenor  at  Drury  Lane  and  Covent  Garden,  where  he  met 
with  great  success.  Before  he  settled  in  Manchester  Mr.  Burnett 
appeared  occasionally  in  opera  at  the  old  Theatre  Royal  in  Fountain 
Street,  and  met  with  a  capital  reception.  In  the  meantime,  he  had 
married  Dickens's  sister  and  settled  in  London.  During  the  last 
year  of  his  theatrical  life  he  was  engaged  as  principal  tenor  at  the 
Theatre  Royal,  Bath.  About  1840  Burnett  and  his  wife,  acting 
under  the  advice  of  John  Hullah,  settled  in  Manchester,  where  they 
soon  established  a  high  reputation  both  as  teachers  of  music  and  as 


128        ANOTHER  LINK  WITH  DICKENS  GONE, 


vocalists.  Burnett  had  a  clear  and  beautiful  tenor  voice — certainly 
not  very  powerful,  but  highly  cultivated  and  telling — and  he  was 
engaged  as  leading  tenor  at  most  of  the  principal  local  concerts  ot 
that  time.  His  wife  seldom,  if  ever,  appeared  in  public,  confining 
herself — so  long  as  her  delicate  health  permitted  even  this — to  teach- 
ing. Soon  after  they  came  to  Manchester  Burnett  and  his  wife 
became  members  of  the  Rev.  James  Griffin's  congregation  at 
Rusholme  Road  Independent  Chapel,  and  for  some  time,  during  the 
absence  of  the  regular  choir,  conducted  the  musical  part  of  the  ser- 
vice at  the  chapel.  As  nearly  as  we  can  remember,  Burnett  left 
Manchester  about  1859  or  i860.  Some  ten  or  eleven  years  before 
this  he  had  lost  his  wife,  and  Dickens  had  lost  his  favourite  sister. 
The  novelist  gives  John  Forster  a  touching  account  of  his  sister's 
death  under  the  date  of  July  5,  1848,  commencing  :  "A  change  took 
place  in  poor  Fanny  about  the  middle  of  the  day  yesterday,  which 
took  me  out  there  last  night."  She  had  then  left  Manchester  for 
London  to  consult  Sir  James  Clark.  "  Burnett,"  says  Dickens,  "  had 
always  been  very  good  to  her."  In  this  last  interview  she  alluded  to 
her  "little  deformed  child."  "After  not  many  weeks,"  Forster  adds 
to  Dickens's  letter,  "she  died,  and  the  little  child  who  was  her  last 
anxiety  did  not  long  survive  her."  The  "  little  child,"  Harry  Bur- 
nett, son  of  the  late  vocalist  was,  as  Dickens  told  his  sister,  the 
original  of  little  Paul  Dombey,  and  was  born  during  the  residence 
of  his  father  and  mother  in  Upper  Brook  Street,  Chorlton-on-Med- 
lock. 


The  Retort  Courteous. 

A  CELEBRATED  author  happened,  when  buying  books  oT  a 
second-hand  dealer,  to  find  one  of  his  own  works  of  travel, 
which  he  had  presented  to  a  fellow  author.  He  had  written  a 
particular  dedication  on  the  fly-leaf.  He  bought  the  volume,  which 
was  still  uncut,  had  it  bound  in  a  most  beautiful  and  expensive 
style,  with  initials  stamped  in  gold  on  the  cover,  and  sent  it  back  to 
his  colleague,  with  the  following  note  on  the  fly-leaf  : — "  P.S. — You 
will  keep  this  for  the  sake  of  the  binding." 


Our  Note-Book. 


HE  acquisitiveness  of  Bibliophiles  "  is  a  matter  which  has 
been  disturbing  the  soul  of  a  transatlantic  journalist.  He 
is  of  opinion  that  ever  since  man  was  created  his  acqui- 
sitiveness has  caused  him  to  be  filled  with  an  ambition  to  possess 
more  than  his  share  of  some  classes  of  the  world's  goods.  The  ave- 
rage man  enjoys  the  thought  that  he  possesses  something  that  cannot 
be  duplicated ;  it  may  be  intrinsically  worthless,  but  if  no  one  has 
anything  just  like  it  he  attaches  great  value  to  it.  Heber,  the  famous 
bibhomaniac,  was  one  of  the  sort  of  collectors  who  gathered  up  things 
merely  for  the  sake  of  collecting.  He  spent  his  fortune  and  life  in 
collecting  books  which,  when  he  had  secured  them,  lay  untouched 
and  uncared  for  in  the  houses  he  rented  in  his  own  country  and 
abroad  to  store  them  in.  He  had  over  117,000  books  in  London 
alone,  while  no  one  knew  how  many  houses  full  he  had  abroad.  He 
used  to  defend  his  extravagance  in  buying  up  duplicate  copies  of  the 
same  work  upon  the  ground  that  no  man  could  do  comfortably  with- 
out three  copies  of  the  same  work — one  to  be  kept  at  his  country 
house  as  a  show  copy,  one  for  the  service  of  borrowing  friends,  and 
one  for  his  own  especial  use.  And  yet,  with  all  his  professed  love 
for  his  library,  the  great  bibliomaniac  quite  forgot  to  say  a  word 
about  it  in  his  will.  It  is  of  course  easy  enough  to  quote  a  few 
isolated  examples,  which  are  also  exceptions,  in  support  of  any 
theory  ;  but  Heber  was  much  more  of  a  bibliomaniac  than  a  biblio- 
phile, and  the  former's  passion  for  acquiring  books  is  one  that  knows 
no  limitations  and  stops  at  no  excesses.  The  desire  of  possessing 
books  which  are  rare  is  a  perfectly  legitimate  one,  defensible  on  many 
grounds  which  will  be  obvious  to  any  person  with  a  fair  share  of 

17 


130  OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 

common  sense.  The  acquisitiveness  of  bibliophiles  is  a  fact  of  which 
we  are  proud,  for  it  is  directly  to  this  element  that  we  owe  the  pre- 
servation of  so  many  links  in  the  chain  of  human  history. 


We  had  nothing  but  praise  for  the  first  volume  of  the  illustrated 
edition  of  the  late  J.  R.  Green's  "  Short  History  of  the  English 
People,"  which  Messrs.  Macmillan  have  had  the  enterprise  to  pub- 
blish.  The  appearance  of  a  second  volume  only  serves  to  confirm 
the  high  opinion  which  its  predecessor  compelled.  In  a  word,  it  is 
at  once  the  most  beautiful  and  useful  book  issued  for  many  a  long 
month ;  and  the  more  critically  it  is  examined  the  more  it  seems  to 
defy  criticism.  The  pictures  selected  to  accompany  the  text  are 
peculiarly  appropriate,  and  are  selected  with  quite  as  much  care,  and 
used  with  as  much  discretion,  as  the  late  lamented  author  exercised 
in  his  selection  and  arrangement  of  facts.  It  unfortunately  too  fre- 
quently happens  that  the  illustrations  of  a  book  are  carelessly  selected 
more  as  mere  embellishments  than  as  germane  to  the  subject  under 
treatment.  This  at  once  renders  the  book  an  incongruous  absurdity. 
This  is  a  charge  which  certainly  cannot  be  urged  against  the  illus- 
trated edition  of  Green's  "  History."  Not  only  are  the  illustrations 
selected  with  great  care  and  discrimination  from  very  many  out-of-the- 
way  sources,  but  their  value  is  greatly  enhanced  by  a  series  of  exhaus- 
tive Notes  which  give  every  possibly  interesting  fact  about  them. 
The  reproductions  from  the  Harleian  and  Bodleian  treasures  are  of 
the  greatest  interest  and  appropriateness,  for  in  this,  as  in  every  other 
case,  even  a  poor  picture  impresses  an  idea  on  the  mind  much  more 
indelibly  than  the  fullest  textual  description.  The  coloured  illustra- 
tions in  fac-simile  by  contemporary  artists  are  peculiarly  interesting 
from  artistic  and  decorative  points  of  view,  for  some  of  them  possess 
a  vividness  and  a  reality  which  one  is  not  accustomed  to  associate 
with  the  origins  of  English  history.  Altogether,  the  illustrated 
edition   of  Green's    "  Short   History  "  is  a  distinct  acquisition  to 

English  literature. 

*         *         *         :;j 

In  another  part  of  this  issue  of  The  Bookworm  we  give  Mr. 
Arbuthnot's  admirable  sketch  of  the  life  and  works  of  the  late  E. 
Rehatsek,  whose  labours  in  Oriental  literature  will  need  no  elaborate 
commendation  from  us.  We  are  glad,  however,  to  call  attention  to 
the  publication  of  Rehatsek's  translation  from  the  original  Persian  of 
Mirkhond's  "  Life  of  Muhammad,  the  Apostle  of  Allah,"  which  has 
just  been  issued  under  the  patronage  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society, 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK.  131 

edited  by  Mr.  Arbuthnot.  The  translation  is  in  two  neatly  printed 
volumes,  and  this  noteworthy  "■  Life  "  appears  now  for  the  first  time 
in  a  European  dress.  Its  importance  cannot  be  over-estimated,  deal- 
ing as  it  does  with  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  that  has  ever 
lived,  and  of  whose  career,  curiously  enough,  we  have  the  completest 
details  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  He  was  born  in  a.d.  810,  and 
died  870,  and  during  the  sixty  years  of  his  life  he  effected  a  revolu- 
tion and  reformations  which  can  only  be  fully  appreciated  by  those 
conversant  with  Oriental  history  and  customs.  The  general  idea 
in  this  country,  taught  in  schools  and  confirmed  in  after  life  by  a 
careful  disregard  for  truth  on  the  part  of  the  majority  of  our  his- 
torians, concerning  Mahomet  is  that  he  was  the  incarnation  of  all 
that  was  wicked.  A  careful  inquiry  into  the  real  facts  of  the  case 
will  prove  this  to  be  absolutely  without  foundation.  Mahomet  was 
a  drastic  reformer ;  and  however  unprofitable  it  is  to  discuss  "  the 
might  have  beens "  of  history,  there  can  be  no  question  about  the 
lasting  benefits  which  the  great  monotheist  conferred  upon  the  Arabs. 
This  "  Life  of  Muhammad "  is  not  altogether  an  "  easy  "  book  to 
read,  but  it  is  a  very  valuable  one  to  possess ;  and  we  therefore  com- 
mend it  to  all  whom  it  may  in  any  way  concern. 


We  are  glad  to  call  the  attention  of  our  readers  to  a  work  of  the 
first  interest  and  importance.  It  is  the  "  Monumenta  Germanise  et 
Italiae  Typographica,"  which  Herr  Otto  Harrassowitz,  the  well-known 
publisher  of  Leipzig,  is  issuing  in  parts,  and  under  the  direction 
of  Herr  K.  Burger,  Gustos  des  Bushgewerbe-Museums,  at  Leipzig. 
The  "  Monumenta  "  consists  of  a  series  of  facsimile  reproductions, 
in  folio  size,  of  pages  from  the  most  important  German  and  Italian 
Incunabula,  to  be  completed  in  twelve  parts,  each  of  which  is  to 
consist  of  twenty-five  folios,  the  price  being  twenty  marks  per  part. 
So  far  as  we  are  able  to  judge,  the  facsimiles  are  highly  successful ; 
and  as  a  contribution  to  the  comprehensive  history  of  printing  which 
has  yet  to  be  written,  this  series  of  facsimiles  is  the  most  important 
that  has  been  made  for  many  years.  We  can  see  at  a  glance  the 
exact  character  of  the  type  used  by  the  printers  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. The  variety  of  type  used  even  at  this  early  period  by  one  man 
is  occasionally  surprising  \  for  example,  we  get  on  one  page  no  less 
than  sixteen  varieties  used  by  Erhard  Ratdolt  in  or  about  i486,  and 
several  of  these  are  very  beautiful.  The  page,  with  an  illustration, 
from  the  edition  of  Dante,  printed  at  Florence  in  1 481,  by  Nicolaus 
Laurentii,  is  exceptionally  interesting,  and  so  is  the  page,  also  with 


132  OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 

an  illustration,  of  the  German  Bible  printed  by  Koberger  at  Niln? 
berg,  in  1483;  the  page  from  Schedel's  *'Buch  der  Croniken,"  of 
the  same  printer,  dated  1493,  is  simply  a  marvellous  piece  of  work. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  copies  of  this  "  Monumenta  ''  will  be  secured 
by  all  our  public  libraries,  as  it  is  a  magnificent  one,  and  quite 
unlike  anything  previously  attempted.  Herr  Harrassowitz  would 
doubtless  be  pleased  to  forward  a  prospectus  to  any  one  interested 
in  the  subject. 

if.  ^i  ;I;  ;;; 

One  of  the  prettiest  books  which  we  have  seen  for  a  long  time 
reaches  us  from  M.  E.  Dentu,  of  3,  Place  de  Valois,  Paris,  whose 
"  Nelumbo  "  series  of  booklets  is  so  well  known  both  in  this  country 
and  in  France.  The  new  phase  of  this  series  is  Le  Bambou^  an 
illustrated  monthly  periodical  with  about  one  hundred  pages  of  text 
and  about  sixty  illustrations,  specially  designed.  The  object,  accord- 
ing to  the  "advertisement,"  is  to  infuse  the  same  amount  of  energy 
into  art  as  has  served  to  revolutionise  every  phase  of  modern  life. 
No  expense  is  to  be  spared  to  give  Le  Bambou  all  the  advantages  of 
the  best  writers  and  artists,  and,  judging  from  the  first  number,  we 
should  say  that  the  venture  is  likely  to  prove  in  every  way  success- 
ful. It  is,  of  course,  beautiful,  and  the  illustrations  are  very  clever 
and  very  fin  de  siccle.     The  numbers  are  issued  at  2  francs  50  cents. 

An  interesting  anniversary  was  celebrated  at  the  Guildhall,  London, 
recently,  under  the  presidency  of  Sir  John  Monckton,  the  occasion 
being  the  eighty-ninth  anniversary  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society.  The  chairman  reminded  his  hearers  that  every  day  there 
were  issued  by  the  Society  no  fewer  than  13,000  copies  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  bibles  had  been  published  in  304  languages.  The  grand 
total,  therefore,  of  nearly  four  million  bibles  were  issued  in  the 
course  of  the  year.  It  was  also  an  interesting  fact  to  know  in 
connection  with  the  spreading  of  the  Gospel  that  it  was  500  years 
ago  that  very  month  that  the  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed  which 
permitted  people  to  read  the  Scriptures.  Sir  John  Monckton  then 
invited  Miss  Lewis  to  perform  the  operation  of  cutting  a  monster 
birthday  cake,  which  was  placed  upon  a  table  on  the  platform,  and 
a  piece  of  which  was  given  to  each  child  as  a  souvenir  of  the  in- 
teresting occasion  on  leaving  Guildhall. 

During  his  recent  visit  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  says  the  Christiaii  World, 
Professor  Max  Miiller  found  the  Premier  interested  in  making  a 
collection  of  prayer-books,  all  more  or  less  modifications  of  the 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK.  135 

Church  of  England  Prayer-Book.  The  Professor  told  his  host  of 
the  one  compiled  by  the  Rev.  John  Hunter,  of  Glasgow,  and 
promised  to  secure  him  a  copy,  along  with  a  copy  of  Mr.  Hunter's 
hymn-book.  Copies  of  both  books  have  since  been  forwarded  to 
Mr.  Gladstone. 

^'  y  SjC  ty. 

The  facsimile  reprint  of  the  "  Leyes  y  ordenancas  nueuamete  hechas 
por  su  Magestad  pa  la  gouernacion  de  las  Indias  y  buen  tratamienta 
y  conseruacion  de  los  Indios,"  &c.,  together  with  a  literal  translation 
into  English  under  the  title  of  *'  The  New  Laws  of  the  Indies,"  which 
appeared  a  week  or  two  ago,  deserves  a  reference,  if  only  from  the 
fact  that  it  has  been  nearly  twenty  years  in  the  press  !  It  has  been 
printed  for  private  circulation  at  the  Chiswick  Press,  and  is  one  of 
the  several  speculations  of  the  late  Henry  Stevens,  of  Vermont,  who 
prefixes  to  it  an  historical  introduction.  The  volume  is  in  small 
folio  size,  and  the  facsimile  is  made  from  the  unique  copy  on  vellum 
in  the  Grenville  Library  at  the  British  Museum  of  the  original 
Spanish  edition  of  the  Laws,  dated  Alcala  de  Henares,  July  8th, 
1543.  This  is  the  first  reprint  of  the  first  translation  into  English  of 
a  book  of  singular  importance  to  all  students  and  collectors  of  works 
on  American  history.  The  entire  impression  consists  of  only  thirteen 
copies  on  the  finest  writing  vellum,  and  seventy-five  on  the  finest 
hand-made  paper.  As  it  is  illustrated,  not  only  with  numerous 
ornamental  blocks  of  Indians,  but  with  portraits  of  Columbus,  its 
appearance  just  now  is  very  opportune.  It  is,  however,  a  somewhat 
costly  book,  inasmuch  as  ten  guineas  is  deipanded  for  the  ordinary 
copies,  and  twenty-five  guineas  for  the  vellum  examples. 

We  are  somewhat  late  in  reviewing  Mr.  William  Andrews's 
"  Bygone  England,"  which  Messrs.  Hutchinson  and  Co.  issued  some 
months  ago ;  but  its  varied  interest  is  none  the  less  welcome  and 
worthy  of  notice.  The  author  describes  his  book  as  consisting  of 
social  studies  of  the  historic  byways  and  highways  of  this  country, 
and  very  appropriately  dedicates  it  to  Mr.  George  Augustus  Sala. 
Of  the  twenty-seven  chapters,  that  which  will  most  interest  our 
readers  deals  with  the  "  Horn-Book."  Mr.  Andrews  does  not  tell 
us  much  that  is  new  on  this  fairly-worn  topic,  but  he  puts  all  the 
available  knowledge  concerning  it  into  an  attractive  form.  As 
instancing  the  rarity  of  examples  at  the  present  day,  he  alludes  to 
the  fact  that  *'  about  thirty  years  since  a  Horn-Book  was  put  up  at 
Southgate's  Auction-rooms,  London,  and  actually  realised  nearly 
twenty  pounds."   We  presume  Mr.  Andrews  means  Sotheby's  rooms^ 


134  OUR  NOTE-BOOR. 

The  text  of  this  chapter  is  illustrated  with  a  carefully-excuted  engrav- 
ing of  a  fine  example  found  in  pulling  down  an  old  farmhouse  at 
Middleton,  Derbyshire.  On  the  back  of  this  specimen  was  a  picture 
of  Charles  I.  in  armour,  mounted  on  a  horse,  thus  affording  a  proof 
of  the  period  to  which  it  belonged.  The  "  Horn-Book  "  was  usually 
sold  at  a  penny  or  twopence  each.  Mr.  Andrew  W.  Tuer,  of  the 
Leadenhall  Press,  is,  we  understand,  preparing  a  work  on  this  subject, 
and  its  appearance  will  be  hailed  with  interest.  To  return,  however, 
to  Mr.  Andrews's  *'  Bygone  England,"  which  is  admirably  printed,  we 
can  recommend  it  as  a  highly  entertaining  book ;  and,  dealing  as  it 
does  with  so  many  subjects  of  such  varied  interest,  we  do  not  envy 
the  person  who  can  take  it  up  without  finding  something  that  will 
attract  him. 

*  :;-.  *  * 

A  book  of  special  interest  was  sold  the  other  day  at  Sotheby's.  It 
is  Euclid's  "Elements  of  Geometric,"  translated  by  H.  Billingsley, 
and  pubhshed  by  John  Daye  in  1570.  It  is  bound  in  old  calf,  and 
has  at  each  corner  roses  crowned  stamped  in  gold,  whilst  down  the 
back  there  are  the  lion,  rose,  and  portcullis,  the  three  being  distinc- 
tive of  the  Tudors.  It  would  seem  that  this  volume  was  bound  in 
England  for  Henry  Prince  of  Wales,  the  eldest  son  of  James  I.,  after 
his  father's  accession.  The  British  Museum  contains  several  books 
which  formed  a  part  of  the  library  of  this  Prince,  but  examples  rarely 
occur  for  sale.  The  copy  of  Euclid  occurred  among  the  books  of 
the  late  Rev.  W.  E.  Buckley,  and  realised  ;^7  los. — a  very  small 
amount  considering  the  historic  interest  of  the  item. 

:];  *  ::s  ;:< 

"  The  Gentleman's  Magazine  Library,"  which  is  edited  by  Mr.  G. 
L.  Gomme,  and  published  by  Mr.  Elliot  Stock,  is  making  excellent 
progress,  and  when  this  classified  collection  of  the  chief  contents  of 
our  most  venerable  periodical  (i  731-1868)  is  complete,  there  will 
no  longer  be  any  necessity  to  lumber  our  shelves  with  about  200 
volumes  which  contain  a  great  amount  of  rubbish.  In  addition  to 
this,  a  complete  set  of  the  Gentkman^s  Magazine  is  a  somewhat 
costly  luxury,  to  say  nothing  of  the  valuable  space  which  it  requires. 
The  "  Gentleman's  Magazine  Library  "  gives  us  the  fullest  excerpts  of 
all  that  we  need,  and  as  the  contents  of  these  volumes  are  classified, 
we  have  the  contributions  which  cover  a  period  of  137  years  on  a 
particular  subject  focussed  into  one  volume.  The  latest  issue  of  Mr. 
Gomme's  condensing  deals  with  the  topography  of  Derbyshire  and 
Devonshire,  and  the  volume  will  be  found  to  contain  a  fine  mass  of 
quaint  and  curious  lore.  


Books  that  can  be  Inwardly  Digested 


N  alleged  humorist,  hailing,  it  is  almost  needless  to  say, 
from  America,  and  rejoicing  in  the  nom  de  plume  of  "  Bill 
Nye,"  has  just  delivered  himself  of  the  following  "funny" 
paragraph,  which  seems  to  deserve  something  more  than  the  oblivion 
to  which  it  apparently  was  predestined  : — 

"  Being  on  the  eve,  as  I  may  say,  of  pubHshing  a  book,  I  hail 
with  ill-concealed  joy  the  announcement  that  a  company  has  been- 
recently  formed  with  a  capital  of  100,000  dollars  and  located  in 
Newark,  N.J.,  the  manufacture  of  'membranoid'  for  bookbindings. 
This  is  a  new  style  of  ornamental  leather  made  from  tripe.  I  get  all 
my  information  regarding  the  matter  from  the  Butchers'  Advocate, 
the  acknowledged  journalistic  authority  on  meaty  matters.  The 
inventor  claims  that  membranoid  will  prove  more  serviceable,  and 
at  the  same  time  please  the  bookworm  better,  than  any  other  style  of 
bookbinding.  It  is  also  susceptible  of  more  artistic  and  gastric 
possibilities  than  any  other  substance.  The  time  is  coming  when 
the  author,  instead  of  trying  to  subsist  on  a  paltry  royalty,  will  be 
permitted  to  carry  a  vinegar  flask  in  his  hip-pocket  and  board  at  the 
bindery.  The  unsuccessful  lawyer  and  graduate  at  Harvard  will  not 
get  as  thin  as  I  did  while  practising  law  and  Banting,  conveyancing 
and  starvation,  for  he  can  put  a  little  Halford  sauce  on  his  library 
and  feel  pretty  well  afterwards.  How  much  happier  I  would  have 
been  while  practising  law  surreptitiously  if  I  could  have  put  some 
mustard  on  a  New  York  decision,  or  given  myself  up  to  a  Simmons 
Digest.  Law  is  a  rule  of  action  prescribing  what  is  right  and  pro- 
hibiting what  is  wrong,  according  to  my  friend  Mr.  Blackstone,  who 
got  the  idea  from  Justinian ;  but  too  often  the  student  and   the 


136     BOOKS  THAT  CAN  BE  INWARDLY  DIGESTED, 


solicitor  find  it  poor  grazing,  and  the  common  law  especially  short 
commons.  (This  is  a  joke  which  I  used  with  good  effect  at  the  Inns 
of  Court,  in  London,  where  I  put  up  while  in  England.)  But  now, 
with  our  books  bound  in  membranoid,  the  bookworm  and  the  bott 
become  synonymous,  and  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  a  hymn- 
book  or  two  during  Lent  may  prolong  one's  life.  The  '  Read  and 
Return '  volumes  on  the  train  will  then  have  to  be  chained  to  the 
seat,  and  eminent  but  unprosperous  authors  can  subsist  for  a  time 
on  the  autograph  albums  sent  to  them,  using  the  return  stamps  for 
Chili  sauce.  In  addition  to  the  use  of  tripe  as  a  book-binding,  it 
will  be  used  and  utilised  in  the  manufacture  of  slippers  for  the 
pastor,  and  the  time  is  coming  when  the  Christmas-tree  will  yield 
to  the  hungry  and  weary  one,  not  a  promise  to  the  eye  to  be  broken 
to  the  heart,  but  no  doubt  as  many  slippers  as  at  present,  yet  each 
one  capable  of  making  a  man  a  meal.  In  the  onward  march  of 
membranoid  I  am  told  also  that  the  company  will  not  confine  itself 
entirely  to  tripe,  but  will  roam  about  scientifically  among  the  other 
organs,  and  in  the  matter  of  literature  will  seek,  especially  in  the 
binding  of  medical  works,  to  use  the  membrane  of  the  organ  on 
which  the  work  treats,  as,  for  instance,  a  meningeal  binding  for 
works  on  the  brain  and  spine,  a  pleural  binding  for  a  treatise  on  the 
diseases  of  the  chest  and  lungs,  and  so  on  as  to  diseases  of  the  bones, 
peritonitis,  and  other  interesting  complaints." 


The  Book-Plate  Society.  ^ 


iT  will  be  in  the  remembrance  of  some  present  that  the 
idea  of  starting  a  society  had  its  origin  in  the  early  part  of 
1 89 1.  A  few  of  us,  mostly  energetic  and  enthusiastic 
collectors  of  what  Mr.  Edmund  Gosse,  in  his  "Gossip  in  a  Library," 
tersely  calls  "the  outward  and  visible  marks  of  the  citizenship  of 
the  book-lover,"  known  as  Ex  Libris  or  book-plates,  often  met 
together,  talked  the  matter  over,  and  endeavoured  to  evolve  some 
scheme  whereby  those  who  were  interested  could,  by  united  action,, 
not  only  form  an  association,  but  establish  at  the  same  time  a 
journal  devoted  to  the  subject.  Three  things  were  needful — suffi- 
cient financial  support;  an  editor;  and,  lastly,  volunteers  who 
would  be  willing  to  give  their  services  as  well  as  written  contribu- 
tions, in  order  that  the  said  editor  might  have  the  wherewithal  to- 
fulfil  his  functions.  To  whom  would  such  a  society  appeal  ?  This 
was  a  question  it  was  important  should  be  well  weighed,  and 
answered  satisfactorily. 

The  Honble.  J.  Leicester  Warren  (now  Lord  de  Tabley)  wrote  in 
1880  his  famous  text-book  on  the  subject,  entitled  "A  Guide  to  the 
Study  of  Book-plates."  In  this  able  work  the  author  garnered 
together  all  the  information  he  could  collect,  both  in  regard  to 
English  and  foreign  Ex  Libris.  It  will  not,  I  think,  be  questioned 
that  Lord  de  Tabley's  work  kindled  an  interest  in  the  study  of  book- 
plates, which  had  slumbered  since  the  Rev.  Daniel  Parsons  had 
written  on  it  in  1837.     But  even  in  1880  few  knew  anything  of  the 

*  An  address  delivered  at  the  second  annual  meeting  of  the  Ex  Libris  Society, 
February  24,  1893. 

18 


138  THE  BOOK-PLATE  SOCIETY, 

subject.  The  book  acted  its  part  in  the  education  of  the  world :  it 
appealed  to  the  antiquary,  the  heraldic  student,  and  the  art  connois- 
seur; it  encouraged  men  and  women  to  learn  more  concerning  a 
subject  which  fascinated  them  the  more  they  knew  of  it,  and  which, 
in  short,  possessed  those  especial  features  which  serve  to  absorb  the 
cultivated  mind. 

To  this  circle,  then,  would  our  society  appeal,  and  in  it  would  be 
embraced  the  whole  of  the  English-speaking  race,  and  the  intelli- 
gence of  France,  Germany,  Sweden,  and  other  Continental  countries. 
Could,  then,  a  society  be  established  that  would  revive  a  taste  which 
had  so  many  attractions?  In  view  of  bringing  the  question  to  a 
practical  issue,  a  meeting  of  those  most  interested  in  it  was  con- 
vened for  February  13,  1891.  There  was  a  consensus  of  opinion 
in  favour  of  the  project,  which  resulted  in  a  more  general  meeting 
being  summoned  by  the  pioneers  of  the  enterprise  for  May  15,  1891. 
At  this  meeting  the  scheme  took  a  practical  form,  and  an  association 
having  for  its  name  "  The  Ex  Libris  Society  "  was  established ;  my 
friend  Mr.  John  Leighton,  F.S.A.,  being  chosen  as  Chairman  ;  my 
brother  "Odd  Volume"  Walter  Hamilton,  Treasurer;  and  Mr. 
W.  H.  K.  Wright,  the  proprietor  and  editor  of  the  Western  Anti- 
quary, Editor;  with  several  gentlemen,  more  or  less  known  in 
connection  with  the  subject,  as  Council. 

Few  will  suppose  that  the  carrying  out  of  a  scheme  of  the  kind 
indicated  would  be  other  than  fraught  with  some  anxiety  on  the  part 
of  the  promoters.  No  one  likes  to  be  associated  with  failure,  and 
possibly  this  feeHng  led  to  some  of  the  most  eminent  collectors 
holding  aloof,  either  from  the  idea  that  the  little  venture  would  soon 
be  wrecked,  or  that  they  thought  a  society  was  unnecessary.  We 
resolved,  however,  to  *'  gang  forward,"  while  at  the  same  time  we 
intended  to  "gang  warily,"  keeping  ever  before  us  the  famous 
Onslow  motto,  ^^  Festina  lente"  In  July,  1891,  appeared  No.  i  of 
t\\Q  Journal. 

It  is  just  twelve  months  ago  (February  i6th)  since  my  predecessor 
in  the  chair,  Mr.  Leighton,  addressed  you.  At  that  time  he  pointed 
out  what  he  considered  to  be  the  end  and  aim  of  the  Society.  We 
were  then,  I  may  say,  in  our  infancy,  and  it  was  necessary  for  him 
to  urge  you  onward  and  inspire  you  with  hope.  At  the  time  he 
spoke  our  members  numbered  barely  230 ;  to-day,  I  am  glad  to  tell 
you,  we  muster  nearly  300,  and  our  finances  are  in  a  sound  and 
healthy  condition.  It  must  be  obvious  to  you  that  this  success  has 
been  largely  due  to  our  able  editor,  Mr.  Wright,  his  Heraldic 
^Coadjutor,  Mr.  A.  Jewers,  and  Mr.  Walter  Hamilton. 


THE  BOOK-PLATE  SOCIETY,  139. 

A  glance  at  the  two  volumes  now  issued  will  show  that  an  im- 
partial endeavour  has  been  made  to  give  the  Journal  a  cosmopolitan, 
character,  that  it  might  interest  alike  the  heraldic  student  and  the 
art  connoisseur.  Communications  to  its  pages  have  been  made  by 
some  of  the  oldest  collectors  :  Mr.  Arthur  Vicars,  recently  appointed 
as  Ulster  King  of  Arms,  has  treated  of  Literary,  Book-pile,  and 
Library  Interior  plates,  and  while  Mr.  Robert  Day  has  told  us  all 
about  the  book-plate  engravers  of  his  native  city  of  Cork,  Mr.  J.  Orr 
has  made  us  acquainted  with  those  of  Scotland.  Our  Treasurer  has 
ranged  from  humorous  heraldry  and  Isaac  Walton  on  to  modern 
dated  plates,  and  has  been  supplemented  as  to  the  latter  by  Mr. 
J.  Carlton  Stitt.  Then  Mr.  William  Bolton  has  discoursed  on 
"Anachronisms  in  Book-plates,"  and  in  a  second  paper  has  ventured 
on  to  the  debated  ground  relative  to  the  removal  of  Ex  Libris  from 
books.  Mr.  Fincham  has  worked  at  his  Bibliography,  and  Mr. 
Garraway  Rice  has  brought  his  genealogical  and  heraldic  knowledge 
to  our  assistance ;  while,  last  but  not  least,  Mr.  Leighton  has  given 
the  Society  most  valuable  aid  with  his  pen  and  pencil. 

Some  observations  of  my  own  on  the  heraldic  book-plates  of  Sir 
Francis  Fust  called  forth  an  interesting  communication  from  Mr. 
Henry  Jenner,  who  was  able  to  rectify  some  errors  concerning  the 
history  of  this  family  which  had  been  made  by  Wotton  and  the- 
Burkes  in  their  works  on  the  Baronetage.  Again,  a  living  de- 
scendant of  Robert  Dinwiddie  (Miss  Dinwiddie)  was  good  enough, 
on  seeing  the  book-plate  of  this  distinguished  gentleman  reproduced 
in  our  Journal^  to  give  us  some  hitherto  unpublished  matter  con- 
cerning him,  and  also  to  vindicate  his  character  from  certain  asper- 
sions which  had  passed  into  history  concerning  his  want  of  popularity,, 
as  was  affirmed,  during  his  governorship  of  Virginia,  175 1-8.  These 
are  pleasing  facts  to  note,  as  showing  our  Journal  is  doing  good 
practical  work. 

It  is  the  part  of  the  antiquary  to  defy  old  Father  Time,  who  is 
ever  walking  noiselessly  onward,  crushing  beneath  his  herculean 
feet  the  records  of  the  past ;  it  is  his  duty  to  wrest  from  the  old 
Destroyer  all  the  spoil  he  can,  and  to  fix  what  has  been.  The  Ex 
Libris  Journal  has  its  mission  to  fulfil  in  being  the  medium  of  that 
record ;  true,  we  are  not  wholly  concerned  with  the  past,  but  I 
venture  to  think  we  are  more  concerned  with  it  than  the  present : 
our  distinguished  member  Mr.  Charles  WiUiam  Sherbon  is  still  with 
us,  and  we  hope  this  "  Little  Master  "  may  live  long  to  charm  us 
with  his  dainty  handicraft  on  the  copper  plate ;  but  he  who  signed 
"  Will  Marshall  sculpsit "  and  engraved  the  anonymous  Lytteltoiv 


f40 


THE  BOOK-PLATE  SOCIETY. 


bookplate  figures  in  the  infinite  gallery  of  the  past.  "  Tempora 
mutantur  et  nos  muiamur  in  Hits"  How  great  the  gulf  between 
Marshall  and  Sherborn  ! 

Here  let  me  point  out  to  the  bookplate  collector  how  essential  it 
is  for  the  better  appreciation  of  the  study  that  he  should  have  some 
knowledge  of  heraldry,  if  he  would  be  more  than  a  gatherer-up  of 
odd  prints.  A  mere  sense  of  acquisitiveness  is  apt  to  make  us 
forget  how  vast  is  the  interest  that  clings  around  our  favourite  study, 
opening  out  as  it  does  unlimited  channels  for  inquiry  and  research. 
Perhaps  a  few  remarks  on  heraldry  and  its  origin  may  not  be  out  of 
place. 

It  may  be  new  to  some  of  you  to  be  told  that  Adam  bore  arms, 
yet  an  old  writer,  Sylvanus  Morgan  (1661),  in  his  "Sphere  of 
Gentry  "  seriously  assigns  coat  armour  to  our  worthy  progenitor. 
According  to  this  writer,  he  bore  a  shield  gules,  with  the  arms  of 
his  wife  (a  shield  argent)  as  an  escutcheon  of  pretence,  she  being  an 
heiress.  Abel,  he  also  tells  us,  quartered  the  arms  of  his  father  and 
mother  "ensigned  with  a  crosier  to  show  he  was  a  shepheard." 
Again,  another  old  authority,  Gerard  Leigh,  tells  us  that  the  arms 
of  Alexander  the  Great  were,  "  Gules^  a  golden  Lyon  sitting  on  a 
chayer  and  holding  a  battayle  axe  of  silver  "  ;  while  other  personages 
in  sacred  and  profane  history  have  like  bearings  imputed  to  them. 
History,  however,  does  not  tell  us  whether  there  was  an  Earl 
Marshal  or  College  of  Arms  at  that  time  to  protect  them. 

Certain  it  is  that  from  the  earliest  times  it  has  been  the  custom 
for  individuals  to  adopt  some  peculiar  device  or  symbol  whereby 
they  could  be  the  better  known,  and  that  this  in  course  of  time 
developed  into  what  is  now  understood  as  heraldry.  The  dawn  of  the 
science — the  period  when  it  became  general — may  justly  be  ascribed 
to  the  days  of  chivalry  and  romance  known  as  those  of  the 
Crusaders,  although  it  is  admitted  that  coat  armour  did  not  become 
hereditary  until  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.  On  this 
Planch^  says,  in  that  most  delightful  of  books,  "  The  Pursuivant  of 
Arms  "  :  "  Although  not  a  believer  to  the  same  extent  as  many,  in 
the  round  assertion,  unsupported  by  any  contetnporary  authority  as  yet 
discovered^  that  heraldry  owes  its  origin  to  the  Crusades,  I  by  no 
means  dispute  the  influence  of  those  expeditions  upon  the  dawn  of 
it."  "With  the  decline  of  chivalry,"  says  the  same  writer,  "com- 
menced the  corruption  of  heraldry,"  which  was  accelerated  by  the 
pedantic  nonsense  of  the  early  writers  I  have  above  alluded  to. 
Whatever  may  have  given  rise  to  it  as  a  system,  few  will  deny  that, 
.as  now  developed,  it  is  anything  but  a  science  for  "  fools  with  long 


THE  BOOK-PLATE  SOCIETY.  141 

memories,"  as  has  been  sneeringly  affirmed;  but  one,  as  Lower 
-most  abundantly  proves,  "  both  lordly  poetical  and  moreover  practi- 
cally useful." 

Mr.  John  Cussans,  in  his  "  Handbook  of  Heraldry,"  says  :  "  If 
the  study  and  practice  of  heraldry  served  but  to  gratify  the  vanity  of 
a  few,  and  to  excite  the  envy  of  many,  then  indeed  would  its  teach- 
ings be  useless,  nay,  worse  than  useless — absolutely  pernicious.  But 
happily  this  charming  science  has  higher  and  nobler  purposes  to 
serve,  its  scope  and  influence  are  far  more  extended.  Many  are  the 
incidents,  but  faintly  written  on  the  pages  of  History,  which  would 
have  remained  for  ever  dark  and  illegible  but  for  the  light  flashed 
upon  them  by  the  torch  of  Heraldry.  A  Shield  of  Arms,  a  Badge, 
•or  a  Rebus  depicted  on  a  glass  window,  painted  on  a  wall,  carved  on 
a  corbel  or  monument,  will  frequently  indicate  with  unerring  preci- 
sion the  date  to  which  such  relics  are  to  be  ascribed  and  whose 
memory  they  are  intended  to  perpetuate,  when  all  verbal  distinctions 
are  wanting ;  and  the  identity  of  many  an  old  portrait  rests  on  no 
other  authority  than  that  of  a  coat-of-arms  painted  at  the  side."  ^ 

On  this  point  Bignold,^  who  filled  the  office  of  Garter  King  of 
Arms,  wrote :  "  Heraldry  has  been  known  to  further  the  ends  of 
justice.  I  know  three  families  who  have  acquired  estates  by  virtue 
of  preserving  the  arms  and  escutcheons  of  their  ancestors." 

In  our  second  volume  (page  133)  an  excellent  article  on  the 
"Taxation  of  Armorial  Bearings"  appeared;  in  it  our  Heraldic 
Editor  made  some  excellent  suggestions,  well  worthy,  I  venture  to 
think,  of  the  consideration  of  the  authorities  at  Herald's  College. 
Mr.  Jewers  desires  to  see  the  science  on  which  he  is  so  eminent  an 
authority  placed  on  a  more  solid  basis  than  that  on  which  it  now 
stands.  He  has  no  sympathy  with  those  of  whom  an  old  writer  has 
said : — 

"  Who  weare  theire  Grandsires'  signet  on  their  thumb 
Yet  aske  them,  whence  their  crest  is,  they  are  mum.'''' 

He  knows  that  what  old  Henry  Peacham  wrote  in  1622  (in  his 
"  Compleate  Gentleman  ")  is  as  true  now  as  then :  "  Coates  some- 
times are  by  stealth  purchased,  shufiled  into  records  and  monuments 
by  painters,  glasiers,  carvers,  and  such  " ;  and  no  doubt  desires  to 
see  the  day  when,  in  the  words  of  the  same  writer,  he  could  say  : 
"  But  I  trust  so  good  an  order  hath  been  lately  established  by  the 
Right  Honourable  the  late  Commissioners  for  the  office  of  the  Earl 

'  "Handbook  of  Heraldry,"  &c.     By  John  Cussans.     London,  1869. 
=  "  Observations  on  Parochial  Registers." 


142  THE  BOOK-PLATE  SOCIETY, 

Marshalship  and  careful  respect  of  the  Heralds  with  us  that  all  hope 
of  sinister  dealing  in  that  kind  is  quite  cut  off  from  such  mercenary 
abusers  of  nobilitie." 

It  is  impossible  to  revert  to  the  old  days  of  chivalry  and  romance,, 
or  to  peruse  once  again  Scott's  "  Ivanhoe  "  without  being  impressed 
with  the  daring  pluck  and  heroism  of  those  times  : — 

'*  The  knights  are  dust 
And  their  good  swords  are  rust, 
Their  souls  are  with  the  saints,  we  trust.** 

In  the  eighth  chapter  of  this  novel  the  author  draws  a  living  picture 
of  the  famous  tournament,  when  Ivanhoe,  mounted  on  a  black 
horse,  passed  through  the  hsts — the  device  on  his  shield  being  a 
young  oak-tree  pulled  up  by  the  roots,  with  the  words  "  Desdichado^^ 
or  Disinherited — and  "  struck  with  the  sharp  end  of  his  spear  the 
shield  of  Brian  de  Bois-Guilbert."  By  the  rules  of  the  tournament 
this  meant  that  he  defied  his  adversary  to  mortal  combat. 

About  the  end  of  last  century  or  the  beginning  of  the  present  one 
a  style  of  Ex  Libris  came  into  vogue  which  it  will  be  interesting  here 
to  note.  It  was  the  custom  in  the  old  days  of  jousts  and  tourna- 
ments for  a  knight  to  challenge  his  adversary  by  causing  his  shield 
to  be  suspended  to  a  tree — a  fair  pine-tree,  or,  as  it  was  then  called, 
Parbre  d'or ;  by  this  he  placed  his  clerk,  or  supporter,  who  noted 
the  name  of  any  assailant  who  signified  his  acceptance  of  the  chal- 
lenge by  touching  the  shield  with  the  point  of  his  lance.  The  design^ 
I  allude  to  had  its  rise  from  this  early  custom.  On  the  bookplate 
was  depicted  a  landscape;  in  the  foreground  was  a  tree  on  which 
the  shield  was  suspended,  and  on  it  were  blazoned  the  armorial 
bearings  of  the  owner.  By  this  action  he  thus  challenged  any  man 
to  dispute  his  right  to  bear  the  arms  there  shown. 

It  is  the  habit  among  the  ignorant  to  sneer  at  the  bearing  of  arms, 
and  pride  of  ancestry  has  been  ridiculed ;  yet  I  venture  to  affirm 
that  where  there  is  true  right  to  bear  arms,  and  a  long  line  of 
ancestors  who  have  borne  them,  he  is  unworthy  the  name  of  gentle- 
man who  would  not,  figuratively  speaking,  suspend  his  shield  to  his 
arbre  d^or,  and  hand  them  down  unsullied  to  posterity.  "It  is," 
said  Lord  Bacon,  "a  reverend  thing  to  see  an  ancient  castle  or 
building  not  in  decay ;  or  to  see  a  fair  timber  tree  sound  and- 
perfect :  how  much  more  to  behold  an  ancient  noble  family  which 
hath  stood  against  the  waves  and  weathers  of  time." 

The  mention  above  of  the  Lyttelton  bookplate  suggests  to  my 
mind  how  invaluable  the  knowledge  of  heraldry  is  to  the  lover  o£ 


THE  BOOK-PLATE  SOCIETY,  143 

bookplates ;  it  is  essential,  in  fact,  if  he  would  be  anything  more 
■than  a  mere  collector,  with  little  or  no  knowledge  of  the  why  and 
the  wherefore  of  his  collecting.     As  well  might  a  man  collect  chairs 
as  bookplates ;  at  every  turn  in  the  cult,  knowledge  is  necessary 
before  one  can  develop  a  true  interest  in  it.    To  illustrate  my 
meaning :  it  was  my  good  fortune  once  to  pick  up  on  a  bookstall  a 
book  for  twopence ;  in  it  was  a  bookplate ;  the  surname  attached 
was  an  historic  one,  and  a  slight  knowledge  of  heraldry  enabled  me 
to  pronounce  it  that  of  George,  grandfather  of  the  late  Lord  Tenny- 
son.   Again,  I  once  purchased  in  a  similar  way  a  fine  Jacobean 
plate,  with  no   name   attached.     Papworth's  "Ordinary  of  British 
Armouries  "  and  Burke's  "  Encyclopaedia  of  Heraldry  "  enabled  me 
to  prove  it  was  the  Ex  Libris  of  Matthew  Hutton,  D.D.,  of  Marske, 
■county  of  York,  and  his  wife  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir  Richard 
Burgoyne.     These  examples  could  be  multiplied  to  any  extent.     At 
vpage  77  of  our  first  volume  Mr.  Garraway  Rice  called  attention  to  a 
bookplate  of  "James  Riddell"  in  his  possession,  dated   1639 — a 
date  apparently  much  too  early  for  the  style;  here,  genealogical 
research  enabled  him  to  prove  that  the  date  referred  to  the  year  the 
said  James  Riddell  married  Elizabeth  Foulis,  whose  arms  he  im- 
paled, the  true  date  of  the  plate  being  somewhere  between  1639  and 
1674,  when  the  said  James  Riddell  died. 

The  eminent  Norfolk  antiquary,  Mr.  Walter  Rye,  when  calendaring 
the  Isham  Letters  at  Lamport  Hall,  came  upon  a  curious  document 
in  the  form  of  a  letter  from  David  Loggan,^  an  engraver  of  some 
eminence  at  the  time,  and  author  of  several  works,  to  Sir  Thomas 
Isham,  dated  January  8,  1675.  As  it  is  not  very  well  known,  and 
has  special  reference  to  a  bookplate  of  the  worthy  baronet,  I  cannot 
refrain  from  giving  the  extract  from  the  letter  furnished  by  Mr.  Rye 
to  the  editor  of  the  Antiquary  in  1883.  Before  doing  so,  however, 
it  may  be  well  to  mention  that  I  have  in  possession  two  Isham  Ex 
Libris — the  one  is  anonymous,  but  as  it  bears  the  Bloody  Hand  of 
Ulster  it  follows  that  the  owner  was  a  baronet;  the  other  is  that 
of  "  lust  Isham  of  Lamport  North"  shr  Esq',"  and  is  in  the  style 
known  as  Jacobean.  Sir  Thomas  died  without  issue  in  1681 ;  in 
all  probability  my  anonymous  plate  was  his,  i.e.,  the  one  referred  to 
by  Loggan.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  title  by  his  brother  Justinian ; 
my  other  bookplate  is  therefore  that  of  this  gentleman  before  he 
came  into  the  baronetcy. 

The  document  runs  as  follows  : — 

*  Loggan  died  in  London  about  1700.     His  most  famous  works  were  "  Oxonia 
Jllustrata,"  1675,  and  "  Cantabrigia  lUustrata." 


144  THE  BOOK-PLATE  SOCIETY. 

"Jan.  8,  1675. 
"Sr. 

"  I  send  yow  hier  a  Print  of  your  cote  of  arms.     I  have  Printet  200  wicb 

I  will  send  with  the  plate  by  the  next  return  and  beg  the  favor  of  your  keind  ex- 

ceptans  of  it,  as  a  small  Niewe  Yaers  gieft  or  a  acknowledgment  in  part  for  all 

your  favours,  if  any  thing  in  it  be  amiss  I  shall  be  glad  to  mind  it.     I  have  taken 

the  Heralds  painters  derection  in  it,  it  is  werry  much  used  a  mongst  persons  of 

Quality  to  past  ther  Cotes  of  Armes  before  ther  Bookes  in  stade  of  Wreithing  ther 

names." 

Before  I  conclude  I  cannot  help  congratulating  our  sister  Society 
in  Berlin  on  the  advance  it  has  made  during  the  short  time  it  has 
been  in  existence.  Under  the  presidency  of  Herr  Warnecke,  whose 
great  work  on  Ex  Libris  is  so  well  known  and  appreciated,  it  cannot 
do  otherwise  than  prosper.  As  one  of  the  few  Englishmen  to  be 
found  among  its  members,  I  desire  here  to  express  my  unqualified 
admiration  at  the  way  the  parts  of  the  journal  issued  from  time  ta 
time  have  been  edited  and  illustrated. 

Alas,  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  say  anything  of  the  Ex  Libris 
Society  of  Paris,  for  no  such  society  yet  exists.  A  visit,  however, 
made  to  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  in  September  last,  when  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  examining  the  collection  of  Ex  Libris  gathered 
there,  justifies  me  in  hoping  that  France,  so  rich  in  its  Ex  Libris 
treasures,  may  ere  long  have  a  society  of  its  own  with  similar  objects 
to  those  of  London  and  Berlin.  It  is  gratifying  to  hear  from  Sweden 
that  M.  Carlander,  who  has  already  produced  a  grand  work  on 
Swedish  bookplates,  has  another  volume  in  store  for  us. 

Now  that  the  Society  is  a^w//  accompli^  we  can  look  back  on  our 
past  working  with  gratification,  and  on  our  future  with  hope. 

James  Roberts  Brown. 


A  Book  of  Mutual  Admiration. 

**  T     IBER  SCRIPTORUM,"  or  book  of  the  Authors'  Club,  of 

J y  New  York  city,  is  at  last  ready  for  distribution.     Only  251 

copies  of  this  curious  hodge-podge  of  mutual  admiration  were  printed,, 
at  $100  each,  on  extra  hand-made  paper.  Every  article  of  the 
ninety-seven  was  signed  by  its  contributor  in  each  copy  of  the  work. 
The  original  manuscripts  are  now  being  inlaid  for  binding  in  two 
large  volumes,  which  will  be  sold  to  the  highest  bidder. 


On  the  Ingoldsby  Legends. 


DOUBT  whether  the  Ingoldsby  Legends  have  ever  been 
much  considered  as  a  whole,  that  is  in  the  framework  and 
setting  which  their  author  gave  them  of  the  Ingoldsby 
family  and  the  old  manor-house  of  Tappington  Everard.  These 
notices  are  so  short  compared  to  the  main  body  of  the  work,  and  so 
much  overweighted  by  its  humorous  character,  that  they  have  been 
almost  altogether  disregarded;  and  the  nature  of  more  than  one 
edition  of  the  work  has  assisted  in  this  by  omitting  them,  or  much 
of  them ;  unfortunately  this  must  be  said  more  especially  of  the 
"  Red  Library  "  edition  published  a  few  years  ago,  which  has  re- 
printed the  poetical  matter  and  nothing  else  whatever.  Copyright  I 
suppose  was  at  the  bottom  of  this ;  but  copyright  need  not,  and 
should  not,  have  prevented  the  pubhshers  from  stating  on  their  title 
that  their  work  was  incomplete. 

It  was  once  said  ("  Cambridge  Essays,"  1855,  p.  149)  that  "  in  so 
far  as  it  is  an  account  of  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  and  the  Club,  the 
'  Spectator'  is  one  of  the  best  novels  in  the  language."  Perhaps  it 
may  be  amusing  to  consider  the  Ingoldsby  Legends  for  a  few  minutes 
in  the  same  light. 

The  two  introductory  letters,  then,  from  Thomas  Ingoldsby,  of 
Tappington  Everard,  to  Richard  Bentley,  Esq.,  give  us  a  very  good 
rough  idea  of  the  Kentish  family  and  its  surroundings  (note  the 
author's  giving  his  own  name  to  Barham  Downs) ;  and  the  ludicrous 
story  of  the  trousers-burying,  and  of  the  picnic  so  dear  to  old- 
fashioned  and  indeed  to  many  modern  novelists,  introduces  us  to 
the  domestic  life  of  the  old  Squire,  his  children,  Tom,  Caroline,  and 

19 


146  ON  THE  INGOLDSB  Y  LEGENDS. 

Fanny,  his  nephew  Lieutenant  Seaforth,  and  the  friendly  visitors^ 
the  family.  In  true  novel-fashion  the  story  ends  with  the  marriage 
of  Charles  and  Caroline ;  in  true  novel-fashion,  again,  we  leap  over 
some  years  and  are  introduced  to  Neddy  and  Mary  Anne  their  off- 
spring ;  and  the  next  two  stories,  "  The  Hand  of  Glory  "  and  "  Look 
at  the  Clock,"  are  told  in  the  nursery  to  these  children. 

Then  we  have  a  httle  antiquarianism  in  "Grey  Dolphin,"  the 
legend  of  a  maternal  ancestor ;  "  The  Ghost,"  some  early  remem- 
brances of  the  Squire  himself;  and  the  monody  on  one  of  his  canine 
friends,  punningly  called  "The  Cynotaph,"  to  which  is  attached  as 
a  note  the  well-known  parody  on  "The  Burial  of  Sir  John  Moore." 
Mrs.  Botherby  the  housekeeper  next  gives  us  her  story  of  '*  The 
Leech  of  Folkestone,"  and  then  we  go  again  to  the  old  Squire  with 
his  narratives  of  "  Hamilton  Tighe  "  and  "The  Witches'  Frolic,"  a 
♦May  of  grammarye,"  which  he  relates  to  his  little  grandson,  Ned 
Seaforth. 

Now  comes  what  demands  a  paragraph  to  itself  as  the  one  item 
in  the  whole  work  which  has  nothing  comic  or  ludicrous  in  it,  the 
"Singular  Passage  in  the  Life  of  Henry  Harris,  D.D."  ;  this  stands 
quite  on  a  different  footing  from  the  rest  of  the  book,  and  is  one  of 
the  best  stories  of  supernaturalism  which  I  know.  It  is  a  curious 
thing  that  when  a  novelist  or  other  writer  departs  exceptionally  from 
his  usual  manner  he  produces  either  a  conspicuous  success  or  a 
more  or  less  complete  failure.  Dickens  may  stand  for  an  example 
of  the  first  case  with  the  "Tale  of  Two  Cities,"  beyond  comparison 
superior  to  anything  he  ever  wrote  ;  there  are  not  many  finer  things 
in  fiction  than  the  self-sacrifice  of  Sydney  Carton.  No  less  a  man 
than  Sir  Walter  Scott  will  give  an  example  of  the  second  with  his 
one  story  of  contemporary  hfe;'  "St.  Ronan's  Well,"  though  it  has 
sometimes  been  underrated,  stands  certainly  very  low  among  the 
Waverley  Novels,  for  "Count  Robert  of  Paris"  and  *' Castle  Dan- 
gerous," considering  the  circumstances  of  their  writing,  cannot  of 
course  be  argued  from. 

The  "Singular  Passage"  is  related  by  Dr.  Harris's  executor,  the 
Rev.  Jasper  Ingoldsby,  who  may  perhaps  be  considered  as  the 
Squire's  brother  ;  and  then  we  turn  from  the  Anglican  priest  to  the 
Roman  in  Father  John  Ingoldsby,  who  presents  us  with  five  so- 
called  Legends  of  the  Saints,  "The  Jackdaw  of  Rheims  "  and  the 
"  Lays   of   Saints   Dunstan,    Gengulphus,    Odille,   and   Nicholas." 

*  The  "Antiquary,"  though  not  very  far  removed  from  Scott's  time,  can  hardly 
be  called  contemporary  ;  but  if  any  one  so  names  it  I  have  only  to  take  it  for  my 
affirmative  example. 


ON  THE  INGOLDSBY  LEGENDS.  147 

"  The  Lady  Rohesia  "  is  another  story  of  ancestral  antiquarianism, 
and  then  Lieutenant  Seaforth  gives  his  version  of  a  "  Tragedy  "  (of 
Dumas),  and  the  Irish  valet  his  "  Account  of  the  Coronation." 
After  this  we  go  somewhat  further  afield,  to  productions  of  the 
visitors,  "  The  Monstre  Balloon,"  by  Mr.  Simpkinson,  "  The  Execu- 
tion," by  Mr.  Sucklethumbkin ;  and  after  another  dramatic  carica- 
ture (of  a  play  by  the  late  Lord  Lytton),  seemingly  by  Mr.  Ingoldsby 
junior,  Mr.  Peters,  the  third  visitor,  winds  up  the  First  Series  with 
"  The  Bagman's  Dog." 

The  Second  Series  appears  to  come  more  distinctly  from  Mr. 
Ingoldsby  junior,  who  tells  us  in  his  introductory  letter  of  the  acci- 
dental shooting  of  "  one  of  the  Governor's  pointers  "  ;  also  we  have 
a  slight  glimpse  of  some  inclosure  work  on  the  Ingoldsby  manors, 
and  of  a  royal  visit  which  might  have  happened  but  did  not.  The 
sources  of  the  stories  are  widened  by  the  introduction  of  the 
travelled  knight.  Sir  Peregrine  Ingoldsby ;  and  though  the  first, 
"  The  Black  Mousquetaire,"  comes  from  the  French  lady's-maid, 
Madame  Pauline  Maguire,  the  three  next,  "Sir  Rupert  the  Fearless," 
"The  Merchant  of  Venice,"  and  "The  Auto-da-Fe,"  are  derived 
from  this  knight's  travels  in  Germany,  Italy,  and  Spain  respectively. 
"  The  Ingoldsby  Penance  "  is  a  piece  of  crusading  antiquity,  and 
then  we  are  treated  to  a  little  mock  sentiment  from  Mr.  Thomas 
Ingoldsby  about  Netley  Abbey,  and  from  Lieutenant  Seaforth  about 
that  of  Westminster.  Afterwards  appear  two  more  relatives,  Uncle 
John  and  Aunt  Fanny,  and  Mr.  Thomas  reverses  the  usual  order 
of  things  by  telling  the  former  the  story  of  "Nell  Cook,"  then  gives 
some  "Nursery  Reminiscences"  connected  with  him,  and  "The 
Legend  of  a  Shirt "  which  Aunt  Fanny  made.  Mr.  Simpkinson 
relates  first  his  personal  "Misadventures  at  Margate,"  and  secondly 
the  story  of  "  The  Smuggler's  Leap,"  and  the  young  Seaforths  are 
edified  with  "  Bloudie  Jacke "  from  Mrs.  Botherby,  and  "  The 
Babes  in  the  Wood  "  from  Mrs.  Botherby's  niece.  By  the  bye,  these 
children  have  changed  their  names ;  they  used  to  be  Ned  and  Mary 
Anne,  and  now  are  Charles  and  Jenny.  "  The  Dead  Drummer  "  is 
the  well-known  story  told  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  (whose  name  is  given 
as  a  reference)  in  his  "  Demonology  and  Witchcraft,"  and  after  it 
comes  Mr.  Sucklethumbkin's  "Row  in  an  Omnibus  (Box)." 
Father  John  relates  three  more  ecclesiastical  tales,  "The  Lay  of 
St.  Cuthbert,"  "St.  Aloys,"  and  "The  Old  Woman,"  and  the  Second 
Series  is  closed  with  "  Raising  the  Devil  "  and  "  St.  Medard,"  whose 
source  is  undefined. 

The  Third  Series  was  published  posthumously  under  the  editor- 


148  ON  THE  INGOLDSBY  LEGENDS. 

ship  of  the  author's  son  (who  many  years  afterwards  brought  out 
also  "The  Ingoldsby  Lyrics ").  We  lose  sight,  as  indeed  we  had 
already  begun  to  do,  of  the  Ingoldsby  family  as  narrators  of  the 
stories,  and  it  is  therefore  needless  to  particularise  them.  Still, 
however,  we  are  introduced  to  more  members,  as  to  Uncle  Roger 
and  Maud  in  "The  Wedding  Day,"  Edith  in  "The  Blasphemer's 
Warning,"  Sir  Thomas  in  "  The  Knight  and  the  Lady,"  and  the 
Rev.  Joel  Ingoldsby,  a  gaol -chaplain,  in  "Jerry  Jarvis's  Wig." 

Of  the  literary  origin  of  the  stories  I  do  not  mean  to  speak  at  any 
length,  and  indeed  I  do  not  know  enough  to  do  so  properly ;  the 
origin  of  some  has  already  been  shortly  mentioned,  of  others  it  is  well 
known,  and  perhaps  most  have  some  besides  the  author's  own  ideas ; 
"  Grey  Dolphin  "  certainly  has,  though  I  cannot  now  remember  in 
what  book  I  have  read  the  story.  But  of  the  mottoes,  so  admirably 
written  in  mediaeval  Latin, ^  it  may  be  said  there  can  be  little  doubt 
most  or  all  of  them  are  like  Scott's  "  Old  Plays  "  ;  and  though  a 
question  of  the  kind  was  once  asked  in  Notes  and  Queries,  it  would 
be  pretty  well  useless  to  hunt  Ralph  de  Diceto  and  other  authors  for 
them. 

So  far  for  the  work  called  the  "Ingoldsby  Legends"  considered 
on  its  own  ground ;  but  I  cannot  close  this  paper  without  a  few 
words  in  a  more  serious  vein.  Mr.  Barham's  writing  has  many 
merits ;  I  am  one  of  the  last  persons  to  deny  it,  or  to  deny  the  many 
hours  of  amusement  in  pain  and  trouble  and  suffering  which  must 
have  been  given  by  this  book ;  yet  he  has  the  great  and  serious 
fault  which  so  many  humourists  have  had,  that  of  letting  his  humour 
run  away  with  him.^  He  has  often  gone  very  much  too  far  in  giving 
a  ludicrous  turn  to  serious  matters,  and  he  has  much  to  answer  for 
in  setting  the  fashion  to  others.  The  Saints  of  the  Church  are 
no  subject  for  the  joking  of  Father  John's  Lays,  and  I  doubt 
whether,  unless  these  had  preceded,  Thackeray  would  have  written 

*  Some  of  the  best  burlesque  of  this  kind  is  in  Hookham  Frere's  "Whistle- 
craft":— 

"  Hora  secunda  centum  tres  gigantes 

Venerunt  ante  januam  ululantes  ;  " 
which  may  be  thus  rendered  with  a  Drydenesque  Alexandrine  : — 

"  Three  hundred  giants  at  the  second  hour 
Before  the  gate  arrived,  howling  with  all  their  power.' 

-  While  correcting  this  proof,  the  words  of  a  wise  modern  writer,  "  Peter 
Lombard  "  of  the  Church  Times,  comes  under  my  eye :  "  the  disagreeable  though 
no  doubt  clever  Ingoldsby  Legends."  Of  course  this  is  a  mere  obiter  dichwi,  and 
the  word  "disagreeable"  is  probably  not  very  accurately  used  ;  but  it  will  serve 
to  show  that  I  am  not  alone  in  my  opinion. 


ON  THE  INGOLDSB  V  LEGENDS.  149 

"The  Legend  of  St.  Sophia  of  Kioff ";  I  almost  think  that  other- 
wise even  the  flippancy  of  some  parts  of  a  recent  series  of  Lives  of 
the  Saints  might  have  been  less.^  An  even  worse  thing,  verging 
indeed  on  blasphemy,  is  the  allusion  to  St.  Peter  and  the  gates  of 
Paradise  in  "The  Lady  Rohesia."  And  it  was  scarcely  well  to 
make  fun  of  the  miserable  work  of  the  Inquisition  with  such  lines 

as — 

"  The  last  fire's  exhausted  and  spent  like  a  rocket, 
The  last  wretched  Hebrew's  burnt  down  in  his  socket." 

It  is  true  that  here  and  there  Mr.  Barham  has  introduced  a  few  lines 
of  appropriate  feeling  on  such  subjects ;  but  they  are  too  rare,  they 
are  (as  I  said  of  the  Ingoldsby  family)  thoroughly  overweighted,  and 
even  when  all  possible  importance  is  given  to  them  I  fear  they  can 
hardly  be  said  to  traverse  my  words. 

*  The  series  of  Lives  projected  and  partly  published  by  Cardinal  Newman 
before  he  left  the  English  Church  is  very  often  too  prolix,  but  it  is  written  in  a 
much  better  tone  and  spirit  than  that  of  which  I  here  speak. 

C.  F.  S.  Warren,  M.A. 


I50  MISCELLANEA. 

The  Columbus  Letter. 

THE  most  interesting  and  valuable  literary  item  that  has  occurred 
in  the  open  market  for  many  months  came  under  the  hammer 
on  February  28th  at  Sotheby's.  It  is  a  copy  of  the  thirtythree-hne 
edition  of  Columbus's  letter  in  Latin  to  Gabriel  Sanchez,  and  which, 
although  without  place,  date,  or  printer's  name,  is  generally  supposed 
to  have  been  printed  at  Rome  in  1493  by  Stephan  Plank.  It  is  a 
small  quarto,  consisting  of  four  unpaged  leaves,  and  printed  through- 
out in  Gothic  letter.  It  has  never  been  settled  which  of  the  two 
editions  of  this  letter  (the  other  differing  only  in  having  thirty-four 
lines  to  the  page),  each  having  the  same  date,  is  really  the  first ;  but 
Mr.  R.  H.  Major,  of  the  British  Museum,  has  devoted  special  atten- 
tion to  the  matter,  and  the  weight  of  his  experience  is  in  favour  of 
the  thirty-three-line  edition;  and  this  able  bibliographer's  analysis 
(in  the  preface  to  the  "  Select  Letters  of  Columbus  ")  of  the  minutiae 
of  the  first  four  Latin  editions  of  Columbus's  letter  may  be  considered 
to  have  disposed  of  all  the  questions  in  connection  with  them.  There 
are  only  four  or  five  copies  known  of  this  editio  pri7iceps^  and  it  is 
almost  needless  to  say  that  when  it  does  occur  in  the  market  it  com- 
mands a  very  fancy  price.  In  1884  a  copy  fetched  7,500  francs  at 
a  sale  in  Paris,  and  since  then  a  copy  in  Germany  realised  over 
;£35o.  The  example  which  has  just  been  sold,  and  which  realised 
iCZ'^S'i  occurred  among  the  books  of  the  late  Rev.  W.  E.  Buckley, 
who  is  said  to  have  given  less  than;^5  for  it  originally. 


"  Class  "  Lists  of  the  British  Museum  Books. 


p^^R.    RICHARD  GARNETT,  the   keeper  of  the   printed 
!  ^S«     books  at  the   British  Museum,  made   an  exceedingly  in- 
a^gEJl  teresting  and   important  announcement  at   the   February 
meeting  of  the   Bibliographical   Society.      At  the  conclusion  of  a 
paper  on  "  Incunabula,"  by  Mr.  Aldrich  (of  the  British  Museum), 
Dr.    Garnett  stated   that,  in  three   or   four  years'  time,  when  the 
printing   of  the  general  catalogue  was   finished,  the  trustees  con- 
templated issuing  a  large  number  of  "class"  catalogues.     One  of 
these  would  comprise  the  Museum's  rich  collection  of  "incunabula," 
or  books  printed   before  the  beginning  of  the   sixteenth  century. 
These  class  catalogues  could  not  be  commenced  until  the  general 
catalogue  was  out  of  the  way  ;  and  then  the  question  would  arise  as 
to  whether  the  trustees  would  be  justified  in  printing  and  publishing 
these  class  catalogues.     In  any  case  the  entries  in  the  general  cata- 
logue will  be  divided  up  into  special  sections,  and  the  classified  lists 
would  be  available  to  the  students  who  frequent  the  British  Museum. 
This  announcement  came  on  the  members  of  the  Bibliographical 
Society,  as  it  will  on  the  literary  public,  as  a  most  pleasant  surprise. 
For  many  years,  ever  since  in  fact  its  existence,  the  great  drawback 
to  the  innumerable  treasures  of  the  Museum  has  been  the  want  of 
classified  lists  of  its  contents.     Given  the  name  of  any  particular 
author,  it  is  the  simplest  matter  possible  to  get  at  the  books  written 
by   him.      Many   thousands   of  very  important  books   possess  no 
indication  of  their  authorship,  and  in  connection  with  some  of  these 
the  Museum's  method  of  cataloguing  has  often  appeared  arbitrary 
and   unsystematic.     These  proposed   classified  catalogues,   even   if 
confined   to  the   precincts  of  the  Museum,  will  be  inconceivably 
helpful ;   but  we  hope  that  the  trustees  will  be  encouraged  to  print 
them  for  the  benefit  of  all.     Their  "  Catalogue  of  Books  Printed  in 
England"  up  to  the  year  1640  is  an  admirable  piece  of  work,  and 
singularly  accurate,  considering  the  variety  of  subjects  with  which 
it  deals. 


152 


MISCELLANEA, 


The  Book-Hunter.^ 

A  CUP  of  coffee,  eggs,  and  rolls 

Sustain  him  on  his  morning  strolls  ; 

Unconscious  of  the  passers-by 

He  trudges  on  with  downcast  eye  ; 

He  wears  a  queer  old  hat  and  coat, 

Suggestive  of  a  style  remote. 

His  manner  is  pieoccupied — 

A  shambling  gait,  from  side  to  side. 

For  him  the  sleek,  bright -windowed  shop 

Is  all  in  vain — he  does  not  stop. 

His  thoughts  are  fixed  on  dusty  shelves 

Where  musty  volumes  hide  themselves — 

Rare  prints  of  poetry  and  prose, 

And  quaintly  lettered  folios — 

Perchance  a  parchment  manuscript, 

In  some  forgotten  corner  slipped, 

Or  monk-illumined  missal  bound 

In  vellum  with  brass  clasps  around. 

These  are  the  pictured  things  that  throng 

His  mind  the  while  he  walks  along. 

A  dingy  street,  a  cellar  dim. 

With  book-lined  walls,  suffices  him. 

The  dust  is  white  upon  his  sleeves  ; 

He  turns  the  yellow,  dog-eared  leaves 

With  just  the  same  religious  look 

That  priests  give  to  the  Holy  Book. 

He  does  not  heed  the  stifling  air 

If  so  he  find  a  treasure  there. 

He  knows  rare  books,  like  precious  wines, 

Are  hidden  where  the  sun  ne'er  shines ; 

For  him  delicious  flavours  dwell 

In  books  as  in  old  Muscatel. 

He  finds  in  features  of  the  type 

A  clue  to  prove  the  grape  was  ripe, 

And  when  he  leaves  this  dismal  place, 

Behold,  a  smile  lights  up  his  face. 

Upon  his  cheeks  a  genial  glow — 

Within  his  hand  Boccaccio, 

A  first  edition,  worn  with  age, 

*•  Firenze"  on  the  title-page. 


From  Frank  Dempster  Sherman's  *'  Madrigals  and  Catches." 


A  Modern  Bookworm. 


SHORT  notice  of  Mr.  Edward  Rehatsek,  a  most  indus- 
trious and  intelligent  Orientalist,  appeared  in  the  obituary 
notices  of  t\iQ  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  of  January,  1892.  But  as  my  deceased  friend 
had  devoted  the  whole  of  his  life  to  the  cultivation  and  propagation 
of  Oriental  knowledge  and  Oriental  literature,  it  was  considered 
desirable  to  place  on  record  a  more  detailed  account  of  his  varied 
labours  in  this  particular  field  of  thought  and  culture. 

Of  Mr.  Rehatsek's  early  life  very  little  is  known.  It  is  said  that 
his  father  was  a  Forest  Inspector  on  the  estate  of  Princess  Odescalchi, 
in  Hungary,  and  that  he  was  born  on  one  of  the  estates  at  Illack  on 
the  3rd  of  July,  181 9.  He  was  educated  at  Buda-Pesth,  studied 
at  the  University  there,  and  took  the  degree  of  Master  of  Civil 
Engineering.  Leaving  Hungary  at  the  end  of  1842,  he  spent  a 
few  months  in  Paris,  then  four  years  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  in  1847  sailed  to  India  from  New  Orleans  via  Liver- 
pool and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Arriving  in  Bombay  on  the  5th 
of  December,  1847,  he  settled  down  in  India,  and  remained  in  that 
country  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  dying  in  Bombay  on  Friday,  the  nth 
of  December,  1891,  aged  72. 

I  have  some  idea  that  on  Mr.  Rehatsek's  first  arrival  he  was 
employed  in  the  Public  Works  Department,  in  which,  however,  he 
did  not  remain  long.  He  then  continued  his  study  of  Oriental 
languages  and  literature,  and  sometimes  accompanied  Dr.  Bhau  Daji, 
the  well-known  Bombay  scholar  and  antiquary,  in   his  travels  of 

20 


154  A  MODERN  BOOKWORM. 

research  over  various  parts  of  India.  Later  on,  being  a  competent 
mathematician  and  a  distinguished  Latin  scholar,  he  was  employed 
as  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  of  Latin  in  the  Wilson  College, 
Bombay,  which  office  he  held  till  1871. 

Being  acquainted  with  some  twelve  languages,  he  also  taught 
private  pupils,  and  gave  lessons  in  Latin,  Persian,  Arabic,  and 
French.  He  further  translated  a  number  of  Persian  and  Arabic 
works,  read  many  papers  before  learned  societies,  and  wrote  many 
articles  for  Indian  reviews  and  journals  generally,  the  details  of 
which  will  be  given  presently. 

For  twelve  years  up  to  1881  Mr.  Rehatsek  was  Examiner  at  the 
Bombay  University  in  Latin,  Persian,  and  Arabic,  and  for  one  year 
in  French  also ;  but  such  was  his  independence  that  he  gave  up 
these  duties  as  soon  as  the  apphcation  system  was  introduced.  In 
1873  he  was  made  a  Fellow  of  the  said  University,  and  was  twice 
the  Wilson  Philological  Lecturer  there  on  the  Hebrew  and  Semitic 
languages.  In  1874  he  was  elected  an  honorary  member  of  the 
Bombay  Branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  in  recognition  of  his 
Oriental  learning,  and  also  became  an  honorary  member  of  some 
European  and  American  societies  interested  in  Oriental  research. 
All  these  honours  were  unsought  for,  and,  as  a  general  rule,  it  may 
be  said  that  he  never  asked  for  anything  during  his  whole  career. 

Mr.  Rehatsek  was  unmarried,  and  a  man  of  regular  habits,  living 
the  life  of  an  ascetic  and  recluse.  He  was  his  own  master  and  his 
own  servant,  for  servant  he  kept  none,  thereby  showing  the  truth  of 
the  Sanskrit  saying,  "  Ascetics  are  their  own  servants."  He  ab- 
stained from  wine  and  spirits  altogether,  and  tried  also  to  do  without 
animal  food,  but  he  found,  as  he  told  me  himself,  that  this  weakened 
him  so  much  that  he  was  obliged  to  revert  to  it,  though  he  took  it 
very  sparingly.  His  usual  food  consisted  of  bread,  milk,  tea,  coffee, 
rice,  and  plantains.  At  the  door  of  his  house  there  was  a  box  into 
which  the  baker  put  a  loaf  of  bread  every  morning,  and  the  milkman 
filled  with  milk  a  jug  that  was  placed  there.  His  other  necessities 
he  purchased  himself  in  the  bazaar,  and  he  prepared  all  his  own 
food,  using  a  spirit  lamp  to  boil  the  water  for  his  tea  and  coffee, 
as  he  told  me  that  it  was  more  economical  than  a  fire.  Doing  without 
servants,  he  said,  was  a  great  source  of  peace,  comfort,  and  repose, 
and  he  certainly  adopted  Schopenhauer's  ideas  that  the  two  great 
principles  in  life  were  to  live,  if  possible,  without  pain  and  without 
ennui. 

The  only  real  property  that  Mr.  Rehatsek  possessed  was  a  small 
house  situated  in  Khetwady,  Bombay,  and  which  he  had  purchased. 


A  MODERN  BOOKWORM.  155 

His  furniture  was  of  the  poorest  kind,  and  so  very  scanty  that  one 
wondered  how  it  was  sufificient  for  his  wants.  His  library  consisted 
of  Arabic,  Persian,  English,  German,  Latin,  and  French  works,  and 
with  these  he  worked  all  day,  going  out  every  morning  and  evening 
for  a  walk,  and  latterly  I  believe  on  a  tricycle,  to  the  sea-side.  His 
manuscripts  and  translations  were  all  written  in  a  very  small,  but 
very  legible,  hand,  and  he  had  several  cases  full  of  them. 

Most  of  the  above  has  been  taken  from  an  obituary  notice  of 
Mr.  Rehatsek  which  appeared  (13th  of  December,  1891)  in  Native 
Opinion^  an  Anglo-vernacular  bi-weekly  journal  published  in  Bombay, 
and  to  which  the  deceased  had  been  a  constant  contributor  since 
187 1.  So  devoted  was  he  to  his  work,  that  on  Wednesday,  the  9th 
of  December,  while  on  his  death-bed,  he  had  prepared  his  usual 
article.  When  the  editor  of  the  paper  called  upon  him,  the  poor 
old  man,  too  feeble  to  speak,  pointed  to  his  desk,  where  lay,  just 
completed,  the  last  contribution  that  came  from  his  pen. 

From  his  latest  letters  to  me  it  was  evident  that  his  health  was 
failing,  and  that  he  had  not  been  well  for  some  time.  In  his  last 
illness  he  was  attended  by  Dr.  Kunte,  Dr.  Deshmookh,  and  Dr. 
John  De  Cunha.  It  culminated  in  cystitis,  and  he  died  on  Friday 
morning,  the  nth  of  December,  1891,  at  about  6.30  a.m.,  attended 
upon  by  his  friends,  all  of  whom  were  either  natives  of  India  or 
Portuguese.  Having  expressed  an  earnest  desire  to  be  cremated 
according  to  the  Hindu  fashion,  the  ceremony  was  performed  the 
same  evening.  His  body,  covered  with  garlands  of  flowers,  and 
accompanied  by  his  friends,  was  carried  to  the  sea-shore,  and,  placed 
there  on  the  usual  pile  of  wood,  was  soon  converted  into  ashes.  It 
is  said  that  this  was  the  first  European  ever  cremated  in  Bombay,  or 
perhaps,  indeed,  in  India. 

Though  Mr.  Rehatsek  had  reduced  the  necessaries  of  life  to  a 
minimum,  it  was  from  his  habits  and  tastes  that  he  did  so,  and 
not  from  actual  necessity.  The  Duke  of  WelHngton  used  to  say 
that  habit  was  not  only  second  nature,  but  ten  times  nature;  well, 
Mr.  Rehatsek  was  so  accustomed  to  his  style  of  living  that  he  pre- 
ferred it  to  any  other,  and  it  grew  upon  him,  like  every  so-called 
virtue,  or  so-called  vice,  grows  upon  other  people.  Anyhow  he 
seems  to  have  saved  some  thirty  thousand  rupees,  which  he  left  for 
the  education  of  the  poor  boys  in  the  primary  schools  of  Bombay, 
without  any  distinction  of  caste,  colour,  or  creed.  The  interest  of 
this  sum  (the  principal  being  invested  in  Government  securities)  is 
to  be  awarded  in  money  prizes  to  the  most  deserving  pupils  of  these 
schools.     His  house  is  either  to  be  sold  and  the  proceeds  added  to 


156  A  MODERN  BOOKWORM. 

the  above  fund,  or  to  be  lent  for  scholastic  purposes  free  of  charge, 
as  his  executors  may  decide.  His  books,  manuscripts,  and  transla- 
tions he  bequeathed  to  the  Native  General  Library,  Bombay.  A 
complete  list  of  Rehatsek's  contributions  to  various  periodicals  and 
translations  appears  in  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society, 
May,  1892,  pp.  584-595. 

F.  F.  Arbuthnot. 


Autograph  Copies. 

LADIES  who  write  books,  and  "  for  reasons,"  publish  privately, 
should  beware  of  presenting  autograph  copies  to  friends.  You 
never  know  whither  such  copies  may  wander.  In  1876  a  volume  of 
rather  trashy,  but  manifestly  spiteful  verse,  was  published  under  the 
title  of  "  A  Friar's  Scourge."  The  other  day  a  copy  of  this  precious 
work  was  picked  up  at  a  bookstall  with  some  other  specimens  of 
decayed  literature.  Upon  the  title-page  there  was  written  *'  With 
the  authoress's  compliments,"  and  the  name  of  the  lady.  Under- 
neath, "  Private  and  confidential !  " 


Travelling  Library  of  Sir  Julius  Caesar. 


HE  beautiful  and  interesting  collection  of  books  which 
formed  the  travelling  library  of  Sir  Julius  Caesar,  Master 
of  the  Rolls  in  the  reign  of  James  I.,  consists  of  forty-four 
volumes,  the  largest  of  which  measures  4f  inches  by  2^  inches,  and 
the  smallest  2f  inches  by  two  inches.  The  case  in  which  they  are 
contained  is  sixteen  inches  long,  eleven  inches  wide,  and  rather  more 
than  three  inches  deep.  It  is  made  of  oak  and  is  shaped  to  resemble 
a  folio  volume,  the  sides  and  back  being  covered  with  a  light  olive 
morocco,  elegantly  tooled ;  and  the  portion  representing  the  edges 
painted  green,  with  the  word  Bibliotheca  written  across  it  in  gold 
letters.  The  case  was  formerly  tied  with  ribands,  but  these  have 
disappeared. 

The  interior  contains  three  sets  of  books;  the  first  and  second 
sets  standing  upon  two  shelves,  the  third  set  being  placed  upon  the 
bottom  of  the  case.  All  the  volumes  are  bound  in  beautiful  white 
vellum.  The  theological  and  philosophical  works  occupy  the  first 
«helf,  and  have  an  angel  bearing  a  scroll  with  the  legend  "  Gloria 
Deo  "  stamped  on  the  sides  of  the  covers,  and  a  small  floral  ornament 
on  the  backs.  They  are  also  distinguished  by  the  blue  ribands  with 
which  the  volumes  are  tied.  The  historical  works  are  placed  on  the 
second  shelf,  and  have  a  crowned  lion  rampant  impressed  upon  the 
sides,  with  a  flaming  heart  on  the  backs.  The  ribands  of  this  set 
are  red.  The  third  row  consists  of  the  poetical  works,  the  sides 
being  decorated  with  two  olive  branches,  and  the  backs,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  with  a  star.  These  volumes  are  tied  with  green  ribands. 
The  books  are  principally  from  the  presses  of  Raphelengius,  at 
X-eyden,  and  Thomas   Porteau,  at   Saumur,  and  were  all  printed 


158    TRA  YELLING  LIBRAE  V  OF  SIR  JULIUS  CjESAR^ 

between  the  years  1591  and  16 19.  The  inside  of  the  lid  of  the 
case  is  very  handsomely  illuminated,  and  bears  the  arms  of  the 
owner  and  those  of  two  of  his  wives.  It  has  also  a  list  of  the  volumes 
written  in  gold.  This  beautiful  library  was  purchased  by  the  British 
Museum  in  1842. 

Sir  Julius  Caesar  was  the  son  of  Cesare  Adelmare,  a  native  of 
Treviso,  a    city  distant   about   twelve   miles   from   Venice.      This 
Cesare,  who  was  a  doctor  of  medicine  in  the  University  of  Padua,. 
went  to  England  about  1550  and   settled   in   London,  where   he 
speedily  acquired  a  large  practice  as  a  medical  man  and  was  even- 
tually appointed  physician  to  Queen  Mary,  and  afterwards  to  her 
successor.  Queen  Elizabeth,  by  whom  he  was  held  in  high  estima- 
tion.     He  died  in  1569,  and  was  interred  in  the  Church  of  St. 
Helen,  Bishopgate  Street.     His  eldest  son,  who  has  born  in  1558, 
received  at  his  baptism  the  names  of  Julius  Caisar,  the  latter  of 
which  he  afterwards  used  as  a  surname,  abandoning  that  of  Adelmare. 
He  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Oxford,  where  he  graduated 
B.A.  in   1575  and  became  M.A.  in  1578.      He  remained  at  the 
university  until  the  end  of  the  following  year,  when  he  went  to  Paris,, 
where  he  was  admitted  a  doctor  of  both  laws  (civil  and  canon)  in 
1 58 1,  and  in  1584  he  took  the  degree  of  doctor  of  laws  at  Oxford. 
He  had  already  been  admitted  a  bencher  of  the  Inner  Temple,  and 
in  October,  1581,  he  received  his  first  public  appointment,  which  he 
informs  us  was  that  of  "  Justice  of  the  peace  in  all  cases  of  piracy 
and  such  like  throughout  the  land."     In  1583  Caesar  was  nominated 
**  Councellor  to  the  City  of  London,"  and  a  little  later  he  became  a 
Master  in  Chancery  and  also  succeeded  Dr.  Lewes  as  judge  of  the 
Admiralty  Court.     This  last  post  appears  to  have  been  the  reverse 
of  valuable,  for  we  find  him  in  1589  complaining  that  during  seven 
years'  service  he  had  not  received  "  fee,  pension,  or  recompense  to 
the  value  of  one  penny."     He  also  declared  that  during  that  time  he 
had  expended  ^4,000  out  of  his  own  purse  in  relieving  the  wants  of 
poor  suitors  in  his  court — a  very  characteristic  instance  of  the  gene- 
rosity of  this  good  and  charitable  man.    In  1591  the  queen  bestowed 
on  him  the  office  of  Master  of  Requests,  and  in  1596  he  obtained 
the  Mastership  of  St.  Catherine's  Hospital  by  means  of  a  bribe  of 
^£'500  to  the  Scottish  ambassador  in  England,  Archibald  Douglas, 
who   used  his   interest   with    the    queen    to   procure   Caesar  this 
appointment. 

In  September,  1598,  EHzabeth  honoured  him  with  a  visit  at  his 
residence  at  Mitcham,  in  Surrey,  passing  the  night  of  the  12th  there, 
and  dining  with  him  on  the  following  day ;  and  he  tells  us  that  the 


I 


TRA  YELLING  LIBRAE  V  OF  SIR  JULIUS  C^SAR.    159 

entertainment  of  her  Majesty,  together  with  the  presents  which  he 
offered  to  her,  cost  him  ;£7oo.  These  presents  consisted  of  "a 
gown  of  cloth  of  silver,  richly  embroidered ;  a  black  network  mantle, 
with  pure  gold  ;  a  taifeta  hat,  white,  with  several  flowers  and  a  jewel 
of  gold  set  therein  with  rubies  and  diamonds."  The  queen  always 
expected  costly  gifts  on  these  occasions,  and  it  is  therefore  not 
surprising  that  her  courtiers  regarded  her  visits  with  somewhat  mixed 
feelings. 

On  the  accession  of  James  I.  to  the  crown  Caesar  was  knighted, 
and  in  1606  he  succeeded  Sir  George  Hume  as  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  and  was  sworn  of  the  Privy  Council.  In  16 14  he  be- 
came Master  of  the  Rolls.  He  lived  until  1636,  dying  on  April  18 
in  that  year,  aged  seventy-nine,  and  was  buried  in  the  Church  of  St. 
Helen,  where  his  monument,  with  a  curious  device  (a  deed  poll, 
with  the  cord  attaching  the  seal  severed)  and  inscription  designed 
and  composed  by  himself,  is  still  to  be  seen. 

Sir  Julius  Caesar  was  married  three  times,  his  third  wife  being  a 
niece  of  Francis  Bacon,  Lord  Verulam,  who  was  present  at  the 
wedding  and  gave  the  bride  away.  He  was  also  one  of  the  super- 
visors of  the  will  of  Bacon,  who,  it  is  stated,  wrote  many  of  his 
works  in  Caesar's  house  and  died  in  his  arms.  Sir  Julius  Caesar 
appears  to  have  been  a  most  just  and  honourable  man,  and  Fuller, 
in  his  "  State  Worthies,"  says  "  that  he  was  a  person  of  such  pro- 
digious bounty  to  all  of  worth  or  want  that  he  might  seem  to  be 
almoner  general  of  the  nation."  He  was  the  author  of  several 
works  and  left  a  considerable  collection  of  books,  which  at  his  death 
was  divided  between  his  sons. 


i6o 


MISCELLANEA, 


Book-Borrowers. 


IN  the  present  day,  when  books  are  so  cheap,  says  Mr.  Ashby^ 
Sterry  in  the  Graphic^  that  abominable  pest,  the  book-borrower, 
ought  not  to  exist  at  all.  Still,  vacant  places  on  our  bookshelves,, 
missing  second  volumes,  and  torn  tomes  show  us  that  this  nuisance 
has  not  yet  been  altogether  stamped  out  of  existence.  A  cunning 
bibhophile  once  hit  on  a  clever  plan,  which,  if  it  did  not  altogether 
eradicate  the  evil,  most  assuredly,  in  a  degree,  moderated  its  viru- 
lence. In  all  his  books  he  had  the  price  written  in  plain  figures. 
When  any  one  asked  him  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  work  is  £^2  17s.  6d. — or  whatever 
the  value  might  be — you  may  take  it  at  this  figure,  which  will,  of 
course,  be  refunded  when  the  volume  is  returned."  If  a  person 
really  wished  to  read  the  volume,  of  course  he  would  be  glad  to 
leave  this  deposit;  but  if  he  only  wanted  it  to  save  himself  the 
trouble  of  going  to  a  library,  the  chances  were  that  he  would  decline 
to  take  it  under  these  conditions.  The  result  of  this  excellent  notion 
was  that  this  clever  old  book-lover  was  seldom  asked  to  lend  his 
volumes,  and  that  his  capital  library  remained  in  a  complete  and 
uninjured  condition.  This  plan,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  might  be 
generally  adopted  with  considerable  advantage. 


The  Physiology  of  the  Quays  of  Paris. 


UR  esteemed  and  versatile  friend,  M.  Octave  Uzanne,  has 
added  an  undoubted  classic  to  the  literature  of  book- 
collecting  in  his  charming  "  Physiologic  des  Quais  de  Paris, 
du  Pont  Royal  au  Pont  Sully,"  which  the  Maison  Quantin  has 
recently  published,  and  for  which  M.  Emile  Mas  has  supplied  over 
one  hundred  very  appropriate  illustrations.  This  book  was  announced 
to  appear  in  the  spring  of  1887,  but  a  series  of  circumstances,  for 
which  neither  the  author  nor  the  publisher  is  altogether  responsible, 
has  prevented  its  earlier  appearance.  The  probability  is  that  the 
book  is  none  the  worse  for  this  delay,  but  very  considerably  improved. 
However,  it  is  at  length  issued,  and  a  very  superficial  glance  through 
it  is  sufficient  to  prove  its  originality  and  interest,  and  its  curiosity  as 
an  item  in  the  curiosities  of  literature.  It  is  divided  into  ten  chapters, 
which  deal,  inter  alia,  with  the  history  of  the  Quais  of  Paris  and  the 
part  which  generation  after  generation  of  bookstall-keepers  have 
played  in  the  making  of  that  history.  Side-issues,  such  as  book- 
thieves,  some  of  the  various  curiosities  which  have  been  at  different 
times  unearihed  in  the  "  boites  a  quatre  sols,"  and  so  forth. 

The  book-quays  are  an  undoubted  feature  among  the  innumerable 
attractions  of  Paris,  and,  what  is  more,  a  feature  peculiarly  its  own. 
For  more  than  six  hundred  years  Paris  has  been  one  of  the  great 
centres  of  rare  books ;  and  if  it  is  no  longer  the  chief  mart  of  literary 
wares,  it  is,  at  all  events,  second  only  to  London,  to  which,  from  a 
purely  "  bookstalling  "  point  of  view,  it  is  vastly  superior.  Writing 
more  than  six  hundred  years  ago,  one  of  our  earliest  and  most  dis- 
tinguished of  English  book  collectors — the  Homer,  in  fact,  of  the 
calling — Richard  de  Bury,  exclaimed,  '*  O  blessed  God  of  gods  in 

21 


i62     THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  THE  QUAYS  OF  PARIS. 


THE  CLERICAL  BOOKWORM. 


Zion !   what  a  flood  of  pleasure  rejoiced  our  hearts  as  we  visited 

Paris,  the  Paradise  of  the  world,"  wherein  the  author  of  "Philobiblon" 

discovered  "  delightful  libraries  in  cells  redolent  of  aromatics,"  revelled 

in  **  flourishing  greenhouses  of  all 
sorts  of  volumes,"  and  where  he 
"  scattered  money  with  a  light 
heart,  and  redeemed  inestimable 
books  with  dirt  and  dust,"  inclu- 
ding "  crazy  quartos  and  tottering 
folios,"  precious,  however,  in  his 
sight  and  in  his  affections. 

Many  events  have  conspired  to 
put  a  vastly  different  complexion 
on  the  book-haunts  of  Paris  since 
this  enthusiastic  ecclesiastic  wrote, 
but  the  gay  city,  in  spite  of  the 
frivolity  which,  with  it,  has  become 
an  exact  science,  Paris  is  still  the 
bookman's  paradise.  The  whole- 
sale Haussmannising  which  it  has 

undergone  has  destroyed  many  associations  and  haunts  that  could 

not  well  be  spared,  but  it  has  left  intact  one  of  its  most  charming 

features — the  innumerable  neatly-arranged  boxes  of  books   which 

tempt  the  pedestrian  to  loiter 

between  the  Pont  Royal  and 

the  Pont  Sully.     This  feature, 

for  obvious   reasons,   did  not 

exist  in  the  time  of  the  good 

Richard  de  Bury,  but  it  has  an 

almost    unbroken    history    of-- 

nearly   three  centuries.     The 

bouquinistes  of  this  locality  are 

more    numerous    to-day   than 

ever  they  were,  and  if  the  vastly 

increased  body  of  the  bouquiii- 

eur  has  reduced  the  chance  of 

picking  up  a  rarity  of  the  first 

water  to  a  minimum,  the  col- 
lector,   whatever   may   be  his 

special     craze,    rarely    comes 

empty  away.     To  the  Englishman,  these  book-quays,  if  they  may  be 

so  termed,  have  an  especial  fascination.     He  may  here  indulge  his 


%Hf^ 


THE   LADY   BOOK   COLLECTOR. 


I 


THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  THE  QUA  YS  OF  PARIS.     163 


passion  to  the  top  of  his  bent,  for  he  no  longer  fears  the  thinly- 
disguised  sneers  at  his  weakness  for  books  of  his  better-half  at  home, 
who  will  welcome  the  additions  to  her  husband's  collection  as  a 
complete  proof  that  he  has  not  spent  all  his  time  and  money  in 
gallivanting  about  after  more  worldly  pleasures. 

Although  some  of  the  most  distinguished  French  authors  have 
written  concerning  the  book-quays,  no  one  has  done  the  subject  full 
justice.  In  1857  M.  Fontaine  de  Resbecq  published 
an  account  of  his  "  Voyages  litt^raires  sur  le  Quais  de 
Paris,"  but  he  wrote  with  an  elephantine  ponderosity 
which  would  make  even  a  German  professor  of  philo- 
sophy shiver.  Now  the  subject  has  been  appropriated 
by  M.  Octave  Uzanne,  whose 
charming  books  are  as  well 
known  in  this  country  as  in 
France.  In  temperament,  in 
taste,  and,  what  is  of  almost 
equal  importance,  by  reason 
of  his  residence  on  the  Quai 
Voltaire,  M.  Uzanne  is  un- 
questionably the  one  man 
most  fitted  to  undertake  the 
task.  From  his  own  rooms, 
a  bric-a-brac  museum  in 
miniature,  our  author  has  an 
uninterrupted  view  of  the 
book-quays,  and  there  is, 
consequently,  no  mood  or 
condition  of  the  locality  that 
escapes  him.  His  "Physi- 
ologic des  Quais  de  Paris," 
announced  six  years  ago,  and 
actually  pubhshed  within  the 
last  few  days,  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  complete  vade 

mecum  of  the  entire  subject,  adorned  as  it  is  with  about  one  hundred 
illustrations  by  Emile  Mas. 

Although  the  Parisian  book-hunter  may  be  roughly  divided  into 
three  sections — the  habitu^,  the  irregular,  and  the  occasional — the 
physiognomy  of  the  entire  class  is  as  varied  as  the  books  themselves. 
Sometimes  it  is  a  case  of  a  poor  young  student  who  confines  his 
grubbings  to  the  boxes  "  h.  deux  sous ; "  at  others  it  is  the  husband 


THE  BOOK   THIEF 

{in  flagrante  delicto). 


i64     THE  PHYSIOLOG  Y  OF  THE  QUA  YS  OF  PARIS. 

of  an  economical  turn  who  purchases,  at  greatly  reduced  prices,  the 
newest  novels  in  their  pristine  condition  ;  or  the  sentimental  working 
girl,  whom  Boileau  has  described  as  the  "grand  liseurs  de  romans." 
For  each  of  these  classes  there  is  abundance.  The  more  exacting 
collector  of  first  editions,  of  editions  "de  luxe,"  of  rare  impressions, 
of  books  with  the  charming  illustrations  of  Cochin,  Marillier,  Moreau 

_:z:::^;^  le  jeune,  and  Le  Barbier,  does  not 

find  such  an  embarrassing  choice, 
and  too  often  he  will  be  compelled 
to  echo  M.  Guigard's  words, 
"C'est  desesperant !  "  To-day 
the  bouquiniste  has  the  misfortune 
to  be  too  well  up  in  the  value  ol 
rareties  that  come  into  his  posses- 
sion, and  for  which  he  demands 
payment  at  shop  prices.  M, 
Uzanne,  however,  insists,  and 
from  our  own  personal  knowledge 
we  can  corroborate  his  theory, 
that  it  is  still  possible  to  pick  up 
rare  and  precious  volumes  along 


THE   HABITUE. 


the  Quais,  particularly  if  the  collector  is  not  above  diving  among  the 
plebeian  companions  of  the  boxes  "a  quatre  sous."  It  is  only  a 
Gladstone — one  man  in  a  century,  and  quite  enough  too — to  whom 
all  is  fish  that  comes  to  his  net,  and  one's  speciality  must  be  indeed 
circumscribed  if  one  cannot,  in  a  miscellaneous  and  haphazard  arraj 
X)f  10,000  volumes,  pick  up  something  apropos. 


THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  THE  QUAYS  OE  PARIS,     165 

The  Parisian  bouquiniste  dislikes  no  class  of  his  clients  so  much  as 
the  gentler  sex.  The  few  who  do  condescend  to  examine  his  wares 
do  not  know  what  they  want,  and  reproach  him  for  not  having  it  in 
stock  !  The  woman  "  d'un  certain  age  "  is  the  most  truculent  of  the 
genus,  and  sometimes  she  swoops  down  upon  the  humble  bookseller 
in  all  the  glory  of  her  carriage  and  footman,  to  demand,  peradventure, 


A  BUSY   DAY. 


the  last  number  but  one  of  the  Journal  des  Danoiselles^  which,  of 
course,  he  hasn't  in  stock.  She  is  majestic,  is  that  woman  of  an  un- 
certain age,  and  she  meets  with  but  little  ceremony  from  the  book- 
seller.    The  "blue  stocking"  does  not  "come''  the  majestic,  and 


BOOK  THIEVES   (UNDETECTED). 

her  patronage  perhaps,  because  she  is  poor,  is  confined  to  reading  as 
much  as  possible  within  a  short  space.  The  bouquiniste  extends  his 
aversion  to  yet  another  robed  creature,  and  this  time  it  is  not  a 
woman  but  a  priest.  This  class  of  book-hunter  is  as  unreasonable 
and  as  unreasoning  as  the  petticoated  element,  for  when,  as  is  often 
the  case,  he  **  spots  "  a  rude  little  volume,  he  either  denounces  the 


1 66     THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  THE  QUAYS  OF  PARIS, 

luckless  owner  for  selling  such  meretricious  literature,  or  he  en- 
deavours to  possess  it,  badgering  the  said  owner  by  beating  him  down 
into  accepting  (or  rejecting)  an  absurdly  low  price.  The  priest 
rarely  purchases  religious  books,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact,  such  things 
rarely  occur  for  sale  on  the  quais,  for  they  are  "  veritablement  damner 
les  marchands."  Yet  another  pet  aversion  of  the  long-suffering 
bibliopole  is  the  elegant  gentleman,  than  whom  no  one  is  meaner  in 
driving  a  bargain. 

Of  his  many  trials  and  temper- 
provoking  customers,  the  book-thiet 
is  the  most  trying  and  artful. 
„„  Women  with  ** all-over"  cloaks  or 
\^^^^\  large  muffs,  and  men  with  capacious 
MM=sn4i>  pockets,  are  the  chief  delinquents. 
Their  most  happy  circumstances 
are  when  the  bookseller  is  engaged 
with  a  customer,  with  a  confrere 
who  wants  some  change,  or  when 
he  is  lighting  his  pipe ;  but  most  of 
all  when,  in  summer,  he  is  taking  a 
hasty  "forty  winks."  These  are 
the  book-thief's  most  happy  occa- 
sions, and  he  does  not  fail  to  make 
ample  use  of  them.  Occasionally, 
however,  he  does  it  under  the  very  nose  of  the  bookseller,  and  trusts 
to  his  fleetness  of  foot  to  get  clear  away.  In  many  respects  book- 
hunting  in  Paris  has  a  strong  family  likeness  to  that  which  obtains  in 
London,  so  far  as  regards  the  bookseller  and  the  book-buyer,  but  the 
conditions  under  which  this  amiable  weakness  is  carried  on  are 
totally  different.  In  Paris  the  book-hunter  needs  frequent  only  the 
most  pleasant  parts  of  the  city ;  in  London  he  has  to  grope  about  in 
the  mud  and  slush  of  the  back  streets. 


CASUAL   BUYERS. 


i^-'^9&. 


The  Body  of  John  Baskerville,  Printer. 


VERY  ONE  has  heard  of  John  Baskerville,  the  Birmingham 
printer  and  type-founder,  and  the  beautiful  books  which 
came  from  his  press.  Now,  for  years  Birmingham  anti- 
quarians have  wrangled  over  his  probable  burial  place.  Till  1821 
his  body  remained  in  the  building  which  he  had  himself  built  for  the 
purpose.  Then  a  canal  had  to  be  cut  right  across  the  property,  and 
the  body  was  for  a  long  time  stowed  away  in  a  warehouse.  Finally  it 
was  supposed  that  Baskerville  had  found  a  resting  place  in  the  Christ 
Church  catacombs.  Recently  several  leading  citzens,  including  the 
Mayor  and  Mr.  Sam  Timmins,  the  Shakespearean  scholar,  proceeded 
to  the  catacombs  to  "mak*  siccar."  When  the  company  had 
assembled  within  the  gloomy  chamber,  a  couple  of  workmen,  by 
the  light  of  some  oil  lamps  which  only  served  to  make  the  scene 
more  uncanny,  at  once  commenced  to  chip  out  the  concrete  and 
brickwork  with  which  the  aperture  had  been  sealed.  When  the 
coffin  was  found,  it  was  seen  that  the  lettering  was  in  actual  printer's 
types,  soldered  on  to  the  lead — "John  Baskerville." 

But  even  this  evidence  was  not  sufRcent;  there  was  no  proof  of 
identification  unless  the  cofifin  contained  a  body.  The  Medical 
Officer  of  Health  and  the  City  Coroner  were  of  opinion  that  there 
would  be  no  danger  to  health  in  opening  the  coffin,  and  the  vicar 
accordingly  gave  the  word  for  its  removal  to  open  air,  where  the  lead 
casing  was  opened,  revealing  inside  a  wooden  shell  in  fairly  good 
state  of  preservation.  On  raising  the  lid  a  ghastly  sight  met  the 
view.  There,  in  the  bright  spring  sunshine,  after  a  lapse  of  120 
years,  lay  the  skeleton  of  the  great  printer.  Upon  the  question  of 
identity  there  could  be  no  doubt.      Mr.   Sam   Timmins  at  once 


1 68     THE  BODY  OF  JOHN  BASKERVILLE,  PRINTER, 

declared  the  moment  he  saw  the  body  that  it  was  Baskerville.  He 
could  recognise  it  from  the  sketches  which  had  been  made  when  it 
was  first  opened  at  the  time  the  canal  was  being  cut  in  1822.  A 
still  more  striking  confirmation  was,  however,  forthcoming  when 
several  of  the  medical  gentlemen  present  made  a  closer  examination 
of  the  remains. 

There,  lying  in  the  middle  oi'  the  cofiin,  was  an  ordinary  glazier's 
putty  knife,  the  presence  of  which  can  be  easily  accounted  for  when 
it  is  remembered  that  the  body  lay  open  in  the  coffin  in  Mr. 
Marston's  glaziery  warehouse  for  a  long  time.  The  size  of  the 
skeleton,  too,  was  in  strict  conformity  with  the  known  personal 
appearance  of  the  great  printer.  Baskerville  was  a  small  man,  and  the 
body  in  the  coffin  measured  5ft.  4in. ;  the  skull — which  was  the  only 
portion  in  a  good  state  of  preservation — showed  that  of  a  small,  well- 
formed  head,  with  traces  still  adhering  of  heavy,  well-arched  eyebrows. 
The  teeth  were  in  a  wonderfully  fine  state  of  preservation,  and  it  was 
remarked  that  the  molars  in  the  bottom  jaw  were  absolutely  with- 
out flaw.  The  chest  bones  had  been  broken,  and  in  the  opinion  of 
the  medical  men  the  fracture  was  an  artificial  one,  made  for  the 
purposes  of  embalmment.  All  the  experts  present  declared  them- 
selves to  be  absolutely  satisfied  as  to  the  identification,  and  the  lid 
of  the  coffin  was  replaced  and  the  lead  re-soldered  preparatory  to  its 
being  returned  to  its  receptacle  in  the  catacombs.  A  photograph 
was  taken  of  the  coffin.  Somebody  suggested  that  a  photograph  of 
the  very  gruesome  remains  should  be  taken,  as  well  as  of  the  coffin ; 
but  the  vicar  declined  to  permit  this.  The  photograph  would  have 
been  of  no  value  whatever  as  a  picture  of  the  famous  man's  features, 
and  would  only  have  served  to  gratify  a  prurient  and  vulgar  curiosity. 
When  the  examination  had  been  concluded  the  boards  were  replaced, 
and  the  lead  case  was  spidered  up  and  replaced  in  its  vault,  where  it 
was  walled  in  as  it  had  been  found. 


Autographs  of  Literary  Men. 

HE  sale  of  autograph  letters  and  documents  at  Sotheby's 
last  month  included  many  items  of  the  first  importance, 
chiefly  from  the  collection  of  Mr.  T.  G.  Arthur,  of 
Glasgow.  Two  letters  from  William  Blake,  the  celebrated  artist,  to 
George  Cumberland  fetched  ;£5  and;^5  5s.;  two  pages  folio  of  MS. 
verses  by  Robert  Burns,  "  On  reading  in  a  newspaper  the  death  of 
John  M'Leod,  Esq.,  brother  to  Miss  Isabella  M'Leod,  a  particular 
friend  of  the  author's,"  and  including  the  following   unpublished 

verse : 

"  Were  it  in  the  poet's  power, 

Strong  as  he  shares  the  grief 
That  pierces  Isabella's  heart, 

To  give  that  heart  relief," 

;£io.  Of  four  autograph  letters  of  Burns,  the  highest  figure  was  paid 
for  a  fine  specimen  addressed  to  Cunningham,  March,  1794,  and 
containing  the  song,"  Wilt  thou  be  my  dearie?"  ;£2'j ;  the  next 
highest  in  value  being  the  eleventh  letter  from  "  Sylvander  to  Clor- 
inda,"  ;j^i4;  an  autograph  letter  from  Byron  to  Mr.  Bowring,  dated 
October,  1823,  on  the  subject  of  Greece,  j£S  8s.;  a  letter  from 
Charles  II.  of  England  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  thanking  him  for 
well  organising  the  militia,  ;£'ii  ;  a  letter  from  George  Eliot  to  Mrs. 
Trollope,  from  Naples,  ^£4  17  s.  6d. ;  four  letters  from  Emerson  to 
Thomas  Carlyle  realised  a  total  of  ;£'i2  15s.;  the  MS.  of  ''The 
Captives,"  an  oratorio  by  Oliver  Goldsmith,  eighteen  pages  quarto, 
;£'4o;  a  MS.  of  a  Prayer  by  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  written  about 
three  months  before  his  death,  ;£"8;  a  letter  from  John  Keats 
to  Fanny  Brawne,  July,  18 19,  £26;   eight  autograph  letters  from 

22 


170 


A  UTO  GRAPHS  OF  LITERAR  V  MEN. 


Charles  Lamb  to  Thomas  Manning,  from  February,  1801, 
last  letter  to  Manning,  May,  1834,  £,^^\  the  MS.  of  an  article  by 
Charles  Lamb,  "  On  the  Secondary  Novels  of  Defoe,"  three  pages 
folio,  ;^io;  an  autograph  letter  from  William  Penn,  the  founder  of 
Pennsylvania,  August,  1685,  to  Phineas  Pemberton,  ;^i5  15s.;  one 
from  Edgar  Allan  Poe  to  Mr.  Lewis,  ;^5  5s. ;  a  series  of  sixteen 
autograph  letters  from  Mr.  Ruskin  to  M.  Ernest  Chesneau,  ranging 
from  September,  1882,  to  June,  1883,  full  of  feeling,  reminiscences, 
and  criticism,  ;^i7 ;  the  MS.  of  forty-seven  sonnets,  and  of  the  title- 
page  of  Rossetti's  "House  of  Life,"  £,2^\  a  MS.  of  "A  Proposal 
for  Putting  Reform  to  the  Vote  throughout  the  Kingdom,"  by  the 
Hermit  of  Marlow — i.e.^  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley,  1817,  ;£'i35,  and  a 
letter  from  Shelley  to  Thomas  Peacock,  dated  Leghorn,  September, 
1819,  ;^i9;  MS.  of  "A  Word  for  the  Navy,"  by  A.  C.  Swinburne, 
£,\2\  MS.  of  Lord  Tennyson's  "Mungo  the  American,"  written  in 
1823,  and  given  by  the  poet  to  Miss  Jane  Yonge,  and  by  her  sisters 
to  Mr.  R.  Roberts,  of  Boston,  ;^3o ;  MS.  of  Thackeray's  Lecture  on 
Swift,  thirty  pages  octavo,  ^19;  of  Thackeray's  two  ballads  of 
"John  Hayes"  and  "Catherine  Hayes,"  £^\\  iis. 


^m^mm^ 


Some  Recent  Book  Finds. 


BY  A  BOOKSTALLER. 


T  is  a  deplorable  fact  (according  to  a  writer  in  The  Daily 
Chronicle — a  journal  which  has  achieved  a  great  success 
for  its  high  literary  tone),  that  bookstall-keepers  are  waking 
up  to  the  unwisdom  of  selling  their  wares  according  to  weight 
or  to  outward  appearance.  The  chances  of  a  book-hunter  pick- 
ing up  a  bargain  occasionally  are  reduced  to  a  minimum  ;  and 
shivering  over  a  series  of  barrows  on  a  bitterly  cold  day  without  any 
adequate  return  is  liable  to  make  the  most  astute  collector  think 
profanity,  even  if  he  throttles  the  strong  desire  to  give  it  picturesque 
expression.  Nevertheless,  taking  one's  own  experience  as  a  criterion, 
the  past  few  months  have  not  been  without  their  "finds,"  leaving 
out  all  mention  of  purchases  which  are  made  on  the  off-chance  of 
being  rarities,  but  which  on  closer  examination  at  home  turn  out  to 
be  worthless.  To  this  class  of  "  finds,"  of  course,  no  self-respecting 
book-hunter  refers,  not  even  to  his  dearest  friend,  and  least  of  all  to 
his  wife,  for  wisdom  cometh  of  experience,  and  to  be  called  a  fool 
by  the  Philistine  is  not  pleasant. 

Leigh  Hunt  once  declared  that  no  one  had  ever  found  anything 
worth  having  in  a  box  of  "  sixpenny  "  (or  was  it  fourpenny  ?)  books  ; 
but  a  man  who  would  describe  his  Sovereign  as  "a  fat  Adonis  of 
fifty  "  would  say  anything,  and  Leigh  Hunt's  strongly-marked  anti- 
pathy to  anything  in  the  shape  of  energy  leads  one  to  suspect  that 
he  had  never  rummaged  in  a  box  of  second-hand  books.  Besides, 
like  most  other  second-rate  poets,  Leigh  Hunt  was  not  too  nicely 
scrupulous  in  what  he  said,  and  every  bookstaller  worth    his   salt 


172  SOME  RECENT  BOOK  FINDS, 

could  write  a  whole  volume  to  prove  the  fallacy  of  Hunt's  dogma- 
tism. Even  to-day,  when  the  number  of  bookstallers  is  so  much 
greater  than  it  was  half  a  century  ago,  and  when  the  coster  bookstall- 
keeper  has  acquired  a  highly  regrettable  keeness  for  a  rarity,  with  a 
due  appreciation  of  its  proper  commercial  value,  there  are  still  bar- 
gains to  be  picked  up. 

Collecting  together  my  own  "  finds  "  of  the  past  few  months,  the 
result,  if  not  a  big  pile  of  black-letter  books  and  rare  first  editions,  is 
on  the  whole  distinctly  satisfactory,  apart  from  the  incommunicable 
pleasure  of  the  hunt,  and  the  delight  which  every  genuine  trouvaille 
gives,  taking  one  as  it  does,  for  the  time  being,  far  away  from  the 
worries  and  anxieties  of  everyday  life.  Here,  for  example,  is  a  copy 
— only  a  second  edition,  it  is  true — of  Eugbne  Sue's  "  Le  Marquis 
de  Letoriere,"  pubHshed  in  Paris  in  1840,  and  picked  up  in  White- 
chapel  for  the  price  of  a  pint  of  mystic  "  fourpenny."  Its  interest 
lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  the  identical  copy  presented  by  the  author 
to  Catherine  Warner,  nee  Shipley,  and  it  contains  an  inscription  to 
that  effect  on  the  title-page,  and  also  an  autograph  letter,  signed  in 
the  minute  but  extremely  neat  handwriting  of  Sue.  This  letter 
relates  to  a  translation  of  some  articles  by  the  author  of  "  Le  Juif 
Errant,"  who,  in  giving  the  required  permission,  courteously  adds 
that  in  their  new  form  they  would  have  a  charm  and  a  "  ddlicatesse  " 
which  are  absent  from  the  original.  Sue  makes  no  allusion  to  the 
"  medal  "  which  he  had  just  then  received  from  certain  members  of 
the  French  Navy  for  the  "  history  which  he  had  not  written,"  to  wit, 
his  extraordinarily  inaccurate  "  Memoirs  of  the  French  Navy." 

Another  French  book  of  peculiar  interest  to  Englishmen,  rescued 
in  High  Holborn  from  a  pile  of  rubbishy  volumes  at  **  one  penny 
each,"  is  also  among  the  finds  of  the  past  few  weeks.  It  is  entitled, 
"  Procedure  des  Trois  Anglais,  et  autres,  accuses  d'avoir  favoris^ 
I'evasion  de  M.  de  Lavalette,  leur  caractere,  leur  discours  et  leurs 
opinions."  It  was  published  in  Paris,  "  chez  Tiger,  Imprimeur- 
Libraire,  rue  du  Petit  Pont,  No.  10,  au  Pillier  Litteraire,"  without 
date,  but  evidently  in  the  spring  of  1 816.  This  little  volume,  which  is 
not  in  the  British  Museum,  and  is  not  mentioned  by  any  bibliographer, 
deals  with  one  of  the  most  interesting  episodes  in  the  annals  of  France 
during  the  first  quarter  of  the  present  century.  It  may  be  remem- 
bered by  students  of  the  period  that  under  the  Second  Restoration, 
in  July,  1 81 5,  Marie,  Comte  de  Lavalette,  a  prime  favourite  of 
Napoleon,  was  not  only  deprived  of  all  his  offices,  but  was  condemned 
to  death  as  an  accomplice  in  Bonaparte's  treason  against  the  royal 
authority,  and  the  execution  fixed  for  Dec.  21.     On  the  evening  of 


SOME  RECENT  BOOK  FINDS.  173 

the  20th  his  wife,  daughter,  twelve  years  of  age,  and  the  latter*s 
governess  presented  themselves  at  the  prison,  and  were  admitted. 
A  short  time  after  the  two  latter  reappeared,  supporting  apparently 
Madame  Lavalette  in  great  distress.  The  party  could  not  have  gone 
far  when  it  was  discovered  that  Lavalette  had  effected  an  escape 
through  changing  his  apparel  with  his  wife.  The  alarm  was  given, 
and  the  carriage  which  brought  the  visitors  was  overtaken,  but 
Lavalette  himself  was  not  to  be  found.  Three  Englishmen,  General 
Sir  R.  Wilson,  and  Messrs.  Hutchinson  and  Bruce,  were  apprehended 
as  accomplices.  This  little  book  contains  a  verbatim  report  of  the 
trial  at  the  Court  d'Assise,  by  which  the  three  Englishmen  were 
condemned  to  three  months'  imprisonment,  and  mulcted  in  the 
cost  of  the  prosecution.  To  a  novelist  in  search  of  an  intricate  and 
fascinating  plot,  here  it  is  cut  and  dried ! 

The  next  recent  "  find "  worthy  of  notice,  also  absent  from  the 
British  Museum,  is  of  historic  as  well  as  general  interest.  Its  title 
is  "  Faction  Display'd,  a  Poem.  Answered  Paragraph  by  Para- 
graph," and  published  anonymously  in  1704.  The  original  "Faction 
Display'd"  is  well  known  to  students  of  literary  byways,  chiefly  from 
the  fact  that  it  contains  three  lines  of  Dryden's  : — 

"  With  leering  looks,  bull-faced,  and  freckled  fair, 
With  two  left  legs,  and  Judas-coloured  hair, 
With  frowzy  pores  that  taint  the  ambient  air," — 

lines  which  were,  with  a  fine  delicacy,  addressed  to  Jacob  Tonson, 
the  bookseller  whom  the  poet  tried  to  overreach  in  money-matters 
—  the  old  quarrel  between  bookseller  and  book-maker!  This 
wretchedly-printed  quarto  pamphlet  differs  from  the  several  examples 
in  the  British  Museum  and  elsewhere  in  the  "  answered  paragraph 
by  paragraph  "  portion,  and  the  general  tenor  of  these  retorts  is  ex- 
tremely outspoken,  and  at  times  picturesque.  Here  is  a  portion  of 
the  paragraph  which  follows  a  long  "poetical"  passage  relative  to 
the  aforesaid  Tonson : — "  What  the  devil  has  poor  Jacob  Tonson 
done  to  you,  that  he  must  be  drawn  in  by  the  head  and  shoulders  ? 
Oh!  now  I  smoke  it,  Jacob's  the  poor  keeper  to  the  Kit  Kat  Club, 
and  some  of  your  works  have  accompanied  the  renown'd  Tom 
Durfey's  in  being  ushered  into  that  assembly  under  the  bottom  of 
mutton-pies  and  tarts."  This  rar  e  volume  was,  like  the  preceding, 
picked  up  in  Holborn,  where  it  was  exposed  for  sale  by  a  bookseller 
who  flatters  himself  that  he  knows  a  thing  or  two. 

At  another  Holborn  bookshop,  within  a  few  yards  of  the  place 
where  "Faction    Display'd"  found   a   temporary  home,  I  secured 


174  SOME  RECENT  BOOK  FINDS. 

a  beautiful  little  copy  of  the  first  edition  of  Oliver  Goldsmith's 
"Beauties  of  English  Poesy"  (1767),  in  two  volumes.  This  cost 
8d.,  and  the  other  day  a  copy  fetched  at  auction  £2.  The  highly 
diverting  criticisms  with  which  Goldsmith  prefaces  each  poem  have 
a  curious  interest  for  all  lovers  of  the  author  of  "The  Vicar  of 
Wakefield."  Yet  another  Holborn  find,  "Letters  from  the  Living 
to  the  Dead,"  published  anonymously  in  1703,  has  an  interest 
beyond  its  rarity.  It  is  dedicated  to  James  Buller,  Esq.,  Knight 
of  the  Shire  for  the  County  of  Cornwall,  very  probably  without  Mr. 
BuUer's  permission,  for  some  of  the  letters,  if  admirable  specimens 
of  the  early  eighteenth  century  epistles,  are  not  quite  suitable  reading 
for  Sunday-school  girls.  One  or  two  of  the  letters  have  a  distinct 
literary  interest,  such  as  that  of  "Abridgement,  a  Bookseller,  to 
Original,  an  Author." 

A  "  find  "  of  a  distinct  literary  interest  is  M.  Fougeret  de 
Monbron's  spirited  "  Travestie "  of  Voltaire's  "  La  Henriade,"  the 
author  of  which,  by  the  way,  found  it  necessary  to  scuttle  out  of 
Paris  at  a  moment's  notice,  owing  chiefly  to  his  entire  forgetfulness 
of  the  fact  that  "want  of  decency  is  want  of  sense."  A  former 
owner  was  generous  enough  to  have  this  copy  indestructibly  bound 
in  vellum.  Among  early  collections  of  English  verse  one  of  the 
rarest  and  most  interesting  is  "  The  Hive,"  first  issued  in  1724,  and 
of  which  the  present  writer  recently  picked  up  a  first  edition  for  a 
very  small  sum. 

The  chief  prize  in  the  way  of  first  editions,  however,  is  Beckford's 
"  Vathek,"  rescued  from  the  plebeian  associations  of  a  fourpenny 
box.  This  volume,  shortly  after  its  purchase,  was  offered  to  one 
bookseller  in  exchange  for  a  book  priced  in  his  catalogue  at  i6s. 
The  offer  was  refused,  whereas  another  dealer  jumped  at  the  chance 
of  obtaining  the  "  Vathek  "  in  exchange  for  a  book  which  he  priced 
at  ;^i  13s.  A  complete  set  of  Ruskin's  "  Modern  Painters  " — not 
first  editions,  it  is  true — were  bagged  in  the  New-cut  at  8d.  per 
volume ;  but  the  present  writer  cannot  boast  of  having  accomplished 
this  stroke  of  luck  himself — it  was  another  book-hunter. 

It  is  not  often  that  an  illustrated  book  of  value  is  picked  up  for  a 
trifle,  but  the  writer  met  with  one  instance  worth  recording.  He 
purchased  for  a  couple  of  shillings  a  spotless  copy  of  "  The  Poets  of 
America,"  edited  by  J.  Keese,  and  published  in  New  York  in  1840. 
The  exceedingly  graceful  illustrations  are  finely  printed  in  colours, 
and  were  the  work  of  J.  G.  Chapman,  a  member  of  the  Sketch  Club, 
and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Century,  It  may  be  doubted  whether 
a  more  charming  book  has  ever  appeared  in  America. 


■ 


SOME  RECENT  BOOK  FINDS.  175 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  "  general "  finds  of  the  past  few  months. 
The  list  would  be  very  materially  augmented  by  the   addition  of 
books  of  interest  to  specialists ;  for  whatever  may  be  a  man's  par- 
ticular hobby  he  is  bound,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  to  make 
some  additions  of  a  rare  or  out-of-the-way  character. 


The    Costliest   Book    in   America. 

THE  most  expensive  illlustrated  book  yet  made  is  said  to  be  a 
Bible  now  owned  by  Theodore  Irwin,  of  Oswego,  N.Y.  It  is 
valued  at  ^10,000,  for  Mr.  Irwin  paid  that  sum  for  the  work.  The 
original  was  in  seven  volumes,  i6mo,  and  by  the  addition  of  drawings 
and  engravings  it  was  enlarged  to  sixty  volumes,  each  1 6in.  x  24in., 
which  occupy  seventeen  feet  of  space  on  the  shelves.  This  remark- 
able book  contains  3,000  pen  and  pencil  drawings,  etchings, 
engravings,  lithographs,  oil  and  water-colour  paintings,  and  mezzo- 
tints. Among  the  illustrations  are  parts  of  the  "  Great  Bible  of 
Cranmer,"  printed  in  1533;  parts  of  "The  Bishop  Bible," printed 
in  1568 ;  of  the  Nuremberg  Bible,  the  first  illustrated  Bible  published, 
printed  in  1476,  and  of  "  Luther's  Version,"  and  the  "  Breeches 
Bible."  The  extender  has  brought  together  the  best  and  rarest 
efforts  at  illustrating  the  text  of  the  Bible,  and  also  the  art  of 
modern  painters  and  engravers,  making  it  the  most  complete  and 
valuable  copy  of  the  Bible  in  existence. 


176 


MISCELLANEA. 
The    Bibliomaniac's    Prayer. 

Keep  me,  I  pray,  in  wisdom's  way, 

That  I  may  truth  eternal  seek  ; 
I  need  protecting  care  to-day, 

My  purse  is  light,  my  flesh  is  weak. 
So  banish  from  my  erring  heart 

All  baleful  appetites  and  hints 
Of  Satan's  fascinating  art — 

Of  first  editions  and  of  prints. 
Direct  me  in  some  godly  walk 

Which  leads  away  from  bookish  strife, 
That  I  with  pious  deed  and  talk 

May  extra  illustrate  my  life. 

But  if,  O  Lord,  it  pleaseth  Thee 

To  keep  me  in  temptation's  way, 
I  humbly  ask  that  I  may  be 

Most  notably  beset  to-day. 
Let  my  temptation  be  a  book 

Which  I  shall  purchase,  hold  and  keep. 
Whereon  when  other  men  shall  look. 

They'll  wail  to  know  I  got  it  cheap. 
Oh,  let  it  such  a  volume  be 

As  in  rare  copperplates  abounds  ! 
Large  paper,  clean  and  fair  to  see. 

Uncut,  unique — unknown  to  Lowndes. 


Eugene  Field. 


Adam    Smith's   Library. 

THE  Economic  Club  is  preparing  a  catalogue  of  the  library  ol 
Adam  Smith.  Its  efforts — aided  chiefly  by  the  activity  of  twc 
of  its  members,  Mr.  Bonar  and  Prof.  Cunningham — have  alreadj 
attained  considerable  success.  In  order  that  the  list  may  be  as  com- 
plete as  possible,  collectors  and  others  who  may  possess  volumes 
with  Adam  Smith's  bookplate,  autograph,  or  other  evidence  of  his 
ownership,  are  invited  to  communicate  with  Mr.  James  Bonar, 
Windmill  Hill,  Hampstead. 


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Extra  Illustrating  in  New  York. 

THE  costly  and  laborious  but  fascinating  process  known  as 
"  extra  illustrating "  has  lately  become  so  popular  among 
book-lovers,  especially  in  New  York,  that  many  persons  have  been 
induced  to  engage  for  profit  in  what  was  originally  hardly  more  than 
an  expensive  pastime.  Extra  illustrating  requires  both  money  and 
patience,  but  the  extended  books  are  in  such  demand  that  they 
usually,  though  not  always,  sell  for  much  more  than  the  cost  of  their 
production. 

Even  the  term  is  hardly  familiar  yet,  except  with  those  people  who 
live  among  books  and  make  companions  of  them.  Extra  illustrating 
or  inlaying,  or  interleaving,  as  the  art  is  indifferently  called,  is  the 
process  of  enlarging  a  book  by  the  addition  of  prints  or  drawings 
illustrating  its  subject.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  pictures  are  to 
be  pasted  into  the  original  volume.  A  single  small  book  is  often 
extended  into  thirty  or  forty  volumes,  each  volume  a  dozen  times 
as  large  as  the  original.  The  most  expensive  extra  illustrated  book 
yet  made  in  this  country  is  a  Bible  that  Theodore  Irwin  of  Oswego 
paid  $10,000  for.  The  original  was  in  seven  volumes  i6mo,  and 
by  the  addition  of  drawings  and  engravings  it  was  enlarged  to  sixty 
volumes,  each  16  x  24  inches,  which  occupy  seventeen  feet  of  space 
on  the  shelves.  This  remarkable  book  was  illustrated  by  J.  Gibbs, 
and  contains  3,000  pen  and  pencil  drawings,  etchings,  engravings, 
lithographs,  oil  and  water  colour  paintings  and  mezzotints.  Among 
the  illustrations  are  parts  of  the  "  Great  Bible  of  Cranmer,"  a  black 
letter  folio  printed  in  1553  ;  parts  of  "The  Bishops'  Bible,"  printed 
in  1568,  and  of  the  "Nuremburg  Bible,"  the  first  illustrated  Bible 

23 


178        EXTRA  ILLUSTRATING  IN  NEW  YORK. 


1 


published,   printed  in  1476,  and  of  "  Luther's  Version,"  and  the 
"  Breeches  Bible." 

One  of  the  most  enthusiastic  extra  illustrators  in  New  York  is 
Augustin  Daly,  the  theatrical  manager.  He  has  a  library  of  such 
works.  His  great  Bible  has  recently  been  made  the  subject  of 
numerous  newspaper  paragraphs,  but  the  Bible  is  only  one  of  a  large 
collection  of  extended  books.  Old  book-buyers  in  the  city  re- 
member the  sale  of  Mr.  Daly's  library  about  fifteen  years  ago,  when 
many  of  these  extended  works  were  sold ;  but  [since  that  time  he 
has  made  a  new  collection,  which  he  is  constantly  enlarging.  The 
Bible  was  originally  a  Douay  in  one  folio  volume,  but  it  has  been 
extended  to  forty-two  volumes,  with  2,000  prints  and  drawings. 

One  of  Mr.  Daly's  favourite  works  is  a  *'  London,  Old  and  New," 
published  in  six  volumes,  but  extended  now  to  forty-two  volumes  by 
the  insertion  of  rare  maps  and  views  of  the  English  metropolis.  He 
has  also  a  **  History  of  the  New  York  Stage,"  published  in  two 
volumes,  quarto,  and  extended  to  thirty-three  volumes ;  "  Genesta's 
History  of  the  English  Stage,"  published  in  ten  and  extended  to 
fifty  volumes  ;  "  Mrs.  Lamb's  History  of  New  York  City,''  extended 
to  twenty  volumes';  "  History  of  the  Battles  of  the  Rebellion," 
published  in  four  volumes  and  extended  to  twenty-four,  with  rare 
autographs,  maps  and  portraits ;  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Samuels," 
extended  to  eighteen  volumes ;  "  Life  of  Kean,"  extended  to  seven- 
teen volumes ;  a  "  Life  of  Sheridan,"  extended  to  ten  volumes ; 
and  lives  of  Forest,  Wallack,  Booth  and  Mrs.  Siddons,  all  greatly 
enlarged.  These  are  only  a  few  named  at  random  from  Mr.  Daly's 
collection.  Some  of  them  he  prepared  himself,  and  others  he 
bought  ready  made. 

The  cost  of  extending  a  book  is  always  considerable,  but  it  is 
greater  or  smaller  according  to  the  methods  employed.  The 
enthusiastic  young  extender  with  unlimited  means  often  pays 
thousands  of  dollars  for  what  the  cautious  and  experienced  old  hand 
secures  for  a  few  hundreds.  The  Bible  is  a  favourite  book  for  this 
work,  not  because  the  extenders  are  unusually  religious,  but  because 
of  the  boundless  opportunities  it  offers  in  its  variety  of  subjects. 
The  works  of  Thackeray,  Scott,  Dickens  and  Shakespeare  are  often 
chosen,  because  they  have  been  published  in  so  many  different 
editions  and  with  so  many  different  illustrations  that  they  are  com- 
paratively eas}'.  The  more  a  book  is  in  demand,  the  oftener  it  has 
been  published  and  illustrated,  the  better  field  it  offers  to  the 
extender.  Al  new  work  of  fiction,  however  striking,  is  never 
attempted. 


EXTRA  ILLUSTRATING  IN  NEW  YORK.         179 

The  extender  must  at  least  have  money ;  if  he  have  both  money 
and  brains  so  much  the  better.  His  first  step  is  to  choose  a  subject, 
and  he  is  often  guided  in  this  by  the  material  on  hand.  He  may 
have  in  his  cabinets  a  number  of  prints  illustrating  biblical  subjects, 
or  some  standard  novel  or  biography,  and  these  make  a  nucleus 
around  which  more  pictures  may  be  gathered.  He  buys  then  a 
copy  of  the  work  to  be  extended,  and  takes  care  to  select  a  good 
edition,  printed  with  clear  type  upon  good  paper.  The  style  of 
binding  is  of  no  consequence,  for  the  binding  is  immediately  cut  oft 
and  thrown  away.  The  book  is  **  opened  up  "  so  that  all  the  pages 
are  loose,  and  if  there  are  any  illustrations  on  heavy  paper  they  are 
separated  from  the  print  and  laid  away  in  what  is  to  be  the  "  print 
drawer."  Here  is  the  backbone  of  the  new  work  ;  but  at  this  stage 
no  effort  is  made  to  construct  one  of  the  new  volumes.  A  beginner 
at  the  business  may  make  his  volumes  as  he  goes  along,  but  it  is 
only  because  he  knows  no  better  :  the  old  hand  waits  patiently  until 
he  has  all  his  material  collected,  for  experience  has  taught  him  that 
he  may  any  day  come  upon  a  print  that  is  larger  than  the  volume 
he  has  made,  and  a  print  folded  over  is  unworkmanlike.  When 
some  choice  pictures  are  found  that  are  altogether  too  large  for  any- 
book  of  reasonable  size,  the  photo-engraver  is  sometimes  called 
upon  to  make  reduced  copies. 

All  is  ready  now  for  the  pictures,  and  they  must  be  secured. 
This  part  of  the  work  can  be  done  only  in  the  large  cities — New 
York,  London,  Paris,  Vienna,  and  so  on.  Other  large  cities  are 
searched  occasionally,  for,  although  they  do  not  produce  pictures, 
copies  of  engravings  sometimes  drift  into  their  shops.  If  the  ex- 
tender is  an  enthusiast  and  lives  in  this  city  he  searches  the  New 
York  print  shops  himself.  There  are  about  a  score  of  shops  here 
where  good  results  may  be  expected,  and  at  least  fifty  more  where  a 
good  picture  may  accidentally  be  found.  None  of  these  places  may 
be  neglected.  The  print  sellers  understand  the  business  of  ex- 
tending, and  they  know  what  the  customer  desires.  It  is  necessary 
only  to  say  to  one  of  them  :  "  I  am  illustrating  *  David  Copperfield,' 
and  want  some  engravings."  He  has  his  own  collections  ready  and 
brings  them  out  at  once.  He  produces  not  only  pictures  to  illustrate 
"  David  Copperfield,"  but  everything  that  he  has  that  pertains  to 
Dickens— portraits,  views  of  the  Gadshill  House,  Dickens  in  stage 
costume,  Dickens  on  the  platform,  Dickens  in  every  possible 
style. 

Some  of  the  prints  may  be  valued  at  50  cents,  others  at  $50. 
The  extender  must  be  able  to  distinguish  between  them.     When 


i8o        EXTRA  ILLUSTRATING  IN  NEW  YORK. 


he  is  very  verdant  and  shows  his  verdancy,  he  is  hkely  to  find  a 
remarkable  rise  in  the  price  of  engravings.  He  goes  out  with 
a  small  flat  package  under  his  arm  and  a  void  in  his  purse.  If 
he  is  really  in  earnest  and  has  plenty  of  money,  he  leaves  an  order 
for  everything  the  dealer  can  find  concerning  "  David  Copperfield ;  '** 
bnt  this  order  he  afterwards  countermands,  for  he  finds  that  he  is 
duplicating  too  many  pictures.  After  a  few  such  visits  the  dealer 
knows  him  and  announces  at  once,  *  Nothing  new  in  '  Copperfield  *" 
to-day,"  or  perhaps,  "  I  have  something  capital  for  you." 

This  is  only  one  print  shop  in  one  city,  and  all  the  others  must 
be  treated  in  the  same  way.  No  little  basement  shop  so  obscure 
but  it  may  contain  a  prize.  In  course  of  time  they  all  know 
that  Mr.  Smith  is  illustrating  "  David  Copperfield,"  and  Copperfield 
prints  are  carefully  laid  aside,  for  they  are  pretty  sure  to  sell.  Unless 
Mr.  Smith  is  shrewd  and  wary,  Copperfield  prints  are  likely  to  rise  in 
price.  Meanwhile  the  book  stores  and  stalls  must  receive  equal 
attention.  Every  illustrated  edition  of  Copperfield  must  be  bought 
and  the  illustrations  be  removed*  While  the  extender  is  doing  his 
own  work  in  New  York,  his  friends  or  agents  must  be  busy  in  the 
other  cities.  They  must  be  kept  informed  of  what  is  bought  here  to 
avoid  duplicating.  Word  comes  of  a  beautiful  picture  of  Steerforth 
in  an  art  work  just  published  in  ten  volumes  in  London,  which  can- 
not be  had  without  buying  the  whole  set  for  ;£2o.  Then  to  buy  or 
not  to  buy  becomes  a  heart-breaking  question. 

With  these  agents  at  work  in  Europe  and  money  pouring  out 
freely  at  home,  extending  a  book  has  an  expensive  look ;  but  these 
things  are  nothing  to  what  the  process  may  be  made.  Often  the 
desired  pictures  are  not  to  be  had  in  any  city  at  any  price.  Then 
the  extender  falls  bank  upon  the  artist  and  has  pictures  made  ta 
order.  It  is  only  very  enthusiastic  and  very  wealthy  beginners  who  da 
this.  These  drawings  cost  at  least  $50  each,  and  if  they  are  engraved 
upon  wood  that  costs  fully  $100  more,  and  after  all  they  are  not  as 
satisfactory  as  the  cheap  pictures  unearthed  unexpectedly  in  the 
print  shops,  for  in  the  latter  the  finder  feels  a  proprietary  interest 
that  he  can  never  have  in  a  drawing  made  to  order.  There  are, 
perhaps,  paintings  that  can  be  photographed  and  reduced  to  the 
proper  size,  and  such  things  cost  money. 

No  man  can  expect  to  make  a  satisfying  collection  of  prints  on 
any  subject  in  less  than  two  or  three  years,  and  even  that  is  very 
short  notice.  The  work  can  never  be  said  to  be  finished,  though  a 
lifetime  be  devoted  to  it  ;  there  are  always  more  to  be  had ;  and  the 
gem  of  the  collection,  the  one  illustration  without  which  the  work 


I 


EXTRA  ILLUSTRATING  IN  NEW  YORK.         i8i 

would  be  a  mockery,  is  often  found  at  the  last  minute — sometimes, 
indeed,  after  the  volume  has  been  bound.  All  the  time  the  print 
drawer  has  been  filling  up.  There  are,  perhaps,  a  number  of  original 
drawings,  for  some  extenders  prefer  to  bind  in  the  originals  rather 
than  have  them  engraved  or  photographed.  There  is  no  telling 
how  much  money  may  have  been  spent  upon  that  drawerful  of 
pictures.  But  at  length  it  is  determined  that  enough  have  been 
gathered  and  that  the  new  work  shall  become  a  fact. 

An  extender  who  spends  as  much  money  in  collecting  his  pictures 
as  has  been  here  described  is  not  likely  to  spend  months  in  pasting 
them  upon  sheets.  He  must  arrange  them  to  his  own  satisfaction, 
but  after  the  arrangement  they  are  sent  to  the  binder,  who  is  not 
dismayed  at  the  number  of  loose  sheets.  He  is  accustomed 
to  such  work,  and  he  will  bring  out  the  new  volumes  with  all 
their  parts  so  neatly  joined  that  they  will  seem  to  have  been  made 
together.  He  will  use  the  best  of  paper,  and  put  on  the  hand- 
somest embossed  leather  comers,  and  his  bill  will  add  materially  to 
the  cost  of  the  work. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  such  expensive  volumes  are  made 
up  like  scrapbooks,  with  the  letterpress  and  pictures  pasted  upon 
sheets.  That  would  be  an  inglorious  ending  for  such  a  work  of  love 
and  expense.  A  favourite  way  is  to  "  insert  "  the  pictures  and 
pages  of  print.  This  process  is  a  little  unhandy  to  describe,  but  a 
photograph  in  an  album  nearly  illustrates  the  method.  The  size 
of  the  pages  having  been  determined  upon  (and  the  size  of  the 
engravings  largely  governs  this)  a  page  of  print  is  "  inserted  "  into 
the  middle  of  one  of  the  new  pages,  like  a  photograph  going  into  its 
mat.  The  illustrations  are  treated  in  the  same  way  ;  and  when  the 
work  is  skilfully  done  the  book  looks  as  though  it  had  come  from 
the  printer's  in  its  new  form. 

When  an  extended  work  is  made  for  sale  and  profit  these  expensive 
methods  of  course  are  not  used,  except  perhaps  in  the  binding.  There 
are  no  agents  in  London  or  Paris,  no  special  drawings  made,  no 
photographs  of  celebrated  paintings.  Yet  the  cheaply  extended 
book  is  often  quite  the  equal  of  the  expensive  one.  Patience  here 
takes  the  place  of  lavish  expenditure.  "  All  things  to  him  who 
waits  "  must  have  been  written  expressly  with  reference  to  collectors 
of  prints.  What  can  be  had  at  once  in  Paris  will  very  likely  be 
found  in  some  neglected  drawer  in  New  York  in  a  few  years. 
What  is  offered  for  $50  to-day  may  perhaps  be  bought  at  an  auction 
for  20  cents  in  1905.  Every  print  dealer  in  New  York  is  in  some 
sense  an  agent  in  Europe  if  one  has  patience,  for  European  prints 


1 82         EXTRA  ILLUSTRATING  IN  NEW  YORK. 


come  to  him  by  special  order  or  by  accident,  and  in  the  course  of 
years  he  can  supply  everything  needed. 

The  extender  who  goes  into  the  work  for  the  love  of  it  never  thinks 
of  letting  the  binder  make  up  his  own  pages.  He  does  that  himself, 
generally  with  far  less  skill,  but  always  with  a  pleasure  that  pays  him 
for  his  labour  and  outlay.  The  new  book  becomes  his  companion, 
and  he  would  sooner  sell  his  family  silver  than  part  with  it.  He 
shows  it  proudly  to  his  friends,  and  tells  the  history  of  every  picture 
between  its  covers.  Some  of  the  pictures  often  have  strange 
histories. 

Extended  works  are  not  always  run  up  to  forty  or  sixty  volumes. 
One  of  them  in  this  city  is  a  life  of  Blake,  the  artist,  in  two  volumes, 
extended  from  i6mo.  The  original  was  written  by  Alexander 
Gillchrist  and  pubHshed  by  Macmillan,  and  175  illustrations  have 
been  added,  some  of  them  in  the  preface.  Another  is  "  A  Descrip- 
tion of  London,  Old  and  New,"  by  Walter  Thornbury  and  Edward 
Walford.  This  is  distinct  from  Mr.  Daly's  work  of  the  same  charac- 
ter. It  was  published  in  two  i2mo  volumes,  and  has  been  extended 
to  fifteen  volumes  folio.  It  has  been  enlarged  by  1,200  illustrations, 
mounted  on  elephant  foHo  paper,  is  bound  in  half  morocco  with 
cloth  sides,  and  cost  about  $1,500  to  manufacture.  It  contains 
plates  by  Hogarth  and  caricatures  by  Gilroy  and  Cruikshank. 
There  is  hardly  any  part  of  the  English  metropolis,  ancient  or 
modern,  of  which  there  is  not  some  illustration. 

One  of  the  most  interesting,  and  perhaps  the  most  instructive,  of 
the  extended  works  in  this  country  is  entitled :  "  Typographical 
Miscellanies."  This  book  is  in  thirty-seven  volumes,  folio,  mounted 
on  heavy  drawing-paper,  and  is  bound  in  crimson  morocco,  with 
gilt  tops.  It  contains  more  than  2,000  engravings  on  copper,  steel, 
and  wood ;  fragments  of  old  black  letter  and  Gothic  type  books ; 
1,300  printers'  devices,  nearly  all  of  the  latter  bearing  the  printer's 
mark  or  some  other  engraved  design ;  350  facsimiles  of  printer's 
devices,  and  fifty  autograph  letters,  the  whole  illustrating  the  history 
of  printing,  engraving,  typefounding  and  ink  and  paper  making 
from  the  infancy  of  those  arts.  This  book  was  at  one  time  part  of 
the  library  of  Richard  M.  Hoe,  and  it  illustrates  not  only  the  history 
of  printing,  but  also  the  fact  that  book  extending  is  not  always 
profitable,  for  although  it  cost  more  than  $3,030,  it  is  offered  for 
sale  for  $950. 

Perhaps  no  book  ever  offered  a  greater  field  for  the  work  of  the 
extender  than  Spooner's  "  Biographical  History  of  the  Fine  Arts ; 
or,  Memoirs  of  the  Lives  and  Works  of  Eminent  Painters,  Engravers, 


EXTRA  ILLUSTRATING  IN  NEW  YORK.         183 

Sculptors  and  Architects,  from  the  earliest  Ages  to  the  Present 
Time."  This  was  published  in  two  volumes,  and  has  been  ex- 
tended to  six  large  quartos  by  the  insertion  of  more  than  1,000 
engraved  portraits,  landscapes  and  etchings.  A  hint  at  the  expense 
of  book  extending  is  given  in  the  catalogue  in  which  this  work  is 
described.  "The  cost  of  the  preparation  of  such  a  work,"  it  says, 
"  can  be  properly  estimated  only  by  those  who  have  made  similai 
attempts  at  illustrations." 


Tennyson's    "  Poems   by  Two   Brothers.'* 

IN  reference  to  the  MSS.  of  Tennyson's  "Poems  by  Two  Brothers," 
to  which  allusions  were  made  in  The  Bookworm,  pp.  57  and 
69,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  our  readers  to  learn  that  it  has  been  pur- 
chased for  the  United  States,  at  a  large  advance  of  price.  Mean- 
while, Messrs.  Macmillan  have  arranged  to  issue  a  reprint  of  the 
original  edition  (1827),  together  with  the  addition  of  four  poems 
from  the  MS.  never  before  printed,  and  also  the  prize  poem  on 
"Timbuctoo."  So  far  as  possible,  the  poems  have  been  assigned  to 
their  respective  authors. 


i84 


MISCELLANEA. 


Books  and  Bindings. 


THE  bindings  of  books  in  galleries  perish  from  heat,  and  the 
higher  the  books  are  above  the  floor  the  more  active  is  this 
destructive  agency.  Leather  is  an  animal  tissue,  and  will  not,  like 
linen,  cotton,  paper,  and  other  vegetable  substances,  sustain  without 
injury  a  higher  temperature  than  we  find  agreeable  to  live  in.  Books 
cannot  live  where  men  cannot  live.  They  are  more  nearly  allied 
to  us  as  congeners  than  we  are  wont  to  suppose.  In  excessive  heat 
the  leather  of  bindings  slowly  consumes  and  its  life  departs.  The 
sulphurous  residuum  of  gas  combustion  is  also  said  to  be  injurious  to 
bindings.  Books  should,  therefore,  be  shelved  in  the  coolest  part 
of  the  room,  and  where  the  air  is  never  likely  to  be  overheated, 
which  is  near  the  floor,  where  we  ourselves  live  and  move.  In  the 
private  libraries  of  our  residences  a  mistake  is  often  made  in  carrying 
the  shelving  of  our  book-cases  so  high  that  they  enter  the  upper  and 
overheated  stratum  of  air.  If  any  one  be  sceptical  on  this  point,  let 
him  test,  by  means  of  a  step-ladder,  the  condition  of  the  air  near  the 
ceiling  of  his  common  sitting-room  on  a  winter  evening,  when  the 
gas  is  burning  freely.     The  heat  is  simply  insufferable. 


Microscopic  Penmanship. 

HE  subject  of  microscopic  workmanship  readily  divides 
itself  into  two  classes,  penmanship  and  mechanical  con- 
struction. History  has  handed  down  to  us  many  examples 
of  that  extraordinary  form  of  caligraphic  mania,  of  which  the  chief 
symptom  is  a  desire  to  compress  the  greatest  number  of  words  within 
the  smallest  possible  space. 

Pliny  the  Younger  declares  (in  Opera  vii.  21)  that  Cicero  once 
saw  the  "  Iliad "  written  so  small  that  it  could  be  enclosed  in  a 
walnut-shell.  This  affirmation  was  regarded  as  improbable  until  the 
seventeenth  century,  when  Huet,  Bishop  of  Avranches,  France,  an 
excellent  Greek  scholar,  proved  that  it  could  be  accomplished.  He 
demonstrated,  entirely  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  doubters,  that  a 
piece  of  flexible  vellum,  27  centimetres  in  length  and  21  in  breadth, 
could  be  packed  into  the  shell  of  a  large  walnut.  For  the  entire 
"  Iliad  "  to  be  written  upon  this  sheet,  the  poem  must  be  contained 
in  250  lines  of  30  verses  each  !  One  side  would  then  contain  7,500 
verses,  and  the  reverse  as  many,  making  15,000  in  all,  a  sufficient 
number. 

The  Gospel  of  St.  John  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  were  written 
within  the  circumference  of  a  farthing  in  the  sixth  century  by  an 
Italian  monk. 

Dr.  Heylin,  in  his  **  Life  of  King  Charles,"  records  that  during 
the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  "  there  was  one  who  wrote  the  Ten 
Commandments,  the  Creed,  the  Pater  Noster,  the  Queen's  name, 
and  the  prayer  of  our  Lord,  within  the  compass  of  a  penny ;  and 
gave  her  Majesty  a  pair  of  spectacles  of  such  an  artificial  making  that 
by  the  help  thereof  she  did  plainly  and  distinctly  discern  every 

24 


i86 


MICROSCOPIC  PENMANSHIP. 


I 


letter.''  A  somewhat  similar  feat  was  that  "  rare  piece  of  work 
brought  to  pass  by  Peter  Bales,  an  Englishman,  who  also  exhibited 
before  her  Majesty  the  entire  Bible  written  in  a  book  containing  as 
many  leaves  as  a  full-sized  edition,  but  fitting  into  a  walnut." 

In  St.  John's  College,  Oxford,  is  preserved  a  portrait  of  Charles" 
I.,  in  which  the  engraver's  lines,  as  they  seem  to  be,  are  really  micro- 
scopic writing,  the  face  alone  containing  all  the  Book  of  Psalms,  with 
the  Creeds  and  several  forms  of  prayer. 

The  learned  Porson  is  known  to  have  indulged  in  this  species  of 
*'  curious  idleness  "  occasionally,  and  perhaps  the  Greek  verses  from 
the  "  Medea  "  of  Euripides,  with  Johnson's  translation  of  the  same 
for  Burney's  "  History  of  Music,"  were  executed  by  him.  Though 
consisting  of  220  words,  they  are  comprised  in  a  circle  half  an  inch 
in  diameter,  with  a  small  space  in  the  centre  left  blank. 

About  forty  years  ago  a  specimen  of  microscopic  penmanship  was 
■exhibited  in  America.  It  consisted  of  the  following  inscription, 
written  upon  glass,  within  a  circle  the  625th  part  of  an  inch  in  dia- 
meter: "Lowell  and  Senter,  Watchmakers,  64,  Exchange-st.,  Port- 
land. Written  by  Fermat,  at  Paris,  1852.''  The  circle  within  which 
this  was  inscribed  was  much  smaller  than  the  head  of  an  ordinary 
pin,  and  if  a  needle  was  placed  between  the  lens  of  a  microscope  and 
the  writing  the  latter  was  completely  concealed. 

At  the  Dusseldorf  Exhibition  a  few  years  ago  a  gentleman  showed 
a  postal  card  upon  which  the  whole  of  the  first  three  books  of  the 
"  Odyssey  "  were  written,  and  the  remaining  space  was  filled  with  a 
transcript  of  a  long  debate  which  had  taken  place  in  the  German 
Parliament  a  short  time  before,  the  whole  card  containing  33,000 
words. 

In  the  spring  of  1882  a  Hungarian  Jew  sent  to  a  Vienna  paper  a 
grain  of  wheat  on  which  he  had  written  309  words  taken  from  Sissot's 
book  on  Vienna. 

Layard,  in  his  "  History  of  Nineveh,"  mentions  that  the  national 
records  of  the  Assyrian  empire  were  written  upon  bricks  in  charac- 
ters so  minute  as  to  be  scarcely  legible  without  the  aid  of  the  micro- 
scope, and  that,  in  fact,  a  variety  of  this  instrument  was  found  among 
the  excavations. 

So  much  for  dainty  penmanship.  That  minute  mechanical  con- 
struction can  lay  claim  also  to  considerable  antiquity  is  evidenced  by 
the  works  of  Pliny  and  Adrian,  who  relate  that  Myrmecides  con- 
structed out  of  ivory  a  ship  with  all  her  appurtenances,  and  a  chariot 
with  four  wheels  and  four  horses,  both  of  so  small  dimensions  that  a 
bee  could  hide  either  of  them  with  its  wings. 


MICROSCOPIC  PENMANSHIP.  187 

Though  this  tale  appears  somewhat  exaggerated,  some  credence 
should  certainly  be  given  it,  for  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  we 
have  well  authenticated  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  still  more  won- 
derful work.  In  1578  Mark  Scaliot,  a  London  locksmith,  manufac- 
tured a  lock  consisting  of  eleven  different  pieces  of  steel,  iron,  and 
brass  which,  together  with  the  key  belonging  to  it,  weighed  only  one 
grain.  The  same  artist  also  constructed  a  chain  of  gold,  containing 
forty-three  links,  which  he  fastened  to  the  lock  and  key,  and  upon 
these  being  attached  to  the  neck  of  a  flea,  the  insect  was  able  to  draw 
them  with  ease. 

Hadianus  Junius  saw  at  Mechlin,  in  Brabant,  a  cherrystone  carved 
in  the  form  of  a  basket,  in  which  were  fourteen  pairs  of  dice,  the 
spots  on  the  latter  being  visible  to  the  naked  eye.  A  cherrystone 
was  shown  at  Florence  for  many  years,  carved  by  the  Italian  sculptor, 
Rossi,  and  containing  a  glory  of  sixty  saints. 

But  a  still  more  marvellous  curiosity  was  a  set  of  1,600  ivory 
dishes,  which  were  said  to  have  been  purchased  by  one  Shad,  of 
Mitelbrach,  from  the  maker,  Oswald  Northingerus,  and  exhibited 
before  Pope  Paul  V.  These  dainty  turnings,  though  perfect  in  every 
respect,  were  scarcely  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  and  could  be  easily 
enclosed  in  a  casket  the  size  of  a  peppercorn.  A  Jesuit  father,  Ferra- 
rius,  made  twenty-five  wooden  cannon,  capable  of  being  packed  away 
in  the  same  space. 

In  1764,  on  the  birthday  of  King  George  III.,  a  watchmaker  of 
London  named  Arnold  presented  himself  before  the  king  to  exhibit 
a  curious  repeating- watch  of  his  manufacture.  His  Majesty,  as  well 
as  the  nobles  of  the  Court,  greatly  admired  his  minute  workmanship, 
"  and  extraordinary  it  must  indeed  be  considered,"  says  the  chroni- 
cler, "when  it  is  known  that  this  repeating  watch  was  in  diameter 
somewhat  less  than  a  silver  twopence,  that  it  contained  120  distinct 
parts,  and  that  altogether  it  weighed  less  than  six  pennyweights  ! " 

Not  very  long  ago  a  London  newspaper  announced  that  a  jeweller 
of  Turin  had  made  a  tug-boat  formed  of  a  single  pearl.  The  sail  is 
of  beaten  gold,  studded  with  diamonds,  and  the  binnacle  light  at  the 
prow  is  a  perfect  ruby.  An  emerald  serves  as  its  rudder,  and  the 
stand  upon  which  it  is  mounted  is  a  slab  of  whitest  ivory.  The 
entire  weight  of  this  marvellous  specimen  of  the  jeweller's  craft  is 
less  than  half  an  ounce,  but  the  maker  values  it  at  ;3^  1,000. 


1 88  MISCELLANEA, 


"  Books  about  Books." 

THIS  series,  of  which  two  volumes  have  appeared,  has  been 
arranged  and  edited  by  Mr.  Alfred  Pollard,  author  of  **  The 
History  of  the  Titlepage,"  and  it  is  intended  to^give  in  a  convenient 
form  information  on  all  the  chief  points  which  invest  old  books  in  the 
eyes  of  their  lovers  and  collectors  with  an  interest  unattainable  by 
modern  reprints.  The  famous  men  and  women  through  whose 
libraries  books  have  passed ;  the  marks  of  possession  which  their 
owners  have  affixed  to  them ;  the  fair  writing  and  illumination  of 
the  books  which  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  days  of  manu- 
scripts ;  the  place  which  an  old  book  occupies  in  the  history  of 
printing ;  the  printed  initial  letters,  pictorial  borders,  and  woodcuts 
by  which  the  work  of  the  illuminators  was  succeeded ;  the  binding 
bestowed  upon  books  by  their  publisher  or  private  owner — these 
form  the  subjects  of  the  successive  volumes  of  the  series,  and  as 
each  volume  has  been  entrusted  to  a  writer  who  has  made  a  special 
study  of  his  subject,  the  series  in  its  entirety  will  present  book  lovers 
with  all  the  hnks  of  a  complete  chain  of  information.  The  price  of 
each  volume,  which  consists  of  about  200  pages  of  letterpress  and 
from  ten  to  thirty  illustrations,  is  fixed  at  six  shillings  net.  We  hope 
to  notice  the  first  volume,  whicli  deals  with  "  The  Great  Book- 
Collectors,"  and  is  written  by  Charles  I.  Elton  and  Mary  Augusta 
Elton,  in  our  next  issue. 


Discovery  of  a  Syriac  Text  or  the  Gospels. 


WO  lady  Orientalists,  Mrs.  Lewis  and  Mrs.  Gibson,  during  a 
visit  to  the  convent  at  Mount  Sinai,  have  made  a  discovery 
of  no  small  theological  interest,  particulars  of  which  are 
given  in  the  Daily  News.  They  came  upon  a  dirty  palimpsest 
manuscript,  the  sheets  of  which  were  sticking  together.  By  the  aid 
of  steam  from  the  ladies'  tea-kettle  the  leaves  were  separated,  and 
the  whole  text — nearly  four  hundred  pages — was  photographed.  The 
MS.  turns  out  to  be  a  Syriac  text  of  the  four  Gospels,  only  frag- 
ments of  which  have  been  hitherto  known.  It  is  "  closely  related  to 
the  one  known  to  theologians  as  Cureton's  'Remains  of  a  very 
ancient  Rescension  of  the  Four  Gospels  in  Syriac,'  and  among  all 
preserved  testimonies  contains  the  oldest  authenticated  texts  of  the 
Gospels,"  and  occupied  Professor  I.  B.  Harris,  of  Cambridge,  forty 
■days,  even  with  the  help  of  Mrs.  Lewis  and  Mrs.  Gibson,  in  the 
deciphering  of  its  palimpsest  leaves.  The  recent  discovery  in  Egypt 
of  a  fragment  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  Peter,  and  of 
a  valuable  Aristotle  manuscript — concerning  which  quite  a  "  litera- 
ture "  has  come  into  existence — taken  with  a  recent  announcement 
that  "the  site  and  foundations  of  a  temple  mentioned  by  Homer, 
burnt  down  423  b.c.,"  have  just  been  laid  bare,  makes  one  quite 
hopeful  that  even  the  twentieth  century  may  not  be  entirely  denied 
the  satisfaction  which  attends  valuable  "  finds  "  of  this  character. 

In  connection  with  this  "find,"  it  may  be  interesting  to  recall  the 
•circumstances  under  which  the  famous  Sinaitic  manuscript  (Codex 
Aleph)  was  discovered.  In  1844  (says  Canon  Talbot,  in  an  interest- 
ing little  book,  just  published  by  Isbister  and  Co.,  under  the  title  of 
■*'  Our  Bible  ")  Dr.  Tischendorf  was  travelling  in  the  East,  on  the 


1 90 


SYRIA C  TEXT  OF  THE  GOSPELS. 


I 


look  out  for  rare  and  precious  manuscripts.  He  came  to  the  convenJ^^Bj 
of  St.  Catherine,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai.  Here,  at  the  foot  of 
that  mountain  so  intimately  connected  with  the  Old  Testament,  he 
was  to  find  the  most  complete  copy  of  the  New  Testament.  The 
convent  was  inhabited  by  monks  belonging  to  the  Greek  Church. 
Tischendorf  noticed  in  the  convent  hall  a  basket  of  parchments,  and 
he  was  told  that  two  heaps  of  similar  old  manuscripts  had  already 
fed  the  fire.  Looking  into  the  basket  the  German  scholar  discovered 
several  sheets  of  a  copy  of  the  Septuagint  of  an  extremely  ancient 
character.  He  was  allowed  to  take  forty  sheets,  but  when  he  un- 
warily expressed  his  delight,  and  pressed  for  more  material  of  the 
same  kind,  he  aroused  the  envious  suspicions  of  the  monks,  and  met 
with  a  stubborn  refusal.  Tischendorf  then  came  home,  and  for 
fifteen  long  years  the  German  scholar  tried  to  put  himself  into  a 
position  from  which  he  could  successfully  assail  the  selfish  cupidity 
of  the  monks  of  Mount  Sinai. 

At  length,  in  1859,  having  obtained  the  patronage  of  the  Czar 
Alexander,  he  revisited  the  monastery,  but  in  spite  of  his  imperial  order 
from  the  temporal  head  of  the  Greek  Church,  the  monks  remained 
unmoved.  It  was  the  evening  before  his  departure,  and  he  walked 
with  the  steward  of  the  convent  in  the  grounds.  The  monk  called 
him  into  his  cell  to  partake  of  some  refreshment.  When  the  two  were 
together  and  the  door  was  closed — "  I  too,"  said  the  steward,  "  have 
read  a  copy  of  that  Septuagint."  With  these  words  he  took  down  a 
bundle  wrapped  in  red  cloth  and  laid  it  upon  the  table.  When  the 
parcel  was  uncovered,  lo !  and  behold,  there  were  other  parts  of  the 
Old  Testament  in  the  Greek  translation,  some  of  the  Apocryphal 
books,  and  the  whole  New  Testament.  This  time  the  doctor  con- 
cealed his  delight,  although  in  his  bedroom  he  gave  way  to  transports 
of  joy.  At  last  by  the  Czar's  influence,  the  fourth  century  MS.  was 
brought  to  the  Imperial  Library  in  St.  Petersburg,  and  now  facsimiles. 
of  it  can  be  seen  in  all  the  chief  libraries  of  Egypt. 


Anonymous  Authors. 


OOK-LOVE  is  a  home  feeling — a  sweet  bond  of  family 
union — and  a  never-failing  source  of  domestic  enjoyment. 
Kit^^  It  sheds  a  charm  over  the  quiet  fireside,  unlocks  the  hidden 
sympathies  of  human  hearts,  beguiles  the  weary  hours  of  sickness  or 
solitude,  and  unites  kindred  spirits  in  a  sweet  companionship  of  sen- 
timent and  idea.  It  sheds  a  gentle  and  humanising  influence  over 
its  votaries,  and  woos  even  sorrow  itself  into  a  temporary  forgetful- 
ness. 

Book-love  is  a  good  angel  that  keeps  watch  by  the  poor  man's 
hearth,  and  hallows  it,  saving  him  from  the  temptations  that  lurk 
beyond  its  charmed  circle;  giving  him  new  thoughts  and  noble 
aspirations,  and  lifting  him,  as  it  were,  from  the  mere  mechanical 
drudgery  of  his  everyday  occupation.  The  wife  blesses  it,  as  she  sits 
smiling  and  sewing,  alternately  listening  to  her  husband's  voice  or 
hushing  the  child  upon  her  knee.  She  blesses  it  for  keeping  him 
near  her,  and  making  him  cheerful,  and  manly,  and  kind-hearted ; 
albeit,  understanding  little  of  what  he  reads,  and  reverencing  it  for 
that  reason  all  the  more  in  him. 

Book-love  is  a  physician,  and  has  many  a  healing  balm  to  relieve, 
even  where  it  cannot  cure,  the  weary  sickness  of  mind  and  body — 
many  a  powerful  opiate  to  soothe  us  into  a  sweet  and  temporary 
forgetfulness.  In  case  of  lingering  convalescence  its  aid  is  invalu- 
able. 

We  have  known  book-love  to  be  independent  of  the  author, 
and  lurk  in  a  few  charmed  words  traced  upon  the  title-page  by  a 
once  familiar  hand — words  of  affectionate  remembrance,  rendered,  it 
may  be,  by  change  and  bereavement,  inexpressibly  dear  ?     Flowers 


192  ANONYMO  US  A  UTHORS. 


•1 


in  books  are  a  sweet  sign,  and  there  is  a  moral  in  their  very  wither- 
ing. Pencil-marks  in  books  frequently  recall  scenes  and  sentiment 
and  epochs  in  young  lives  that  never  come  again.  The  faint  lines 
portray  passages  that  struck  us  years  ago  with  their  mournful  beauty, 
and  have  since  passed  into  a  prophecy.  Thoughts  and  dreams  that 
seem  like  a  mockery  now  are  thus  shadowed  out.  But  memory's 
leaves  are  not  all  blanks,  or  tear-stained,  but  interwoven,  thank  God  t 
with  many  a  bright  page.  Pencil-marks  in  books  have  sweet,  as  well 
as  sad,  recollections  connected  with  them. 

We  point  them  out  to  one  another,  and  call  to  mind  particular 
periods  in  our  past  lives.  They  also  serve  to  register  the  change  that 
has  gradually  and  imperceptibly  stolen  over  our  own  thoughts  and 
feelings. 

There  are  some  books  which  forcibly  recall  calm  and  tranquil 
scenes  of  bygone  happiness.  We  hear  again  the  gentle  tones  of  a 
once  familiar  voice  long  since  hushed.  We  can  remember  the  very- 
passage  where  the  reader  paused  awhile  to  play  the  critic,  or  where 
that  eloquent  voice  suddenly  faltered,  and  we  all  laughed  to  find 
ourselves  weeping,  and  were  sorry  when  the  tale  or  poem  came  to 
an  end.  Books  read  for  the  first  time  at  some  particular  place  or 
period  of  our  existence  may  become  hallowed  for  evermore,  or  we 
love  them  because  others  loved  them  also  in  bygone  days. 

Books  written  by  those  with  whom  it  has  been  our  happy  privilege 
to  live  in  close  companionship  and  sweet  interchanges  of  sentiment 
and  idea  are  exceedingly  precious.  In  reading  them  we  converse, 
as  it  were,  with  the  author  in  his  prettiest  mood,  recognise  the  rare 
eloquence  to  which  we  have  often  sat  and  listened  spellbound,  and 
feel  proud  to  find  our  affectionate  and  reverential  homage  confirmed 
by  the  unanimous  plaudits  of  the  world.  The  golden  key,  before- 
mentioned,  has  been  given  into  our  keeping,  and  we  unlock  at  will 
the  sacred  and  hidden  recesses  of  genius  and  association. 


Marat  in  England. 


N  the  many-sided  life  of  Jean  Paul  Marat,  there  is  no  phase 
which  has  a  deeper  interest  to  Englishmen  than  his  career  in 
this  country.  A  man  who  is  at  once  a  surgeon,  a  writer 
on  science  and  of  romance,  a  journalist,  a  linguist,  a  politician,  an 
orator,  a  demagogue,  and  a  martyr — and  Marat  was  all  these — is  not 
one  to  be  classed  in  a  general  way  with  ordinary  people.  There 
are  theoretically  two  Marats,  the  one  being  held  up  to  the  loathing 
of  posterity  as  a  monster  with  all  the  devilish  attributes  that  can  be 
raked  up  from  between  the  covers  of  a  dictionary  of  adjectives ;  the 
other  calling  forth  all  the  good  things  which  is  possible  for  one 
writer  to  say  of  another — indeed,  the  poet  cf  the  Great  French  Revo- 
lution, Camille  Desmoulins,  has  even  described  the  subject  of  this 
article  as  "  le  divin."  The  curious  fact  is  that  every  writer,  whether 
biographer  or  historian,  has  gone  to  the  extreme  course  of  either 
praising  Marat  in  unqualified  terms  or  has  denounced  him  with 
equal  vigour,  not  to  say  picturesqueness.  The  personality  of  a  man 
who  could  call  forth  such  irreconcilably  different  conclusions  is  above 
all  a  person  whose  character  and  deeds  require  study  and  examina- 
tion. For  the  present,  however,  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  Marat's 
career  in  this  country,  basing  our  facts  on  an  exceptionally  exhaustive 
essay,  in  French,  written  by  Mr.  H.  S.  Ashbee. 

To  separate  for  a  moment  the  man  from  his  acts,  Marat,  like  so 
many  other  men  of  even  stronger  character,  was  at  all  times  influenced 
by  his  heart  rather  than  by  his  head.  By  nature  studious,  laborious, 
full  of  ideas,  but  deficient  in  the  genius  which  is  necessary  to  reduce 
these  abstract  qualities  into  a  concrete  form,  vain  and  consumed  with 
a  restless  craving  after  glory,  or,    what   is  worse,  notoriety,  Marat 

25 


194 


MARAT  IN  ENGLAND. 


would  be  now  reposing  in  that  obscurity  which  so  completely 
envelopes  so  much  of  human  littleness,  if  certain  great  events  had 
not  sprung  into  existence  which  resulted  in  the  shaping  and  deter- 
mining of  his  career.  Revolutionary  ideas  prevailed  in  this  country 
during  his  sojourn  here  with  a  force  and  a  general  sympathy  which 
caused  the  governing  classes  of  the  time  very  serious  anxiety.  The 
affair  in  which  Wilkes  played  the  leading  part  was  still  fresh,  the 
American  colonies  were  on  the  point  of  striking  out  for  their  total 
independence,  and  these  events,  with  the  great  movement  in  France, 
were  causing  a  widespread  and  profound  sensation.  No  one  knew 
where  the  next  outbreak  to  swell  the  volume  of  revolutionary  force 
would  occur.  When  Marat  returned  to  France  the  Great  Revolution 
was  at  its  height,  and  he  threw  himself  into  the  movement  with  a 
vigour  and  an  ability  which  very  quickly  placed  him  in  the  front  of 
this  unparalleled  struggle  between  autocrat  and  democrat.  With 
what  result  it  will  be  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  here. 

Unfortunately,  as  in  so  many  other  instances,  Marat's  period  of 
eminence  was  so  sudden  and  so  brief  that  no  one  thought  of  inquiring 
into  his  previous  records  until  the  lapse  of  time  all  but  blotted  these 
out  of  existence.  He  lived  in  England  for  ten  years,  and  he  must 
have  done  a  greater  amount  of  work  than  has  yet  been  discovered. 
Tradition  thus  sums  up  his  career  here  : — He  was  for  a  short  time 
engaged  as  an  assistant  master  at  the  Warrington  Academy  ;  he  next 
turns  up  at  Oxford,  where  he  committed  a  theft  at  the  Ashmolean 
Museum,  and  fled  to  Ireland,  but  was  arrested  at  Dublin,  escorted 
back  to  Oxford,  and  there,  under  the  name  of  Le  Maitre,  condemned 
to  the  galleys  at  Woolwich.  He  was  here  discovered  by  one  of  his  old 
Warrington  scholars.  He  next  turns  up  as  a  bookseller  at  Bristol, 
but,  failing  in  this  avocation,  he  was  imprisoned  in  the  city  gaol ;  his 
liberation,  however,  was  effected  by  the  local  society  for  the  relief  of 
debtors  imprisoned  for  small  sums.  The  Monthly  Repository  for 
1813  states  that  one  of  the  members  of  this  Society,  who  saw  him  in 
prison  at  Bristol,  saw  him  at  a  later  date — in  1792 — taking  an  active 
part  in  the  Assemblee  Nationale  at  Paris.  He  next  turns  up  in 
Edinburgh,  where  he  lived  for  some  time,  "  cnseigna  la  broderie  au 
tambour,"  under  the  name  of  John  White.  After  here  contracting 
debts  to  a  large  amount,  he  suddenly  left,  but  was  again  appre- 
hended, this  time  at  Newcastle,  where  he  was  detained  in  prison  for 
several  months.  After  obtaining  his  freedom  he  remained  in  New- 
castle for  nine  months,  and  left  the  country  for  good  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1787.  It  seems,  however,  that  he  revisited  England 
three  years  later.   Whatever  credence  may  be  placed  in  the  foregoing 


MARAT  IN  ENGLAND.  195 

statements,  and  several  of  them  are  open  to  very  great  doubt,  it  is 
certain  that  he  was  practising  as  a  doctor  in  Church  Street,  Soho, 
London,  which,  then  as  now,  was  the  French  quarter  of  the  metro- 
tropolis  ;  and  that  the  University  of  St.  Andrews  conferred  upon  him 
the  degree  of  M.D.  in  1775.  There  is  absolutely  no  authentic 
records  in  the  archives  of  Bristol,  either  printed  or  in  MS.,  which 
prove  that  he  either  lived  there  or  that  he  was  sequestered  among  the 
debtors  in  that  city. 

The  question  of  stealing  at  the  Oxford  Museum  is  of  much  greater 
importance.  In  the  "  Book  of  the  Crown  Court  for  the  Oxford 
Assizes,"  we  have  the  following  entry,  which  we  give  verb,  et  lit. : — 
"At  Oxford,  on  Wednesday,  5th  March,  1777,  17  th  year  of  George 
III.,  before  Sir  James  Eyre,  Knight,  one  of  the  Barons  of  the  Court 
of  our  Lord  the  King  of  his  Exchequer,  and  Sir  Richard  Perryn, 
Knight,  one  of  the  Barons  of  the  Court  of  our  Lord  King  and  his 
Exchequer,  and  others,  their  fellows,  justices,  etc.,  to  deliver  the 
gaol  of  the  said  county  of  the  prisoners  therein  being. — John  Wey- 
land,  Esq.,  SheriiT. 

"Indicted  Summer  Assizes,  16  George  III.,  po.  se. — Guilty, 
prayer,  etc. — John  Peter  Le  Maitre,  alias  Maire,  alias  Mara. — For 
feloniously  stealing  one  gold  medal  of  the  value  of  jQ^a^  one  other 
gold  medal  value  £g  8s.,  one  other  gold  medal  value  £6,  one  other 
gold  medal  value  £4.  13s.,  one  other  gold  medal  value  £2  7s.  6d., 
one  other  gold  medal  value  ;^6,  one  other  gold  medal  value  ;£i4 
14s.,  one  other  gold  medal  value  ;£^2  2,  one  other  gold  medal  value 
;£i^  13s.,  one  other  gold  medal  value  los.  6d.,  one  other  gold  medal 
value  ;£2  7s.  9d.,  one  other  gold  medal  value  £2  12s.  6d.,  one 
other  gold  medal  value  los.  6d.,  one  other  gold  medal  value  i8s., 
one  other  gold  medal  value  ;^i,  one  silver  medal  value  5s.,  and  a 
five  guinea  piece  of  Queen  Ann's  gold  coin  of  the  year  17 13,  value 
£s  5s.,  one  gold  chain  value  ;^26  12s.,  one  other  gold  chain  value 
jQ^2,  and  the  goods  of  the  chancellor,  masters,  and  scholars  of  the 
University  of  Oxford,  on  3rd  February  i6th  George  III.,  at  the 
parish  of  Saint  Michael  in  the  City  of  Oxford.  Convicted  of  grand 
larceny,  and  ordered  to  be  kept  to  hard  labour  in  the  raising  sand, 
soil,  and  gravel  from,  and  cleansing  the  river  Thames  or  any  other 
service  for  the  benefit  of  the  navigation  of  the  said  river  under  the 
management  and  direction  of  the  overseer  for  that  purpose — ap- 
pointed, or  to  be  appointed,  for  the  term  of  five  years.'' 

The  Christian  names  of  Marat  were  Jean-Paul,  those  of  Le  Maitre 
John  Peter ;  but  there  one  of  the  primary  resemblances  ceases.  The 
alias  "Mara"  is  the  strongest  and  indeed  only  proof  that  Marat 


196 


MARAT  IN  ENGLAND. 


commilted  these  thefts,  and  it  is  a  curious  fact  worth  mention- 
ing that  at  an  early  period  of  his  career  the  victim  of  Charlotte 
Corday  sometimes  omitted  the  last  letter  in  his  surname.  Even  then 
the  conclusion  at  which  so  many  writers  have  arrived,  that  Marat 
was  the  thief,  is  not  settled  or  proven.  There  is,  however,  another 
side  to  this  question.  AVe  have  no  means  of  knowing  Marat's  exact 
position  in  regard  to  finances  during  his  sojourn  in  this  country. 
He  must  have  had  some  private  means,  or  during  a  period  of  his 
residence  here  his  medical  practice  must  have  been  a  lucrative  one. 
The  books  which  he  published  in  England  were  such  which  no  pub- 
lisher would  be  at  all  likely  to  undertake  without  having  a  sub- 
stantial guarantee.  When  he  returned  to  France  he  started  a 
revolutionary  journal,  and  he  repudiated  the  charges  which  had  been 
urged  against  him  there  that  he  had  offered  to  sell  his  freedom  of 
speech.  On  the  other  hand,  at  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  without 
a  sou.  Writing  in  1790,  he  declares:  *' J'  approche  de  la  cinquan- 
taine;  or,  depuis  I'age  de  seize  ans,  je  suis  maitre  absolu  de  ma 
conduite.  J'ai  vecu  deux  annees  a  Bordeaux,  dix  ^  Londres,  une  k 
Dublin,  une  k  La  Haye,  a  Utrecht,  a  Amsterdam,  dix-neuf  a  Paris, 
et  j'ai  parcouru  la  moitie  de  I'Europe.  Qu'on  compulse  les  registres 
de  police  de  ces  divers  pays,y(?  defie  quon  y  trouve  mo7i  nom  pour  un 
seulfait  illicite  !  Qu'on  aille  aux  informations,  je  defi(^  que  personne 
sous  le  ciel  puisse  me  reprocher  une  action  d^shonnete  ! '' 

The  book  of  most  importance  and  general  interest  which  Marat 
wrote  in  English  is  "The  Chains  of  Slavery,  a  work  wherein  the 
clandestine  and  villainous  attempts  of  Princes  to  Ruin  Liberty  are 
pointed  out,  and  the  Dreadful  Scenes  of  Despotism  Disclosed.  To 
which  is  prefixed.  An  Address  to  the  Electors  of  Great  Britain,  in 
order  to  draw  their  timely  Attention  to  the  Choice  of  proper  Repre- 
sentatives to  the  next  Parhament."  This  publication,  which  consisted 
of  xii,  259  pages,  was  "Sold  by  J.  Almon  opposite  Burlington 
House,  in  Piccadilly  ;  T.  Payne,  at  the  Mews  Gate  \  and  Richardson 
and  Urquhart,  near  the  Royal  Exchange,"  1774.  This  book,  the 
advertising  of  which  was  rigorously  boycotted  by  the  publishers  of 
English  papers,  has  now  become  excessively  rare,  one  of  the  few 
copies  known  being  in  the  British  Museum.  The  Address  does  not 
mince  matters,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  extract : — "  As  long 
as  virtue  reigns  in  the  great  council  of  the  nation,  the  prerogative  of 
the  crown,  and  the  rights  of  the  subjects  are  so  tempered  that  they 
mutually  support  and  restrain  each  other  ;  but  when  honour  and 
virtue  are  wanting  in  the  senate,  the  balance  is  destroyed  :  the 
parliament,  the  strength  and  glory  of  Britain,  becomes  a  profligate 


MARA  T  IN  ENGLAND.  197 

faction,  which,  partaking  of  the  minister's  bounty,  and,  seeking  to 
share  with  him  the  spoils  of  their  counting,  joins  those  at  the  helm 
in  their  criminal  designs,  and  supports  their  destructive  measures, — 
a  band  of  disguised  traitors,  who,  under  the  name  of  guardians, 
traffic  away  the  national  interests,  and  the  rights  of  a  freeborn 
people.  The  Prince  becomes  absolute,  and  the  people  slaves."  His 
advice  on  the  subject  of  the  choice  of  members  is  equally  strongly 
worded: — "Reject,"  he  says,  "all  who  attempt  to  buy  your  votes, 
all  who  have  any  place  at  court,  all  who  earnestly  mendicate  your 
voice,  men  of  pompous  titles,  the  insolent,  opulent,  young  men." 
Select  "men  distinguished  by  their  ability,  integrity,  and  love  for 
their  country."  The  Address  concludes  with  this  bit  of  sentiment- 
ality : — "  With  virtue  and  courage  a  people  may  ever  maintain  their 
liberty ;  but  when  once  this  inestimable  treasure  is  lost,  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  recover  it ;  and  it  is  very  near  being  so  when  electors 
set  a  price  on  their  votes."  Much  more  might  be  quoted  from  the 
Address,  as  well  as  from  the  book  which  it  prefaces,  but  space  does 
not  permit. 

The  first  book  which  Marat  published  in  England  is  "  An  Essay 
on  the  Human  Soul,"  1772,  consisting  of  115  pages;  this  same  book 
appeared  in  the  following  year,  under  the  title  of  "  A  Philosophical 
Essay  on  Man.  Being  an  attempt  to  investigate  the  Principles  and 
Laws  of  Reciprocal  Influence  of  the  Soul  on  the  Body,"  and  enlarged 
to  270  pages.  Another  publication,  dated  from  Church  Street,  Soho, 
is  dated  January,  1776,  and  has  for  title,  "An  Enquiry  into  the 
Nature,  Cause,  and  Cure  of  a  Singular  Disease  of  the  Eyes,  hitherto 
unknown  and  yet  common,  produced  by  the  aid  of  certain  Mer- 
curial Preparations  by  J.  P.  Marat,  M.D.  London."  It  was  priced 
at  one  shilling.  At  the  first  page  is  found  a  curious  address  to  the 
Royal  Society,  which,  the  author  declares,  "  is  not  a  Dedication  : 
such  a  matter  of  form  I  have  ever  thought  beneath  the  Dignity  of 
Philosophy."  With  the  exception  of  the  last-named,  and  a  medical 
essay,  the  title  of  which  we  need  not  here  quote,  Marat  translated 
his  English  books  into  his  native  language. 

This  fact  leads  us  up  to  the  consideration  of  a  very  interesting 
point.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  believe  that  a  Frenchman  who  had 
resided  in  England  for  such  a  comparatively  brief  period  as  Marat 
had  done  when  he  published  the  first  of  his  English  works,  could 
write  with  such  vigour  and  clearness.  M.  Chevremont  declares  most 
positively  that,  in  the  case  of  "The  Chains  of  Slavery,"  the  manu- 
script was  first  written  in  French  and  then  translated  into  English  by 
the  author.     Our  own  historian,  H.  T.  Buckle,  regarded  Marat  as 


198 


TAR  AT  IN  ENGLAND. 


being  "  profoundly  versed  in  our  language."  M.  Bougeart  also  states 
that  Marat  knew,  besides  French,  Greek,  Latin,  Italian,  Spanish, 
German,  and  Dutch.  In  spite  of  these  authorities,  we  are  still 
unable  to  quite  accept  the  theory  that  Marat's  English  books  were 
entirely  his  own  unaided  composition. 

Apart  from  the  painstaking  attention  which  Mr.  Ashbee  has  devoted 
to  the  interesting  and  important  subject  of  Marat's  sojourn  in  this 
country,  there  are  still  very  many  points  which  require  clearing  up. 
Perhaps  as  time  goes  on  new  discoveries  may  bring  fresh  material  to 
light.  It  would  be  well  if  the  many  calumnies  which  tradition  has 
handed  down  to  us  could  be  disposed  of  once  for  all  by  positive 
rather  than  negative  proofs.  In  the  case  of  a  man  like  Marat,  his 
very  sudden  eminence,  and  the  fact  that  he  resided  in  the  United 
Kingdom,  would  be  quite  sufficient  to  call  into  existence  a  whole 
crowd  of  anecdotes,  which  would  have  been  applied  to  any  other 
person  in  a  similar  position,  with  an  equal  prima  facie  authenticity. 
Injustice  of  a  very  gross  and  wilful  character  has  surrounded  the 
name  and  career  of  Marat  for  nearly  a  century ;  but  now  that  we 
are  sufficiently  removed  by  time  from  events  in  which  contemporaries 
may  be  pardoned  for  taking  extremist  views,  there  is  every  prospect 
of  Marat  taking  his  place  among  the  great  men  who  have  guided,  for 
a  time,  the  destiny  of  the  modern  world. 

W.  Roberts. 


MISCELLANEA,  199 

The  "  Odes  "  of  Anacreon. 

THE  Odes  of  Anacreon  were  first  presented  to  the  world 
in  1554  by  that  illustrious  scholar,  Henri  Estienne.  Their 
appearance  excited  lively  interest.  Ronsard  greeted  the  long-lost 
poet  with  rapturous  applause.  Remy  Belleau,  in  1578,  published 
a  complete  French  translation  of  the  Odes.  Robert  Greene  was 
the  first  Englishman  who  tried  his  hand  at  translation ;  and  he  was 
followed  by  "A.  W.,"  an  anonymous  contributor  to  Davison's 
"Poetical  Rhapsody,"  1602.  Herrick  frequently  paraphrases  and 
imitates  Anacreon,  and  Cowley's  Anacreontic  poems  are  among 
his  happiest  productions.  A  complete  EngHsh  translation  by  an 
amiable  scholar,  Thomas  Stanley,  the  editor  of  ^schylus,  appeared 
in  1 65 1.  This  translation,  which  is  far  superior  to  Thomas  Moore's, 
has  been  chosen  to  accompany  the  text  of  the  new  edition  of 
Messrs.  Lawrence  &  BuUen,  in  which  appears  eleven  beautiful 
drawings  by  Mr.  J.  R.  Weguehn.  In  an  appendix  at  the  end  of 
the  volume  the  editor,  Mr.  A.  H.  Bullen,  has  brought  together  a 
collection  of  renderings  by  various  hands.  Anacreon's  Odes  are 
spurious;  they  are  not  the  poems  of  the  genuine  Anacreon,  but 
productions  of  a  later  age.  Nevertheless,  they  are  very  attractive, 
and  their  influence  in  the  past  has  been  considerable.  The  real 
Anacreon  is  known  to  us  only  by  fragments  preserved  in  the  pages 
of  Athenaeus  and  others.  These  fragments  are  appended  to  the 
Odes  in  the  above-mentioned  edition. 


Napoleon's  "  Housekeeping  Book." 

IN  looking  over  the  stock-in-trade  of  a  dealer  in  antiquities,  a 
well-known  French  collector,  M.  Paul  Dublin,  has  found  the 
"  housekeeping  book  "  of  Pierron,  the  butler  to  Napoleon  I.  during 
the  deposed  monarch's  exile  at  St.  Helena.  The  entries,  which  date 
from  January,  18 18,  to  May  5,  182 1,  the  day  of  Napoleon's  death, 
are  full  of  interesting  details  relative  to  the  daily  expenditure  for 
food,  fuel,  and  drugs  incurred  by  the  Emperor's  household.  The 
lucky  finder  of  this  interesting  historical  document  is  about  to 
publish  it  verbatim,  with  copious  explanatory  notes. 


200  MISCELLANEA. 

A  Novelty  in   Human  Documents. 

THOSE  who  have  read  Rider  Haggard's  story  of  "  Mr.  Meeson's 
Will "  doubtless  remember  that  in  that  tale  a  will  was  tattooed 
on  the  back  of  a  young  lady.  A  somewhat  similar  incident  has  lately 
taken  place  in  Mexico.  A  miser  named  Moneche  died  not  long 
ago,  who  was  found  to  have  tatooed  his  last  wishes  on  his  chest  with 
some  red  pigment  instead  of  using  pen  and  ink.  The  relatives  were 
naturally  very  reluctant  to  bury  this  "  human  document,"  and  it  was 
not  until  the  Court  had  decreed  that  the  will  should  be  copied  in 
the  presence  of  witnesses  that  they  would  consent  to  do  so.  This 
transcript  was  afterwards  pronounced  genuine  by  the  Court. 


Fraunce's  *' Lawiers  Logike,"   1588. 


A  FINE  large  copy,  with  the  rare  folding  leaf,  of  this  book,  which 
claims  to  exemplify  "  the  precepts  of  Logike  by  the  practice  of 
the  Common  Lawe,"  recently  came  under  the  hammer,  realising  five 
guineas.  It  is  believed  by  Shakespearian  Critics  that  it  was  from 
this  volume  that  Shakespeare  acquired  much  of  his  legal  knowledge. 
The  following  passage  is  a  fair  specimen  of  its  style : — "  The  like 
absurditye  would  it  be  for  a  man  of  our  age  to  affectate  such  words 
as  were  quite  worn  out  at  heels  and  elbowes  long  before  the  nativitie 
of  Geffray  Chaucer.  The  seconde  is,  when  doubtful  and  am- 
biguous words  bee  used,  as  that 

'  All  the  maydes  in  Camberwell  ^^^^Ih 

May  dance  in  an  egg-shell.'  ^^^"^ 

Of  a  little  village  of  London,  where  Camberwell  may  be  taken  for 
the  well  in  the  towne,  or  the  towne  itself.  So  the  Mayre  of  Erith 
is  the  best  Mayre  next  to  the  Mayre*  of  London,  where  the  towne, 
God  knows,  is  a  pore  thing,  and  theJMayre  thereof  a  seely  fellow, 
yet  it  is  the  very  next  to  London  because  there  is  none  between." 
Further  on  the  author  gives  a  translation  of  VirgiFs  second  Eclogue 
in  British  hexameters,  and  then  proceeds  to  give  a  logical  analysis 
of  it. 


The  Library  of  James  VI.  of  Scotland. 

E   take   the   liberty  of  extracting   the   following  very   im- 
portant and  interesting  article  from  a  recent  issue  of  the 
31  AthencBum: — 

Buried  by  some  accident  among  the  printed  books,  a  manu- 
script of  singular  interest  has  lain  unnoticed  in  the  British  Museum 
ever  since  the  Royal  Library  was  transferred  thither  in  1759. 
Thanks  to  Mr.  Garnett  it  has  now  been  disinterred,  and  its  publica- 
tion may  soon  be  looked  for ;  meanwhile  a  brief  account  of  it  in  the 
Athencetim  will  serve  in  some  degree  to  atone  for  past  neglect. 

The  volume  in  question  is  a  small  quarto  of  twenty-three  paper 
leaves,  bound  in  limp  vellum.  Worn,  soiled,  and  dog's-eared,  it  has 
nothing  about  it  at  first  sight  that  is  attractive.  On  the  covers,  how- 
ever, is  impressed  a  small  crown  between  the  initials  I.R.,  and  the 
contents  fully  confirm  this  indication  of  ownership,  forming  a  rough 
catalogue  of  a  portion,  at  least,  of  the  royal  library  of  Scotland 
between  1573  and  1583,  and  more  particularly  of  the  additions  made 
to  it  by  gift  or  purchase  in  the  early  years  of  James  VI.  In  1573  the 
future  British  Solomon  was  a  precocious  child  of  seven,  and  most  of 
the  books  so  acquired  were  evidently  intended  to  assist  in  his  educa- 
tion. Apart  therefore  from  other  elements  of  interest,  their  enumera- 
tion throws  curious  light  on  the  nature  and  range  of  his  studies,  and 
if  he  digested  the  half  of  them,  his  reputation  for  learning  was 
solidly  grounded. 

In  two  places  James  himself  has  unmistakably  left  his  mark.  On 
f.  3,  in  a  stiff  boyish  hand,  he  has  written,  "  Si  quid  honestum  per 
laborem  egeris,  labor  abit,  honestum  manet;  si  quid  turpe  per 
voluptatem  egeris,  voluptas  abit,  turpe  manet."    This  salutary  maxim 

26 


202     THE  LIBRARY  OF  JAMES  VL  OF  SCOTLAND, 

is  copied  twice,  and  partially  a  third  time,  ''Jacobus  R"  being,  more- 
over, appended.  At  the  end  is  a  still  more  elementary  exercise, 
consisting  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  large  and  small,  with  the 
trilingual  signature,  "  Jacobus  R.  Scotorum,  Jaques  Roy  d'escosse, 
James  R."  No  doubt  it  was  merely  by  accident,  as  lying  handy  at 
the  moment,  that  the  book  was  thus  utilised,  and  except  in  one 
other  instance,  which  will  be  noticed  below,  it  exhibits  no  more  of 
his  own  penmanship. 

.  The  bibliographical  entries  extend  from  f.  4  onwards,  the  various 
divisions,  however,  not  being  in  strict  chronological  order.  They 
are  mostly  in  the  hand  of  Peter  Young,  who,  jointly  with  the  better- 
known  George  Buchanan,  was  appointed  preceptor  to  James  in  1569. 
He  was  a  pupil  of  Beza  and  a  good  scholar,  and  he  probably  did 
more  of  the  actual  work  of  teaching  than  his  much  older  colleague ; 
moreover,  as  we  learn  from  Sir  James  Melville,  he  "was  gentiller, 
and  was  laith  till  offend  the  king  at  any  tym,  and  used  himself 
wairly,  as  a  man  that  had  mynd  of  his  awen  weill,  be  keping  of  his 
Maiesties  favour"  ('Memoirs,'  ed.  1827,  p.  262).  In  a  notice  of 
him  by  Dr.  Tho.  Smith  ('Vitse  Quorundam.-.Virorum,'  1707,  p.  23) 
is  a  paper  in  which  he  set  down  his  pupil's  daily  routine  of  study, 
but  the  precise  period  to  which  it  refers  is  uncertain.  At  this  time 
he  seems  to  have  acted  also  as  royal  librarian — a  post  which,  after 
James  had  exchanged  Edinburgh  for  London,  and  he  himself  had 
been  knighted  and  pensioned,  was  long  held  (i6o9-i647)by  Patrick 
Young,  his  son.  The  entries  begin  with  six  lists  of  books,  respec- 
tively headed  by  the  names  of  the  printers  Wechel,  Robert  Estienne, 
Colines,  Tiletanus,  Oporinus,  and  Froschover.  These  books,  many 
of  which  are  priced,  are  of  all  sorts,  and  in  number  about  250;  but, 
although  the  selection  is  an  interesting  one,  it  is  doubtful  whether 
any  of  them  ever  belonged  to  the  royal  library.  From  Young's  note 
at  the  end  it  merely  appears  that  he  copied  the  titles  from  catalogues 
lent  to  him  by  the  famous  Andrew  Melville,  who  no  doubt  brought 
them  with  him  when  he  returned  to  Scotland  from  Geneva  in  1574. 
The  next  batch  of  books  entered  (f.  10)  I  give  just  as  it  stands  : — 


Liures  de  la  Royne  que  ie  receuz  du  passementier  par  le  com- 
mandement  de  mons'  le  regent  1573,  1°  Julii. 
II  pecorone  en  Italien. 

Pinax  Iconum  antiquorum.  _^^ 

Caesaris  Imagines  4°. 
Bucolica  Vergilii  8°. 
Ane  orison  in  latin  and  frenche  handvret. 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  JAMES  VI.  OF  SCOTLAND,     203 

Ye  Kingis  entre  at  Rowen. 

La  Diana  de  Jorge  de  Montemayor  en  espaignol. 

Propaladia  en  espaignol. 

Dante  en  Italien. 

P.  YOWNG. 

This  is  followed  by  a  "  Catalogue  of  bukes  gottin  fra  my  lord  of 
St.  Jhone,  1573,  October  28,  be  my  lords  grace,  and  delyuerit  to  the 
king  for  the  maist  part  apon  the  16  of  Nouember  1578."  They  in- 
clude *  2  bukes  of  y*'  eneide  of  Virgil  in  frenche.  Canones  et  decreta 
concilii  Tridentini.  Sum  bukes  of  the  Repub.  of  Plato  in  frenche. 
The  first  bulk  of  Dom  Flores  [in]  Spanish.  Diet,  latin  and  Spanish,' 
with  Petrarch,  Ronsard,  '  Amadis  of  Gaul,'  '  Flores  and  Blancheflour,' 
&c. ;  while,  still  on  the  same  page,  among  "  Bukis  gottin  be  me  fra 
My  lord  Regentis  grace  at  sundry  tymis,"  are  "  Zonaras  in  frenche. 
Froissart  in  2  volumis.  Thunion  of  y®  housse  of  Lancaster  and 
York.  Herodotus  in  frenche.  The  Scottis  Chronicle  wrettin  with 
hand,"  and  others.  All  these  books,  as  appears  later,  formed  part 
of  the  library  of  Queen  Mary.  On  f.  10  b  is  a  still  more  interesting 
list  of  fifty  "  Bulks  brocht  furth  of  Sterling  to  Halyrud  house  vpon 
the  xi  of  Nouember,  1583."  It  begins  with  "  Hectoris  Boethii  Hist. 
Scotorum,  fol.  Paris,"  and  includes  Homer  (in  Greek  and  Latin), 
Lucian,  and  Demosthenes ;  Caesar,  Virgil,  Ovid,  *  Terentii  Flores,' 
and  '  Martialis  Castratus  ' ;  Beza's  Greek  Grammar,  '  Enchiridion 
Graecse  Linguae,'  'Rudimenta  Grammaticse  Latinae,'  and  'The 
frenche  tongue  teacher  ' ;  Buchanan  *  De  Jure  Regni,'  Simler  '  De 
Repub.  Heluetiorum,'  *  Epistre  d'Osorius  k  la  Royne  d'angleterre,' 
*  The  hurt  of  seditioun,'  and  *  The  true  religion  and  poperie.'  After 
this  (f.  lib)  come  a  number  of  books  headed  "Empti,"  with  others 
presented  by  various  persons.  I  can  only  mention  "The  history  of 
Ingland,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  in  twa  faire  volumes,"  and  Sir  J. 
Cheke  '  De  pronuntiatione  Graecae  linguae,'  both  "  bocht  fra  Mr. 
Jhone  Provand  "  ;  "  Plutarque  en  deux  volumes,"  given  by  the 
Bishop  of  Brechin;  *Jus  Civile,'  in  eleven  vols,  by  "My  Lord  of 
Dumfermling  " ;  Eusebius  and  Calvin's  Epistles,  by  the  Bishop  of 
Caithness  ;  "Rod.  Gualtheri  Homiliae  in  Galatas,  fol,  ex  dono  ipsius 
auctoris";  and  'Institution  du  prince  de  Budee,'  by  "my  Lady 
Atholl."  As  might  be  expected,  this  last  work,  with  others  on  the 
same  subject,  was  a  favourite  gift-book.  From  the  Bishop  of  Caith- 
ness, who  was  Robert  Stewart,  the  king's  great-uncle.  Young  also 
received  (f.  12  b)  on  December  4th  (1577?)  "the  buikes  that 
fallowit,  quilk  Arthur  Wode  delyuerit  him  as  being  of  the  Quenis 


204     THE  LIBRARY  OF  JAMES  VI.  OF  SCOTLAND. 


I 


bukes  borrowit  be  his  brother  Mr.  Jhone."  The  latter,  John  Wood 
of  TilHedavy,  had  been  secretary  to  the  Regent  Murray,  and  the 
eighteen  volumes  thus  recovered  formed  part  of  a  very  much  larger 
number  which  were  handed  over  to  him  on  November  15th,  1569, 
as  appears  from  the  list  attested  by  his  signature  printed  in  "  Inven- 
taires  de  la  Royne  Descosse  "  (Bannatyne  Club,  1863),  PP-  i79~83. 
Among  them  are  "  le  premier  vol.  de  Froissard,  foL,  beau,"  Lucian, 
Herodotus,  Athenaeus,  Ptolemy,  Chrysostom,  "  Mercurii  Trismegisti 
Poemander,"  the  "  Hist,  de  Godefroy  de  Bouillon,"  and  "Chronique 
de  Sauoye." 

Without  dwelling  on  any  intervening  matter,  I  must  now  pass  on 
to  the  general  "Index  Librorum  Regis,"  which  occupies  ff.  15-18. 
This  catalogue  comprises  some  two  hundred  articles,  and  not  only 
gives  the  title,  but  in  nearly  all  cases  states  whether  the  book  was 
bought,  presented  (and  if  so,  by  whom),  or  came  from  the  library  of 
Queen  Mary,  with  a  further  note  if  it  was  subsequently  given  away 
by  the  king.  At  the  head  stand  eight  Bibles,  six  of  which  were 
presented,  including  "Biblia  Lat.  Tiguri  excusa,  fol.,"  by  Alex. 
Syme;  "Bibl.  Gallica  Magna  Lugduni  exc,  fol.,"  by  the  Earl  of 
Argyll  (both  in  1574);  and  "  Bibl.  Britannica  Magna,  fol.,"  by 
"  Qusestor  "  Richesone.  Of  five  New  Testaments  only  one  is  in 
English.  This  was  a  donation  from  Capt.  Cocburn,  whose  name 
frequently  recurs,  and  was  handed  on  by  the  king  to  Lord  Aubigny. 
Another,  also  noted  as  given  away,  is  entitled  "  Nouueau  Test,  auec 
les  pseaumes  en  escossois  i6°."  The  Psalms  supply  ten  entries,  the 
first  being  "  Psalmi  Lat.  carmine  a  Dom.  Buchanano  express!,  i6°," 
while  among  the  others  are  found  "  Psalmes  in  English,  32°,  donnez 
par  la  nourrice,"  and  "  Psalter  in  metre  and  prose,  i6°,"  a  gift  from 
the  Abbot  of  Glenluce  and  "  donne  par  sa  majesty  a  Elizabeth  Gib." 
On  February  4th,  1577-8,  Elizabeth  Gib  became  Peter  Young's 
wife ;  and  it  may  be  inferred,  therefore,  that  the  catalogue  was  drawn 
up  not  later  than  1577,  and  consequently  before  James  was  twelve 
years  old.  This  is  the  more  probable  as  it  does  not  contain  any  of 
the  Queen  Mary's  books  which  were  delivered  by  the  Regent  Morton 
to  the  king  on  March  26th,  1578,  as  comprised  in  an  inventory 
printed  in  the  Bannatyne  Club  volume  already  mentioned,  p.  cxliii. 
Among  donors  the  Bishop  of  Caithness  is  conspicuous,  and,  classics 
excepted,  his  gifts  are  a  fair  sample  of  the  rest.  Besides  two 
Psalters,  he  is  credited  with  "  The  Dial  of  Princes.  L'Institution 
du  Prince  de  Bude.  L'Institution  de  Mr.  Calvin  en  francoys. 
Apophthegmata  Erasmi.  Erotemata  dialectica  Melanchthon.  Em- 
blemata  Alciati.     Prieres  et  oraisons  Chrestiennes.     The  perfecte 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  JAMES  VI.  OF  SCOTLAND.     205 

pathwaye  to  salvacion.    Heures  de  recreation  de  Guicciardini."  The 

Chancellor  Lord  Glamis  was  another  who  concerned  himself  with 

the  young  king's  education,  giving  him  Seneca,  Paulus  Jovius,  a 

Latin- French  dictionary,  Guicciardini's  History,  and  "Foxi  Morzilli 

de  regni  regisque  Institutione."    Elsewhere  (f.  14)  it  appears  that  he 

tried  to  interest  him  in  military  science,  tempting  him  with  "  L'art 

militaire  de  Rocque  "  and  the  same  author's  "  Les  Ruzes  de  la 

guerre."     More  to  James's  taste,  no  doubt,  were  two  volumes  given 

him  by  Argyll,  viz.,  "  La  Venerie  de  Jaq.  du  Fouilloux  "  and  "  La 

Fauconnerie  de  pluseurs  autheurs."    Argyll  appealed  to  another  side 

of  his  character,  though  it  could  hardly  have  declared  itself  so  early, 

with  "  A  Defense  of  the  Apologie  be  Mr.  Jwell "  and  "  A  confutation 

be  Alex'  Nowel,"  which  were  his  new  year's  gifts  in  1576-7  (f.  13). 

Buchanan's  choice  of  books  is  best  seen,  perhaps,  in  the  purchases, 

which  I  have  no  room  here  to  discuss.     As  presents  his  pupil  had 

from  him  "  Institution  of  a  prince  par  Synesius  en  francoys.     La 

sphere  du  monde  de  Piccolhuomini.     La  nature  des  poissons  par 

Belon.  Senecae  Tragoediae."     Out  of  the  many  lady  donors  I  must 

name  only  two.     To  Lady  Mar,  wife  of  his  guardian,  James  was 

indebted  for  "Annales  de  France,  avec  Philippe  de  Commines," 

and  to  Lady  Lennox,  his  grandmother,  for  "Jo.  Ferrarius  of  the 

orderying  of  a  commounveale.     Histoire  de  nostre  temps.     Propos 

Memorables.     Riccius  de  imitatione.     The  history  of  Justinus  in 

English,"  and  several  more.     From  his  mother  he  had  no  books 

directly  by  way  of  gift,  nor  does  Queen  Elizabeth's  name  anywhere 

occur.     Her  ambassador,  however,  the  accomplished  Henry  Killi- 

grew,  appropriately  gave  "  The  Courtiour,  in  English  "  (the  original, 

Castiglione's  "  Cortegiano,"  was  presented  by  Glamis),  together  with 

Thevet's  ''  Singularitez  de  la  France  Antartiques  "  ;  and  among  other 

English  books  it  is  satisfactory  to  observe  Roger  Ascham's  "Toxo- 

philus  "  and  "  Scholemaistre  "  and  Sir  T.  Elyot's  "  Governour."     As 

for  books  printed  in  Scotland,  there  are  probably  not  half  a  dozen 

altogether. 

But  even  with  James  it  was  not  all  work  and  no  play.  On  f.  18  b 
are  entries  of  other  gifts  than  books.  Even  these,  indeed,  include 
such  aids  to  learning  as  "  ane  pen  and  ink-horne  of  syluer "  and 
"  ane  fueillee  of  syluer  to  vret  apon  " ;  but  among  them  are  also 
enumerated  three  "  boawis  "  and  five  dozen  "arrowis,"  with  other 
archery  gear,  and  more  noteworthy  still,  "  2  golf  cloubbis,"  which 
last  were  the  gift  of  the  Laird  of  Rossyth.  Finally,  two  precious,  as 
it  seems,  to  be  described  by  any  hand  but  the  boy's  own,  we  read  of 
"A  tre  with  brenches  and  leiues  of  wyre  cled  with  silk  of  all  hewes, 
beiring  clowis  and  nutmewgis."  * 


I 


206     THE  LIBRARY  OF  JAMES  VI.  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Though  I  have  already  exceeded  reasonable  limits,  a  few  wora^^B 
must  be  added  about  the  scribblings,  often  scarcely  decipherable,  on  | 
the  covers  and  fly-leaves.  Many  are  mere  commonplaces,  classical 
quotations  and  such  like,  but  others  are  what  Young  calls  *'  Apoph- 
thegmata  Regis,"  consisting  of  remarks  made  by  James  in  the  course 
of  his  studies,  and  jotted  down  by  his  tutor  as  worthy  of  record.  To 
say  the  truth,  they  are  not  very  brilliant,  but  I  give  two  or  three 
specimens.  "  They  gar  me  speik  Latin  or  I  could  speik  Scottis  " 
was  a  complaint  which,  on  the  evidence  of  this  book  alone,  was  not 
unwarranted.  There  is  some  spirit,  too,  in  the  following  :  "  Cuidam 
dicenti  *  56  suld  neuer  be  angrie.'  '  Than,'  sayis  he,  '  I  suld  not 
waire  y*  lyoun  in  my  armes,  bot  rather  a  scheip.'  "  If  he  really  trans- 
lated a(p'  ol  as  "  all  fou,"  he   must  have  been  poking  fun  at  his 

pedagogues ! 

George  F.  Warner. 


A 


MISCELLANEA.  207 

Victor  Hugo's  MSS. 

MAUGUSTE  VACQUERIE  and  M.  Paul  Meurice  are  hard 
•  at  work  with  the  400,000  leaves  of  written  matter  left  by 
Victor  Hugo,  and  not  unfittingly  called  by  the  poet  "  L'Ocean."  The 
work  was  done  during  the  period  of  exile  at  Guernsey,  and  does 
not  include  the  papers  already  published  in  England.  Victor  Hugo 
seems  to  have  been  almost  miraculously  prolific  between  1852  and 
1870.  He  frequently  wrote  or  revised  a  whole  piece  in  one  day, 
beginning  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  working  on  till  lunch. 
He  then  took  a  walk  in  the  country,  and  composed  verse  aloud.  In 
the  evening  he  read  to  his  friends.  M.  Auguste  Vacquerie  hopes  to 
publish  another  immense  parcel  of  MSS.  These  are  fugitive  papers 
on  every  possible  subject,  written  offhand  by  the  poet,  and  thrown 
carelessly  upon  the  floor.  Some  of  these  were  found  after  his  death, 
labelled  "  Tas  de  Pierres." 


Disposing  of  an  Edition. 

THOREAU  was  once  able  to  boast  that  he  had  on  his  shelves 
a  library  of  several  hundred  volumes,  the  greatest  part  of 
which  he  had  written  himself.  His  publishers  could  not  dispose 
of  the  first  edition  of  his  first  book,  and  thinking  it  useless  to  keep 
the  volumes  longer,  had  sent  them  to  the  author.  Another  equally 
famous  American  author  had  better  luck  in  disposing  of  his  first 
literary  venture,  though  he  found  the  public  no  more  eager  in  their 
welcome  of  his  genius  than  they  were  for  Thoreau's  work.  James 
Russell  Lowell  brought  out  his  first  volume  of  poems  at  his  own 
risk — a  modest  edition  of  five  hundred  copies.  Small  as  the  edition 
was,  however,  it  was  not  small  enough,  and  the  young  poet  seemed 
in  danger  of  heavy  loss;  but  fate  was  kinder  than  the  so-called 
"  reading  public."  His  publisher's  warehouse  took  fire,  the  books 
were  burned,  and  they  were  fully  insured  !  Not  only  had  the  poet 
lost  nothing,  but  he  could  boast  with  truth  that  the  first  edition  of 
his  book  was  exhausted.     He  had  sold  it  to  the  insurance  company. 


208 


MISCELLANEA. 


Bookshops  in  Russia. 


PERHAPS  the  chief  indication  of  the  enlightenment  of  a  people 
is  to  be  found  in  the  number  and  quahty  of  the  bookshops 
existing  in  its  towns.  In  Russia  these  are  painfully  few,  and  there 
are  districts  where  the  traveller  may  pass  through  a  population  of  a 
hundred  thousand  souls  without  catching  sight  of  aught  in  the  shape 
of  a  publication  except  the  old  Slavonic  Bible  in  the  churches,  or 
the  coarsely-bound  return-book  of  some  red-tape  functionary.  Of 
course,  it  is  absurd  to  expect  to  see  books  in  the  hands  of  men  who 
only  the  other  day  were  serfs,  but  in  the  leading  provincial  towns 
one  does  look  for  a  certain  amount  of  culture.  Yet  what  shall  be 
said  of  a  town  like  Volsk,  in  Saratuff,  where  to  33,000  people  there 
is  only  one  shop  where  books  are  sold  ?  Even  St.  Petersburg  itself 
is  not  so  very  well  off  in  this  respect,  having  only  fifty  booksellers,  or 
one  to  every  14,000  persons. 

In  Moscow  matters  are  worse,  for  the  proportion  there  is  one  to 
every  18,000  people.  From  these  two  cities,  however,  proceed  the 
publications  which  feed  the  rest  of  the  Empire,  and  the  stocks  on 
sale  are  therefore  larger  than  is  commonly  the  case  in  a  provincial 
town,  where  a  display  of  two  or  three  thousand  volumes  greatly 
exceeds  the  average.  Warsaw  has  one  vendor  of  books  to  every 
16,000  people;  Odessa  one  to  every  10,000;  but  as  half  of  these 
are  in  a  decayed  condition,  the  Black  Sea  port  is  very  little  better 
off  than  the  Polish  capital.  At  Dunaburg,  which,  by  the  bye,  con- 
tains a  good  many  Germans,  there  is  only  one  bookshop  to  29,000 
people ;  at  Kazan,  with  its  numerous  Tartar  inhabitants,  there  are 
eight  to  94,000  people;  at  Valadikavkaz,  one  to  15,000;  at  Revel, 
two  to  31,000  ;  and  at  Brest-Litovsk,  one  to  18,000.  Cronstadt,  in 
spite  of  its  large  garrison  of  educated  officers  and  Finnish  sailors, 
has  but  two  shops  to  48,000  people;  Abo,  in  Finland,  one  to 
20,000  ;  and  Omsk,  the  exile  centre  of  Siberia,  and  the  site  of  the 
future  university,  one  to  27,000.  Finally,  Tashkant  is  the  worst  of 
all,  having  only  a  single  bookshop  to  76,000  people,  and  that  a  bad 
one. 

Taking  provincial  Russia  all  round,  the  proportion  of  booksellers 
to  the  town  population  may  be  roughly  calculated  at  one  to  every 
20,000  people,  and  none  may  be  expected  to  be  found  in  towns 
having  less  than  10,000  inhabitants. 


"Reynard  the  Fox." 


N  describing  the  recent  additions  to  the  Mitchell  Library 
of  Glasgow,  a  correspondent  deals  at  some  length  and 
with  considerable  knowledge  of  seventy-eight  items  treat- 
ing of  the  exceedingly  prolific  subject  of  "  Reynard  the  Fox." 
These  comprise  German,  Old  Saxon,  Danish,  Swedish,  Dutch,  and 
English  texts,  in  verse  and  prose,  some  of  them  quaintly  and  not  a 
few  of  them  elegantly  illustrated.  Among  the  Dutch  editions  is 
"  Reintje  de  Vos  van  Hendrik,  van  Alkmaar,  1498,"  edited  by 
Jacobus  Scheltema,  Haarlem,  1826,  and  there  is  another,  with 
splendid  plates,  after  designs  by  H.  Leutemann,  Utrecht,  1865.  Of 
Danish  texts,  one  merits  special  notice,  namely,  Herman  Weigere's 
"  Speculum  vitseaulicae  eller  dem  fordanskede  Reynike  Foss,"  &c., 
printed  at  Copenhagen,  1747,  with  pictures.  There  is  a  Latin  prose 
and  verse  text,  with  cuts  by  Virgil  Solus,  "  Opus  Poeticum  de 
admirabili  fallacia  et  astutia  vulpeculae  Reinikes  libros  quatuor," 
Frankfurt,  1567,  in  excellent  preservation,  and  another  edition  of  the 
same,  printed  in  1579,  with  different  cuts.  German  versions  are 
numerous  and  interesting,  and  include  several  editions  of  Goethe's 
masterly  rendering  of  the  renowned  romance,  with  charming  illustra- 
tions, over  which  one  might  linger  for  hours  together.  Of  English 
versions  there  is  honest  David  Vedder's  modern  rendering  of 
Caxton's  famous  text  of  the  History  of  Reynard  the  Fox,  made  from 
Gheraert  de  Leeu's  Dutch  version,  first  printed  in  1470.  (Caxton's 
text,  with  a  learned  introduction  by  W.  J.  Thorns,  forms  vol.  xii,  of 
the  Percy  Society's  publications,  a  complete  set  of  which  is  in  the 
Mitchell  Library.)  "The  Pleasant  History  of  Reynard  the  Fox, 
told  by  the  Pictures  of  Albert  Van  Everdingen,"  edited  by  Felix 

27 


210 


''REYNARD  THE  FOXr 


Summerly,  London,  1843 — a  fine  volume,  now  become  rather  scarce. 
"  The  Most  Delectable  History  of  Reynard  the  Fox,  and  of  his  Son, 
Reynardine,  a  Revised  Version  of  an  old  Romance,"  in  prose,  small 
octavo,  London,  1844.  "Reynard  the  Fox,  A  Poem  in  Twelve 
Cantos,  translated  from  the  German  by  E.  W.  Holloway,  with  37 
engravings  on  steel  after  designs  by  H.  Leutemann,"  London 
(?  1852);  a  most  charming  book.  "The  Pleasant  History  of 
Reynard  the  Fox ;  translated  by  the  late  Thomas  Roscoe,"  with 
100  designs  by  Elwes  and  Jellicoe,  small  quarto,  in  prose;  London, 
1873.  A  perfect  livre  de  luxe^  published  by  Messrs.  Swan,  Sonnen- 
schein  &  Co.  in  i88<j.,  "Reynard  the  Fox:  An  Old  Story  New 
Told,"  with  many  beautiful  pictures.  Only  another  English  version 
calls  for  mention  here — namely,  a  translation  of  Goethe's  "  Reinecke 
Fuchs,"  with  an  introduction  by  Alexander  Rogers,  published  by 
Messrs.  George  Bell  and  Sons,  1888.  Herder  recommended  to 
Goethe  the  story  of  "  Reynard  the  Fox " — the  story  of  honesty 
opposed  by  craft  and  cunning — as  "an  old  German  epic,  as  fine  in 
its  way  as  the  '  Iliad'  itself."  J.  W.  Laurenberg  sang  its  praises  in 
the  Low  German  dialect  to  this  effect : — 


*'  For  worldly  wisdom  never  book  could  claim 
From  fitting  readers  higher  praise  or  fame 
Than  the  Fox  Reynard — a  plain  book,  where  clear, 
And  in  a  mirror,  doth  sound  sense  appear  ; 
For  in  its  rhymes  a  wit  which  all  must  prize, 
Like  a  rich  treasure,  half  concealed  lies." 


Among  folk's-books  "Reynard  the  Fox"  has  for  more  than  five 
centuries  had  a  popularity  equalled  only  by  the  "  Seven  Wise 
Masters  of  Rome"  and  "Friar  Rush."  "In  that  rude  old 
apologue,"  says  Thomas  Carlyle  eloquently,  "  we  have  still  a  mirror, 
though  now  tarnished  and  time-worn,  of  true  magic  reality;  and  can 
discover  there  in  the  cunning  reflex  some  image  both  of  our  destiny 
and  of  our  duty,  for  now,  as  then,  *  Prudence  is  the  only  virtue  sure 
of  its  reward,'  and  Cunning  triumphs  where  Honesty  is  worsted,  and 
now,  as  then,  it  is  the  wise  man's  part  to  know  this  and  cheerfully 
look  for  it,  and  cheerfully  defy  it." 

Apart  from  the  charm  which  the  old  story  of  Reynard  the  Fox 
possesses  for  readers  of  "  all  ranks  and  ages,"  it  would  be  difficult  to 
exaggerate  its  value  to  students  of  the  genealogy  of  popular  fictions. 
In  the  30th  chapter  of  Caxton's  text,  for  example,  we  have  a  very 
interesting  variant  of  the  story  of  the  Ungrateful  Serpent  that  would 
have  killed  its  deliverer,  which  is  known  in  various  forms  in  India, 


''REYNARD  THE  FOXr  2ii 

Burma,  and  Ceylon,  with  a  tiger  or  an  alligator  in  place  of  the 
serpent,  and  perhaps  made  its  first  appearance  in  Europe  in  the 
**  Disciplina  Clericalis"  of  Peter  Alfonsus,  a  Spanish  Jew  of  the 
1 2th  century.  In  the  32nd  chapter  we  have  Reynard's  account  of 
the  magical  jewels  which  he  alleges  were  stolen  from  him,  one  of 
which  was  "  a  ryng  of  fyne  golde,"  in  which  was  set  a  stone  of  rare 
virtue :  "  Whoso  had  in  his  eyen  only  smarte  or  sorenes,  or  in  his 
body  ony  swellynge  or  heed  ache,  or  ony  sykenes  without  forth,  yf 
he  stryked  this  stone  on  the  place  wher  the  greyf  is,  he  had  anon  be 
hole,"  and  so  forth.  Another  of  his  stolen  treasures  was  a  magic 
mirror,  similar  to  that  presented  by  King  Crompart  to  the  fair 
princess  Claremonde,  as  we  read  in  the  old  French  romance  of 
Cleomades,  which  was  derived  from  a  Morisco-Spanish  source,  and 
is  near  akin  to  the  Arabian  tale  of  the  Ebony  Horse. 


2X2 


MISCELLANEA, 


An  Old  Playing  Card. 

THE  Leipzig  City  Library  has  just  acquired  a  playing  card 
printed  in  Leipzig  in  1557,  which  was  discovered  in  Cologne. 
It  is  well  known  that  many  boards  for  books  were  made  of  sheets  of 
paper  pasted  one  on  another,  and  this  card  must  have  been  used  by 
a  binder  in  the  year  1590  in  making  the  boards  of  the  folio  volume 
in  which  it  was  found. 


An  Island  Library. 

THE  whole  library  of  one  of  the  Scilly  Isles  consisted  at  one 
time  of  the  Bible  and  the  history  of  Dr.  Faustus.  The  island 
was  populous,  and  the  western  peasants  being  generally  able  to  read, 
the  conjuror's  story  had  been  handed  from  house  to  house,  until^ 
from  perpetual  thumbing,  little  of  his  enchantments  or  his  cata- 
strophe was  left  legible.  On  this  alarming  conjecture,  a  meeting 
was  called  of  the  principal  inhabitants,  and  it  was  resolved  to  send 
to  Cornwall  for  a  supply  of  books.  Long  and  earnest  discussions 
followed  to  ascertain  what  these  books  should  be,  and  the  result 
was  that  an  order  was  sent  to  an  eminent  bookseller  for  another 
Dr.  Faustus. 


A  Bookseller's  Advertisement. 


ON  March  20,  1785,  Josef  Wolf,  a  bookseller  of  Augsburg, 
issued  the  following  advertisement: — *'To  the  reverend 
clergy,  especially  curates  and  seminarists.  To  be  sold,  certain 
books  of  sermons,  for  which  six  months'  credit  will  be  given  for 
half  the  price,  and  the  other  half  taken  in  masses."  How  much 
trade  this  enterprising  bookseller  did  in  this  way  is  not  known. 


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Our  Note-Book. 


HE  latest  addition  to  the  ever-popular  Book-Lover's  Library 
series  of  Mr.  Elliot  Stock,  namely,  "  Literary  Blunders  :  a 
Chapter  in  the  History  of  Human  Error,"  by  Henry  B. 
Wheatley,  F.S.A.,  is  not  by  any  means  the  best  of  the  series,  but  it 
is  a  very  entertaining  volume.  Literary  men  are  not,  as  a  rule,  more 
profusely  thankful  to  the  Candid  Critic  for  the  pointing  out  of  his 
errors  of  commission  or  omission  than  any  other  class  of  erring 
mankind.  But  so  long  as  there  are  literary  men  and  people  with 
what  are  somewhat  indefinitely  described  as  literary  tastes,  so  long, 
we  suppose,  will  there  be  literary  blunders  to  chronicle.  There  is 
one  advantage  of  which  literary  men  are  never  slow  to  avail 
themselves — they  can  always  shift  the  responsibility  of  their  pub- 
lished errors  on  the  back  of  one  who  cannot  retort — for  both 
the  intelligent  compositor  and  the  infallible  printer's-reader  has 
his  own  ideas  in  the  matters  of  orthography,  punctuation,  and 
so  forth,  to  say  nothing  of  an  occasional  consuming  desire  to  touch 
up  an  author's  "copy."  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  said 
"  copy  "  very  often  stands  in  need  of  a  good  deal  of  polishing,  for 
the  average  literary  man  is  too  superior  a  person  to  bother  himself 
with  details.  We  are  under  the  impression  that  the  printer  and  his 
ever-present  bete  noir  the  "  reader  "  could,  between  them,  compile  a 
screamingly-funny  book  on  "Authors'  Blunders,"  and  we  commend 
the  idea  to  the  enterprising  publisher  of  the  series  in  which  Mr. 
Wheatley's  book  appears,  on  the  understanding,  of  course,  that 
*' present  company  is  excepted."  Every  reader  (points  out  Mr. 
Wheatley)  of  "  The  Caxtons "  will  remember  the  description,  in 
that  charming  novel,  of  the  gradual  growth  of  Augustine  Caxton's 
great  work,  "  The  History  of  Human  Error,"  and  how,  in  fact,  the 


214 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 


existence  of  that  work  forms  the  pivot  round  which  the  incidents  turn. 
It  was  modestly  expected  to  extend  to  five  quarto  volumes,  but  only 
the  first  seven  sheets  were  printed  by  Uncle  Jack's  Anti-Publishers* 
Society,  with  sundry  unfinished  plates  depicting  the  various  develop- 
ments of  the  human  skull  (that  temple  of  Human  Error),  and  the 
remainder  has  not  been  heard  of  since.  Mr.  Wheatley  claims  that 
his  little  book  forms  a  chapter  in  this  great  work,  which,  doubtless, 
will  appear  one  day  in  a  complete  form.  The  subject,  however,  is 
essentially  best  appreciated  in  instalments  issued  at  fairly  long 
intervals.  The  complete  work  must  be  too  awful  to  contemplate. 
Mr.  Wheatley's  book  deals  consecutively  with  blunders  in  general, 
with  the  blunders  of  authors  and  of  translators,  with  bibliographical 
blunders,  with  lists  of  errata,  with  misprints,  with  schoolboys' 
blunders,  and  with  foreigners'  English.  We  do  not  propose  to 
enter  more  fully  into  a  discussion  of  Mr.  Wheatley's  little  book  ;  but 
as  a  striking  illustration  of  the  perils  to  which  the  correctors  of  a 
mistake  are  open,  we  will  quote  an  amusing  letter  from  Mr.  J.  S. 
Wood,  the  editor  of  the  Gentlewoman  : — **  One  of  Mr.  Wareham  St. 
Ledger's  charming  poetry  books  was  under  review,  and  the  reviewer, 
adapting  the  lines  from  Tennyson's  '  Brook,'  said  that  the  reader 
would  find  in  this  little  volume — 


*  Here  and  there  a  lusty  Pun, 
And  here  and  there  a  joke.' 

When  it  appeared  in  print  it  read — 

•  Here  and  there  a  rusty  Pun.' 


A  polite  intimation  that  the  author  was  not  flattered — for  his  puns 
were  quite  up  to  date — led  me  to  instruct  the  reviewers  to  make 
'  rusty  '  '  lusty '  in  the  following  week's  paper.  In  the  apologetic 
line,  conveying  the  correction,  it  positively  appeared  as — 

*  Here  and  there  a  musty  pun.' 

What  the  genial  author  said  when  he  saw  the  correction  corrected 
never  reached  my  ears.  I  expect  it  would  have  scarcely  appeased 
him  to  be  told  that  the  reviewer's  *  copy  '  was  certainly  one  degree 
at  least  harder  to  read  than  that  of  the  late  Dean  Stanley." 


Writing  to  Bodoni  on  October  14,  1784,  Benjamin  Franklin  said: 
*'  I  have  had  the  very  great  pleasure  of  receiving  and  perusing  your 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK.  215 

excellent  *  Essai  des  charactbres  de  I'lmprimerie,"  &c.,  and  we 
are  reminded  of  this  incident  by  the  receipt  from  Mr.  Martinus 
Nijhoff,  of  the  Hague,  Holland,  of  a  "Catalogue  Chronologique 
d'Editions  Bodoniensis,"  and  a  glance  through  this  admirable  con- 
tribution to  the  bibliography  of  one  of  the  most  eminent  printers  of 
the  last  century  will  prove  at  once  that  such  a  complete  series  of 
Bodoni's  most  carefully  printed  books  has  perhaps  never  before 
occurred  for  sale  at  one  time.  The  collection  starts  off  with  Abate 
Frugoni's  "  I  vot^.  canto  per  la  felic.  restituita  d.  S.  E.  il  Signor  Don 
G.  Du-Tillot  Marchese  de  Felino,  primo  ministro,"  &c.,  the  first 
work  printed  at  the  Imprimerie  Royale  at  Parma  under  the  direction 
of  Bodini,  1768.  Nearly  two  hundred  different  works  are  fully 
described  in  this  catalogue,  from  the  year  just  named  down  to  1829; 
and  among  them  we  notice  a  copy  of  the  Homer  of  1808,  in  three 
volumes  folio,  a  sumptuous  publication,  without  question  the  most 
beautiful  that  ever  left  the  Bodini  press.  For  this  very  handsome 
book  only  125  florins,  or  in  English  money  ;!^ii,  are  asked.  Those 
at  all  interested  in  the  literature  of  printing  should  secure  a  copy  of 
M.  Nijhoff's  excellent  list. 

j'j  jf  ;!{  ;V 

In  connection  with  this  subject  of  book-catalogues,  we  are  glad 
to  have  an  opportunity  of  saying  a  word  or  two  in  praise  of  some 
very  first-class  examples  which  we  have  lately  received  from  the 
well-known  continental  bookseller,  Herr  Karl  W.  Hiersemann,  of 
Konigsstrasse,  Leipzig,  Germany.  The  batch  now  before  us  deal 
respectively  with  the  fine  arts,  with  European  picture  galleries,  with 
the  industrial  arts,  with  archaeology,  and  with  Americana.  These  lists 
are  much  more  than  trade  circulars,  and  are  compiled  and  arranged 
in  sections  with  evident  great  care  and  extensive  knowledge.  Each 
enumerates  from  one  to  two  thousand  books,  and  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  Herr  Hiersemann  has  only  been  in  business  eight 
years,  the  fact  that  he  should  have,  in  so  short  a  period,  accumu- 
lated such  a  large  and  select  stock  of  books,  is  certainly  a  striking 
testimony  to  his  book-knowledge  and  business  capacity.  These 
catalogues  are  well  worthy  of  preservation  for  reference  purposes, 
and  as  such  will  be  found  most  helpful  to  bookbuyers  as  well  as 
booksellers. 


2l6 


MISCELLANEA, 


Printers*    Marks. 

A  BOOK  upon  a  subject  which  is  entirely  new  ought  to  come  as 
a  relief  after  so  many  superfluous  books  on  threadbare  topics. 
The  subject  of  "  Printers'  Marks,"  which  forms  the  text  of  the  new 
book  to  which  we  refer,  may  not  strike  the  reader  as  one  to  make 
a  fuss  about,  but  that  is  because  the  number  of  people  who  have 
studied  it  may  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  it  will  be  found  to  possess  a  many-sided  interest — historical, 
pictorial,  and  decorative.  Many  of  the  marks  used  by  the  old 
printers  to  decorate  either  the  title-page  or  the  colophon  at  the  end 
of  a  book  are  not  only  works  of  art,  but  works  by  such  artists  as 
Rubens  in  Holland,  Picart  in  France,  Holbein  in  Germany,  and 
J.  Pine  (whose  edition  of  "  Horace  "  is,  perhaps,  the  most  perfect 
English  printed  book  of  the  last  century)  in  this  country.  This  new 
book  on  a  new  subject  is  written  by  Mr.  W.  Roberts,  whose  '*  Earlier 
History  of  English  Bookselling  "  was  favourably  received  four  years 
ago.  Messrs.  George  Bell  and  Sons  are  to  be  the  publishers.  There 
will  be  nearly  two  hundred  illustrations. 


The  John   Rylands  Library, 

MRS.  RYLANDS  has  appointed  Mr.  Edward  Gordon  Dufif  to 
the  office  of  librarian  of  the  "John  Rylands  Library"  in 
Manchester.  Mr.  Duff  is  well  known  as  a  bibliographer  of  the  front 
rank,  especially  in  reference  to  early  printed  books.  On  the  last- 
named  subject  he  is  about  to  issue  one  of  the  "  Books  about  Books  " 
series  (the  first  volume  in  which  is  noticed  on  the  opposite  page), 
being  an  account  of  the  invention  of  printing,  and  of  its  history  in 
the  chief  countries  of  Europe  during  the  fifteenth  and  early  part  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  with  special  reference  to  the  early  presses  of 
England  and  Scotland. 


The  Great  Book-Collectors. 


E  have  already  referred  to  the  series  of  "  Books  about  Books  " 
which  Messrs.  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  and  Co.  announced 
some  time  ago  under  the  general  editorship  of  Mr.  A.  W. 
Pollard,  of  the  British  Museum.  If  the  succeeding  volumes  are  as 
good  as  the  first — "The  Great  Book-Collectors,"  by  Charles  and 
Mary  Elton — the  series  will  be  a  valuable  addition  to  the  very  small 
number  of  English  books  which  have  the  double  merit  of  being 
bibliographical  and  readable.  From  the  area  which  "  The  Great 
Book-Collectors  "  covers,  it  is  obvious  that  no  one  book,  nor  indeed 
no  dozen  books,  could  deal  with  the  subject  at  all  exhaustively; 
but  to  exhaust  a  subject  is  generally  equivalent  to  draining  it  of  all 
its  dry-as-dust  dregs  which  would  neutralise  its  more  interesting 
phases.  A  book-collector,  in  which  category  the  present  writer 
humbly  claims  to  be  reckoned,  is  perhaps  too  prone  to  regard 
everything  touching  on  his  special  hobby  as  of  paramount  im- 
portance, and  is  apt  to  run  away  with  the  notion  that  it  ought 
to  be  also  so  regarded  by  the  general  public.  That  this  is  not 
so  has  been  repeatedly  proven  by  the  number  of  "  bookish  "  books 
which  have  hitherto  failed  to  find  people  to  purchase  them  when 
published,  to  say  nothing  of  the  many  which  have  gone  a-begging 
in  a  hopeless  pursuit  after  a  publisher. 

There  is  nothing  objectionably  **  shoppy  "  about  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Elton's  treatise  on  "The  Great  Book-Collectors,"  which  deals  with 
a  very  vast  subject  in  a  skilful  and  comprehensive  manner.  The 
classical  period — concerning  which  a  whole  volume  alone  might  be 
written — is  discussed  in  a   dozen   pages,  with  a  brevity  which   is 

28 


2l8 


THE  GREAT  BOOK-COLLECTORS. 


I 


sufficiently  full  as  a  necessary  introduction  to  the  chapters  which 
follow.  The  reader  is  then  taken  by  easy  stages  from  the  earliest 
period  in  what  may  be  conveniently  termed  modern  history  down  to 
the  end  of  the  last  century.  This  period  embraces  a  span  of 
eleven  hundred  years,  and  naturally  the  changes  in  book-fashions 
which  have  from  time  to  time  swayed  the  acquisitiveness  of  the 
collector  have  been  many.  To  the  lay  mind  it  will  come  as  a  good 
deal  of  a  surprise  to  learn  that  in  Ireland  book-collecting  was 
greatly  in  vogue  long  before  it  was  in  this  country.  Very  many  of 
the  incidents  which  relate  to  the  love  of  books  in  the  "  distressful 
country"  are  somewhat  legendary,  and  of  highly  questionable 
authenticity;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  general  facts. 
Palladius  came  with  twelve  men  to  preach  to  the  Gael,  and  we 
are  told  that  he  *'  left  his  books "  at  Cellfine.  The  legendary 
St.  Patrick  is  made  to  pass  into  Ulster,  and  he  finds  a  king  who 
burns  himself  and  his  home  *'that  he  may  not  beheve  in  Patrick." 
The  saint  proceeds  to  Tara  with  eight  men  and  a  little  page 
carrying  the  book-wallet;  "it  was  like  eight  deer  with  one  fawn 
following  and  a  white  bird  on  its  shoulder."  The  king  and  his  chief 
Druid  proposed  a  trial  by  ordeal.  The  king  said,  "  Put  your  books 
into  the  water."  "  I  am  ready  for  that,"  said  Patrick.  But  the 
Druid  said,  "  A  god  of  water  this  man  adores,  and  I  will  not  take 
part  in  the  ordeal."  The  king  said,  **  Put  your  books  into  the 
fire."  "I  am  ready  for  that,"  said  Patrick.  **  A  god  of  fire  once 
in  two  years  this  man  adores,  and  I  will  not  do  that,"  said  the 
Druid. 

From  Ireland  book-collecting  passed  over  into  Northumbria,  but 
it  was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish  monks.  Theodore  of  Tarsus, 
who  was  consecrated  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  the  year  669, 
brought  with  him  a  large  quantity  of  books  for  use  in  his  new  Greek 
school;  these  were  bequeathed  by  him  to  the  cathedral  library, 
where  they  remained  for  centuries.  The  first  English  collector  of 
any  note  was  Benedict  Biscop,  who  at  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh 
century  was  scouring  the  Continent  for  books,  and  who  quickly 
amassed  a  "  most  noble  and  copious  store."  By  the  twelfth  century 
England  was  "  the  paradise  of  scholars,"  possessing  such  a  **  supply 
of  readers  and  writers  "  as  could  not  be  found  elsewhere  except  in 
the  University  of  Paris.  Of  all  the  ecclesiastical  orders  the  Bene- 
dictines were  the  most  generous  and  enthusiastic  patrons  of 
literature,  and  "delighted  in  their  communion  with  books."  The 
earliest  Englishman  to  write  in  praise  of  books  was  Richard  de 
Bury    or     Aungerville,    the    son  of   Sir   Richard    Aungerville,  a 


THE  GREAT  BOOK-COLLECTORS.  219 

knight  of  Sussex.  He  was  born  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds  in  the 
year  1287,  receiving  his  education  at  Oxford;  he  afterwards 
took  a  prominent  part  in  the  civil  troubles,  taking  the  side 
of  Queen  Isabel  and  Edward  of  Windsor  against  the  Edward  II. 
He  was  the  friend  of  Petrarch,  and  the  poet  has  himself  described 
his  meeting  with  the  Englishman  travelling  in  such  splendid  fashion 
to  lay  before  his  Holiness  his  master's  claim  upon  France.  Richard 
was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Durham  in  1333,  and  was  successively 
High  Treasurer  and  Lord  Chancellor.  He  visited  France  on  several 
occasions,  and  his  love  of  books  called  into  existence  the 
"Philobiblon,"  which  has  even  up  to  the  present  day  held  its 
own  throughout  Europe  as  the  greatest  prose  poem  in  praise  of 
books  ever  written.  Following  the  chapter  in  which  Richard  largely 
figures  we  have  one  on  book-collecting  in  Italy  during  the  age  of 
Petrarch,  and  then  one  in  relation  to  books  and  libraries  at  Oxford, 
Duke  Humphrey's  books,  and  the  library  of  the  Valois.  The 
period  of  the  renaissance  in  Italy,  and  the  collectors  of  books  in 
various  Italian  cities,  and  the  books  of  Corvinus  are  dealt  with  in  a 
very  fascinating  manner.  Then  come  Germany,  Flanders,  Bur- 
gundy, and  once  more  England.  The  early  bookmen  of  France, 
the  foundation  of  the  old  Royal  Library  of  Fairfax,  Cotton,  Harley, 
and  the  University  of  Cambridge,  of  Bodley,  Digby,  Laud,  Selden, 
and  Ashmole,  to  each  of  which  a  long  chapter  might  have  been 
devoted  if  the  limits  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Elton's  book  had  permitted, 
are  dealt  with  in  the  order  in  which  we  have  indicated.  The  later 
book-collectors  of  France,  Italy,  and  Spain — De  Thou,  Pinelli, 
Peiresc — and  of  the  collectors  ranging  from  Naud^  to  Renouard, 
have  each  a  more  or  less  extensive  notice.  The  last  chapter  of  all, 
dealing  with  the  later  English  collectors,  is  not  entirely  satisfactory, 
and  the  omissions  are  very  numerous.  But  the  period  which  this 
chapter  covers,  and  the  space  in  which  it  is  disposed  of,  render 
impossible  anything  more  than  a  superficial  glance  at  what  might 
very  easily  be  elaborated  into  a  large  volume. 

The  book,  on  the  whole,  is  a  highly  satisfactory  piece  of  work,  and 
it  is  one  which  we  can  commend  to  all  classes  of  bookish  readers. 
Illustrations  are  a  very  subsidiary  feature,  but  the  ten  examples 
given  will  be  welcomed  because  they  are  uncommon.  We  have 
portraits  of  Peiresc,  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford  (from  the  Book  of 
Hours  commonly  known  as  the  "Bedford  Missal"),  of  Maglia- 
becchi,  of  Sir  Robert  Cotton,  of  Sir  Thomas  Bodley,  and  of 
De  Thou. 


220 


MISCELLANEA. 


Oriental  Translation  Fund. 


HE  next  volume  of  this  exceedingly  valuable  series  will  con- 
sist of  the  third  volume  of  Part  II.  of  the  '*  Life  of  Muham- 
mad the  Apostle "  (to  the  previous  portion  of  which 
reference  has  already  been  made  in  The  Bookworm).  It  will  con- 
tain the  lives  of  Abu  Bakr,  Omar,  Othman,  and  Ali,  the  immediate 
successors  of  Muhammad.  The  following  translations  are  in  prepa- 
ration : — 

(i)  By  Dr.  Steingass.  The  last  twenty-four  Mukamat  or  assem- 
blies of  Al-Hariri  of  Basra.  The  first  twenty-six  of  these  have  been 
already  translated  into  English,  and  published  in  1867,  by  the  late 
Mr.  Thomas  Chenery,  a  former  editor  of  The  Times^  who  describes 
their  author  as  follows :  "  This  eminent  man  of  letters  has  been 
rewarded  with  a  fame  such  as  few  have  ever  obtained.  For  more 
than  seven  centuries  his  work  has  been  esteemed  as,  next  to  the 
Koran,  the  chief  treasure  of  the  Arabic  tongue.  Contemporaries 
and  posterity  have  vied  in  their  praises  of  him.  His  *  Assemblies  ' 
have  been  commented  with  infinite  learning  and  labour  in  Anda- 
lusia, and  on  the  banks  of  the  Oxus.  His  poetry  has  been  sung  at 
the  feasts  of  the  great,  and  by  the  camel-drivers  in  the  desert.  To 
appreciate  his  marvellous  eloquence,  to  fathom  his  profound  learn- 
ing, to  understand  his  varied  and  endless  allusions,  have  always  been 
the  highest  object  of  the  literary,  not  only  among  the  Arabic-speak- 
ing people,  but  wherever  the  Arabic  language  has  been  scientifically 
studied."  (2)  By  Prof.  Cowell  and  Mr.  Thomas,  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge.  The  Sri  Harsha  Charita,  or  the  history  of 
King  Harsha  by  Banabhatta.  This  work  contains  an  account  of  the 
dynasty  founded  by  Pushyabhuti  at  Thanesar,  and  particularly  the 
beginning  of  the  career  of  the  second  Maharajadhiraja  of  this  family 
called  Sri  Harsha,  or  Harshavardhana,  who  conquered  and  held  the 
whole  of  Northern,  Central,  and  Western  India  from  606-648  a.d. 
The  author  of  the  work,  which  is  full  of  the  most  interesting  his- 
torical and  literary  details  regarding  the  period,  was  the  protege  and 
Court  poet  of  Sri  Harsha.  (3)  By  the  late  Mr.  E.  Rehatsek.  The 
Nigaristan  or  Picture  Gallery,  a  work  written  in  imitation  of  Sa'di's 
Gulistan  or  Rose  Garden,  and  considered  by  many  to  be  superior 
to  it,  by  Mu'in-uddin  Jawini,  about  a.d.  1334-35. 


Sale  of  Rare  Books. 


HE  choice  and  valuable  library  of  the  late  Mr.  Fountaine 
Walker,  of  Ness  Castle,  Inverness,  has  recently  been  sold 
at  Messrs.  Sotheby's.  The  most  notable  books  were  the 
following  :  R.  Allott,  **  England's  Parnassus,"  1600,  a  very  rare 
volume,  containing  extracts  from  all  the  most  noted  poets  of  the  day, 
including  no  less  than  seventy-nine  from  Shakespeare,  j^iy  5s. 
(Quaritch) ;  a  copy  of  the  only  entire  Xylographic  Block  Book, 
printed  in  Italy  (circa  15 10),  and  excessively  rare,  ornamented  with 
121  woodcuts  from  designs  by  Durer,  Bellino,  and  Mantegna,  ^£^4 
(B.  F.  Stevens);  E.  Cocker,  "  Arithmetick,"  first  edition,  1678, 
extremely  rare,  and  although  most  persons  have  heard  the  expression 
"  according  to  Cocker,"  very  few  have  seen  the  work,  ^15  (Quaritch) ; 
"Breviarium  Romanum,"  in  German,  Venice,  15 18,  one  of  the  rarest 
books  in  existence,  having  been  printed  at  the  expense  of  the  Count 
and  Countess  of  Frangipan,  whilst  confined  as  prisoners  of  war  in 
the  gaol  called  Donesel  (Torcello,  near  Venice),  and  disposed 
entirely  of  by  them  as  presents,  ^£17  5s.  (Quaritch);  Burton's 
"  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  first  edition,  extremely  rare,  Oxford, 
1621,  ;£"io  los.  (Sotheran);  J.  P.  F.  Bergomensis,  *'De  Plurimis 
Claris  Sceletisque,"  &c.,  1497,  with  many  beautiful  plates,  including 
the  portrait  of  Popefjoan,  which  is  usually  expunged,  ^£19  los. 
(Merli);  a  fine  copy  of  James  I.'s  "Booke  of  Commun  Prayer," 
^605,  ^10  15s. ;  an  extra-illustrated  copy  of  Granger's  "  Biographical 
History  of  England,"  1824,  enlarged  from  three  to  eleven  volumes, 
;^5o  (Denham) ;  John  Milton,  "  Poems,  both  English  and  Latin,'* 
1645,  first  collective  edition,  with  the  rare  portrait  by  Marshall,  ;^20 


222 


SALE  OF  RARE  BOOKS. 


w 


5s.  (Ellis);  Myles  Coverdale's  *^New  Testament,"  Paris,  1538, 
extremely  rare,  the  impression  having  been  seized  and  destroyed  by 
the  Inquisition,  ;^i3  15s.  (Leighton);  Tyndall's  "  Newe  Testa- 
ment," 1549,  slightly  defective,  ;^2o  (Sotheran);  a  copy  of  the  ex- 
cessively rare  first  edition  of  James  I.'s  ''Poeticall  Exercises  at 
Vacant  Houres,"  1591,  with  the  sonnet  at  end  (often  wanting),  ^£^30 
5s.  (Quaritch)  ;  Punchy  1841-1891  inclusive,  loi  volumes  in  fifty, 
jQi6  (Sotheran) ;  Shakespeare,  "Chronicle  History  of  Henry  the 
Fifth,  with  his  Battell  fought  at  Agin  Court  in  France,"  1608,  a  fine 
copy  of  the  quarto  edition,  £^0  (Quaritch);  Edmund  Spenser's 
"  Complaints,  containing  sundrie  small  Poemes  of  the  World's 
Vanitie,"  1591,  first  edition,  ;£'22  los.  (B.  F.  Stevens) ;  and  "  Colin 
Clout's  Come  Home  Again,"  1595,  also  the  extremely  rare  first 
edition,  £1^  (the  same);  "Virgilis  XHI.  Bukes  of  Eneados," 
translated  into  Scottish  metre  by  Gawin  Douglas,  1553,  £2^^  los. 
(Hopkins);  a  fine  copy  of  the  second  folio  Shakespeare,  1632,  in 
red  morocco  extra,  ;^29  los.  (Sotheran) ;  and  a  set  of  original  edi- 
tions, five  volumes,  of  H.  Shaw's  illuminated  works,  1833-51,  ;^3o 
JOS.  (Hopkins). 


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An  Unique  Binding. 

R.  H.  S.  Richardson  describes  in  The  British  Bookmaker 
a  remarkable,  and  most  probably  unique,  binding  in  the 
Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford.  It  is  referred  to  by  Mr.  W. 
Salt  Brassington  in  the  Introductory  Chapter  to  his  recently  pub- 
lished work  on  the  "  Historic  Bindings  in  the  Bodleian  Library,"  but 
is  not  included  in  his  illustrations. 

The  book  is  a  small  quarto,  8^  x  6^-in.,  and  contains  an  illu- 
minated manuscript  on  vellum,  with  a  curious  miniature  portrait  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  and  entitled,  "Hymn  a  tres  haute,  tres  puissante, 
tres  vertuose,  et  tres  magnanime  Princesse  Elizabeth,  Reine  d'Angle- 
terre,  France,  et  Irland,  et  pr^sente  a  sa  Majestic  par  Georges  de  la 
Motthe,  gentilhomme  Frangoys,  1586." 

This  Georges  de  la  Motthe  was  a  French  refugee,  then  residing  in 
England,  and  this  binding  was  probably  executed  by  one  of  his 
compatriots,  as  many  Huguenots  were  settled  in  England  at  that 
period.  [See  a  paper  on  "  Bookbinding  in  England,"  contributed 
by  Mr.  W.  Salt  Brassington  to  the  catalogue  of  bindings  exhibited  at 
Nottingham  in  1891.] 

The  cover  is  of  brown  leather,  inlaid  with  various  coloured 
moroccos.  In  the  centre  is  a  device  in  translucent  enamel  covered 
with  a  crystal,  and  having  around  it,  on  the  obverse  side,  the  motto 
— "  Hie  arcana  deae  procul  O  procul  este  profani,"  ^  while  on  the 
reverse  cover  the  motto  is — "Haec  sola  evolvet  mortali  vulnera 
mortis."  ^    At  the  four  corners  of  the  inner  panel  is  the  letter  ^, 

*  "  Here  are  secrets  of  a  goddess  !  Aloof !  O  profane  ones  !  Stand  aloof  !  " 
Among  the  Romans  it  was  customary,  before  the  performance  of  any  sacred  rite; 
to  warn  off  the  uninitiated  or  profane.— See  Dryden's  Virgil  "  /Enid,"  book  vi., 
p.  368. 

"  "  This  alone  will  take  away  from  a  mortal  the  wounds  of  death." 


224 


AN  UNIQUE  BINDING, 


standing  as  I  suppose  for  *'  souvereyne."  At  the  top  and  bottom 
corners  are  the  crowned  "  lion  passant "  and  "  Tudor  rose/'  In  the 
centre  of  the  upper  part  is  a  shield  bearing  the  royal  arms,  temp. 
Elizabeth — viz.,  quarterly,  ist  and  4th  France,  2nd  and  3rd  England, 
surmounted  with  the  crown;  while  in  the  centre  of  the  bottom  border 
is  the  letter  A,  also  crowned,  for  "  Angleterre."  In  the  upper  part, 
on  either  side  of  the  royal  arms,  are  the  letters  E  and  R  (Elizabethae 
Regina),  and  on  the  sides  of  these  latter  are  Greek  symbols  (as  I 
take  them)  for  '* Alpha"  and  Omega."  The  reversed  letters  G  and 
M,  at  the  foot,  are  evidently  intended  for  the  initials  of  the  author's 
name — Georges  de  la  Motthe. 

The  meaning  of  the  monograms  on  the  sides  of  the  cover,  which 
appear  to  include  the  Greek  "kappa,"  "lambda,"  and  "phi,"  is  a 
complete  enigma  to  me,  and  which  I  hope  some  of  your  readers 
may  be  able  to  solve. 


Our  Note-Book. 


OR  all  ordinary  purposes,  the  handsome  reprints  of  the  first 
editions  of  Charles  Dickens's  works  which  Messrs.  Mac- 
millan  &  Co.  are  now  issuing,  are  the  most  handy,  and  for 
library  purposes   and   for  presentation  purposes  they  are  certainly 
far  ahead  of  any  other  edition  with  which  we  are  acquainted ;  as,  in 
addition  to  the  important  merit  of  cheapness  (each  volume  is  pub- 
lished at  three  shillings  and  sixpence),  all  the  original  illustrations 
are  carefully  reproduced.     The  first  in  the  series  is  the  perennially 
interesting  "Posthumous  Papers  of  the  Pickwick  Club,"  which  con- 
tains, in  addition  to  the  illustrations,  a  capital  introduction,  bio- 
graphical  and  bibliographical,  by   Charles   Dickens   the   younger. 
This  introduction  does  not  contain  anything  that  is  unknown  to  the 
collector  of  first  editions  of  Charles  Dickens,  but  many  of  the  facts 
will  be  fresh  to  the  general  reader.     The  connection  between  the 
author  and  the  artists  who  illustrated  "Pickwick"  is  clearly  and 
succinctly  told,  and  the  very  absurd  claim  of  the  Seymour  family  to 
a  portion  of  the  honour  of  having  originated  Pickwick  is  satisfactorily 
disposed  of,  let  us  hope  for  all  time.     It  will  interest  those  who  can- 
not afford  the  original  edition  to  have  reproduced  the  three  illus- 
trations of  R.  W.  Buss,  who  was  first  engaged  to  fill  the  vacancy 
caused  by  the  untimely  death  of  Seymour.     It  must  be  admitted 
that  these  illustrations  are  very  poor  stuff  as  compared  with  either 
those  of  Seymour  or  the  extremely  happy  ones  of  "  Phiz  "  (Hablot 
K.  Browne).     Out  of  the  guerilla  host  of  other  artists  who  produced 
sets  of  illustrations  for  various  publishers,  Mr.  Charles  Dickens  the 
younger  reproduces  the  tea-party  at  the  **  Spaniards  "  by  Crowquill, 

29 


226 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK, 


I 


and  Mr.  Pickwick  after  his  ice  accident  from  a  series  published  by 
Sharp  :  each  example  has  the  merit  of  oddity,  and  beyond  this  very 
little  can  be  said  in  their  favour.  The  designs  of  Phiz  are  far  and 
away  the  best  that  have  ever  been  attempted,  being  thoroughly  in 
keeping  not  only  with  the  impression  which  the  author  wished  to 
convey,  but  with  what  the  majority  of  readers  would  create  in  their 
own  minds  without  the  extraneous  aid  of  the  artist.  We  reproduce 
the  exquisitely  humorous  picture  of  the  famous  quarrel  between  the 


THE  RIVAL  EDITORS 


rival  editors,  which  has  a  literary  interest  not  altogether  without 
parallels  in  modern  times.  So  far  as  regards  his  future,  we  have  no 
fear  that  Mr.  Pickwick  will  decline  in  popularity  "/or  many  genera- 
tions. Even  when  it  ceases  to  interest  as  a  story,  it  will  still  have  an 
imperishable  value  as  the  truest  and  most  vivid  picture  ever  written 
of  men  and  things  of  half  a  century  ago. 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK.  227 

In  The  Bookworm,  vol.  iv.  p.  162,  we  acknowledged  the  receipt 
of  the  first  part  of  Messrs.  Macmillan  &  Bowes's  exceedingly  useful 
"Catalogue  of  Books  Printed  at  or  Relating  to  the  University, 
Town,  or  County  of  Cambridge  " ;  and  the  second  part  of  this  most 
useful  Catalogue  only  serves  to  confirm  the  high  opinion  expressed 
of  the  first.  The  present  part  includes  books  which  come  within 
the  foregoing  category  issued  from  1701  to  1800,  and  naturally  the 
entries  are  more  numerous  than  those  which  come  between  the 
dates  1521-1700.  The  first  part  enumerated  347  items,  whilst 
the  second  gives  a  full  bibliographical  account  of  106 1.  As  a  rule, 
the  entries  have  less  interest  as  the  books  become  more  modern  in 
date.  One  distinct  merit  of  this  Catalogue  is  the  information  con- 
tained in  the  notes,  for  the  authors  of  very  many  of  the  books  named 
have  quite  faded  into  obscurity,  from  which  not  even  the  "  Dictionary 
of  National  Biography  "  has  condescended  to  rescue  them  ;  the  few 
details,  therefore,  which  Messrs.  Macmillan  &  Bowes  have  given 
will  be  found  very  interesting  and  useful. 

*  5ie  *  * 

Dealers  in  bogus  works  of  antiquity  have  been  doing  a  rushing 
business  of  late.  Recently  the  Louvre  came  near  being  swindled 
by  a  smart  young  man  who  brought  in  a  magnificent  bronze 
statuette,  a  specimen  of  Venetian  art  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
patriotic  young  gentleman  declared  that  he  would  let  the  Louvre 
have  it  at  a  sacrifice  because  he  would  rather  see  it  there  than  any- 
where else.  Nevertheless,  if  it  was  not  purchased  in  twenty-four 
hours,  he  would  reluctantly  be  obliged  to  sell  the  statuette  to  a 
foreign  establishment.  So  he  modestly  fixed  the  price.  Everybody 
appeared  to  be  delighted  with  the  beautiful  work,  but  the  director 
of  the  fine  arts,  M.  Roujon,  was  absent,  and  the  money  could  not 
be  paid  to  the  patriot  until  he  returned.  An  examination  proved 
that  this  magnificent  ancient  piece  was  just  six  weeks  old. 

Mr.  Robert  C.  Hope's  comprehensive  treatise  on  "  The  Legendary 
Lore  of  the  Holy  Wells  of  England  "  (EUiot  Stock)  has  an  anti- 
quarian rather  than  a  bibliographical  interest,  but  of  the  inseparable- 
ness  of  the  two  subjects  it  in  many  instances  gives  rather  striking 
proofs.  "  Well-Worship,"  as  Mr.  Hope  briefly  describes  the  subject 
of  his  volume  (and  in  which  generic  term  is  included  that  of  rivers, 
lakes,  fountains,  and  springs),  is  of  great  antiquity,  and  is  the  primary 
source  of  innumerable  legends,  sacred  and  pagan.  In  the  former, 
for  example,  we  have  the  accounts  of  the  Deluge,  the  miraculous 
passages  of  the  Red  Sea  and  of  Jordan,  and  the  pools  of  Bethesda 


228 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 


and  of  Siloah.  Those  of  a  purely  pagan  source  are  the  growth  of  a 
primitive  belief  in  what  has  been  termed  Naturalism.  Mr.  Hope  tells 
us  that  the  Indians,  Egyptians,  Persians,  and  Greeks  all  worshipped 
deities  of  fountains  and  streams — we  know  from  Herodotus  that  the 
ancient  German  addressed  his  prayers  to  the  Rhine ;  the  Alamanns 
and  Franks  worshipped  rivers  and  fountains,  prayed  on  the  river's 
banks,  and  at  the  fountain's  edge  they  lighted  candles  and  laid  down 
sacrificial  gifts.  Siudents  of  Homer  will  remember  the  many 
instances  in  which  rivers  directly  and  indirectly  manifest  their  impor- 
tance throughout  the  two  great  epics.  An  infinite  number  of  other 
phases  might  be  cited  to  prove  the  theory  to  which  we  have  alluded 
as  to  the  literary  interest  of  this  subject,  but  for  these  we  must  refer 
to  Mr.  Hope's  exhaustive  book,  which  is  extensively  illustrated. 

*  *  *  * 
So  far  as  readers  of  The  Bookworm  are  concerned,  the  chapter  in 
"Practical  Designing,"  which  Mr.  Gleeson  White  has  edited  for 
Messrs.  Geo.  Bell  &  Sons,  is  the  editor's  own  section,  entitled 
"  Drawing  for  Reproduction."  Mr.  White,  as  every  one  knows,  is 
the  editor  of  the  new  art  journal,  The  Studio^  which  has  proved  such 
a  distinct  literary  and  artistic  success.  He  is  also  a  book  collector, 
and  rejoices  in  the  extravagance  of  possessing  and  using  almost  a 
score  different  bookplates.  In  his  serious  moments  Mr.  Gleeson 
White  is  a  draughtsman  of  very  great  skill  and  artistic  taste,  and 
several  book-covers  particularly,  which  owe  their  origin  to  his  in- 
ventive skill — and  the  cover  of  the  book  under  notice  is  a  very 
excellent  example  of  his  work — are  worthy  of  the  highest  praise. 
For  these  and  many  other  reasons,  into  which  we  have  not  space  to 
enter,  he  may  be  taken  as  an  exceptionally  safe  guide  in  the  subject 
of  drawing  for  reproduction.  To  young  artists  especially  his  remarks 
appeal  very  strongly,  and  by  the  careful  study  of  which  they  will  find 
their  attempts  to  gain  the  attention  of  publishers  generally  much 
more  frequently  rewarded  with  success  than  may  have  hitherto  been 
the  case.  "  Practical  Designing  "  deals  also  with  such  varied  topics 
as  carpet  designing,  woven  fabrics,  pottery,  tiles,  metal  work,  stained 
glass,  printed  fabrics,  bookbinding,  wall-papers,  &c.,  and  as  each  is 
dealt  with  by  a  specialist,  and  is  illustrated,  the  book  is  one  of 
reference  as  well  as  one  to  read. 


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Cruikshankiana. 


S  a  guide  to  buyers,  as  well  as  to  those  who  wish  to  sell,  we 
give  a  long  and  interesting  list  of  various  works  illustrated 
by  George  Cruikshank  which  came  under  the  hammer  at 
Messrs.  Puttick  and  Simpson's  on  May  31st  last,  with  the  figures  at 
which  each  lot  was  knocked  down.  As  the  dates  and  descriptions 
are  all  taken  verd.  et  lit.  from  the  auctioneers'  catalogue,  we  do  not 
guarantee  the  authenticity  of  either  the  one  or  the  other. 

Looking-Glass  for  the  Ladies,  first  edition,  folding  front,  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  cloth,  uncut,  scarce,  181 2,  ;^3. 

The  Enghshman's  Mentor,  Picture  of  the  Palais  Royal,  folding 
front,  by  G.  Cruikshank,  first  edition,  boards,  uncut,  1819,  jQi  13s. 

The  following  collection  of  pamphlets,  all  illustrated  by  Cruik- 
shank, and  uncut : — Hone's  Pamphlets,  etc. :  The  Real  Constitu- 
tional House  that  Jack  Built ;  The  Loyalist's  House  that  Jack  Built ; 
Political  House  that  Jack  Built ;  The  Kettle  abusing  the  Pot ;  The 
Palace  of  John  Bull ;  The  Queen  that  Jack  Found ;  The  Queen's 
Matrimonial  Ladder ;  The  Green  Bag ;  "  Non  mi  Ricordo  "  ;  New 
Pilgrim's  Progress;  Political  Lecture  on  Heads,  first  and  second 
edition ;  Political  *'  Apple-Pie  "  ;  Jack  and  the  Queen  Killers ;  The 
Queen  in  the  Moon ;  Royal  Letter-Bag ;  Queen's  Budget  Opened  ; 
Loyal  Man  in  the  Moon ;  The  Man  in  the  Moon ;  A  Peep  at  the 
P.V.  .  .  .  N,;  The  Cock  of  Cotton  Walk;  Despair,  a  Vision; 
Examination  Extraordinaire  of  the  Vice  of  R — y  of  B— d— y, 
Boro. ! ;  The  Queen  and  Magna  Charta ;  The  Political  Showman ; 
Reform;  The  Total  Echpse;  The  Dorchester  Guide ;  Kouli  Kahn  ; 
Acts  of  the  Adonis  the  Great ;  Miraculous  Host  (title  defective) ; 
The  Men  in  the  Moon ;  Political  Alphabet  ;  Political  Queen  that 


23© 


CR  UIKSHANKIANA, 


Jack  Loves  ;  Life  of  Billy  Cobb  and  Death  of  Tommy  Pain  ;  Doll 
Tear-Sheet ;  Slice  of  Bread  and  Butter ;  The  "  Greatest  Happiness  " 
Principle  ;  System  of  General  Education ;  Pro  and  Con,  nos.  4  and 
5,  1819-73,  ;^4.  (Some  of  these  pamphlets  are  very  scarce,  and  as 
a  whole  it  is  seldom  found.) 

The  following  works  of  W.  Hone  : — Ancient  Mysteries  described, 
first  edition,  plates,  including  **  The  Giants  in  Guildhall "  in  colours 
by  G.  Cruikshank,  original  boards  uncut,  1823,  8s.  Every-Day 
Book,  complete  in  parts  with  all  the  wrappers  (except  3  and  one 
back  wrapper),  numerous  illustrations  by  G.  Cruikshank,  1826-7, 
19s.  Every-Day  Book,  2  vols,  first  edition,  numerous  engravings 
by  Cruikshank,  hf.  cf.,  1826-7,  5^'  Table-Talk,  2  vols,  first  edition, 
numerous  illustrations  by  G.  Cruikshank,  boards,  uncut,  1827,  19s. 
Pamphlets  and  Parodies  on  Political  Subjects,  numerous  engravings 
by  Cruikshank,  bds.  uncut,  1830,  5s. 

Life  in  London,  9  coloured  plates  from,  by  J.  R.  and  G« 
Cruikshank,   uncut,  1820,  etc.,  los. 

Points  of  Humour,  both  parts,  first  edition,  numerous  plates  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  boards,  uncut,  royal  8vo,  1823-4,  j[^2>  3S' 

The  Spirit  of  Public  Journals,  the  three  series  complete,  3  vols., 
portraits  and  illustrations  by  G.  Cruikshank,  first  edition,  original 
boards,  uncut,  1823-5,  7s« 

Italian  Tales,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  cf.  gt,  1824, 

Wight  (J.),  Mornings  at  Bow  Street,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  first 
edition,  hf.  mor.  m»  e.,  1824,  19s. 

Wight  (J.),  Mornings  at  Bow  Street,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank, 
original  boards,  uncut,  1825,  6s. 

Wight  (J.),  More  Mornings  at  Bow  Street,  first  edition,  plates  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  original  boards,  uncut,  scarce,  1827,  £,2  i8s. 

Der  Freischiitz  Travestie,  by  Septimus  \  Globus,  1 2  etchings  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  first  edition,  calf  extra,  1824,  los. 

Specimens  of  German  Romance,  3  vols.,  frontispieces  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  first  edition,  cloth,  1826,  7s. 

Universal  Songster,  3  vols.,  ports,  and  numerous  engravings  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  cf.,  1826-8,  9s. 

John's  Harcourt's  Original  Jests,  first  edition,  front,  by  G.  Cruik- 
shank, original  wrappers,  scarce,  1827,  6s. 

[Paris  (J.  A.)]  Philosophy  in  Sport  Made  Science  in  Earnest, 
3  vols.,  first  edition,  woodcuts  by  G.  Cruikshank,  bds.  uncut,  1827,  6s. 

[Collier  (J.  P.)]  Punch  and  Judy,  first  edition,  plates  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  cloth,  1828,  los. 


CRUIKSHANKIANA,  231 

[Collier  (J.  P.)]  Punch  and  Judy,  second  edition,  plates  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  cloth,  uncut,  1828,  iis. 

Bell's  Life  in  London,  and  Sporting  Chronicle,  illustrations  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  1829,  3s. 

Akerman  (J.  Y.),  Tales  of  Other  Days,  first  edition,  plates  -^by  G. 
Cruikshank,  boards,  uncut,  1830,  £,\  2s. 

O'Hara  (K.),  Tom  Thumb,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank, 
wrappers,  1830,  2s. 

[Clarke  (W.)]  Three  Courses  and  a  Dessert,  second  edition,  plates 
by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  mor.  uncut,  1830,  8s. 

Katzleben  (de),  The  Cat's  Tail,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruik- 
shank, wrappers,  1831,  9s, 

Katzleben  (de),  The  Cat's  Tail,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruik- 
shank, wrappers,  1831,  i6s. 

Ferdinand  Frank,  illustrations  by  G.  Cruikshank,  cloth,  uncut, 
1831,  17s. 

Defoe  (D.),  Robinson  Crusoe,  2  vols.,  numerous  engravings  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  first  edition,  hf,  mor.  g.  e.,  J.  Major,  1831,  17s. 

Roscoe's  Novelists'  Library :  Don  Quixote,  3  vols. ;  Robinson 
Crusoe,  2  vols.  ;  Gil  Bias,  2  vols.  ;  Tristram  Shandy,  2  vols.  ;, 
Vicar  of  Wakefield  and  Sir  Launcelot  Graves,  in  i  vol. ;  Amelia, 
2  vols. ;  Tom  Jones,  2  vols. ;  Joseph  Andrews ;  Peregrine  Pickle, 
2  vols. ;  Humphrey  CHnker;  and  Roderick  Random,  together  19 
vols.,  the  whole  series  complete,  numerous  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank, 
original  white  cloth,  uncut,  1831,  ^15. 

Anstey  (C),  The  New  Bath  Guide,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  first 
edition,  cloth,  uncut,  1830,  ;£i  2s. 

Anstey  (C),  The  New  Bath  Guide,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank, 
cloth,  uncut,  1832,  7s. 

Shepherd  (E.),  Altrive  Tales,  vol.  i,  port,  and  plate  by  G.  Cruik* 
shank,  first  edition,  cloth,  uncut,  1832,  3s.  6d. 

The  Diverting  History  of  John  Gilpin,  first  edition,  plates  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  original  wrappers,  scarce,  1832,  3s.  6d. 

[Wight  (J.)]  Sunday  in  London,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruik-- 
shank,  hf.  mor.  t.  e.  g.,  1833,  17s. 

Sunday  in  London,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  original 
boards,  uncut,  1833,  £^\, 

The  Stadium,  or,  British  National  Arena  for  Manly  and  Defensive 
Exercises,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  1834,  i6s. 

Bruce  (C),  Mirth  and  Morality,  first  edition,  illustrations  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  cloth,  1834,  iis. 

Cruikshank's  Comic  Almanacks  from  the  commencement  in  1835 


232 


CR  UIKSHANKIANA, 


to  1853,  complete  set,  first  edition,  coloured  frontispieces  and 
numerous  plates  by  Geo.  Cruikshank,  original  state  with  all  the 
wrappers  and  covers >s  issued,  scarce,  1835-53,  ;£i5  los. 

Cruikshank's  Comic  Almanacks  for  1835,  1836,  1840,  1841, 
1843,  1845  (2  copies),  1846,  1848,  18  5 1  and  1852,  first  edition, 
coloured  front,  and  numerous  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  original 
wrappers,  1835-52,  £z, 

Cruikshank's  Comic  Almanacks  for  1835  to  1839  inclusive,  in 
I   vol.,  first   edition,  numerous  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.   of., 

Helps  and  Hints  How  to  Protect  Life  and  Property,  plates  and 
woodcuts  by  G.]Cruikshanks,  cloth,  uncut,  1835,  us. 

[Barker  (M.  H.)]  Tough  Yarns,  first  edition,  plates  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  original  cloth,  uncut,  1835,;^!. 

Auldjo  (J.),  Journal  of  a  Visit  to  Constantinople,  first  edition, 
plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  mor.  t.  e.  g.,  1835,  3s. 

Burford  Cottage,  first  edition,  front,  and  vignettes  by  G.  Cruik- 
shank, cloth,  uncut,  1835 ;  Another  copy,  boards,  uncut,  1835,  S^* 

[White  (J.)]  Adventures  of  Sir  Frizzle  Pumpkin,  first  edition, 
plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  boards,  uncut,  1836,  £^\  12s. 

[Barker  (M.  H.)]  Land  and  Sea  Tales,  2  vols.,  first  edition,  plates 
and  vignettes  by  G.  Cruikshank,  cloth,  uncut,  1836,  17s. 

London  and  Westminster  Review^  containing  the  article  on 
"  Modern  Wood  Engravings,"  with  illustrations  by  G.  Cruikshank, 
etc.,  wrappers,  uncut,  1837,  £^\  8s. 

Inglis  (H.  D.),  Rambles  in  the  Footsteps  of  Don  Quixote^  first 
■edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  mor.  t.  e.  g.,  1837,  8s. 

Glascock  (Capt.),  Land  Sharks  and  Sea  Gulls,  3  vols.,  first  edition, 
plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  uncut,  1838,  i6s. 

Glascock  (Capt.),  Land  Sharks  and  Sea  Gulls,  3  vols.,  first  edition, 
plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  mor.  m.  e.,  1838,  6s. 

Scoffern  (J.),  Chemistry  no  Mystery,  first  edition,  front,  and 
vignettes  by  G.  Cruikshank,  original  cloth,  1832 ;  Another  copy, 
hf.  cf.,  1839,  IS.  6d. 

[Defoe  (D.)]  Journal  of  the  Plague  Year  in  1665,  plates  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  first  edition,  original  cloth,  uncut,  1839,  3s.  6d. 

Irving  (W.),  History  of  New  York,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  first 
edition,  original  cloth,  uncut,  1839;  Salmagundi,  illustrations  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  first  edition,  original  cloth,  uncut,  1839,  6s. 

London  and  Westminster  Review^  containing  the  original  edition 
of  the  Essay  on  the  Genius  of  George  Cruikshank,  numerous  plates 
by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  cf.,  1839,  ;^t  8s. 


CRUIKSHANKIANA,  233 

Dibdin  (T.),  Songs,  Naval  and  National,  first  edition,  plates  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  cloth,  uncut,  1841,  11  s. 

Cockton  (H.),  Stanley  Thorn,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruik- 
shank, hf.  cf.  m.  e.,  1 84 1,  15s. 

Jerrold  (D.),  Cakes  and  Ale,  2  vols.,  first  edition,  fronts,  and 
vignettes  by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  mor.  m.  e.,  1842,  7s. 

O'Neill  (J.),  The  Drunkard,  first  edition,  port,  and  plates  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  original  cloth,  scarce,  1842,  jQ2i' 

George  Cruikshank's  Omnibus,  first  edition,  numerous  plates  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  mor.  t.  e.  g.  uncut,  1842,  p^i  i6s. 

George  Cruikshank's  Omnibus,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruik- 
shank, hf.  cf.,  1842,  IIS. 

Discovery  concerning  Ghosts,  illustrations  by  G.  Cruikshank, 
1864;  Modern  Chivalry,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  cf.,  1843,  4S- 

Elliston,  Memoirs,  first  series,  first  edition,  illustrated  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  hf.  cf.,  1844,  9s. 

The  Lady  and  the  Saints,  first  edition,  engravings  by  R.  Cruik- 
shank, uncut,  1839 ;  Maginn  (W.),  John  Manesty,  vol.  i,  first 
edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  cf.,  1844,  4s. 

Maxwell  (W.  H.),  History  of  the  Irish  Rebellion  in  1798,  port, 
and  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  first  edition,  cloth,  uncut,  1845, 
;£^4  4s  ;  the  same  in  half  morocco,  £^\  14s. 

Maxwell  (W.  H.),  History  of  the  Irish  Rebellion  in  1798,  portraits 
and  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  mor.  g.  e.,  1854,  9s. 

George  Cruikshank's  Table-Book,  in  the  original  parts,  with  all 
the  wrappers,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  scarce,  1845,  £>9' 

George  Cruikshank's  Table-Book,  first  edition,  plates  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  cloth,   1845,  iis. 

George  Cruikshank's  Table-Book,  first  edition,  plates  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  1845,  £i^  '^s. 

A'Beckett  (G.  A.),  The  Comic  Blackstone,  first  edition,  illustra- 
tions by  G.  Cruikshank,  original  cloth,  uncut,  1846,  7s. 

The  Yule  Log,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  original 
cloth,  g.  e.,  1847,^1. 

Byron  (Lord),  Don  Juan,  Cantos  1  to  5,  medal  portrait  on  title 
and  coloured  plates  by  J.  R.  Cruikshank,  first  edition,  tree  marbled 
calf  extra,  scarce,  London,  Smeeton,  jT^i  is. 

The  Log  Book,  illustrations  by  G.  Cruikshank,  first  edition, 
original  boards,  Lond.,  n.  d.,  15s. 

Landscape  Historical  Illustrations  of  Scotland  and  the  Waverley 
Novels,  complete  in  the  original  parts,  port,  and  numerous  plates 
by  Turner,  and  G.  Cruikshank,  scarce,  imp.  8vo.  Fisher,  n,  d.,;£'2  i8s. 

30 


^34 


CR  UIKSHANKIANA. 


Landscape  Historical  Illustrations  of  Scotland  and  the  Waverley 
Novels,  2  vols,  port.,  and  numerous  plates  by  Turner  and  Cruikshank, 
hf.  mor.  g.  e.,  imp.  8vo,  Fisher,  n.  d.,  £^\  i6s. 

Illustrations  of  the  Works  of  Lord  Byron  from  designs  by  Cruik- 
shank, first  edition,  wrappers,  Lond.,  J.  Robins,  n.  d.,  14s. 

Cruikshank's  Fairy  Library  :  Hop-o'-my  Thumb ;  Cinderella ;  and 
Jack  and  the  Bean  Stalk,  3  series  of  plates  complete  (no  text),  first 
edition,  fine  impressions,  scarce,  7s. 

Cruikshank's  Comic  Album,  3  vols.,  ist  edition,  numerous 
engravings   by  R.   Cruikshank,    original  cl.   g.   e.,   Lond.,   n.    d., 

£^  13s. 

Sports  and  Pastimes  in  Town  and  Country,  illustrations  by  R. 
Cruikshank,  mor.  185 1  ;  Mayhew  (Brothers),  The  Good  Genius, 
plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  cl.,  Bogue,  n.  d.,  6s. 

A  Pop-Gun  fired  off  by  George  Cruikshank  in  Defence  of  the 
British  Volunteers  of  1803,  illustrations  by  G.  Cruikshank,  first 
-edition,  wrappers,  London,  n.  d.,  7s. 

A  Pop-Gun  fired  off  by  George  Cruikshank  in  Defence  of  the 
British  Volunteers  of  1803  against  the  Attack  by  General  W.  Napier, 
first  edition,  woodcuts  by  G.  Cruikshank,  presentation  copy  :  "  To 
Sir  Charles  B.  Phipps,  with  respectful  compliments  and  regards  of 
G.  Cruikshank  "  on  title,  hf.  mor.  t.  e.  g.  wrappers  preserved,  Lond., 
n.  d.,  £\  IS. 

Mayhew  (Brothers),  The  Magic  of  Kindness,  first  edition,  plates 
by  G.  Cruikshank,  cloth,  uncut,  Lond.,  n.  d.,  4s. 

Mayhew  (Brothers),  The  Magic  of  Kindness,  first  edition,  plates 
by  G.  Cruikshank,  original  cl.  g.  e.,  Lond.,  n.  d.,  5s. 

Mayhew  (Brothers),  The  Magic  of  Kindness,  first  edition,  plates 
by  G.  Cruikshank,  original  cl.  g.  e.,  Lond.,  n.  d.,  4s. 

Mayhew  (Brothers),  Greatest  Plague  of  Life,  first  edition,  plates  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  original  cl.  uncut,  Bogue,  n.  d.,  9s. 

Mayhew  (Brothers),  The  Greatest  Plague  of  Life,  parts  i  and  6, 
plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  wrappers,  uncut,  Bogue,  n.  d.,  i6s. 

Mayhew  (Brothers),  Greatest  Plague  of  Life,  first  edition,  plates 
by  G.  Cruikshank,  cl.,  Bogue,  n,  d.,  7s. 

Mayhew  (Brothers),  The  Greatest  Plague  of  Life,  first  edition, 
plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  half  calf,  Bogue,  n.  d.,  iis. 

Mayhew  (Brothers),  Whom  to  Marry  and  How  to  Get  Married, 
first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  half  calf,  Bogue,  n.  d.,  14s. 

[Dalton]  Gentleman  in  Black,  and  Tales  of  Other  Days,  plates  by 
G.  Cruikshank,  &c.,  purple  morocco  extra,  gilt  gauffred  edges,  Lond., 
n.  d.,  6s. 


CRUIKSHANKIANA,  235 

Gardiner  (W.),  The  Shepherd's  Boy  of  Snowdon  Hill,  first  edition, 
front,  by  G.  Cruikshank,  scarce,  London,  n.  d.,  5s. 

O'Neill  (J.),  Blessings  of  Temperance  Illustrated  in  the  Life  and 
Reformation  of  the  Drunkard,  port,  and  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank, 
wrappers,  1849,  2s. 

Basile  (G.),  The  Pentamerone,  presentation  copy  with  autograph 
letter  from  Taylor,  the  translator  of  the  book  inserted,  plates  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  original  cl.  uncut,  1850,  iis. 

Basile  (G.),  The  Pentamerone,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  half 
morocco,  t.  e.  g.  uncut,  1850,  los. 

Dibdin  (T.),  Sea  Songs,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank, 
cloth,  uncut,  1850,  7s. 

Cruikshank  and  Mayhew.  Adventures  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sandboys 
and  Family,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  cl.  uncut,  185 1,  12s. 

Cruikshank  and  Mayhew.  Adventures  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sandboys 
and  Family,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  cl.,  185 1,  15s. 

Barhanj  (R.  H.),  Ingoldsby  Legends,  the  three  series,  completef 
3  vols.,  port,  and  numerous  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank  and  Leech,  half 
morocco,  t.  e.  g.  (with  backs  bound  up),  1852,  £^2  los. 

The  following  undated  works  of  Mrs.  Gore : — The  Snow  Storm, 
first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  original  cloth,  g.  e.,  5s.  The 
Snow  Storm,  a  Christmas  Story,  first  edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruik- 
shank, original  cloth,  g.  e.,  5s.  New  Year's  Day,  first  edition,  plates 
by  G.  Cruikshank,  original  cloth,  g.  e.,  8s.  New  Year's  Day,  first 
edition,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  original  cl.  g.  e.,  6s.  The  Lost 
Son,  a  Winter's  Tale,  first  edition,  front,  by  G.  Cruikshank,  original 
cl.  g.  e.,  3s. 

George  Cruikshank's  Magazine,  nos.  i  and  2,  all  published,  plates 
by  G.  Cruikshank,  scarce,  1854,  jQ\  iis. 

Fielding  (H.),  Works,  port,  and  numerous  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank, 
original  cl.  uncut,  1856,  8s. 

Brough  (R.  B.),  Life  of  Sir  John  Falstaff,  complete,  in  the  original 
parts,  with  all  the  wrappers,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  1857-8. 
Presentation  copy :  "  Richard  EUison,  Esq.,  with  the  regards  of 
Geo.  Cruikshank,"  in  Cruikshank's  handwriting,  on  parts  i,  2,  3,  4, 
5,  and  7  repeated,  fine  and  genuine  copy  ;  very  scarce,  £,\\  15s- 

Stenelaus  and  Amylda,  first  edition,  engravings  by  G.  Cruikshank, 
original  wrappers,  1858,  3s. 

Blakey  (R.),  Old  Faces  and  New  Masks,  first  edition,  front,  and 
vignette  title  by  G.  Cruikshank,  original  cloth,  uncut,  1859,  5s. 

Blakey  (R.),  Old  Faces  in  New  Masks,  first  edition,  front,  and 
vignette  title  by  G.  Cruikshank,  hf.  cf.  uncut,  1859,  3s. 


236 


CR  UIKSHANKIANA, 


Fullom  (S.  W.),  The  Exile's  Daughter,  first  edition,  front,  by  G. 
Cruikshank,  original  cloth,  uncut,  scarce,  i860,  iis. 

Chamisso  (A.  v.),  Peter  Schlemihl,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  cloth, 
1861,  3s. 

The  Bee  and  the  Wasp,  plates  by  G.  Cruikshank,  presentation 
copy  from  the  publishers,  original  vellum  covers,  uncut,  1861,  2s.  6d. 

Sergeant  Bell  and  his  Raree  Show,  illustrated  by  Cruikshank, 
etc.,  cloth,  1839;  Catalogue  of  a  Selection  from  the  Works  of 
George  Cruikshank,  1863,  £,7.  los. 

Catalogue  of  a  Selection  from  the  Works  of  George  Cruikshank 
from  1799  to  1863,  now  exhibiting  at  Exeter  Hall,  1863;  and 
Smollett's  Miscellaneous  Works,  port,  and  numerous  plates  by 
George  Cruikshank,  original  cloth,  uncut,  1866,  8s. 

Halliday  (A.),  Savage-Club  Papers,  both  series,  2  vols.,  numerous 
illustrations  by  G.  Cruikshank,  etc.,  first  edition,  original  cloth, 
uncut,  1867-8,  IIS. 

Scott  (Sir  W.),  Demonology  and  Witchcraft,  plates  by  G.  Cruik- 
shank, cloth,  1868,  4s. 

An  Original  Water  Colour  Drawing,  "  designed  by  George  Cruik- 
shank to  represent  his  highly  esteemed  and  worthy  friend  the  late 
Thomas  Ingoldsby,  surrounded  by  some  of  the  characters,  good, 
bad,  and  indifferent,  which  he  has  so  graphically  portrayed  in  his 
celebrated  Legends,"  forming  the  frontispiece  to  the  new  edition  of 
Ingoldsby  Legends  published  by  Bentley  in  1870,  mounted,  framed, 
and  glazed.  Accompanying  it  is  the  proof  etching  of  the  same  with 
the  inscription  in  his  handwriting  :  "  To  Crawford  J.  Pocock,  Esq., 
with  the  best  regards  of  Geo.  Cruikshank,"  and  the  autograph  Letter 
of  George  Cruikshank  to  Crawford  J.  Pocock,  Esq.,  to  whom  he 
presented  the  drawing,  dated  January  12th,  1870,  263,  Hampstead 
Road,  N.W.,  and  in  which  occurs  the  following  passage :  *'  Dear 
Friend,  At  last  I  send  you  a  Water  Color  Drawing  by  me — the 
frontispiece  to  the  new  edition  of  *  The  Ingoldsby  Legends.'  A 
*  Collector '  wished  very  much  (underlined)  to  have  this  drawing,  but 
I  told  him  it  was  promised  to  you,  and  no  one  else  should  have  it, 
etc."  In  the  drawing  itself  Cruikshank  was  at  his  best,  so  that  it 
might  fearlessly  be  pronounced  a  masterpiece  of  art,  ;^3o. 

Original  Pencil  Sketch  of  the  portrait  of  "Arthur  O'Leary  "  signed 
"  Geo.  Cruikshank,"  and  which  figures  as  the  frontispiece  to  the 
first  octavo  edition  of  Charles  Lever's  novel  of  that  name,  mounted, 

£1   I  OS. 

Original  design  of  a  Ticket  of  Her  Majesty's  Theatre,  artistically 
executed,  dated   1846    and  probably  never  published,    mounted, 

;£l   IIS. 


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The  Punch  of  the  Commonwealth. 


r  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  we  should  be  indebted  to 
the  psalm-singing  days  of  the  Commonwealth  for  the  first 
English  periodical  devoted  to  fun  and  satire.  On  the  8th 
of  April,  1652,  under  the  very  nose  of  his  Highness  the  Protector, 
was  published  the  first  number  of 

"  Mercurius  Democritus,  or  a  true  and  Perfect  Nocturnall,  com- 
municating many  strange  Wonders,  out  of  the  World  in  the  Moon, 
the  Antipodes,  Muggy-land,  Tenebris,  Fairy-land,  Green-land,  and 
other  adjacent  countries.  Published  for  the  Right  Understanding 
of  all  the  Mad-merry  People  of  Great  Bedlam." 

The  size  is  the  usual  small  4to  of  the  journals  of  the  period,  and 
its  matter  consists  of  sarcastic  comments  upon  passing  events,  to- 
gether with  a  plentiful  sprinkling  of  fictitious  intelligence,  narrated 
with  a  deal  of  broad  humour,  but  the  wit,  if  wit  it  can  be  called,  is 
of  so  gross  a  nature,  that  I  fear  your  lively  contemporary  would 
scarcely  feel  complimented  by  the  assimilation  conveyed  in  the 
heading.  Here  and  there,  however,  I  can  pick  out  a  paragraph 
which  will  give  the  readers  of  to-day  an  idea  of  the  literary  ware 
which  amused  their  ancestors  of  the  Commonwealth. 

Blake  and  Van  Tromp  are  blazing  away  in  the  Channel,  and  the 
hits  at  the  Dutch  are  consequently  numerous,  and  appear  to  "  take." 

"  There  is  a  fresh-water  sea-man  lately  come  sick  home  from  the 
navy,  saith  that  the  Dutch  Fleet  lies  so  heavy  on  many  of  the  sea- 
men's stomachs  since  the  last  engagement,  that  their  breaths  smell 
of  nothing  ever  since  but  pickled  herrings." 

And  again  a  short  time  after — 

"  The  Dutch  have  lately  devised  a  stratagem  to  keep  their  har 


"238       THE  PUNCH  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH. 


bours  from  freezing,  by  placing  in  every  haven  a  fire  ship  that's  so 
hot  that  it  thawes  the  ice  faster  than  it  freezeth/' 

Lilly  also  is  fair  game. 

**Will.  Lilly  hath  put  in  Bayle,  and  hath  his  liberty  on  condition 
that  he  will  make  the  aspect  of  Mars  and  Saturn  to  be  more  milde, 
and  for  his  penance  to  take  the  Carter's  Whip  and  jerk  the  Beares 
three  times  round  about  the  pole,  and  after  this  to  be  put  again  into 
his  primer  and  to  learn  to  forsake  the  devil  and  all  his  works." 

The  unfortunate  star-gazer  appears  to  have  excited  the  wrath  of 
Mercurius  in  no  small  degree — scarce  a  number  in  which  he  is  not 
roughly  handled. 

Here  is  another — 

"  Mr.  Lilly  hath  been  missing  certain  days ;  some  think  he  hath 
made  away  himself;  others  affirm  that  he  is  metamorphosed  into  an 
owle,  that  sings  by  daylight  and  writes  all  night  in  a  hollow  tree ; 
others  say  he  was  overtook  by  an  old  lame  shepherd  in  the  Zodiac, 
mounted  on  the  Dragon  tail,"  etc. 

The  polemical  spirit  of  the  times  is  lashed  with  a  free  hand,  but 
the  extreme  coarseness  of  the  satire  renders  it  unfit  for  your  columns. 
In  one  number  it  is  recorded  that 

"To-morrow  is  a  great  dispute  at  the  Bare-garden  between  a 
Presbyterian  Chamber-maid,  who  hath  challenged  an  Independent 
Fish-woman,  to  dispute  with  her  about  the  point  of  Predestination." 

A  discussion  which  probably  came  off  at  a  time  mentioned  further 
on,  "when  3  tydes  flow'd  in  the  New  River,  and  a  quire  of 
Mermaids  heard  to  sing  wonderfully  sweetly  by  Jack  Adams  of 
Clerkenwell." 

The  lover  of  folk-lore  and  popular  customs  will  meet  with  much 
interesting  matter  in  these  colums,  where  the  manners  of  the  period 
are  more  faithfully  and  vividly  depicted  than  in  any  other  with 
which  I  am  acquainted,  always  excepting  the  daguerreotypes  of  "  the 
curious  Mr.  Pepys."  From  the  following  it  would  appear  that  the 
rites  of  St.  Valentine  were  not  formerly  confined  to  pen  and  paper. 

•*  A  young  gentlewoman,  casting  her  apron  over  her  face,  because 
she  should  see  nobody  till  she  came  to  her  sweetheart's  bedside,  on 
Valentine's  morning,  was  met  withal  in  the  street  by  another  spark, 
who  claiming  her  for  his  Valentine,  and  offering  to  salute  her,  she 
denied  to  uncover  her  lips,  whereupon  he  kissed  her  apron,  which 
another  seeing  him,  and  laughing  at  him,  he  told  him  h  e  was  but  a 
fool  to  laugh  at  him,  for  the  gentlewoman's  lips  tasted  sweetest  when 
strained  through  her  apron  ! "     (No.  85.) 

The  editor  appears  to  have  been  a  madcap  Royalist,  always  in  hot 


THE  PUNCH  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH.       239 

water  on  account  of  his  vile  personalities.  The  publication  was  very 
irregular,  and  the  tavern-haunters  were  often  left  some  weeks  without 
their  favourite.  At  such  times,  we  gather  from  the  insinuations  of 
rival  journals  that  Democritus  was  in  durance.  One  fine  day,  how- 
ever, he  yielded  up  the  ghost  in  earnest,  and  not  long  after  there 
came  forth  a  little  pamphlet,  now  of  the  most  excessive  rarity,  en- 
titled, "  A  Hue  and  Cry  after  Mercurius  Democritus. — O  yes,  O  yes, 
O  yes !  If  any  man,  woman,  or  child,  in  city  or  country,  can  tell 
any  tale  or  tidings  of  a  laughing,  merry  conceited  fellow  called 
Mercurius  Democritus,  who  hath  been  lost  about  ten  weeks,  and  can 
by  no  m^ans  be  found  or  heard  of,  let  them  bring  word  to  the  crier 
or  bearer  hereof,  and  they  shall  be  well  rewarded  for  their  pains." 

After  giving  a  humorous  description  of  a  poor  author  of  that  era 
— which,  by  the  way,  presents  a  sad  similarity  to  that  of  one  of  the 
present — the  writer  winds  up  with  a  pathetic  "sonnet,"  relating  his 
quest  after  his  friend,  whom  he  purports  to  have  found  where  few  of 
your  readers  would  care  to  follow  him. 

"  To  Wood  Street  Counter  then  I  came, 
Where  in  a  darksome  cell 
I  called  Democritus  by  name, 
Who  cry'd  out  I'm  in  hell. 
On  Cerberus  I  then  did  fly, 
For  to  redeem  my  friend, 
And  then  I  ceaz'd  my  hue  and  cry 
And  so  I  made 

An  End." 

C.  N. 


wmmm 


240 


MISCELLANEA, 


Irish  Bookplates. 

A  COLLECTION  of  early  Irish  bookplates,  made  about  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  has  been  found  among  the 
manuscripts  of  the  late  Sir  Bernard  Burke,  Ulster.  Mr.  H.  Farnham 
Burke,  Somerset  Herald,  to  whom  the  collection  now  belongs,  has 
sanctioned  the  publication  of  some  of  the  more  important  plates,  and 
will  contribute  some  explanatory  notes.  The  selections,  &c.,  will  be 
made  with  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Howard,  Maltravers  Herald  Extra- 
ordinary. The  work  will  be  printed  on  large  quarto  sized  paper, 
and  will  be  issued  to  subscribers  only.  The  number  of  copies  will 
be  strictly  limited  to  150.  The  subscription  has  been  fixed  at 
fifteen  shillings. 


The  Bookworm. 


The  whole  day  long  I  sit  and  read 
Of  days  when  men  were  men  indeed 

And  women  knightlier  far  ; 
I  fight  with  Joan  of  Arc  ;  I  fall 
With  Talbot ;  from  my  castle-wall 

I  watch  the  guiding  star.  .  .  . 

But  when  at  last  the  twilight  falls 
And  hangs  about  the  book -lined  walls 

And  creeps  across  the  page, 
Then  the  enchantment  goes,  and  I 
Close  up  my  volumes  with  a  sigh 

To  greet  a  narrower  age. 

Home  through  the  pearly  dusk  I  go, 
And  watch  the  London  lamplight  glow 

Far  off  in  wavering  lines  : 
A  pale  grey  world  with  primrose  gleams, 
And  in  the  west  a  cloud  that  seems 

My  distant  Appenines. 

O  Life !  so  full  of  truths  to  teach, 
Of  secrets  I  shall  never  reach, 
O  world  of  here  and  now ; 
Forgive,  forgive  me,  if  a  voice, 
A  ghost,  a  memory  be  my  choice, 
And  more  to  me  than  thou  ! 

From  "  Retrospect  and  other  Poems y"*  by  Mary  F. 
Robinson  [Mdme.  James  Darmesteter), 


1 


The   History   of  the   Oxford   Bible    "Helps.' 


HE  publication  of  a  new  and  thoroughly  revised  edition  of 
the  "  Oxford  "  Bible  marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
most  famous  of  all  books,  inasmuch  as  the  "  Helps  "  to  its 
proper  understanding  have  been  subjected  to  a  thorough  elaboration 
and  revision  at  the  hands  of  the  most  eminent  scholars  of  the  day. 
Eriefly,  its  history  is  summed  up  in  the  following  particulars : — Early 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  Dr.  Richard  Cumberland  (Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough from  i69itoi7i8)  compiled  a  series  of  "  Tables  of  Scripture 
Measures,  Weights,  and  Coins,  &c."  which,  together  with  an  Index 
to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  was  appended  to  many  issues  of  the  Oxford 
Bible.  Some  twenty  years  ago,  it  seemed  to  the  authorities  of  the 
Clarendon  Press  that  the  time  had  come  when  these,  useful  as  they 
were,  should  be  systematically  supplemented  and  revised.  A  desire 
had  long  been  expressed,  more  especially  among  Bible  students  in 
the  United  States  of  America,  for  a  comprehensive  work,  which 
should  embody — so  far  as  might  be  found  practicable  within  the 
compass  of  a  single  not  unwieldy  volume — the  chief  facts,  ascer- 
tained beyond  reasonable  dispute,  relating  to  the  Bible  and  its 
various  books,  their  authors  and  characteristics,  to  the  history  of 
the  long  tract  of  time  with  which  they  deal,  to  the  physical  aspects 
of  the  Holy  Land,  its  fauna,  flora,  and  topography.  It  was  clear 
that  such  a  work  should  likewise  include  in  a  tabular  form  for 
purposes  of  reference  the  vast  mass  of  information  which  would 
most  conveniently  be  cast  into  this  shape ;  and  that  no  matter 
should  be  admitted  which  could  fairly  be  regarded  as  controversial, 
in  order  that  those  who  mastered  it  might  have  at  all  events  nothing 
to  unlearn.     For  the  original  compilation  of  their  *'  Helps  to  the 

31 


242    HISTORY  OF  THE  OXFORD  BIBLE  ''HELPS: 

Study  of  the  Bible,"  the  authorities  of  the  Oxford  University  Press 
secured  the  services  of  the  late  Rev.  James  Ridgway,  B.D.,  Hon. 


I 


'  "Tncf  cu^e-roYCntcu 
-r  o  Y  €  I  c  c y  kj^^'c  a€  /k n 

4-ifcrcMioyHretpcN 

€  K  H  r  Y 1L  e^rdV^  X"  *  ^"s 

.KC  >  *-  ^  YH  'o  Y  KrXi't  M  *.  Afx 

r  f  *^  ri  TgcN  xe'ra.''  M*  tk'' 

j»^e  A  ere  I  o  8  xc  1  a^^^yc  n«^ 

"i e  N  B  /<q f  aeVth  cor k-Y 

M.C  N  H  CO  K^  fiOCToyU 
rKH  X  KC  6  Y*}^  '  CTO  C  K*^« 

ec  H  M  M  taeVi  Moi^oiifeo 

-r  H  V  o^Y  Ik  A  t  X  cTt  I G  €  cy-r 
o  Y  N'  Y  *^^"^  *^  KT-6  Y^e/^'T* 

KfTO  Y  ^  CTCD  O  JCCXYTJir 

Me^^KVXoY'^<«^»^'^^^^' 

'ClC^t^>»'l€FOYCJkXHM 
TTMNeNT-H  foYA'^.'*'<^'**? 

1<Y -TO  Y  ?  c  r  A.  M  X  oynroc 

O  KC  O  KX V^C  K  H  MUJCM 

eN  V  e  f  o  Y^-'^  '^  *^  •^'^  *^^' 

OS-  N  ^^T/^T^r^J-^^^ 

•ilY"^*^^'^  ^  T^T?  ""* 
>5y't^<^  Y  ^ '^,'^f  Y>c  *^*^*' 
€  N  i^  f  r  Y  r X*^^*^*^  i  G  N  A.«» 
ce  c  I  MM  c  «  (^n  n  cu  w  >r^! 

KT  H  N  tU  N  C yK-i;o  T  <^.KX 

Ao  J  c-ro  f  c.KA-Tf  Y^xc 
-rof  c  f  o  h4nro Y  KYToc  m  i  , 

€  P  O  Y  r  X  A  H  MICA  I  tCXT^ATP* 


Tujhl  n  *^Tf  I  a?  N  TH  c  I  oyjiK 


I 


CODEX  VATICANUS  (i  Esdras  ii.  1-8)- 
(Rome,  Vatican  Library.) 


-Fourth  century. 


1 


The  Bible  in  Greek,  written  in  uncial  letters  probably  in  the  fourth  century.  The  text  is 
arranged  in  three  columns  to  a  page,  except  in  the  poetical  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
which  are  written  in  double  columns.  Apparently  in  the  tenth  century,  the  writing  was 
carefully,  but  quite  unnecessarily,  retraced  in  darker  ink,  only  such  words  and  letters 
being  left  untouched  as  appeared  to  the  writer  to  be  superfluous  in  a  correct  text.  The 
same  hand  added  the  breathings  and  accents.  The  MS.  was  already  in  the  Vatican  Library 
in  Rome  in  the  fifteenth  century,  but  nothing  is  known  of  its  previous  history. 


Canon  of  Christ  Church,  whose  extensive  personal  knowledge  of  the 
Holy  Land  and  of  the  East,  together  with  his  long  experience  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  OXFORD  BIBLE  ''HELPS:*     243 


teaching  of  theology  to  students  of  all  ages,  gave  him  exceptional 
qualifications  for  the  task.     The  first  edition  was  published  in  1876, 


D0CU5IENT  ON  PAPYRUS,  FROM  EGYPT,  in  the  form  of  a 

roll  bound  round  with  strips  of  papyrus  and  sealed  with 

two  clay  seals ;  of  the  Graeco-Roman  period. 

(British  Museum.) 


and  a  second  edition,  revised  and  greatly  enlarged,  appeared  a  year 
or  two   later.     The   striking  success  of  the  book  showed  that  it 


244     HISTORY  OF  THE  OXFORD  BIBLE  '' HELPSP 

provided  for  a  want  which  had  been  widely  felt,  and  by  October, 
1888  over  one  million  copies  had  been  issued.  Once  more,  in  1884, 
the  entire  book  was  subjected  to  a  careful  revision. 

On  the  completion  of  the  Revised  Version  of  the  Bible  by  the 
publication  of  that  of  the  Old  Testament  in  1885,  it  was  speedily 
recognised  that  the  time  had  come  for  a  yet  more  systematic  and 
thorough  attempt  to  render  the  "  Helps  "  a  complete  and  accurate 
guide  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  Public  attention  had  been 
called  to  the  text  of  the  Bible  to  an  extent  before  unknown ;  and 
many  questions  of  textual  criticism  and  of  interpretation  had  been 
practically  settled  once  for  all.  Again,  the  remarkable  progress  of 
Archaeology  had  necessitated,  as  in  the  case  of  classical  authors, 
a  re-investigation  and  consequent  modification  of  many  existing 
theories  as  to  the  history  of  the  Jews  and  of  the  various  races  with 
which  they  were  associated.  The  work  of  the  Palestine  Exploration 
Fund  had  caused  a  revolution  in  long-established  views  as  to  the 
topography  of  the  Holy  Land.  Egypt,  Assyria,  Asia  Minor,  had 
yielded  up  many  secrets  that  had  been  hidden  for  ages.  Linguistic 
science  had  made  notable  advances.  In  fact,  there  was  scarcely 
a  single  book  of  the  Bible  on  which  fresh  light  had  not  been  thrown 
by  recent  investigations  and  discoveries.  It  was  accordingly  re- 
solved that  every  section  of  the  Oxford  *'  Helps  "  should  be  subjected 
to  a  searching  examination,  and  should  as  far  as  possible  be  brought 
up  to  the  existing  standard  of  knowledge.  The  results  may  now  be 
seen  in  a  variety  of  beautiful  editions  issued  by  the  University  Press, 
Oxford. 

This,  of  course,  is  not  the  place  to  attempt  anything  like  a 
criticism  of  the  many  sections  into  which  these  "  Helps  "  are  divided. 
We  may,  however,  point  out  that  the  illustrations  form  a  distinctive 
feature  of  the  present  edition.  They  have  been  selected  and 
described  by  E.  Maunde  Thompson,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  Principal 
Librarian  of  the  British  Museum;  A.  S.  Murray,  LL.D.,  F.S.A. 
Keeper  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities,  British  Museum ;  and 
E.  A.  WaUis  Budge,  Litt.D.,  F.S.A.,  Acting  Assistant-Keeper  of 
Egyptian  and  Assyrian  Antiquities,  British  Museum.  They  consist 
of  facsimiles  from  the  most  ancient  and  authoritative  manuscript 
versions  of  the  Bible  in  Greek  (Vaticanus,  Alexandrinus,  and 
Sinaiticus),  Latin,  Hebrew,  Syriac,  Samaritan,  Arabic,  and  Coptic. 
A  table  of  alphabets,  showing  the  development  of  the  Hebrew, 
Greek,  and  Latin  alphabets  from  the  Egyptian  hieratic,  has  been 
included.  Egyptian  and  Assyrian,  Babylonian  and  Phoenician 
monuments,  which  refer   directly    to    important   historical   events 


HISTOR  V  OF  THE  OXFORD  BIBLE  «  HELPSr     245 

recorded  in  the  Bible,  such  as  the  wars  of  Mesha,  king  of  Moab, 
with  the  Israehtes ;  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Sennacherib ;  the 
payment  of  tribute  to  Shalmaneser  II.  by  Jehu;  the  capture  of 
Babylon  by  Cyrus ;  the  capture  of  Ashdod  by  Sargon,  king  of 
Assyria — are  also  represented.  Assyrian  ceremonies,  scenes  of  war 
and  the  chase,  &c.,  are  fully  illustrated  from  the  unrivalled  collection 
of  bas-reliefs  from  the  palaces  of  Assur-nasir-pal,  Shalmaneser  II., 
Tiglath-pileser  III.,  Sennacherib,  and  Assur-bani-pal,  now  preserved 
in  the  British  Museum.  Accurate  copies  are  given  of  stelae,  papyri, 
tablets,  and  other  antiquities  which  refer  to  the  religion  and  manners 
and  customs  of  the  nations  with  whom  the  Jews  came  into  contact. 
Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Henry  Frowde  we  are  enabled  to  repro- 
duce two  examples  which  we  think  will  be  of  special  interest  to  our 
readers,  one  being  the  renowned  Codex  Vaticanus,  and  the  other 
a  document  on  papyrus  from  Egypt. 


The  Ruskin  Bibliography. 

THE  publication  of  the  colossal  Bibliography  of  Mr.  Ruskin, 
which  has  been  in  progress  for  the  last  year  or  two,  has  just 
been  completed  by  the  issue  to  subscribers  of  the  two  last  parts. 
When  originally  planned,  the  book  was  to  consist  of  eight  parts ;  it 
has  grown  under  the  compiler's  hands  to  eighteen.  No  less  than 
1,154  items  have  been  catalogued;  and  when  it  is  said  that  a  copy 
of  every  item  has  been  personally  examined,  some  idea  will  be  gained 
of  the  labour  which  devolved  upon  the  compilers,  Messrs.  T.  J.  Wise 
and  J.  P.  Smart.  They  now  announce  to  the  subscribers  a  supple- 
ment in  the  shape  of  "Illustrations  to  the  Bibliography."  The 
projected  illustrations  will  consist  of  cuts  representing  the  scarcer  of 
the  first  and  other  interesting  editions  of  Mr.  Ruskin's  books; 
reproductions  of  the  designs  upon  the  bindings  of  "The  Seven 
Lamps  of  Architecture,"  and  other  works;  and  facsimiles  of  Mr. 
Ruskin's  manuscripts. 


246 


MISCELLANEA. 


Queen  Elizabeth's  Prayer-book. 

THIS  book,  bound  in  gold  and  enamelled,  said  to  be  the 
workmanship  of  George  Heriot,  came  up  for  sale  at  Christie's 
on  June  13  among  the  objects  of  art  formed  by  the  late  George  Field. 
It  is  an  interesting  specimen  of  an  historical  goldsmith's  skill,  and 
contains  a  collection  of  prayers  and  meditations  composed  expressly 
for  the  Queen's  use  by  the  Lady  Elizabeth  Tirwit,  her  governess ; 
she  was  a  Falconbridge,  and  her  arms,  a  lion  with  two  tails,  are 
printed  inside.  The  prayers  were  printed  in  1574  by  A.  Barker, 
whose  device  is  seen  on  several  leaves :  a  man  stripping  the  bark 
from  a  tree,  and  the  couplet — 

**  A  Barker  if  you  will, 
In  name  but  not  in  skill." 

This  book  was  worn  by  the  Queen  suspended  by  a  chain  from  her 
girdle  through  the  two  rings  which  are  at  the  top.  The  cover  is  of 
gold,  ornamented  with  coloured  enamel  figures  in  full  relief.  In 
front  is  represented  the  raising  of  the  Serpent  in  the  Wilderness,  an 
emaciated  figure  in  the  foreground,  and  three  others,  one  in  the 
attitude  of  prayer  ;  on  a  border  round  it  is  written  : — 

"  +  MAKE  THE  A  FYRIE  SERPENT  AN  SETITVP  FORA  SYGNE  THATAS 
MANY  ASARE  BYITE  MAYALOKE  VPONIT  AN  LYVE." 

On  the  back  is  represented  the  Judgment  of  Solomon  : — 

"  +  THEN  THE  KING  ANSVERED  AN  SAYD  SYVE  HER  THE  LYVYNG 
CHILD  AN  SLAYETNOT  FOR  SHELS  THE  MOTHER  THEREOF  " 

The  edges  and  back  of  the  cover  are  decorated  with  black  enamels. 
George  Heriot  was  the  favourite  goldsmith  and  banker  of  James  I. 
of  England,  and  the  founder  of  that  noble  institution,  "George 
Heriot's  Hospital,"  at  Edinburgh. 

This  article  was  formerly  in  the  Duke  of  Sussex's  collection,  and 
was  exhibited  at  the  Tudor  Exhibition.  It  was  purchased  for  1,220 
guineas. 


Sale  of  Caxton's  and  Early  MSS. 


HE  portion  of  the  Bateman  Library  dispersed  at  Sotheby's 
last  month,  included  a  number  of  books  and  MSS.  of  the 
very  first  interest  and  rarity.  The  MSS.  were  of  the  greater 
importance,  realising  extremely  good  pieces  considering  that  the 
majority  were  in  anything  but  first-class  condition.  The  highest 
price  was  paid  for  the  "  Epistolae  et  Opuscula  "  of  Cyprian,  a  Mero- 
vingian manuscript  of  the  eighth  century  on  vellum,  with  several 
leaves  at  the  commencement  damaged,  ^270;  next  in  price  to  this 
came  the  "Expositio  Digesta  Psalmorum  "  of  Cassiodori,  a  MS.  of 
the  twelfth  century  on  vellum,  with  ornamental  initials,  transcribed 
by  a  Spanish  scribe  (i8^in.  by  i3|-in.),  in  oak  boards,  with  brass 
bosses,  ;^2oo;  "Sancti  Columbani,  vita  scripta  ab  Jona  Hiberno," 
a  twelfth  century  MS.  on  vellum,  with  leather  joints,  j£4i ;  a  "Canta 
Ecclesiastica  "  of  the  tenth  century  on  vellum,  with  music,  with  the 
old  sides  stamped  with  the  crowned  Tudor  rose  preserved,  ^£6$. 
"  Evangelia  iv.,  Latine,  cum  Canone  S.  Eusebii,"  loth  century,  with 
headings  to  St.  Matthew  and  Mark  in  letters  of  gold,  ^£^135  ;  the 
same,  of  the  nth  or  12th  century,  and  belonging  at  one  time 
apparently  to  the  Church  of  St.  Mary-in-Walbeke  as  on  several  of 
its  leaves  are  written  "  consuetudines  and  ecclesiae,"  and  lists  of  its 
acres,  &c.,  as  well  as  various  memoranda,  dated  1360  and  1388, 
j£g$  ;  a  splendid  MS.  of  a  series  of  heroic  poems  on  the  ancient 
history  of  Persia,  in  Persian,  by  Firdusi  Shah-Nameh,  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  decorated  with  seventy-three  full-page  beautiful 
paintings  in  gold  and  colours  by  a  native  artist,  ^£^40.  "  Gregorii 
Magni  Moralia  in  Job,"  of  the  ninth  century,  but  damaged  at  the 
beginning  and  imperfect  at  the  end,  £160;  a  beautiful  Book  of 


2  48  SALE  OF  CAXTON'S  AND  EARLY  MSS, 


1 


Hours  of  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  century  (3^in.  by  2|^in.),  orna- 
mented with  forty-eight  exquisite  borders,  composed  of  birds,  flowers, 
insects,  &c.,  and  with  forty-three  superb  miniatures,  ;£'ioo ; 
Henry  VIII.'s  copy  of  the  Book  of  Hours,  "  in  usum  angliae,"  by 
an  English  scribe  of  the  fourteenth  century,  ornamented  with  eleven 
borders  and  four  small  miniatures  of  figures  of  the  instruments  of 
Christ's  torture,  illuminated  in  gold  and  colours,  bound  by  J.  Payne, 
impressed  with  arms  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Tudor  Rose  (Harper), 
^£'95.  This  unique  item  contains  the  following  inscription  : — "  Of 
your  devoute  charite  praye  for  the  goode  state  of  Maystrys  Elyza- 
bethe  Home,  of  Saresden,  wydow,  the  which  dyd  gyffe  this  boke  to 
the  paryshe  churche  of  Saresden  aforesaid,  in  the  yere  of  Our  Lorde 
God  1 541."  This  MS.  is  the  one  mentioned  by  Warton  in  his 
"  History  of  Kiddington "  at  Kiddington  House  as  "  a  fine  MS. 
missal  on  vellum,  with  elegant  pictures  and  illuminations."  A  Sarum 
Book  of  Hours,  by  an  English  Scribe,  fourteenth  century,  finely 
illuminated  in  gold  and  colours,  ;^49 ;  a  fifteenth-century  Horae, 
by  a  Flemish  Scribe,  finely  illuminated  in  gold  and  colours,  v/ith 
six  large  and  eighteen  small  miniatures,  ;£66  ;  a  collection  ot 
eighty  exquisitely  beautiful  miniatures  and  borders,  illuminated 
in  gold  and  colours,  neatly  mounted  on  cardboard,  ;£i6i.  Among 
the  Caxtons  and  other  early  printed  books  we  may  mention 
Ranulph  Higden's  "  Polycronycon,"  translated  by  John  de  Trevisa, 
and  printed  by  Caxton  in  1482  (incomplete,  wanting  Proheme  and 
five  other  leaves),  ;^i22;  Caxton's  "Doctrinal  of  Sapyence,"  1489, 
with  six  leaves  supplied  in  manuscript,  £^^Z — a  few  years  ago  this 
same  copy  was  knocked  down  for  ;^83  3  "  Cory  dale,"  translated  by 
Lord  Rivers,  a  fragment  of  this  extremely  rare  work — thirty-four  of 
the  seventy-six  leaves— printed  by  Caxton  1480,  ;^i8.  "Croniclis 
of  Englonde,"  issued  by  the  unknown  printer  of  St.  Albans,  1483, 
with  several  leaves  facsimiled— -no  perfect  copy  is  believed  to  be 
known,  whilst  it  is  excessively  rare  even  imperfect — fy^\  the 
' '  Byrthe  and  Comynge  of  Antechryst/  printed  by  Caxton's  suc- 
cessor, Wynkyn  de  Worde,  about  1495 — this  copy  is  believed  to  be 
the  only  one  in  existence — ;£25. 


I 


"  Hatchards." 
[from  "the  daily  chronicle."] 


ATC HARD'S  book  shop  in  Piccadilly  is  one  of  the  many 
historic  houses  in  this  very  historic  thoroughfare.  Nearly 
a  hundred  years  ago  it  was  a  kind  of  bookish  free-and-easy, 
where  men  of  letters  met  for  books,  gossip,  and  news.  To-day 
Hatchard's  is  more  bookish  than  ever,  but  one  of  the  most  fashion- 
able of  West  End  bookshops.  Clearly  Hatchard — even  the  imper- 
sonal Hatchard — could  give  some  interesting  reminiscences  about 
his  early  associations.  Clearly  also  Hatchard  could  tell  what  kind 
of  place  our  dazzling  West  End  makes  in  regard  to  literature. 

Bent  on  his  double-barrelled  interview  (says  a  Chronicle  inter- 
viewer), I  betook  me  the  other  day  to  this  famous  book  shop. 
Hatchard  is  now  Mr  Arthur  Humphreys,  and  his  partner  Mr.  Edwin 
Shepherd,  but  the  original  John  Hatchard — urbane  old  man,  as  the 
chronicles  tell  us  he  was — could  not  have  received  me  more  kindly. 
Indeed,  Mr.  Humphreys,  who  elected  to  face  the  interview,  buckled 
down  to  my  questions  with  a  geniality  which  in  similar  circumstances 
I  could  not  for  a  minute  hope  to  attain.  Besides  being  a  bookseller 
he  is  a  student  and  lover  of  books,  and  he  has  written  one  or  two. 
Incidentally  he  told  me  he  is  at  present  writing  a  work  on  Hatchard's 
from  the  historical  point  of  view.  Easily  and  naturally,  therefore, 
we  slipped  into  this  branch  of  our  talk  first. 

**When,"  I  asked,  "and  under  what  circumstances  was  Hat- 
chard's founded  ?  " 

"The  business,"  said  Mr.  Humphreys,  "was  founded  in  the  year 
1797  by  John  Hatchard,  who  had  formerly  been  in  the  employ  of 
that  very  famous  bookseller.  Honest  Tom  Payne.     This  was  a  great 

32 


250 


HATCHARDS, 


I 


man  in  his  day,  and  his  shop,  where  the  National  Gallery  now 
stands,  was  a  favorite  resort  of  authors.  There,  I  suppose,  Hatchard 
became  acquainted  with  many  of  the  writers  of  the  day,  and  when 
he  set  up  business  on  his  own  account  they  made  his  place  a  centre. 
Hatchard,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  shrewd,  able  man  in  his  way, 
was  of  course  anxious  to  have  the  big  men  look  in  on  him.  For 
instance,  I  have  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Burney,  the  historian 
of  music,  asking  for  his  custom.  He  got  the  custom,  and  further, 
Burney  promised  to  recommend  him  to  his  friend  Richard  Porson." 

"  It  was  in  this  way,  then,  that  the  beginnings  of  the  business  were 
laid  ?  " 

"  Yes,  but  the  real  foundation  of  the  business  was  the  publication 
of  a  pamphlet,  entitled  "Reform  or  Ruin."  Its  author  was  John 
Bowdler,  the  father  of  that  Thomas  who  afterwards  distinguished 
himself  by  '  bowdlerising  '  Shakespeare.  I  suppose  there  was  con- 
siderable ground  for  the  pamphlet,  which  was  a  bitter,  savage  and 
powerful  attack  on  current  scandals  at  Court.  It  was  the  boldness 
and  the  daring  of  the  pamphlet  that  amazed  people,  and  gave  it 
quite  a  remarkable  vogue.  Edition  after  edition  was  published,  and 
I  have  myself  two  copies  of  different  editions." 

"  Nobody,  neither  Bowdler  nor  Hatchard,  got  *  put  away '  for  it  ?  " 

**  No ;  John  Hatchard  went  on  publishing  and  selling  .religious 
books,  for  really  that  was  practically  the  backbone  of  the  trade. 
Indeed,  up  to  ten  years  ago  Hatchard's  was  still  essentially  a 
religious  bookseller's.  I  need  hardly  tell  you  that  now  we  are  book- 
sellers in  the  broadest  sense  of  the  word.  We  sell  books  of  every 
sort  and  kind,  and  we  think  we  can  enlighten  people  upon  almost 
any  book  they  may  be  looking  for.  My  notion  of  a  bookseller — 
bookseller  distinct  from  a  mere  seller  of  books — is  that  he  should 
be  a  kind  of  walking  catalogue  of  literature.  But  that's  a  digression, 
and  I  know  you  want  me  to  tell  you  some  of  the  prominent  people 
who  made  Hatchard's  a  resort  at  the  end  of  the  last  and  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century." 

**  No  doubt  in  your  book  you'll  have  a  good  deal  to  say  on  that 
point  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes.  Burke  and  Canning  came  here,  and  so  did  Crache- 
rode,  the  great  book-collector,  whose  name  may  not  be  so  familiar  to 
you.  Cracherode  was  a  very  noted  personality,  however,  and  there 
is  a  room  at  the  British  Museum  called  the  Cracherode  Room,  for 
the  reason  that  he  bequeathed  them  part  of  his  collection — I  think 
his  classics.  William  Wilberforce,  the  opponent  of  slavery,  had  his 
letters  addressed  here ;  and  here  Crabbe,  the  poet,  and  Scott  met. 


''HATCHARDSr  251 

You'll  find  it  set  forth  in  Lockhart's  life  of  Scott  that  the  author 
of  *  Ivanhoe  '  and  Crabbe  foregathered  in  Hatchard's  back  room. 
Byron's  sister  was  a  visitor  to  the  shop,  and  I  should  say  to  a  cer- 
tainty Byron  himself,  although  there's  no  absolute  record  showing 
it.  Samuel  Rogers  was  another  of  the  literary  set  who  gave  old 
Hatchard  the  advantage  of  their  custom  and  frequent  presence.  In 
later  days,  too,  Mr.  Gladstone,  then  quite  a  young  man,  used 
to  have  a  considerable  connection  with  Hatchard's  by  way  of  his 
parnphlets." 

"  So  Mr.  Gladstone  is  a  link  which  connects  the  Hatchard  of  the 
older  school  with  the  Hatchard  of  to-day?  " 

"  If  you  like.  I'm  afraid  there  is  a  very  great  difference  between 
the  old  Hatchard  and  the  young  one.  The  change  is  well  illustrated 
by  the  fact  that  the  busiest  time  of  our  day  is  the  afternoon,  when 
our  streets  and  thoroughfares  are  brightest  with  fashion.  No 
authors'  free  and  easies  in  the  back  room — not  here  or  at  any  other 
bookseller's;  instead  the  busy  sale  of  books,  most  of  them  to  be 
read  somewhere  in  the  West  End." 

"  This  brings  us  fairly  to  the  second  branch  of  my  subject — the 
West  End  in  relation  to  literature.  Do  the  upper  ten  buy  very 
largely  of  books  ?  " 

"They  do,  as  you  might  yourself  see  by  looking  in  on  us  any 
afternoon  you're  passing.  I  should  say  that  the  bulk  of  our  buyers 
are  ladies,  or  rather,  that  ladies  buy  more  than  men.  In  a  recent 
article  in  the  Fortnightly,  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  sai'd  he  did  not  know 
any  lady  of  distinction  who  could  tell  the  difference  between  wide 
margins  and  narrow,  who,  in  a  word,  knew  about  a  book  as  a  book. 
Speaking  from  my  own  experience,  I  entirely  disagree  with  him.  I 
believe  there  is  an  increasing  number  of  ladies  who  take  a  deep  in- 
terest in  beautiful  paper,  fine  bindings,  and  so  on.  In  other  words, 
I  see  signs,  which  lead  me  to  think  that  in  the  not  very  far  distant 
future  the  collection  of  valuable  books  will  not  remain  a  hobby  for 
men  only.  Book  collectors  are  arising,  sir,  among  the  fair  sex,  and 
from  a  trade  point  of  view  I'm  bound  to  day  the  development  is  an 
excellent  one." 

"  To  what  do  you  attribute  this  advance  of  bookishness  among 
women  ?  " 

"  My  own  notion  is  that  to  some  extent  it  is  a  result  of  the 
American  woman  in  English  society.  I  know  of  one  American 
lady  myself  who  is  greatly  devoted  to  books,  and  there  are  many 
others  living  here  of  whom  the  same  might  be  said.  The  fair 
American  is  leading  her  English  sister — anyhow,  that  explanation 


252 


HATCHARDS. 


seems  a  reasonable  one,  I  take  it  as  generally  accepted  that  the 
average  American  woman  of  education  is  more  bookish — cares  more 
for  books  as  books — than  the  average  educated  English  woman, 
although  she  does  not,  it  may  be,  read  more." 

"  I  imagine  you  have  another  type  of  bookish  woman,  the 
woman  who  reads  serious  literature — philosophy  for  example  ?  " 

"What  I  call  ladies'  philosophy  is  with  us  a  distinct  feature,  and 
who,  you  ask,  are  ladies'  philosophers?  Schopenhauer,  generally 
in  the  English  translation,  Plato,  Marcus.  Aurelius,  Epictetus,  and 
Ernest  Renan.  Since  Renan  lectured  at  the  Royal  Institution 
on  Marcus  Aurelius  there  has  been  quite  a  new  interest  in  that 
author.  This  revival  was  in  a  measure  traceable  to  the  well-known 
essay  of  Matthew  Arnold.  Americans  buy  '  Herbert  Spencer' 
largely :  English  readers  to  a  much  less  extent.  In  a  measure 
I  should  also  include  Ruskin  in  my  group  of  ladies'  philosophers." 

"  Taking  your  readers  generally,  men  as  well  as  women,  are  there 
at  present  any  marked  tendencies  towards  special  subjects  or  periods 
in  literature  ?" 

"  Two  illustrations  in  answer  to  your  question  occur  to  me,  one 
the  penchant  iov  eighteenth- century  literature,  the  other  the  interest 
in  works  on  gardening  and  horticulture  generally.  Several  influences 
are  responsible  for  the  devotion  to  subjects  and  themes  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Lecky's  '  History  of  the  Eighteenth  Century ' 
has  been  one  influence,  Austin  Dobson's  writings  another,  Reginald 
Brett's  a  third.  Then  the  reprints  of  Dorothy  Osborne's  Letters  and 
the  Chesterfield  Letters  have  caused  a  wide  demand,  and  there  is 
an  undying  interest  in  Horace  Walpole.  The  interest  in  garden 
literature  appertains  most  markedly  to  women,  and  perhaps  it  may 
be  referred  back  to  the  publication  of  a  little  book  by  *  E.  V.  B.' 
(Mrs.  Boyle)  on  *  Days  and  Hours  in  a  Garden,'  an  account  of  the 
authoress's  own  garden  near  Burnham  Beeches.  I  suspect  that  the 
interest  in  horticulture  on  the  part  of  most  ladies  is  a  purely  literary 
one.  That  is  to  say,  they  don't  themselves  garden  exactly,  but  they 
like  to  read  about  gardens. " 

"  I  take  it  you  have  yet  to  tell  me  what  it  is  essentially  the  upper 
ten,  the  West  End,  read  ?  " 

**  Yes ;  we  have  more  or  less  been  wandering  through  West  End 
literary  byways.  The  great  literary  highway  in  the  West  End  is 
fiction — fiction  dashed  with  adventure  and  biography.  Undoubtedly, 
novels  are  the  literary  pabulum  of  the  mass  of  the  people  in  the 
West  End.  Women  seem  never  to  tire  of  ghost  stories  and  detec- 
tive stories  ;  they   like  mystery,    a  substantial  splash  of  sensation, 


«  HA  TCHARDSr  253 

in  their  reading.  Conan  Doyle's  *  Adventures  of  Sherlock  Holmes ' 
are  regarded  as  the  very  best  in  the  way  of  detective  stories. 
Military  men,  and  men  who  have  travelled,  as  all  well-to-do  people 
have  more  or  less,  like  stories  of  adventure — anyhow,  stirring  stories. 
Sporting  novels  too,  as,  for  example,  those  of  Whyte  Melville,  or 
*Handley  Cross,'  and  'Sponge's  Sporting  Tour,'  by  Surtees,  go 
very  well." 

"  How  do  my  lady  and  his  lordship  prefer  their  fiction — in  one, 
two,  or  three  volumes  ?  in  cloth  or  in  paper  ?  " 

"  It  is  only  substantial  novels,  like  Hardy's  *  Tess,'  Mrs.  Humphrey 
Ward's  '  David  Grieve,'  or  Mallock's  *  Human  Document,'  that  sell 
to  any  extent  in  three-volume  form.  Even  for  such  novels  the 
three-volume  edition,  which  is  not  suited  to  the  bookseller,  is,  I 
think,  doomed  to  go  out  by  and  by.  And  if  the  three-volumer  goes, 
the  two-volumer,  which  is  merely  an  offshoot,  is  also  doomed.  We 
shall  therefore  get  to  the  single  volume,  the  form  in  which  the  great 
body  of  fiction  already  passes  over  the  counter.  You  have  seen  the 
Pseudonym  Library,  neatly  bound,  handy  things  in  yellow  paper 
covers  ?  Well,  there  is  a  distinct  appreciation  of  fiction  in  that  form, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is  so  handy.  If  a  lady  takes  a  novel 
with  her  in  her  carriage,  she  prefers  it  light,  daintily  manageable,  a 
volume  which  gives  no  sort  of  trouble." 

"  Who  of  our  novelists  are  most  popular  in  the  West  End  ?  " 

"  Rudyard  Kipling,  Thomas  Hardy,  W.  E.  Norris,  W.  H.  Mallock, 
Marion  Crawford,  Rhoda  Broughton,  Marie  Corelli — perhaps  these 
are  the  first  favourites  of  fashion.  If  a  new  story  by  Kipling  were  to 
be  published  to-morrow  we  should  expect  to  sell  more  copies  of  it 
than  of  any  other  writer.  I  think  Mallock  is  popular  because  he 
interprets  present-day  tendencies  better  than  anybody  else,  Norris  be- 
cause he  understands  English  country  life,  and  Hardy  because  of  his 
grip  of  characterisation  and  his  realism.  Marion  Crawford's  points 
of  attraction  are  his  good  English,  and  the  variety  of  his  fiction, 
Marie  Corelli's  her  mystery  and  weirdness,  while  Rhoda  Broughton's 
attractiveness  is,  I  suppose,  the  buoyancy  and  fun  which  run  through 
her  stories." 

"Neither  Meredith  nor  Stevenson  are  in  your  list;  surely  they 
sell  largely  where  people  are  all  at  least  well-educated  ?  " 

"  True,  they  sell ;  but  they  have  not  by  a  long  way  the  popular 
sale  of  those  I  have  mentioned.  Barrie  has  quite  as  good  a  sale  as 
Stevenson.  Rider  Haggard's  *  She  '  and  '  Beatrice '  did  very  well, 
and  Conan  Doyle's  stories,  as  I  have  already  said,  are  greatly  in 
favour." 


254 


JIATCHARDS: 


"  I  should  be  glad  of  some  estimate  of  the  popular  poets  and 
general  writers." 

*'  Women  are  perhaps  the  greater  readers  of  poetry,  and  of  the 
younger  poets  William  Watson,  Henley,  Le  Gallienne,  and  Norman 
Gale  all  sell.  So,  of  course,  do  the  older  poets — Alfred  Austin,  for 
example,  William  Morris,  who  is  always  rising,  and  Swinburne,  for 
whom  there  is  a  steady,  a  classical  sale.  No,  I  cannot  say  there  is 
much  of  a  demand  for  Robert  Buchanan's  verse.  Once  and  only 
once  do  I  remember  a  real  rush  for  him.  That  was  when  Mr. 
Lecky,  in  a  speech  at  an  Academy  dinner,  praised  the  '  City  of 
Dream '  very  highly.  In  miscellaneous  literature,  the  names  of 
Andrew  Lang,  especially  for  his  essays,  and  of  John  Addington 
Symonds,  occur  to  me  as  being  often  on  the  lips  of  customers." 

"  You  have  not  mentioned  the  attitude  of  society  towards  really 
great  writers." 

"I  assumed  a  certain  sale — largely  for  gifts — of  Shakespeare, 
Milton,  and  the  older  classics.  Both  of  Tennyson  and  Browning 
there  is  an  extensive  demand.  It  reached  a  high-water  mark  in  the 
periods  immediately  following  their  deaths.  Let  any  poet  or  author 
become  at  any  time  unusually  prominent  in  the  public  view,  and 
immediately  he  has  an  accenuated  sale.  I  could  mention  one  poet, 
not  selling  particularly  well  as  a  rule,  who  had  a  distinct  popularity 
on  the  assumption  that  he  was  to  be  Poet  Laureate." 

"  I  have  asked  you  much,  and  I  have  still  one  other  point, 
but  only  one.  What  are  the  powers  which  make  for  the  sale  or  the 
non-sale  of  a  book  ?  " 

"  In  my  opinion  dinner-table  talk  on  books  has  more  to  do  with 
the  sale  of  books  than  anything  else.  A  word  at  a  dinner-table  from 
men  like  Mr.  George  W.  Smalley  or  Sir  Henry  Calcraft  in  praise 
of  a  book,  will  move  the  mysterious  waters  which  ensure  a  large  sale. 
Even  more  so,  recognition  by  Mr.  Gladstone  does  a  book  a  world  of 
good.  Not  long  ago  the  Grand  Old  Man,  while  at  a  country  house, 
praised  a  biographical  dictionary.  Next  day  we  sold  a  copy  of  the 
work  to  a  member  of  the  party  at  the  country  house." 

**  Get  a  book  talked  about,  then,  and  it  will  sell :  that  is  a  first 
principle  ?  " 

*'  I  certainly  think  it  so.  And  after  that  influence  come  the 
reviews." 

"  I'm  afraid  I  haven't  been  able  to  tell  you  much  of  interest,"  Mr, 
Humphreys  added,  as  I  was  leaving.     I  dissented  entirely. 


Early  American  Imprints. 


NE  of  the  most  remarkable  typographic  exhibits  on  record 
was  that  made  at  the  Grolier  Club  House  in  New  York  in 
April.  It  consisted  of  relics  of  colonial  American  pamph- 
let and  book  printing  which  have  been  preserved  in  private  hands 
or  society  libraries.  Distinctively  prominent  were  works  from  the 
press  of  William  Bradford,  at  Philadelphia  from  1685  to  1693,  and 
in  New  York  from  1693  to  1743.  First  of  these  is  the  Kalen- 
darium  Pennsilvaniense,  an  almanac  for  the  year  1686.  The  first 
New  York  work  is  "  New  England's  Spirit  of  Persecution  trans- 
mitted to  Pennsylvania  and  the  pretended  Quaker  found  persecuting 
the  true  Christian — Quaker  in  the  Tryal  of  Peter  Ross,  George 
Keith,  Thomas  Budd,  and  William  Bradford.  Printed  in  the  year 
1693." 

Then  there  were  shown  other  works  either  printed  by  or  relating 
to  John  Peter  Zenger,  from  1725  to  1740;  imprints  of  James  Parker, 
the  most  skilful  printer  of  his  epoch,  from  1743  to  1746;  of  Henry 
De  Foreest,  from  1744  to  1754;  of  John  Zenger,  jun.,  in  1746; 
Catharine  Zenger,  in  1747;  Hugh  Gaine,  from  1754  to  1774: 
Parker  and  Weyman,  in  1753  and  1754;  William  Weyman,  in  1761 
and  1762;  John  Holt,  from  1763  to  1773^  James  Parker  and  Co., 
Garrat  Noel,  Samuel  Brown,  and  others,  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Revolution. 

Besides  these  valued  books  there  were  several  rare  examples  from 
the  Pennsylvania  presses  of  Reinier  Jansen,  Andrew  Bradford, 
Samuel  Keimer,  and  others,  twenty-four  imprints  of  the  Franklin 
Press,  including  one  or  two  copies  known  to  be  extant  of  "  Poor 
Richard,"  1733,  and  two  uncut  copies  of  the  "  Cato  Major,"  one 
bound  by  Lortic  and  the  other  in  its  original  covers.     Also  at  the 


256  EARL  V  AMERICAN  IMPRINTS. 

Grolier  exhibition  was  displayed  a  treasured  copy  of  the  first  book 
printed  at  Perth  Amboy,  NJ.,  dated  1723;  the  first  "Compendium 
of  Surveying "  printed  in  America,  issued  by'  Isaac  CoUins  at  Bur- 
lington, N.J.,  in  1771;  the  first  book  issued  in  what  is  now  the 
State  of  Delaware,  printed  at  Wilmington  in  1763  ;  the  first  English 
book  printed  in  America,  the  Bay  Psalm  Book,  at  Cambridge  in 
1640,  the  earliest  book  printed  in  Virginia  known  to  be  extant.  "A 
Collection  of  all  the  Acts  of  Assembly,"  Williamsburg,  1733;  the 
earliest  South  Carolina  imprint  yet  in  existence,  "  The  Laws  of  the 
Province,"  Charles  Town,  1736. 

To  newspaper  readers  and  newspaper  makers,  most  attractive  of 
all  were  No.  18  of  the  New  York  Gazette^  the  earliest  issue  known 
to  be  preserved  of  the  first  public  journal  in  New  York ;  No.  7  of 
Zenger's  Weekly  Mercury^  the  first  of  the  numbers  condemned  to  be 
burned  by  the  sheriff,  and  the  first  issue  of  Franklin's  Pennsylvania 
Gazette.  It  was,  in  every  feature,  a  notable  object  lesson  of  com- 
parison and  suggestion. 


Myles  Standish,  His   Booke. 

IN  the  400,000  volumes  in  the  old  bookstore  of  the  late  T.  O.  H. 
P.  Burnham,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  there  is  one  which  will  interest 
collectors  greatly.  This  volume,  for  which  the  owners  ask  the 
modest  price  of  ^2,500,  was  published  in  London  in  162 1,  and 
bears  for  its  title,  "  The  Passions  of  the  Minde  in  Generall ;  in  sixe 
bookes,  corrected,  enlarged,  and  with  sundry  new  discourses  aug- 
mented. By  Thomas  Wright."  It  is  not  the  book  itself,  however, 
but  its  former  ownership  that  gives  it  highest  value ;  for  once  upon  a 
time  this  work  belonged  to  the  valiant  Capt.  Miles  Standish,  forming 
one  of  the  very  few  works  which  his  library  contained.  So  far  as  is 
known,  this  is  the  only  book  from  that  library  now  in  existence. 
On  the  inside  is  written  in  bold  letters,  "  Myles  Standish,  his 
booke,  1626." 


Letters  from  America,   1777. 


HE  following  letters  were  written  by  my  great-grandfather, 
James  Warren  :  there  must  have  been  more,  but  these  are 
il  the  only  two  left.  James  Warren  was  a  wine-merchant  in 
London,  and  becoming  acquainted,  about  1775,  with  Benjamin 
Franklin,  was  induced  to  sell  his  business  and  attempt  to  establish 
himself  in  America.  He  succeeded  in  setting  up  a  brewery  in 
Philadelphia,  which  prospered  well,  and  he  was  probably  on  the  way 
to  riches,  when  the  breaking  out  of  war  ruined  him.  When  Lord 
Cornwallis  and  the  British  army  occupied  Philadelphia,  he  volun- 
teered his  services,  and  was  of  much  use  in  the  way  of  guidance  and 
so  forth,  thus  becoming  so  unpopular  that  he  was  obliged  to  follow 
the  army  when  they  evacuated  the  town.  His  partner,  also  an 
Enghshman,  took  the  Republican  side,  and,  remaining  behind^ 
possessed  himself  of  the  business.  James  Warren  at  last  reached 
England,  I  imagine  not  very  far  from  destitute;  and  after  a  time 
endeavoured  to  obtain  from  the  English  Government  some  recogni- 
tion of  his  services,  and  compensation  for  his  losses.  In  this,  though 
backed  by  the  following  testimonial  from  Lord  Cornwallis,  he  had 
of  course  no  success  : — 


Albemarle  Street,  March  2nd^  1782. 
I  perfectly  recollect  that  Mr.  James  Warren  rendered  many 
material  services  to  his  Majesty's  Army  in  Pennsylvania.  He  com- 
municated to  me  the  first  account  of  the  Channel  by  which  the 
Vigilant  went  up  to  the  attack  of  Mud  Island.  He  spared  his 
principal  Clerk  at  a  time  that  he  must  have  been  in  great  want  of 

33 


258 


LETTERS  FROM  AMERICA,  1777 


his   services,  to   assist  the  Army  in   discovering  such   Stores  and 

Articles  as  might  be  useful ;  and  if  I  had  not  advised  him  against  it, 

he  would  have  engaged  in  an  attempt  which  would  probably  have 

cost  him  his  hfe. 

I  shall  be  happy  to  find  that  this  testimonial  of  Mr.  Warren's  zeal 

to  serve  his  country  may  contribute  to  his  indemnification  for  his 

severe  losses. 

CORNWALLIS  (L.  S.). 

James  Warren's  American  partner  remitted  him  some  sums  of 
money  at  intervals ;  but  after  my  great-grandfather's  death  in  1788, 
aged  only  52  (of  phthisis,  probably  caused  by  his  exposure  with  the 
army),  his  sons,  who  were  then  boys  of  eighteen  and  sixteen,  could 
never  obtain  even  a  statement  of  accounts ;  and  ultimately  the 
matter  was  abandoned.  But  as  late  as  1847  it  appears  that  the  site 
of  the  Philadelphia  brewery  changed  hands,  and  the  American 
lawyers,  finding  this  ancient  claim  upon  it,  thought  it  prudent  to 
have  it  formally  released.  They  accordingly  looked  up  James 
Warren's  descendants,  and  caused  them  to  execute  such  a  release. 
I  am  sure  I  don't  know  why,  but  these  lawyers  chose  to  have  the 
release  witnessed  by  the  "head  of  a  corporation,"  and  my  father 
accordingly  got  the  Vice-chancellor  of  the  University  of  Cambridge 
(the  late  Bishop  Philpot  of  Worcester)  to  sign  and  seal  for  him. 
The  seal,  being  very  big,  satisfied  the  lawyers. 

Such  was  my  one  chance  of  American  citizenship. 

C.  F.  S.  Warren,  M.A. 


Letter  I. 


New  York,  2Zth  June,  i777- 
My  dear  Sister, — As  I  have  written  home  by  every  opportunity, 
you  will  have  heard  of  my  safe  arrival.  The  Packet  was  to  have 
sailed  the  second  day  after  I  got  here,  and  by  her  I  wrote  to  most 
of  my  friends.  She  was  afterwards  detained  by  the  Admiral  seven 
or  eight  days,  or  you  would  have  heard  from  me  almost  as  soon  as 
it  was  possible — at  least,  in  all  probability  as  soon  as  in  general  it 
happens  under  the  like  circumstances.  Convoys  are  sometimes 
very  tedious  ;  the  Gentleman  I  am  with  was  five  months  from  the 
time  of  his  leaving  Portsmouth.  The  circumstance  I  lamented  as 
very  unfortunate  (the  reaching  Portsmouth  too  late  to  come  out  in 
the  Isis),  for  although  she  sailed  ten  days  before  the  Somerset^  yet 
she  did  not  arrive  till  near  a  fortnight  after  us.     This  would  have 


I 


LETTERS  FROM  AMERICA,  1777.  259 

lost  me  the  opportunity  of  seeing  Sir  William  Howe,  who  took  the 
field  a  few  days  after  I  got  here,  and  I  should  have  lost  the  oppor- 
tunity of  being  known  to  General  Grey,  who  was  likewise  a  passen- 
ger in  the  same  ship.  I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  succeed  with  this 
Gentleman  (by  those  little  attentions  your  favourite  author  so 
strongly  recommends),  and  interested  him  so  much  in  my  affairs 
that  he  repeatedly  promised  to  serve  me  to  the  utmost  of  his  power, 
took  down  the  particulars  of  all  my  property,  and  assured  me  that 
in  case  he  was  with  the  Army  when  Philadelphia  fell  into  the  hands 
of  his  Majesty's  forces,  he  would  place  guards  upon  my  part  of  the 
premises,  to  prevent  plunder  or  their  being  set  on  fire. 

My  letter  to  Mr.  Jackson  I  directed  to  Red  Lion  Square,  that  for 
my  mother  to  Brook  Street.  I  hope  they  were  forwarded.  By  a 
packet  which  arrived  yesterday  morning  I  received  my  home  letters, 
which  I  need  not  add  gave  me  great  pleasure.  You  must  go  far 
distant  from  home  to  have  an  idea  of  the  sensations  felt  on  those 
occasions.  I  am  absolutely  crying  at  this  instant  only  from  thinking 
of  it.  Your  letter,  and  my  Mother's  account  of  your  restoration  to 
health,  gave  me  inexpressible  pleasure.  I  am  likewise  made  very 
happy  by  hearing  that  Mrs.  Warren  is  easy,  and  endeavours  to  make 
herself  comfortable.  The  joy  I  felt  from  these  pleasing  accounts 
would  have  been  compleated  if  I  had  at  the  same  time  heard  that 
my  sister  Warren  and  brother  Matthew  had  been  as  well  as  I  wish 
them.  Hope,  that  friendly  comforter,  leads  me  to  expect  that  the 
next  accounts  will  be  more  favourable.  I  do  not  think  my  travels 
can  afford  half  the  entertainment  Mr.  Jackson's  will — indeed,  a 
feeling  heart  must  here  meet  with  a  perpetual  source  of  inquietude, 
from  the  various  scenes  of  distress  that  are  continually  presenting 
themselves.  And  this  unnatural  rebellion  is  likely  to  continue 
longer  than  we  in  England  had  any  idea  of,  so  that  I  can  see  no 
end  to  the  Misery  of  tliese  unhappily  divided  People.  I  wish  the 
King  could  give  employments  on  the  Continent  to  those  of  the 
minority  who  have  been  the  most  violent  abettors  of  the  Americans, 
that  they  might  see  to  what  a  state  of  wretchedness  they  have  so 
largely  contributed  to  reduce  the  Colonies,  and  be  a  little  better 
acquainted  with  the  People  for  whom  they  would  have  sacrificed  the 
honour  and  prosperity  of  the  British  Nation.  I  would  answer  for 
their  soon  becoming  loyal  subjects  ;  but  alas  !  conviction  in  them, 
as  in  many  here,  would  come  too  late  to  avert  the  dire  eflfects  of 
civil  discord.  The  King's  Commissioners  have,  from  motives  of 
humanity,  endeavoured  to  spare  the  effusion  of  Blood ;  this  lenity 
has  increased  the  evil,  which  is  become  desperate,  and  can  only  be 


26o 


LETTERS  FROM  AMERICA,  1777. 


I 


eradicated  by  the  most  dreadful  of  all  remedies,  slaughter  and 
desolation. 

The  Political  Pot  has  boiled  so  long  that  the  scum  rises  fast  to 
the  top.  Men  of  desperate  fortunes,  and  the  designing  knaves  who 
had  no  fortunes  at  all,  have  possessed  themselves  of  wealth  and 
power,  which  they  will  risque  everything  to  retain. 

This  was  once  a  Glorious  Country,  and  the  People  possessed 
everything  that  can  make  life  desirable.  Thankless  beings,  to  have 
so  wantonly  brought  on  themselves  and  Posterity  such  a  sad 
reverse.  By  what  remains  of  the  City  of  New  York,  its  former 
grandeur  may  be  guessed  at.  It  is  astonishing  what  a  space  of 
ground  is  in  ruins;  most  delightfully  situated,  which  they  say 
(and  the  sad  remains  of  many  prove  it  to  have  been  so) 
contained  a  range  of  the  finest  Houses  in  the  Town.  By  this  calamity 
(perpetrated  by  wretches  employed  for  that  purpose,  some  of  whom 
being  caught  in  the  fact  were  thrown  into  the  flames  they  had  so 
diabolically  caused)  great  numbers  were  ruined.  But  this,  though 
great  in  itself,  is  as  nothing  when  compared  to  the  desolation 
brought  on  a  vast  extent  of  country,  which  must  be  in  a  manner 
depopulated  if  this  unhappy  contest  is  not  soon  put  an  end  to,  and 
that  there  is  no  prospect  of  at  present.  Our  Army  is  in  good  health 
and  high  spirits.  They  shew  an  uncommon  ardour,  and  are  ready 
upon  any  occasion  to  encounter  danger  or  difficulty.  Yesterday  in 
the  forenoon  we  were  all  made  very  happy  by  great  News  from  the 
Army,  which  was  so  circumstantially  and  positively  related  that  it 
was  almost  universally  believed.  The  substance  of  the  account  was 
that  Sir  William  Howe  had  defeated  the  whole  Rebel  Army  and 
taken  Mr.  Washington  prisoner.  In  the  midst  of  the  rejoicing  on 
account  of  so  happy  an  event  one  of  the  General's  Aid- de-camps 
came  to  Town  and  undeceived  us.  The  total  defeat  has  sunk  into 
a  slight  skirmish,  in  which  the  King's  troops  killed  about  three  hun- 
dred and  took  seventy  or  eighty  prisoners.  The  truth  of  the  matter 
was  that  the  General  having  resolved  if  possible  to  entice  or  force  the 
Rebels  to  an  engagement,  but  finding  them  very  strongly  Posted, 
and  not  to  be  dislodged  without  great  loss,  he  retired,  by  which  the 
Provincials  were  so  much  elated  that  they  returned  to  attack  the 
Rear  of  the  British  Army,  who  repulsed  them  with  the  above  loss, 
and  which  would  have  been  much  greater  if  the  Hessians  had  not 
marched  two  Hours  later  than  they  were  ordered.  The  Prisoners 
were  brought  in  this  morning,  but  I  was  so  busily  employed  in 
writing  to  you  that  I  could  not  go  to  look  at  them.  If  Sir  William 
Howe  could  have  got  fairly  at  them  I  do  not  doubt  that  they  would 


I 


LETTERS  FROM  AMERICA,  1777.  261 

have  been  in   the  situation   the  lying  report   of  yesterday  placed 
them. 

The  Rebel  ruling  powers  govern  with  a  most  despotick  sway,  and 
the  Military,  acting  under  the  authority  of  these  petty  Tyrants, 
exercise  great  cruelty  even  on  their  Countrymen  and  neighbours,  if 
they  are  but  suspected  of  being  friendly  to  Government.  A  Gentleman 
with  whom  I  was  acquainted  in  England,  who  was  one  of  the  Repre- 
sentatives for  this  Province,  and  at  the  beginning  of  these  distur- 
bances made  a  very  spirited  speech  in  the  Assembly,  in  which  he 
foretold  all  the  calamities  that  have  since  been  brought  upon  the 
Colonies,  and  escaped  the  fury  of  the  People  with  great  difficulty  by 
getting  on  board  one  of  the  King's  Ships.  He  left  in  a  retired  situa- 
tion a  Wife  and  seven  Children  of  whom  he  is  doatingly  fond.  She 
is  a  most  extraordinary  character,  I  think  the  most  so  I  ever  met 
with.  Young  and  handsome,  with  an  excellent  understanding,  and 
quite  a  heroine.  Soon  after  her  Husband's  escape,  a  guard  of  sixty 
Men  were  ordered  to  surround  the  house.  As  they  were  to  be  long 
continued,  the  Officers  desired  Lodgings  might  be  provided  for  them 
in  the  House,  and  signified  their  pleasure  that  a  proper  Table  should 
be  constantly  kept.  She  came  to  the  door  and  told  them  that  there 
was  an  out  House,  where  they  might  accommodate  themselves  as 
well  as  they  could,  but  not  having  been  used  to  such  company  (the 
Captain  having  been  a  Journeyman  Tanner),  she  insisted  upon  their 
never  attempting  to  come  into  the  House.  Some  of  the  common 
Men  thinking  their  Officers  were  not  respectfully  treated,  presented 
their  Pieces,  and  one  of  them  attempting  to  force  his  way  in,  she 
took  hold  of  him  by  the  shoulders,  and  pushed  him  fairly  out  neck 
and  heels.  Upon  which  they  were  struck  with  such  an  awe  and 
respect  for  her  that  they  made  no  further  attempt.  By  some  well- 
timed  kindnesses  to  the  Men,  she  soon  obtained  a  much  greater 
influence  over  them  ^ than  their  Officers,  whose  orders  they  often 
refused  to  obey  till  they  had  consulted  the  Lady.  At  length  she 
persuaded  thirty  of  the  number  to  return  to  their  home,  which  gave 
such  offence  to  the  Congress,  that  a  fresh  Party  were  ordered  to 
destroy  everything,  and  to  imprison  her  person ;  of  this  she  had 
notice  just  time  enough  to  escape  with  her  Children  and  a  very  few 
things.  Fortunately  she  was  situated  near  the  River.  General 
Howe  had  just  Landed  on  the  opposite  shore,  and  Mr.  Wilkins,  who 
came  from  England  the  day  before,  was  with  the  Army,  and  ready  to 
receive  them.  So  unexpected  a  pleasure  made  her  forget  all  the 
past.  This  extraordinary  couple  are  on  Long  Island,  about  ten 
miles  from  hence.     I  lately  passed  a  few  days  with  them  very  agree- 


^262        ^^LETTERS  FROM  AMERICA,  1777. 


I 


ably  \  she  appeared  happy  and  in  good  spirits,  though  just  ready  to 
take  to  her  Bed,  and  although  with  so  large  a  Family,  their  property 
has  been  for  the  most  part  cruelly  destroyed,  and  they  have  no 
chance,  at  least  for  a  long  time,  of  bemg  able  to  return  to  his  Estate. 
Desire  Mrs.  W.  to  shew  you  a  letter  I  received  from  him  yesterday, 
and  which  I  have  enclosed  to  her.  I  have  troubled  you  with  this 
account  as  a  specimen  of  the  treatment  of  the  King's  Loyal  subjects 
in  these  parts  have  been  exposed  to.  Our  Countryman  General 
Lee  (?)  has  committed  numberless  acts  of  cruelty,  which  he  will 
probably  make  some  atonement  for  by  the  forfeiture  of  his  worthless 
Life.  After  saying  so  much  you  will  be  surprised  to  hear  that  I 
have  lately  become  acquainted  with  that  renowned  Champion  of 
American  liberty.  He  is  now  a  prisoner  on  board  His  Majesty's 
Ship  Cefiturion ;  as  I  know  Captain  Braithwaite,  and  had  a  strong 
desire  to  see  a  person  of  whom  I  had  heard  so  much,  I  readily 
accepted  an  invitation  to  dine  on  Board.  Mr.  Lee  soon  gave  me  an 
opportunity  of  entering  into  conversation  with  him,  by  asking  me  if 
it  was  not  very  hot  in  New  York.  I  told  him  that  /  was  more 
sensible  of  it  from  having  lately  left  a  moderate  Climate.  This,  as  I 
intended  it  should,  led  to  other  questions ;  hearing  I  had  lived  at 
Ipswich,  he  inquired  after  several  Families,  and  particularly  Sir 
Robert  Harland's ;  Miss  Maryan,  as  his  great  favourite,  and  her 
melodious  voice,  was  powerful  enough  to  charm  the  savage  heart  of 
General  Lee.  We  had  a  great  deal  of  conversation  upon  the  present 
unhappy  dispute.  He  appeared  to  lament  that  the  differences  had 
not  been  accommodated  when  Lord  Howe  first  came  out,  and  said 
that,  had  his  Lordship  arrived  before  their  declaration  of  indepen- 
dency, everything  would  have  been  easily  settled ;  as  it  was  at  last 
prevented  by  some  trifling  circumstances.  He  told  me  likewise  that 
the  defeat  of  the  body  of  Hessians  some  months  ago  had  a  second 
time  prevented  it,  as  they  were  then  so  dispirited  that  nothing  was 
so  much  thought  of  as  making  their  peace ;  but  the  success  they  met 
with  on  that  occasion  he  thought  would  prove  a  great  misfortune  to 
them,  by  protracting  a  reconciliation.  He  shewed  me  a  plan  of 
accommodation  which  I  think  must  have  been  agreeable  to  both 
parties,  as  it  admitted  all  the  claims  of  Great  Britain  and  at  the 
same  time  provided  a  security  for  American  liberty :  this  plan  'tis  said 
was  communicated  to  Mr.  Washington,  who  thought  proper  to  sup- 
press it.  There  is  nothing  of  dignity  in  Mr.  Lee's  appearance  or 
manner  :  I  have  seen  him  twice ;  the  first  time  he  had  on  a  shabby 
old  waistcoat,  and  the  second  time  was  in  his  apartment  without  his 
coat,  in  an  old  ragged  Shirt.     This  I  am  told  is  from  a  dislike  he  has 


LETTERS  FROM  AMERICA,  1777.  263 

to  the  parting  with  his  Money.  He  is  sensible  and  clever,  appears 
-easy,  and  conversed  the  whole  time  I  stayed,  which  was  full  hours. 
In  my  second  visit  something  passed  that  led  to  my  admiring  the 

Ship,  on  which  he  said,  "  D n  them,  I  cannot  bear  the  sight  of  a 

Man-of-War."     When  you  meet  Mr.  R.  Trotman,  let  him  know  that 
I  have  just  seen  Mr.  Cook,  who  inquired  after  and  desires  to  be 
remembered  to  them.     He  came  here  yesterday  on  leave  of  absence 
for  a  few  days.     Let  Mr.  Trotman  know  likewise  that  although  Mr. 
•Cook  has  been  so  long  near  his  children  yet  he  has  not  once  been 
able  to  see  them  :  add  my  compliments  to  the  Family.     I  yesterday 
sealed  a  letter  to  Mr.  Kirby,  in  which  I  told  him  the  great  News,  and 
which  everybody  at  that  time  believed  to  be  true.    I  wish  you  would 
write  a  note  the  first  time  you  send  to  Ipswich,  to  inform  him  that 
it  turned  out  to  be  a  trifling  matter,  otherwise  it  may  be  circulated 
as  coming  from  me,  which  not  being  true  I  should  be  very  sorry  for. 
After  this  specimen  you  will  not  be  surprised  when  I  tell  that  I  have 
been  a  good  deal  of  my  time  employed  in  writing  letters  to  England 
since  my  arrival ;  I  despatched  twenty  at  one  time  and  almost  as 
many  since.     I  should  not   have  concluded   without    telling   you 
a  good  deal  about  myself  and  a  scheme   I    have  formed,  but  I 
recollect  that  Mrs.  Warren  can  inform  you,  and  I  think  I    must 
have  sufficiently   tired   you    already.     When   you    write  to  Ripple 
send  this   letter  to   Mary  Warren,  and  tell  her  I  wish  she  would 
suppose    it    written     to    herself,    and     that     it    may    bribe    her 
to  write  often,  particularly  as  her  Father  has  quite  neglected  me. 
Tell  my  Mother,  with  my  Duty,  that  I  thank  her  for  the  Letter  she 
favoured  me  with,  and  hope  she  will  consider  my  writing  to  you  as 
though  I  had  immediately  addressed  myself  to  her.     Before  I  con- 
clude I  must  relate  a  little  anecdote  of  a  Major  in  the  Rebel  Service 
lately  taken,  who,  having  been  wounded,  the  English  officer  to  whom 
he  surrendered  ordered  him  to  be  taken  great  care  of,  and  afterwards 
talking  one  day  to  him  expressed  his  surprise  that  appearing  to  be 
an  honest,  good  sort  of  man,  he  should  have  been  prevailed  on  to 
engage  in  so  bad  a  cause.     "You  are  right,  Sir;  it  is  a  very  foolish 
business.     Sir,  I  am  by  Trade  a  Butcher,  was  well  to  pass  in  the 
World,  and  lived  very  comfortably,  and  I  promise  you  if  ever  I  get 
back  to  my  Wife  and  Family  nothing  shall  prevail  on  me  to  go 
a-Majoring  again.     I  would  not  have  you  suppose  from  what  Mrs. 
W.  will  communicate  that  I  have  any  thoughts  of  continuing  longer 
in  America  than  I  find  is  necessary.     The  scheme  I  have  planned 
will,  I  flatter  myself,  soon  .enable  me  to  recover  part  of  my  losses, 
with  which  I  believe  I  shall  retire  to  some  remote  Farm  in  Wales, 
and  give  up  all  thoughts  of  transmitting  wealth  to  my  Posterity." 


264 


LETTERS  FROM  AMERICA,  1777. 


L 


How  frequently  do  short-sighted  Mortals  discover  by  their  own 
painful  experience  that  it  may  be  wretchedness  to  lose  what  it  was 
not  happiness  to  Possess.  You  will  make  my  civilities  to  those  who 
may  inquire  after  me. 

I  am,  my  Dear  Sister,  Most  affectionately  yours,  J.  W. 

My  love  to  Mr.  Jackson,  and  tell  him  I  hope  to  hear  from  him. 
My  kind  love  to  Matthew,  and  best  wishes  for  the  recovery  of  his 
health.  Don't  forget  love  to  the  young  ones.  I  am  afraid  this 
letter  will  cost  you  more  than  'tis  worth  :  I  will  endeavour  to  get  it 
franked  to  London. 


Letter   IL 


My  Dear  Brother, — As  I  have  written  to  you  by  almost  every 
opportunity  that  has  come  to  my  knowledge,  and  am  now  in  expecta- 
tion of  another,  I  am  preparing  for  it,  though  it  will  not  be  in  my 
power  to  write  so  fully  as  I  could  wish.  I  left  New  York  the  1 9th 
of  July  [1777]  with  the  greatest  part  of  the  British  Army  and  a 
considerable  part  of  the  Fleet,  which,  with  Transports,  &c.,  made 
up  about  300  Sail.  The  general  opinion  was  that  our  destination 
was  immediately  to  Philadelphia,  but  the  Admiral,  when  off  the 
mouth  of  the  Delaware,  received  some  intelligence  by  one  of  the 
ships  stationed  there  that  occasioned  his  steering  for  Chesapeake 
Bay.  In  this  attempt  we  were  very  unfortunate,  having  contrary 
winds  for  a  month,  by  which  the  Horses  suffered  accordingly,  and 
great  numbers  were  lost.  On  the  25th  and  26th  of  August  the 
Troops  debarked  in  high  health  and  spirits.  This  passage  is  usually 
done  in  less  than  a  week.  The  Bay  of  Chesapeake  is  beautiful 
beyond  anything  I  ever  saw:  the  Fleet  sailed  up  more  than  250 
miles  through  Virginia  and  Maryland,  a  great  part  of  which  bears  a 
strong  resemblance  to  England,  and  some  of  it  in  high  cultivation. 
If  I  had  been  otherwise  circumstanced  I  should  have  thought  this  a 
most  delightful  excursion — indeed  nothing  could  be  more  noble  than 
to  see  such  a  Fleet  sailing  majestically  up  so  fine  a  piece  of  Water. 
As  we  were  not  expected  there  was  no  sort  of  opposition — indeed  we 
sailed  through  parts  in  which  no  Vessel  of  any  size  had  ever  gone 
before,  and  in  which  the  Americans  thought  no  Ship  of  bulk  could 
float.  The  two  first  days  after  the  Troops  landed,  and  before  any 
sort  of  covering  could  be  sent  on  shore,  it  rained  day  and  night 
almost  without  ceasing  :  thus  circumstanced,  and  in  a  low,  Marshy 
ground,  there  was  great  reason  to  apprehend  the  Troops  would 
suffered^  greatly  :  indeed,  the  Provisioner  [?]  expected  that  half 


LETTERS  FROM  AMERICA,  1777.  265 

Army  must  have  fallen  by  sickness :  the  event,  however,  was  the 
reverse  :  the  Troops  have  continued  healthy  in  an  astonishing  degree 
ever  since  we  left  New  York,  notwithstanding  they  were  so  long  at 
Sea,  very  much  crowded  in  the  Transports,  and  have  since  our  land- 
ing been  exposed  to  all  weathers  with  little  or  no  covering,  for  the 
weak  state  of  the  H.  L.  [?]  made  it  necessary  to  send  all  the  Soldiers' 
Tents  round  by  Sea.     At  the  head  of  Elk,  10  miles  from  the  first 
landing,  part  of  the  Army  Marched  and  took  Possession  of  a  small 
Town,  in  which  was  found  a  large  quantity  of  Stores,  and  among  the 
others  as  much  Porter  as  would  have  sold  for  about  five  Hundred 
Pounds  :  this  Mr.  H[are  :  J.  W.'s  partner]  had  sent  to  be  conveyed 
to  a  Gentleman  in  a  neighbouring  Province  :  it  only  waited  for  his 
Boats.     The  Beer  was,  from  being  found  with  rebel  stores,  deemed 
a  lawful  Prize,  and  accordingly  distributed  to  the  Soldiers,  and  I  had 
no  other  Satisfaction  than  the  hearing  that  it  was  very  good.     From 
this  place  the  General  marched  in  search  of  Mr.  W[ashington]'s 
army,  and  on  the  very  day  we  moved  had  a  brush  with  a  small  body 
of  the  Rebels,  in  which  they  lost  50  or  60  Men.     After  this  the 
British  Forces  passed  unmolested  through  a  considerable  tract  of 
country,  the  Provincials  retreating  till  we  came  without   about  4 
miles  of  Philadelphia,  where  we  found  their  whole  Army  advan- 
tageously posted.     The  Troops  had  marched  sixteen  Miles,  heavily 
laden  with  their  Baggage,  and  were  much  fatigued  with  the  heat  of 
the  weather,  notwithstanding  which  Sir  William  Howe  resolved  to 
give  battle :  the  event  was  more  favourable  than  could  have  been 
expected,  for  notwithstanding  these  disadvantageous  circumstances, 
so  great  was  the  ardour  and  spirit  of  my  brave  countrymen  that  they 
obtained  with  an  inconsiderable  loss  a  compleat  victory  :  the  Enemy 
were  intirely  routed  with  great  loss,  and  had  not  the  close  of  day 
favoured  their  precipitate  retreat,  a  considerable  part  of  their  Army 
must  have  been  cut  to  pieces.    After  this  Mr.  Washington  dispatched 
1500  men  to  harass  the  rear  and  endeavour  to  cut  off  the  Baggage, 
but  the  General,  having  received  intelligence  of  this  movement,  sent 
out  a  party  in  the  dead  of  night,  who,  without  firing  a  Gun,  killed  and 
took  500  and  dispersed  the  rest,  after  which  the  General  marched 
on  to  this  City  [Philadelphia] ,  of  which  part  of  the  Army  took  quiet 
possession  the  25  th  of  [September]  last  month.     Since  our  arrival 
Mr.   Washington   with    his   made   a   furious   attack   upon   part   of 
the  British  forces,  and  it  is  supposed  intended  to  have  brought  on 
a  general  engagement,  but  they  were  driven  back  with  great  loss. 
In  the  course  of  our  long  March,  which  took  up  a  Month,  I  often 
experienced  distress  of  various  kinds.     I  had  but  twice  the  oppor- 

34 


266 


LETTERS  FROM  AMERICA,  1777. 


I 


tunity  of  going  into  a  Bed,  sometimes  sleeping  in  the  open  Air,  and 
thought  myself  well  off  if  in  a  tent  with  a  little  straw  to  keep  me 
from  the  damp  of  the  ground.  I  have  frequently  been  distressed 
for  a  morsel  of  Bread;  however,  with  all  these  difficulties  I  have 
been  perfectly  well,  and  often  highly  entertained.  I  find  I  can 
stand  fire  very  w^ell  \  however,  I  have  taken  care  not  unnecessarily 
to  run  into  danger.  I  found  my  affairs  here  in  an  uncomfortable 
situation.  I  had  money  independent  of  what  was  engaged  in  the 
Brewery  to  the  amount  of  ;£^2,5oo,  which  my  Attorney  without  my 
knowledge  or  consent  thought  proper  to  lend  to  the  Congress,  and 
which  is  totally  lost,  Mr.  H.  having  refused  to  purchase  the  premises 
we  occupy,  which  this  money  would  more  than  have  paid  for,  and 
the  lease  of  which  expired  at  that  very  time.  .  .  . 

[This  letter  appears  never  to  have  been  finished.] 


The  Book  Thief  Again. 

A  NOVELTY  in  the  way  of  window  bills  has  been  seen  in 
Edinburgh  recently,  the  superintendent  of  police  seeking  by 
this  means  to  enlist  the  aid  of  the  public  in  capturing  the  purloiner 
of  a  first  edition  of  *'  Sketches  by  Boz."  The  thief  evidently  knew 
what  he  was  about,  and  it  may  be  doubted  if  the  public  are  likely  to 
have  the  chance  of  helping  to  trap  him.  The  value  of  the  three- 
volume  original  "  Boz  "  is  now  something  like  ;£"i5,  and  the  octavo 
edition  in  parts  as  issued,  with  all  the  wrappers,  would  certainly 
bring  at  auction  ;^2o,  and  if  properly  heralded  might  find  a  pur- 
chaser at  half  as  much  again.  These  things  are  not  known  to  all, 
and  a  man  who  smuggles  away  a  first  edition  of  Dickens  in  his 
pocket  may  be  presumed  to  have  other  than  personal  use  for  the 
rarity. 


Early  English  Printing. 


*aESSRS.  KEGAN  PAUL  &  Co.  announce  that  they  are 
preparing  for  publication  in  September,  a  portfolio  of 
facsimiles  illustrating  the  history  of  printing  in  England  in 


the  fifteenth  century,  which  will  be  edited  by  Mr.  E.  Gordon  Duff, 
author  of  the  volume  on  "  Early  Printed  Books  "  in  their  series  of 
"  Books  about  Books." 

Such  a  series  of  facsimiles  has  been  edited  for  the  Low  Countries 
by  M.  Holtrop,  and  for  France  by  M.  Thierry-Poux,  and  the  chief 
issues  of  the  presses  of  Germany  and  Italy  are  now  being  illustrated 
in  a  work  in  course  of  publication  by  Dr.  Konrad  Burger.  In 
England  no  attempt  has  yet  been  made  to  do  justice  to  the  work  of 
any  printer  except  Caxton,  and  the  productions  of  the  presses  at 
Oxford  and  St.  Albans,  and  the  early  books  printed  by  Lettou  and 
Machlinia,  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  Pynson,  and  Julian  Notary,  have 
been  almost  wholly  neglected.  Thus,  quite  one-half  of  Mr.  Duffs 
book  will  cover  ground  which  may  almost  be  described  as  new,  and 
even  for  the  more  familiar  books  of  Caxton,  the  superiority  of  the 
collotype  process  in  use  at  the  Clarendon  Press  over  the  older 
methods  of  reproduction  will  make  this  series  of  facsimiles  indis- 
pensable to  every  student  of  English  printing  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  portfolio  will  contain  about  forty  plates,  giving  in  all  over  sixty 
facsimiles  the  exact  size  of  the  originals,  and  in  every  case  con- 
sisting of  an  entire  page.  In  these  sixty  facsimiles  a  specimen  will 
be  shown  of  every  type  used  in  England  before  1500  which  has  yet 
been  discovered,  and  reproductions  will  also  be  given  of  all  the 
printers'  devices. 

An  introduction  of  about  forty  pages  (large  folio)  will  be  prefixed, 


268 


EARL  Y  ENGLISH  PRINTING. 


containing  an  account  of  the  various  types  and  tracing,  as  far  as 
possible,  their  origin,  and  the  period  during  which  they  were  used. 
There  will  also  be  short  notices  of  the  printers,  giving  facts  necessary 
for  understanding  the  development  of  their  work.  In  order  to 
enable  the  plates  to  be  more  readily  used  for  comparison  and  refer- 
ence they  will  be  issued  loose,  in  a  portfolio.  The  size  of  each 
plate  will  be  15  inches  by  11  inches.  Only  300  copies  will  be 
printed  for  sale.  The  price  of  the  portfolio  to  subscribers  before 
publication  will  be  25s.  net.  Any  copies  not  subscribed  for  before 
publication  will  be  offered  to  the  public  in  the  ordinary  way  through 
the  booksellers  at  two  guineas  per  copy. 


Books  on  Printing. 


AN  exceptionally  fine  collection  of  books  and  pamphlets,  which 
are  both  technically  and  historically  illustrative  of  the  printing 
industry,  has  come  by  purchase  into  the  custody  of  William  Evarts 
Benjamin,  of  New  York  city.  More  than  twenty  years  were  spent 
by  George  Edward  Sears  in  perfecting  this  monographic  library.  He 
is  a  son  of  the  founder  of  the  prominent  establishment  of  Sears  & 
Cole.  Mr.  Benjamin  is  reported  to  have  paid  $25,000  for  these 
volumes,  mostly  rare  and  unique,  which  he  proposes  to  arrange  in 
chronological  order  for  exhibition  about  October  ist  of  the  present 
year.  Embraced  in  this  remarkable  collection  are  missals,  books  of 
hours,  manuscripts  with  miniatures,  fifteenth-century  books  and  wood- 
cuts, a  complete  Caxton,  examples  of  celebrated  typographers  of 
four  centuries,  bindings  of  the  great  Itahan,  French,  German, 
English,  and  American  toolers,  and  innumerable  text-books.  It  was 
the  rule  of  Mr.  Sears  to  keep  his  curious  and  instructive  literary 
gleanings  in  one  large  apartment  of  a  well-ventilated  mansion,  with- 
out any  gas-light  or  artificial  heat. 


-^j^^U^^^ 

% 

^^^ 

^H 

^M 

^^^ 

My  Upper  Shelves. 

Close  at  my  feet  in  stolid  rows  they  sit. 

The  grave  great  tomes  that  furnish  forth  my  wit ; 

Like  reverend  oaks  they  are  of  Academe, 

Within  whose  shade  broods  silence,  staid  of  mien. 

I  honour  them  and  hearken  to  their  lore, 

And  with  a  formal  fondness  view  them  o'er  ; 

As  ever  with  the  wise  they  have  the  floor  ! 

But  high  on  top,  all  other  books  above, 
The  precious  pocket  volumes  that  I  love 
Foregather,  in  a  Friend's  Society 
Whose  silences  are  pregnant  unto  me. 
The  poets  be  there,  companions  tried  and  true 
On  many  a  walk,  for  many  a  fireside  brew  ; 
The  golden  lays  of  Greece,  the  grace  urbane 
Of  Roman  Horace  ;  or  some  later  strain 
From  lyre  Elizabethan,  passion-strong  ; 
From  minnesinger  or  from  master-song ; 
And  down  the  tuneful  choir  of  nearer  days, 
The  chants  of  Hugo,  or  the  soulful  praise 
Of  Wadsworth  tranced  among  his  native  fells ; 
The  Orphic  art  of  Emerson  ;  the  wail 
Of  Heine,  ever  slave  to  Beauty's  spells ; 
The  voice  of  Tennyson  in  many  amusing  tale, 
These  and  their  fellows  poise  above  my  head. 
And  at  their  beck  imperious  I  am  led 
Through  all  delights  of  living  and  of  dead. 

Less  weighty,  say  you  ?     All  aerial  things 

That  float  on  fancy  or  that  fly  on  wings 

Are  small  of  bulk,  and  hence  soar  heaven-high  ; 


270 


MY  UPPER  SHELVES, 


They  have  all  manner  of  wild,  sweet  escapes 

From  bonds  of  earth,  and  so  they  do  not  die 

As  die  these  grosser,  more  imprisoned  shapes. 

My  upper  shelves  uphold  a  mystic  crowd, 

Whose  lightest  word,  though  scarcely  breathed  aloud, 

Will  all  outweigh  a  million  folios 

That  groan  with  wisdom  and  with  scholar-woes, 

So  long  as  love  is  love  and  blooms  a  sole  red  rose  ! 

— Richard  Burton,  in  Harper's  Magazine. 


H 


First  Editions. 


INTS  to  Collectors  of  Original  Editions  of  the  Works  of 
Modern  Authors,"  by  J.  H.  Slater,  editor  of  Book  Prices 
Current^  is  the  title  of  a  new  book  announced  for  early  publication 
by  Messrs.  Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  &  Co.  This  work  does  not  pretend 
to  be  a  scientific  bibliography.  In  dealing  with  the  writings  of 
Robert  Browning,  Mrs.  Browning,  William  M.  Thackeray,  Charles 
Dickens,  W.  Harrison  Ainsworth,  Coventry  Patmore,  Richard 
Jefferies,  R.  Louis  Stevenson,  George  Meredith,  Andrew  Lang,  A.  C. 
Swinburne,  Leigh  Hunt,  Douglas  Jerrold,  Gilbert  a  Becket,  R.  S. 
Surtees,  George  Augustus  Sala,  &c.,  it  regards  only  such  books  as, 
by  reason  of  their  scarcity,  are  now  in  demand  at  enhanced  prices 
by  the  present-day  collector ;  these  are  fully  described  and  appraised 
with  special  reference  to  the  protection  of  the  collector  from  spurious 
editions  and  imperfect  copies. 


Izaak  Walton's  Tercentenary. 


THE  angling  clubs  of  the  country  celebrated  the  tercentenary 
of  the  birth  of  Izaak  Walton  in  August  last.  This  worthy 
example  was  to  some  extent  followed  by  metropolitan  clubs,  for 
Walton  gained  while  fishing  in  London  waters  the  experience  which 
enabled  him  to  write  the  pleasant  book  that  immortalised  him. 
Izaak  made  the  art  of  luring  the  finny  denizens  of  the  brook  his 
favourite  recreation,  and  the  stream  he  most  frequented  for  this 
purpose  was  the  river  Lea.  The  first  edition  of  his  work,  "The 
Compleat  Angler,  or  the  Contemplative  Man's  Recreation,  being  a 
Discourse  of  Fish  and  Fishing  not  unworthy  the  perusal  of  most 
Anglers,"  was  published  in  St.  Dunstan's  Churchyard,  Fleet  Street, 
in  1653.  A  native  of  Stafford,  Walton  came  early  to  London,  and 
is  first  heard  of  as  keeping  a  small  shop  in  the  upper  story  of 
Gresham's  Royal  "Burse,"  or  Exchange,  in  Cornhill.  In  1624, 
according  to  Sir  John  Hawkins,  Walton  carried  on  business  as  a 
linendraper  "on  the  north  side  of  Fleet  Street,  in  a  house  two  doors 
west  of  the  end  of  Chancery  Lane,  and  abutting  on  a  messuage 
known  by  the  sign  of  the  Harrow."  About  that  period  he  married 
his  first  wife,  a  descendant  of  Archbishop  Cranmer.  His  second 
spouse  was  a  sister  of  the  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells.  He  then 
removed  up  Chancery  Lane,  where  he  was  described  as  a  sempster 
or  milliner.  Before  his  death  at  Winchester,  in  1683,  Walton  resided 
for  some  time  with  Charles  Cotton,  the  author  of  the  treatise  on  fly- 
fishing in  the  "  Compleat  Angler,"  who  had  built  a  fishing  house  on 
the  banks  of  the  Dove. 


272 


MISCELLANEA, 


The  Literary  Censor  Again. 

IN  a  recent  number  of  Free  Russia  a  quaint  little  story  is  told. 
Some  weeks  ago,  it  seems,  a  St.  Petersburg  magazine  published 
an  article  on  Ibsen.  It  was  simply  a  piece  of  literary  criticism — not 
a  word  did  it  contain  against  the  Throne,  the  Church,  or  law  and 
order ;  for  its  author  is  counted  one  of  the  wise  in  his  generation. 
None  the  less,  when  his  article  appeared,  the  author  was  promptly 
summoned  before  the  censor.  •*  I  do  not  approve  of  your  article," 
said  this  dignitary,  "  and  must  ask  you  never  to  write  in  that  style 
again."  "  But  why  ?  "  protested  the  writer  \  "  there  is  nothing  in 
my  article  contrary  to  law."  "  No,"  said  the  censor,  "  but  your 
interpretation  of  Ibsen  is  quite  different  from  mine.  This  means 
that  one  of  us  is  a  fool — either  I  or  you — and  I  will  not  stand  that." 


Books. 

Cloth,  leather,  paper,  ink,  and  gold 

Harbour  treasures  manifold. 
*  «  * 

All  the  wisdom  of  mankind, 

All  its  laughter  and  its  tears, 
Hawk-eyed  hopes,  and  fears  blind. 

All  that  is,  or  that  appears  : 
Love  and  Loss,  and  Youth  and  Age. 

Time — the  jest  and  test  of  God — 
Linger  on  the  mystic  page — 

Lurk,  like  seed  within  the  pod  ; 
Seed  which,  planted  every  day, 

Still  remains  to  plant  anew — 
Gives,  but  cannot  give  away — 

Nourishes,  yet  stays  with  you  ! 


What  bonds  such  boundless  wealth  can  hold  ! 
Cloth,  leather,  paper,  ink,  and  gold  ! 

Julian  Hawthorne. 


Old  Books  in  America. 


[from    a   YANKEE    POINT   OF   VIEW.] 

NEW  YORK  journalist  recently  dropped  into  one  of  the 
very  few  shops  in  that  city  devoted  exclusively  to  the  sale 
^  of  rare  and  valuable  books  a  few  weeks  ago,  and  said  to  the 
proprietor : 

"  Where  in  town  will  I  find  those  old  book  stalls  that  I  read  about 
in  the  papers,  where  collectors  of  first  editions  and  other  bookish 
treasures  go  to  look  for  prizes  ?  " 

"  There  aren't  any,"  said  the  book  dealer. 

*'  What,  no  old  nooks  piled  up  with  all  sorts  of  musty  volumes  and 
presided  over  by  fossils  with  grey  beards  who  innocently  sell  the 
scholar  for  50  cents  relics  in  vellum  worth  a  couple  of  hundred 
dollars?" 

"  Not  a  nook,"  replied  the  book  man.  "  If  you  want  to  buy  any 
valuable  books  you  will  find  a  few  places  like  mine  in  town,  where 
you  can  choose  from  a  collection  of  rare  and  valuable  books  what- 
ever you  like,  and  pay  for  them  sums  which  will  represent  every 
cent  of  their  value :  or  else  you  can  watch  the  newspapers  for 
advertisements  of  the  sale  of  collectors'  libraries,  and  go  to  the  auction 
and  bid  for  what  you  want  against  the  dealers  and  other  sharps,  who 
will  be  on  hand  armed  with  very  accurate  knowledge  as  to  the  exact 
value  of  the  books  to  be  put  on  sale.  But  if  you  insist  on  picking 
up  bargains,  you  will  save  time  by  getting  on  a  ferryboat  and  looking 
in  some  other  town,  for  you  won't  find  them  here." 

"  But  the  picturesque  old  book  stands  and  cellars,  where  rheumatic 

35 


274 


OLD  BOOKS  IN  AMERICA. 


I 


old  scholars,  who  conceal  wonderfully  sharp  eyes  behind  gold-rimmed 
spectacles,  prowl  around  in  assumed  innocence " 

"  Don't  exist,"  put  in  the  book  man,  sharply.  "  I  know  there  is  a 
mouldy  old  story  to  that  effect,  which  bobs  up  its  hoary  head  about 
once  a  year,  but  I  assure  you  the  story  is  a  pure  invention.  The 
rare  book  trade  of  this  town  is  completely  organised  and  is  under 
the  control  of  a  few  men,  who  combine  a  good  deal  of  learning  with 
a  very  accurate  idea  of  how  to  squeeze  every  possible  cent  out  of 
their  business.  No  New  Yorker  who  hasn't  got  a  strapping  bank 
account  can  '  collect '  in  this  town.  The  story,  of  course,  originated 
in  London,  where  there  are  plenty  of  the  sort  of  old  nooks  you  are 
asking  about.  The  old  book  trade  flourishes  over  there  after  the 
musty  fashion  you  speak  of,  and  rheumatic  old  gentlemen,  if  they 
dissemble  with  sufficient  skill,  can  occasionally  run  across  a  prize 
and  obtain  it  for  a  few  pence.  There  are  romantic  old  cellars  in 
Paris,  too,  stored  with  dusty  volumes,  from  among  which  one  of 
value  can  now  and  then  be  unearthed.  But  there  is  no  such  thing 
in  New  York.  I  have  visited  the  old  book  stands  of  London  and 
Paris,  by  the  way,  and  once  in  a  while  I  have  made  a  profitable 
purchase.  I  have  explored  the  old  stores  in  the  narrow  alleys  of 
Paris,  and  turned  over  thousands  of  odd  volumes  looking  for  one  of 
real  value.  Once  in  a  while  I  have  found  it.  In  those  cities  you 
see  the  venerable  collectors  with  bent  frames,  absorbed  faces,  and 
eager  penetrating  eyes,  turning  the  leaves  of  moth-eaten  volumes. 
The  story  is  true  enough  for  London  and  Paris,  but  it  doesn't  apply 
here,  in  spite  of  constant  efforts  to  make  it  appear  so." 

"But  there  are  old  stands  in  the  city,  and  plenty  of  them," 
persisted  the  visitor,  "  for  I  have  seen  them." 

"Oh,  yes,  lots  of  old  book  stands,"  said  the  dealer,  "but  if  you 
ever  stopped  to  examine  the  books  for  sale  there  you  would  soon 
become  disgusted  with  your  theory.  If  you  want  to  hear  some 
reasons  why  no  valuable  books  can  be  picked  up  on  these  stands  I 
can  tell  you  plenty  of  them.  There  are  very  few  old  books  in  the 
country  of  any  value  that  are  not  already  in  collections,  either  private 
or  public,  or  on  the  shelves  of  book  dealers  who  appreciate  their  value, 
and  are  holding  them  for  a  prize.  That  is  easily  accounted  for.  In 
the  first  place  our  country  is  young,  and  we  have  printed  very  few  books, 
comparatively  speaking,  that  have  become  valuable.  There  are  a  few 
first  editions  that  are  worth  money,  as  the  Federalist,  for  instance,  which 
will  bring  ^i,ooo  any  day.  But  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  these 
volumes  are  all  in  the  hands  of  collectors,  or  in  museums  here  and 
abroad.     In  the  second  place,  we  have  few  old  families  to  hand  books 


OLD  BOOKS  IN  AMERICA.  275 

down  from  generation  to  generation,  as  in  England  and  France.  We 
were  not  a  reading  people  when  these  volumes,  now  of  value,  were 
prmted,  but  a  working,  and  fighting,  and  struggling  people.  Books 
circulated  freely,  and  quickly  came  into  the  hands  of  collectors,  for 
we  had  book  collectors  almost  as  soon  as  we  had  books.  Collecting 
is  a  trait  inborn  in  humanity.  In  the  third  place,  English  gentle- 
men of  large  estates  and  a  fancy  for  collecting  began  to  gather  up 
further  treasures  here  at  an  early  period,  and  the  great  Napoleon, 
under  the  inspiration  of  his  many-sided  genius,  sent  agents  to  this 
country  with  loads  of  money  in  their  pockets  to  buy  up  for  the 
French  Government  collections  all  the  books  in  the  country  which 
they  could  lay  their  hands  upon  which  were  likely  to  become  valu- 
able. To-day  the  finest  collection  of  Americana  in  the  world  is 
owned  by  the  French  Government.  The  next  finest  is  in  London, 
and  many  French  and  English  families  have  superb  collections  of 
the  valuable  books  of  America.  Thus  it  is  that  there  are  practically 
no  valuable  books,  from  the  days  of  Franklin  to  the  present  time, 
stowed  away  in  old  garrets  or  in  the  possession  of  people  ignorant  of 
their  value,  which  are  at  all  likely  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  book 
peddlers  and  dealers  in  miscellaneous  books  on  the  corners.  And 
what  is  more,  I  do  not  believe  that  there  are  Americana  to  the  value 
of  v^2 5,000  on  the  shelves  of  all  the  dealers  combined  from  Maine 
to  Texas.  Most  of  the  valuable  books  are  in  foreign  hands.  Prac- 
tically, the  rest  of  them  are  in  the  hands  of  private  collectors  here. 

"  But  further,  if  a  stray  volume  of  value  should  find  its  way  by 
any  chance  into  the  possession  of  the  secondhand  book  dealers  of 
this  city,  you  need  not  flatter  yourself  that  you  can  pick  it  up  at  a 
bargain.  This  city  is  not  built  right  to  contain  '  nooks.'  It  is  long 
and  slender,  and  its  streets  are  too  broad  and  regular.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  find  a  spot  so  far  removed  from  the  highways  of  life 
and  business  as  to  fossilize  even  a  profoundly  ignorant  man.  The 
longer  he  stayed  in  the  business  the  more  '  fly '  he  would  get.  Don't 
suppose  you  are  going  to  fool  the  secondhand  book  man  on  the 
corner  very  much.  These  fellows  know  very  well  that  small  prizes 
drift  around  at  times,  and  they  don't  take  any  chances.  If  a  book 
is  particularly  old  or  in  any  way  difl'erent  from  the  ordinary  trash 
that  constitutes  the  bulk  of  their  stock,  they  either  slap  some 
ridiculously  high  price  upon  it  just  to  feel  safe,  or  else  take  it  round 
to  the  trade  and  find  out  about  it.  Oh,  you  needn't  expect  to  pick 
up  any  bargains,  young  man." 

"  Well,"  said  the  visitor,  "  if  what  you  say  is  so,  how  do  you  dealers 
get  the  books  to  keep  trade  afloat  ?  " 


76 


OLD  BOOKS  IN  AMERICA. 


"Through  the  auction  sales  of  collections  generally.  Take  the 
Barlow  sale,  for  instance.  Every  dealer  in  rare  and  valuable  books 
visited  that,  you  may  be  sure.  Of  course,  we  had  to  pay  a  pretty 
fair  price,  but,  as  a  rule,  each  of  us  got  about  what  he  wanted  at  a 
rate  to  warrant  a  fair  profit  when  resold.  There  were  a  great  many 
private  purchasers  there,  too,  who  had  to  take  their  chances  with  the 
trade.  Occasionally  a  collector,  or  the  heirs  of  a  collector,  offer  one 
of  the  dealers  an  entire  collection  at  a  fixed  price.  That  is  another 
source  of  supply.  Then,  on  our  visits  to  London  and  Paris,  we  pick 
up  stray  volumes  of  Americana  of  some  value  and  fetch  them  back 
to  their  native  shores.  But  the  term  Americana,  you  know,  is  not 
confined  to  works  printed  in  America.  Works  printed  abroad  about 
America  also  come  under  that  head.  These  go  back  to  colonial 
times,  even  before,  and  comprise  some  of  the  most  valuable  works. 
We  pick  them  up  in  London  and  Paris,  both  on  the  stalls  and  at 
auction  sales,  and  bring  them  over.  But  you  know  the  business  in 
rare  and  valuable  books  isn't  confined  to  Americana.  We  deal  in 
the  gems  of  all  countries  and  literatures,  but  it's  just  as  hard  to  pick 
up  foreign  prizes  at  the  secondhand  book  stores  as  it  is  to  get  hold 
of  valuable  American  prints. 

"  There  is  still  another  reason  why  you  will  have  bad  luck  at  the 
stands.  There  are  in  this  city  about  half  a  dozen  old  fellows  who 
deal  in  rare  books  in  a  very  small  way.  They  have  neither  capital 
nor  shops.  They  are  free  lances.  In  the  trade  they  are  called 
'  feeders.'  They  are  pretty  good  judges  of  what  constitutes  a  valuable 
book.  Their  business  is  to  mouse  around  wherever  it  is  at  all  likely 
that  a  book  of  any  worth  can  be  got  at,  buy  it,  and  then  show  it 
among  individual  collectors  and  regular  dealers.  They  attend  all 
the  auction  sales  and  watch  like  cats.  If  they  see  something  rare 
going  cheap,  they  will  put  in  a  bid  at  the  last  minute  and  follow  it  up 
as  far  as  their  judgment  warrants.  If  they  get  it,  then  they  peddle 
it  around.  They  are  rough  on  the  individual  collectors  at  auction 
sales,  I  tell  you,  for  they  make  them  pay  high  for  many  a  coveted 
prize  that  otherwise  would  have  been  obtained  at  a  low  rate.  Well, 
these  '  feeders,'  during  the  intervals  between  book  auctions  and  private 
sales,  manage  to  keep  a  pretty  sharp  eye  on  such  of  the  secondhand 
shops  as  are  at  all  likely  to  get  hold  of  anything  out  of  the  common 
order.  Once  in  a  while  they  do  strike  something  that  may  be  worth 
.^5  or  .^lo.  They  either  manage  to  buy  it  in  at  a  price  which  will 
leave  a  margin,  or  else  they  put  the  book  man  on  his  guard.  In 
either  event  they  make  it  rough  hoeing  for  the  individual  who  thinks 
he  may  pick  up  a  bargain  by  hanging  around  old  book  stalls." 


I 


OLD  BOOKS  IN  AMERICA.  277 

The  dealer  chewed  on  a  toothpick  for  a  few  minutes,  while  he 
allowed  his  eyes  to  rest  lovingly  on  a  small  set  of  volumes  which 
he  had  bought  of  a  private  collector  that  morning  for  ^150.  Then 
he  said : 

"  You  asked  me  about  the  conditions  governing  the  trade  in  rare 
and  valuable  books  in  this  town,  and  I  have  dealt  with  a  favourite 
and  poetic  belief  held  by  many  thousands  of  people  in  an  iconoclastic, 
perhaps  a  rather  brutal  way.  But  I  have  given  you  facts.  Now  I 
will  throw  a  sop  to  sentiment.  There  is  more  or  less  collecting  at  the 
secondhand  shops,  attended  by  many  picturesque  incidents  when 
viewed  through  an  artist's  eye.  The  collectors  are  not  collectors  of 
rare  and  valuable  books,  as  that  term  is  used.  They  are  not  search- 
ing for  covers,  or  manuscripts,  or  curiosities,  or  Americana,  or  first 
editions,  or  indeed  for  any  books  of  literary  value  or  of  recognised 
worth.  They  are  special  collectors,  monomaniacs,  mild  cranks. 
They  are  mighty  picturesque  in  their  way,  particularly  when  haggling 
nervously  over  the  price  of  some  old  book  that  a  dealer  in  rare  books 
wouldn't  look  at  a  second  time,  which  the  secondhand  book  man 
would  almost  give  away  if  he  hadn't  been  keen  enough  to  perceive 
that  he  could  sell  to  the  anxious  old  fellow  before  him  at  a  big  price 
if  he  worked  his  cards  right.  Many  of  these  men  are  retired  college 
professors  who  have  dealt  in  special  branches  all  their  lives,  and  in 
their  old  age  are  riding  them  for  hobbies.  They  are  all  specialists 
of  one  sort  or  another.  One  is  a  mathematician,  and  in  his  old 
age  is  buying  up  all  the  old  books  on  mathematics  he  can  find. 
Another  is  after  botanical  books,  and  another  has  a  taste  for  works 
on  the  occult  sciences.  Here  is  a  man  who  has  gone  crazy  on 
Chaucer.  He  cannot  buy  the  valuable  editions  of  the  poet,  but 
he  has  an  ambition  to  own  every  other  edition.  Here  is  another 
fellow  who  dotes  on  Walt  Whitman,  and  spends  most  of  his  life 
hunting  up  editions  of  his  works.  There  is  no  end  to  the  collectors 
of  specialties,  more  or  less  worthless,  and  no  end  to  the  specialties 
collected.  Many  a  scholarly  man  has  gathered  up  through  his  life  a 
fairly  complete  collection  of  his  specialty,  and  now  is  after  two  or 
three  particular  volumes.  He  will  often  spend  years  in  looking  for 
these  volumes,  and  his  face  is  familiar  at  every  secondhand  book 
stall  in  the  city.  Once  in  a  while  he  finds  his  prize.  Then  his 
hand  shakes,  his  eyes  brighten,  and  his  voice  trembles  with  excite- 
ment, while  the  unscrupulous  vendor  sizes  up  his  eagerness  and  his 
general  appearance,  and  names  the  biggest  price  he  thinks  he  can 
secure. 

"  These  old  men  drop  off  by  degrees,  generally  with  the  ambition 


278 


OLD  BOOKS  IN  AMERICA. 


I 


of  their  later  years  unsatisfied.  Then  the  heirs  sell  his  books  back 
to  the  dealer  for  a  few  cents  each,  and  they  are  piled  among  the 
other  trash  on  the  shelves  till  another  old  man  with  a  similar  hobby 
turns  up.  But  that's  about  the  only  sort  of  collecting  done  at  the 
alleged  '  old  nooks  '  of  New  York." 


Books  in  Rio  de  la  Plata. 


MR.  HIERSEMANN,  of  Leipzig,  announces  J.  F.  Medina's 
"  Historia  y  Bibliografia  de  la  Imprenta  a  el  Antigus 
Vireinado  de  Rio  de  la  Plata,"  a  large  folio,  with  613  pages  of  letter- 
press with  about  200  plates  and  woodcuts  in  the  text. 

This  luxuriously  printed  work  of  high  importance  for  the  history 
of  Typography  in  America,  treating,  as  it  does,  of  the  art  of  printing 
in  the  ancient  Vireinado  del  Rio  de  la  Plata  since  its  introduction 
into  Paraguay  by  the  Jesuits  in  1701,  and  into  Cordoba  in  1766,  up 
to  the  last  productions  of  the  English  presses  in  Montevideo  from 
1806  to  1807,  and  in  Buenos  Ayres  18 10.  The  volume  is  profusely 
illustrated  with  reproductions  (in  heliotype)  of  engravings  in  copper 
and  on  wood,  of  autographs,  title-pages,  and  full  pages  of  the  books 
described  as  specimens  of  types.  By  rendering  detailed  account  of 
the  ornamental  part  of  the  reproduced  works  the  book  may  claim  to 
form  a  "  History  of  the  South  American  Graphic  Arts,"  and  by  repro- 
ducing a  great  number  of  facsimiles  of  contemporaneous  portraits 
and  autographs  of  eminent  persons  and  historical  documents  to  be 
an  important  source  for  the  general  history  of  South  America.  The 
volume  forms  the  second  part  of  a  work  planned  in  great  style : 
•'  Historia  y  Bibliographia  de  la  Imprenta  en  la  America  Espahola," 
the  first  part  of  which  (treating  on  Chile)  was  issued  at  Santiago  in 
1 89 1,  and  may  now  be  had  at  about  ^^3.  The  publication  of  a 
third  part  dealing  with  Lima  during  the  years  1 584-1810  is 
announced  by  the  author.  The  present  volume  bears  also  the  title  : 
"  Anales  del  Museo  de  la  Plata,  vol.  IIL" 


■- 


A  Small  Book. 


VOLUME  that  may  fairly  claim  to  be  the  smallest  book  in 
the  world  is  in  the  possession  of  a  New  York  collector. 
Mr.  Bait,  the  discoverer  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  bookworm,  says 
that  in  his  forty  years'  experience  with  rare  and  curious  volumes  he 
has  never  seen  or  heard  of  another  book  so  small  as  this  one. 
Other  experts  say  the  same.  Its  title  is  as  follows,  and,  by  the  way, 
needs  to  be  read  with  a  magnifying  glass  : 

"The  English  Bijou  Almanack  for  1837.  Poetically  illustrated 
by  L.  E.  L.     London  :  Schloss,  42  Great  Russell  Street." 

The  little  book  measures  just  three-quarters  of  an  inch  in  height, 
is  half  an  inch  wide  and  one-eighth  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  The 
**  L.  E.  L."  was  Miss  Letitia  Elizabeth  Landon,  a  writer  of  pretty 
verses  once  extensively  read  but  now  almost  forgotten.  Her  sad 
marriage  and  subsequent  death  are  familiar  to  the  student  of 
Victorian  literature.  Several  of  her  poems  were  printed  in  the 
Bijou  for  the  first  time,  and  were  not  reprinted  in  her  collected 
works.  These  gave  this  tiny  almanac  added  dignity — if  anything  so 
small  can  be  called  dignity — as  a  first  edition. 

The  almanac  was  issued  as  a  souvenir  of  Queen  Victoria's  acces- 
sion to  the  throne  of  Great  Britain,  and  is  dedicated  to  Her  Most 
Gracious  Majesty,  "by  permission,"  of  course.  It  would  be  an 
awful  crime  in  England  to  dedicate  a  book  to  the  sovereign  without 
orders. 

Turning  to  the  contents  of  the  volume  it  is  surprising  how  much 
information  is  packed  in  so  small  a  compass.  In  all  thirty-seven 
leaves  are  included.  One  page  is  devoted  to  the  dedication,  another 
to  the  title,  and  the  balance  to  the  almanac  proper,  several  pages  of 
music,  some  portraits,  including  one  of  James  Fenimore  Cooper, 
and  the  aforesaid  "  Poetical  Illustrations." 


A  SMALL  BOOK. 


I 


The  whole  volume  is  a  beautiful  example  of  miniature  engraving, 
while  the  music  and  the  portraits  are  really  wonderful.  As  Miss 
Landon  says  in  the  "  address  :  " 


*'  We  dream  no  more  that  fairies  dwell 
In  the  white  lily's  fragrant  cell ; 
And  yet  our  little  book  seems  planned 
By  elfin  touch  in  elfin  land, 
And  sent  by  Oberon,  I  ween, 
An  offering  to  our  English  Queen. " 


The  almanac  contains  the  usual  information  as  to  sunset  and 
sunrise,  the  tides,  church  festivals  and  saints'  days,  beside  noting 
remarkable  historical  occurrences. 

It  seems  rather  poor  taste  to  have  reminded  the  young  queen  that 
on  Monday,  January  30,  King  Charles  I.  was  beheaded,  and  super- 
fluous information  to  her  that  on  the  next  day  "  Hilary  term  ends." 
The  queen's  birthday,  May  24,  is  chronicled  as  follows  : 

"May  24,  Princess  Victoria,  of  age  to  reign  1837." 

After  the  almanac  comes  a  list  of  the  birthdays  of  the  royal 
family,  a  list  of  European  sovereigns,  and  portraits,  including,  besides 
the  one  of  Cooper  already  mentioned,  Mary  Somerville,  Coleridge,. 
Von  Haumer,  Goethe  and  Mme,  Malibran. 

Other  pages  are  filled  with  lists  of  the  places  of  amusement  and 
theatres  in  London,  scientific  institutions,  &c.  Of  Cooper,  Miss 
Landon  says : 

"  He  was  the  first  who  ever  told 

The  history  of  those  warriors  bold — 
The  dark,  stern  race,  whose  fated  age 
Has  little  left  besides  his  page. 
And  he  has  told  how  death  and  toil 
Were  round  the  settlers  on  the  soil, 
Who  left  their  native  vales  to  be 
Free,  as  they  even  now  are  free. 
Now,  in  the  great  and  glorious  hour, 
That  yet  awaits  Columbia's  power, 
When,  save  his  line,  the  past  is  dim — 
Now  she  will  read  her  youth  in  him." 

The  binding  deserves  a  word.  It  is  of  morocco,  and  quite  prettily 
tooled,  with  an  elaborate  gold  pattern.  The  lettering  is  along  the 
back,  while  the  edges  are  gilt.  The  present  copy,  which  is  said 
to  be  unique,  has  been  carefully  preserved  in  a  satin-lined  case 
especially  made  for  it,  and  is  in  very  fine  condition.  It  is  valued  at 
$50,  says  its  owner. 


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Embroidery  on  Book  Covers. 

HE  art  of  embroidery  is  probably  the  oldest  of  all  the  arts, 
and  its  existence  during  the  earliest  ages  has  been  frequently 
attested  by  the  discovered  remains  of  the  most  primitive 
races,  as  well  as  of  the  more  cultured  peoples,  such  as  the  Assyrians, 
Egyptians,  and  Chinese.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  practised  it  very 
extensively,  and  the  early  Christians  considered  it  one  of  the  most 
useful  and  refining  of  women's  pursuits.  The  Emperor  Theodosius 
I.  framed  laws  concerning  the  importation  of  silk  for  embroidery  into 
the  Byzantine  Empire,  and  laid  down  regulations  for  the  employment 
of  labour  in  the  gyncecea^  or  public  weaving  and  embroidery  rooms 
connected  with  the  women's  apartments  in  great  houses.  During 
the  Middle  Ages  embroidery  was  carefully  exercised  as  a  fine  art,  and 
regularly  taught  in  almost  all  conventual  establishments ;  indeed,  it 
is  to  the  Church  that  the  credit  must  be  given  for  keeping  the  art 
alive  up  till  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  when  it  was  almost  wholly 
in  the  hands  of  cloistered  women.  England,  especially  from  very 
early  times,  was  celebrated  for  the  fineness  of  her  embroideries,  and 
Rome  frequently  had  recourse  to  this  country  for  the  choicest  eccle- 
siastical vestments,  which  she  could  not  procure  of  such  a  splendid 
character  elsewhere. 

When  the  art  was  first  applied  to  book  covers  is  not  known,  but 
the  oldest  known  specimen  of  embroidered  work  is  English — a  Latin 
Psalter  worked  in  chain  stitch,  which  belonged  to  Anne  de  Felbrigge, 
a  nun  in  the  convent  of  Brusyard,  Suff'olk,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  This  curious  old  piece  of  pictured  work  lies  in  the 
British  Museum,  let  into  a  leather  cover  for  preservation.  The  next 
earliest  is  the  cover  of  "  Fichetus  Rhetoricorum,"  printed  in  Paris, 
147 1,  which  bears  the  coat  of  arms  of  Felice  Peretti,  Cardinal  de 

36 


282  EMBROIDER  Y  ON  BOOK  CO  VERS. 


Montalte,  afterwards  Pope  Sixtus  V.  A  magnificent  English  em- 
broidered binding  is  that  of  a  folio  Bible,  1607,  from  the  collection 
of  the  late  E.  H.  Lawrence,  Esq.,  depicting  the  temptation  and  fall 
of  Eve  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  work  being  filled  in  with  birds 
and  animals,  among  which  is  the  unicorn ;  the  design  is  called  "A 
Dreame."  One  of  the  finest  patterned  embroideries  on  books  is  that 
on  the  plum-coloured  velvet  cover  of  "  Opera  Fransisci "  (Bacon's- 
works),  1623,  which  has  a  fine  border,  corners,  and  centrepiece,, 
worked  in  *'  couchings  "  of  cord  and  "  purl." 

With  such  specimens  of  ornamental,  pictorial,  and  heraldic  work,, 
the  suitability  of  embroidery  for  book  ornamentation  is  apparent,  and 
it  only  needs  a  proper  consideration  of  the  best  materials  to  enable 
any  lady  ordinarily  skilled  with  the  needle  to  produce  for  herself 
some  choice  and  dainty  book  cover,  or  loose  case,  for  the  reception 
of  a  cherished  book.  The  great  difficulty  nowadays  is  to  get  any 
material  which  can  compare  with  the  stuffs  used  in  bygone  times,  at 
once  stout,  firm,  soft,  and  pure,  free  from  the  artificial  muck  that  is 
commonly  used  for  dressing.  Velvet,  silk,  and  linen  are  the  best 
materials  for  the  ground,  and  perhaps  nothing  is  at  once  so  suitable 
and  so  rich  in  appearance  as  velvet.  Where  it  came  from  at  first  is 
not  known,  but  the  earliest  known  in  England  came  from  the  south 
of  Spain,  though  it  was  little  employed  here  until  towards  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century.  Hand-woven  linen  is  next  best,  especially 
where  the  surface  is  to  be  covered  over  with  silk  work,  and  a  very 
good  quality  is  that  woven  at  Langdale,  though  commonly  a  coarser 
kind,  more  loosely  woven,  was  used,  with  a  semi-bleached,  creamy 
tint.  Silk  should  be  quite  free  from  any  artificial  stiffness,  and  that 
of  the  hand-loom  is  always  to  be  preferred  to  the  machine-made 
article ;  even  a  piece  of  a  good  old  dress  will  work  up  better  than 
most  new  material.  Satin  looks  well,  but  it  is  very  difficult  to  work 
without  puckering. 

For  threads,  silk  should  be  used — a  pure  floss  silk,  which,  though 
more  difficult  to  handle  than  twisted  silk,  gives  better  results  than 
other  kinds ;  but  beware  of  the  more  delicate  shades  of  modern, 
make,  that  look  very  beautiful  when  new,  but  which  will  not  stand 
exposure  to  the  light ;  the  fewer  the  tints  of  intermediate  hues  the 
better,  as  only  the  stronger  colours  are  enduring.  Gold  and  silver 
thread  is  also  used,  but  silver  tarnishes  very  rapidly,  and  should  be 
left  out  of  consideration.  The  gold  thread,  called  "  passing,"  used 
also  for  "  purl,"  a  material  imported  first  from  Italy  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  consists  of  a  gilt,  or  sometimes  silver  gilt  thread  wound 
round  silk  or  flax,  and  can  be   bought  ready  drawn.     Sometimes- 


EMBROIDERY  ON  BOOK  COVERS.  283 

Japanese  gold  paper  is  twisted  in  the  same  way,  but  this  does  not 
last,  and  even  the  silver  gilt  tarnishes  unless  specially  lacquered. 
The  best  plan  is  to  use  gold  "  passing."  Another  form  of  gold, 
known  as  "plate,"  is  that  of  thin  strips  of  metal,  which  is  either 
stitched  down  on  to  the  ground  by  tlireads  of  silk  of  the  same  colour, 
or  of  other  colours,  arranged  in  zigzag  or  waved  patterns,  forming  a 
sort  of  diaper  device,  this  is  called  "laid  work";  or  the  "plate"  may 
be  stitched  through  the  material  used  for  the  ground,  but  this  is  only 
successfully  done  on  an  open  texture  such  as  linen  or  canvas.  Some- 
times tiny  rings  of  gold  are  sewn  on,  or  spangles,  supposed  to  be  of 
Saracenic  origin. 

For  book  covers  it  is  generally  advisable  to  embroider  in  frames, 
as  a  more  equal  tension  of  stitch  and  squareness  of  design  can  be 
secured  than  when  the  work  is  held  loosely  in  the  hand :  no  small 
consideration  when  we  consider  the  close  inspection  to  which  it  is 
subjected,  and  the  necessity  for  its  corresponding  with  the  outlines 
of  the  boards.  Very  few  stitches  other  than  those  in  ordinary  use 
are  required,  the  most  effective  being  the  "  orphreys,"  or  raised 
stitches,  such  as  "chain,"  "cross,"  and  "tent,"  which  give  a  broken 
looking  surface  called  "cushion  work."  The  flat  stitches,  that  is, 
those  that  pass  or  overlap  one  another,  and  are  used  for  flat  surfaces 
of  even  colour,  are  called  "feather  work,"  and  include  the  "satin," 
"  stem,"  and  "  twist "  stitches,  which  need  no  counting,  and  the 
"crewel,"  or  long  and  short  stitch,  which  is  especially  good  for 
graduated  tints.  Relief  embroidery  is  secured  by  stitching  over  cords, 
or  pads  of  stuff  or  cotton  wool,  with  "  purl,"  or  by  "  couching,"  in 
which  cords  are  laid  side  by  side,  and  either  silks  or  "  plate " 
fastened  down  upon  them  with  silks  of  various  colours.  A  special 
style  sometimes  found  in  Persian  embroidery  is  obtained  by  the 
withdrawal  of  threads  and  button-hole  stitching,  which  gives  a  very 
<lelicate  and  beautiful  effect,  and  beside  these  there  is  the  "  tapestry  " 
stitch  for  covering  up  all  the  ground  so  that  no  part  appears. 

A  general  knowledge  of  the  art  of  embroidery  is  common  enough 
to  enable  any  one  to  commence  the  work ;  what  is  more  needed  is 
the  ability  to  design.  The  copying  of  floral  forms  is  all  that  ladies 
usually  attempt,  and  most  of  the  older  embroideries  have  been  either 
pictorial  or  armorial.  If  we  could  only  get  designs,  new  and  fresh 
arrangements  of  beautiful  and  harmonious  forms  with  a  relationship 
to  each  other,  embroidery  on  bookwork  would  not  be  a  thing  of  the 
past.  Some  few  are  doing  this,  but  it  is  an  occupation  deserving  of 
pursuit  by  many  more  whose  time  is  occupied  with  far  less  delightful 
fads,  which  afford  none  of  the  satisfaction  of  creative  effort. 


284 


EMBROIDERY  ON  BOOK  COVERS. 


I 


[In  connection  with  the  exceedingly  interesting  facts  dealt  with 
in  the  foregoing  article,  the  British  Bookmaker,  from  which  it  is 
taken,  gives  four  illustrations  of  characteristic  examples,  Old  Spanish^ 
Turkish,  Indian,  and  Persian. — Ed.] 


Umbrella  Literature. 

SUCH  a  prosaic  article  as  the  useful ''  gamp  "  is  not  without  its 
literary  devotees,  as  is  seen  from  the  accompanying  paragraph, 
which  occurs  in  a  recently  published  catalogue  of  a  London  book- 
seller : — 

"  Umbrellas. — A  large  and  varied  collection  of  plates,  illustrated 
cuttings,  caricatures,  coloured  drawings,  with  letterpress,  of  and  con- 
cerning Jonas  Hanway's  boon  to  his  fellow-countrymen — the  Um- 
brella. These  are  all  mounted  on  about  400  sheets,  and  form  a 
unique  assortment.  The  part  played  by  this  useful  protector  in  the 
East  (its  home),  is  shown  in  some  effective  Abyssinian,  Egyptian,  and 
Japanese  plates  and  cuttings.  India  reveals  its  employment  in  the 
ceremonies  connected  with  the  Order  of  the  Star  of  India,  and  in 
the  Durbars,  while  in  the  West  it  is  invested  with  humour  by  the 
good-natured  caricaturists  of  our  comic  journals,  by  the  inimitable 
Cruikshank,  and  by  the  too  short-lived  Seymour.  Alfred  Crowquill 
is  represented  by  a  series  of  comic  sketches  of  '  The  Tournament,' 
and  '  Phiz,'  Tom  Hood,  Leech,  Proctor,  and  others,  make  up  a 
worthy  gallery  of  mirth -provoking  artists.  There  are  some  old 
PoHtical  Cartoons  of  interest,  plates  of  the  curious  effect  of  squalls 
and  storms  in  disarranging  ladies'  attire,  as  well  as  some  amusing 
foreign  sketches  of  the  vagaries  of  the  Umbrella  in  different  hands. 
Infinite  pains  has  been  taken  to  bring  together  a  collection  of  amuse- 
ment and  geographical  interest,  &c.,  which  is  mounted  with  neatness 
and  care." 

For  this  comprehensive  collection  the  small  sum  of  thirty  shillings 
is  asked. 


■ 


Modern  Authors  and  Book-buyers. 


PEAKING  in  response  to  the  toast  of  "The  Printers  of 
New  York,"  at  the  banquet  of  the  printing  and  allied 
trades  held  to  celebrate  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of 
the  introduction  of  printing  into  New  York  by  William  Bradford, 
Mr.  Theodore  de  Vinne  said  :  "  You  are  all  aware  of  the  fact  that 
nearly  all  of  the  great  improvements  that  have  been  made  in  printing, 
have  been  made  within  the  memory  of  men  now  living.  They  have 
come  from  every  part  of  the  United  States,  from  England,  from 
Europe,  and  from  every  place  where  printing  has  been  done.  We 
are  all  inheritors,  we  are  all  adapters,  of  nearly  everything  that  is 
useful  in  printing.  I  do  not  wish  to  speak  so  much  about  the  in- 
ventions as  I  do  about  the  condition  of  the  printing  business  as  it 
now  exists  in  New  York.  I  shall  not  undertake  to  say  how  many 
newspapers  are  published  or  how  many  volumes  are  published  every 
day,  but  I  think  it  is  proper  at  this  time  to  raise  this  question.  The 
inventor  and  the  printer  have  done  a  great  deal  for  the  reading 
public.  What  are  the  reading  public  and  the  reader  at  large  doing 
for  the  printer  ?  We  have  magnificent  machinery,  we  have  every- 
thing that  is  necessary  for  the  promotion  of  sound  literature.  We 
are  called  upon  to  exercise  the  very  best  of  our  skill  and  industry  to 
get  out  good  books  quickly  and  cheaply.  What  is  the  writer  doing 
for  us  ?  Is  he  making  his  copy  any  better  ?  Do  you  get  any  clearer 
manuscript  than  you  used  to  ?  So  far  as  handwriting  is  concerned, 
I  should  say  no.  What  we  get  through  the  typewriter  is  better. 
The  copy  which  the  author  furnishes  has  not  kept  pace  with  the 
improvement  in  machinery.  Yet  at  the  same  time  the  printer  is 
asked  to  do  his  work  better  and  quicker  than  before.  We  are  asked 
to  make  bricks  without  the  proper  straw.     Too  much  is  expected  of 


286       MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  BOOK-BUYERS. 


I 


printers  in  regard  to  this  matter.  I  have  been  in  the  printing  office 
for  nearly  fifty  years,  and  during  that  time  I  have  had  occasion  to 
handle  the  copy  from  a  great  many  authors  and  from  all  ranks  and 
conditions  of  men,  and  I  find  that  the  compositor  and  the  proof 
reader  are  expected  to  do  more  work. 

"There  was  a  time  when  the  printer  was  merely  expected  to  follow 
copy.  Now,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  if  every  compositor 
were  to  follow  his  copy  strictly,  and  every  proof  reader  were  to 
imitate  his  example  and  neglect  to  correct  errors ;  if  books  were 
printed  as  they  are  written,  there  would  go  up  a  howl  of  indignation 
on  the  part  of  the  authors  as  when  the  first-born  of  Egypt  were 
slaughtered.  I  say  that  too  much  is  expected  of  the  proof  reader. 
He  is  expected  to  take  the  babe  of  the  author  and  put  it  in  a  suitable 
dress  for  the  public.  The  author  should  do  it.  Now  and  then  you 
get  an  idea  of  how  badly  copy  is  prepared  when  out  of  revenge  some 
newspaper  editor  prints  it  as  the  author  sends  it  in.  The  reader, 
when  he  reads  that  copy,  printed  as  it  is  written,  with  a  misuse  of 
italics,  a  violation  of  the  rules  of  composition,  lack  of  punctuation, 
&c.,  is  astonished  that  a  man  of  education  can  be  so  careless.  Of 
all  the  manuscript  that  comes  to  us  not  five  per  cent,  is  reasonably 
correct  for  the  press.  The  author  expects  that  more  than  nine- 
tenths  of  the  work  shall  be  done  by  the  proof  reader,  and  I  wish 
to  ask,  on  behalf  of  the  proof  reader,  a  little  more  attention  to 
the  preparation  of  manuscript.  The  people  who  furnish  the 
manuscript  are  not  doing  their  share.  I  think  it  is  an  imposition 
that  the  author  should  send  in  his  copy  in  such  a  condition  that 
the  proof  reader  should  do  more  than  correct  the  errors  of  the 
compositor. 

"What  is  the  reader  doing  for  us  ?  Printing  has  been  invented 
for  400  years,  and  yet  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  persons  who  know 
a  good  book  from  a  bad  one  are  not  very  many.  I  think  there  is  a 
limit  to  the  book-buyers  who,  if  a  man  was  asking  $1  or  50  cents 
more  for  a  well-printed,  well-bound  book,  would  give  it.  They  want 
printing  good,  but  they  want  it  cheap.  That  seems  to  be  the  logic 
of  most  of  the  people,  as  all  publishers  have  found  out.  I  may  say, 
too,  that  the  wealthy  persons  whose  business  it  should  be  to  have  a 
good  collection  of  books  do  not  have  that  appreciation  of  books 
that  they  ought  to  have.  There  are  houses  in  this  city,  and  in  all 
cities,  in  which,  when  you  enter  at  the  door,  you  are  struck  by  their 
magnificence.  You  see  luxurious  furnishings ;  you  see  hangings, 
Oriental  rugs,  collections  of  everything  that  is  magnificent  and  costly, 
except  books.     You  go  to  the  bookcase,  and  what  do  you  see  ? 


MODERN  AUTHORS  AND  BOOK-BUYERS.       287 

Probably  a  collection  of  Dickens,  Thackeray,  or  Scott,  bound  in  a 
skiyer  leather  and  made  hideous  by  gilt  and  Dutch  metal.  The 
buyer  probably  got  them  for  85  cents  a  volume  down  on  Sixth 
Avenue,  and  wants  you  to  at  least  praise  him  for  good  taste  in 
preferring  what  he  calls  a  full-bound  book  instead  of  taking  one  in 
cloth." 


"The  Best  Books." 

THE  Revue  Bleue  has  received  764  replies  to  a  request  for  a  list 
of  the  twenty-five  best  authors.     The  highest  numbers  are  as 
follows  : — 


1  Victor  Hugo    ...  616 

2  Moliere     563 

3  Shakespeare     ...  476 

4  Racine 475 

5  La  Fontaine 426 

6  Musset 426 

7  Corneille  400 

8  Goethe 393 

9  Voltaire    388 


10  Pascal 373 

11  Lamartine 352 

12  Homer    346 

13  The  Bible  331 

1 4  Montaigne 300 

15  Cervantes  288 

16  Michelet 282 

17  Balzac 256 


18  Dante 246 

19  Renan    246 

20  La  Bruyere    ...  245 

21  Flaubert 240 

22  Bossuet  239 

23  Rabelais 237 

24  A.  Daudet 214 

25  Virgil 207 


M.  Zola  received  194  votes,  and  after  him  came  Rousseau,  Taine> 
Thomas  a  Kempis,  and  so  forth. 


The  Hessian  Bookbindings. 

AMONG  the  new  books  announced  from  Germany,  we  may  men- 
tion "  Bookbinding  from  the  Hessian  Pictorial  Exhibition," 
illustrating  the  art  of  binding  from  the  fifteenth  to  the  eighteenth  cen- 
turies. The  text  is  by  Dr.  L.  Bickell.  The  reproductions  consist 
of  53  heliotype  prints  on  42  plates,  and  16  pages  of  descriptive 
letterpress  on  Dutch  hand-made  paper.  The  plates,  in  large  folio 
size,  are  mounted  on  stout  tinted  cardboard,  the  framing  printed  in 
black  and  red.  Only  one  hundred  numbered  copies  will  be  issued. 
A  new  edition  will  not  appear,  the  plates  having  been  destroyed 
and  the  type  distributed.     The  subscription  price  is  £^2>  15s. 


288  MISCELLANEA. 

A  Hint  to  Bookbinders. 

NEVER  cut  a  book  down  if  it  may  be  avoided  ;  rather  leave  a 
leaf  untouched  as  a  proof  of  your  care  in  that  direction. 
Some  binders  keep  the  shavings  of  valuable  works  in  case  of  being 
charged  with  cropping.  It  is  unfortunate  that  cropping  has  become 
so  common  that  binders  are  compelled  to  take  so  much  trouble,  but 
where  a  leaf  or  two  can  be  spared,  that  may  be  obviated.  If  the 
knife  dips,  or  runs  up,  watchfulness  will  soon  discover  it,  and  it  may 
be  remedied  by  padding  between  the  upper  part  of  the  knife  and  the 
plough  at  the  outer  side  of  the  cheek  for  a  dip,  or  the  inner  side  of 
the  cheek  for  a  run  up ;  but  a  very  little  padding  makes  a  great 
difference  in  a  cut  through. 


Mr.  Gladstone  as  a  Book  Buyer. 

MR.  GLADSTONE  evidently  does  not  allow  his  State  duties 
to  deprive  him  of  the  luxury  of  studying  second-hand  book 
catalogues.  Recently  Mr.  J.  Pollard,  bookseller,  Truro,  received 
one  of  his  catalogues  from  the  Prime  Minister,  on  the  cover  of  which 
the  right  hon.  gentleman  had  himself  written  the  following  note : — 
"  Please  forward  the  marked  lots,  if  subject  to  lo  per  cent,  discount 
for  cash,  to  Hawarden  Castle,  Chester;  the  account  to  lo.  Downing 
Street,  London. — Your  obedient  servant,  W.  E.  Gladstone."  April 
nth,  1893."  Eighteen  books  were  marked,  including  the  following, 
having  reference  to  Cornwall : — Edmonds'  "  The  Land's  End  Dis- 
trict, its  Antiquities,  Natural  History,  Scenery,"  &c. ;  the  Rev.  W.  S. 
Lach-Szyrma's  "  History  of  Penzance,  St.  Michael's  Mount,  St.  Ives 
and  Land's  End  District " ;  "  Memoir  of  Henry  Martyn,"  by  Jno. 
Sargent,  jun. ;  "  The  Anglo-Saxon  Episcopate  of  Cornwall,"  by 
Pedler  ;  Polwhele's  "  Traditions  and  Recollections "  ;  Blight's 
^'  Cornish  Crosses  " ;  Jago's  "  Glossary  of  the  Cornish  Dialect " ; 
Jago's  "  Cornish  Dictionary  "  ;  and  a  "  Cornish  Romance,"  by  I.  H. 
Pearce. 


I 


Our  Note-Book. 


HE  literature  of  Shorthand  possesses  many  curious  and 
interesting  items,  some  few  of  which  escaped  even  the  many 
years'  gleaning  which  the  late  Dr.  Westby-Gibson  devoted 
to  the  compilation  of  his  "  Bibliography."  As  is  very  well  known,  the 
most  popular  and  the  most  suitable  medium  by  which  the  young  phono- 
grapher  endeavours  to  "  get  up  "  speed  is  the  Sunday  sermon.  This 
medium,  however,  is  not  so  modern  a  one  as  is  generally  supposed. 
A  copy  of  what  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  reported  sermon  has 
lately  come  into  the  hands  of  the  present  writer,  and  dates  as  far 
back  as  the  year  1700.  It  is  entitled  "David's  Entertainment, 
or  the  Word  of  God  set  forth  in  a  sermon  lately  preached  at 
Dudly,  in  Worcestershire."  It  "  is  (without  alteration  of  a  word) 
as  taken  in  characters  from  the  Pulpit  by  a  Young  Maiden." 
The  text  is  taken  from  Psalm  cxix.  11,  "Thy  Word  have  I  hid  in 
my  Heart,  that  I  might  not  sin  against  thee."  Unfortunately  we 
have  no  means  of  discovering  either  the  identity  of  the  "Young 
Maiden,"  or  the  preacher,  or  of  the  nature  of  the  "  characters" 
which  the  reporter  used.  On  the  title-page  the  preacher  makes 
the  following  statement,  which  we  commend  to  the  attention  of 
the  students  of  the  period : — "  I  having  newly  published  three 
sermons  preach'd  in  Scotland,  taken  in  characters  by  this  same 
maiden,  when  about  thirteen  years  of  age,  and  two  lately  preach'd 
at  Dudly,  had  no  thoughts  of  printing  this ;  but  seeing  so  little 
profiting  by  the  Word,  not  only  in  the  country,  but  even  here  in 
London,  where  we  so  very  frequently  hear  the  Word  so  powerfully 
preach'd :  yea,  seeing  sin  so  abound  in  country  and  city,  I  am  even 

37 


290 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK, 


I 


constrained  in  my  mind,  to  print  this  plain  country  discourse,  that 
shows  you  the  cause  of  all  the  abounding  wickedness  when  the  Gospel 

is  preach'd." 

*         *         *         * 

"  A  Key  to  the  Family  Deed  Chest  "  is  a  phrase  at  which  a  good 
many  members  of  old  country  families  will  prick  up  their  ears,  as 
the  saying  is.  Unfortunately,  these  old  family  chests  rarely  contain 
anything  of  a  realisable  value,  for  old  documents  are  not  often 
synonymous  with  cash  properties.  They  possess,  however,  some- 
times a  very  considerable  literary  and  antiquarian  value  far  beyond  the 
family  in  whose  possession  they  may  have  remained  undisturbed  for 
centuries.  The  chief  difficulty  in  connection  with  these  documents  is 
the  easiest  and  most  effective  means  of  deciphering  their  import.  The 
proper  understanding  of  ancient  deeds  is  only  acquired  after  a  long, 
patient  and  painstaking  study,  as  every  one  who  has  consulted  some 
of  the  vast  materials  in  the  Record  Office,  or  elsewhere.  To  simplify 
matters,  Mr  E.  E.  Thoyts  has  compiled  a  capital  book  entitled 
"  How  to  Decipher  and  Study  Old  Documents "  (Elliot  Stock),  to 
which  Mr.  C.  Trice  Martin,  of  the  Public  Record  Office,  has  con- 
tributed an  interesting  Preface — the  book,  therefore,  may  be  regarded 
at  once  as  having  the  stamp  of  authority.  A  careful  examination  of 
the  book  itself  will  only  serve  to  justify  this  conclusion,  and  we  may 
at  once  state  that  it  will  prove  a  useful  handbook  for  those  who  are 
interested  in  Family  History,  Genealogy,  Local  History,  and  other 
antiquarian  subjects,  and  that  many  who  have  hitherto  been 
restrained  from  such  investigations  by  the  apparent  difficulty  of  the 
work,  will  find  in  its  pages  the  necessary  stimulus  and  guidance. 


As  the  author  points  out,  some  of  the  difficulties  which  beset  any 
one  who  studies  such  documents  for  the  first  time,  unless  he  be  an 
expert,  are  the  deciphering  of  the  ancient  and  unfamiliar  style  of 
writing ;  the  peculiar  abbreviations  and  signs  which  were  used  by 
our  forefathers ;  the  quaint  phrases  and  expressions  and  obsolete 
words  constantly  occurring  ;  the  arbitrary  and  old-fashioned  spelling ; 
the  use  of  letters  now  out  of  date ;  the  old  forms  of  foreign  lan- 
guages ;  customs  no  longer  existing,  and  other  stumbling-blocks 
which  to  the  uninitiated  are  always  vexatious,  and  often  cause  the 
would-be  student  to  give  up  the  quest  at  the  threshold  of  his  investi- 
gation. It  is  to  enable  the  more  or  less  experienced  student  to 
meet  and  cope  with  these  and  similar  difficulties  that  this  work  has 
been  compiled,  by  one  who  has  had  considerable  experience  in  re- 
search.   The  comprehensive  character  of  the  book  will  be  best  under- 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK.  291 

stood  from  the  following  list  of  its  contents : — Hints  to  the  Beginner ; 
Character  by  Handwriting  ;  Saxon,  Norman-French  and  Law  Latin  ; 
Old  Deeds ;  Law  Technicalities ;  Manor  and  Court  Rolls  ;  Monastic 
Charters ;  Parish  Registers ;  Parish  Officers  and  their  Account 
Books;  Books  on  Paleography;   Old  Letters;   Abbreviations,  &c. 


The  fourth  part  of  Mr.  Quaritch's  "  Contribution  towards  a 
Dictionary  of  English  Book-collectors,  as  also  of  some  Foreign 
Collectors  whose  libraries  were  incorporated  in  English  collections, 
or  whose  books  are  chiefly  met  with  in  England,"  deals  with  eleven 
more  or  less  eminent  bookworms,  the  most  notable  of  all  being 
William  Beckford,  of  whom  Mr.  Quaritch  reproduces  the  portrait 
engraved  by  J.  Singleton  from  the  European  Magazine,  1797.  Several 
of  the  entries  which  occur  in  this  part  relate  to  men  of  whom  very 
little  is  known  in  their  capacity  of  book  collectors,  and  whose  inclusion 
therefore  in  this  Dictionary  is  all  the  more  welcome.  Facts  concerning 
the  more  eminent  collectors  are  accessible  enough  to  students,  so  that 
the  real  value  of  this  publication  is  best  tested  by  the  character  of 
the  articles  relative  to  minor  men.  So  far,  the  editor  of  Mr. 
Quaritch's  *'  Dictionary,"  and  his  assistants,  have  found  themselves 
thoroughly  competent  to  deal  with  each  side  of  a  list  which  is 
almost  inexhaustible,  both  on  account  of  its  length  and  of  its  various 
ramifications.  So  far,  some  of  the  information  is,  through  force  of 
circumstances,  very  inadequate.  Of  Sir  Peter  Lely,  for  example,  only 
one  volume  is  chronicled  as  having  been  at  one  time  in  his  posses- 
sion— the  familiar  account  of  the  Voyages  and  Travells  of  the  Ambas- 
sadors sent  by  the  Duke  of  Holstein  to  Russia  and  Persia,  written 
originally  by  Adam  Olearius,  secretary  to  the  Legation,  and  of 
which  a  translation  from  the  German  was  published  in  London 
in  1669.  This  volume,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  writer  of 
the  notice,  Mr.  Frederick  Clarke,  bears  the  painter's  well-known 
autograph  on  the  title-page,  and  shows  that  he  had  a  liking  for 
literature  outside  his  own  technical  work.  The  volume  is  also 
interesting  because  Lely  apparently  preferred  the  translation  to 
the  original  German  of  his  fellow  countryman.  Mr.  Clarke  asks, 
"  What  other  books  have  found  their  way  from  his  library  into  other 
collections  ?  "  and  it  would  be  of  very  great  interest  if  an  adequate 
reply  could  be  obtained.  Of  another  collector,  who  is  almost  ex- 
clusively known  as  a  Scottish  Physician  and  Botanist,  Sir  Andrew 
Balfour,  1630-94,  Mr.  Clarke  supplies  a  few  particulars,  among  which 
is  the  fact  that  the  Brussels  (Brucelas)  edition  of  Cervantes'  "  Don 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK,  293 

Quixote,"  1 61 7,  in  two  small  octavo  volumes,  sold  in  Edinburgh 
in  1695  for  eighteenpence — a  transaction  which  we  commend  to  the 
attention  of  Mr.  Ashbee,  the  latest  and  most  thorough  of  Cervantes' 
bibliographers  in  this  country. 

*         *         *         * 

One  of  the  rarest  and  most  important  books  on  Costume  is  Jac. 
Kobel's  "Wapen  des  heyligen  Romischen  Reichs  Teutscher 
nation.  Der  Churfiirsten,  Fiirsten,  Grauen,  Freihen,  Rittern," 
printed  in  folio  by  Cyriacus  Jacob,  at  Frankfort-on-the- Maine,  in  1545. 
The  first  edition  of  this  splendid  volume  contains  one  hundred  and 
forty-four  large  woodcuts  of  flag- bearers  whose  flags  bear,  with  the 
exception  of  the  twenty-four  last  examples,  the  coat  of  arms  of  each 
state  in  Germany.  These  figures  are  admirably  drawn,  with  the 
bearers  in  different  attitudes.  Sotzmann  observed  that  in  these 
figures  we  have  a  past  master  at  his  very  best  in  this  phase  of  art, 
and  the  writer  even  goes  so  far  as  to  compare  these  illustrations  with 
those  of  Holbein.  Nearly  all  the  plates  are  signed  with  the  initials 
*•  J.  K.  "  ;  the  text  being,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  title  quoted  above 
in  Low  German  (plattdeutsch).  Through  the  courtesy  of  Herr 
Albert  Cohn,  the  well-known  bookseller,  of  53,  Mohrenstrasse, 
Berlin,  we  are  enabled  to  reproduce  one  of  the  most  characteristic 
€xampies  on  the  opposite  page. 

3fC  jfT  ^  2fC 

We  have,  on  two  previous  occasions,  spoken  favourably  of  Mr. 
Bertram  Dobell's  "  Catalogue  of  a  Collection  of  Privately  Printed 
Books  "  (54,  Charing  Cross  Road,  W.C.),  and  the  publication  of 
the  third  part  gives  us  the  pleasure  of  another  opportunity  of  com- 
mending this  admirable  list  to  the  attention  of  our  readers.  The 
present  part  includes  items  from  N  to  W,  and  in  interest  it  covers  nearly 
every  conceivable  phase  of  literature.  Mr.  Dobell's  long  annotations 
and  pertinent  extracts  give  the  book  a  very  fascinating  character  to 
the  general  reader  as  well  as  to  a  "  bookish  "  man.  One  of  the  very 
quaintest  articles  is  "  A  Righte  Goodlie  Lyttle  Booke  of  Frisket 
Fancies,  set  forth  for  Bibliomaniacs !  written  and  printed  by 
Edward  Rofle  at  his  Birth-place,  58  Ossulston  Street,  Somer's  Town, 
1 86 1  "  and  of  which  only  a  dozen  copies  (small  quarto,  pp.  viii.  and 
30)  were  printed,  for  one  of  which  J[^\  8s.  are  asked.  Bookish  also 
is  the  entry  of  Mr.  H.  N.  Pym's  "  A  Tour  round  my  Bookshelves," 
which  was  privately  printed  a  couple  of  years  ago,  and  which  we 
consider  the  author  ill-advised  in  not  publishing,  as  the  essays  are 
charmingly  written,  and  possess  all  the  best  features  of  an  author 


294 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 


writing  on  a  subject  with  which  he  is  thoroughly  in  love.  Mr.  Pym 
has  a  large  number  of  presentation  copies  of  several  eminent 
modern  authors,  and  a  few  facts  about  these  and  others  of  his 
treasures  would  be  very  generally  appreciated. 


A  Japanese  Bibliography. 

THE  honorary  assistant  librarian  of  the  Japan  Society,  Mr.  F. 
von  Wenckstern,  is  engaged  in  the  compilation  of  a  Japanese 
bibliography,  extending  over  the  period  1 859-1 893,  and  intended  as 
a  continuation  of  the  work  of  M.  L^on  Page's  "  Bibliographic 
Japonaise,"  which  ranged  from  the  fifteen  century  to  the  first  year 
of  the  period  to  be  covered  by  Mr.  Wenckstern.  The  bibliography 
in  preparation  will  include  only  works  in  languages  other  than 
Japanese,  not  refusing,  however,  to  record  the  works  of  Japanese 
authors  in  European  languages  on  subjects  not  relating  to  Japan. 
The  work  will  be  as  comprehensive  as  the  possibilities  of  literary 
production  and  the  magnitude  and  variety  of  the  subject,  and — 
following  the  example  set  in  Prince  Ibrahim  Hilmy's  "  Literature  of 
Egypt  and  the  Soudan  " — it  will  catalogue  not  only  books  and 
pamphlets,  but  papers  in  the  ''  Transactions  "  of  societies,  as  well  as 
articles  in  magazines,  reviews,  and  other  periodicals. 


K_ 


v^^^^^^^^^^^h. 

4p^^j||/i(Mr^^9^»  ^sn^ 

^S^eaaSPi 

^^ 

%>^^^^^^^^ 

^S 

^^3 

^.&JW^^^^4 

mwm 

^^^^^ 

A  MSS.  Chaucer. 


SPLENDID  and  unique  manuscript  of  poems  by  Chaucer, 
Lydgate,  Lord  Suffolk,  and  others,  written  between  the 
years  1440  and  1450,  on  paper,  came  under  the  hammer 
at  Sotheby's  in  June  last.  It  is  in  very  fine  preservation ;  and  it  is 
quite  unnecessary  to  dilate  on  the  value  and  importance  of  this  fine 
MS.,  which  is  so  well  known  to  students  of  early  English  literature. 
It  contains  notes  in  the  autograph  of  John  Stow  the  antiquary,  and 
has  been  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Askew,  Dr.  Wright,  Gough, 
Wodhull,  W.  Browne,  J.  Taylor,  Heber,  and  has  been  used  by 
Warton,  Ritson,  and  others.  It  is  in  calf  gilt,  folio ;  its  contents 
being : — 

I.  Lydgate's  Fable  of  the  two  Merchants. 
II.  Chaucer's  Expostulation  with  his  Purse. 

III.  Chaucer's  Ballade  to  his  Mistress. 

IV.  The  Question  of  Halsam. 

V.  French  Roundells  by  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,  when 

prisoner  in  France. 
VI.  Lydgate's  Order  and  Number  of  Fooles. 
VII.  Lydgate's   Propertyes  of  Horse,  Sheep  and   Goose, 
all  three  convented  before  the  Lion  and  Eagle 
AS  Judges. 
VIII.  Chaucer's  Assemble  des  Dames,  a  Moral  Tale. 

IX.  Chaucer's  complaint  of  Pyttye. 

X.  Lydgate  Translation  of  the  Psalm  "  Benedic  anima 

mea  Domino." 


296 


A  MSS.  CHAUCER. 


XI.  Another  Poem  of  Lydgate  on  the  Psalms,  translated 

AT   the   instance   OF  THE   BiSHOP   OF   ExETER. 

XII.  Hymn  upon  Christ's  being  the  true  Stone  upon  the 
Cross,  by  Richardoune. 

XIII.  An  Hymn  on  Christ's  Passion. 

XIV.  An  Ave  Maria. 

XV.  Chronicle    of    the    Kings    from    the   Conquest   to 

Edward  IV.,  inclusive^  in  verse. 
XVI.  Precepts  Phisicall. 
XVII.  Lydgate's  complaint  to  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  for 

THE  WANT   OF   MONEY. 

XVIII.  The  Duke  of  Gloucester,  his  Epitaph. 
XIX.  Of  Devotion  and  Christ's  Passion,  with  Prayers  in 
verse. 
XX  An  Advice  like  the  Proverb. 
XXI.  Deus  Naturae. 
XXII.  Craft  of  Love. 

XXIII.  Lydgate  on  Worldly  Honour. 

XXIV.  On  Wine,  Milk,  Oil,  &c. 
XXV.  On  Man. 

XXVI.  Aristotle  de  Regimine  Principum. 

It  was  purchased  by  Mr.  Quaritch  for  ;£"ioo. 


^ 


The  Management  of  Books.  ^ 


jERTAIN  friends  who  are  forming  a  library  for  a  gardeners* 
society  have  asked  for  advice  on  a  few  points  that  appear 
to  me  of  general  interest,  and  therefore  may  with  pro- 
priety be  treated  in  a  somewhat  general  manner. 

The  management  of  books  must  be  determined  in  great  part  by 
the  views  held  in  respect  of  their  place  and  their  uses.  I  sympathise 
fully  with  the  beautiful  bindings  and  the  glass  cases,  for  they  imply 
religious  veneration  for  the  noblest  monuments  of  intelligence  and 
sentiment,  for  books  approach  nearest  to  immortality  of  any  of  the 
works  of  man.  Temples  fall  and  mingle  with  the  dust ;  cities 
are  destroyed  by  war  or  perish  by  decay,  and  their  very  sites  are 
ploughed  over  to  obliterate  the  last  traces  of  their  remembrance ; 
sculptures,  pictures,  pyramids,  are  more  surely  touched  by  the 
corrosions  of  time  than  are  books.  The  "Iliad,"  composed,  say 
about  1,200  B.C.,  or  three  thousand  years  ago,  comes  to  us  with  a 
certain  assumed  completeness  and  integrity  that  separates  it  in  that 
particular  respect  from  every  work  of  man  of  anything  like  equal 
antiquity.  A  dead  Egyptian  has  a  better  prospect  of  interesting  us 
by  direct  evidence  of  his  former  existence  than  the  work  that  secured 
him  renown  in  his  lifetime,  for  his  work  has  perished,  but  the  mortal 
part  of  the  man  has  a  place  in  a  museum,  and  if  he  wrote  a  book 
we  are  more  likely  to  find  it  than  we  should  find  a  temple,  supposing 
he  had  built  one.  Glass  cases  kept  closely  sealed  with  suitable  locks 
to  protect  books  that  are  not  to  be  handled  daily  have  my  respect ; 

^  [This  article  was  written  by  the  late  Shirley  Hibberd,  who,  besides  being  an 
ardent  horticulturalist,  was  also  a  genuine  bookworm.  The  article  is  from  a  more 
or  less  specialist's  point  of  view,  but  the  rules  here  laid  down  admit  of  a  very 
general  application.] 

38 


298 


THE  MANAGEMENT  OF  BOOKS. 


but  I  never  possessed  one,  and  have  no  desire  that  way.  I  can  only- 
look  on  books  as  things  to  be  used  often  and  to  be  literally  in  all 
their  outsides,  insides,  purposes,  relations,  spirit,  and  visible  text, 
"  familiar  in  men's  mouths  as  household  words."  But  I  blunder  in 
my  hurry,  for  I  keep  some  books  for  convenience  and  because  of 
their  beauty  under  lock  and  key,  and  so  you  see  I  can  have  no 
quarrel  with  people  who  lock  up  all  their  books.  But  a  library  is  for 
use  much  more  than  for  ornament,  and  glass  cases  are  prohibitory  of 
the  proper  enjoyment  of  books.  They  make  it  difficult  to  get  at 
them.  They  are  like  the  freezing  reserve  of  some  human  beings  to 
whom  no  one  can  speak,  although  there  is  no  actual  prohibition,  and 
it  might  sometimes  be  difficult  to  say  why  when  we  encounter  their 
looks  we  feel  instantly  frozen  and  tongue-tied.  Therefore  I  vote 
against  glass  cases  and  bolts  and  bars  in  a  general  way.  When  there 
are  reasons  for  their  adoption  they  must  be  adopted,  but  the  true 
theory  of  a  library  is  to  have  the  books  on  open  shelves  in  the  most 
perfect  accessibility. 

My  book  cases  or  presses — call  them  what  you  please — are  fifteen 
in  number,  all  of  the  plainest  kind,  a  certain  few  being  not  only  re- 
spectable and  handsome  but  beautiful  and  attractive,  and  yet  with  no 
actual  adornment.  The  simplest  and  cheapest  I  call  "  stacks  ";  they 
consist  of  shelves  with  a  skirting  at  the  base  to  remove  the  lowest 
shelf  to  a  reasonable  height  from  the  floor.  In  the  carpentry  of  a 
stack  certain  principles  may  be  observed  with  advantage  if  space  is 
to  be  economised  to  the  utmost — as  with  me  it  must  be,  because 
the  books  threaten  to  push  me  out  of  the  house. 

We  begin  with  a  skirting  twelve  inches  deep.  Thence  upward,  in 
the  stack  now  before  me,  there  are  eight  shelves  of  books,  the  top- 
most row  being  98  inches  from  the  floor.  It  is  a  handsome  stack, 
covering  one  wall  of  a  room,  and  nowhere  projects  forward  in  the 
slightest  degree  more  than  the  width  of  the  books  requires,  the 
depths  of  the  shelves  decreasing  upwards.  In  every  case  the  space 
is  just  sufficient  for  the  book  to  slide  in  and  out,  for  to  waste 
so  much  as  one  inch  in  the  entire  stack  would  be  against  my  principle. 
It  will  be  understood,  therefore,  that  the  shelves  were  made  for  the 
books,  and  not  the  books  for  the  shelves;  in  fact  the  carpenter 
worked  to  an  exact  measure  and  cut  his  uprights  to  suit  the  narrow- 
ing upwards  of  the  shelves  in  this  way,  the  corners  being  rounded  in 
a  workmanlike  manner. 

I  will  give  the  measurements  of  the  several  spaces,  and  name  one 
book  in  each  case  for  an  example.  Lower  shelf,  resting  on  the 
skirting,  say,  No.    i   accommodating  "  Gardeners'  Magazine "  and 


THE  MANAGEMENT  OF  BOOKS,  299 

other  books  of  the  same  size,  14  inches ;  No.  2  accommodates 
■*' Encyclopaedia  Metropolitana,"  12  inches;  No.  3,  "Knight's  Pic- 
torial History  of  England,"  1 1  inches ;  No.  4,  "  Flore  des  Serres," 
10  inches.  No.  5  is  what  may  be  termed  regular  octavo  size,  9 
inches.  No.  6,  "  Loudon's  Gardeners'  Magazine,"  also  octavo  size, 
9  inches.  No.  7  and  No.  8  may  be  called  twelve-mo  size;  the  space 
is  6|  inches,  and  the  books  comprise  mostly  the  "  long  sets  "  of 
Chaucer,  Scott,  Byron,  Moore,  &c. ;  my  Scott  being  in  100  volumes, 
and  comprising  all  that  he  has  written,  with  Lockhart's  Life.  The 
length  of  the  stack  is  10  feet,  to  fit  the  space  allotted  it,  and  it  is  in 
three  divisions  of  40  inches  each. 

The  space  between  uprights,  say  40  inches,  is,  in  my  opinion,  the 
maximum  allowable,  and  the  stuff  should  be  one-inch  deal,  or  any 
more  costly  wood  you  may  have  a  mind  for.  When  shelves  exceed 
40  inches  the  stuff  should  be  stouter  than  one  inch,  or  in  time  the 
shelves  will  certainly  "  sag,"  as  I  know  from  experience.  And  this 
measure  happens  to  be  convenient  in  other  ways.  For  example,  one 
run  of  forty  inches  takes  a  complete  set  of  "Penny  Cyclopaedia," 
ditto  of  "  Flore  des  Serres,"  which,  being  discontinued,  will  require 
no  more  room;  and  the  Gardeners'  Magazine^  as  it  now  stands  in 
the  run  from  1865  to  1888,  fills  in  bound  volumes  exactly  forty 
inches. 

Having  a  greater  love  for  books  than  carpentry,  I  prefer  good  deal 
and  clean  work  for  my  book-shelves,  and  a  brown  oak-stain  and  a 
coat  of  varnish  give  it  a  respectable  finish.  It  would  surprise  some 
people  to  observe  how  thoroughly  beautiful  are  some  of  my  presses 
that  are  of  deal  only  stained  and  varnished.  Paint  is  detestable  ; 
good  carpentry  and  varnish  bring  out  natural  markings  in  the  wood 
that  make  the  grainer's  work  contemptible. 

From  stacks  I  pass  to  cases,  of  which  I  have  three  made  to  fit 
recesses;  they  are  in  good  Spanish  mahogany,  with  some  pretensions 
in  the  furnishing  way,  but  are  plain  enough,  for  the  books  make  them 
beautiful,  and  mere  ornament  would  render  them  mawkish.  These 
cases  are  on  a  principle  that  I  can  recommend  for  general  adoption. 
Take  a  plain  parlour  chiffonier ;  mount  on  it  a  stack  to  fit,  with  a 
neat  cornice  and  leather  fillets  to  protect  the  tops  of  the  books  from 
dust,  and  you  have  one  of  my  model  cases.  In  the  lock-up  I  keep 
books,  pictures,  papers,  all  sorts  of  things  that  must  be  in  order 
under  cover.  The  books  in  these  mahogany  cases  are  a  nice  lot,  in 
handsome  bindings,  and  they  are  such  as  would  be  termed  "read- 
able "  books,  adapted  for  enjoyment  at  the  fireside. 

The  things  I  call  presses  are  of  the  same  make  as  these  cases. 


300  THE  MANAGEMENT  OF  BOOKS. 

but  larger,  and  more  seriously  occupied,  and  contain  many  grim  old 
books  that  one  does  not  want  at  one's  elbow.  I  shall  briefly  describe 
two  of  these.  They  are  of  deal,  nicely  finished,  stained,  and  var- 
nished, and  I  will  venture  to  say  that  though  of  small  cost,  they  are 
good  enough  for  a  library  of  greater  pretensions  than  mine ;  they  are 
in  their  way  beautiful.  One  of  these  fits  a  wall  in  a  room  where 
serious  work  is  commonly  in  progress,  and  it  accommodates  big 
folios,  heavy  quartos  and  upwards,  a  large  proportion  of  the  books 
being  works  of  reference.  The  base  is  a  closet  with  sliding  doors, 
and  herein  we  stack  our  serial  publications  until  they  are  ready  for 
the  binder.  At  each  end  is  a  kind  of  tower  or  watch  box  ;  in  other 
words,  a  closet  the  full  height  of  the  affair,  and  within  are  shelves  for 
newspapers,  periodicals,  and  the  like,  for  these  are  untidy  things  when 
visible,  and  keep  better  when  put  into  their  proper  places  at  once  and 
excluded  from  view.  Our  tables  are  never  lumbered  with  heaps  of 
papers,  for  they  are  regularly  disposed  of  and  put  out  of  sight  in  the 
most  perfect  order  possible. 

The  other  press  is  of  similar  construction,  but  has  no  watch  boxes, 
for  they  would  be  of  no  use  in  the  office  library  where  the  old  books, 
and  certain  collections  illustrative  of  special  subjects,  are  housed 
apart  from  all  the  traffic  of  daily  life  in  a  sort  of  hermitage  of  their 
own.  The  capacious  closets  that  form  the  basement  of  this  press  is 
occupied  with  large  illustrated  books,  and  other  cumbrous  things  that 
must  be  kept  under  cover.  But  we  have  no  sliding  doors  here,  but 
doors  on  hinges,  fitting  well  to  exclude  dust,  and  kept  under  lock 
and  key. 

Sliding  doors  are  not  adapted  for  choice  purposes;  but  they  are 
useful  where  there  is  not  room  for  opening  large  doors  near  the 
ground  line,  and  where  a  little  dust  will  do  no  harm.  For  valuable 
books  and  papers  they  are  quite  unsuitable. 

Tall  stacks  are  inconvenient,  because  you  must  use  steps  or  mount 
a  chair  to  reach  the  upper  shelves.  I  am  compelled  to  run  up  high 
through  lack  of  space  for  fair  accommodation  ;  but  if  I  had  space 
enough  I  would  never  have  any  book-shelves  taller  than  a  man  of 
average  stature  could  reach  without  stretching. 

A  strict  classification  of  books  I  have  been  for  years  attempting  to 
accomplish,  and  have  got  near  to  it,  but  perfection  in  this  way  is 
absolutely  impossible:  So  far  as  it  can  be  done,  we  have  our  books 
in  classes,  thus  :  i.  General  literature,  including  poetry,  history,, 
fiction,  and  miscellanies  that  are  the  more  generally  sought  in 
a  good  library.  2.  Botany  and  horticulture.  3.  Geography, 
geology,    and    travels.      4.     Dictionaries    and    concordances.       5.- 


I 


THE  MANAGEMENT  OF  BOOKS.  301 

Shakespeare  and  his  illustrators  :  there  are  twenty-five  editions  of 
the  poet,  occupying  considerable  space,  with  all  the  more  important 
commentaries,  thus  necessitating  a  special  department.  6.  King 
Arthur,  Roman  Britain,  ancient  French  romances,  Gaelic  history, 
and  kindred  subjects.  We  have  some  other  classes,  that  are 
not  worth  mentioning,  although  to  me  they  are  of  considerable 
importance. 

A  waste  stack  apart  from  the  library  is  appropriated  to  books  for 
which  places  have  not  been  found.  As  this  fills  up,  new  stacks  are 
provided,  and  the  books  have  permanent  places  ;  these  are  fixed  by 
the  catalogue,  and  whether  the  place  be  good  or  bad  we  consider  it 
bad  practice  to  alter  it,  for  the  moment  you  move  one  book  you 
must  move  another,  and  there  is  no  end  to  the  work  if  alterations 
are  attempted  on  a  small  scale.  Have  a  good  system  to  begin  with, 
and  adhere  to  it  as  closely  as  you  can. 

Our  catalogue  is  in  two  parts.  In  part  one  the  books  are  entered 
as  we  find  them  in  the  stacks,  and  every  book  has  pencilled  on  the 
inside  of  the  corner  its  number  and  its  place.     Thus  stack  A  has 

Si 

five  shelves,  and  the  first  book  at  the  top  is  marked  A — ,  and  is  so 
entered  in  the  catalogue.  This  document  contains  numbers,  names, 
dates,  sizes,  and  estimated  values.  In  the  second  part,  the  whole  of 
the  books  are  arranged  alphabetically,  the  names  of  the  authors 
giving  the  order  in  most  cases,  but  certain  leading  subjects  are 
placed  under  general  headings  for  the  purpose  of  showing,  in  one 
block,  all  the  books  we  have  on  that  subject.  Bookworm. 


302 


MISCELLANEA, 


Author  and  Bookseller. 


N  1803,  Mrs.  O.  S.  Mackie  published  an  entirely  new 
translation  of  Madame  de  Sevigne's  "Letters"  to  her 
daughter,  in  3  volumes  duodecimo.  As  was  not  unusual, 
the  author  and  the  bookseller  very  quickly  got  at  loggerheads  with 
one  another.  Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Cooper,  bookseller,  of 
Hyde  Street,  New  Oxford  Street,  London,  we  are  enabled  to  give  two 
quotations  from  letters  which  Mrs.  Mackie  addressed  to  Mr.  J.  S. 
Pratt,  in  which  her  differences  with  her  publisher  are  alluded  to  in 
rather  strong  terms.  The  first  letter  is  dated  from  Bighton,  near 
Alresford,  Hampshire,  July,  1803,  in  the  course  of  which  she  says  : — 
*'  It  has  been  truly  said,  that  those  who  neglect  their  own  affairs 
cannot  expect  that  others  will  think  of  them ;  this  tempts  me  to 
trouble  you  once  more  concerning  my  unfortunate  Book  which  is 
sinking  fast  into  oblivion  for  want  of  an  active  friend  and  an  honest 
bookseller — that  Cawthorne  has  found  means  to  make  money  of  my 
translation  I  have  no  doubt,  but  the  manner  is  an  enigma  far  beyond 
my  comprehension.  I  am  assured  that  if  you  would  exert  your  in- 
fluence with  Mr.  Phillips,  and  get  work  mentioned  favourably  in  the 
supplement  to  his  Monthly  Magazine^  it  would  be  of  infinite  service, 
but  it  must  be  done  immediately,  as  it  appears  on  the  20th  of  this 
month — it  seems  it  comes  out  every  six  months — make  an  effort  for 
me,  my  dear  sir,  and  don't  put  me  on  a  par  with  poor  Bibs,  although 
I  have  a  wooden  leg  as  well  as  him — that  is,  I  cannot  take  a  step  to 
help  myself.  ...  I  am  going  to  write  a  book  against  you  and  every- 
body that  forgets  me  and  leaves  me  to  die  of  vexation  and  dis- 
appointment, because  I  met  with  the  most  worthless  Bookseller  in 
England,  nay  in  Europe,  nay  in  Asia,  nay  in  America."  From  the 
second  letter,  dated  March  10,  1804,  we  extract  the  following 
sentence  : — "  I  am  quite  convinced  that  you  would  willingly  do 
good  to  my  [edition  of]  Sevigne — but  I  much  fear  that  Cawthorne 
has  done  too  much  mischief  ever  to  be  repaired.  The  work  is 
completely  ruined  for  seven  years  at  the  least — after  that  time 
perhaps  it  may  fall  into  better  hands." 


W 

frin^iarV^ 

^ 

1 

1 

^^^i 

^^k 

Books  for  Social  Reformers. 


HE  Fabian  Society  has  issued  a  second  and  revised  edition 
of  their  exceedingly  useful  little  pamphlet,  "  What  to  Read," 
to  which  we  made  reference  when  the  first  edition  was  pub- 
lished about  two  years  ago. 

The  list  has  been  compiled  for  the  use  of  members  of  the 
Fabian  Society  and  other  students  of  social  questions.  It  makes  no 
pretension  to  completeness.  No  work  has  been  included  which 
cannot  be  obtained  in  EngHsh,  and  few  that  do  not  deal  almost 
exclusively  with  English  problems.  It  has  been  impossible  to  find 
space  even  for  representative  specimens  of  those  local  records  and 
reports  which  must  be  the  chief  sources  of  any  thorough  and  original 
study  of  social  history.  With  few  exceptions  periodical  publications 
have  been  excluded ;  nor  have  individual  articles  in  magazines  been 
mentioned,  although  much  of  the  best  results  of  modern  controversy 
and  inquiry  is  only  to  be  read  in  that  form.  Different  standards 
have  been  adopted  in  the  selection  of  books  for  different  parts  of  the 
list.  For  instance,  only  a  few  of  the  best  books  on  early  and 
mediaeval  social  history  are  given ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  an 
attempt  has  been  made  to  include  every  book  of  any  importance 
which  has  been  issued  as  part  of  the  Socialist  propaganda  during  the 
last  seven  or  eight  years.  The  Hst,  even  as  it  stands,  is  so  long  that 
a  few  years  ago  it  would  have  been  useful  only  to  rich  men  or  pro- 
fessional students ;  but  the  great  development  of  public  Hbraries  has 
made  it  possible  for  a  large  number  of  readers  to  obtain  access  to 
the  best  works  on  any  subject ;  and  it  is  probable  that  more  now 
suffer  from  want  of  information  as  to  which  are  the  best  books 


304 


BOOKS  FOR  SOCIAL  REFORMERS. 


i 


than  from  inability  to  obtain  them.  As  yet,  however,  few  pubhc 
libraries  are  sufficiently  well  equipped  to  contain  all  the  books  here 
mentioned ;  and  all  who  desire  to  promote  serious  inquiry  into 
social  subjects  are  strongly  urged  to  cause  any  libraries  over  which 
they  may  have  influence  to  obtain  as  many  of  them  as  possible. 

For  modern  books,  much  the  best  and  handiest  general  subject 
catalogue  is  W.  S.  Sonnenschein's  *'  Best  Books  "  (Sonnenschein ; 
1891.  31/6  net).  For  obscure  and  "out  of  print"  books,  tracts, 
&c.,  the  subject  catalogue  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  1882,  25  dols., 
is  useful.  Watts'  "Bibliotheca  Britannica,"^?./.,  gives  English  books 
published  before  1824,  under  subjects  and  under  authors.  Many 
articles  in  the  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica"  have  short  but  well- 
■chosen  bibliographies  appended  to  them ;  the  "  Dictionary  of  Na- 
tional Biography "  will  also  be  found  useful.  Every  paper  printed 
in  any  important  magazine,  from  the  beginning  of  the  century  to 
1882,  will  be  found  catalogued  under  its  subject,  in  Poole's  "Index 
to  Periodical  Literature  "  (Kegan  Paul ;  1883.  76/-)-  The  Supple- 
ment (Kegan  Paul ;  1886.  Z^l-)  covers  the  years  1882-87.  Since 
then  the  work  has  been  carried  on  by  the  American  Library  Associa- 
tion (W.  L.  Fletcher,  editor),  and  appears  annually  (Kegan  Paul ; 
36/-  per  annum).  The  method  of  reference,  which  is  rather  compli- 
cated, is  explained  in  the  introduction.  The  "  Index  and  Guide  to 
Periodicals,"  published  annually,  gives  in  each  issue  a  complete 
index  to  contents  of  periodicals  of  the  previous  year,  and  an  ex- 
haustive list  of  the  magazines  and  reviews  of  the  world,  including 
names  of  editors,  addresses  and  prices.  Vol.  i.  (2/-),  1890,  vol.  ii. 
(5/-),  1891,  and  Vol.  iii.  in  the  Press,  1893,  Review  of  Reviews^ 
Office,  Mowbray  House,  Temple.  The  only  subject  catalogue  of 
Newspaper  Articles  is  Palmer's  "Index  to  the  Times''  (Palmer's 
Private  Press,  Shepperton-on-Thames  ;  50  vols.). 

As  "What  to  Read"  only  costs  threepence  it  ought  to  have  a 
very  wide  circulation,  even  among  those  who  have  very  little 
sympathy  with  the  principles  of  the  Fabian  Society. 


Tricks  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  Publishers. 


HE  above  subject  is  one  that  takes  us  back  to  centuries 
before  the  introduction  of  printing.  It  is,  in  fact,  almost  as 
ancient  as  the  History  of  Trickery  itself.  Authors  there 
were  long  before  the  existence  of  publishing,  even  in  the  most  rudi- 
mentary sense  of  the  term  ;  but  the  moment  a  middleman  appeared 
on  the  scene,  knavery  of  the  most  pronounced  character  became 
rampant.  There  is  no  break  in  this  long  wail  of  complaint,  in 
which  the  author  has  been  the  accuser  and  the  publisher  the 
accused.  Whether  we  dip  into  the  hieroglyphics  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  whose  libraries  were  so  famous  and  so  extensive 
thousands  of  years  ago,  whether  we  inquire  into  the  history  of  the 
manuscript  literature  of  Greece  in  her  glory,  or  of  Rome  in  its 
grandeur,  the  same  trickery  is  found,  differing  only  in  degrees  of 
ingenuity. 

It  is,  however,  unnecessary  to  seek  illustrations — of  which  there 
are  plenty — from  among  the  ancients  in  proof  of  the  tricks  of  the 
early  publishers.  The  literary  history  of  our  own  country  affords 
sufficient  examples  to  fill  a  large  volume. 

Beginning,  therefore,  with  the  Genesis  of  modern  history — the 
great  Reformation — when  men  kicked  aside  the  traditions  of  ar> 
ancient  religion,  and  utilised  what  was  then  regarded  as  the 
fearful  power  of  a  comparatively  unrestricted  freedom  of  the  press, 
we  find  ample  material  for  the  great  and  everlasting  battle  between 
the  publisher,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  author  or  public,  as  the  case 
may  be,  on  the  other.  In  spite  of  decrees,  injunctions,  threats,  and 
penalties  of  all  sorts  and  kinds,  publishers  issued  books,  sometimes 

39 


3o6  TRICKS  OF  THE  \ZTH  CENTURY  PUBLISHERS. 

escaping  the  vigilance,  but  more  often  suffering,  either  in  body  or 
pocket,  and  generally  in  both,  for  their  temerity.     When  printing 
became  a  power  which  defied   all  the  curses  of  the  church,  and 
evaded  all  the  laws  of  the  realm,  men  began  to  employ  this  new 
engine  of  force  and  effect,  and  the  more  rigorous  the  laws  the  more 
numerous  became   the  methods   of  spreading  books,  and,  as  the 
appetite  grows  upon  what  it  feeds,  so  the  taste  for  them  increased 
with  a  rapidity  unknown  to  every  other  phase  of  universal  history. 
If  laws  and  regulations  could  have  crushed  any  movement,  they 
would  have  utterly  snuffed  printing  out  of  existence.     When,  how- 
ever, the  authorities  saw  that  they  could  not  crush  out  this  new 
power,  they  sought   by   means,  fair  and  foul,   to  circumscribe  its 
results  by  licensing  certain  men  for  the  selling  of  certain  specified 
classes  of  books.     But,  alas  for  them,  their  repeated  attempts  were 
pronounced   failures.     They    forgot    that    they    had  to  deal   with 
"publishers"!      Early    in    the    reign    of    Elizabeth,  when    these 
arbitrary  rights  were  sought  to  be  imposed,  we  find  a  hero  in  the 
person  of  one  Roger  Warde,  to  whom  the  lovers  of  free  speech  and 
z.  free  press  ought  to  raise  a  most  glorious  monument.     He  "printeth 
what  he  lysteth  "  was  the  report  of  the  Stationers'  Company,  and  no 
further  comment  is  needed  to  show  how  absolutely  futile  were  their 
remonstrances.     We  read  in  the  memorandum  describing  the  utter 
defeat  of  the  officials  the  following  strange  allegation  : — "  Coming  to 
the  house  of  one  Roger  Warde,  a  man  who  of  late  hathe  shewed 
himselfe  very  contemptuous  againste  her  Majesty's  high  prerogative, 
and  offering  to  come  into  his  pryntinge  house  to  take  notice  of  what 
he  did,  the  saide  Roger  Warde  faininge  himselfe  to  be  absente,  hys 
wife  and  servants  keepeth  the  dore  shutt  against  them,  and  saide  that 
none  shulde   come  there   to  search."     Brave  Mrs.  Warde !     John 
Wolfe  was  another  refractory  publisher,  who  got  into  trouble  at  the 
same  time  as  Roger  Warde.     When  he  was  being  "  admonished  that 
he  being  but  one  so  meane  a  man  should  not  presume  to  contrarie 
her  Highnesses  governmante,"  rudely  retorted,  "  Tush,  Luther  was 
but  one  man,  and  reformed  all  the  world  for  religion,  and   I  am 
that  one   man   that  must  and  will  reform  the  Government  in  this 
trade."     But  John  was  too  boastful,  and  does  not  appear  to  have 
had  so  valiant  a  wife  as  Roger  Warde,  for  he  was  put  into  prison. 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  as  in  the  nineteenth,  there  were  many 
publishers  who  traded  in  certain  objectionable  phases  of  literary 
ware.  We  learn,  for  example,  that  the  ballad  of  "  A  yonge  man 
that  went  a  wooying "  was  cancelled  out  of  the  Stationers' 
Company's  book  "for  the  undecentness  of  it  in    diverse   verses." 


TRICKS  OF  THE  \%TH  CENTURY  PUBLISHERS.  307 

Others  committed  offences  by  keeping  their  shops  and  selling  books 
on  St.  Luke's  Day,  and  also  on  Sundays. 

But  no  phase  of  old  publishing  tricks  is  so  fruitful  in  examples  as 
that  which  deals  with  surreptitious  editions.  In  the  sixteenth  century 
it  was  very  generally  considered  an  ungentlemanly  thing  to  be  an 
author;  and  it  must  in  truth  be  admitted  that  the  usual  run  of 
authors  at  that  time  was  anything  but  desirable  or  reputable.  The 
preservation  of  many  a  highly  prized  literary  treasure  of  the  sixteenth 
century  would  have  been  lost  for  ever  but  for  the  trickery  of  the 
publishers  of  the  period.  It  was  with  no  desire  to  oblige  either  the 
then  reading  public  or  to  confer  favours  on  posterity  that  they  used 
every  artifice  to  beg,  borrow,  or  steal  the  manuscripts  of  eminent 
men,  and  to  print  them  in  the  face  of  the  strongly  worded  remon- 
strance of  the  authors  themselves.  For  these  were  days  when  a  man 
had  no  copy  or  other  right  in  any  literary  work  when  it  had  once  left 
his  hands.  How  the  times  have  changed,  and  how  many  of  us  would 
be  glad  if  publishers  would  only  steal  a  few  of  our  unused  manuscripts 
and  embryo  books  which  have  gone  a-begging  !  One  of  the  most 
curious  examples  of  this  surreptitious  publishing  and  wholesale 
stealing  occurs  in  "England's  Helicon"  (1600),  which  is  a  collec- 
tion of  poems  by  different  writers,  issued  by  John  Flasket,  who,  in 
his  preface,  refers  deprecatingly  to  the  common  practice  of  the  trade 
of  making  free  with  each  other's  property ;  but  Flasket  himself  had 
stolen  right  and  left  to  make  up  his  book,  and  he  raised  a  perfect 
hornet's  nest  about  his  ears.  Many  authors  issued  authentic  edi- 
tions only  because  some  knavish  bookseller  had  inflicted  a  garbled 
one  on  the  public,  and  had  added  insult  to  inquiry  by  masquerading 
as  editor  in  the  worst  possible  sense  of  the  word.  In  the  case  of 
Barnabe  Googe  (1563),  the  author  was  only  induced  to  publish  his 
"Eglogs"  because  the  printer  possessed  the  "copy,"  and  having 
bought  the  paper,  he  would  be  at  a  great  loss  if  the  printing  was 
not  proceeded  with. 

So  far  as  paying  an  author  was  concerned,  the  publisher  was 
careful  to  avoid  doing  anything  of  the  sort.  Was  not  the  glory  of 
appearing  in  print  sufficient  payment  ?  Occasionally,  when,  during 
the  latter  years  of  the  sixteenth  century,  authorship  became  a  pro- 
fession, the  hack  would  get  a  few  shillings  for  a  brilliant  controversial 
essay  ;  but  the  publisher  invariably  stuck  to  the  profits.  Shakespeare 
never  received  a  farthing  from  the  publishers  for  his  plays,  whilst 
they,  on  the  other  hand,  must  have  reaped  many  a  golden  harvest. 
Not  only  this,  but  they  printed  his  immortal  works  unknown  to  him, 
after  having  in  various  ways  got  hold  of  the  copy,  usually  an  acting 


3o8  TRICKS  OF  THE  iZTB  CENTURY  PUBLISHERS. 


manuscript.  Most  people  are  acquainted  with  the  legend  in  which 
it  is  related  that  one  of  the  London  publishers  sent  an  agreeable 
young  man  down  to  Stratford-on-Avon  to  make  love  to  Shakespeare's 
daughter  Eudith,  in  order  to  secure  a  copy  of  a  play  upon  which 
the  dramatist  was  then  known  to  be  engaged.  Mr.  William  Black 
has  utilised  this  story  in  one  of  his  delightful  novels.  That  quaint, 
but  powerfully  written  pamphlet,  by  Thomas  Nash,  "  Pierce 
Penilesse :  his  Supplication  to  the  Devil,"  1592,  was  one  of  the 
many  literary  publications  which  crept  into  print  unknown  to  the 
author,  the  publisher,  Richard  Jones,  acting  as  literary  godfather, 
furnishing  an  introductory  note,  which  Nash  repudiated  in  no 
measured  terms  in  a  later  edition.  This  same  Jones  performed 
a  similar  office  for  Marlowe's  "  Tamburlaine  the  Great"  (1^92), 
and  as  regards  the  latter,  he  says,  "  I  have  purposely  omitted  and 
left  out  some  fond  and  frivolous  gestures,  digressing,  and,  in  my 
poor  opinion,  far  unmeet  for  the  matter  which  I  thought  might  seem 
more  tedious  unto  the  wise  than  anyway  else  to  be  regarded,"  and  so 
forth.  A  few  years  later,  John  Davies,  of  Hereford,  relieved  his 
mind  by  censuring  publishers  in  "The  Scourge  of  Folly,"  in  which 
is  a  sonnet  beginning  : — 


'  At  Stacioners  shops  are  lyes  oft  vendible, 
Because  such  shops  oft  lye  for  gains  untrue,"  Sac. 


Few  men  suffered,  or  fancied  they  suffered,  so  much  from  the 
publisher  of  his  time  as  Michael  Drayton.  Writing  to  Drummond, 
of  Hawthornden,  he  complains  of  them  as  "a  company  of  base 
knaves  whom  I  scorn  and  kick  at,"  because  forsooth,  they  would 
not  publish  the  second  part  of  his  elephantine  "  Poly-Olbion." 
Three  years  later,  however,  he  managed  to  get  it  printed,  but  it 
contained  an  exhilarating  preface  headed  "  To  any  that  will  read  it." 
After  complaining  that  because  the  first  part  did  not  go  as  well  as 
certain  "  beastly  and  abominable  trash,"  the  publishers  "  despight- 
fully  left  out  the  epistle  to  the  readers,  and  so  have  cousened  the 
buyers  with  imperfecte  books."  "  Where  are  thou  Michael  ?  "  was 
the  cheery  inquiry  of  the  John  Davies  previously  mentioned,  and 
poor  Michael  Drayton  might  well  have  answered  that  he  was  in  the 
toils  of  the  publishers.  Nearly  half  a  century  before  this,  William 
Turner,  whose  "  New  Herbal  "  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  book  on 
English  botany,  complained  of  the  publisher  or  printer  (which  at  that 
time  was  pretty  much  the  same  thing)  for  not  only  suppressing  the 
author's  name  and  preface,  but  with  furnishing  his  own  introduction, 


TRICKS  OF  THE  yZTH  CENTURY  PUBLISHERS.  309 

and   publishing  the  book  as  if  it  were  the  production  of  his  own 
brain ! 

Perhaps  no  phase  of  the  publishing  business  was  so  popular  with 
the  old  publishers  as  that  of  "  faking  "  up  a  title-page.  The  nomina- 
tion, as  they  termed  it,  was  the  rock  upon  which  the  good  feeling 
between  publishers  and  authors  became  wrecked.  An  early  seven- 
teenth century  book,  by  Thomas  Decker,  entitled  "  The  Strange 
Horse-Race,"  contains  the  following  observation: — "The  titles  of 
books  are  like  painted  chimnies  in  great  country  houses,  they  make 
a  show  afar  off,  and  catch  travellers'  eyes ;  but  coming  near  them, 
neither  cast  they  smoke,  nor  hath  the  house  the  heart  to  make  you 
drink";  and  seventy  years  later,  in  1682,  John  Houghton,  when 
starting  his  "Collection  for  the  Improvement  of  Husbandry  and 
Trade,"  cautions  the  booksellers  and  publishers  to  send  him  no  new 
titles  to  old  books,  for  they  "  will  be  rejected."  Proof  both  internal 
and  external  may  be  adduced  without  end.  What  author,  for  example, 
even  among  the  Grub  Street  fraternity  of  that  period,  would  allow 
his  book  to  go  forth  into  the  world  with  such  a  title  as  that  which 
we  recognise  as  a  work  of  Yates',  and  published  in  1583?  The  title 
is: — "The  Castle  of  Courtesie,  whereunto  is  adjoyned  the  Hold  of 
Humilitie,  with  the  Chariot  of  Chastitie  thereunto  annexed."  "The 
Droome  of  Doome's  Day  "  (1576)  is  obviously  also  the  work  of  a 
publisher,  and  so  in  all  likelihood  is  Breton's  "Flourish  upon  Fancy." 
As  a  general  rule,  the  title  gave  not  the  slightest  indication  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  contents  of  a  book  to  which  it  was  affixed,  and  "apt 
alliterations  artful  aid  "  in  this  "  nomination  "  was  a  favourite  course 
with  the  publishers  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Coming  down  to  the 
last  century,  we  find  a  bewildering  supply  of  publishers'  tricks.  The 
most  common  one  took  the  form,  or  name,  of  "Miscellanies,"  and 
this  was  a  method  of  getting  rid  of  a  stock  of  unsold  pamphlets, 
essays,  or  poems,  by  sandwiching  them  between  the  pirated  work  of 
an  eminent  writer,  the  padding  matter  being  indicated  on  the  title- 
page  as  "  somewhat  besides."  All  the  publishers  did  this  sort  of 
thing,  but  none  with  so  much  impudence  as  Edmund  Curll,  who,  by 
the  way,  proved  more  than  a  match  with  Pope.  With  the  exception 
of  a  few  dozen  pages  in  the  beginning  of  the  book,  Curll's  "  Miscel- 
lanies "  show  remarkable  differences  in  different  copies ;  that  is  to 
say,  if  the  stock  of  one  "  padding  "  pamphlet  failed,  another  had  to 
supply  its  place.  So  that  there  are  many  variations  in  the  contents 
of  "  Miscellanies "  issued  at  the  same  time,  and  bearing  the  same 
title-page.  "  Miscellenies  "  by  Mr.  Pope  or  Dr.  Swift  would  be  sure 
to  sell.    Sir  Walter  Scott's  edition  of  "  Swift's  Works  "  contains  many 


3IO  TRICKS  OF  THE  iZTH  CENTURY  PUBLISHERS, 


things  which  Swift  did  not  and  could  not  have  written.  The  fact  of 
a  piece  of  verse  being  rightly  or  wrongly  attributed  to  an  eminent 
person  was  quite  sufficient  for  the  publishers  to  print  it  as  genuine, 
and  it  possessed  an  additional  attraction  if  it  were  scandalous  or 
indecent. 

Dr.  Johnson  expressed  a  very  favourable  opinion  concerning 
booksellers,  whom  he  described  as  the  true  patrons  of  literature. 
But  Drayton,  on  the  other  hand,  was,  if  his  own  words  have  any 
literalness,  a  positive  martyr  to  their  trickery.  More  than  a  hundred 
years  after  the  wicked  had  ceased  to  trouble  poor  Drayton,  and 
when  his  weary  soul  was  at  rest,  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  (vol.  ix. 
p.  iii.)  contained,  in  "  An  Appeal  to  the  Public,"  a  passage  which 
tells  its  own  story :  "  Nothing  is  more  criminal  in  the  opinion  of 
many  of  them  (/.^.,  publishers)  than  for  an  author  to  enjoy  more 
advantage  from  his  own  works  than  they  are  disposed  to  allow  him." 
In  the  seventh  volume  (p.  239)  of  the  same  venerable  periodical 
there  will  be  found  a  translation  of  a  highly  interesting  letter  from  a 
French  publisher  to  a  journalist,  in  which  the  former  soundly  rates 
the  latter  on  the  incompetent  way  in  which  he  has  earned  the  "  ten 
pistoles"  that  he  may  at  any  time  receive.  "You  are,"  says  the 
publisher,  '*  too  sparing  in  encomiums  on  my  books,  and  do  not 
sufficiently  run  down  those  of  my  brother  booksellers."  Truly  this 
gentleman's  brotherly  spirit  was  exceeding  great,  but  this  complaint 
is  nothing  to  what  he  says  a  little  further  on  in  the  same  communi- 
cation :  "  You  are  likewise  to  play  the  devil  with  every  book  printed 

for  N and  P ,  booksellers,  they  being  God's  and  the  State's 

enemies,  and,  what  is  more,  they  are  also  mine."  Was  ever  a  desire 
put  in  so  naive  a  manner  ? 

The  Grub  Street  Journal  oi  December  7th  and  14th,  1732,  contains 
an  interesting  and  amusing  article  on  "  Tricks  of  Booksellers." 
After  referring  to  the  title  of  a  book  as  being  important,  the  writer 
proceeds  :  "  The  chief  rule  in  buying  books  is  the  author's  name, 
which  is  now  no  rule  at  all,  since  the  booksellers  have  usurped  the 
making  of  names  as  well  as  titles."  The  writer  contends  that  "for 
the  English  booksellers  there  is  no  species  of  legerdemain  which 
certain  among  them  do  not  practise  daily,  especially  that  of  assuming 
the  name  of  some  celebrated  author  (or  the  title  of  some  emi?ient 
work)  either  in  its  proper  form,  or  with  some  minute  variation,  as 
Feilding  for  Fielding,  Colbatsh  for  Colbatch,  Chamberlen  for  Cham- 
berlayne,  Joseph  for  John  Gay,  which  last  article  has  put  some  pounds 
into  C I's  pocket  by  selling  some  of  his  worst  poems." 

The  connection  between  Dryden  and  Tonson  was  not  without  its 


TRICKS  OF  THE  \ZTH  CENTURY  PUBLISHERS.  311 

tricks  on  both  sides.  The  latter  wrote  once  complaining  that  the 
poet  sold  to  a  rival  publisher  1,518  hnes  of  verse  for  forty  guineas, 
whilst  for  ten  guineas  more  he  had  only  received  1,146  lines.  The 
objections  were  most  delicately  put.  Old  Jacob  was  a  strong  Whig, 
and  a  great  admirer  of  William  the  Third,  to  whom  he  wished  to 
dedicate  Dryden's  "Virgil,"  but  the  poet's  Toryism  was  too  deep- 
rooted  for  this.  Tonson,  bent  on  having  his  way  to  some  extent, 
quietly  ordered  that  the  nose  in  all  the  pictures  of  ^neas  be  drawn 
with  Dutch  William's  hooked  proboscis,  a  fact  which  gave  rise  to  the 
following : 

*'  Old  Jacob,  by  deep  judgments  swayed, 

To  please  the  wise  beholders, 
Has  placed  old  Nassau's  hook-nosed  head 

On  young  Eneas'  shoulders." 

There  is  an  exceedingly  interesting  letter  of  Pope's  addressed  to 
the  Earl  of  Burlington  some  time  in  17 16,  and  it  teems  with  a 
relation  of  bookselling  tricks.  But  fortunately  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  this  letter  had  no  foundation  in  fact,  although  it  may 
substantially  represent  no  very  uncommon  occurrence  at  that  period. 
On  a  journey  to  Oxford  in  company  with  Pope,  Lintot  is  represented 
as  having  exclaimed,  with  reference  to  translators,  "  Sir,  they  are  the 
saddest  pack  of  rogues  in  the  world ;  in  a  hungry  fit  they'll  swear 
they  understand  all  the  languages  in  the  universe,"  and  that  he  pays 
them  at  the  rate  of  ten  shillings  per  sheet  for  translations,  which  are 
corrected  and  revised  by  some  other  individual.  The  worthy  Bernard 
had  an  amusing  way  of  dealing  with  critics.  The  rich  ones  he 
silenced  for  a  sheet  apiece  of  the  blotted  MS.,  which  they  pretended 
was  submitted  to  their  correction,  whilst  small  authors  dedicated 
their  works  to  them.  On  one  occasion  (according  to  Pope)  a  lean 
man  that  looked  like  a  very  good  scholar  entered  Lintot's  shop  and 
took  up  the  newly-issued  translation  of  Homer,  at  every  line  of  which 
he  raised  an  objection.  When  in  the  midst  of  finding  fault,  Mrs. 
Lintot  called  out  that  dinner  was  ready.  "  *  Sir,  will  you  eat  a  piece 
of  beef  with  me  ?  '  '  Mr.  Lintot,'  said  he,  '  I  am  sorry  you  should  be 
at  the  expense  of  this  great  book.  I  am  really  concerned  on  your 
account.'     '  Sir,  I  am  much  obliged  to  you.     If  you  can  dine  on  a 

piece  of  beef,  together  with  a  slice  of  pudding, .'     '  Mr.  Lintot, 

I  do  not  say  but  what  Mr.  Pope,  if  he  would  condescend  to  advise 

with  men  of  learning, .'     'Sir,  the  pudding  is  upon  the  table,  if 

you  will  please  to  go  in.'  My  critic  complies,  he  comes  to  taste  of 
your  poetry,  and  tells  me  in  the  same  breath  that  the  book  is  com- 
mendable and  the  pudding  excellent." 


312  TRICKS  OF  THE  i2>TH  CENTURY  PUBLISHERS. 

But  for  trickery,  of  whatever  nature  it  may  be,  Edmund  Curll 
certainly  outdistanced  any  of  the  fraternity.  Possessed  of  a  fiendish 
propensity  for  getting  into  hot  water,  to  be  making  somebody  un- 
comfortable seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  principal  reasons  of  his 
existence.  His  most  famous  quarrel  was  with  Pope,  and  it  is  not 
the  most  edifying  chapter  in  the  history  of  English  hterature.  Curll 
may  be  exonerated  from  his  share  in  the  publication  of  Pope's  letters, 
as  it  is  now  generally  considered  that  the  poet's  part  in  the  transac- 
tion was  neither  honest  nor  honourable.  And  after  the  action  was 
brought  before  the  House  of  Lords,  and  at  once  dismissed,  the  irre- 
pressible Curll  declared  that  Pope  might  beat  him  at  a  rhyme,  but 
he  was  his  opponent's  master  at  prose.  It  has  already  been  intimated 
that  Curll  published  the  sermons  of  the  principal  divines.  In  a 
sudden  fit  of  piety  or  otherwise  he  sent  a  copy  of  Rochester's 
"  Poems,"  not  by  any  means  the  most  decent  book  published,  to 
Dr.  Robinson,  Bishop  of  London,  with  a  polite  request  to  revise  the 
same.  This  little  dodge  was  hardly  good  enough,  and  his  lordship 
returned  the  volume  with  this  message  :  "  I  am  told  that  Mr.  Curll 
is  a  shrewd  man,  and  should  I  revise  the  book  you  have  brought 
me,  he  would  publish  it  as  approved  by  me."  W.  R. 


^^^mm 


Printers'  Marks. 


HE  Printer's  Mark  appears  to  be  at  length  in  a  fair  way  oi 
receiving  the  attention  to  which  its  general  and  manifold  in- 
terest and  importance  entitles  it.  The  extraordinary  thing  is 
that  it  should  have,  for  so  long  a  period,  been  neglected.  Before 
the  present  year  has  run  its  course  at  least  two  books  will  have 
appeared  on  the  subject— one  of  which  is  general  and  the  other 
-special.  Although  confined  to  a  comparatively  narrow  area,  the 
"Elsassische  Biichermarken  bis  anfang  les  i8  Jahrhunderts,"  of  Herr 
Paul  Heitz  and  Dr.  Karl  August  Barack  (Strassburg,  J.  H.  Ed.  Heitz) 
is  of  exceedingly  varied  interest,  whilst  its  careful  get-up  and  the 
•.fidelity  of  its  reproductions  distinguish  it  at  once  as  a  work  of  per- 
manent value.  The  compilers  have  for  the  first  time  brought 
together  a  collection  of  the  marks  of  the  Alsatian  printers  and 
booksellers,  which  are  reproduced  in  the  same  size  as  the  originals, 
and  accompanied  by  the  names  of  the  books  in  which  they  were 
used.  These  marks  are  not  only  of  importance  to  the  student  of 
the  history  of  the  art  of  printing  and  wood-engraving,  but  also  of 
art  in  its  widest  sense.  Frequently  they  are  true  works  of  art  by 
acknowledged  masters.  The  arrangement  is  chronological  according 
to  towns,  and  most  of  the  marks  are  reproduced  with  all  their  variants, 
when  there  are  any.  The  seventy-six  plates  which  comprise  this 
book  include  several  hundred  marks,  some  of  which  exhibit  an 
astonishing  variety  of  ideas.  These  vary  indeed  from  a  cabbage 
with  the  letters  M.  S.  used  by  Martin  Schott,  who  printed  several 
books  at  Strassburg  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  to  a  pair  of 
interlaced  serpents  surmounted  by  a  dove  of  Kopfel,  of  the  first 
quarter  of  the  following  century;   from  the  personification  of  the 

40 


314 


PRINTERS'  MARKS. 


I 


horn  of  plenty  of  Ulricher  von  Andlau  to  the  device  of  Apiarius,. 
which  is  a  punning  one  on  his  name — the  discovery  by  an  inquisitive 
bear  of  a  bees'  nest  in  a  hollow  trunk  of  a  tree,  and  the  uncomfort- 
able time  for  the  bear  which  followed,  being  capitally  delineated. 
The  subject  of  Adam  and  Eve  at  the  tree  of  forbidden  fruit  was  also 
a  popular  one,  and  we  find  it  on  some  of  the  books  which  bore  the 
imprint  of  Johann  Albrecht ;  the  griffin,  too,  was  not  uncommon, 
for  the  reason,  we  presume,  that  it  is  emblematical  of  watchfulness, 
courage,  perseverance,  and  rapidity  of  execution.  In  the  score  ot 
numbers,  variety,  and  decorative  beauty  and  vigour,  it  may  be 
doubted  if  any  firm  of  printers  in  Germany  or  elsewhere  can  offer 
a  rival  to  the  series  employed  at  one  time  or  another  by  Lazarus 
Zetner  and  his  successors,  who  were  printing  books  at  Strassburg  for 
over  a  century,  from  about  1585  onwards,  and  whose  marks  number 
nearly  forty,  all  more  or  less  different ;  they  nearly  always  used  the 
motto  "  Scientia  immutabilis  "  engraved  on  a  pedestal  which  sup- 
ported a  helmeted  head  of  Pallas  Athene.  This  handsome  volume  is 
the  first  of  a  series,  and  if  the  succeeding  monographs  are  compiled 
with  the  same  amount  of  care  and  thoroughness  they  will  meet  with 
all  the  success  which  they  deserve. 

As  the  second  volume  to  which  we  have  referred  is  by  the  editor 
of  the  Bookworm,  it  must  suffice  to  quote  a  paragraph  or  two  from 
the  prospectus : — The  present  handbook  has  been  written  with  a 
view  to  supplying  a  readable  but  accurate  account  of  this  neglected 
chapter  in  the  history  of  art  and  bibliography,  and  appeals  with  equal 
force  to  the  student  of  either  subject.  Only  one  book,  Berjeau's 
"  Early  Dutch,  German,  and  English  Printers'  Marks,"  has  appeared 
in  this  country,  and  this,  besides  being  out  of  print  and  expensive,  is 
destitute  of  descriptive  letterpress.  The  principle  upon  which  the 
illustrations  [of  which  there  are  over  250]  have  been  selected  for  this 
"  Handbook  "  is  of  a  threefold  character :  first,  the  importance  of 
the  printer;  secondly,  the  artistic  value  or  interest  of  the  Mark 
itself;  and,  thirdly,  the  geographical  importance  of  the  city  or  town, 
in  which  the  mark  first  appeared.  The  Handbook  is  divided  into 
eight  chapters,  arranged  in  the  following  sequence  : — Introduction 
{i,e,  significations,  style,  &c.).  Some  General  Aspects  of  the  Printer's 
Mark,  and  chapters  dealing  respectively  with  English,  French, 
German  and  Swiss,  Dutch  and  Flemish,  Italian  and  Spanish  Marks,, 
whilst  the  last  chapter  deals  with  the  modern  examples. 

It  may  further  be  mentioned  that  the  volume  is  being  printed  at 
the  Chiswick  Press,  that  the  publishers  are  Messrs.  George  Bell  and 
Sons,  and  that  it  will  appear  at  the  end  of  the  present  month. 


John  Lilburne  as  a  Pamphleteer. 


iTikl^T  is  only  of  late  years  that  John  Lilburne  has  had  any 
attention  at  all  bestowed  upon  him,  since  the  publication 
of  the  Biographia  Anglicana.  Five  years  ago  Mr.  Edward 
Peacock  gave  a  fairly  good  bibliography  of  his  writings  in  the 
■columns  of  Notes  and  Queries^  announcing  that  he  had  now  foregone 
his  old  intention  of  writing  Lilburne's  life,  a  painstaking  but  in- 
evitably incomplete  account  of  which  has  appeared  in  a  recent  volume 
of  the  "  Dictionary  of  National  Biography."  Elsewhere  I  have  been 
endeavouring  to  make  clear  his  position,  and  one  of  these  days  hope 
to  publish  a  study,  as  adequate  as  I  can  make  it,  of  the  great  move- 
ment in  which  he  spent  his  life.  Suffice  it  to  say  of  his  life,  as  now, 
that  it  extended  from  1615,  when  he  was  born  at  Greenwich,  to 
August  15,  1657,  when  he  died  at  Eltham  ;  that  from  1638  onward 
he  spent  most  of  his  days  in  one  prison  or  another,  and  was  but  out 
on  bail  when  they  ended. 

Of  his  career  as  a  soldier,  or  his  place  as  a  political  reformer, 
this  is  not  the  place  wherein  to  speak.  Here  we  are  but  concerned 
with  him  as  the  author  and  cause  of  printed  paper  ;  and  truly  he  has 
justified  notice  under  that  head,  for  he  himself  almost  rounded  a 
century  of  pamphlets,  ranging  from  4  pages  to  40,  giving  also  rise  to 
twice  as  many  more.  Even  in  the  Fleet,  loaded  down  with  chains, 
or  in  the  Tower  with  a  sentinel  at  the  door  of  his  cell  and  his 
friends  kept  at  more  than  arm's  length,  he  would  manage  to  write 
and  smuggle  out  the  copy  for  a  pamphlet  to  be  printed^in  Holland, 
or  on  a  secret  press  in  London,  and  when  deprived  of  pen  and  ink 
would  write  them  in  his  own  blood.     Hardly  was  he  out  of  prison 


3i6        JOHN  LILBURNE  AS  A  PAMPHLETEER, 


t 


when  a  new  pamphlet  would  put  him  in  again,  and  then  the  stream* 
of  petitions  and  pamphlets  by,  for  and  against,  would  go  on  with 
ever-enhancing  speed.  Twice  was  he  tried  for  his  writings  ;  each 
time  to  be  acquitted  by  the  jury  despite  extreme  pressure  for  a  con- 
viction, and  each  time  to  be  imprisoned  by  Cromwell  despite  his 
acquittal. 

His  first  trial  and  punishment,  however,  that  which  led  to  his- 
commencing  pamphleteer,  was  for  having  to  do  with  the  printing  of 
another  man's  books.  This  took  place  in  1638,  when  he  was  accused 
of  having  printed  or  caused  to  be  printed  at  Rotterdam,  or  some- 
where else  in  Holland,  Dr.  Bastwick's  "Answer"  and  "  Litany"  and 
other  books,  for  which  the  author  had  been  already  pilloried.  It 
was  also  laid  to  him  that  he  had  a  chamber  in  the  house  of  a  Mr. 
John  Foote  at  Delft,  where  contraband  books  were  stored  for  trans- 
mittal to  England.  Ten  or  twelve  thousand  of  them  had  been 
printed,  it  was  said,  at  a  cost  of  about  ;£8o.  Lilburne  denied  all 
knowledge  of  the  particulars  charged  against  him,  but  would  go  no 
further,  nor  take  the  Star-chamber  oath.  Remaining  contumacious, 
he  was  whipt  from  Fleet  Bridge  to  Westminster  and  imprisoned  in  the 
Fleet.  Here  he  wrote  and  hence  he  issued  "  The  Christian  Man's 
Triall,"  and  "  AWorke  of  the  Beast,"  in  which  he  described  his  appre- 
hension, trial,  and  punishment,  following  them  up  with  "  The  Poore 
Man's  Cry,"  an  appeal  to  mercy  and  justice.  These  three  were 
printed  at  Amsterdam  and  smuggled  into  this  country.  Lilburne 
records  that  "  Canterbury's  catchpoles  "  seized  at  the  Custom-house 
almost  two  thousand  of  them  as  they  came  from  Amsterdam  ;  "  but 
when  I  was  informed  that  they  had  cozened  him  of  the  greatest  part 
of  them,  and  sent  them  to  Scotland  for  filthy  lucre's  sake,  at  whose 
parliament  they  were  sold  as  public  as  Martin  Parker's  (the  Bishop's 
champion  ballad-maker)  ballads  are  sold  here  at  London,  it  made 
me  to  laugh  at  my  loss."  That  they  were  sold  in  Scotland  consoles 
not  me  for  the  fact  that  a  copy  of  the  first  edition  of  "  The  Christian 
Man's  Triall"  would  seem  never  to  have  crossed  the  border;  I  know 
of  none  existing  in  any  traceable  place,  it  being  only  to  be  seen  in 
the  second  edition,  printed  in  London,  1641. 

During  the  latter  part  of  his  imprisonment,  and  throughout  his 
service  in  the  army,  Lilburne  was  silent,  so  far  as  the  press  was  con- 
cerned. But  in  1645  he  threw  up  his  commission,  and  quickly  fell 
athwart  the  hawse  of  those  for  whom  he  had  suffered.  Presbyterians 
and  Independents  were  drawing  asunder,  and  he  was  an  Independent 
of  the  extremest.  Prynne  and  he  came  to  pen-cuffs,  for  Prynne  was 
more  than  equally  hot  as  a  Presbyterian.     The  Commons  were  on 


TOHN  LILBURNE  AS  A  PAMPHLETEER.        317 

Prynne's  side  and  Lilburne  was  again  thrown  within  four  walls.  From 
this  time  till  his  death  he  was  mostly  under  arrest ;  for  before  the 
Commons  had  done  with  him  he  was  in  the  clutches  of  the  Lords, 
and  by  when  the  Lords  had  let  him  go,  he  was  in  the  clutches  of 
Cromwell,  whom  he  bitterly  attacked  for  his  treachery  and  double- 
dealing.  "The  Commoner's  Complaint,"  *'The  Freeman's  Free- 
dom Vindicated,"  "An  Alarum  to  the  House  of  Lords,"  "The 
Resolved  Man's  Resolution,"  "The  Just  Man's  Justification,"  and 
many  others  followed  one  another  in  swift  succession. 

Of  the  later  series,  those  written  when  the  so-called  Common- 
wealth was  coming,  or  had  recently  come  to  birth,  "  Foundations  of 
Freedom "  and  "  England's  New  Chaines  Discovered,"  and  "  The 
Legall  Fundamental!  Liberties  of  the  People  of  England  Revised, 
Asserted  and  Vindicated,"  are  the  most  notable.  On  these  three 
alone  Lilburne  might  rest  a  valid  claim  to  respect  as  a  great  con- 
stitutional lawyer.  Indeed,  every  written  constitution  drawn  up 
since  his  day  does  in  some  part  derive  from  the  first-named. 

Of  all  the  writers  of  his  time,  Lilburne  ranks  among  the  most 
prolific,  as  well  as  among  the  most  profound.  He  has  none  of  the 
majesty  of  Milton,  but  then  there  attaches  to  him  not  even  the  small 
taint  of  mercenary  partizanship  which  indubitably  clings  to  his  great 
contemporary.  He  is  in  earnest,  in  deadly,  breathless  earnest,  all  the 
time ;  fights  with  feet  and  hands,  and  strikes  to  kill,  though  never  a 
foul  blow.  His  pen  has  but  replaced  his  sword,  and  is  equally  a 
weapon,  neither  a  solace  nor  a  plaything.  He  possesses  all  Prynne's 
vigour  and  variety  of  invective,  without  Prynne's  ingrained  vulgarity 
and  crude  narrowness  of  bigotry.  His  vast  and  varied  knowledge  of 
the  law  and  constitution  cannot  be  paralleled  by  contemporary  jurists 
nor  approached  by  contemporary  laymen.  And  he  stands  high  above 
Milton,  Prynne,  or  any  other  that  can  be  named,  in  his  deep  appre- 
ciation and  statesmanlike  handling  of  the  problems  of  his  time:  some 
of  them,  it  may  be  hinted,  being  the  problems  of  our  time  too.  In 
likewise  does  he  surpass  all  in  the  stiffness  with  which  he  stands  to 
his  principles  at  all  hazards,  bating  no  jot  nor  tittle  for  fear  or  favour 
of  any  man  or  set  of  men,  facing  all  in  turn  fearlessly  whom  he  held 
in  the  wrong. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  the  peculiarities  of  Lilburne's  pamphlets  : 
they  have  none.  Saving  for  the  matter  and  the  style  they  are  exactly 
as  all  others  of  the  time,  poorly  printed  on  bad  paper,  quartos,  and 
with  over-crowded  title-pages.  But  the  matter  and  style,  as  I  have 
said  already,  mark  him  out  unique  among  all  those  who  were  active 
in  that  strenuous  time.     It  is  not  wholly,  I  think,  mere  unreasoning 


3i8        JOHN  LILBURNE  AS  A  PAMPHLETEER, 


I 


enthusiasm  for  a  loved  hero  that  leads  me  to  bracket  him  with 
Defoe  as  a  typical  Englishman.  That  Defoe,  in  the  foul  and  sordid 
atmosphere  of  the  eighteenth  century,  could  not  rise  to  Lilburne's 
height,  that  Lilburne  in  the  tension  of  the  period  during  which  all 
things  English  were  in  the  melting-pot  could  not  equal  the  coolness 
and  self-possession  natural  to  the  dull  "Augustan  age,"  may  go  alike 
without  saying.  But  in  so  far  that  each  held  England  first  over  all, 
that  each  wrote  always  to  a  tangible  end,  never  straying  into  the 
primrose  path  of  "  pure  literature,"  that  each  took  for  his  material 
and  used  with  striking  effect  the  ordinary  colloquial  English  tongue, 
never  straining  after  "  style,"  never  sinking  into  the  classical  or  the 
academic,  they  may  be  classed  together,  and  commended  to  the 
appreciation  of  all  Englishmen. 

H.  Halliday  Sparling. 


The  *'  Tudor  "  Translations. 


THE  new  volume  of  the  Tudor  Translations  will  be  "The 
Ethiopian  History  of  Hehodorus,  Englished  by  Thomas 
Underdowne,  1587."  Mr.  Charles  Whibley  writes  the  introduction, 
and  Mr.  Nutt  is  the  publisher.  Florio's  Mortaigne  has  already  been 
issued  in  three  volumes,  besides  the  present  work,  the  "  Golden  Asse" 
of  Apuleius,  in  William  Adlington's  translation  of  1566,  is  in  the 
press.  "  If  due  encouragement  be  given,"  says  the  publisher,  "  the 
Plutarch  so  precious  to  Shakespeare  "  will  be  reproduced.  He  adds, 
of  the  whole  series  of  "  Tudor  Translations  "  : — The  translations 
made  in  what  it  is  convenient  to  call  the  Age  of  Elizabeth  are  scarce 
less  remarkable  in  their  way  than  the  poems  and  the  plays  in  theirs. 
It  was  the  Golden  Age  of  English,  and  the  Translator,  working  with 
as  free  a  hand  and  as  fresh  an  interest  in  his  material  as  his  brethren 
of  the  theatre  themselves,  achieved  not  seldom  results  which  to  this 
day  are  monuments  of  diction  and  style.  But  these  have  fallen  out 
of  sight,  and  are  forgotten.  They  are  inaccessible  to  the  general 
reader,  or  the  form  in  which  they  were  presented  is  one  that  makes 
diHgence  hard  and  delight  in  them  impossible. 


Some  Reflections    on    Autograph   Collecting. 


T  is  hard  to  estimate  the  influence  of  a  collection  of  auto- 
graphs on  the  taste  and  character  of  the  owner,  and  just  as 
one's  scrap-book  is  an  index  of  one's  preferences  and 
idiosyncracies,  so  to  a  large  extent  is  the  line  of  collecting  guided  by 
the  special  personality  of  the  collector — with  this  difference,  that  the 
very  collection,  its  growth,  and  the  care  of  it,  engenders  or  fosters, 
or  both,  an  historical,  literary,  musical  or  other  taste  which  goes  far 
in  making  up  the  breadth  of  his  education. 

Outside  of  the  pleasure  and  profit  as  indicated,  my  own  collections 
have  been  among  other  items  the  means  of  bringing  me  into  close 
relation  with  very  many  delightful  and  cultivated  people,  whose 
acquaintance,  in  consequence  of  the  common  taste,  has  been  easily 
formed  and  the  friendship  quickly  cemented,  and  I  do  not  remember 
ever  to  have  made  any  but  worthy  and  desirable  friends  in  this  way. 

Then,  too,  choice  books  have  been  gradually  accumulated  about 
my  cases,  illustrative  of  and  in  sympathy  with  the  holographic  pages, 
and  bringing  their  authors  still  more  into  communion  with  the 
interested  spectator,  and  the  impression  that  one  is  surrounded 
by  friends  and  sympathising  minds  is  greatly  enhanced.  Take  for 
instance  the  first  book  that  comes  to  hand,  and  which  perhaps  is 
a  little  out  of  the  ordinary  line  of  preferences  of  autographiles.  It 
is  labelled  "Hymnology,"  and  on  opening,  we  find  it  filled  with 
many  of  the  hymns  used  the  world  over,  and  which  have  done  so 
much  towards  bringing  all  religions  and  sects  into  closer  sympathy 
and  harmony.  They  are  in  the  chirography  of  their  authors,  and 
bear  the  signatures  of  those  to  whom  we  are  so  much  indebted  for 
helpful  and  uplifting  thoughts.     Here  is  the  poem,  "  Lead,  Kindly 


3^o  REFLECTIONS  ON  AUTOGRAPH  COLLECTING. 

Light,"  in  the  neat  penmanship  of  Cardinal  Newman,  together  with 
a  printed  clipping  telling  of  the  circumstances  of  its  production,  and 
a  couple  of  portraits  of  the  kindly  face  of  the  talented  author.  Next 
-we  turn  to  that  missionary  hymn  sung  the  wide  world  round,  "  The 
Morning  Light  is  Breaking,"  from  the  same  pen  that  gave  us  "  My 
Country,  'Tis  of  Thee."  Following  it  is  the  hymn,  "  My  Faith 
Looks  up  to  Thee,"  with  the  signature  of  Dr.  Ray  Palmer,  together 
with  a  little  memorandum  of  its  first  being  handed  to  his  friend 
Dr.  Lowell  Mason,  and  carried  in  a  pocket-book  for  a  long  time 
before  being  given  to  the  world.  Delightful  reminiscences  of  the 
singing  of  finely  blended  male  quartets  come  to  mind  as  we  see 
"There  is  a  Green  Hill  Far  Away"  spread  out  over  the  name  of 
Mrs.  Alexander,  though  not  the  "  Mrs.  Alexander  "  of  current  litera- 
ture. 

Here  is  the  hymn  of  resignation  dating  back  to  the  17th  century 
but  translated  in  the  19th  in  the  familiar  words  "  My  Jesus,  as  Thou 
Wilt,"  and  the  Good  Bye  so  extensively  used  these  days  "God  Be 
with  You  Till  We  Meet  Again." 

Then  we  find  a  MS.  which  recalls  the  horrors  of  the  Ashtabula 
accident  and  the  fortitude  of  the  quiet,  lovable  character  of  the 
Evangelist  P.  P.  Bliss,  for  it  is  the  original  words  of  one  of  his  songs, 
made  so  familiar  to  singers  of  our  generation  by  use  in  the  Gospel 
services  and  Sunday-schools. 

This  is  a  sample  volume  picked  up  at  random,  but  who  can  make 
•such  documents  and  the  thoughts  and  aspirations  suggested  by  and 
growing  out  of  a  familiarity  with  them,  their  friends,  and  not  be 
helped  and  bettered? 

Fred.  M.  Steele. 


^m^^m^ 


The  First  Book  Catalogue. 


jHE  first  digested  list  of  publications  in  the  English  lan- 
guage was  compiled  by  Andrew  Maunsell,  a  bookseller  of 
ability  and  eminence,  who  lived  in  Lothbury,  London,  towards 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Hearne  calls  this  catalogue  "  a 
very  scarce,  and  yet  a  very  useful  book  " ;  and  it  is  curious  on  many 
accounts,  particularly  as  it  affords  the  titles  of  many  works,  and 
records  the  names  of  various  authors,  long  since  lost  or  forgotten. 
The  work  is  dedicated  "  To  the  Queene's  most  sacred  Maiestie  " ; 
to  "  The  Reverend  Divines,  and  Louers  of  Diuine  Bookes  " ;  and  to 
"The  Worshipfull  the  Master,  Wardens,  and  Assistants  of  the  Com- 
panie  of  Stationers,  and  to  all  other  Printers  and  Bookesellers  in 
generall."  The  following  is  the  title  :  "The  first  Part  of  the  Cata- 
logue of  English  Printed  Bookes :  which  concerneth  such  matters  of 
Diuinitie  as  have  bin  either  written  in  our  owne  tongue,  or  translated 
out  of  anie  other  language  :  and  haue  bin  published  to  the  glory  of 
God,  and  edification  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  England.  Gathered 
into  Alphabet,  and  such  method  as  it  is,  by  Andrew  Maunsell,  book- 
seller. Unu7iiquodque  propter  quid.  London :  printed  by  John 
Windet,  for  Andrew  Maunsell,  dwelling  in  Lothburie,  1595."  Folio, 
pp.  123  ;  dedication,  pp.  6  ;  with  the  device  of  a  pelican  and  its  off- 
spring rising  from  the  flames,  round  which  is  this  legend:  ^^ Pro 
Lege  Rege  et  Grege  :  Love  kepyth  the  Lawe,  obeyeth  the  kynge, 
and  is  good  to  the  Commonwelthe." 

The  following  extract  from  the  "  Dedication  to  the  Printers  and 
Booksellers  "  will  not  only  furnish  an  insight  into  the  plan  of  publi- 
cation, but  is  also  applicable  to  the  compilation  of  catalogues  in 

41 


322 


THE  FIRST  BOOK  CATALOGUE. 


general.      " seeing  (also)   many  singular    bookes,  not  only  of 

diuinitie,  but  of  other  excellent  arts,  after  the  first  impression,  so 
spent  and  gone,  that  they  lie  euen  as  it  were  buried  in  some  few 
studies ; — I  haue  thought  good  in  my  poor  estate  to  vndertake  this 
most  tiresome  businesse,  hoping  the  Lord  will  send  a  blessing  vpon 
my  labours  taken  in  my  vocation ;  thinking  it  as  necessarie  for  the 
bookeseller  (considering  the  number  and  nature  of  them)  to  haue  a 
catalogue  of  our  English  bookes,  as  the  apothecarie  his  Dispensa- 
torium,  or  the  schoolemaster  his  Dictionarie.  By  means  of  which 
my  poore  trauails,  I  shall  draw  to  your  memories  bookes  that  you 
could  not  remember ;  and  shew  to  the  learned  such  bookes  as  they 
would  not  thinke  were  in  our  own  tongue ;  which  I  haue  not 
sleighted  vp  the  next  way,  but  haue  to  my  great  paines  drawn  the 
writers  of  any  special  argument  together,  not  following  the  order  of 
the  learned  men  that  haue  written  Latin  catalogues,  Gesner,  Simler, 
and  our  countriman,  John  Bale.  They  make  their  alphabet  by  the 
christian  name,  I  by  the  sirname :  they  mingle  diuinitie,  law, 
phisicke,  &c.,  together ;  I  set  diuinitie  by  itselfe  :  they  set  downe 
printed  and  not  printed,  I  onely  printed.  Concerning  the  bookes 
which  are  without  authors'  names,  called  Anonymi,  I  haue  placed 
them  either  vpon  the  titles  they  bee  entituled  by,  or  else  vpon  the 
matter  they  entreate  of,  and  sometimes  vpon  both,  for  the  easier 
finding  of  them.  Concerning  the  bookes  that  be  translated,  I  haue 
observed,  (if  the  translator  doe  set  his  name)  the  author,  the  matter, 
the  translator,  the  printer  (or  for  whome  it  is  printed),  the  yeere, 
and  the  volume.  For  example,  Lambert  Danaeus,  his  treatise  of 
Antichrist,  translated  by  John  Swan,  printed  for  John  Potter  and 
Thomas  Gubbin,  1589,  in  4.  The  author's  sirname,  which  is 
DancBus ;  the  matter  of  the  booke,  which  is  Antichrist ;  the  trans- 
lator's sirname,  which  is  Swan  ;  are,  or  should  be,  in  Italica  letters, 
and  none  other,  because  they  are  the  alphabetical  names  obserued 
in  this  booke :  turn  to  which  of  these  three  names  you  will,  and 

they  will  direct  you  to  the  booke.     1  shall£not  neede  to  make 

the  like  examples — they  are  plaine  inough  by  one  example. 

"A.  Maunsell." 
In  the  same  year  in  which  this  catalogue  was  printed,  Maunsell 
published  a  second  part,  "  which  concerneth  the  sciences  mathe- 
maticall,  as  arithmetick,  geometrie,  astronomie,  astrologie,  musick, 
the  art  of  warre  and  navigation ;  and  also  of  physicks  and  surgerie." 
To  this  part,  as  to  the  first,  he  has  prefixed  three  dedications.  The 
first  was  to  the  memorable  Earl  of  Essex,  whose  arms,  beautifully 
cut  in  wood,  ornament  the  back  of  the  title.     He  [is  styled,  as  he 


THE  FIRST  BOOK  CATALOGUE.  323 

truly  was,  "  a  most  honourable  patrone  of  learned  men  and  theyr 
works."  The  second  dedication  is  to  "The  Professors  of  the 
Sciences  Mathematical!,  and  of  Physicke  and  Surgery";  and  the 
third  is,  as  before,  to  the  "  Companie  of  Stationers,  Printers,"  &c. 
In  this  last  dedication  he  says  :  "  Hauing  shewed  you  in  my  former 
part  of  the  use  of  my  tables,  I  will  onely  in  thys  shew  you  and  the 
curteous  readers  that  I  haue  set  the  writers  of  arithmetick,  musick, 
navigation,  and  warre  together,  vsing  the  playnest  way  I  could 
deuise.  Now  it  resteth,  that  I  should  proceede  to  the  thirde  and 
last  part,  which  is  of  humanity,  wherein  I  shall  haue  occasion  to 
shew,  what  we  haue  in  our  owne  tongue,  of  gramer,  logick,  rethoricke, 
lawe,  historie,  poetrie,  policie,  etc.  which  will,  for  the  most  part, 
conceiue  matters  of  delight  and  pleasure,  wherein  I  haue  already 
laboured  as  in  the  rest ;  but  finding  it  so  troublesome  to  get  sight 
of  bookes,  and  so  tedious  to  digest  into  any  good  methode,  I  haue 
thought  good  first  to  publish  the  two  more  necessarie  parts,  which, 
if  I  perceave  to  be  well  liked  of,  will  whet  me  on  to  proceed  in  the 
rest  (as  God  shall  make  me  able)  with  better  courage."  Although 
we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  Maunsell's  Catalogue  was  "well  liked 
of,"  yet  it  seems  that  he  did  not  meet  with  sufficient  encouragement ; 
for  certain  it  is  that  the  third  part,  which  would  doubtless  have  been 
the  most  interesting,  never  made  its  appearance. 

An  interesting  copy  of  this  important  Catalogue  came  up  for  sale 
at  Sotheby's  in  July  last :  it  is  interleaved  with  manuscript  additions 
in  an  old-hand,  and  the  autograph  of  *'  Tho.  Leigh  "  on  the  title.  It 
is  in  the  original  vellum  binding,  and  was  sold  for  ^£'5  2s.  6d. — a 
fact  which  alone  is  a  sufficient  indication  of  its  bibliographical  inte- 
rest and  importance. 


"^^m^ 


324 


MISCELLANEA. 


'^The  Best  Books." — Lord  Coleridge's   List. 

LORD  COLERIDGE,  as  President  of  the  Shipley  Salt  Schools, 
recently  delivered  an  address  on  Education,  which  was  inte- 
resting for  its  contribution  to  the  famous  "Best  Books"  controversy. 
Lord  Coleridge  counselled  his  hearers  to  cultivate  the  memory.  A 
good  memory  was  one  of  the  most  valuable  possessions  a  man  could 
have  in  any  occupation  of  life.  One  of  the  best  methods  of 
strengthening  it  was  by  learning  by  heart  passages  they  admired, 
both  in  verse  and  prose.  The  safest  rule  was  to  learn  that  which 
pleased  their  taste.  His  lordship,  leaving  aside  Latin  and  Greek 
authors,  then  gave  a  list,  which  may  be  tabulated  as  follows  :  — 


Poetry. 

Shakespeare. 

Milton. 

Wordsworth  (daily). 

Gray. 

Shelley. 

Keats. 

Scott. 

Ben  Jonson. 

Massinger. 

Pope. 

Dryden. 

Young. 


Prose. 

Lord  Bolingbroke. 

Lord  Erskine. 

Burke. 

Bacon. 

Bishop  Hooker. 

Jeremy  Taylor. 

Sir  Thomas  Browne. 

Cardinal  Newman. 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne. 

Southey. 


Coleridge,  said  the  Lord  Chief  Justice,  he  of  course  omitted  ;  and 
Tennyson  he  omitted,  because  any  estimate  which  placed  him  below 
Shakespeare  was  the  mark  of  a  Philistine.  Browning  he  had  not 
been  so  fortunate  as  always  to  understand.  The  list  was  short,  but 
was  sufficient  to  occupy  a  very  long  time  to  master  thoroughly.  He 
could  not  too  earnestly  recommend  their  acquainting  themselves  with 
good  books  \  in  sickness,  misfortune,  or  sorrow,  in  sleepless  nights 
and  painful  days,  they  would  find  their  recollection  of  wholesome 
literature  a  constant  solace  and  refreshment. 


A  First  Lesson  in  Book-keeping. — Never  lend  one. — Punch. 


ogsag^g-irBri/f 

&^^^&i 

^-^ 

^^^ 

^p^^ 

^^^^pM« 

3^ 

^^s 

^^^^ 

^^^^^< 

i^® 

11 

Mv/jl 

'^siSi?Hy<iy 

^s 

Marshal  Junot's  Library. 


HE  splendid  library  of  Junot,  Duke  of  Abrantes,  was  sold 
by  auction  in  London  in  June,  1816.  It  principally  con- 
sisted of  works  published  by  Didot,  and  printed  by  him  and 
Bodini  of  Parma  upon  vellum,  manufactured  expressly  for  the  marshal 
at  a  very  great  expense.  The  following  were  a  few  of  the  articles 
sold,  with  their  prices : — "  CEuvres  de  Crebillon,"  4  vols.,  best 
edition.  Printed  by  Didot,  upon  vellum,  with  plates,  by  Peyton; 
proofs  before  the  letters ;  proofs  with  only  the  artist's  names ; 
etchings;  and  a  fourth  set  of  the  plates,  in  colours.  Paris,  1797. 
Sold  for  ;£"26  5s.  "Oratio  Dominica,"  in  155  linguas  versa  et 
Exoticis  Characteribus  plerumque  expressa ;  red  morocco.  Parma, 
1806.  Sold  for  ;£^i4.  *'  Homeri  Ilias,"  Graec^,  3  vols.  A  magnifi- 
cent book.  Parma,  1808.  When  Buonaparte  assumed  the  iron 
crown  of  Italy,  Bodoni  undertook  this  edition  of  the  Iliad,  avowing 
that  he  meant  to  present  the  Emperor  with  the  most  perfect  specimen 
of  the  art  of  printing  which  could  be  produced.  Sold  for  j^ig  19s. 
"  Horatii  Opera."  Printed  in  vellum,  by  Didot,  with  the  exquisitely 
beautiful  original  drawings,  by  Peicier,  inserted ;  also  a  set  of  proof 
plates.  Paris,  1799.  This  and  the  two  following  articles  may  be 
considered  as  chefs-d'cBuvre  ;  they  exhibit  the  perfection  of  the  art  of 
printing  upon  vellum.  The  exquisite  beauty  of  the  vellum  and  the 
skill  of  the  printer  cannot  be  surpassed.  Two  copies  only  were 
printed  upon  vellum,  and  Didot  states  that  he  picked  the  sheets  of 
this  from  both.  Sold  for  ;!£"i40.  "Fables  de  la  Fontaine,"  2  vols. 
Printed  upon  vellum,  by  Didot.  A  most  splendid  and  magnificent 
book.     Paris,  1802.     Of  this  edition  only  two  copies  were  printed 


326 


MARSHAL  JUNOT'S  LIBRARY, 


upon  vellum.  Didot  states,  at  the  commencement  of  the  volume, 
that  he  picked  every  sheet  from  both  copies.  The  beauty  of  the 
vellum  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired  by  the  most  fastidious  eye ;  and 
to  render  this  copy  more  interesting  the  admirable  original  drawings 
of  Percier  are  inserted,  and  a  set  of  proof  plates.  Sold  for  ;£"i7o. 
"  Longus,"  Grasce.  A  most  splendid  and  magnificent  copy,  upon 
vellum.  Paris,  1802.  This  splendid  volume  is  unique.  Didot 
states  that  he  took  it  off  upon  vellum  expressly  for  the  Duke  of 
Abrantes.  The  original  drawings  by  Prudhon  and  a  set  of  proof 
plates  are  inserted.     Sold  for  £,12,  los. 

In  this  sale  it  was  expected  there  would  have  been  the  celebrated 
Bible  which  Junot  carried  off  from  Portugal,  but  it  was  not  trans- 
mitted with  the  rest  of  the  library.  The  Government  of  Portugal  was 
so  anxious  to  redeem  this  great  curiosity  that  they  offered  the  mar- 
shal's widow  eighty  thousand  livres  for  it  \  but  the  duchess  refused 
it,  saying,  that  from  the  reverence  and  respect  in  which  she  held  the 
memory  of  her  husband,  she  could  not  part  with  it  for  less  than 
150,000  livres  ! 


Books. 


THERE  are  three  capital  mistakes  in  regard  to  books : — 
I.  Some  persons,  through  their  own  indolence,  and  others 
from  a  sincere  belief  of  the  vanity  of  human  science,  read  no  book 
but  the  Bible.  But  these  good  men  do  not  consider  that,  on  the 
same  principle,  they  ought  not  to  preach  sermons,  for  sermons  are 
libri  ora^  vivaque  voce  pronunciati. 

2.  Some  collect  great  quantities  of  books  for  show,  and  not  for 
service.  Of  such  as  these  Lewis  XL  of  France  aptly  observed  that 
"  They  resembled  hunchbacked  people,  who  carried  a  great  burden 
which  they  never  saw."  This  is  a  vain  parade,  even  unworthy  of 
reproof.  If  an  illiterate  man  thinks  by  this  art  to  cover  his  ignorance 
he  mistakes,  for  while  he  appears  to  affect  modesty  he  dances  naked 
in  a  net  to  hide  his  shame. 

3.  Then  there  are  others  who  purchase  large  libraries  with  a  sincere 
design  of  reading  all  the  books ;  a  very  large  library,  however,  is  but 
a  learned  luxury. 


Bibles  at  the  British  Museum. 

THE  first   part  of  the  new   general  catalogue  of  the  British 
Museum  treats  of  the  Bible.     Altogether  the  Museum  has 
2,700  editions  of  the  Bible  in  different  languages.     The  oldest  of 
the  Polyglot  series  belongs  to  the  years  1514-23,  in  Hebrew,  Greek, 
and  Latin.     After  that  there  is  the  Antwerp   edition  of  1569-73. 
Of  written  Latin  editions  the  Museum  is  in  possession  of  forty-five. 
The  oldest  printed  Bible  is  that  by  Gutenberg,  known  as  the  first 
printed  book.     Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  and  English  printed  Bibles 
occupy  ninety  pages  of  the  catalogue.     Besides  these  the  Museum 
owns  editions  in  eighty-three  languages,  among  which  are  several  in 
barbaric  tongues.     The  first  German  Bible  was  brought  out  in  1466 
by  John  Mentelin,  of  Strassburg.     In  the  time  of  Luther  twenty- 
two   German   editions   of  the   Bible   were   published.       The   first 
French  edition  appeared  in  1510;   the  first  in    Italian  in    1471  ; 
the    first    Spanish    was    published    in    Basle,    in    1569;   and   the 
first   old   Sclavonic   in    1580;    the   first   complete   Russian    Bible 
was  not   published    till   1876,  and  then  in  London.      One  of  the 
most    rare    editions    is    the    Malagasi    Bible   of   1830-35,  printed 
in  Madagascar ;  shortly  after  that  date  a  persecution  of  the  Chris- 
tians  broke   out,   and   the   Bibles   were  divided  amongst  them  in 
small  parts,  so  that  they  might  be  more  easily  concealed ;  a  com- 
plete  Malagasi   edition  is   therefore   very   rare.     The  one   in   the 
British  Museum  cost  twenty  oxen.     The  first  American  Bible  is  in 
the  language  of    the   Massachusetts   Indians ;    it   was   printed   in 
1661-63,  and  is  very  rare. 


328 


MISCELLANEA. 


Earliest  English  Medical  Work. 

HE  earliest  Medical  work  written  in  English  is  supposed  by 
Fuller  to  have  been  Andrew  Borde's  "  Breviarie  of  Health," 
which  was  published  in  1547.  It  must  yield,  however,  in 
its  pretensions  to  antiquity,  to  a  much  older  work,  the  "  Breviary  of 
Practice,"  by  Bartholomew  Glanville,  a  manuscript  of  which  is  pre- 
served in  the  Harleian  collection.  The  one  title,  indeed,  appears  to 
have  been  an  imitation  of  the  other.  The  "  Breviarie  of  Health  '* 
has  a  prologue  addressed  to  physicians,  which  begins  thus  :  "  Egre- 
gious doctors,  and  masters  of  the  eximious  and  arcane  science  of 
physick,  of  your  urbanity  exasperate  not  yourselves  against  me  for 
making  this  little  volume." 

Andrew  does  not  confine  his  attention  to  diseases  of  the  body,  but 
treats  also  of  those  of  the  mind  ;  as  in  the  following  instance,  which 
may  serve  for  a  specimen  of  his  manner  :  "  The  1 74  Chapiter  doth 
shewe  of  an  infirmitie  ?iamed  Hereos.  Hereos  is  the  Greke  worde. 
In  Latin  it  is  named  Amor.  In  English  it  is  named  Love-sick,  and 
women  may  haue  this  fickleness  as  well  as  men.  Young  persons  be 
much  troubled  with  this  impediment."  After  stating  "  the  cause  of 
this  infirmitie,"  he  prescribes  the  following  remedy :  "  First  I  do 
advertize  every  person  not  to  set  to  the  hart  what  another  doth  set 
to  the  hele ;  let  no  man  set  his  love  so  far,  but  that  he  may  with- 
draw it  betime ;  and  muse  not,  but  use  mirth  and  mery  company, 
and  be  wyse,  and  not  foolish."  Andrew  Borde  called  himself  in 
Latin,  Andreas  Perforatus.  This  translation  of  a  proper  name  was 
according  to  the  fashion  of  the  time ;  and,  in  the  instance  before  us, 
appears  to  include  a  pun :  perforatus^  bored  or  pierced. 


A   Woman    on    Books. 


ARK  PATTISON  said  that  nobody  who  respected  himself 
could  have  less  than  i,ooo  volumes.  That  reduces  the 
self-respecting  men  of  the  world  to  a  very  small  number, 
and  of  this  a  very  large  fraction  is  composed  of  publishers  and  book- 
sellers, who  in  every  day's  paper  make  known  their  desire  to  be  rid 
of,  with  the  greatest  despatch  possible,  the  i,ooo,  or  thereabouts, 
.volumes  they  have. 
A  thousand  volumes ! 
Why,  Chaucer's  clerk  of  Oxenford  was  satisfied  with  having  at — 

"  His  beedes  bed 
A  twenty  bokes." 

Does  any  dare  deny  that  the  gentle  clerk  had  a  claim  to  self- 
respect  ? 

I  who  write  these  words  on  books  possess  loo,  not  the  best  loo, 
;but  loo,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  and  I  never  look  at  them  in  rows 
upon  my  shelves  but  the  heart  in  me  is  lifted  up. 

Why? 

For  this  reason,  shade  of  Mark  Pattison,  I  have  read  ninety-and- 
[tiine  of  them  through,  from  cover  to  cover.  The  hundredth  I  have 
only  just  got,  and  it  I  shall  have  read  through,  from  cover  to  cover, 
in  a  month.  And  then  I  shall  get  my  hundred-and-first.  I  find  that 
I  take  a  month  to  read  a  book,  and  think  about  it ;  and  find  out  what 
^others  think  about  it ;  and  then  compare  their  views  with  mine ; 
ind  summarise  the  book's  contents  ;  and  make  a  list  of  the  good 
[things  in  it.     A  book  a  month ;  that  is  my  quickest  rate  of  reading, 

42 


330 


A   WOMAN  ON  BOOKS. 


and  I  shall  be  over  loo  years  old  before  my  thousandth  book  is 
on  the  shelf,  and  I  have  Mark  Pattison's  leave  to  respect  myself. 

"Not  so,"  somebody  says,  reading  over  my  shoulder.  '*He  does 
not  mean  the  i,ooo  books  to  be  read.^^  I  will  not  insult  his  memory 
by  believing  that.  Perhaps  he  himself  read  very  quickly.  It  is 
wonderful  the  amount  of  literature  some  people  can  get  through  in 
next  to  no  time.  Hearken  to  Mr.  John  Morley,  speaking,  no  doubt, 
from  a  knowledge  of  himself,  and  addressing  you  and  me — 

"In  half  an  hour  I  fancy  you  can  read  15  or  20  pages  of 
Burke." 

Can  you  ?  I  cannot.  I  fancy  very  few  can,  especially  very  few 
"wise  students,"  reading  as  he  bids  them  read,  with  a  pen  or  a 
pencil  in  hand.     I  open  a  page  of  Burke  at  random  : — 

"  Lord  Chatham  is  a  great  and  celebrated  name,  a  name  that 
keeps  the  name  of  this  country  respectable  in  every  other  on  the 
globe.  It  may  be  truly  called  Lamm  et  venerabile  nomen  Gentibus,. 
et  multuin  nostras  quod proderat  urbi. 

"The  venerable  age  of  this  great  man,  his  merited  rank,  his 
superior  eloquence,  his  splendid  qualities,  his  eminent  services,  the 
vast  space  he  fills  in  the  eye  of  mankind,  and,  more  than  all  the  rest, 
his  fall  from  power,  which,  like  death,  canonises  and  sanctifies  a 
great  character,  will  not  suffer  me  to  censure  any  part  of  his  conduct. 
I  am  afraid  to  flatter  him ;  I  am  sure  I  am  not  disposed  to  blame 
him.  Let  those  who  have  betrayed  him  by  their  adulation  insult  him 
with  their  malevolence.  But  what  I  do  not  presume  to  censure  I 
may  have  leave  to  lament." 

That  is  one  paragraph. 

It  takes  me  precisely  two  minutes  to  read  that  paragraph  once 
quickly  through,  and  then  I  have  to  think  my  thoughts  about  it. 

"  Lord  Chatham  is  a  great  and  celebrated  name  " — why  is  the 
title  here  not  omitted  ?  Is  there  not  some  snobbishness  in  its  being 
prefixed  to  the  great  and  celebrated  name?  That  is  my  first 
thought ;  then  comes  my  second  thought.  By  "  name,"  perhaps,  is 
meant  by  Burke  what  Shakespeare  so  often  meant  by  "  name  " — 
person.  There  is  no  snobbishness  then.  But  I  cannot  proceed  to  the 
next  paragraph,  nay,  even  to  the  next  sentence,  yet.  There  is  another 
feature  in  this  one  that  sets  me  thinking.  In  14  words  the  noun 
"  name ''  occurs  thrice — tautological  rather.  Stop  !  Burke  was  an 
orator.  The  effect  of  the  iteration  in  speech  would  be  magnificent^ 
I  picture  him  speaking  the  sentence,  and  then  my  heart  swells  to 
remember  that  he  was  an  Irishman,  and  then  I  hold  a  mental 
review  of  great  Irishmen  ! 


I 


A   WOMAN  ON  BOOKS.  331 

Then  comes  the  Latin  quotation.  What  does  it  mean  ?  Whence 
is  it  taken  ?     I  copy  it  down,  and  resolve  to  make  a  search  for  it. 

This  brings  me  to  the  sentence  with  the  wonderful  string  of 
subjects.  I  read  that  sentence  first  to  myself,  and  then  I  read  it 
aloud  to  the  walls,  and  then,  because  it  sounds  so  superb,  read  it 
aloud,  and  because  the  patient  walls  raise  no  objection,  I  read  it 
aloud,  more  loudly,  once  more.  And  then  I  think  a  long  thought 
about  that  bit,  "the  fall  from  power."  Is  it  not  generous  and 
beautiful  ?     I  resolve  to  commitit  to  memory.     Then  I  go  on  : — 

"  I  am  afraid  to  flatter  him ;  I  am  sure  I  am  not  disposed  to 
blame  him.  .  .  ." 

Why  those  words  "  I  am  sure  ?  "  They  spoil  the  balance  of  the 
sentence.     In  my  conceit  I  dare  to  censure  here. 

And  then  at  last  I  proceed  to  paragraph  two.  But,  oh,  Mr. 
Morley  !     I  have  been  precisely  33  minutes  reading  paragraph  one. 

"  I  read  so  slowly,"  you  say,  indignantly.  I  do  (an  Irishwoman's 
answer),  but  then  (this  is  a  good  thing,  is  it  not  ?)  I  never  forget 
what  I  read.  To  swallow  15  pages  of  pure  literature  without  thinning 
it  with  the  water  of  one's  thought  must  simply  intoxicate.  Books  do 
intoxicate.  They  are  like  beech-mast,  the  fruit  of  the  beech,  which, 
when  taken  in  great  quantities,  produces  light-headedness  like  wine. 
Nay,  they  are  beech-mast,  nothing  else  ;  the  very  word  "  book  " 
has  "  beech  "  wrapped  up  in  it.  I  don't  understand  people  who  are 
able  to  say,  "This  is  my  favourite  book."  My  favourite  book 
changes  daily.  One  day  I  decide  that  I  love  the  Bible  most ;  and 
the  next  day  I  make  up  my  mind  that  I  love  Shakespeare  more ; 
and  the  next  day  I  put  Robert  Burns  at  tip-top  of  all  my  loves  ;  and 
the  next  day  I  resolve  that  Chaucer  far  excels  Robert  Burns ;  the 
next  day  I  enthrone  Lytton  ;  and  him  I  depose  the  day  after  to  make 
room  for  my  new  king,  Spenser.  To-day  I  have  been  reading 
"Hyperion"  and  my  soul  is  full  of  love  for  Keats;  to-morrow  I 
mean  to  read  *'  Adonais,"  and  the  odds  are  that  Keats  will  be  taken 
from  off  his  pedestal  and  Shelly  perched  there  in  his  place.  Think 
of  there  being  only  one  book  which  could  make  lie-a-bed  Dr. 
Johnson  get  up  two  hours  earlier  than  he  wished  to  rise.  I  get  up 
every  morning  three  hours  earlier  than  I  wish  to  rise,  simply  to  creep 
into  my  study  and  sit  among  the  dear  books,  taking  up  any  of  them 
— the  first  that  comes — to  read  it. 

A  "general  reader."  Well,  yes.  Only  I  don't  like  that  phrase. 
The  word  "  general "  is  used  with  the  precise  meaning  which  it  here 
has  only,  as  attribute  to  two  nouns — reader  and  servant^  and,  indeed, 
a  general  reader  and  a  general  servant  have — generally — much  in 


332 


A   WOMAN  ON  BOOKS. 


common.     Both  get   through  a  good   deal  of  work,   and  botl 
generally — in  very  different  style. 

What  do  you  think  is  the  next  best  thing  to  reading  a  book  ?  I 
think  it  is  writing  one.  It  is  so  pleasant  to  think  you  are  doing 
what  Shakespeare  did,  that  your  thoughts,  like  his  thoughts,  are  sO' 
precious  that  you  feel,  like  him,  they  merit  being  put  to  paper  (in 
common  logic  every  writer,  even  a  modest  critic,  must  admit  that  it 
is  this  conviction  that  first  made  him  take  pen  in  hand),  and  pleasant 
it  is  to  picture  a  publisher's  accepting  your  work  "with  thanks," 
though,  I  believe,  indeed,  that  modifying  clause  in  publishers'  dic- 
tion commonly  only  follows  the  word  "  declined,"  and  finally,  and 
more  than  all : — 


*'  'Tis  pleasure  sure  to  see  one's  name  in  print ; 
A  book's  a  book,  although  there's  nothing  in't." 

"  Nothing  in't."  Why,  surely  Byron  knew  that  there  never  yet 
was  a  book  **  in  print "  but  there  was  something  in't.  Take  only 
the  case  of  the  book  which  Moore  gave  the  world.  Folks  are  saying 
all  over  England  to-day  that  "  There's  nothing  in  Moore."  Now 
there's  this  in  Moore : 


"  There's  nothing  half  so  sweet  in  life 
As  love's  young  dream." 


I 


Find  me  anything  half  so  sweet  as  that  in  your  favourite  poet.  It 
is  only  the  first  thing  in  Moore  that  comes  to  my  mind ;  there  are 
many  things  more  in  him. 

Cowper  has  said  that  authorship  is  "awhim."  The  definition  is 
whimsical,  and  more  one  cannot  say  of  it.  The  same  writer  has  the 
phrase — "  a  serious  affair — a  volume."  Mark  Pattison  would  have 
done  well  to  lay  that  phrase  to  heart. 

What  ideas  have  you  on  authors?  I  speak  now  to  the  "general 
reader,"  not  to  the  critic,  nor  to  the  person  personally  acquainted 
with  authors.  Before  I  myself  became  an  author  and  met  Mr. 
Walter  Besant — and  he  was  the  first  writer  I  ever  beheld  (except  as 
a  frontispiece) — I  thought  of  all  authors  as  being  "  wizards  that  peep 
and  that  mutter."  I  know  at  present  one  author  of  whom  the  old 
girlhood's  notion  holds  good.  He  is  a  poet  and  is  a  wizard  that 
peeps  and  that  mutters.  Sometimes  he  laughs,  and  sometimes  he 
cries,  and  sometimes  he  gasps,  and  sometimes  he  grunts,  when  at 
authorship.  When  you  first  pass  his  study  you  wonder  how  many- 
are  in  it.     You  might  sometimes  imagine  that  he  was  entertaining. 


A   WOMAN  ON  BOOKS,  333 

quite  a  number  of  people,  and  that  these  people  had  brought  with 
them  their  children,  and  dogs,  and  cats,  and  canary  birds. 

The  poet  is  employed  tete-a-tete  with  his  Muse.  Their  plan  is,  in 
working  together,  to  imitate  all  the  things  that  they  describe,  just  as 
Shakespeare  in  writing  a  certain  notable  poem  imitated  at  first  the 
infant  mewling  and  puking  in  his  nurse's  arms,  and  then  the  whining 
schoolboy — and  then  the  lover — then  a  soldier — and  then  the  justice. 
I  know  exactly  how  Shakespeare  wrote  that  poem  from  watching, 
listening  to  my  friend,  the  poet,  wizard-like  peeping  and  muttering. 

What  accident  annoys  you  most  in  connection  with  the  book  ? 
Not  the  cover  torn,  or  a  dog's  ear,  or  a  blot,  or  spot,  or  foolish  under- 
lining, or  comment  upon  margin,  not  these,  I  hope.  More  aggra- 
vating than  any  of  these,  or  all  of  these  combined,  it  is  to  come  upon 
a  leaf  torn  out.  The  wife  of  Bath  owed  her  deafness  to  a  box  on 
the  ears  which  her  fifth  husband  gave  her  for  tearing  a  leaf  out  of 
one  of  his  books.  Well,  a  husband  (even  a  fifth  husband)  has  no 
right  whatever  to  box  his  wife's  ears  ;  but  if  there  could  be  a  circum- 
stance more  extenuating  than  any  other  in  connection  with  the  act, 
it  seems  to  me  to  be  the  one  connected  with  the  box  on  the  ear 
which  her  fifth  husband  gave  the  wife  of  Bath.  The  world  seems  to 
stand  still  when  one  opens  a  book  at  a  page  torn  out.  One  feels 
morally  certain  that  the  pith  and  marrow  of  the  whole  work  was  con- 
tained there,  and  that  the  300  and  odd  pages  which  may  be  left  are 
only  so  much  worthless  paper  which  wrapt  that  priceless  leaf  about. 
Merely  writing  on  the  subject  is  fraught  with  pain,  and  I  feel  I  grow 
"intense." 

You  notice,  of  course,  the  number  of  Httle  books  which  are  now  to 
be  seen  about.  A  lady  wrote  last  year  in  a  society  paper  in  London  : 
"  It  is  the  fashion  at  present  to  have  a  great  number  of  little  lamps, 
each  adapted  to  give  as  little  light  as  possible."  It  seems  as  if  this 
"  fashion  "  had  taken  a  special  hold  on  publishers,  who  supply  us 
indeed  with  a  great  number  of  little  lamps  (a  wise  writer  long  ago 
said  that  a  book  was  a  lamp),  each  adapted  to  give  as  little  light  as 
possible.  Addison,  it  is  true,  wrote  years  ago  that  were  all  books  re- 
duced to  their  quintessence  there  would  be  scarce  any  such  thing  in 
nature  as  a  folio ;  but  would  he,  one  asks  oneself,  be  pleased  to  see 
all  books,  as  to-day  all  books  may  be  seen,  "  reduced  to  their  quint- 
essence "  }  As  matters  stand  it  is  really  quite  refreshing  to  come 
across  a  folio.  What  with  the  booklets  which  in  place  of  books  are 
supplied  to  it,  our  reading  public  threatens  to  become  a  race  of 
polished  Florios,  of  whom  their  sons  will  be  able  to  say,  what  Hannah 
More  said  of  their  prototype  : — 


334  ^    WOMAN  ON  BOOKS.  VH 

"  Some  phrase  that  with  the  public  took  ^| 

Was  all  he  read  of  any  book."  fli 

Verily,  the  providers  of  quintessential  literature  give  us  little  more  of 
our  great  writers  than  some  phrase — mayhap  some  phrases — that 
with  the  public  took. 

A  word  about  French  fiction.  Is  it  so  wholly  vile  as  people  say  ? 
I  do  not  think  it  is.  There  is  a  widespread  notion  among  English 
folk  that  a  French  bookshop  is  a  place  that  harbours  only  what  is 
bad,  is  an  unholy  of  unholies.  The  simple  truth  is  this — there  is 
more  pure  and  good  in  the  French  language  than  any  English 
reader  will  have  ever  time  to  exhaust.  Unfortunately,  the  French 
books  which  are  absolutely  unsullied  by  gross  thought  do  not  meet 
with  readers  here.  Of  the  English  men  or  women  who  have  read 
Daudet's  "  Sapho,"  and  declaimed  against  it  as  spotted  and  unchaste, 
it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  scarce  one  has  read  his  chaste  and 
spotless  "  Contes  Chorses."  French  books  that  do  not  now  and 
again  surprise  and  shock  us,  like  French  people  that  do  not  now  and 
again  surprise  and  shock  us,  we  of  this  country  regard  as  "  formal 
dulness." 

What  sort  of  books  do  you  like  best  to  read?  I  think  you 
answer — Biographies.  When  a  biographer  knows  his  duty  and  does 
it,  no  writer,  indeed,  is  more  delightful.  But  what  is  his  duty  ?  I 
take  it  to  be  this — to  tell  the  acts  of  a  king,  and  all  that  he  did,  and 
all  his  might.  Only  kings  are  fit  subjects  for  biography,  and  it  is  not 
the  duty  of  any  one  to  tell  all  that  they  left  undone  and  all  their 
weakness.  No,  that  is  disloyal ;  that  is  lize  majeste.  Some  years 
ago  I  took  up  the  life  of  a  king,  written  by  one  to  whom  had  been 
given  the  king's  friendship.  I  read  on,  on,  through  pages  and 
■chapters,  with  heart  and  head  burning ;  read  till  my  eyes  were  blind 
with  anger  and  tears. 

Why  was  it  written  ? 

Page  after  page  of  the  shameful  book  only  told  how  the  king  had 
been  a  sorry  mortal,  lovely  and  pleasant,  with  harp  in  hand  (for 
the  king  was  a  poet) ;  else  in  all  his  acts,  and  in  all  that  he  did, 
unlovely  and  unpleasant. 

I  have  not  read  a  biography  since,  and  have  no  wish  to  read  ever 
again  a  biography. 

What  sort  of  books  do  great  men  read  ?  Some  of  them  tell  us, 
and  we  are  filled  with  surprise  by  what  we  learn.  In  an  article  on 
natural  rights  and  political  rights,  written  by  Professor  Huxley,  and 
published  in  the  Nineteenth  Cefitury  for  February,  1890,  several 
allusions  are  made  to  poems  and  books  ;  so  to  Dr.  Watts'  immortal 


A   WOMAN  ON  BOOKS.  335 

quatrain,  "  Let  dogs  delight "  (it  is  praised  by  the  great  professor  as 
containing  sound,  moral  philosophy  "  in  a  nutshell "),  to  "  Robinson 
Crusoe,"  to  the  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  to  "  Henry  V.,"  to  "  Alice  in 
Wonderland."  These  then,  are  some  of  the  works  that  Professor 
Huxley  has  read,  that  have  helped  to  mould  his  thought,  and  that 
come  to  his  mind  when  he  takes  his  pen  in  hand  to  write  on 
natural  rights  and  political  rights.     Who  would  have  dreamed  it  ? 

Elsa  D'Esterre  Keeling. 


Curiosities  of  Cataloguing. 

AS  curious  an  instance  of  wrong  classification  as  we  have  ever 
seen  is  to  be  found  in  Part  I.  of  the  catalogue  of  the  famous 
Borghese  Library.  There,  under  the  general  heading  of  "Sciences," 
and  following  the  names  of  *•  Thackeray  Smith  Becket "  (printed  as 
though  they  belonged  to  one  person),  appears  the  Comic  Almanack^ 
from  1 844-1 853.  Cruikshank's  illustrations  are  mentioned,  and  so 
also  are  the  "  Merry  Tales,  Humorous  Poetry,  Quips,  and  Oddities," 
which  this  singular  example  of  scientific  learning  is  well  remembered 
to  contain. 


336 


MISCELLANEA, 


A  Specimen  of  Bookbinding. 

AVERY  remarkable  specimen  of  bookbinding  has  recently  been 
completed  by  Mr.  Revi^re.  This  consists  of  a  copy  of  the 
first  edition  of  "The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  the  original  thin 
little  square  octavo  of  Johnson.  The  two  designs  on  the  covers  and 
double  are  tulips  decoratively  treated  by  Mr.  Thomas,  extremely  rich 
in  effect,  entailing  an  enormous  amount  of  coloured  inlay.  The 
chief  merit  of  the  work,  from  the  designer's  point  of  view,  consists 
in  the  fact  that  no  special  tools  seem  to  have  been  cut  for  it,  and 
from  the  binder's  that  the  workmanship  is  perfect  in  its  exquisite 
finish. 


The  Inquisition  Again. 


"/^^ONDEMNED  by  the  Holy  Office  of  the  Inquisition."  It 
V_^  is  somewhat  of  a  shock  to  read  these  words  at  the  end  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Yet  this  famous  or  rather  infamous  institu- 
tion is  in  practical  existence  to-day,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
Niiieteenth  Century  has  fallen  under  its  ban.  Mr.  Mivart's  three 
articles  on  "  Happiness  in  Hell,"  as  the  editor  of  the  Tablet  informs 
us,  have  been  thus  condemned,  *'  and  accordingly  placed  upon  the 
Index  Expurgatorius."  This  is  probably  the  most  valuable  adver- 
tisement Mr.  Mivart's  ingenious  arguments  could  receive,  and  we 
shall  therefore  no  doubt  see  them  promptly  reissued  in  volume  form. 
It  is  interesting,  however,  to  notice  that  the  Pope  shares  the  popular 
view  that  "  happiness  "  and  "  hell  "  are  contradictory  terms. 


M 


Singular  Dedications. 


N  the  dedication  of  books,  one  general  manner  has  prevailed 
ever  since  books  were  written — namely,  to  extol  with  more 
or  less  extravagance  the  individuals  to  whom  they  are 
inscribed.  Every  reader  is  familiar  with  instances  of  the  fulsome 
extremes  to  which  such  adulation  has  been  carried ;  let  ours  be  the 
more  agreeable  task  to  bring  together  some  of  the  few  cases  which 
are  either  deserving  of  imitation  for  the  good  taste  in  which  they  are 
conceived,  or  amusing  for  their  eccentricity.  The  happiest,  and  at 
the  same  time  one  of  the  shortest,  dedications  which  we  remember 
to  have  met  with,  is  that  prefixed  to  the  poem  of  "  Madagascar,''  by 
Sir  William  Davenant,  1648.  It  is  in  these  words: — "If  these 
poems  live,  may  their  memories  by  whom  they  are  cherished^. 
Endymion  Porter  and  H.  Jarmyn,  live  with  them." 

Sheppard,  in  his  "  Epigrams,  Theological,  Philosophical,  and 
Romantic,"  1651,  has  adopted  almost  literally  the  same  style  of 
inscription: — "If  these  epigrams  survive  (maugre  the  voracitie  of 
Time),  let  the  names  of  Christopher  Clapham  and  James  Winter  (to 
whom  the  author  dedicateth  these  his  endeavours)  live  with  them." 

Davenant's  dedication  had  many  other  imitators  ;  it  may  be  said,, 
indeed,  to  have  given  for  a  time  the  mode  to  this  class  of  composition. 
Nothing  can  be  more  pleasing  than  the  idea  of  thus  handing  down 
to  posterity  the  names  of  those  friends  by  whom  one's  labours  have 
been  "cherished,"  and  but  for  whose  encouragement  they  might 
perhaps  never  have  seen  the  light.  How  different  the  feeling  of  the 
author,  who, 

"  To  his  most  esteemed  and  beloved  Selfe, 
Dat  Dedicatque" 

43 


-338 


SINGULAR  DEDICATIONS. 


Who  but  some  churlish  cynic — some  growler  at  the  world — some 
man  without  a  friend  to  commemorate,  could  thus  proclaim  his 
"selfe"  idolatry?  Such,  in  fact,  in  many  respects,  was  Marston, 
whose  "  Scourge  of  Villainy  "  is  inscribed  in  these  terms. 

Although  Marston  was  imitated  by  many,  he  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  copied  in  this  particular  by  any  one.  The  dedication  of 
*'A  Scourge"  seems  more  properly  to  belong  to  those  who  are 
scourged ;  and  so  we  find  the  "  Scourge  of  Drunkenness,"  by  William 
Hornby  inscribed: — "To  all  the  impious  and  relentless-hearted 
ruffians  and  roysters  under  Bacchus'  regiment :  Cornuapes  wisheth 
remorse  of  conscience  and  more  increase  of  grace. 


"  Come,  Drunkenness,  untrusse, 
And  naked  strip  thee, 
For  without  mercy 

I  will  soundly  whip  thee,"  &c. 


-Cornuapes  is  a  name  assumed  by  the  author,  in  allusion  to  a  wood- 
-cut  on  the  title,  of  a  wild  man  of  the  ape  species,  smoking  a  pipe 
with  one  hand  and  holding  a  scourge  in  the  other. 

Of  a  similar  description  is  the  following  dedication  of  Richard 
Brathwayte's  "  Strappado  for  the  Divell" — 1619. 

•'The  Epistle  Dedicatorie 
To  all  vsurers,  broakers,  and  promoters,  Serjeants,  catch-poles,  and 
regraters,  ushers,  panders,  suburbes  traders,  cockneies  that  haue 
manie  fathers  \  ladies,  monkies,  parachitoes,  marmosites  and  cate- 
mitoes  folks,  hightires  and  rebatoes,  false-haires,  periwigges,  moucha- 
toes ;  grave  gregorians  and  shepointers,  —  send  I  greeting  at 
..adventures,  and  to  all  such  as  be  evill,  my  Strappado  for  the 
Divell." 


Instead  of  a  whole  class  of  persons  being  honoured  with  such 
epistles  dedicatory,  we  sometimes  find  them  addressed  to  the  more 
eminent  names  in  a  class,  as  examples  of  all  that  is  most  wicked  or 
ridiculous  in  it.  It  is  thus  that  the  prevailing  character  of  the  heroes 
•  of  the  Commonwealth  is  portrayed  by  Denzil  Holies  in  the  following 
dedication  of  one  of  his  political  tracts  : — "  To  the  unparalleled  couple^ 
Mr.  Oliver  S.  John,  his  majesty's  solicitor-general,  and  Oliver  Crom- 
well, the  parliament's  lieutenant-general,  the  two  grand  designers  of 
the  ruin  of  three  kingdoms.  Gentlemen, — As  you  have  been  prin- 
cipal in  ministering  of  the  matter  of  this  discourse,  and  giving  me  the 
leisure  of  making  it,  by  banishing  me  from  my  country  and  business  ; 


SINGULAR  DEDICATIONS.  339 

so  it  is  reason  I  shall  particularly  address  it  to  you.  You  shall  find 
in  it  some  representation  of  the  grosser  lines  of  your  features, — those 
outward  enorfnities  that  make  you  remarkable,  and  your  picture  easy 
to  be  known,  which  cannot  be  expected  here  so  fully  to  the  life  as  I 
could  wish  :  he  only  can  do  that  whose  eye  and  hand  have  been  with 
you  in  secret  councils, — who  has  seen  you  at  your  77ieetings, — your 
sabbaths,  where  you  have  lain  by  your  assumed  shapes  (with  which 
you  cozened  the  world),  and  resumed  your  own,  imparting  each  ta 
other,  and  both  of  you  to  your  fellow -witches, — the  bottom  of  your 
design,  the  policy  of  your  actings,  the  turns  of  your  contrivances, — 
all  your  falsehoods,  cozenings,  villainies,  and  cruelties,  with  your  full 
intentions  to  ruin  the  three  kingdoms.  All  I  will  say  to  you,  is, 
what  St.  Peter  said  to  Simon  the  Sorcerer — 'Repent,  therefore,  of 
this  your  wickedness  ; '  and  pray  to  God,  if  perhaps  the  thoughts  of 
your  hearts  may  be  forgiven  you  :  and  if  you  have  not  grace  to  pray 
for  yourselves  (as  it  may  be  you  have  not),  I  have  charity  to  do  it 
for  you,  but  not  faith  enough  to  trust  you.  So,  I  remain,  I  thank 
God,  not  in  your  power,  and  as  little  at  your  service, 

I"  Denzil  Holles, 
•'At  S.  Mere.  Eglide,  in  Normandy,  this  14th  of  Feb.  1647.  St.  V." 
To  Coryat,  the  traveller,  as  the  prince  of  a  more  harmless  class,, 
ealers  in  strange  sights  and  wondrous  adventures,  the  facetious 
John  Taylor,  the  water  poet,  dedicates  his  satirical  work  of  "Three 
Weeks',  Three  Days',  and  Three  Hours'  Observations  and  Travel 
from  London  to  Hamburgh,  in  Germany,"  &c.  in  these  terms  :  "  Ta 
the  cosmographical,  geographical  describer,  geometrical  measurer; 
historiographical,  caligraphical  relater  and  writer  ;  enigmatical,  prag- 
matical, dogmatical  observer ;  surveyor,  and  eloquent  British  Grecian 
Latinist,  or  Latin  Grecian  orator ;  the  odcombyan  decambulator,, 
perambulator,  ambler,  trotter,  or  untyred  traveller,  Sir  Thomas 
Coryat,  knight  of  Troy,  and  one  of  the  dearest  darlings  to  the  blind 
goddess  Fortune." 

The  writer,  who  has  comprehended  the  greatest  number  of  persons 
by  name  in  one  dedication,  is  the  anonymous  author  of  a  scarce 
poetical  tract,  entitled  "  The  Martyrdome  of  Saint  George,  of  Cappa- 
docia,  Titular  Patron  of  England,  and  the  Most  noble  order  of  the 
Garter,"  1614.  It  is  dedicated  "to  all  the  noble,  honourable,  and 
worthy  of  Great  Brittaine,  bearing  the  name  of  George ;  and  to  all 
other,  the  true  friends  of  Christian  chivalrie,  lovers  of  Saint  George's 
name  and  vertues."  It  has  been  often  erroneously  stated  that 
George  was  a  Christian  name  of  very  rare  occurrence  in  this 
country  until  the  accession  of  the  present  family  to   the   throne. 


340 


SINGULAR  DEDICATIONS. 


Burton  mentions  George  de  Charnels,  in  the  time  of  Edward  I.  and 
'One  of  the  brothers  of  Edward  IV.  was  called  George,  but  the  name 
at  that  time  was  certainly  less  common  than  might  have  been 
•expected,  considering  that  St.  George  was  the  titular  patron  of 
England,  that  he  was  the  patron  also  of  the  order  of  the  garter 
instituted  by  Edward  III.,  and  especially  how  the  Scotch  and  Irish 
have  honoured  their  patron  saints  by  the  numberless  Andrews  and 
Patricks  among  them.  In  history,  however,  we  find  many  Georges 
previous  to  the  date  of  this  work,  as  may  be  seen  by  consulting  any 
of  our  biographical  collections.  Although  few  may  have  heard  of 
George  Clifford,  earl  of  Cumberland,  or  George  Abbot,  archbishop 
•of  Canterbury,  yet  none  are  strangers  to  the  names  of  George 
Buchanan,  George  Fox,  George  Monk,  duke  of  Albemarle,  or  the 
profligate  George  Villiers,  duke  of  Buckingham. 

The  "  Battaile  of  Agincourt,"  by  Michael  Drayton,  is  dedicated — 
■**  To  you,  those  noblest  of  gentlemen  of  these  renowned  kingdomes  of 
Great  Brittaine;  who,  in  these  declining  times,  have  yet  in  your 
brave  bosoms  the  sparks  of  that  sprightly  fire  of  your  courageous 
ancestors."  Although  the  "declining  times"  here  spoken  of  are  but 
the  first  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  it  would  seem  that,  in  the 
opinion  of  Drayton,  as  the  name  George  increased,  the  spirit  of 
Agincourt  departed  from  amongst  us.  Alas !  for  the  present  day, 
which  is  at  least  two  centuries  lower  in  the  scale. 

One  thing  more  certain  than  this  decay  of  courage,  was  a  great 
increase  during  these  "  declining  times  "  (that  is,  during  the  reign  of 
James  I.),  of  habits  of  intemperance  and  debauchery.  And  hence 
the  propriety  with  which  Edward  Calver,  after  dedicating  his  poem 
of  "Passion  and  Discretion  in  Youth  and  Age"  (1641),  "To  the 
right  noble  and  truly  vertuous  Lady  Temperance,"  subjoins  a 
metrical  apology  for  thus  seeming  "/^  invocate  the  winde'^ 

Next  to  dedicating  to  a  shadow,  we  may  class  dedicating  to 
nothing  and  nobody.  Of  this  we  have  a  quaint  enough  example  in 
the  following  lines,  which  present  a  specimen  of  what  may  be  termed 
dedication  by  inference. 

*'  To  my  dear  Friend,  Mr.  Charles  Aleyn. 

"  When  Fame  had  sayd,  thy  poem  should  come  out 
Without  a  dedication  ;  some  did  doubt 
If  Fame  in  that  had  told  the  truth,  but  I, 
Who  knew  her  false,  boldly  gave  Fame  the  lye, 
For  I  was  certaine,  that  this  booke,  by  thee, 
Was  Dedicated  to  Eternity. ^"^ 

"  Thy  true  lover,  Ed.  Prideaux." 


SINGULAR  DEDICATIONS.  341 

Nothing  perhaps  is  more  generally  remarkable  of  dedications  than 
the  little  insight  which  they  give  us  into  the  real  characters  of  the 
writers.  In  the  earlier  periods  of  our  literary  history,  it  was  so  much 
the  fashion  to  play  the  mountebank  on  these  occasions,  that  we  may 
search  in  vain  for  one  line  of  truth  in  most  of  the  portraits,  or 
rather,  certificates  of  character,  that  we  find  prefixed  by  authors  to 
their  works.  Who,  nowadays,  for  example,  knows  anything  of  Robert 
Baron,  or  the  Cyprian  Academy,  of  which  he  was  the  author  ?  And 
yet,  to  read  a  letter  which  he  has  modestly  prefixed  to  that  poem, 
addressed  to  him  by  his  uncle  Howell,  the  well-known  writer  of 
"  The  Letters,"  one  would  suppose  that  his  fame  could  not  so  soon 
have  perished. 

"7b  Mr.  R.  Baron,  at  Paris, 

"  Gentle  Sir, 

"  I  received  and  presently  ran  over  your  Cyprian  Academy 
with  much  greediness,  and  no  vulgar  delight ;  and,  sir,  I  hold  myself 
much  honoured  for  the  dedication  you  have  been  pleased  to  make 
thereof  to  me,  for  it  deserved  a  far  higher  patronage  :  truly,  I  must 
tell  you,  without  any  complaint,  that  I  have  seldom  met  with  such 
an  ingenious  mixture  of  prose  and  verse,  interwoven  with  such 
varieties  of  fancy  and  charming  strains  of  amorous  passions,  which 
have  made  all  the  ladies  in  the  land  in  love  with  you.  If  you  begin 
already  to  court  the  Muses  so  handsomely,  and  have  got  such  footing 
on  Parnassus,  you  may  in  time  be  lord  of  the  whole  hill  and  those 
nice  girls;  because,  Apollo,  being  now  grown  unwieldy  and  old, 
may  make  choice  of  you,  to  officiate  in  his  room  and  preside  over 
them.  The  '  Pocula  Castalia,'  another  work  by  Robert  Baron,  has 
prefixed  to  it  some  more  lines  of  praise  from  his  uncle ;  in  which,  by 
way  of  diversity  of  phrase,  he  thus  puns  on  the  name  of  him  who  is 
to  be  *  in  time  lord  of  the  whole  hill  and  those  nice  girls.' 

*•  You  may  in  time,  where  now  old  Phoebus  sits, 
Be  Lord  Chioi  Baron  of  the  Court  of  Wits." 

In  modern  times  plainness  and  sincerity  have  come  more  into 
repute  than  they  were  in  the  days  of  the  '*  Lord  Chief  Baron  ;  "  and 
we  do  occasionally  meet  with  very  lively  traits  of  character  substituted 
for  the  customary  adulation.  Where,  for  example,  in  all  Dr.  Delany's 
works,  has  he  left  us  a  juster  picture  of  himself  than  in  the  following 
dedication  of  his  "  Fifteen  Sermons  upon  Social  Duties"  to  the  Lady 
Grace,  the  first  Viscountess  Carteret  and  Countess  Granville  ? 


342 


SINGULAR  DEDICATIONS. 


"  The  author  of  these  discourses  pretends  not  to  acquit  himself  o 
ambition  ;  he  hath  perhaps  as  strong  a  bias  of  original  guilt  that  way 
as  any  mortal ;  but  the  truth  is,  it  was  early  checked,  and  entirely 
turned  from  all  hope  or  prospect  of  preferment,  to  the  sole  view  of 
endeavouring  to  deserve  it.  In  this  situation  he  was  found  by  your 
son,  near  twenty  years  ago,  in  an  honourable  obscurity ;  and  drawn 
thence,  with  some  distinction  (though  without  any  suit  or  solicitation 
on  his  side),  a  little  more  into  the  light — at  least,  into  the  hurry  of 
the  world,  where  he  hath  continued  to  this  day — unhonoured,  indeed, 
but  (I  thank  God)  unreproached,  and  (what  is  perhaps  matter  of 
more  vexation  than  vanity)  not  unenvied;  though  he  stood  in  no 
man's  way,  nor  was  rival  to  any  mortal,  during  the  whole  time,  either 
for  wealth,  preferment,  or  power.  He  had  been  long  before  this  a 
constant  preacher ;  nor  did  his  natural  vehemence  allow  him  to  be 
indolent,  or  uninterested  in  what  he  delivered.  His  condition  of 
life,  and  the  circumstances  of  some  particular  friends,  led  him  early 
to  the  consideration  of  almost  all  the  following  subjects;  and  a 
thousand  subsequent  occasions  drew  him  frequently  into  repeated 
re-consideralion  of  them  ;  so  that  what  he  now  presumes  to  present 
to  your  ladyship,  are  very  truly  the  first  fruits  of  his  early  labour  and 
unwearied  zeal  in  the  service  of  religion." 


The  Perils  of  a  Book  Collector. 


CASE  of  interest  to  all  collectors  of  books  is  reported  from 
Paris,  and  a  case,  moreover,  of  a  most  extraordinary  cha- 
J  racter.  It  seems  that  some  twenty-five  years  ago,  one  M. 
Begis,  who  had  a  Government  position  in  Paris,  was  also  a  collector 
of  rare  books.  His  specialty  was  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI.,  the 
Revolution  and  the  Empire.  He  purchased  works  through  book- 
sellers. In  June,  1866 — only  imagine  the  patience  of  this  victim — a 
detective  seized  a  consignment  of  books  in  the  shop  of  a  Paris  dealer. 
The  consignment  came  from  Brussels.  The  dealer,  in  order  to  save 
himself  from  jail,  acknowledged  that  the  books  were  for  M.  B^gis, 
one  of  his  customers.  The  French  Comstock  then  invaded  M. 
Begis'  home,  and  out  of  some  10,000  volumes  confiscated  some  300, 
on  the  ground  that  they  were  of  a  libertine  character.  These  works 
were  not,  however,  destroyed.  They  were  simply  placed  in  the 
National  Library.  They  were  too  rare  and  precious  to  be  sacrificed 
in  the  interest  of  public  morality.  The  works  seized  included  a 
number  of  old  pamphlets  against  Marie- Antoinette,  like  "La  Vie 
Libertine  et  Scandaleuse,"  "  Les  Fureurs  de  Marie-Antoinette," 
-"La  Journee  amoureuse  ou  les  derniers  plaisirs  de  Marie-Antoi- 
nette," etc. ;  others  against  the  Empire :  "  La  Vie  Privde  de 
Napoleon,"  "L'Ogre  de  Corse,"  "Zoloe  et  ses  deux  acolytes," 
•etc. ;  twenty-eight  pamphlets  against  Napoleon  III.,  and  a  number 
of  anti-religious  works.  The  gallant  literature  consisted  of  works  of 
the  last  century  which  are  recognised  as  permissible  in  private  col- 
lections. Most  of  the  books  were  bound  in  full  morocco,  and 
valuable  even  for  that  alone.  There  was  also  seized  from  M.  B^gis 
.a  collection  of  drawings,  prints,  lithographs,  and  the  like,  which  he 


344 


THE  PERILS  OF  A  BOOK  COLLECTOR. 


had  assembled  at  great  cost.  The  value  of  the  seizure  he  placed  at 
30,000  francs.  But,  as  he  was  drawing  a  salary  from  the  Govern- 
ment which  was  necessary  for  the  support  of  his  family,  he  dared 
not  go  into  court.  So  he  went  on  drawing  his  salary,  while  his  free 
books  and  prints  were  sequestered  in  the  secret  cabinets  of  the  Im- 
perial Library.  He,  however,  took  the  precaution  to  secure  a  list  of 
the  seizure,  in  detail,  from  the  Imperial  Procureur. 

In  1882  M.  Begis  resigned  his  position  under  the  Government, 
and,  being  free  of  fear,  demanded  the  return  of  his  property.  He 
was  informed  that  the  record  of  the  seizure  had  been  burnt  by  the 
Communists  in  1871.  Then  he  produced  his  receipt.  The  Re- 
publican Procureur  replied  that  he  was  not  responsible  for  the 
seizures  of  his  Imperial  predecessor,  and  M.  Begis  promptly  went 
to  law  about  it.  The  jury  has  decided  in  a  general  way  in  his 
favour,  and,  although  the  National  Library  will  not  return  his 
property  to  him,  he  may,  if  he  lives  long  enough,  be  indemnified 
for  the  robbery.  An  expert  has  been  appointed  to  determine  the 
amount  of  the  steal,  and  when  he  gets  through  the  victim  will  have 
a  chance  to  wait  until  the  State  appropriates  for  restitution  to  him 
the  money  he  has  been  plundered  of,  without  interest. 


Wrrm^S^ 


Books  in  Manuscript. 


LTHOUGH  Mr.  Falconer  Madan's  volume  with  the  above 
title  in  Mr.  Pollard's  capital  series  of  "  Books  about  Books  " 
is  not  the  first  book  on  the  subject  of  which  it  treats,  it  is 
in  many  respects  the  most  satisfactory.  As  it  deals  with  the  materials, 
forms,  and  instruments  of  writing,  with  a  brief  history  of  ancient 
writing,  with  scribes  and  their  ways,  with  the  decoration  of  manu- 
scripts, with  the  chief  styles  of  illumination ;  with  the  blunders  of 
scribes  and  their  correction,  with  some  famous  libraries  and  collectors 
of  manuscripts,  with  celebrated  manuscripts,  with  some  famous  for- 
geries, and  with  the  treatment  and  cataloguing  of  manuscripts,  it  will 
be  at  once  seen  that  its  scope  is  an  exceedingly  comprehensive  one. 
Mr.  Madan  has  successfully  resisted  the  temptation  to  which  the 
specialist  too  often  succumbs,  for  he  has  produced  a  book  which  is 
not  too  crammed  with  facts  of  minor  importance.  His  book  is 
eminently  readable  from  beginning  to  end,  and  his  statements  are 
thoroughly  reliable. 

The  word  "  manuscript  "  itself  is  directly  derived  from  the  Latin 
expression,  codices  manu  scripti^  which  literally  signifies  books  written 
by  hand.  In  the  present  superabundance  of  printed  material,  of 
hundreds  of  daily  and  weekly  newspapers,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
the  condition  of  things  which  existed  when  every  record  was  a  written 
one.  Yet  such  was  the  case  even  less  than  five  hundred  years  ago. 
All  the  great  literary  monuments  of  antiquity,  therefore,  have  come 
down  to  us  through  this  exceedingly  uncertain  medium  ;  and  although 
much  that  we  would  willingly  have  had  with  us  to-day  has  been  for 
ever  lost,  there  is  no  doubt  that  we  still  possess  by  far  the  most 
valuable  portion.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  Tacitus  and  Catullus, 
these  monuments  have  been  preserved  to  us  by  the  thinnest  possible 

44 


346 


BOOKS  IN  MANUSCRIPT. 


thread  of  transmission,  others  have  all  the  advantages  of  a  very  large 
body  of  evidence,  such  as  that  which  supports  the  New  Testament 
or  Virgil.  The  entire  history  of  the  world  was  in  this  uncertain 
manner  conveyed  to  succeeding  generations  up  to  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  when  the  introduction  of  the  printing  press  almost 
immediately  sounded  the  death-knell  of  the  manuscript-historian.  It 
is  curious  to  reflect  that  every  book,  or,  in  other  words,  every  MS- 
born,  as  it  were,  prior  to  the  year  1440  is  unique.  Very  many,  it  is 
true,  are  all  but  exact  copies  of  one  another,  but  there  are  variations 
of  a  more  or  less  extensive  nature  which  render  them  distinct  from 
a  technical  point  of  view.  Many  which  are  avowed  copies  differ 
very  materially  from  the  direct  fountain  head,  for  the  scribe  of  the 
old  times  had  his  own  particular  view  of  things  in  general,  and  rarely 
scrupled  to  improve  upon  his  **  author."  It  is  these  irresponsible 
alterations  and  amplifications  that  have  given  rise  to  so  many  of  the 
literary  quarrels  of  the  past  and  present.  One  often  wonders  upon 
what  peg  the  scholars  of  the  last  few  centuries  would  have  hung  their 
fulminations  against  one  another  if  there  were  only  one  "  reading  " 
of  every  classic  author.  The  annals  of  literature,  failing  these  fruit- 
ful causes,  might  have  been  considerably  more  dignified,  but  they 
certainly  would  be  very  much  less  diverting.  We  have,  perhaps, 
much  to  be  thankful  for  in  this  respect. 

To  return,  however,  to  Mr.  Madan's  book  :  it  is  curious  to  note 
that  the  earliest  efforts  of  the  human  race  to  record  its  thoughts  and 
history  were  by  scratching  with  some  hard  instrument  on  stone;  and 
perhaps  it  is  to  this  source  that  we  have  the  idea  of  using  stone  or 
metal  to  receive  engraving  for  sepulchral  tablets,  for  official  records,, 
such  as  State  decrees  and  for  honorary  inscriptions.  Up  to  this 
point,  therefore,  it  will  be  seen  how  very  little  we  have  advanced  in 
the  course  of  two  or  three  thousand  years.  We  have,  as  examples  of 
this  very  early  form  of  writing,  the  drawings  of  prehistoric  man  on 
the  walls  of  caves,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Nicene  Creed  cut 
in  silver  by  Pope  Leo  III.'s  order  to  fix  the  absolute  form  decreed 
by  the  second  General  Council,  the  Parian  Chronicle,  the  Rosetta 
Stone,  and  tombs  of  all  ages.  "  As  material  tends  to  act  on  style, 
and  as  curves  are  harder  to  grave  than  straight  fines,  writing  on  stone 
tends  to  discard  the  one  and  to  encourage  the  other,  we  find  in  such, 
inscriptions  a  decided  preference  for  angular  forms  of  letters."  The 
wood  or  bark  of  trees  was  another  material  used  for  writing  on  at  a 
very  early  period,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  three  of  our  com- 
mon terms  are  derived  from  the  custom  of  cutting  or  scratching  on 
wooden  boards  or  bark,  the  Latin  liber  (a  book,  properly  the  bark  of 


BOOKS  IN  MANUSCRIPT.  347 

a  tree,  whence  such  words  as  library,  libretto),  the  Latin  codex  (or 
caudex,  a  tree  stump,  then  sawn  boards,  then  a  book,  now  narrowed 
to  a  manuscript  book),  and  perhaps  the  Teutonic  which  appears  in 
German  as  Buck  and  in  English  as  book^  meaning  originally  a  beech 
tree  and  beechen  boards. 

To  pass  from  the  materials  used  in  making  books  to  the  form  in 
which  books  were  made  up  :  in  the  case  of  papyrus,  the  roll-form 
nearly  always  obtains.  '*  This  long  strip  was,  of  course,  rolled  round 
a  stick  or  two  sticks  (one  at  each  end)  when  not  in  use,  very  much 
as  a  wall  map  is  at  the  present  day.  With  parchment  the  case  has 
been  different.  Though  in  classical  times  in  Rome,  so  far  as  can  be 
judged,  the  roll-form  was  still  in  ordinary  use  even  when  parchment 
was  the  material,  and  though,  in  the  form  of  court-rolls,  pedigrees, 
and  many  legal  kinds  of  record,  we  are  still  familiar  with  the  appear- 
ance of  a  roll,  the  tendency  of  writers  and  parchment  has  been  to 
establish  and  perpetuate  the  form  of  book  best  known  at  the  present 
day,  in  which  pages  are  turned  over  by  the  reader,  and  not  mem- 
branes unrolled." 

The  "  Illuminated  "  phase  of  manuscripts  is  in  many  senses  the 
most  important,  as  they  are  commercially  the  most  valuable.  Illu- 
minated manuscripts  are  naturally  an  elaboration  on  the  bare-written 
volume,  which  are,  from  an  artistic  point  of  view,  anything  but  beau- 
tiful or  pretty.  The  transition  from  the  severely  plain  to  the  splen- 
didly elaborate  was  a  gradual  one  of  several  centuries.  There  are 
no  examples  of  classical  illumination  left  to  posterity ;  the  nearest 
approaches  being  the  Pompeian  wall-paintings,  and  the  recently 
discovered  mummy  cases  from  Egypt.  There  are,  however,  several 
MSS.  with  paintings  clearly  based  on  classical  models  as  known  from 
sculpture — notably  the  two  early  MSS.  of  Virgil  in  the  Vatican,  and 
the  famous  "  Iliad"  in  the  Ambrosian  Library  at  Milan,  all  of  which 
are  not  later  than  the  fourth  century  of  our  era.  Mr.  Madan  points 
out  that  the  characteristics  of  these  are  simplicity  and  directness  in 
aim,  with  no  straining  after  effect,  and  few  accessories ;  plenty  of 
colour,  but  very  little  shading.  It  may  be  said  that  ornamented 
borders  and  elaborate  initials  are  quite  rare.  The  mediaeval  period 
begins  in  Ireland  in  the  seventh,  and  on  the  Continent  in  the  eighth 
century,  where  we  find  ornaments  and  designs  independent  of  Roman 
style.  The  best  period  is  from  1250  to  1550  :  "the  finest  examples 
of  illumination  are  to  be  found  in  the  fifteenth  century  in  France, 
Italy,  England,  and  the  Netherlands,  though  some  still  prefer  the 
costly,  magnificent,  and  florid  ornamentation  of  the  first  quarter  of 
the  sixteenth  century.     The  art  is,  however,  generally  in  decline 


348 


BOOKS  IN  MANUSCRIPT, 


after  about  a.d.  1480."  As  we  have  only  recently  dealt  with  Pro- 
fessor Middleton's  elaborate  work  on  "  Illuminated  Manuscripts," 
we  need  not  enter  more  fully  into  a  consideration  of  Mr.  Madan's 
book. 

"  Books  in  Manuscript "  contains  eight  full-page  illustrations, 
starting  with  the  "  Book  of  Kells  "  and  ending  with  an  example  from 
the  Bodleian  MS.  of  Csedmon,  written  about  a.d.  iooo  in  a  West- 
Saxon  hand.  It  is  published  by  Messrs.  Kegan  Paul,  Trench 
Triibner,  &  Co. 


■'^mmi/i 


Paris  as  a  Book  Centre. 

N  the  latter  days  of  the  Second  Empire  there  was  secretly 
circulated  in  Paris  a  remarkably  seditious  song,  supposed 
to  emanate  from  some  discontented  students  inhabiting  the 
classic  district  of  the  Quartier  Latin,  which  breathed  inveterate 
hostility  to  the  Imperial  sway  and  personal  hatred  of  the  Emperor 
himself.  A  metrical  translation  of  this  anti-Bonapartist  ballad 
appeared  in  an  English  newspaper  with  the  title  of  "  The  Lion  of 
the  Latin  Quarter  " ;  but  it  was  remarked  at  the  time  that,  however 
leonine  might  be  the  utterances  of  the  enemy  of  Caesarism,  he  had 
not  given  a  correct  address,  since  practically  the  Quartier  Latin 
existed  no  longer.  Baron  Haussmann  had  expropriated  the  major 
part  of  the  inexpressibly  squalid  and  dilapidated  and  intensely  in- 
teresting old  slums.  The  Prefect  of  the  Seine  had  cut  through  a 
labyrinth  of  narrow  and  tortuous  streets  the  broad,  handsome, 
but  somewhat  garish  Boulevard  St.  Michel,  a  thoroughfare  nearly 
eighteen  hundred  yards  long,  which,  starting  from  the  Pont  St. 
Michel,  extended  to  the  Observatoire.  Other  improvements  in  the 
neighbourhood  had  almost  completely  obliterated  streets  full  of 
historic  memories  recalling  Voltaire  and  Rousseau,  D'Alembert  and 
Diderot,  Fontenelle  and  Beaumarchais,  and  many  more  famous 
frequenters  of  the  bygone  cafes  of  this  antique  region.  The  Rue 
des  Ecoles  had  been  prolonged  for  a  distance  of  three  hundred 
yards ;  the  Rue  Descartes  enlarged  and  continued  to  the  Boulevard 
St.  Germain,  and  considerable  alterations  and  improvements  made 
in  the  Rue  St.  Jacques  and  the  Rue  de  I'Ecole  de  Medecine. 
Otherwise  the  two  most  interesting  streets  of  the  Quartier  Latin 
had  been  transformed  almost  beyond  recognition.  According  to  a 
Paris  correspondent,  however,  the  demolition  of  the  students'  district 


350 


PARIS  AS  A  BOOK  CENTRE, 


still  proceeds  apace,  and  the  enlargement  of  the  buildings  of  the 
Sorbonne  will  necessitate  the  total  destruction  of  the  Rue  Gerson 
and  the  further  expropriation  of  what  remains  of  the  Rue  St. 
Jacques.  The  first-named  locality  is  celebrated  as  the  place  where 
Pascal  wrote  his  scathing  "  Provincial  Letters  " ;  while  in  the  Rue 
St.  Jacques  Rousseau  resided  for  a  time  in  mean  lodgings,  and  the 
wits  and  Bohemians  of  the  period  used  to  carouse  at  the  formerly 
noted  tavern  of  the  Cochon  Fidele.  Finally,  this  correspondent  tells 
us  of  the  once-renowned  secondhand  bookshop  kept  by  La  Mere 
Mansut,  an  eccentric  bibliopole,  whose  house  was  crammed  from 
cellar  to  basement  with  literary  commodities,  but  was  said  to  be 
destitute  of  either  doors  or  windows. 

Madame  Mansut,  if  tradition  is  to  be  believed,  was  in  the  habit 
of  sleeping  on  a  pile  of  books,  and  of  making  her  ablutions  coram 
publico  in  the  Rue  St.  Jacques  itself.  She  was  likewise  endowed 
with  that  distinctive  mnemonic  faculty  known  as  the  librarian's 
memory.  There  is  the  cabman's  memory,  which  enables  him 
unerringly  to  drive  a  fare  to  a  particular  spot  if  he  has  ever  been 
there  before ;  there  is  the  actor's  memory,  which,  as  a  rule,  is 
evanescent,  and  has  to  be  refreshed  by  rehearsal  every  time  an  old 
piece  is  revived;  there  is  the  memory  of  princes,  the  principal 
phenomenon  of  which  is  the  instantaneous  recollection  of  the  names 
of  persons  who  have  once  been  presented  to  them;  waiters,  club 
servants,  and  barbers  have  each  and  all  different  and  special 
memories;  whereas  the  librarian's  memory  chiefly  consists  in  an 
exact  knowledge  of  the  outsides  of  books  and  a  faultless  remem- 
brance of  their  places  on  the  shelves  of  a  library.  There  are  in- 
stances on  record  of  librarians  who  were  not  only  acquainted  with 
the  titles  and  location  of  the  contents  of  their  own  literary  store- 
houses, but  who  had  also  acquired  through  correspondence  an 
exhaustive  acquaintance  with  the  libraries  of  other  countries.  Thus 
a  Florentine  librarian  at  the  time  of  the  Renaissance,  while  regretting 
that  he  did  not  possess  a  copy  of  the  "  Cosmogony  "  of  the  Byzan- 
tine historian  Zonaras,  remarked  that  the  work  in  question,  bound 
in  white  vellum,  with  red  edges,  was  in  the  library  of  the  Grand 
Signior  at  Constantinople,  in  the  left-hand  corner  of  the  third  shelf 
from  the  ceiling,  in  the  Southern  Kiosque,  facing  the  Golden  Horn, 
in  the  Palace  of  the  Old  Seraglio.  He  had  probably  derived  his 
information  from  some  learned  Byzantine  refugee.  The  book- 
memory  of  La  Mere  Mansut  seems  to  have  been  nearly  as  mar- 
vellous as  that  of  the  Tuscan  librarian.  When  a  customer  asked 
for  a  book  she  was  wont  to  go  straight  to  the  place  where  it  lay  in 


PARIS  AS  A  BOOK  CENTRE.  351 

the  midst  of  a  gigantic  pile  of  other  volumes ;  and  students  would 
sometimes  make  bets  that  La  M^re  Mansut  would,  within  a  given 
number  of  minutes,  rummage  out  from  the  darkest  recesses  of  her 
shop  some  almost  totally  forgotten  specimen  of  antique  lore,  such  as 
the  "  Mare  Clausum  "  of  Selden,  or  the  "  Teatro  Critico "  of  the 
learned  Benedictine,  Dom  Fejon.  La  Mere  Mansut  was  only  the 
descendant  of  a  long  line  of  male  and  female  vendors  of  second- 
hand books,  as  expert  in  their  calling  but  not  quite  so  eccentric  as 
she.  The  history  of  secondhand  booksellers — and,  for  the  matter 
of  that,  of  bibliopoles  at  first  hand — yet  remains  to  be  written  ;  and 
a  most  curiously  interesting  volume  would  such  a  work  be.  We 
should  be  reminded  that  Martial's  Epigrams  were  sold,  while  the 
poet  was  still  living,  by  a  certain  Secundus,  a  freedman  of  the 
learned  Lucencis,  whose  shop  was  close  to  the  Temple  of  Peace 
and  the  Forum  of  Nerva ;  and  that  the  seventh  book  of  his  works, 
on  superfine  vellum,  polished  with  pumice-stone,  and  bound  in 
purple,  was  to  be  purchased  for  four  Roman  "nummi,"  or  about 
five  shillings  sterling.  What  prodigious  bids  would  be  made  for  the 
satirist's  book,  were  it  put  up  to-morrow  at  an  English  auction  !  It 
is  to  be  feared,  however,  that  the  Goths  and  the  Vandals,  the  Huns 
and  the  Visigoths,  made  short  work  of  many  thousands  of  copies  of 
Martial,  Horace,  Virgil,  and  Ovid  to  boot.  The  poet's  regular  pub- 
lisher was  one  Valeranus  Polius  Quinctus ;  and  the  term  pubHsher 
may  be  applied  without  fear  of  falling  into  an  anachronism,  since 
the  leading  Roman  booksellers  of  antiquity  employed  hundreds  of" 
amanuenses,  who  were  generally  slaves  specially  trained  as  copyists 
of  the  works  of  popular  authors.  France  became  early  a  patron  of 
literature ;  for  from  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  Roman  book- 
sellers were  accustomed  to  make  large  consignments  of  books  to 
Gaul ;  and  Pliny  the  younger  expresses  rather  affected  astonishment 
that  his  "  little  trifles  "  should  be  quite  popular  at  Lyons. 

The  booksellers  of  Paris  received  a  charter  of  incorporation  from 
Philip  the  Hardy  so  early  as  1275;  and  their  guild  comprised  not 
only  dealers  in  books,  but  scribes,  bookbinders,  illuminators,  and 
parchment-makers.  In  succeeding  generations  all  books  published 
were  subjected  to  the  rigorous  censure  of  the  Sorbonne ;  but 
shortly  after  the  invention  of  printing  Francis  I.,  terrified  at  the 
dissemination  of  independent  thought  by  means  of  movable  types, 
ordained  that  every  bookseller  in  Paris  should  forthwith  close  his 
shop  on  pain  of  death.  The  absurd  decree  was  soon  rescinded, 
but  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  the  booksellers  were  sub- 
jected to  all  kinds  of  stringent  regulations.     It  was  only  permissible 


352 


PARIS  AS  A  BOOK  CENTRE. 


to  sell  books  in  the  University  Quarter,  which  included  the  Rue  St. 
Jacques ;  but  the  principal  mart  for  literature  was  in  the  Salle  des 
Pas  Perdus  of  the  Palais  de  Justice,  each  bookseller  having  appor- 
tioned to  him  as  his  stall  the  base  of  a  particular  pillar,  although  his 
next  neighbour  might  be  a  female  dealer  in  fans  and  gloves  and 
lace.  Altogether,  it  was  much  safer  in  the  days  before  the  Mere 
Mansut  to  sell  secondhand  books  than  new  ones.  The  restriction 
of  the  sale  of  books  in  the  Quartier  Latin  was  gradually  relaxed, 
and  in  process  of  time  bookstalls  were  established  on  the  Pont  Neuf 
and  throughout  the  length  of  the  quays.  The  Pont  Neuf  books 
were  sold  at  wonderfully  cheap  rates ;  and  the  dealers  being 
denounced  to  the  Parliament  as  making  the  majority  of  their 
purchases  from  schoolboys  and  servants,  who  had  stolen  the 
volumes  which  they  sold,  were  fain  to  abandon  the  bridge.  The 
publishers  and  sellers  of  new  books  had,  however,  a  much  rougher 
time  of  it.  In  1649  ^  bookseller  named  Vivenet  was  condemned  to 
five  years  at  the  galleys  for  issuing  lampoons  against  Cardinal 
Mazarin  ;  and  in  the  same  year  authority  swooped  down  on  a  whole 
family  of  printers  of  "  Mazarinades."  The  eldest  son  of  the  house 
was  sentenced  to  be  hanged ;  his  mother  to  be  present  at  the 
execution,  and  to  be  afterwards  whipped  through  the  streets  of  the 
Quarter,  while  her  youngest  son  was  sent  to  the  galleys  for  life.  In 
1694  two  publishers,  with  their  clerks,  were  hanged,  and  a  woman 
imprisoned  in  the  Bastille,  for  putting  forth  a  pamphlet  on  the 
marriage  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Madame  de  Maintenon ;  while  through- 
out the  eighteenth  century  the  persecution  of  the  Paris  booksellers 
was  so  continuous  and  so  inexorable  that  many  of  the  principal 
firms  betook  themselves  to  Holland,  and  published  their  books  at 
Amsterdam  or  at  the  Hague.  The  Revolution  gave  entire  freedom 
to  the  "  libraires  " ;  and,  although  a  futile  attempt  was  made  under 
the  Restoration  to  license  printing  presses,  and  under  the  Second 
Empire  steps  were  taken  to  prosecute  the  author  of  "  Madame 
Bovary "  for  an  alleged  outrage  on  morality,  the  dealers  in  books, 
new  and  old,  in  Paris  have  not  ceased  to  enjoy  complete  liberty, 
which  may  have  occasionally  degenerated  into  licence. 


Our  Note-Book. 


URICH,  which  at  various  times  figured  on  the  title-pages  of 
books  as  Tigurum,  Tigurinus  Pagus,  Turigum,  and  Turicum, 
plays  no  unimportant  part  in  the  annals  of  the  great  Refor- 
mation of  this  country ;  for  there  is  very  good  reason  for  believing 
that  the  first  edition  of  the  English  Bible,  in  foho,  1535,  was  printed 
in  this  ancient  and  historical  city.  It  is,  however,  not  on  this 
account  that  we  desire  to  draw  the  attention  of  our  readers  to  this 
place ;  but  because  we  have  selected  as  the  frontispiece  of  the  pre- 
sent volume  an  illustration  from  a  Zurich  book  of  extreme  rarity  and 
interest.  It  is  the  "  Imperatorum  Romanor.  omnium  orient,  et 
Occident,  verissimse  imagines  ex  antiquis  numismatis  quam  fidelissime 
delineatse,"  of  Jacobus  Strada,  printed  by  A.  Gesner  at  Zurich  in 
1559,  in  folio.  It  contains  an  almost  prodigal  display  of  ornaments 
which  were  both  designed  and  engraved  on  wood  by  P.  Floetner, 
and  it  is  in  many  respects  one  of  the  most  delightful  of  the  large 
number  of  illustrated  books  in  which  the  sixteenth  century  was  so 
prolific.  For  the  almost  "  wild  "  originality  of  these  illustrations,  a 
glance  at  our  frontispiece  will  suffice,  and  for  which  we  are  indebted 
to  the  courtesy  of  Herr  Ludwig  Rosenthal,  the  eminent  Munich 
bookseller,  who  prices  a  copy  at  the  very  low  figure  of  ;£'5o. 

^',i  ili  5i;  * 

Speaking  of  Herr  Rosenthal  reminds  us  of  the  fact  that  we  have 
too  long  neglected  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  this  industrious 
bookseller's  very  handsome  catalogue  in  quarto  size  of  *'  Incunabula 
Xylographica  et  Chalcographica,"  which  we  received  a  few  months 
ago.  This  pubHcation  is  not  to  be  classed  with  the  majority  of  other 
trade  lists,  for  it  is  an  important  contribution  to  the  history  of  the 

45 


354 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 


phases  of  typography  indicated  by  its  title  above  quoted.  In  pub- 
lishing this  work,  Herr  Rosenthal  has  suppressed  a  very  natural  and 
a  very  laudable  desire  to  enter  into  the  region  of  controversy,  a  fact 
which  is  to  a  certain  degree  regrettable,  for  it  is  very  evident  that  the 
compiler  could  have  propounded  many  theories  which  would  be  very 
generally  approved,  and  received  with  respect  if  not  actually  accepted 
without  reserve.  There  are  over  one  hundred  illustrations  in  this 
"Catalogue,"  and  these  merit  attention  not  only  because  of  their 
great  rarity,  but  also  because  of  their  equally  great  curiosity,  both  on 
account  of  their  age  and  their  artistic  interest.  Several  are  full-page 
plates.  Among  the  numerous  items,  we  note  a  specimen  of  the 
earliest  known  book-plate,  namely,  that  of  Jean  Knabensperg,  or 
Igler,  the  chaplain  of  the  Schonstett  family.  It  is  a  somewhat  sensa- 
tional picture  of  a  hedgehog  holding  a  flower  in  its  mouth ;  above 
the  animal  is  a  banderole  or  streamer,  on  which  is  the  inscription, 
*'hanns  Igler  das  dich  ein  Igel  kuss."  It  is  a  xylograph  executed 
about  the  year  1450,  and  is  in  three  colours,  green,  yellow,  and 
brown,  and  for  a  single  specimen  the  sum  of  600  marks,  or  ;£3o,  is 
asked.  The  Ex-Libris  Society  ought  to  subscribe  eji  masse  and  have 
this  very  covetable  specimen,  and  hang  it  up  in  the  archives  of  the 
Society  for  the  general  benefit  of  the  members,  and  not  for  the 
exclusive  benefit  of  any  one  particular  individual. 

^:  :;c  *  M: 

Mr.  H.  S.  Ashbee  has  had  reprinted  from  the  Annuaire  de  la  Socidte 
des  Amis  des  Livres  fifty  copies  of  his  paper  on  "  Mela  Britannicus  " 
in  his  useful  but  irregular  series  entitled  *'  les  Anglais  qui  ont  ecrit 
en  Francais."  We  are  pretty  safe,  we  think,  in  saying  that  the  name 
of  Mela  Britannicus  is  quite  a  dead  letter  to  the  majority  of  our 
readers,  for  it  is  only  in  the  byepaths  of  literature  that  we  come 
across  this  Romano- Britannic  pseudonym  which  hides  the  identity 
of  Charles  Kelsall,  who  on  various  other  occasions  subscribed  himself 
"Junius  Secundus,"  "  Zachary  Craft,"  and  "Laurea  Arpinas."  The 
one  work  in  French  which  this  versatile  individual  wrote  had  for 
its  title,  "Esquisse  de  mes  Travaux,  de  mes  Voyages,  et  de  mes 
Opinions  :  dans  une  Lettre  a  son  Ami  Agathomerus,"  for  which 
he  selected  a  motto  in  the  shape  of  a  couplet  from  Goldsmith's 
"Traveller":— 


*•'  Let  school-taught  Pride  dissemble  all  it  can, 
These  little  things  are  great  to  little  Men." 


The  title  was  curiously  contradictory,  and  ran  as  follows  :  "  Londres: 
Francfort  -  sur  -  le  -  Mein  :     chez    les    Marchands    de    Nouveautes. 


•  Londi 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK.  355 

MDCCCXXX."  It  consists  of  241  pages,  and  deals,  it  may  be 
mentioned,  with  the  author's  incessant  pereginations  in  various  parts 
of  Europe,  and  with  his  opinions  on  the  men  and  things  which  came 
under  his  notice.  The  book  is  in  a  great  sense  autobiographical,  so 
that  it  has  a  double  value  to  the  bibliographer.  In  his  brochure 
Mr.  Ashbee  quotes  several  long  and  highly  entertaining  extracts  from 
this  original  work,  which  has  long  since  become  rare,  and  is  certainly 
worth  buying  when  met  with. 

*  *  >;;  * 

The  Imperial  Library  at  St.  Petersburg  has  recently  become 
enriched  by  the  acquisition  of  the  papers  of  the  recently  deceased 
M.  Kraievski,  which  had  been  bequeathed  by  him  to  his  son-in-law 
M.  Bilbassov.  This  collection  contains  over  3,000  letters  addressed 
to  that  distinguished  journalist  by  persons  of  all  classes  and  condi- 
tions, and  their  publication  in  entirety  would  add  a  great  many 
interesting  facts  to  the  modern  history  of  Russia.  The  same  library 
has  also  acquired  the  precious  collection  of  ancient  manuscripts 
which  formerly  belonged  to  the  academician  Brouslaiev.  These 
date  from  the  fifteenth  to  the  eighteenth  centur}',  50  out  of  the  98 
items  are  illustrated,  and  the  entire  collection  has  an  artistic  as  well 
as  a  literary  interest  and  importance.  The  collection  of  Brouslaiev 
has  for  a  long  time  been  well-known  among  specialists  as  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  of  its  kind  in  existence. 

^  n'  ^'  n^ 

Among  the  earliest  of  the  Augsburg  printers,  Anton  Sorg  (1475-92) 
holds  a  foremost  place,  for  his  works  are  not  only  numerous,  but 
many  of  them  are  of  the  greatest  interest.  One  of  the  rarest  is 
entitled,  *'  Von  der  Kinthait  Unsers  Her  Jhesu  Cristi,"  the  colophon 
running  thus :  "  Getruckt  Anthonius  Sorg  Burger  tzu  Augspurg  und 
hatt  des  geendet  an  Montog  vor  Sant  Margarethen  tag,  des  jars  do 
Ma  Zalt  von  Cristi  Geburltausent  vier  hundert  und  ein  und  neunzig 
jare  1491."  The  title  states  that  it  is  the  Life  of  Christ,  but  the 
colophon  is  more  explicit,  saying  in  addition  that  it  is  the  Life  of  the 
Virgin  and  the  Legend  of  the  three  Kings  of  Cologne  ("auch  von 
den  leben  Marie  lieben  Mutter  mit  sampt  der  legend  von  den 
heyligen  drey  Kunigen").  There  are  70  very  curious  woodcuts, 
besides  a  large  number  of  woodcut  initials.  Of  the  former,  we  give 
two  examples  on  the  next  page  through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Treaskis, 
bookseller,  of  Holborn. 


OUR  NOTE-BOOK. 


The  Literature  of  the  Century. 


BY    EDMUND    GOSSE. 


IJN  occasion  of  the  summer  meeting  of  the  University  Exten- 
sion Society,  at  Cambridge,  in  August,  Mr.  Edmund  Gosse 
lectured  on  the  Literary  Movement  in  England  during  the 
last  hundred  years.  The  lecturer  expanded  the  view  that  since  the 
revolt  of  the  romantic  system  against  the  classic,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  hundred  years,  no  radical  change  had  taken  place  in  English 
literature  up  to  the  present  time.  He  remarked  : — "  The  first  thing 
we  need  to  obtain,  if  we  are  trying  to  analyse  the  literary  movement 
of  the  century,  is  a  clear  sane  impression,  proportionate  in  all  its 
parts,  of  what  that  movement  has  been.  If  Cloiigh  was  part  of  it — 
why,  so  is  Mr.  Kipling ;  if  the  German  philosophers  influenced  one 
end  of  it,  it  is  quite  equally  certain  that  Ibsen  and  Norwegian  drama 
influences  the  other  end.  It  is  very  hard  to  do,  but  we  should  at 
least  try  to  see  the  second  just  as  plainly  as  the  first.  What  we  can- 
not, of  course,  attain,  but  what  we  should  endeavour  to  climb  towards, 
is  a  sort  of  Pisgah-height  from  which  we  can  look  at  the  hundred 
years  of  nineteenth-century  literature  winding  like  a  river  at  our  feet 
— one  part  as  near,  as  distinct,  as  unclouded  as  another.  As  I  say, 
we  cannot  quite  manage  to  do  this ;  but  that  is  the  attitude  of  mind 
desirable. 

"  Well,  if  in  measure,  and  so  far  as  our  prejudiced  and  imperfect 
optics  will  permit,  we  do  look  down  upon  the  literary  history  of 
England  from  1793  to  1893  in  this  way,  what  do  we  see?  I  think  I 
shall  perhaps  startle  you  a  little  if  I  confess  that  what  I  seem  to  see 
is  a  vast  cascade,  a  sort  of  Niagara,  at  one  end,  and  a  remarkably 
calm  and  unruffled  tide  proceeding  from  the  fall  of  this  cascade  to 


358 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  CENTURY. 


our  very  feet.  To  my  vision,  the  first  thing  that  strikes  the  attention 
is  precisely  this  short  and  violent  crisis  or  cataclysm,  followed  by  a 
long  stretch  of  almost  unmodified  calm. 

"  You  will  immediately  ask  me  if  I  am  so  blind  as  to  see  no  indi- 
viduals of  genius  breaking  through  the  surface  of  the  literary  move- 
ment during,  let  us  say,  the  last  seventy  years  ?  Am  I  one  of  those, 
for  instance,  who  declare  that  English  poetry  stopped  with  Crabbe, 
and  that  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  the  last  genuine  novel-writer  ?  Most 
certainly  that  is  not  my  foible.  I  am  no  praiser  of  bygone  days  at 
the  expense  of  our  own,  and  I  think  that  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  unusually  full  of  great  original  names  in  literature. 
But  this  is  not  the  point  in  question.  We  are  speaking  of  the 
tendency  of  literary  movement,  and  that  is  often  curiously  indepen- 
dent of  personal  genius.  I  will  remind  you  of  a  very  striking  instance 
of  this.  If  there  is  in  English  poetry  a  name  which  appears  to  every 
one  of  us  synonymous  with  originality,  with  individuality,  with 
genius  in  all  its  forms,  it  is  that  of  Milton.  But  Milton  is  positively 
a  negligible  quantity,  if  we  are  considering  the  literary  movement  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  He  stood  aloof  from  it,  he  exercised  no 
influence  over  it,  it  dashed  around  him  and  left  him  behind  it  like  a 
colossal  rock — left  him  protesting  against  it  by  every  line  he  wrote ; 
whereas  Waller  and  Cowley,  poets  of  the  third  class,  are  more  inter- 
esting to  us  (from  this  peculiar  point  of  view)  than  the  pure  and 
majestic  author  of  *  Paradise  Lost.' 

"  But  I  must  now  ask  you  what  is  to  be  the  limit  of  our  one 
hundred  years — are  we  going  to  be  very  exact,  and  begin  with  1793, 
or  are  we  to  take  1800  for  our  starting-point?  The  detail  is  an 
important  one ;  for,  according  to  my  telescope,  looking  backwards 
from  our  Pisgah,  the  great  crisis  of  movement  took  place  during 
those  seven  years.  Will  you  think  me  very  paradoxical  if  I  say  that 
rt  seems  to  me  that  there  was  a  more  complete  change  made  in 
English  literature  between  1793  and  1800  than  between  1800  and 
1893? 

"  Let  us  now  think  for  an  instant  what  that  change  was.  In  1793 
the  eighteenth  century  in  literature,  the  old  regime,  was  still  alive ; 
it  showed  no  sign  of  change,  no  threatening  of  decay.  Down 
through  those  seven  years  there  continued  to  be  whole  bodies  of 
intelligent  and  attentive  persons  who  remained  positively  untouched 
by  a  single  new  idea.  There  is  a  very  curious,  and  in  its  way  a  very 
charming,  book  which  used  to  be  a  great  favourite  with  our  grand- 
fathers— '  The  Diary  of  a  Lover  of  Literature.*  That  journal  was 
begun  in  1796,  and  carried  on  for  many  years,  by  a  young  man 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  CENTURY,  359 

called  Thomas  Green.  The  chief  interest  to  us  now  in  that  book  is 
that  it  belongs  entirely  to  the  old  world,  the  world  of  Addison  and 
Pope  and  Johnson,  and  that  not  a  single  sign  exists  in  it  to  show 
that  the  very  clever  and  erudite  author  had  an  idea  that  the  stand- 
ards of  literary  taste  would  ever  be  undermined.  And  yet,  as  we 
look  back  to  those  years  in  which  he  wrote,  they  seem  to  us  not 
merely  undermined  but  crashing  about  his  ears.  The  blind  forces 
of  Romance  took  the  pillars  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  their  hands, 
and  swayed  to  and  fro,  until  the  whole  edifice  crumbled  in  atoms." 

After  a  rapid  survey  of  the  condition  of  English  literature  at 
various  moments  in  the  course  of  the  century,  Mr.  Gosse  closed  his 
discourse  as  follows  : — 

"Let  no  one  persuade  us,  inspired  by  antiquarianism  on  the  one 
hand  or  by  a  cheap  cynicism  on  the  other,  to  underrate  the  richness, 
the  variety,  the  splendid  fulness  and  accomplishment  of  these  hun- 
dred years.  To  have  lived  through  our  share  of  this  magnificent 
time  is,  if  our  ears  and  eyes  have  been  open,  to  have  lived  broadly 
and  loftily.  Nowhere  else  in  the  history  of  the  world — not  under 
Pericles  or  Augustus,  not  under  Elizabeth  or  Louis  XIV. — was  so 
delicate  and  so  various  a  literary  banquet  spread  before  the  hunger 
of  readers.  In  several  solitary  instances,  without  doubt — so  far,  at 
least,  as  we  are  able  to  trust  our  present  impressions — a  greater  alti- 
tude has  been  reached  by  writers  of  bygone  times.  But  nowhere  in 
past  history  do  we  find  so  high  a  general  level,  nowhere  such  a  per- 
sistency, for  generation  after  generation,  in  naoving  with  strenuous 
variety  along  the  same  great  line  of  literary  tendency. 

"  To  us  all,  however,  the  practical  service  of  such  a  train  of  reflec- 
tion as  we  have  sought  to  follow  to-night  must  be  measured  by  the 
degree  in  which  it  adds  pleasure  and  profit  to  our  private  reading.  I 
am  in  hopes  that  a  perception  of  the  continuity  in  nineteenth-century 
authorship,  which  I  have  attempted  to  dwell  upon,  may  add  an 
enjoyment  to  your  course  of  more  extended  study.  To  take  a  book 
and  to  read  it  as  an  isolated  production,  to  absorb  what  entertain- 
ment and  instruction  it  offers  without  regard  to  its  relation  to  other 
books,  may  be  a  very  delightful  thing.  But  that  delight  is  immensely 
increased,  is  made  part  of  an  organised  system  or  a  vertebrate  struc- 
ture, when  we  take  the  book  in  connection  with  what  preceded  and 
what  followed  it,  as  a  link,  in  fact,  in  the  long  and  beautiful  chain  of 
*  sweetness  and  light.' 

"  I  cannot  help  hoping  that  a  consideration  of  the  unity  of  purpose 


36( 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  CENTURY. 


which  marks  all  the  most  vital  literature  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
its  deliberate  and  persistent  pursuit  of  what  is  genuine,  natural,  and 
vigorous,  and  its  rejection  of  mere  rhetoric  and  superficiality,  will  add 
to  your  pleasure  in  reading  Coleridge  and  Browning,  Thackeray  and 
Stevenson,  Charles  Lamb  and  Carlyle.  You  will  enjoy  the  charac- 
teristic variations  of  all  these  authors  the  more,  because  you  see  that, 
essentially,  and  wherever  they  are  truly  successful,  they  are  moving 
along  the  same  line  of  literary  influence.  And  the  interest  to  us 
must  surely  be  the  more  vivid,  because  we  know  not  at  what  moment 
a  complete  reorganisation  of  society  may  produce  another  crisis  in 
literary  history  as  unexpected,  as  complete,  as  that  of  1793." 


Mr.  Ouarltch's  Hat. 


AN  American  magazine  is  responsible  for  the  following :  "  Ber- 
nard Quaritch's  antiquated  hat  is  a  favourite  theme  with 
London  and  other  bookmen.  A  committee  of  the  Grolier  Club 
once  made  a  marvellous  collection  of  newspaper  clippings  about  it, 
and  a  member  of  the  Society  des  Bibliophiles  Contemporains  wrote 
a  tragedy  which  was  a  parody  of  ^schylus.  In  this  tragedy.  Power 
and  Force  and  the  god  Hephaistos  nail  the  hat  on  Mr.  Quaritch's 
head,  like  the  Titan  on  the  summit  of  overhanging  rocks.  Divinities 
of  the  Strand  and  Piccadilly,  in  the  guise  of  Oceanidae,  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  /asse,  as  Dumas  said,  for  Mr.  Quaritch  has 
bought  a  new  hat,  and  a  journal  of  London  announces  that  the  epic 
hat  is  enshrined  in  glass  in  the  bibliophile's  drawing-room.' 


Casting  Pearls,  &c. 


leather-^^B 
needless       " 


OBJECTIONS  having  been  made  to  the  sending  of 
bound  Bibles  with  gilt  edges  to  the  South  Seas,  as  a  needless 
luxury  in  the  mission  field,  it  is  announced  that  the  strong  binding 
is  necessary  on  account  of  the  humidity  of  the  climate,  and  that  the 
gilt  edges  are  not  so  much  an  ornament  as  "an  armour-plating 
against  the  attacks  of  cockroaches  and  the  white  ant." 


The  Guildhall  Library. 


LITTLE  book  just  issued  by  the  Corporation,  entitled 
"The  Guildhall  Library  and  its  Work,"  by  Mr.  Charles 
Welch,  is  full  of  interesting  detail  concerning  the  history 
of  this  valuable  institution,  and  opens  up,  according  to  the  City 
FresSj  some  important  questions  as  to  its  future.  Although  the 
Corporation  itself  is  an  ancient  body — so  ancient  that  we  cannot 
tell  exactly  when  it  first  came  into  existence — the  Guildhall  Library 
is  a  comparatively  modern  institution.  It  is  true  there  was  founded 
at  the  Guildhall  a  library  by  Richard  Whittington  and  William  Bary 
in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  but  the  generous  bequests 
of  these  noble  founders  had  long  since  been  dispersed  when  the 
present  library  came  to  be  established  in  the  early  part  of  the 
present  century.  How  the  original  library  was  dispersed  is  related 
by  John  Stow.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  the  Duke  of  Somerset, 
Lord  Protector,  sent  for  all  the  books  in  the  library,  promising  that 
they  should  be  restored  shortly.  They  were  taken  away,  but  never 
returned,  and  in  the  time  of  Stow  this  "fayre  and  large  Hbrarie"  was 
made  a  storehouse  for  clothes.  In  1550  the  Chamberlain  was  in- 
structed to  sell  all  the  desks  of  the  library  for  the  profit  of  the  city. 
It  is  a  sad  blot  on  the  city's  escutcheon.  No  attempt  appears  to 
have  been  made  to  recover  the  stolen  property,  but  it  is  suggested 
that,  as  the  books  and  manuscripts  must  have  borne  the  name  and 
superscription  of  the  Guildhall  Library,  some  of  them  may  still  be 
found  in  private  or  public  collections,  and  that  if  returned  forthwith 
no  questions  will  be  asked. 

For  nearly  three  hundred  years  there  \vas  no  library  belonging  to 
the  Corporation,  but  at  last,  in  1824,  Mr.  Richard  Lambert  Jones 

46 


362 


THE  GUILDHALL  LIBRARY. 


got  a  committee  of  the  Common  Council  appointed  for  the  purpose 
of  re-establishing  the  library  at  the  Guildhall.  A  sum  of  ;^5oo  was 
voted  for  the  purpose,  and  it  was  agreed  that  the  modest  sum  of 
;^20o  should  be  expended  annually  on  maintenance.  Fortunately, 
at  this  time  old  and  rare  London  books  were  obtainable  on  much 
easier  terms  than  is  now  the  case,  when  the  market  is  overrun  with 
collectors;  and  the  library  was  successfully  opened  in  1828  with 
1,380  works  in  1,700  volumes,  a  catalogue  of  which  was  prepared  by 
Mr.  Edward  Tyrrell,  the  Remembrancer.  The  collection  was  in- 
creased the  following  year  to  2,800  volumes,  and  nearly  2,000  prints 
and  drawings.  In  1840  the  library  contained  10,000  volumes,  and 
at  the  end  of  last  year  the  number  of  volumes  had  reached  68,369, 
and  there  were  38,075  pamphlets.  The  library  has  improved  not 
only  in  quantity  but  in  quaUty,  and  at  the  present  time  ^^  1,000  a 
year,  instead  of  ;£'2oo,  is  spent  on  its  maintenance.  This  is  not  the 
place  to  enter  into  details  concerning  the  contents  of  the  library.  It 
will  suffice  to  say  that  they  are  liberal  and  comprehensive,  books 
and  manuscripts  on  matters  relating  to  London,  and  the  City  of 
London  in  particular,  naturally  occupying  a  prominent  place,  but 
other  kinds  of  works  are  well  represented.  Thanks  to  Mr.  Philip 
and  Sir  David  Salomons,  aided  at  a  more  recent  period  by  Mr. 
Alderman  Faudel  Phillips,  there  is  a  most  valuable  collection  of 
Hebrew  works,  and  an  excellent  catalogue  of  Hebrew  and  Jewish 
literature  by  the  Rev.  Albert  Lowy.  The  valuable  library  belonging 
to  the  Dutch  Church  in  Austinfriars  was  presented  to  the  Corpora- 
tion in  1863,  and  we  regret  that  the  Corporation  have  not  been 
equally  successful  in  securing  the  library  of  the  French  Protestant 
Church,  lately  existing  in  St.  Martin's-le-Grand,  this  library  having 
now  been  taken  out  of  the  City.  Amongst  the  treasures  of  the 
Guildhall  Library  are  the  first  Dutch  version  of  the  Bible  (Delft, 
1477),  Bibli  Sacra,  1483,  contemporary  bindings,  and  Shakespeare's 
autograph  to  a  purchase-deed  of  a  house  in  Blackfriars,  which  was 
bought  for  ;^i45.  The  library  is  particularly  rich  in  the  history 
and  topography  of  London,  British  topography,  even  to  villages 
and  parishes,  publications  of  literary,  scientific,  and  archaeological 
societies,  early  London  newspapers  and  directories,  genealogical  and 
heraldic  works,  British  history  and  biography,  English  poetry, 
particularly  London  editions  of  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  century 
writers,  dictionaries  and  grammars  of  various  languages,  bibliography, 
and  books  from  the  presses  of  early  London  printers  (some  fine 
specimens  of  which  were  shown  at  the  recent  reception  of  the 
London  Congress  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  Great  Britain), 


THE  GUILDHALL  LIBRARY.  363 

broadsides  and  tracts  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries, 
modern  dictionaries,  home  and  foreign,  archxology,  architecture, 
and  costume,  clock  and  watch-making,  and  pamphlets  on  the 
Tractarian  movement.  The  public  are  largely  indebted  for  the 
present  splendid  building  to  Dr.  Sedgwick  Saunders,  who  was 
chairman  of  the  Library  Committee  in  1869,  and  who  induced  the 
Common  Council  to  erect  a  new  library  and  museum  at  a  cost, 
exclusive  of  fittings,  of  ;^25,ooo.  A  full  and  interesting  description 
of  the  building  by  its  designer,  the  late  Sir  Horace  Jones,  is  given 
in  the  volume  before  us. 

It  is  interesting  to  learn  in  what  manner  and  to  what  extent  the 
Guildhall  Library  has  been  used.  Even  before  the  Free  Libraries 
Act  was  passed,  the  Corporation  were  in  1853  considering  the 
desirability  of  throwing  the  library  open  to  the  public  free  of  charge, 
and  in  1856  readers  were  admitted  by  ticket,  and  members  of  the 
Corporation  were  allowed  to  borrow  books  for  home  reading.  After 
the  opening  of  the  new  building  the  yearly  attendance  of  readers 
rose  from  14,316  in  1868  to  173,559  in  1874.  This  was  a  remark- 
able increase,  but  the  increase  was  still  more  remarkable  when  the 
library  was  opened  to  readers  in  the  evening,  and  for  the  whole  day 
on  Saturdays.  This  not  only  entailed  a  large  addition  to  the  staff, 
but  the  attendance  at  library,  newspaper-room,  and  museum  rose  to 
396,720  in  1888.  Since  then  there  has  been  a  slight  falling  off,  the 
total  in  1892  being  356,343.  This,  no  doubt,  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
numerous  other  free  libraries  have  since  sprung  up  in  different  parts 
of  the  metropolis.  One  of  the  reasons  of  the  popularity  of  the  Guild- 
hall Library  is  doubtless  the  introduction  of  the  excellent  card  cata- 
logue by  Mr.  Welch,  which  has  greatly  facilitated  the  work  of 
readers.  It  is  clear  from  a  statistical  return  presented  by  the 
Librarian  that  the  majority  of  those  who  frequent  the  Guildhall  are 
not  novel  readers  who  come  for  an  hour's  pleasant  dissipation,  but 
students  bent  upon  more  serious  business.  Of  the  books  read 
fiction  amounts  to  only  16*56  per  cent.,  while  history  represents 
7*04  per  cent.;  theology,  6*6;  biography,  5*37;  useful  arts,  5*28; 
science,  4*58;  poetry,  4*49;  topography,  4*4;  philology,  3*34; 
foreign  literature,  3^25  ;  genealogy,  3*17;  "Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
nica,"  273  ;  fine  arts,  2*64  ;  travels,  2*46  ;  philosophy,  2*37;  Greek 
and  Latin  classics,  2*20;  music,  2*02;  archaeology,  i*49;  politics, 
1*32;  commerce,  i'23;  drama,  i"i4;  law,  o"6i;  and  bibliography, 

o*35- 

The  interesting  question  remains  :  What  is  to  be  the  future  of  the 

Guildhall  Library?  Useful  and  popular  as  it  is,  it  cannot  be  doubted 


3^4 


THE  GUILDHALL  LIBKARY, 


that  it  might  be  made  infinitely  more  useful  and  infinitely  miore 
popular.  Even  so  far  back  as  1853  the  Library  Committee  warmly 
supported  a  proposal  for  the  establishment  of  a  free  circulating 
library,  which  they  rightly  contended  would  be  the  means  of  intro- 
ducing the  works  of  the  most  approved  authors  to  the  homes  and 
firesides  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  City,  would  give  an  impulse  to 
diligent  and  thoughtful  reading,  and  encourage  the  pursuit  of  studies, 
the  result  of  which  would  extend  the  boundaries  of  human  know- 
ledge and  national  civilisation.  Unfortunately  the  proposal  to 
establish  a  free  circulating  library  was  rejected  by  the  ratepayers, 
and  now,  while  some  of  the  suburban  districts  and  nearly  every 
great  foreign  capital  have  provided  such  an  institution,  the  centre  of 
London — the  centre  of  European  civilisation — is  without  this  boon. 
Funds  have  been  provided  by  the  Charity  Commissioners  out  of  the 
Parochial  Charities  Fund  to  establish  circulating  libraries  in  the 
parishes  of  Cripplegate  and  Bishopsgate,  and  Mr.  Welch  thinks  a 
halfpenny  rate  would  suffice  to  provide  the  rest  of  the  City  with  free 
circulating  libraries,  having  Guildhall  for  the  centre.  Unfortunately 
the  ratepayers  are  already  heavily  burdened,  and  they  have  found 
to  their  cost  that  rates  originally  small  have  a  tendency  to  grow. 
There  are  other  ways,  however,  besides  an  appeal  to  the  ratepayers. 
There  are  the  City  Companies  who  might  surely  co-operate  in  a 
work  of  this  kind,  and  there  are  millionaires  and  other  wealthy 
individuals  who  might  do  worse  than  imitate  the  noble  generosity 
of  men  hke  Sir  Richard  Whittington.  The  City  libraries  would  not 
be  confined  to  inhabitants  of  the  City,  but  would  be  open  to  all 
who  are  occupied  therein,  and  they  are  counted  by  the  hundred 
thousand.  There  is  no  doubt  about  the  need  of  a  free  circulating 
library.  The  requests  for  permission  to  take  books  home  for  study, 
says  Mr.  Welch,  are  constant,  and  at  times  almost  painful  to  refuse. 
If  the  Corporation  could  initate  a  work  of  this  kind,  and  offer  a  plot 
of  its  vacant  land  for  the  purpose ;  if,  moreover,  it  could  secure  the 
co-operation  of  powerful  philanthropists  and  City  companies,  it  would 
be  performing  a  most  popular  act,  and  would  add  enormously  to  its 
prestige,  a  point  which  it  cannot  afford  to  overlook  in  these  demo- 
cratic days. 


^^1^^ 

^^^^ 

^^^ 

^^ 

49i5C' 

^^^^^ 

•v1v^S((^2^§5^ShI^^ 

T(fi3iM^a!?^yH^i<^ 

|*^]^^j5i^ 

Sn^ 

li^ErOli^ 

^^£i^^^^ 

^^2^^s 

^^^ 

^^>i 

^ViW^*fi' 

^^^^^^^ 

^^^^^ 

^^S 

^ 

^^^^"^^^^"^^^^^ 

^J^^^^J^~ 

The  Battle  of  Bibliography.  ^ 

HE  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  will  witness  the 
solution  of  many  great  problems  which  have  hitherto  been 
looming  as  dark  storms  upon  the  horizon,  ready  to  break, 
we  know  not  when  nor  where,  with  consequences  which  we  cannot 
yet  foresee. 

If  this  be  so  especially  in  the  Political,  Religious,  and  Social 
worlds,  the  Literary  world  will  not  escape  without  its  trials. 

We  are  slowly  awakening  to  the  fact  that  the  flood  of  Modern 
Bibliography  has  overtaken  us,  and  we  are  at  length  forced  to 
confess  that  we  are  unable  to  cope  with  it.  Advancing  with 
stealthy  line,  it  has  found  us  unprepared  and  unorganised,  and  we 
have  fled. 

What,  then,  will  be  the  result  ?  Where  will  flight  end  ?  Must  it 
continue  ?  are  the  questions  which  we  ask  ourselves. 

To  any  casual  observer  of  matters  biliographical  there  are  many 
tendencies  which  will  at  once  attract  attention.  In  regard  to  the 
object  of  this  paper,  two  are  especially  noteworthy. 

1.  The  prevalence  of  the  belief  that  the  evils  which  afflict  Modern 
Bibliography  are  necessary  evils  for  which  there  is  no  radical  remedy. 

2.  The  belief  that,  if  solution  there  be,  we  must  turn  for  remedy 
to  Indexes. 

Now,  of  course.  Indexes  contribute  a  share,  and  a  valuable  share, 
towards  the  solution  of  our  difficulties.  But  the  great  radical  defect 
of  Modern  Bibliography  is  the  absence  of  a  systematic  Periodical 
Series  of  Lists  of  Books  on  Special  Subjects. 

^  Being  a  summary  of  the  latter  portion  of  a  paper  entitled  *'  Bibliography 
Backwards,"  read  before  the  Library  Association. 


366 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


The  first  great  national  want  in  Bibliography  is  to  be  able  to  find 
with  speed  and  certainty  any  book  out  of  the  million,  on  knowing 
the  author  and  title.  This  want  is  supplied  to  perfection  by  the 
Alphabetical  Catalogue. 

The  second  great  want  is,  without  any  previous  knowledge,  to  be 
able  to  find  a  chronological  list  of  all  the  books  on  any  given  subject 
with  absolute  certainty,  in  reference  both  to  time  and  geographical 
area. 

This  want  remains  to  be  supplied. 

Whence,  then,  the  remedy?  The  answer  is  simple.  Pursue  a 
course  exactly  opposite  to  that  of  the  past. 

In  the  past,  the  books  of  the  years  have  been  allowed  to  disperse, 
before  taking  due  note  of  them  for  the  purpose  of  Special  Bibliogra- 
phies, at  the  time  when  note  could  best  be  taken. 

The  consequence  is  that  when  solitary  individuals  have  bravely 
set  themselves  to  the  task  of  re-collecting  the  books,  they  have  done 
so  only  after  endless  cost  of  money,  time,  and  labour,  and  have  then 
often  only  succeeded  in  bringing  a  fraction  of  the  books  on  a  subject 
together  again  to  the  point  from  which  they  originally  started  ("  Bib- 
liography Backwards "),  and  where  they  might  have  been  so  easily 
retained  in  the  first  instance. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  a  question  of  after-remedy.  We  must  prevent 
the  evil  altogether. 

And  the  solution  of  the  problem  is  to  be  found  in  Periodical 
National  Registers  of  Books.  We  want  a  periodical  list  of  all  the 
books  of  the  year,  which  we  can  afterwards  divide  into  any  reason- 
able number  of  natural  divisions  and  subdivisions  at  will. 

And  how  are  we  to  get  this  list  ? 

The  most  natural  way  is  to  avail  ourselves  of  the  first  registry  of 
books  which  can  possibly  take  place.  But  alas,  this  registry  does  not 
exist,  except  on  a  very  limited  scale,  and  even  then  the  registers  are 
not  printed. 

If  the  reason  be  inquired,  we  must  point  to  the  existing  law. 

The  fate  of  an  important  branch  of  modern  bibliography  depends 
on  the  difference  between  the  little  words  may  and  must. 

According  to  English  law,  a  man  may  register  his  book  for  copy- 
right. 

In  India  and  the  United  States  a  man  must  register  his  books. 
Consequently,  in  the  two  latter  cases  registers  exist.  With  us  they 
are  absent. 

But  whether  a  register  exists  or  not  in  this  country,  vre  have  so 
far  progressed  that  it  is  generally  approved  of  in  principle.     It  is 


II 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  367 

generally  agreed  that  a  reformed  Stationers'  Hall  under  immediate 
Government  control  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  future  copyright  reform. 

There  is  reason  to  suppose,  however,  that  we  are  yet  far  from 
realising  the  full  value  of  a  register  bibliographically. 

In  India  it  is  arranged  on  lines  unsuited  to  the  highest  aims  of 
bibliography. 

In  America,  at  once  like  and  unlike  our  cousins,  they  have  written 
up  "  Customs  "  over  the  door  of  bibliography — in  other  words,  the 
first  contemplated  use  of  the  recent  scheme  of  registration  in 
America  was  to  supply  tariff  lists  of  books  for  the  use  of  the  Customs 
Officials. 

Now  the  real  value  of  a  National  Printed  Register  is  that,  whereas 
it  is  necessary  from  a  copyright  law  and  commercial  point  of  view,  it 
may  also  be  made  available  for  furthering  the  welfare  of  one  of  the 
most  important  branches  of  bibliography. 

Registry  kas  to  be  made  concerning  the  ownership  of  copyright, 
the  term  of  duration,  and  other  details ;  and  since,  under  a  proper 
system  of  registration,  all  books  not  privately  printed^  or  at  least  all 
books  to  be  copyrighted  would  be  registered  simultaneously  with  the 
date  of  publication,  the  register  entries  (being  in  strict  chronological 
order)  would  form,  if  printed,  the  best  possible  basis  for  special  lists  of 
books,  provided  that  the  original  entries  were  made  in  proper  fashion. 

In  conclusion,  then,  let  me  in  the  briefest  manner  sketch  the 
outline  of  a  National  Register,  noting  the  essential  conditions. 

All  copyright  books  must  be  registered  on  the  date  of  issue  from 
the  press. 

Each  entry  in  the  Register  must  be  a  compact  one,  including  all 
the  essentials  of  a  bibliographical  title. 

Periodicals  and  Continuations  will  be  kept  separate. 

The  registering  being  performed  by  means  of  manifold-writing 
books  and  type-writers,  several  entries  could  be  made  at  one  time, 
one  for  a  receipt  form,  another  as  an  office  reference  form,  another 
as  a  title  form,  &c.,  &c. 

Once  a  quarter  the  chronologically  numbered  title-forms  would  be 
sorted  into  a  reasonable  number  of  broad  but  well-defined  subject 
group  bibliographical  sections,  and  sent  to  the  printer. 

If  necessary,  further  details  could  be  added  to  title-forms  after 
distribution  of  receipt  forms,  and  extra  titles  could  be  type-written 
when  common  to  more  than  one  group. 

In  regard  to  internal  details,  special  attention  would  be  paid  to 
uniformity  of  type,  continuity  of  arrangement,  and  simplicity  of 
treatment. 


368  THE  BATTLE  OF  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Each  quarterly  section  would  be  issued  with  a  separate  title  page ; 
would  contain  titles  printed  only  on  one  side  of  the  paper ;  would  be 
on  sale  as  a  separate  work  for  a  moderate  sum. 

Here,  then,  for  the  year,  and  for  all  future  time,  provision  is  made 
for  the  special  bibliography  of  the  greater  subject  groups,  and  with 
a  minimum  of  labour  and  expense,  and  with  absolute  certainty  of 
details. 

But  this  is  not  all.  By  the  mere  cutting  up  and  re-arrangement 
of  selected  entries  in  spare  copies  of  the  quarterly  lists,  and  by  the 
shifting  of  the  type  before  it  is  broken  up,  there  is  easy  scope  for  the 
immediate  compilation  of  any  number  of  s?}ialler  biographies  of  special 
subjects  which  may  be  in  request.  And  all  this  without  any  delay 
in  visiting  libraries,  in  hunting  through  catalogues,  and  transcribing 
titles  in  manuscript. 

In  addition  also  to  the  above  advantages,  when  once  we  have  our 
Periodical  Registers,  it  would  then  be  possible  to  promote  a  further 
elaboration  of  bibliographical  enterprise,  by  which  the  thousands  of 
books  which  are  at  present  diverted  from  the  natural  stream  of  lite- 
rature as  subordinate  " parts,"  *'  papers,"  and  "articles"  in  "collected 
works,"  ''learned  society  journals,"  and  periodicals,  &c.,  would  be 
drafted  back  in  due  honour  as  appropriate  sections  of  the  Periodical 
Registers.  This  plan,  while  not  interfering  with,  but  rather  aiding,, 
the  system  of  separate  and  collective  Indexes^  would  render  a  large 
portion  of  the  literary  world  very  greatly  independent  of  indexes 
which  do  not  and  cannot  supply  all  our  needs. 

Furthermore,  not  the  least  of  the  results  of  the  periodical  class 
registers  would  be  that  a  beautiful  system  of  International  bibliography 
would  arise  (certainly  amongst  the  EngHsh-speaking  nations),  which,, 
while  enabling  any  one  country  to  inform  itself  concerning  the  whole 
or  any  part  of  the  literature  of  any  other  country  year  by  year,  would 
also  enable  each  country  to  contribute  by  International  Bibliographical 
Exchange  periodical  lists  of  its  contributions  to  the  National  literature 
of  any  other  country. 

Is  not  this  a  matter  worth  thinking  of? 

Frank  CampbellT 

[In  the  published  pamphlet  on  the  above  subject,  Mr.  Campbell 
gives  a  series  of  exceedingly  useful  and  carefully  thought  out  diagrams, 
which  all  interested  in  the  classification  of  books  would  do  well  to 
study.  The  pamphlet  may  be  had,  we  believe,  of  the  author,  who  is 
an  official  in  the  British  Museum  Library.] 


Auction   Prices  of  Rare  Books. 


HE  following  is  a  selection  from  the  last  book  sale  of  the  past 
season  at  Messrs.  Sotheby's  rooms,  and  will  be  read  with 
interest.  All  things  considered,  the  prices  are  remarkably 
good,  whilst  some  of  the  items  are  of  great  rarity.  The  entire  pro- 
ceeds of  the  four  days'  sale  of  1,452  lots  were  jCSi'^S^  4S. — a  result 
which  may  be  taken  as  indicating  a  very  healthy  state  of  the  trade 
in  second-hand  books. 

The  sale  was  made  up  of  various  properties,  and  included  a 
portion  of  the  library  of  Bishop  Stortford  School  (sold  by  order  of 
the  Charity  Commissioners),  in  addition  to  the  library  of  a  dignitary 
of  the  Church.  The  most  important  item  in  the  sale — and,  perhaps, 
of  the  past  season — consisted  of  an  almost  perfect  copy  of  a  book 
issued  by  the  Unknown  Printer  of  St.  Albans,  "The  Croniclis  of 
FJnglode  with  the  Frute  of  Timis,"  black  letter,  capitals  printed  in 
red,  woodcuts,  wants  the  seven  preliminary  leaves  of  Table,  "a  i  " 
(a  blank  leaf)  and  "j  i,"  the  last  leaf  is  a  Httle  defective,  "J  viij  "  is 
placed  after  ''Ki,"  a  few  leaves  are  slightly  defective  and  others 
mended,  purple  morocco  antique,  sold  with  all  faults,  St.  Albans 
(1483),  ;;£"22o.  The  Other  items  included  "  Catalogus  Omnium 
Erasmi,"  1523,  imperfect,  but  with  the  arms  of  Henry  VIH.  on  one 
side  and  the  Tudor  rose  on  the  other,  j£$  los. ;  an  imperfect  copy 
of  Coverdale's  "Bible,"  Zurich,  1550,  ;£'io ;  another  example  of 
the  same,  Southwarke,  1538,  wanting  the  first  two  leaves,  but  other- 
wise a  fine  copy,  ;£25  ;  J.  Gower,  "De  Confessione  Amantis,"  1532, 
large  copy,  ^23  ;  Selden's  edition  of  Michael  Drayton's  "  Poly- 
Olbion,"  1622,  ;£'io;  Higden's  "  Polycronycon,"  printed  by  Wynkin 
de  Worde,  1495,  the  first  leaf  missing,  ;^i5  ;  Archbishop  Cranmer's 

47 


370 


A  UCTION  PRICES  OF  RARE  BOOKS. 


copy  of  the  second  edition  of  Erasmus's  Greek  Testament,  with  the 
autograph  of  "Thomas  Cantuarien"  on  title,  Basle,  1519,  ;£io,; 
the  first  edition  of  Euclid's  "Geometrise  Elementa,"  1482 — the  first 
book  issued  with  woodcut  diagrams — a  large  copy  in  the  original 
limp  vellum,  ;£"i7  los.  j  Hakluyt's  "Principal  Navigations,  Voyages," 
&c.,    1590-1600,  ;£6    los. ;   a   first   edition   of  Mathew  Arnold's 
"Empedocles  on  Etna,"  1S52,  uncut,  ;£"3  5s.;  Ruskin's  "Stones  of 
Venice,"  first  edition,  three  volumes,  ^-/^9  ;  and  Milton's  "  Paradise 
Lost,"  1669,  the  first  edition  with  the  seventh  title-page,  £^  5s. ; 
J.  B.  de  Laborde,  "  Choix  de  Chansons,"  1773,  engraved  throughout 
with  the  music  and  plates  by  Moreau,  Masquelier  au  Ree,  £^()']  \ 
J.  Dorat,  "Les  Baisers,"  1770,  large  paper,  with  the  incorrect  pagi- 
nation, and  the  charming  vignettes  and  culs-de-lampe  after  Eisen  and 
Marillier,  ;^i3  5s. ;  J.  de  La  Fontaine,  "  Contes,"  1853,  on  ''papier 
velin  a  la  cuve,"  only  100  copies  printed,  and  with  two  extra  sets 
of  plates,  ;^io    15s.;  an   extra-illustrated   copy  of  T.  Campbell's 
"  Poetical  Works,"  1837,  with  numerous  exquisite  vignettes,  inlaid 
to  folio  size  and  extended  to  two  volumes  by  the  insertion  of  a 
number  of  rare  mezzotint  and  other  portraits,  by  and  after  Rowland- 
son,   Kneller,  Wheatley,   &:c.,  with  a  long   and  interesting  quarto 
autograph  letter  of  Robert  Burns  to  his  friend  James  Candish,  and 
letters  of  Campbell,  J.  M.  W.  Turner,  J.  P.  Kemble,  and  an  auto- 
graph memorandum  of  Mrs.  Siddons,  ^^48 ;  a  collection  of  ninety- 
five  of  the  rarest  caricature  and  other  engravings,  by  Woodward  and 
Rowlandson,  most  of  which  are  coloured,  1798,  &c.,  ^z^^io  los.  ; 
H.  Aiken,  "  National  Sports  of  Great  Britain,"  fifty  large  and  beauti- 
fully coloured  plates,  with  descriptions  in  English  and  French,  1821, 
£^22i   I  OS. ;  the   Caricature  Magazine^  a  series  of  upwards  of  460 
coloured   caricature   plates   by  Woodward,  Rowlandson,   Bunbury, 
Cruikshank,  &c.,  the  engravings  are  all  in  good  condition,  1821,  (S:c., 
;^22  los. ;  H.  Bunbury,  "A  Collection  of  207  caricature  and  other 
engravings,"  in  two  volumes,  many  of  the  plates  printed  in  colours, 
comprising  several  extremely  rare  examples,  and  the  whole  in  the 
finest  possible  condition,  1789,  (S:c.,  ;^47  ;  "Heures  presentees  a 
Madame  la  Dauphine,"  par  T.  de  Hansy,  Paris  (no  date),  ;£"2  2 ;  a 
series  of  eighty-four  volumes  of  the  Sportmg  Magazine,  1 793-1834, 
;zf  66 ;  "  Breviarium  Romanum,"  Lugduni,  1561,  exceedingly  rare, 
;£"8  8s.;  M.  Thevenot,  "Receuil  de  Voyages,"  1681  (a  very  rare 
collection  of  early  voyages  down  the  Mississippi  and  elsewhere,  with 
maps   of    New   Holland,   Nova    Zembla,   plates    of    insects,   &c., 
;2^io  los.  ;  Bewick's  "Select  Fables,"  1820,  imperial  paper,  original 
edition,  ;^io;  George  Washington's  copy  of  "Cicero's  Cato  Major," 


AUCTION  PRICES  OF  RARE  BOOKS.  371 

Philadelphia,  1744,  with  the  celebrated  American  general's  signature 
on  the  first  leaf  of  the  preface,  ;£"49  ;  the  first  edition  of  "  The  Life 
of  Sir  John  Oldcastle,"  attributed  to  Shakespeare,  1600,  a  fine  copy, 
jC^-i^d — this  same  copy  sold  for  ;^46  in  the  Gaisford  sale  two  or 
three  years  ago ;  Caxton's  '*  Recuyell  of  the  Histroyes  of  Troy," 
printed  at  the  Kelmscott  Press,  1892,  on  vellum,  £^2^  ;  Fitzgerald's 
"  Life  of  David  Garrick,"  extended  from  two  to  four  volumes,  ^^42  ; 
Allot's  "  England's  Parnassus,"  1600,  this  very  rare  volume  contains 
extracts  from  almost  all  the  most  noted  poets  of  the  day,  including 
no  less  than  seventy-nine  from  Shakespeare;  and,  as  Mr.  Collier 
remarks,  "  among  other  advantages  derived  from  it  may  be  men- 
tioned the  manner  in  which  it  has  enabled  us  in  modern  times  to 
assign  to  their  true  authors  several  productions  of  curiosity  and 
popularity,  ;£"io  15s.  J.  Milton,  "Poems,"  1645,  first  collective 
edition,  ;^i9;  a  copy  of  the  second  folio  Shakespeare,  1632  (not 
quite  perfect),  £,20;  W.  Blake,  "Songs  of  Innocence,"  1789,  the 
original  edition,  with  two  coloured  illustrations  by  Blake  added,  and 
a  portrait  by  Linnell,  ;j^49  los. ;  and  St.  Augustine,  "  De  Vita 
Ciiristiana,"  printed  by  Fust  and  Schoeffer,  about  1465,  £^20, 


372 


MISCELLANEA. 


Two  Books  of  Reference. 

TWO  very  useful  books  of  literary  reference  have  just  recently 
appeared.  The  first  is  a  "  Bookman  Directory  of  Booksellers, 
Publishers,  and  Authors,"  a  little  volume  published  at  the  low  price 
of  a  shiUing.  It  contains  a  list  of  booksellers  in  London  and  the 
provinces,  a  list  of  publishers,  in  many  cases  with  interesting 
accounts  of  the  origin  and  performances  of  the  firms ;  and  a  list  of 
authors,  and  addresses  at  which  letters  will  find  them.  The  list  of 
booksellers  will  be  of  use,  of  course,  only  to  the  trade,  but  all  writers 
and  readers  will  be  glad  to  have  at  hand  in  so  cheap  and  accessible 
a  form  the  directories  of  authors  and  publishers.  Dr.  Robertson 
Nicoll  has  abandoned  his  intention  of  including  a  complete  directory 
of  literary  pseudonyms.  A  number  of  these  are  included  in  the 
directory  of  authors,  but  we  had  hoped  that  Dr.  Nicoll  would  have 
been  able  to  furnish  us  with  a  list  similar  to  those  which  have  been 
published  of  French  and  American  authors  employing  pseudonyms. 
It  may  be,  however,  that  the  habit  of  pseudonymous  writing  is  not 
so  common  in  England  as  in  other  countries.  The  second  is  issued 
from  the  Review  of  Revieivs  office,  and  should  command  the  support 
of  every  journalist  and  man  of  letters.  It  is  the  third  issue  of  the 
*' Index  and  Guide  to  the  Periodicals  of  the  World,"  which  Mr. 
Stead  attributes  to  the  "  industry  and  enthusiasm  of  Miss  Hethering- 
ton  and  her  able  and  zealous  assistants."  It  contains  an  admirable 
introductory  essay  by  this  lady  on  the  indexing  of  periodicals,  an 
apparently  complete  list  of  the  periodicals  of  the  world,  and  a  mar- 
vellous index  of  the  subjects  treated  in  them  all  during  1892.  Miss 
Hetherington  is  well  known  as  the  compiler  of  the  yearly  index  to 
the  old  Pall  Mall  Gazette.  This  index  is  published  at  5s.,  and  its 
character  as  a  labour  of  love  entitles  it  to  generous  support.  Cer- 
tainly no  hbrary,  newspaper  office,  or  journalist  should  be  without  it. 


Limited  Editions  :   A  Prose  Fancy. 


HY  do  the  heathen  so  furiously  rage  against  limited  editions, 
large-papers,  first  editions,  and  the  rest  ?  For  there  is 
I  certainly  more  to  be  said  for  than  against  them.  Broadly 
speaking,  all  such  "fads  "  are  worthy  of  being  encouraged,  because 
they,  in  some  measure,  maintain  the  expiring  dignity  of  letters,  the 
mystery  of  books.  Day  by  day  the  wonderfulness  of  life  is  becoming 
lost  to  us.  The  sanctities  of  religion  are  defiled,  the  "  fairy  tales  " 
of  science  are  become  commonplaces.  Christian  mysteries  are  de- 
based in  the  streets  to  the  sound  of  drum  and  trumpet,  and  the 
sensitive  ear  of  the  telephone  is  but  a  servile  drudge  'twixt  specula- 
tive bacon-merchants.  And  Books  !  those  miraculous  memories  of 
high  thoughts  and  golden  moods ;  those  silver  shells,  tremulous 
with  the  wonderful  secrets  of  the  ocean  of  life;  those  love-letters 
that  pass  from  hand  to  hand  of  a  thousand  lovers  that  never  meet ; 
those  honeycombs  of  dreams;  those  orchards  of  knowledge;  those 
still-beating  hearts  of  the  noble  dead ;  those  mysterious  signals  that 
beckon  along  the  darksome  pathways  of  the  past ;  voices  through 
which  the  myriad  lispings  of  the  earth  find  perfect  speech ;  oracles 
through  which  its  mysteries  call  like  voices  in  moonlit  woods; 
prisms  of  beauty ;  urns  stored  with  all  the  sweets  of  all  the  summers 
of  time ;  immortal  nightingales  that  sing  for  ever  to  the  rose  of  life 
— Books,  Bibles — ah  me  !  what  have  ye  become  to-day  ! 

What,  indeed,  has  become  of  that  mystery  of  the  Printed  Word  of 
which  Carlyle  so  movingly  wrote  ?  It  has  gone,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
with  those  Memnonian  mornings  we  sleep  through  with  so  deter- 
mined snore,  those  ancient  mysteries  of  night  we  forget  beneath  the 
mimic  firmament  of  the  music-hall. 

Only  in  the  lamplit  closet  of  the  bookman,  the  fanatic  of  first  and 
fine  editions,  is  it  remembered  and  revered.    To  him  alone  of  an 


LIMITED  EDITIONS:  A  PROSE  FANCY. 


Americanised,  "  pirated-edition "  reading  world,  the  book  remains 
the  sacred  thing  it  is.  Therefore  he  would  not  have  it  degraded  by, 
so  to  say,  an  indiscriminate  breeding,  such  as  has  also  made  the 
children  of  men  cheap  and  vulgar  to  each  other.  We  pity  the 
desert  rose  that  is  born  to  unappreciative  beauty,  the  unset  gem 
that  glitters  on  no  woman's  hands ;  but  what  of  the  book  that  eats 
its  heart  out  in  the  threepenny  box,  the  remainders  that  are  sold 
ignominiously  in  job  lots  by  ignorant  auctioneers?  Have  we  no 
feeling  for  them  ? 

Over-production,  both  in  men  and  shirts,  is  the  evil  of  the  day. 
The  world  has  neither  enough  food,  nor  enough  love,  for  the  young 
that  is  born  into  it.  We  have  more  mouths  than  we  can  fill,  and 
more  books  than  we  can  buy.  Well,  the  publisher  and  collector  of 
limited  editions  aim,  in  their  small  corner,  to  set  a  limit  to  this 
careless  procreation.  They  are  literary  Malthusians.  The  ideal 
world  would  be  that  in  which  there  would  be  at  least  one  lover  for 
each  woman.  In  the  higher  life  of  books  the  ideal  is  similar.  No 
book  should  be  brought  into  the  world  which  is  not  sure  of  love  and 
lodging  on  some  comfortable  shelf.  If  writers  and  publishers  only 
gave  a  thought  to  what  they  were  doing  when  they  generate  such 
large  families  of  books,  careless  as  the  salmon  with  its  million  young, 
we  would  have  no  such  sad  workhouses  of  learning  as  Booksellers' 
Row,  no  such  melancholy  distress-sales  of  noble  authors  as  re- 
mainer-auctions.  A  truly  good  book  is  beyond  price ;  and  it  is  far 
easier  to  under  than  over  sell  it.  The  words  of  the  modern  minor 
poet  are  as  rubies,  and  what  if  his  sets  bring  a  hundred  guineas — it 
is  more  as  it  should  be  than  that  any  sacrilegious  hand  should 
fumble  them  for  threepence.  It  records  that  golden  age  of  which 
Mx.  Dobson  has  sung,  when — 


"...  a  book  was  still  a  Book, 
Where  a  wistful  man  might  look, 
Finding  something  through  the  whole, 
Beating— like  a  human  soul ;  " 


'days  when  for  one  small  gilded  manuscript  men  would  wiUingly 
exchange  broad  manors,  with  pasture-lands,  chases,  and  blowing 
woodlands ;  days  when  kings  would  send  anxious  embassies  across 
the  sea,  burdened  with  rich  gifts  to  abbot  and  prior,  if  haply  gold 
might  purchase  a  single  poet's  book. 

But,  says  the  scoffer,  these  limited  editions  and  so  forth  foster  the 
vile  passions  of  competition.  Well,  and  if  they  do  !  Is  it  not  meet 
that  men  should  strive  together  for  such  possessions  ?    We  compete 


LIMITED  EDITIONS:  A  PROSE  FANCY.        375 

for  the  allotments  of  shares  in  American-meat  companies,  we  outbid 
each  other  for  tickets  "  to  view  the  Royal  procession,"  we  buffet  at 
the  gate  of  the  football  field,  and  enter  into  many  another  of  the 
ignoble  rivalries  of  peace;  and  are  not  books  worth  a  scrimmage 
for — books  that  are  all  those  wonderful  things  so  poetically  set  forth 
in  a  preceding  paragraph  ?  Lightly  earned,  lightly  spurned,  is  the 
sense,  if  not  the  exact  phrasing,  of  an  old  proverb.  There  is  no 
telling  how  we  could  value  many  of  our  possessions  if  they  were 
more  arduously  come  by :  our  relatives,  our  husbands  and  wives,  our 
presentation  poetry  from  the  unpoetical,  our  invitation-cards  to  one- 
man  shows  in  Bond  Street,  the  auto-photographs  of  great  actors,  the 
flatteries  of  the  unimportant,  the  attentions  of  the  embarrassing — 
how  might  we  value  all  such  treasures  if  they  were,  so  to  say, 
restricted  to  a  limited  issue,  and  guaranteed  *'  not  to  be  reprinted  " 
— "plates  destroyed  and  type  distributed." 

Indeed,  all  nature  is  on  the  side  of  limited  editions.  Make  a 
thing  cheap,  she  cries  from  every  spring  hedgerow,  and  no  one 
values  it.  When  do  we  find  the  hawthorn,  with  its  breath  sweet 
as  a  milch-cow's ;  or  the  wild  rose,  with  its  exquisite  attar  and  its 
petals  of  hollowed  pearl ;  when  do  we  find  these  decking  the  tables 
of  the  great?  or  the  purple  bilberry  or  the  boot-bright  blackberry 
in  the  entremets  thereof?  Think  what  that  "common  dog-rose" 
would  bring  in  a  limited  addition.  And  new  milk  from  the  cow,  or 
water  from  the  well !  Where  would  champagne  be  if  those  intoxi- 
cants were  but  restricted  by  expensive  license  and  sold  in  gilded 
bottles  ?  What  would  you  not  pay  for  a  ticket  to  see  the  moon  rise 
if  nature  had  not  improvidently  made  it  a  free  entertainment,  and 
who  could  afford  to  buy  a  seat  at  Covent  Garden  if  Sir  Augustus 
Harris  should  suddenly  become  sole  impresario  of  the  nightingale  ? 

Yes,  "  from  scarped  clift'  and  quarried  stone,"  Nature  cries : 
"  Limit  the  Edition  !  Distribute  the  type ! "  Though  in  her 
capacity  as  the  great  publisher  she  has  been  all  too  prodigal  of  her 
issues,  and  ruinously  guilty  of  innumerable  remainders.  In  fact, 
it  is  by  her  warning  rather  than  her  example  that  we  must  be  guided 
in  this  matter.  Let  us  not  vulgarise  our  books  as  she  has  done  her 
stars  and  flowers.  Let  us,  if  need  be,  make  our  editions  smaller 
and  smaller,  our  prices  increasingly  "  prohibitive,"  rather  than  that 
we  should  forget  the  wonder  and  beauty  of  printed  dream  and 
thought,  and  treat  our  books  as  somewhat  less  valuable  than  wayside 
weeds. 

Richard  be  Gallienne 

(in  Pall  Mall  Gazdte). 


376 


MISCELLANEA. 


An  Artist  Bookbinder. 

AT  the  World's  Fair  the  artist  successor  of  Trautz-Bauzonnet 
will  be  represented  by  some  of  his  most  beautiful  handiwork 
on  leather.  Even  in  his  imitations  of  the  classic  book  cover  ador- 
ners  of  old  France  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Leon  Gruel  is  a  master. 
He  has  sent  to  America  brilliant  specimens  of  the  styles  of  Le  Gas- 
gon,  Maioli,  and  Derome.  His  speciality  is  engraved  and  modelled 
leather  in  the  Gothic  patterns.  One  of  the  finest  examples  of  Gruel's 
work  in  this  manner  covers  a  prayer-book  woven  entirely  of  silk — 
miniatures,  black  letter  characters  and  all — by  an  ingenious  manu- 
facturer at  Lyons.  Another  specimen  is  on  a  copy  of  the  artist 
binder's  own  "  Manuel  Historique  et  Bibliographique  de  1' Amateur 
de  Reliures."  He  has  neatly  introduced  in  this,  among  the  Gothic 
foliage  and  flowers  of  its  border,  a  grue  (crane)  and  a  book  as  his 
marque  parlante.  Some  of  the  prices  of  rarities  which  Gruel  has 
bound  for  the  great  international  exposition  of  1893  are  worth  noting. 
There  is  a  vellum  manuscript,  *'  Livre  de  Mariage,"  cased  superbly 
in  brown  levant  morocco,  with  an  ivory  bas-relief  of  the  Marriage  at 
Cana  inserted,  and  clasped  in  silver  gilt,  marked  at  2,800  francs ;  a 
chirographic  copy  of  the  "  Imitation  de  Jesus  Christ,"  translated  by 
Lamennais,  with  miniatures  by  Ledoux  and  E.  Moreau,  which  will 
cost  its  purchaser  20,000  francs,  if  the  precious  souvenir  is  destined 
to  remain  in  pactolian  America ;  and  an  exact  copy  of  Madame  de 
Pompadour's  blotter,  in  citron  morocco,  with  flowers  daintily  inlaid 
in  red  and  blue.  Seven  hundred  francs  will  buy  the  latter.  As 
bookbindings  do  not  exclusively  command  the  skill  of  Leon  Gruel, 
other  elegant  specimens  of  it,  which  will  be  shown  and  admired  at 
Chicago,  are  a  leather-covered  casket  for  jewels,  a  scissors  case  after 
a  model  in  the  museum  at  Cluny,  and  a  card  case  in  Renaissance 
style. 


.=» 


INDEX. 


Almanack  of  Three  Centuries  Ago, 

An,  33 
America,  Book  Collecting  in,  71 

Letters  from,  257 

Old  Books  in,  273 

American  Imprints,  Early,  255 
Anacreon,  The  "  Odes"  of,  199 
Andrews,  W.,  133 
Anonymous  Authors,  191 
Antiquary  of  the   Last   Century,  An, 

89,  119 
Arbuthnot,  F.  F.,  156 
Ars  Moriendi,  80 
Autograph  Collecting,  319 

Copies,  156 

Autographs  of  Literary  Men,  169 

,  The  Preservation  of,  63 

Author  and  Bookseller,  302 
Authors  and  Book-buyers,  285 
,  Anonymous,  191 

Baldwin's  *'  Book  Lover,"  i 

Bambou,  Le^  132 

Bartholomew  Anglicanus,  99 

Baskerville,  J.,  167 

Bewick,  Bookplate  by,  106 

Bible,  Eyre  and  Spottiswoode's,  69 

"  Helps,"  The  Oxford,  241 

Society,  The,  132 

Bibles  at  the  British  Museum,  327 
Biblia  Pauperum,  79 
Biblioincineration,  13 


48 


Bibliographical  Society,  The,  57 
Bibliography,  A  Japanese,  294 

,  Method  in,  98 

,  The  Battle  of,  365 

Bibliomaniac's  Prayer,  The,  176 
Bibliophiles,  Acquisitiveness  of,  129 
Binding,  An  Unique,  223 

in  Human  Skin,  103 

Blades,  \V.,  3 

Block-Books,  Fifteen  Century,  79 

Bodoni,  214 

Book- Borrowers,  53,  160 

Book  Centre,  Paris  as  a,  349 

Book  Collector,  The  Perils  of  a,  343 

Book  Collectors,  Dictionary  of,  4,  291 

,  The  Great,  217 

Book  Collecting  in  America,  71 
Book  Covers,  Embroidery  on,  281 
Book  Finds,  Some  Recent,  171 
Book  Hunter,  The,  152 
"  Book  Lover"  (The),  by  Baldwin,  l 
Book  of  Mutual  Admiration,  A,  144 

the  Future,  The,  116 

Book  Sale  in  New  York,  49 

Book,  The  Costliest  in  America,  175 

Book,  The  Vercelli,  66 

Book  Thief,  The,  44 

Book  Catalogue,  The  First,  321 

Bookbinder,  An  Artist,  376 

Bookbinders,  A  Hint  to,  288 

Bookbinding,  A  Specimen  of,  336 

Bookbindings,  The  Hessian,  287 


37^ 


INDEX. 


Bookbuyer,  Mr.  Gladstone  as  a,  288 
Bookbuyers  and  Authors,  285 
Bookhunting  on   the   Quays  of  Paris, 

161 
Bookmaking,  Materials  for  a   History 

of,  89 
Bookplates,  French  and  English,  105 

,  Irish,  240 

Bookplate  Society,  The,  137 
Bookplate,  The  Earliest,  354 
Bookworm,  A  Modern,  153. 

,  Real,  8 

,  The,  240 

Books,  272,  326 

~,  A  Woman  on,  329 

-,  Auction  Prices  of  Rare,  369 

at  the  British  Museum,  151 

and  Bindings,  184 

about  Books,  188,  217,  267,  345 

,  Catalogue  of  Privately-printed, 

for  Social  Reformers,  303 

,  Franklin's  Favourite,  17 

I  have  Rambled  with,  85 

in  Manuscript,  345 

in  Rio  de  la  Plata,  278 

,  Lord  Coleridge's  Best,  324 

of  Lace  Patterns,  88 


of  Reference,  Two,  372 

,  Of  My,  30 

(Old)  in  America,  273 

on  Printing,  268 

,  Sale  of,  221 

,  Small,  5,  69,  279 

,  Some  Odd,  25 

,  The  "  Best,"  287,  324 

,  The  Best  Hundred,  70 

-,  The  Friendship  of,  9 

,  The  Management  of,  297 

that  can  be  Inwardly  Digested, 

135 

,  Women's,  109 

"  Books  in  Chains,"  by  W.  Blades,  3 
Bookseller's  Advertisement,  A,  212 
Booksellers,  London,  7 

Soliloquy,  An  Old,  112 

Bookshops  in  Russia,  208 
Borde's  "  Breviarie  of  Health,"  328 
Brooke,  Rev.  Stopford  A.,  65 
Browning,  Letters  of,  loi 
Buckley  Library,  The,  "i"] 
Burger's  "  Monumenta,"  131 
Burns  and  Scott  Forgeries,  41 


Burns,  The  "  Kilmarnock,"  82 

*'  Bygone  England,"  133 

Byron,  Unpublished  Letters  of,  45,  98 

Cambridge,  Books  Printed  at,  227 

Campbell,  F.  B.  F.,  68 

Campbell,  Frank,  368 

Canticum  Canticorum,  80 

Card  Games,  Bibliography  of,  81 

Casting  Pearls,  &c.,  360 

Castle,  Egerton,  104 

Cataloguing,  Curiosities  of,  335 

Catalogue,  The  First  Book,  321 

Cawthome  the  Bookseller,  302 

Caxtons,  Sale  of,  247 

Censorship  in  Russia,  59,  272 

Chap-Book,   An   Eighteenth   Century, 

117 
Chaucer,  A  MSS.,  295 
Clouston,  W.  A.,  22 
Codex  Vaticanus,  242 
Coleman,  C.  W.,  30 
Coleridge's  (Lord)  "  Best  Books," 
Columbus  Letter,  The,  150 
Commonwealth,  The  Punch  of  the. 
Costume,  Kobel's  Book  on,  293 
"Criminal's  Dictionary,"  A,  40 
Cruikshankiana,  229 

Devil's  Library,  The,  27 
Dickens,  C,  127 

,  Macmillan's  Edition  of,  225 

Dickens's  "  Little  Nell,"  56  » 

Dictionary,  A  Criminal's,  40  ^| 

Dictionary  of  Book  Collectors,  291 
Dobell's  Catalogue,  293 
Documents,  The  Study  of  Old,  290 
Dedications,  Singular,  337 

Edition,  Disposing  of  an,  207       jll 

Editions,  First,  270 
Elizabeth's  (Queen)  Prayer.  Book,  241 
Ellwanger's  "  Story  of  My  House,"  3 
Elton,  C.  and  M.,  217 
Embroidery  on  Book  Covers,  281 
English  Illustrated  Magazine.,  The,  2 
Euclid's  "  Elements,"  134 
Extra-Illustrating  in  New  York,  177 

Fabian  Society,  The,  303 
Finland,  Printing  in,  40 
First  Editions  of  Tennyson,  26 
Flammarion,  Camille,  103 
Forgeries,  The  Burns  and  Scott,  41 


INDEX, 


379 


Franck,  R.,  113 

Franklin's  Favourite  Books,  17 

Fraunce's  "  Lawier's  Logike,"  200 

Gambetta's  Bookplate,  107 
Gentleman's  Magazine   Library,   The, 

134 

Gift,  A  Curious,  104 
Gladstone  as  a  Bookbuyer,  288 
Gospels,  Syriac  Text  of  the,  189 
Gosse,  E.,  357 

Grangerising  in  New  York,  177 
Green's  "Short  History,"  130 

Hamilton,  Walter,  104 

"  Hatchards,"  249 

Hawthorne,  J.,  272 

Hearne,  T.,  89 

Hibberd,  Shirley,  297 

Hiersemann's  Catalogues,  215 

"  Holy  Wells,"  by  R.  C  Hopes,  227 

Horn-Book,  The,  134 

Hugo's  Bookplate,  107 

Hugo's  (Victor)  MSS.,  207 

Human  Documents,  200 

Hyginus'  "  Poeticon,"  23 

Irish  Bookplates,  240 

Indies,  The  "New  Laws  "  of  the,  133 

Ingoldsby  Legends,  On  the,  145 

Jacobs'  "  Indian  Fairy  Stories,"  2 
James  VI.  of  Scotland,  Library  of,  201 
Japanese  Bibliography,  A,  294 

Designs,  42 

Jones,  Sir  W.,  19 

Junot's  (Marshal)  Library,  325 

Keeling,  E.D  'Esterre,  335 
Kelmscott  Press,  The,  55 
Kelsall,  C,  354 
Kobel,  J.,  293 

Lace  Patterns,  Books  of,  Z% 
Le  Gallienne,  R.,  374 
Libraries  for  Manchester,  82 
Library,  Adam  Smith's,  176 

,  A  Fourteenth  Century,  60 

,  A  Nurse's,  11 1 

,  A  Sultan's,  44 

,  An  Island,  212 

,  Marshal  Junot's,  325 

of  James  VI.,  20i 


Library  of  Sir  J.  Caesar,  157 

,  The  Buckley,  87 

,  The  Devil's,  27 

,  The  John  Rylands,  216 

,  The  Guildhall,  361 

Lilburne  as  a  Pamphleteer,  315 

Limited  Editions,  373 

Literature,    Stopford    Brooke's    Early 

English,  65 
Literature  of  the  Century,  The,  357 
"  Literary  Blunders,"  by  WTieatley,  213 
Literary  Men,  Autographs  of,  169 
London  and  Middlesex  Note-Book^  3 
London  Booksellers,  7 

Mackie,  Mrs.  O.  S.,  302 

Madan,  F.,  98,  345 

Manuscripts,  Early  Christian,  52 

Marat  in  England,  193 

Maunsell,  Andrew,  321 

Medical  Work,  Earliest  English,  328 

"  Mela  Britannicus,"  354 

Microscopic  Penmanship,  185 

Mirkhond's  "  Muhammad,"  130 

Morris,  Harrison  S.,  87 

Mother  Hubbard's  Fairy  Tales,  43 

Moulder,  Victor,  J.,  62 

MSS.,  Sale  of,  247 

Musical  Celebrity,  A,  32 

Myles  Standish,  His  Booke,  256 

Napoleon's  Housekeeping  Book,  199 
Note-Book,  Our,   i,  41,  65,   97,    129, 

213,  225,  289,  353 
Nurse's  Library,  A,  in 

Oriental  Translation  Fund,  220 
Oxford  Bible  "  Helps,"  241 

Papyrus  from  Egypt,  243 
Paris  as  a  Book  Centre,  349 
Paris,  The  Book-Quays  of,  161 
Penmanship,  Microscopic,  185 
Pickering  and  Chatto,   Catalogue    of, 

100 
Playing  Card,  An  Old,  212 
Plowden's  "  Treatise,"  64 
Prayer-Book,  Edward  VI. 's,  83 

,  Queen  Elizabeth's,  246 

Printer's  Marks,  216,  313 
Printing,  Books  on,  268 

,  Early  English,  267 

in  Finland,  40 


38o 


INDEX. 


"  Poeticon  Astronomicon,"  The,  23 
Publishers,  Eighteenth  Century,  305 
Punch  of  the  Commonwealth,  The,  237 

QUARITCH,  B.,  4 
Quaritch's,  Mr.,  Hat,  360 

Rabelais,  F.,  97 

Redgrave,  G.  R.,  66 

Rehatsek,  E.,  153 

Reynard  the  Fox,  209 

Roberts,  W.,  198,  312 

Ronsard,  Mary  Stuart's  Copy  of,  44 

Rosenthal,  Herr,  353 

Ruskin  Bibliography,  The,  245 

Russia,  Bookshops  in,  208 

Censorship  in,  59,  272 

Shelves,  My  Upper,  269 
Sherman,  F.  D.,  152 
Shorthand,  A  Note  on,  289 
"  Sketches  of  Boz,"  266 
Small  Books,  5,  279 
Smith's  (Adam)  Library,  176 
Sorg,  Anthon,  355 
Sparling,  PI.  Halliday,  318 
State  Papers,  68 
Steele,  F.  M.,  320 

,  Robert,  99 

St.  Petersburg  Library,  355 


Strada's  "  Imperatorum,"  353 
Syriac  Text  of  the  Gospels,  189 

Tennyson  I  ANA,  31 
Tennyson's  Bookplate,  106 

Masters,  18 

Poems  by  Two  Brothers, 

51.  69,  183 
Tennyson,  First  Editions  of,  26 
Tricks  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  Pub-    .ii 

lishers,  305 
Tudor  Translations,  The,  318 
Tuer,  A.  W.,  42 
Turner's  Tours,  43 

Umbrella  Literature,  284 
Uzanne's  Bookplate,  108 

— : "  Physiologic  des  Quais 

Paris,"  161 


Walton,  Izaak,  113,  271 
Warner,  G.  F.,  206 
Warren,  C.  F.  S.,  149.  258 
Water-Colour  Painting  in  England,  66 
Welch,  C,  361 

WTieatley's  "  Literary  Blunders,"  213 
White,  Gleeson,  39,  228. 
Williams,  Archbishop,  61 
Women's  Books  for  Chicago,  109 


4 


Zurich,  Printing  at,  353 


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