LYSAND. Having endeavoured to do justice to Girald Barri, I know of no other particularly distinguished bibliomaniac till we approach the aera of the incomparable ROGER, or FRIAR, BACON. I say incomparable, Lorenzo; because he was, in truth, a constellation of the very first splendour and magnitude in the dark times in which he lived; and notwithstanding a sagacious writer (if my memory be not treacherous) of the name of Coxe, chooses to tell us that he was "miserably starved to death, because he could not introduce a piece of roast beef into his stomach, on account of having made a league with Satan to eat only cheese;"[257]--yet I suspect that the end of Bacon was hastened by other means more disgraceful to the age and equally painful to himself.

[Footnote 257: "_A short treatise declaringe the detestable wickednesse of magicall sciences, as necromancie, coniuration of spirites, curiouse astrologie, and suche lyke, made by_ FRANCIS COXE." Printed by Allde, 12mo., without date (14 leaves). From this curious little volume, which is superficially noticed by Herbert (vol. ii., p.

889), the reader is presented with the following extract, appertaining to the above subject: "I myself (says the author) knew a priest not far from a town called Bridgewater, which, as it is well known in the country, was a great magician in all his life time. After he once began these practices, he would never eat bread, but, instead thereof, did always eat _cheese_: which thing, as he confessed divers times, he did because it was so concluded betwixt him and the spirit which served him," &c. sign. A viii. rect. "(R.) Bacon's end was much after _the like sort_; for having a greedy desire unto meat, he could cause nothing to enter the stomach--wherefore thus miserably he starved to death." Sign. B. iij. rev. Not having at hand John Dee's book of the defence of Roger Bacon, from the charge of astrology and magic (the want of which one laments as pathetically as did Naude, in his "_Apologie pour tous les grands personnages, &c., faussement soupconnez de Magic_," Haye, 1653, 8vo., p. 488), I am at a loss to say the fine things, which Dee must have said, in commendation of the extraordinary talents of ROGER BACON; who was miserably matched in the age in which he lived; but who, together with his great patron GROSTESTE, will shine forth as beacons to futurity. Dr. Friend in his _History of Physic_ has enumerated what he conceived to be Bacon's leading works; while Gower in his _Confessio Amantis_ (Caxton's edit., fol. 70), has mentioned the brazen head--

=for to telle Of such thyngs as befelle:=

which was the joint manufactory of the patron and his eleve.

As lately as the year 1666, Bacon's life formed the subject of a "famous history," from which Walter Scott has given us a facetious anecdote in the seventh volume (p. 10) of _Dryden's Works_. But the curious investigator of ancient times, and the genuine lover of British biography, will seize upon the more prominent features in the life of this renowned philosopher; will reckon up his great discoveries in optics and physics; and will fancy, upon looking at the above picture of his study, that an explosion from gun-powder (of which our philosopher has been thought the inventor) has protruded the palings which are leaning against its sides. Bacon's "_Opus Majus_," which happened to meet the eyes of Pope Clement IV., and which _now_ would have encircled the neck of its author with an hundred golden chains, and procured for him a diploma from every learned society in Europe--just served to liberate him from his first long imprisonment. This was succeeded by a subsequent confinement of twelve years; from which he was released only time enough to breathe his last in the pure air of heaven.

Whether he expended 3000, or 30,000 pounds of our present money, upon his experiments, can now be only matter of conjecture. Those who are dissatisfied with the meagre manner in which our early biographers have noticed the labours of Roger Bacon, and with the _tetragonistical_ story, said by Twyne to be propagated by our philosopher, of Julius Caesar's seeing the whole of the British coast and encampment upon the Gallic shore, "maximorum ope speculorum"

(_Antiquit. Acad. Oxon. Apolog._ 1608, 4to., p. 353), may be pleased with the facetious story told of him by Wood (_Annals of Oxford_, vol. i., 216, Gutch's edit.) and yet more by the minute catalogue of his works noticed by Bishop Tanner (_Bibl. Brit. Hibern._ p. 62): while the following eulogy of old Tom Fuller cannot fail to find a passage to every heart: "For mine own part (says this delightful and original writer) I behold the name of Bacon in Oxford, not as of an individual man, but corporation of men; no single cord, but a twisted cable of many together. And as all the acts of strong men of that nature are attributed to an Hercules; all the predictions of prophecying women to a Sibyll; so I conceive all the achievements of the Oxonian Bacons, in their liberal studies, are ascribed to ONE, as chief of the name." _Church History_, book iii., p. 96.]

[Illustration]

Only let us imagine we see this sharp-eyed philosopher at work in his study, of which yonder print is generally received as a representation! How heedlessly did he hear the murmuring of the stream beneath, and of the winds without--immersed in the vellum and parchment rolls of theological, astrological, and mathematical lore, which, upon the dispersion of the libraries of the Jews,[258] he was constantly perusing, and of which so large a share had fallen to his own lot!

[Footnote 258: Warton, in his second Dissertation, says that "great multitudes of their (the Jews) books fell into the hands of Roger Bacon;" and refers to Wood's _Hist. et Antiquit. Univ. Oxon._, vol. i., 77, 132--where I find rather a slight notification of it--but, in the genuine edition of this latter work, published by Mr. Gutch, vol.

i., p. 329, it is said: "At their (the Jews) expulsion, divers of their tenements that were forfeited to the king, came into the hands of William Burnell, Provost of Wells; and _their books_ (for many of them were learned) to divers of our scholars; among whom, as is verily supposed, ROGER BACON was one: and that he furnished himself with such Hebrew rarities, that he could not elsewhere find. Also that, when he died, he left them to the Franciscan library at Oxon, which, being not well understood in after-times, were condemned to moths and dust!" Weep, weep, kind-hearted bibliomaniac, when thou thinkest upon the fate of these poor Hebrew MSS.!]

Unfortunately, my friends, little is known with certainty, though much is vaguely conjectured, of the labours of this great man. Some of the first scholars and authors of our own and of other countries have been proud to celebrate his praises; nor would it be considered a disgrace by the most eminent of modern experimental philosophers--of him, who has been described as "unlocking the hidden treasures of nature, and explaining the various systems by which air, and earth, and fire, and water, counteract and sustain each other"[259]--to fix the laureate crown round the brows of our venerable Bacon!

[Footnote 259: See a periodical paper, entitled _The Director_! vol. ii., p. 294.]

We have now reached the close of the thirteenth century and the reign of EDWARD THE FIRST;[260] when the principal thing that strikes us, connected with the history of libraries, is this monarch's insatiable lust of strengthening his title to the kingdom of Scotland by purchasing "the libraries of all the monasteries" for the securing of any record which might corroborate the same. What he gave for this tremendous book-purchase, or of what nature were the volumes purchased, or what was their subsequent destination, is a knot yet remaining to be untied.

[Footnote 260: "King Edward the first caused and committed divers copies of the records, and much concerning the realm of Scotland, unto divers abbies for the preservance thereof; which for the most part are now perished, or rare to be had; and which privilie by the dissolution of monasteries is detained. The same king caused the libraries of all monasteries, and other places of the realm, to be purchased, for the further and manifest declaration of his title, as chief Lord of Scotland: and the record thereof now extant, doth alledge divers leger books of abbeys for the confirmation thereof": Petition (to Q. Elizabeth) for an academy of Antiquities and History. _Hearne's Curious Discourses written by eminent Antiquaries_; vol. ii., 326, edit. 1775.]

Of the bibliomaniacal propensity of Edward's grandson, the great EDWARD THE THIRD, there can be no question. Indeed, I could gossip away upon the same 'till midnight. His severe disappointment upon having Froissart's presentation copy of his Chronicles[261]

(gergeously [Transcriber's Note: gorgeously] attired as it must have been) taken from him by the Duke of Anjou, is alone a sufficient demonstration of his love of books; while his patronage of Chaucer shews that he had accurate notions of intellectual excellence.

Printing had not yet begun to give any hint, however faint, of its wonderful powers; and scriveners or book-copiers were sufficiently ignorant and careless.[262]

[Footnote 261: Whether this presentation copy ever came, eventually, into the kingdom, is unknown. Mr. Johnes, who is as intimate with Froissart as Gough was with Camden, is unable to make up his mind upon the subject; but we may suppose it was properly emblazoned, &c. The duke detained it as being the property of an enemy to France!--Now, when we read of this wonderfully chivalrous age, so glowingly described by the great Gaston, Count de Foix, to Master Froissart, upon their introduction to each other (vide St.

Palaye's memoir in the 10th vol. of _L'Acadamie des Inscriptions_, &c.), it does seem a gross violation (at least on the part of the Monsieur of France!) of all gentlemanly and knight-like feeling, to seize upon a volume of this nature, as legitimate plunder! The robber should have had his skin tanned, after death, for a case to keep the book in! Of Edward the Third's love of curiously bound books, see p. 118, ante.]

[Footnote 262: "How ordinary a fault this was (of 'negligently or willfully altering copies') amongst the transcribers of former times, may appear by Chaucer; who (I am confident) tooke as greate care as any man to be served with the best and heedfullest scribes, and yet we finde him complayning against Adam, his scrivener, for the very same:

So ofte a daye I mote thy worke renew, If to correct and eke to rubbe and scrape, And all is thorow thy neglegence and rape."

Ashmole _Theatrum Chemicum_; p. 439.]

The mention of Edward the Third, as a patron of learned men, must necessarily lead a book-antiquary to the notice of his eminent chancellor, RICHARD DE BURY; of whom, as you may recollect, some slight mention was made the day before yesterday.[263] It is hardly possible to conceive a more active and enthusiastic lover of books than was this extraordinary character; the passion never deserting him even while he sat upon the bench.[264] It was probably De Bury's intention to make his royal master eclipse his contemporary CHARLES THE VTH, of France--the most renowned foreign bibliomaniac of his age![265] In truth, my dear friends, what can be more delightful to a lover of his country's intellectual reputation than to find such a character as De Bury, in such an age of war and bloodshed, uniting the calm and mild character of a legislator, with the sagacity of a philosopher, and the elegant-mindedness of a scholar! Foreigners have been profuse in their commendations of him, and with the greatest justice; while our Thomas Warton, of ever-to-be-respected memory, has shewn us how pleasingly he could descend from the graver tone of a historical antiquary, by indulging himself in a chit-chat style of book-anecdote respecting this illustrious character.[266]

[Footnote 263: See p. 29, ante.]

[Footnote 264: "--patescebat nobis aditus facilis, regalis favoris intuitu, ad librorum latebras libere perscrutandas.

Amoris quippe nostri fama volatilis jam ubique percrebuit, tamtumque librorum, et maxime veterum, ferebamur cupiditate languescere; posse vero quemlibet, nostrum _per quaternos_ facilius, quam _per pecuniam_, adipisci favorem."

_Philobiblion; sive de Amore Librorum_ (vide p. 29, ante), p. 29: edit. 1599, 4to. But let the reader indulge me with another extract or two, containing evidence [Transcriber's Note: 'of' missing in original] the most unquestionable of the severest symptoms of the BIBLIOMANIA that ever assailed a Lord Chancellor or a Bishop!--Magliabechi must have read the ensuing passage with rapture: "Quamobrem cum praedicti principis recolendae memoriae bonitate suffulti, possemus obesse et prodesse, officere et proficere vehementer tam maioribus quam pusillis; affluxerunt, loco xeniorum et munerum, locoque, donorum et iocalium, temulenti quaterni, ac decripiti codices; nostris tamen tam affectibus, quam aspectibus, pretiosi. Tunc nobilissimorum monasteriorum aperiebantur armaria, referebantur scrinia, et cistulae solvebantur, et per longa secula in sepulchris soporata volumina, expergiscunt attonita, quaeque in locis tenebrosis latuerant, novae lucis radiis perfunduntur." "Delicatissimi quondam libri, corrupti et abhominabiles iam effecti, murium faetibus cooperti, et vermium morsibus terebrati, iacebant exanimes--et qui olim purpura vestiebantur et bysso, nunc in cinere et cilicio recubantes, oblivioni traditi videbantur, domicilia tinearum. Inter haec nihilominus, captatis temporibus, magis voluptuose consedimus, quam fecisset Medicus delicatus inter aromatum apothecas, ubi amoris nostri objectum reperimus et fomentum; sic sacra vasa scientiae, ad nostrae dispensationis provenerunt arbitrium: quaedam data, quaedam vendita, ac nonnulla protempore commodata. Nimirum cum nos plerique de hujusmodi donariis cernerent contentatos, ea sponte nostris usibus studuerent tribuere, quibus ipsi libentius caruerunt: quorum tamen negotia sic expedire curavimus gratiosi, ut et eisdem emolumentum accresceret, nullum tamen iustitia detrimentum sentiret." "Porro si scyphos aureos et argenteos, si equos egregios, si nummorum summas non modicas amassemus tunc temporis, dives nobis aerarium instaurasse possemus: sed revera LIBROS NON LIBRAS maluimus, codicesque plusquam florenos, ac panfletos exiguos incrassatis praetulimus palfridis," _Philobiblion_; p. 29, 30, &c. Dr. James's preface to this book, which will be noticed in its proper place, in another work, is the veriest piece of old maidenish particularity that ever was exhibited! However, the editor's enthusiastic admiration of De Bury obtains his forgiveness in the bosom of every honest bibliomaniac!]

[Footnote 265: CHARLES THE FIFTH, of France, may be called the founder of the Royal Library there. The history of his first efforts to erect a national library is thus, in part, related by the compilers of _Cat. de la Bibliotheque Royale_, pt. i., p. ij.-iij.: "This wise king took advantage of the peace which then obtained, in order to cultivate letters more successfully than had hitherto been done. He was learned for his age; and never did a prince love reading and book-collecting better than did he! He was not only constantly making transcripts himself, but the noblemen, courtiers, and officers that surrounded him voluntarily tendered their services in the like cause; while, on the other hand, a number of learned men, seduced by his liberal rewards, spared nothing to add to his literary treasures.

Charles now determined to give his subjects every possible advantage from this accumulation of books; and, with this view, he lodged them in one of the _Towers of the Louvre_; which tower was hence called _La Tour de la Librarie_. The books occupied three stories: in the first, were desposited 269 volumes; in the second 260; and in the third, 381 volumes. In order to preserve them with the utmost care (say Sauval and Felibien), the king caused all the windows of the library to be fortified with iron bars; between which was painted glass, secured by brass-wires. And that the books might be accessible at all hours, there were suspended, from the ceiling, thirty chandeliers and a silver lamp, which burnt all night long. The walls were wainscotted with Irish wood; and the ceiling was covered with cypress wood: the whole being curiously sculptured in bas-relief." Whoever has not this catalogue at hand (vide p. 93, ante) to make himself master of still further curious particulars relating to this library, may examine the first and second volume of _L'Academie des Inscriptions_, &c.--from which the preceding account is taken. The reader may also look into Warton (Diss. 11, vol. i., sign. f. 2); who adds, on the authority of Boivin's _Mem. Lit._, tom. ii., p. 747, that the Duke of Bedford, regent of France, "in the year 1425 (when the English became masters of Paris) sent his whole library, then consisting of only 853 volumes, and valued at 2223 livres, into England," &c. I have little doubt but that Richard De Bury had a glimpse of this infantine royal collection, from the following passage--which occurs immediately after an account of his ambassadorial excursion--"O beate Deus Deorum in Syon, quantus impetus fluminis voluptatis laetificavit cor nostrum, quoties Paradisum mundi _Parisios_ visitare vacavimus ibi moraturi?

Ubi nobis semper dies pauci, prae amoris magnitudine, videbantur. Ibi Bibliothecae jucundae super sellas aromatum redolentes; ibi virens viridarium universorum voluminum,"

&c. _Philobiblion_; p. 31, edit. 1559.]

[Footnote 266: After having intruded, I fear, by the preceding note respecting _French Bibliomania_, there is only room left to say of our DE BURY--that he was the friend and correspondent of Petrarch--and that Mons. Sade, in his _Memoirs of Petrarch_, tells us that "the former did in England, what the latter all his life was doing in France, Italy, and Germany, towards the discovery of the best ancient writers, and making copies of them under his own superintendence." De Bury bequeathed a valuable library of MSS. to Durham, now Trinity College, Oxford. The books of this library were first packed up in chests; but upon the completion of the room to receive them, "they were put into pews or studies, and chained to them." Wood's _History of the University of Oxford_, vol. ii., p. 911. Gutch's edit.

De Bury's _Philobiblion_, from which so much has been extracted, is said by Morhof to "savor somewhat of the rudeness of the age, but is rather elegantly written; and many things are well expressed in it relating to bibliothecism." _Polyhist. Literar._, vol. i., 187. The real author is supposed to have been Robert Holcott, a Dominican friar. I am, however, loth to suppress a part of what Warton has so pleasantly written (as above alluded to by Lysander) respecting such a favourite as DE BURY. "Richard de Bury, otherwise called Richard Aungervylle, is said to have alone possessed more books than all the bishops of England together. Beside the fixed libraries which he had formed in his several palaces, the floor of his common apartment was so covered with books that those who entered could not with due reverence approach his presence. He kept binders, illuminators, and writers, in his palaces. Petrarch says that he had once a conversation with him, concerning the island called by the ancients Thule; calling him 'virum ardentis ingenii.' While chancellor and treasurer, instead of the usual presents and new-year's gifts appendant to his office, he chose to receive those perquisites in books. By the favour of Edward III. he gained access to the libraries of most of the capital monasteries; where he shook off the dust from volumes, preserved in chests and presses, which had not been opened for many ages." _Philobiblion_, cap. 29, 30.--Warton also quotes, in English, a part of what had been already presented to the reader in its original Latin form.

_Hist. Engl. Poetry_, vol. i., Diss. II., note g., sign. h.

4. Prettily painted as is this picture, by Warton, the colouring might have been somewhat heightened, and the effect rendered still more striking, in consequence, if the authority and the words of Godwyn had been a little attended to. In this latter's _Catalogue of the Bishops of England_, p. 524-5, edit. 1601, we find that De Bury was the son of one SIR RICHARD ANGARUILL, knight: "that he saith of himselfe 'exstatico quodam librorum amore potenter se abreptum'--that he was mightily carried away, and even beside himself, with immoderate love of bookes and desire of reading. He had alwaies in his house many chaplaines, all great schollers. His manner was, at dinner and supper-time, to haue some good booke read unto him, whereof he would discourse with his chaplaines a great part of the day following, if busines interrupted not his course. He was very bountiful unto the poore. Weekely he bestowed for their reliefe, 8 quarters of wheat made into bread, beside the offall and fragments of his tables. Riding betweene Newcastle and Durham he would give 8_l._ in almes; from Durham to Stocton, 5_l._: from Durham to Aukland, 5 marks; from Durham to Middleham, 5_l._" &c. This latter is the "pars melior" of every human being; and bibliomaniacs seem to have possessed it as largely as any other tribe of mortals. I have examined Richardson's magnificent reprint of Godwyn's book, in the Latin tongue, London, 1743, folio; p.

747; and find nothing worth adding to the original text.]

LOREN. The task we have imposed upon you, my good Lysander, would be severe indeed if you were to notice, with minute exactness, all the book-anecdotes of the middle ages. You have properly introduced the name and authority of Warton; but if you suffered yourself to be beguiled by his enchanting style, into all the bibliographical gossiping of this period, you would have no mercy upon your lungs, and there would be no end to the disquisition.

LYSAND. Forgive me, if I have transgressed the boundaries of good sense or good breeding: it was not my intention to make a "_Concio ad Aulam_"--as worthy old Bishop Saunderson was fond of making--but simply to state facts, or indulge in book chit-chat, as my memory served me.

LIS. Nay, Lorenzo, do not disturb the stream of Lysander's eloquence.

I could listen 'till "Jocund day stood tip-toe on the mountain."

PHIL. You are a little unconscionable, Lisardo: but I apprehend Lorenzo meant only to guard Lysander against that minuteness of narration which takes us into every library and every study of the period at which we are arrived. If I recollect aright, Warton was obliged to restrain himself in the same cause.[267]

[Footnote 267: The part alluded to, in Warton, is at the commencement of his second Dissertation "On the Introduction of Learning into Great Britain." After rambling with the utmost felicity, among the libraries, and especially the monastic ones, of the earlier and middle ages--he thus checks himself by saying, that "in pursuit of these anecdotes, he is imperceptibly seduced into later periods, or rather is deviating from his subject."]

LOREN. It belongs to me, Lysander, to solicit your forgiveness. If you are not tired with the discussion of such a various and extensive subject (and more particularly from the energetic manner in which it is conducted on your part), rely upon it that your auditors cannot possibly feel _ennui_. Every thing before us partakes of your enthusiasm: the wine becomes mellower, and sparkles with a ruddier glow; the flavour of the fruit is improved; and the scintillations of your conversational eloquence are scattered amidst my books, my busts, and my pictures. Proceed, I entreat you; but first, accept my libation offered up at the shrine of an offended deity.

LYSAND. You do me, and the _Bibliomania_, too much honour. If my blushes do not overpower me, I will proceed: but first, receive the attestation of the deity that he is no longer affronted with you. I drink to your health and long life!--and proceed:

If, among the numerous and gorgeous books which now surround us, it should be my good fortune to put my hand upon one, however small or imperfect, which could give us some account of the _History of British Libraries_, it would save me a great deal of trouble, by causing me to maintain at least a chronological consistency in my discourse. But, since this cannot be--since, with all our love of books and of learning, we have this pleasing desideratum yet to be supplied--I must go on, in my usual desultory manner, in rambling among libraries, and discoursing about books and book-collectors. As we enter upon the reign of HENRY IV., we cannot avoid the mention of that distinguished library hunter, and book describer, JOHN BOSTON of Bury;[268] who may justly be considered the Leland of his day. Gale, if I recollect rightly, unaccountably describes his bibliomaniacal career as having taken place in the reign of Henry VII.; but Bale and Pits, from whom Tanner has borrowed his account, unequivocally affix the date of 1410 to Boston's death; which is three years before the death of Henry. It is allowed, by the warmest partizans of the reformation, that the dissolution of the monastic libraries has unfortunately rendered the labours of Boston of scarcely any present utility.

[Footnote 268: It is said of BOSTON that he visited almost every public library, and described the titles of every book therein, with punctilious accuracy. Pits (593) calls him "vir pius, litteratus, et bonarum litterarum fautor ac promotor singularis." Bale (p. 549, edit. 1559) has even the candour to say, "mira sedulitate et diligentia omnes omnium regni monasteriorum bibliothecas invisit: librorum collegit titulos, et authorum eorum nomina: quae omnia alphabetico disposuit ordine, et quasi unam omnium bibliothecam fecit."

What Lysander observes above is very true: "non enim dissimulanda (says Gale) monasteriorum subversio, quae brevi spatio subsecuta est--libros omnes dispersit et BOSTONI providam diligentiam, maxima ex parte, inutilem reddidit."

_Rer. Anglicar. Scrip. Vet._, vol. iii., praef. p. 1. That indefatigable antiquary, Thomas Hearne, acknowledges that, in spite of all his researches in the Bodleian library, he was scarcely able to discover any thing of Boston's which related to Benedictus Abbas--and still less of his own compositions. _Bened. Abbat._ vol. i., praef. p. xvii. It is a little surprising that Leland should have omitted to notice him. But the reader should consult Tanner's _Bibl.

Britan._, p. xvii., 114.]

There is a curious anecdote of this period in Rymer's Foedera,[269]

about taking off the duty upon _six barrels of books_, sent by a Roman Cardinal to the prior of the Conventual church of St. Trinity, Norwich. These barrels, which lay at the custom-house, were imported duty free; and I suspect that Henry's third son, the celebrated John Duke of Bedford, who was then a lad, and just beginning to feed his bibliomaniacal appetite, had some hand in interceding with his father for the redemption of the duty.

[Footnote 269: Vol. viii., p. 501. It is a Clause Roll of the 9th of Henry IV. A.D. 1407: "De certis Libris, absque Custumenda solvenda, liberandis;" and affords too amusing a specimen of custom-house latinity to be withheld from the reader. "Mandamus vobis, quod certos libros _in sex Barellis contentos_, Priori qt Conventui Ecclesiae Sanctae Trinitatis Norwici, per quendam Adam nuper Cardinalem legatos, et in portum civitatis nostrae predictae (Londinensis) ab urbe Romana jam adductos, praefato, Priori, absque Custuma seu subsidio inde ad opus nostrum capiendis, liberetis indilate," &c.]

LIS. This DUKE OF BEDFORD was the most notorious bibliomaniac as well as warrior of his age; and, when abroad, was indefatigable in stirring up the emulation of Flemish and French artists, to execute for him the most splendid books of devotion. I have heard great things of what goes by the name of _The Bedford Missal_![270]

[Footnote 270: This missal, executed under the eye and for the immediate use of the famous John, Duke of Bedford (regent of France), and Jane (the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy) his wife, was, at the beginning of the 18th century, in the magnificent library of Harley, Earl of Oxford. It afterwards came into the collection of his daughter, the well-known Duchess of Portland; at whose sale, in 1786, it was purchased by Mr. Edwards for 215 guineas; and 500 guineas have been, a few years ago, offered for this identical volume. It is yet the property of this last mentioned gentleman. Among the pictures in it, there is an interesting one of the whole length portraits of the Duke and Duchess;--the head of the former of which has been enlarged and engraved by Vertue for his portraits to illustrate the History of England. The missal frequently displays the arms of these noble personages; and also affords a pleasing testimony of the affectionate gallantry of the pair; the motto of the former being "A VOUS ENTIER:"

that of the latter, "J'EN SUIS CONTENTE." There is a former attestation in the volume, of its having been given by the Duke to his nephew, Henry VI. as "a most suitable present."

But the reader shall consult (if he can procure it) Mr.

Gough's curious little octavo volume written expressly upon the subject.]

LYSAND. And not greater than what merits to be said of it. I have seen this splendid bijou in the charming collection of our friend ----. It is a small thick folio, highly illuminated; and displaying, as well in the paintings as in the calligraphy, the graphic powers of that age, which had not yet witnessed even the dry pencil of Perugino. More gorgeous, more beautifully elaborate, and more correctly graceful, missals may be in existence; but a more curious, interesting, and perfect specimen, of its kind, is no where to be seen: the portraits of the Duke and of his royal brother Henry V. being the best paintings known of the age. 'Tis, in truth, a lovely treasure in the book way; and it should sleep every night upon an eider-down pillow encircled with emeralds!

LIS. Hear him--hear him! Lysander must be a collateral descendant of this noble bibliomaniac, whose blood, now circulating in his veins, thus moves him to "discourse most eloquently."

LYSAND. Banter as you please; only "don't disturb the stream of my eloquence."