Evans, of Pall Mall; as well indeed as was the Library of the late Duke of Marlborough, when Marquis of Blandford. What books! And what prices! It should seem that "there were giants," both in purse and magnitude of metal, "in those days!" But a mighty "man in valour" has recently sprung up amongst us; who, spurning the acquisition of solitary _lots_, darts down upon a whole _Library_, and bears it off "at one fell swoop." Long life to the spirit which possesses him! It is almost a national redemption.

PART III.

THE AUCTION-ROOM.

We are here introduced into one of the most bustling and spirit-stirring portions of the whole Work. It is full of characters--alas! now, with only _two_ exceptions, mouldering in their coffins! Philemon (who was one of my earliest and steadiest friends) introduces us to a character, which, under the name of ORLANDO, made some impression upon the public, as it was thought to represent MICHAEL WODHULL, Esq., of Thenford Hall, near Banbury; an admirable Greek scholar (the translator of Euripides), and perhaps the most learned bibliographer of his age. The conjecture of Orlando being the representative of Mr. Wodhull was not a vain conjecture; although there were, necessarily (I will not say _why_), parts that slightly varied from the original. Mr. Wodhull re-appears, in his natural person, in the _Bibliographical Decameron_, vol. iii. p. 363-6. Since the publication of that work, a curious history attaches to his memory. Within a twelvemonth of the expiration of the statute of limitation, an action at law, in the shape of an ejectment, was set on foot by a neighbouring family, to dispossess the present rightful occupant, S.A. SEVERNE, Esq., of the beautiful domain of Thenford; to ransack the Library; to scatter abroad pictures and curiosities of every description; on the alleged ground of insanity, or incompetency to make a will, on the part of Mr. Wodhull. As I had been very minute in the account of Mr. Wodhull's person, in the work just alluded to, I became a _witness_ in the cause; and, as it was brought into Chancery, my deposition was accordingly taken. I could have neither reluctance nor disinclination to meet the call of my excellent friend, Mr.

Severne; as I was abundantly confident that the charge of "incompetency to make a will" could not rest upon the slightest foundation. It was insinuated, indeed, that the sister-in-law, Miss Ingram, had forged Mr. Wodhull's name to the will.

Such a conspiracy, to defraud an honourable man and legitimate descendant of his property, is hardly upon record; for, waiting the accidents that might occur by death, or otherwise, in the lapse of twenty years, the cause was brought into the Vice Chancellor's Court with the most sanguine hope of success. I was present during one of the days of argument, and heard my own letter read, of which I had (contrary to my usual habits) taken a copy. The plaintiffs had written to me (suppressing the fact of the intended action), requesting to have my opinion as to Mr. Wodhull's capability. I returned such an answer as truth dictated. The Counsel for the plaintiffs (_ut mos est_) showered down upon the defendant every epithet connected with base fraud and low cunning, of which the contents of the brief seemed to warrant the avowal. In due course, Sir Knight Bruce, now one of the supernumerary Vice Chancellors, rose to reply. His speech was one undisturbed stream of unclouded narrative and irresistible reasoning.

The Vice Chancellor (Shadwell) gave judgment; and my amiable and excellent friend, Mr. Severne, was not only to return in triumph to the mansion and to the groves which had been built and planted by his venerable ancestor, Mr. Wodhull, but he was strongly advised, by the incorruptible judge on the bench, to bring an action against the plaintiffs for one of the foulest conspiracies that had ever been developed in a court of justice. The defendant might have transported the whole kit of them. But the _giving_ advice, and the _following_ it when given, are two essentially different things. A THOUSAND GUINEAS had been already expended on the part of Mr. Severne! When does my Lord Brougham _really_ mean to reform the law? A recent publication ("Cranmer, a Novel") has said, "that he applies _sedatives_, when he should have recourse to _operations_."

But the reader must now hurry with me into "The Auction Room." Of the whole group there represented, full of life and of action, TWO ONLY remain to talk of the conquests achieved![472] And Mr. Hamper, too--whose note, at p. 117, is beyond all price--has been lately "gathered to his fathers." "Ibimus, ibimus!" But for our book-heroes in the Auction Room.

[Footnote 472: Before mention made of the Auction Room, there is a long and particular account of the "_Lectionum Memorabilium et Reconditarum Centenarii XVI._" by John Wolf, in 1600, folio; with a fac simile, by myself, of the portrait of the Author. It had a great effect, at the time, in causing copies of this work to be sedulously sought for and sold at extravagant prices. I have known a fine copy of this ugly book bring 8 8_s._]

The first in years, as well as in celebrity, is LEPIDUS; the representative of the late Rev. Dr. GOSSET. In the _Bibliographical Decameron_, vol. iii. p. 5, ample mention is made of him; and here it is, to me, an equally grateful and delightful task to record the worth, as well as the existence, of his two sons, Isaac and Thomas, each a minister of the Church of England. The former is covered with _olive branches_ as well as with reputation; while the latter, declining the "branches" in question, rests upon the stem of his own inflexible worth, and solid scholastic attainments. Mrs. Gardiner, the wife of a Major Gardiner, is the only daughter of Dr. Gosset; a wife, but not a mother. The second in the ranks is MUSTAPHA. Every body quickly found out the original in Mr. Gardiner, a bookseller in Pall Mall; who quickly set about repelling the attack here made upon him, by a long note appended to the article "Bibliomania," in one of his catalogues. Gardiner never lacked courage; but, poor man! his brains were under no controul. We _met_ after this reply, and, to the best of my recollection, we exchanged ... _smiles_. The catalogue in question, not otherwise worth a stiver, has been sold as high as 15s., in consequence of the Dibdinian flagellation. Poor Gardiner! his end was most deplorable.

We approach BERNARDO, who was intended to represent the late Mr.

JOSEPH HASLEWOOD; and of whose book-fame a very particular, and I would hope impartial, account will be found in the "_Literary Reminiscences of my Literary Life_." There is no one portion of that work which affords me more lively satisfaction on a re-perusal. The cause of the _individual_ was merged in the cause of _truth_. The strangest compound of the strangest materials that ever haunted a human brain, poor Bernardo was, in spite of himself, a man of _note_ towards his latter days. Every body wondered what was in him; but something, certainly worth the perusal; oozed out of him in his various motley performances; and especially in his edition of Drunken Barnaby's Tour, which exhibited the rare spectacle of an accurate Latin (as well as English) text, by an individual who did not know the dative singular from the dative plural of _hic, haec, hoc_! Haslewood, however, "hit the right nail upon the head" when he found out the _real_ author Barnaby, in Richard Brathwait; from the unvarying designation of "_On the Errata_," at the end of Brathwait's pieces, which is observable in that of his "_Drunken Barnaby's Tour_." It was an [Greek: eurecha] [Transcriber's Note: [Greek: eureka]] in its way; and the late Mr. Heber used to shout aloud, "stick to _that_, Haslewood, and your fame is fixed!" He was always proud of it; but lost sight of it sadly, as well as of almost every thing else, when he composed "_The Roxburghe Revels_." Yet what could justify the cruelty of dragging this piece of private absurdity before the public tribunal, on the death of its author? Even in the grave our best friends may be our worst foes.

At page 196 we are introduced to QUISQUILIUS, the then intended representative of Mr. George Baker, of St. Paul's Churchyard; whose prints and graphic curiosities were sold after his death for several thousand pounds. Mr. Baker did not survive the publication of the Bibliomania; but it is said he got scent of his delineated character, which ruffled every feather of his plumage. He was thin-skinned to excess; and, as far as that went, a _Heautontomorumenos_! Will this word "re-animate his clay?"

The "short gentleman," called ROSICRUSIUS, at page 127, must necessarily be the author of the work. He has not grown _taller_ since its publication, and his coffers continue to retain the same stinted condition as his person. Yet what has he not _produced_ since that representation of his person? How has it pleased a gracious Providence to endow him with mental and bodily health and stamina, to prosecute labours, and to surmount difficulties, which might have broken the hearts, as well as the backs, of many a wight "from five to ten inches taller than himself!" I desire to be grateful for this prolongation of labour as well as of life; and it will be my heart-felt consolation, even to my dying hour, that such "labour" will be acceptable to the latest posterity.

Yet a word or two by way of epilogue. The "Reminiscences" contain a catalogue raisonne of such works as were published up to the year 1836. Since then the author has not been idle. The "_Tour into the North of England and Scotland_," in two super-royal octavos, studded with graphic gems of a variety of description--and dedicated to the most illustrious female in Europe, for the magnificence of a library, the fruit chiefly of her own enterprise and liberality--has at least proved and maintained the spirit by which he has been long actuated.

To re-animate a slumbering taste, to bring back the gay and gallant feelings of past times, to make men feel as gentlemen in the substitution of _guineas_ for _shillings_, still to uphold the beauty of the press, and the splendour of marginal magnitude, were, alone, objects worthy an experiment to accomplish. But this work had other and stronger claims to public notice and patronage; and it did not fail to receive them. Six hundred copies were irrevocably fixed in the course of the first eighteen months from the day of publication, and the price of the large paper has attained the sum of 12. 12_s._ Strange circumstances have, however, here and there, thrown dark shadows across the progress of the sale.

If it were pleasing to the Author, in the course of his Journey, to receive attentions, and to acknowledge hospitalities, from the gay and the great, it were yet more pleasing to hope and to believe that such attentions and hospitalities had been acknowledged with feelings and expressions becoming the character of a gentleman. They have been so; as the pages of the work abundantly testify. But English courtesy is too frequently _located_. It is a coin with a feeble impress, and seems subject to woful attrition in its circulation. The countenance, which beams with complacency on receiving a guest to enliven a dull residence, in a desolate neighbourhood, is oftentimes overcharged with sadness, or collapses into rigidity, if the same guest should come under recognizance in a populous city. When I write "Instructions for an Author on his travels," I will advise a measured civility and a constrained homage:--to criticise fearlessly, and to praise sparingly.

There are hearts too obtuse for the operations of gratitude. The Scotch have behaved worthy of the inhabitants of the "land of cakes."

In spirit I am ever present with them, and rambling 'midst their mountains and passes. If an Author may criticise his own works, I should say that the preface to the Scotch Tour is the best piece of composition of which I have been ever guilty.

How little are people aware of the pleasure they sometimes unconsciously afford! When Mr. James Bohn, the publisher of the Scotch Tour, placed me, one day, accidentally, opposite a long list of splendidly bound books, and asked me "if I were acquainted with their author?" I could not help inwardly exclaiming ... "NON OMNIS MORIAR!"[473] I am too poor to present them to my "Sovereign Mistress, the Queen Victoria;" but I _did_ present her Majesty, in person, with a magnificently bound copy of the _Scotch Tour_; of which the acceptance was never acknowledged from the royal quarter; simply because, according to an etiquette which seems to me to be utterly incomprehensible, books presented _in person_ are not acknowledged by the Donee. I will not presume to quarrel with what I do not exactly understand; but I will be free to confess that, had I been _aware_ of this mystery, I should have told her Majesty, on presenting the volume, that "I had the greater pleasure in making the offering, as her illustrious Father had been among the earliest and warmest patrons of my book-career; and that the work in question contained no faithless account of one of the most interesting portions of her dominions." This copy for the Queen had a special vellum page, on which the Dedication, or Inscription, was printed in letters of gold.

[Footnote 473: This magnificent set of books, not _all_ upon large paper, was valued at 84. It has been since sold to Lord Bradford.]

At length we approach the once far-famed ATTICUS: the once illustrious RICHARD HEBER, Esq., the self-ejected member of the University of Oxford. Even yet I scarcely know how to handle this subject, or to expatiate upon a theme so extraordinary, and so provocative of the most contradictory feelings. But it were better to be brief; as, in fact, a very long account of Mr. Heber's later life will be found in my _Reminiscences_, and there is little to add to what those pages contain. It may be here only necessary to make mention of the sale of his wonderful library; wonderful in all respects--not less from the variety and importance of its contents, than from the unparalleled number of _duplicate volumes_--even of works of the first degree of rarity. Of the latter, it may suffice to observe that, of the editio princeps of _Plato_, there were not fewer than _ten_ copies; and of that of _Aristotle_, five or six copies: each the production of the Aldine Press. Several of these Platonic copies were, to my knowledge, beautiful ones; and what more than _one_ such "beautiful copy" need mortal man desire to possess? I believe the copy of the Plato bought at the sale of Dr. Heath's library in 1810 was, upon the whole, the most desirable.[474] Both works are from the press of the elder Aldus.

[Footnote 474: The Rt. Hon. Thomas Grenville possesses a copy of this first edition (from the library of the Rev.

Theodore Williams) in an _uncut_ state. It may defy all competition. There is, however, in the Spencer library, at Althorp, described by me in the second volume of the Bibliotheca _Spenceriana_, a very beautiful copy, delicately ruled with red lines, which may be pronounced as almost in its primitive state. The leaves "discourse most eloquently"

as you turn them over: and what sound, to the ears of a thorough bred bibliomaniac, can be more "musical?"]

It may be observed, as mere preliminary matter, that it was once in contemplation to publish the literary life of Mr. Heber; and an impression comes across my mind that I had tendered my services for the labour in question. The plan was however abandoned--and perhaps wisely. There was also to have been a portrait prefixed, from the pencil of Mr. Masquerier, the _only_ portrait of him--in later life--but the strangest whims and vagaries attended the surrendering, or rather the _not_ surrendering, of the portrait in question. I am in possession of a correspondence upon this subject which is perfectly _sui generis_. The library of Mr. Heber was consigned to the care and discretion of Messrs. Payne and Foss--booksellers of long established eminence and respectability. It was merely intended to be an alphabetical, sale catalogue, with no other bibliographical details than the scarcity or curiosity of the article warranted. It was also of importance to press the sale, or sales, with all convenient dispatch: but the mass of books was so enormous that two years (1834-6) were consumed in the dispersion of them, at home; to say nothing of what was sold in Flanders, at Paris, and at Neuremberg. I have of late been abundantly persuaded that the acquisition of books--anywhere, and of whatever kind--became an ungovernable passion with Mr. Heber; and that he was a BIBLIOMANIAC in its strict as well as enlarged sense. Of his library at Neuremberg he had never seen a volume; but he thought well of it, as it was the identical collection referred to by Panzer, among his other authorities, in his Typographical Annals. Of the amount of its produce, when sold, I am ignorant.

I have said that the Catalogue, which consisted of XII parts (exclusively of a portion of foreign books, which were sold by the late Mr. Wheatley) was intended merely to be a sale catalogue, without bibliographical remarks; but I must except Parts II, IV, and XI: the first of these containing the _Drama_, the second the _English Poetry_, and the third the _Manuscripts_--which, comparatively, luxuriate in copious and apposite description. "Si sic omnia!" but it were impracticable. I believe that the Manuscript Department, comprised in about 1720 articles, produced upwards of 5000. It may not be amiss to subjoin the following programme.

Part. I. 7486 articles; Sold by Sotheby II. 6590 ---- Ditto III. 5056 ---- Ditto IV. 3067 ---- Sold by Evans V. 5693 ---- Sold by Wheatley VI. 4666 ---- Sold by Evans VII. 6797 ---- Ditto VIII. 3170 ---- Ditto IX. 3218 ---- Sold by Sotheby X. 3490 ---- Ditto XI. 1717 ---- Sold by Evans XII. 1690 ---- Sold by Wheatley

From which it should seem, first that the total number of _articles_ was nearly _fifty three thousand_--a number that almost staggers belief; and places the collections of Tom Rawlinson and the Earl of Oxford at a very considerable distance behind; although the latter, for _condition_ (with ONE exception), has never been equalled, and perhaps will probably never be surpassed. Secondly, if it be a _legitimate_ mode of computation--taking two books for each article, one with another, throughout the entire catalogue--it will follow that the entire library of Mr. Heber, in England, contained not fewer than _one hundred and five thousand volumes_. The _net_ amount of the SALE of this unparalleled mass of books is said to have been 55,000: a large sum, when the deductions from commissionship and the government-tax be taken into consideration.[475] Dr. Harwood thought that the sale of Askew Library was a remarkable one, from its bringing a guinea per article--one with another--of the 4015 articles of which the library was composed. The _history_ of the Heber Sale might furnish materials for a little jocund volume, which can have nothing to do here; although there is more than _one_ party, mixed up with the tale, who will find anything but cause of _mirth_ in the recital. That such a MONUMENT, as this library, should have been suffered to crumble to pieces, without a syllable said of its owner, is, of all the marvellous occurrences in this marvellous world, one of the most marvellous: and to be deprecated to the latest hour. Yet, who was surrounded by a larger troop of friends than the Individual who raised the Monument?

[Footnote 475: These deductions, united, are about 17 per cent.: nearly 10,000 to be deducted from the gross proceeds.]

One anecdote may be worth recording. The present venerable and deeply learned President of Magdalen College, Oxford, told me that, on casting up the number of odd--or appendant volumes, (as 2 or 12 more) to the several articles in the catalogue--he found it to amount to _four thousand_. Now, prima facie, it seems hardly credible that there should have been _such_ a number, in _such_ a library, not deserving of mention as distinct articles: but it must be taken into consideration that Mr. Heber bought _many_ lots for the sake of _one_ particular book: and, considering the enormous extent of his library, it is not a very violent supposition, or inference, that these 4000 volumes were scarcely deserving of a more particular notice.

PONTEVALLO was the late JOHN DENT, Esq., whose library was sold in 1827; and of which library that of the late Robert Heathcote formed the basis. It contained much that was curious, scarce, and delectable; but the sale of it exhibited the first grand melancholy symptoms of the decay of the Bibliomania. The Sweynheym and Pannartz Livy of 1469, UPON VELLUM, was allowed to be knocked down for 262! Mr. Evans, who had twice before sold that identical volume--first, in the sale of Mr.

Edwards's library (see _Bibliographical Decameron_, vol. iii. p.--) and secondly in that of the late Sir M.M. Sykes, Bart, (who had purchased the book for 782)--did all that human powers could do, to obtain a higher bidding--but Messrs. Payne and Foss, with little more than the _breathing_ of competition, became the purchasers at the very moderate sum first mentioned. From them it seemed to glide naturally, as well as necessarily, into the matchless collection of the Rt. Hon.

Thomas Grenville. I yet seem to hear the echo of the clapping of Sir M.M. Sykes's hands, when I was the herald of the intelligence of his having become the purchaser! These echoes have all died away _now_: unless indeed they are likely to be revived by a HOLFORD or a BOTTFIELD.

Hortensius was the late Sir WILLIAM BOLLAND, Knt.: and, a few years before his death, one of the Barons of his Majesty's Exchequer. He died in his 68th year. He was an admirable man in all respects. I leave those who composed the domestic circle of which he was the delightful focus, to expatiate upon that worth and excellence of which they were the constant witnesses and participators--

"He best shall _paint_ them who shall _feel_ them most."

To me, the humbler task is assigned of recording what is only more particularly connected with BOOKS and VIRTU. And yet I may, not very inappositely, make a previous remark. On obtaining a seat upon the bench, the first circuit assigned to him was that of "the Oxford." It proved to be heavy in the criminal Calendar: and Mr. Baron Bolland had to pass sentence of death upon three criminals. A maiden circuit is rarely so marked; and I have reason to believe that the humane and warm-hearted feelings of the Judge were never before, or afterwards, subjected to so severe a trial. It was a bitter and severe struggle with all the kindlier feelings of his heart. But our theme is BOOKS.

His library was sold by public auction, under Mr. Evans's hammer, in the autumn of 1840. One anecdote, connected with his books, is worth recording. In my Decameron, vol. iii. p. 267, mention will be found of a bundle of poetical tracts, belonging to the Chapter-library at Lincoln, round which, on my second visit to that library, I had, in imitation of Captain Cox (see page -- ante), entwined some whip-cord around them--setting them apart for the consideration of the Dean and Chapter, whether a _second_ time, I might not become a purchaser of some of their book-treasures? I had valued them at fourscore guineas.

The books in question will be found mentioned in a note at page 267 of the third volume of the Bibliographical Decameron.

I had observed as follows in the work just referred to, "What would Hortensius say to the gathering of such flowers, to add to the previously collected _Lincoln Nosegay_?" The reader will judge of my mingled pleasure and surprise (dashed however with a few grains of disappointment on not becoming the proprietor of them _myself_) when the Baron, one day, after dining with him, led me to his book-case, and pointing to these precious tomes, asked me if I had ever seen them _before_? For a little moment I felt the "Obstupui" of aeneas. "How is this?" exclaimed I. "The secret is in the vault of the Capulets"--replied my Friend--and it never escaped him. "Those ARE the identical books mentioned in your Decameron." Not many years afterwards I learnt from the late Benjamin Wheatley that _he_ had procured them on a late visit to Lincoln; and that _my_ price, affixed, was taken as their just value. Of these Linclonian [Transcriber's Note: Lincolnian] treasures, one volume alone--the Rape of Lucrece--brought ONE HUNDRED GUINEAS at the sale of the Judge's library, beginning on the 18th of November, 1840. See No. 2187; where it should seem that only four other perfect copies are known.

The library of the late Mr. Baron Bolland, consisting of 2940 articles, brought a trifle _more_ than a guinea per article. It was choice, curious, and instructively miscellaneous. Its owner was a man of taste as well as a scholar; and the crabbed niceties of his profession had neither chilled his heart nor clouded his judgment. He revelled in his small cabinet of English Coins; which he placed, and almost worshipped, among his fire-side lares. They were, the greater part of them, of precious die--in primitive lustre; and he handled them, and expatiated on them, with the enthusiasm of a Snelling, and the science of a Foulkes. His walls were covered with modern pictures, attractive from historical or tasteful associations. There was nothing but what seemed to

"point a moral, or adorn a tale."

His passion for books was of the largest scale and dimensions, and marked by every species of almost enviable enthusiasm. His anecdotes, engrafted on them, were racy and sparkling; and I am not quite sure whether it was not in contemplation by him to build a small "_oratoire_" to the memories of Caxton and Wynkyn De Worde. He considered the folios of the latter, in the fifteenth century, to be miracles of typographical execution; and, being a poet himself, would have been in veritable ecstacies had he lived to see the UNIQUE CHAUCER of 1498, which it was my good luck to obtain for the library of the Rt. Hon. Thomas Grenville. I will add but a few specimens of his library--

No. _s._ _d._

26 Armony of Byrdes, printed by Wyght.

12mo., a poem, in six line stanzas.

Mr. Heber's copy. A little volume of indescribable rarity 12 15 0

221 Arnold's Chronicle, 4to., printed at Antwerp, by Doesborch (1502)? 9 2 6

406 Boccus and Sydracke, printed by Godfray, at the wits and charge of Robert Saltousde, Monke of Canterbury, 4to. 5 8 6

1092 Cicero de Officiis, Ulric Zel 11 11 0

1156 Chaucer's Troylus and Cresseyde, printed by Pynson. (1526.) Folio. This volume had been successively in the libraries of Hubert, the Duke of Roxburghe, and Mr. Herbert. It was in parts imperfect 25 0 0

1255 Marston's Scourge of Villanie. (1598.) 12mo. First edition: of terrific rarity 18 5 0

1624 Glanville, de Proprietatibus Rerum.

Printed by W. de Worde. Folio 17 0 0

1848 Holland's Heroologia Anglica. (1620.) Folio. So tall a copy that it had the appearance of large paper 8 2 6

2138 Shakspeare's Venus and Adonis. (1596.) 12mo. Third edition 91 0 0