been for nearly a century a famous emporium of second-hand bookshops.
Its most famous inhabitant in this respect was Charles John Stewart
(whom Henry Stevens, of Vermont, described as the last of the learned
old booksellers), who was born in Scotland at the beginning of the
present century, and died on September 17, 1883. He was one of
Lackington's pupils, and started as a second-hand bookseller with
Howell, subsequently carrying on the business alone. His chief commodity
was theological books, and when his stock--perhaps the largest of its
kind known--came to be sold, it realized close on £5,000. Joel Rowsell
was another famous bibliopole who resided in this street, and he, like
Stewart, retired in 1882. G. Bumstead (whose speciality was curious or
eccentric books; he was distinctly an 'old' bookseller, for he rarely
bought anything printed after 1800), Molini and Green, J. M. Stark, and
J. W. Jarvis and Sons, were also, at one time or another, in this
bookselling thoroughfare, which is now entirely deserted by the
fraternity. Doubtless one of the most successful of modern bibliopoles
who lived in the vicinity of the Strand is Mr. F. S. Ellis, who was an
apprentice of James Toovey, and who in a comparatively few years built
up a business second only to that of Quaritch. Mr. Ellis (who purchased
the valuable freewill of T. and W. Boone's connection) compiled the
greater portion of the catalogue of the celebrated Huth Library, and
since he has retired to Torquay has taken up book-editing with all the
zeal which characterized his earlier career as a bookseller. Mr. Ellis's
shop was at 33, King Street, Covent Garden, and afterwards at 29, New
Bond Street, and the prestige of his name is worthily maintained by his
nephew, Mr. G. I. Ellis (with whom is Mr. Elvey), at the latter address.
The whole neighbourhood of which Covent Garden may be taken as the
centre, is full of a bibliopolic history, which dates back to the
beginning of the last century. The time when Aldines were to be picked
up at 1s. 6d. each, and when Shakespeare Folios were to be had for 30s.
each round about the Piazza, has, it is true, long gone by; but a very
large library, in almost any branch of literature, may be easily formed,
at a very moderate cost, any day within a stone's-throw of London's
great vegetable market. It may be mentioned, _en passant_, that George
Willis, the editor-publisher of _Willis's Current Notes_, was for many
years at the Great Piazza, Covent Garden. The firm subsequently became
known as Willis and Sotheran, and is now Sotheran and Co.: this highly
respectable house was established in Tower Street, E.C., as far back as
1816.
[Illustration: _A Corner at Ellis and Elvey's._]
WESTMINSTER HALL.
[Illustration: _Westminster Hall when occupied by Booksellers and
others._
From a Print by Gravelot.]
There is not, perhaps, in the whole world, a more interesting
bookselling locality than Westminster Hall. This place is redolent with
historical associations, with parliaments, coronations, revelries, and
impeachments. Stalls for books, as well as other small merchandise, were
permitted in the hall of the palace of Westminster early in the
sixteenth century. The poor scholars of Westminster also were employed
in hawking books between school-hours. In the procession of sanctuary
men who accompanied the Abbot of Westminster and his convent, December
6, 1556, was 'a boy that killed a big boy that sold papers and printed
books, with hurling of a stone, and hit him under the ear in Westminster
Hall.' In the churchwardens' accounts of the parish of St. Margaret,
Westminster, there is, under date 1498-1500, an entry: 'Item, Received
for another legende solde in Westmynster halle, v_s._ viij_d._,' the
'legende' being one of the thirteen copies of 'The Golden Legend'
bequeathed by Caxton to the 'behove' of the parish of St. Margaret's.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century Tom Nash wrote: 'Looke to it,
you booksellers and stationers, and let not your shop be infested with
any such goose gyblets, or stinking garbadge as the jygs of newsmongers;
and especially such of you as frequent Westminster Hall, let them be
circumspect what dunghill papers they bring thether: for one bad
pamphlet is inough to raise a dampe that may poyson a whole towne,' etc.
At first the shops or stalls were ranged along the blank wall on the
southern side of the hall. Subsequently they occupied not only the whole
of the side, but such portion of the other as was not occupied by the
Court of Common Pleas, which then sat within the hall itself, as did the
Chancery and King's Bench at its farther end. Gravelot's print of the
hall during term-time shows this arrangement. The stationers and other
tradespeople in the hall were a privileged class, inasmuch as they were
exempt from the pains and penalties relative to the license and
regulation of the press. Here as elsewhere there were plenty of inferior
books obtainable; Pepys, writing October 26, 1660, and referring to some
purchases made in the hall, remarks: 'Among other books, one of the life
of our Queen, which I read at home to my wife, but it was so sillily
writ that we did nothing but laugh over it.' The stalls were
distinguished by signs. One of the early issues of 'Paradise Lost,'
1668, contains the name, among others, of Henry Mortlock, of the White
Hart, Westminster Hall, but whose shop was at the Phoenix, St. Paul's
Churchyard; Raleigh's 'Remains,' 1675, was printed for Mortlock. The
majority of the hall booksellers had regular shops in St. Paul's
Churchyard or elsewhere, for it is scarcely likely that they would open
these stalls during vacation. Matthew Gilliflower, of the Spread Eagle
and Crown, was one of the most enterprising of his class during the last
quarter of the seventeenth century. James Collins, of the King's Head,
was here contemporaneously with Gilliflower. C. King and Stagg were also
extensive partners in 'adventures' in new books, and were among the
'unprejudiced booksellers' who acted as agents for the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ during the first year of its existence. At about the same time
also, B. Toovey and J. Renn, were selling books here. Early in the reign
of George III. the traders were ousted from Westminster Hall; and in
1834 the dirty and mutilated vast parallelogram was thoroughly cleaned
and repaired. Westminster Hall as a bookselling centre bears the same
affinity to the trade proper as the sweetmeat stalls at a fair bear to
confectionery. The books exposed for sale would only by a rare chance be
choice or notable, and it was certainly not a likely place for folios or
quartos.
BOND STREET AND PICCADILLY.
At the latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning of the
eighteenth century, several booksellers had established themselves in
Bond Street and Pall Mall. One of the best known is John Parker, 'an
honest, good-natured man,' with whom was apprenticed, in 1713, Henry
Baker, the antiquary, a friend of John Nichols. Parker's shop was in
Pall Mall. At No. 29, New Bond Street, in 1730, we find J. Brindley, a
reputable bookseller of his time, and who was one of a society formed in
1736 'for the encouragement of learning,' which had a chequered and an
undignified career. His shop was at the sign of the Feathers, and in
1747 he describes himself as 'Bookseller to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.'
The only example of his catalogue which we have seen is dated 1747, and
it includes 4,289 lots, among which were long selections of books at 1s.
each, or 10s. per dozen, and of others at 6d. each or 5s. per dozen.
Brindley was succeeded in 1759 by his apprentice, a much more celebrated
bibliopole, James Robson, who built up a very extensive connection and
died in 1806. In company with James Edwards and Peter Molini (the Exotic
Bookseller of Beloe), Robson, in 1788, undertook a journey to Venice for
the purpose of examining the famous Pinelli Library, which was purchased
for about £7,000; it was safely transferred to London and sold by
auction in Conduit Street, the total result being £9,356. A large
number of more or less famous collections of books passed through
Robson's hands, notably those of Sir John Evelyn; Edward Spelman, the
translator of Xenophon; the Duke of Newcastle (1770); W. Mackworth Praed
(1772); Joseph Smith, Consul at Venice; Dr. Samuel Musgrave; J. Murray,
Ambassador at Constantinople. Messrs. Robson and Clark were succeeded
early in this century by Nornaville and Fell, who in 1830 made way for
T. and W. Boone, who were, as we have said, succeeded by Mr. F. S.
Ellis; it is interesting to note that this house had been in the
occupation of booksellers for over a century and a half.
The bookselling fraternity had, however, obtained no definite footing
until shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century, when James
Almon began to acquire notoriety, his political fearlessness more than
once bringing him at loggerheads with the authorities. When he first
came to London, he worked as a printer at Watts', in Wild's Court,
Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he had the frame which had been occupied by
Benjamin Franklin. His shop was opposite Burlington House, and for many
years this was the meeting-place of the leading Whig politicians. He
died in 1805, and was succeeded by J. Debrett, a name still associated
with publishing.
During the last few years of the last century, and probably in
consequence of the greatly improved condition of the place, Piccadilly
and neighbourhood became favourite spots with booksellers, the more
notable being James Ridgway, whose 'repository of loyalty' was in York
Street, St. James's Square, who died in 1838, aged eighty-three years;
T. Hookham, Old Bond Street; and Stockdale, whose name will be for ever
associated with that of Erskine in connection with the liberty of the
press. Stockdale's shop, No. 178, Piccadilly, was for a long time in the
possession of Thomas Thorpe; the place has since been rebuilt. R.
Faulder, of New Bond Street, also deserves mention as being one of forty
booksellers against whom actions were brought for selling the 'Baviad
and Mæviad.' He is the Cunning Bookseller of Beloe, and appears to have
been one of the most assiduous frequenters of 'forced' sales of
household furniture, etc., where he often happened on books of rarity
and value. He 'accumulated a very large property and retired,' but the
_auri sacra fames_ pursued him to the end. William Clarke, of New Bond
Street, best remembered as the compiler of that very valuable work,
'Repertorium Bibliographicum,' 1819, was established as a bookseller in
1793. During the second half of the last century Samuel Parker and
Walter Shropshire were selling second-hand books in New Bond Street.
Thomas Beet, who retired from business ten years ago, was a well-known
bookseller of Bond Street and Conduit Street, and was a considerable
purchaser at the leading auction sales. He frequently had the honour of
submitting various special old books for the inspection of the Queen,
the Prince of Wales, and other members of the Royal Family, whilst his
shop in Conduit Street was a very popular resort of bookish men.
Robert Dodsley, of Tully's Head, is one of the most famous of the Pall
Mall booksellers. His shop was next to the passage leading into King
Street, and now known as Pall Mall Place. He is perhaps better
remembered as an author and compiler than as a bookseller, and best of
all as a friend of Dr. Johnson, Pope, Spence, and other literary
celebrities; he it was who first urged Johnson to start the famous
'Dictionary.' Dodsley died in 1764, and his business was taken over by
his brother James, who survived the founder thirty-three years. The
celebrated firm of G. and W. Nicol, booksellers to his Majesty, for many
years carried on in Pall Mall in Dodsley's shop, originated with David
Wilson and his nephew George Nicol, who started in the Strand about
1773, and who sold, _inter alia_, the library of Dr. Henry Sacheverell.
George Nicol married the niece of the first Alderman Boydell, and was
one of the executors of James Dodsley, who left him a legacy of £1,000.
He is described as 'a most agreeable companion,' as a member of many of
the literary clubs of his day, and enjoyed the friendly confidence of
the Duke of Roxburghe, Duke of Grafton, and other eminent book-lovers.
He died in Pall Mall, 1829, aged eighty-eight years. Nicol's stock was
sold by auction at Evans's in 1825.
[Illustration: _John Hatchard (1768-1849)._]
The most ancient book-business in Piccadilly is that of Hatchard's,
which dates back to 1797. It was started by John Hatchard, who had been
an assistant at Tom Payne's. Hatchard was patronized by Queen Charlotte,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, Canning, and Dr. Keate. Hatchard is the
Godly Bookseller of Beloe; he was a Conservative, dressed like a bishop,
and published for Hannah More and the Evangelicals. Zachary Macaulay,
Wilberforce, and the other opponents of slavery, once involved Hatchard
in a libel action, in which he was found guilty. Hatchard published for
Crabbe and for Tupper, and, according to Mr. Humphreys' interesting
'Piccadilly Bookmen,' Liston, Charles Kemble, and other actors,
frequented the shop. So did the Duke of Wellington, who, 'when the
library of the Duke's brother was sold at Evans's Auction Rooms in Pall
Mall, where now stands the Carlton Club . . . sent several open
commissions for books which he wished secured. Among these was a
shilling pamphlet by A. G. Stapleton, with the late owner's notes in
pencil. This was put up at 2s. 6d., and ultimately knocked down for £93
to Hatchard, the under-bidder being Sir A. Alison. The Duke, though very
much astonished at the price such a mere fragment had fetched, yet
admired the obedience to his orders.' The Horticultural Society took its
rise in a meeting at Hatchard's, and he also seems to have lent his
premises to the 'Outinian Society,' a species of matrimonial agency,
which did not last long; but the wonder is how so respectable and
cautious a personage ever harboured it. Among his assistants were
Fraser, afterwards noted for his magazine, and Tilt.
[Illustration: _James Toovey, Bookseller._]
The two great second-hand booksellers of the Piccadilly of the latter
half of the present century are James Toovey and Bernard Quaritch.
Toovey's shop at 177, Piccadilly (once occupied by William Pickering,
the famous publisher), was for about forty years a favourite haunt of
booksellers, for Toovey was a bibliophile as well as a bibliopole. His
whole life was spent among books. He was apprenticed at fourteen to a
bookseller, and for some time had a shop of his own in St. James's
Street. He published Newman's 'Lives of the English Saints,' and other
works by the leaders of the Tractarian movement, in addition to a very
fine reprint of the 'Aberdeen Breviary,' of the original of which only
four imperfect copies exist. An obituary notice describes him as 'very
particularly the great authority on bindings. He made a strong
speciality in old French red morocco bindings, and during his frequent
visits to France brought back large buyings of them. Toovey bought
notable books, but unless they had the second qualification of being in
a good state, and the bindings valuable, he was less anxious about them.
Given a notable book in a notable binding, he would buy it at almost any
cost. When the present Mr. James Toovey--James Toovey _fils_--came into
the business, he made a feature of those quaint sport and pastime books
which every stroller along the south side of Piccadilly has been wont to
stay and look at in Toovey's window. Ten years before his death the old
man retired from the business in favour of his son, but his devotion to
rare books and rare bindings was his ruling passion to the last.
Toovey's, during its career, has known all the prominent book-hunters
and a legion of eminent people who have been more than book-collectors.
In the leisured times, Toovey's, like Hatchard's further along the
street, was something of a resort for literary folk generally, and many
people we who are younger are familiar with have been accustomed to find
their way across Toovey's doorstep. Mr. Gladstone has visited the shop,
and so has Cardinal Manning, and Prince Lucien Bonaparte, and Henry Huth
often.' Having acquired a considerable fortune in business, he was able
to indulge in the luxury, rare amongst booksellers, of collecting a
private library for his own entertainment. He retired from active
business several years ago, and passed his remaining days in the
ever-delightful society of his bibliographical treasures. He died in
September, 1893, in his eightieth year, and his stock of books came
under the hammer at Sotheby's in March, 1894, when 3,200 lots realized
just over £7,090. His very choice private library is still in the
possession of his son, and among its chief cornerstones is the finest
First Folio Shakespeare known. Toovey, like the elder Boone, secured
many excessively rare books during his personal visits to the Continent.
Pickering's son, Basil Montagu Pickering, remained with Toovey for a few
years after his father retired, but eventually opened a shop on his own
account at 196, Piccadilly, next to St. James's Church, and possessed at
one time and another many exceedingly rare books. The name is still
continued under the title of Pickering and Chatto, of 66, Haymarket, who
continue to use the Aldine device employed both by William Pickering and
his son. There is no Pickering in the present firm.
[Illustration: _James Toovey's Shop, Piccadilly._]
[Illustration: _Bernard Quaritch, the Napoleon of Booksellers._]
Of all second-hand booksellers, living or dead, Bernard Quaritch is
generally conceded to be the king. Mr. Quaritch was born in 1819 at
Worbis, Prussia, and after serving an apprenticeship to a bookseller
came over to England in 1842, and obtained employment at H. G. Bohn's,
with whom he remained (exclusive of two years in Paris) until 1847. He
left Bohn's in April of that year, with the observation: 'Mr. Bohn, you
are the first bookseller in England, but I mean to be the first
bookseller in Europe.' Quaritch started with only his savings as
capital, and his first catalogue was nothing more than a broadside, with
the titles of about 400 books, the average price of which ranged from
1s. 6d. to 2s. His first big move was made in 1858, when the Bishop of
Cashel's library was sold, when he purchased a copy of the Mazarin Bible
for £595. In the same year appeared his first large catalogue of books,
which comprised nearly 5,000 articles; two years later his catalogue had
increased from 182 to 408 pages, and included close on 7,000 articles;
in 1868 his complete catalogue consisted of 1,080 pages, and 15,000
articles; in 1880 it had extended to 2,395 pages, describing 28,000
books; but seven years later his General Catalogue consisted of 4,500
pages, containing 40,000 articles. As a purchaser, Mr. Quaritch puts the
whilom considered gigantic purchases of Thomas Thorpe entirely into the
shade. In July, 1873, he purchased the non-scientific part of the Royal
Society's Norfolk Library; a few weeks later at the Perkins sale he
bought books and manuscripts to the extent of £11,000; at the sale of
Sir W. Tite's books in 1874 the Quaritch purchases amounted to £9,500;
at the two Didot sales in 1878 and 1879 his purchases exceeded £11,000
in value; at the Beckford sale in 1882 a little more than half of the
total (£86,000) was secured by Mr. Quaritch; at the Sunderland sale,
1881-83, Mr. Quaritch's bill came to over £33,000; at all the other
great sales of the past twenty years the largest buyer has invariably
been 'B. Q.' In an announcement 'To Book Lovers in all Parts of the
World,' the Napoleon of bibliophiles makes the following statement: 'I
am desirous of becoming recognised as their London agent by all men
outside of England who want books. The need of such an agent is
frequently felt abroad by the heads of literary institutions,
librarians, and book-lovers generally. They shrink from giving trouble
to a bookseller in matters which require more attention and effort than
the mere furnishing of some specific article in his stock, and they must
often wish that it were possible to have the services of a man of
ability and experience at their constant command. Such services I freely
offer to anyone who chooses to employ them; no fee is required to obtain
them, and not a fraction will be added to the cost of the supplies. The
friendly confidence which is necessarily extended to one's agent at a
distance will undoubtedly in time bring an ample return for my labours,
but so far as the present is concerned, I ask for nothing but the
pleasure of attending to the wants of those who are as yet without an
agent in London. Whether the books to be procured through my
intervention be rare or common, single items or groups, the gems of
literature and art or the popular books of the day, I shall be happy to
work in every way for book-lovers of every degree. Commissions of any
kind may be entrusted to me; I will venture to guarantee satisfaction in
every case, even in the delicate matter of getting books appropriately
bound. It may likewise be well to state that my offer of agency extends
to the selling of foreign books here, as well as to the supply of
English books hence.' There is not much that is architecturally
beautiful about Mr. Quaritch's shop at 15, Piccadilly, but its interest
to the book-lover needs but little emphasis after what has been said.
Like all great men, Bernard Quaritch has his little eccentricities, into
which we need not now enter. We apologize to him for publishing the
following extract, which is, however, not our own, but comes (of course)
from an American source: 'Bernard 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 Société des Bibliophiles Contemporains
wrote a tragedy which was a parody of Æschylus. 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 Oceanidæ, try to console the hat;
but less fortunate than Prometheus, the hat knows it is for ever nailed,
and not to be rescued by Herakles. However, _tout passe, tout casse,
tout lasse_, as Dumas said, for Mr. Quaritch has bought a new hat, and a
journal of London announces that the epic hat is enshrined in glass in
the bibliopole's drawing-room.'
One of the most modern of book-thoroughfares deserves a brief reference
here. Charing Cross Road has for some years been a popular and
successful resort of booksellers and book-hunters. It is within
convenient reach of both the Strand and Holborn, and is only two or
three minutes' walk from Piccadilly Circus. The books offered for sale
here are, for the most part, priced at exceedingly moderate rates. Mr.
Bertram Dobell may be regarded as the chief of the trade here,
possessing, as he does, two large shops well filled with books of all
descriptions. Mr. Dobell's catalogues are very carefully compiled, and
possess a literary flavour by no means common; his lists of
privately-printed books form a most valuable contribution to the
bibliography of the subject. Mr. John Lawler, for many years chief
cataloguer at Puttick's, and more recently at Sotheby's, had a shop in
Charing Cross Road, which he has just given up; and Mr. A. E. Cooper,
who makes a speciality of first editions of modern authors and curious
and out-of-the-way books, both French and English.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[176:A] Sewell, Cornhill, and Becket and De Hondt, Strand, were among
the last to use these curious trade signs.
[192:A] The identical book with which Johnson knocked down Osborne,
'Biblia Græca Septuaginta,' folio, 1594, Frankfort, was at Cambridge in
February, 1812, in the possession of J. Thorpe, bookseller, who
afterwards catalogued it.
[192:B] Timbs, writing in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1868, identified
the house at which Tonson probably lived, and this house was in Timbs's
time a bookseller's. Gray's Inn Lane has become so thoroughly renovated
and improved that it is no longer possible to point to any particular
spot where any celebrity lived.
[201:A] 'One day [writes Lytton] three persons were standing before an
old bookstall in a passage leading from Oxford Street into Tottenham
Court Road. Two were gentlemen; the third, of the class and appearance
of those who more habitually halt at old bookstalls.
'"Look," said one of the gentlemen to the other; "I have discovered here
what I have searched for in vain the last ten years--the Horace of 1580,
the Horace of the Forty Commentators--a perfect treasury of learning,
and marked only fourteen shillings!"
'"Hush, Norreys," said the other, "and observe what is yet more worth
your study;" and he pointed to the third bystander, whose face, sharp
and attenuated, was bent with an absorbed, and, as it were, with a
hungering attention over an old worm-eaten volume.
'"What is the book, my lord?" whispered Mr. Norreys.
'His companion smiled, and replied by another question: "What is the man
who reads the book?"