an unpromising source as an auctioneer's catalogue, especially when it
includes books. The list of a miscellaneous lot of things lately sold at
a South London depository comes in this category. One of the items, for
example, is entered as 'Dickin's works bound in half,' but who Mr.
'Dickin' is, or was, or what the 'half' indicates, the reader is left to
find out. 'Goldsmith lover' also seems a trifle confusing, until the lot
is hunted up and the discovery made that Goldsmith's 'Works' is
intended. Lytton's 'King John' suggests a work hitherto unknown to
readers of the author of 'My Novel,' until examination proves it to be
'King Arthur,' and 'McCauley's History of England' is rather suggestive
of a scathing indictment of English misrule by an author from the
'distressful country' than of the picturesque prose of the whilom Whig
statesman and book-collector.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
SOME MODERN COLLECTORS.
WE have already referred, in a preceding chapter, to the origin and
early history of the Roxburghe Club, and also to the disrepute in which
its too zealous members, Hazlewood and Dibdin, contrived to place it.
The club still exists, and flourishes in a manner which renders it
unique among book-clubs. A complete set of its privately-printed
booklets is an almost impossible feat of book-collecting, and an
expensive luxury in which but few can afford to indulge. The present
constitution of the club, the members of which dine together once a
year, is as follows: President: The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G.; S.A.R.
le Duc D'Aumale; the Duke of Buccleuch, K.T.; the Duke of Devonshire,
K.G.; the Marquis of Bute, K.T.; the Marquis of Lothian, K.T.; the
Marquis of Bath; Earl Cowper, K.G.; Earl of Crawford; Earl of Powis;
Earl of Rosebery; Earl of Cawdor; Lord Charles W. Brudenell Bruce; Lord
Zouche; Lord Houghton; Lord Amherst of Hackney; the Lord Bishop of
Peterborough; the Lord Bishop of Salisbury; the Right Hon. A. J.
Balfour, M.P.; Sir William R. Anson, Bart.; Charles Butler, Esq.; Ingram
Bywater, Esq.; Richard Copley Christie, Esq.; Charles I. Elton, Esq.;
Sir John Evans, K.C.B.; George Briscoe Eyre, Esq.; Sir Augustus
Wollaston Franks; Thomas Gaisford, Esq.; Henry Hucks Gibbs, Esq.
(vice-president); Alban George Henry Gibbs, Esq.; A. H. Huth, Esq.
(treasurer); Andrew Lang, Esq.; J. Wingfield Malcolm, Esq.; John Murray,
Esq.; Edward James Stanley, Esq.; Simon Watson Taylor, Esq.; Sir Edward
Maunde Thompson (principal librarian of the British Museum); Rev. Edward
Tindal Turner, Esq.; V. Bates Van de Weyer, Esq.; and W. Aldis Wright,
Esq.
[Illustration: _The late Henry Huth, Book-collector._]
The finest and most select, and perhaps the most extensive, collection
of books owned by any member of the Roxburghe Club is the noble library
of Mr. Huth, whose father, the late Henry Huth, founded it. A very
interesting account of this library, from two points of view--Mr. F. S.
Ellis's and Mr. A. H. Huth's--appears in Part II. of Quaritch's
'Dictionary of English Book-collectors,' whilst the fullest account of
all the rarities which it contains is comprised in the catalogue in five
imperial octavo volumes. It is impossible to do justice to it in the
brief space at our disposal. But a few rarities may be enumerated as
showing its extremely varied nature. Nearly all the early printers are
represented in the Huth Library--there are the Gutenberg and Fust and
Schoeffer Bibles; the Balbi Catholicon, 1460; there are over seventy
Aldines, including the rare Virgil of 1501, with the bookplate of
Bilibald Pirkheimer. There are no less than a dozen fine examples of
Caxton's press; the only known copy on vellum of the 'Fructus Temporum'
of the St. Albans press; about fifty works from the press of Wynkyn de
Worde, of which several are unique; and sixteen works printed by Richard
Pynson. Of Shakespeare quartos the late Mr. Huth secured a very fine
series at the Daniel sale in 1864, including 'Richard II.,' 1597; 'Henry
V.,' 1600; 'Richard III.,' 1597; 'Romeo and Juliet,' 1599; 'Midsummer
Night's Dream,' 1600; 'Merchant of Venice,' 1600; 'Merrie Wives of
Windsor,' 1602; 'Othello,' 1622; 'Titus Andronicus,' 1611; and
'Pericles,' 1609. The library is equally rich in the production of
Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, many of the items being either
unique or very nearly so; it is especially rich in first editions of the
English poets from the earliest times down to Goldsmith, Keats, Shelley,
etc. Indeed, the collection seems to contain the first or best editions
of every English work of note; there are many fine manuscripts, and some
highly interesting autographs. Mr. Ellis tells us that Mr. Huth always
bought on his own judgment, without consultation and without hesitation,
'and I believe it may be safely affirmed that it would be difficult to
name any collector who made fewer errors in his selection. He was never
known to bargain for a book or to endeavour to cheapen it. The price
named, he would at once say 'Yea' or 'Nay' to it, and though it was
supposed at the time that he paid high prices for his books, it may be
confidently asserted that as a whole they are worth very much more than
he paid for them, which, I think, could not have been much less
altogether than £120,000.' Joseph Lilly is said to have sold to or
purchased for Mr. Huth books to the value of over £40,000. Mr. Huth was
born in 1815, and died in 1878. The library is, as we have said, now the
property of his son, Mr. Alfred H. Huth, who has made a number of
important additions to it, and who is as ardent and as genuine a
bibliophile as his father.
[Illustration: _Mr. Henry H. Gibbs, Book-collector._]
Without approaching either in size or interest to that of Mr. Huth, the
choice collection of books formed by Mr. Henry Hucks Gibbs, and lodged
at his town-house at St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park, is full of attraction
to the student of English literature. Early in the present century St.
Dunstan's was inhabited by the Lord Steyne of Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair,'
and it was here that the orgies took place which resulted in the
sensational trial of Nicholas Suisse, the confidant of Lord Hertford.
The library at St. Dunstan's is a lofty, well-lighted room of about 28
feet by 20 feet, and the bookcases are made of Thuya wood from
Australia, a wood which is exceedingly beautiful when polished. Mr.
Gibbs's first book of note was purchased at Bright's sale in 1845, and
was St. Augustine's 'De Arte Predicandi,' a volume of twenty-two leaves,
and of well-known interest to students of early typography. Of Bibles
there are over fifty examples, including Coverdale's, 1535, Matthew's,
1537, Cromwell's, 1539, a very large copy, and Cranmer's, 1540. The fine
series of Prayer-Books comprises forty-seven in English, from the time
of Edward VI. (1549) to that of Queen Victoria, whilst thirty-five
others are in foreign languages. There are nine Primers from the time of
Henry VIII. to Elizabeth; and there are no fewer than thirty-one
editions of the New Testament. Examples of some of the choicest known
Books of Hours and Missals are also in this collection, whilst among the
six editions of the 'Imitatio Christi' there is a sixteenth-century
manuscript on two hundred and forty-seven folios of paper, written by
Francis Montpoudie de Weert, for the use of Bruynix, Priest, Dean of
Christianity. Among the _incunabula_ there is a very large copy of the
'Chronicon Nurembergense,' 1495, and two Caxtons: first, the
'Polychronicon' of Ralph Higden, 1482; and, secondly, the 'Golden
Legend,' 1483, which latter was successively in the Towneley and the
Glendening collections. The other more notable articles include fine
copies of the four Folio Shakespeares, first editions of Milton's
'Comus,' 'Lycidas,' 'Eikonoklastes,' 'Paradise Lost,' and 'Paradise
Regained,' several Spensers, and very complete sets of the
privately-printed books edited by the Rev. A. B. Grosart,
Halliwell-Phillipps, H. Huth, E. Arber, and E. W. Ashbee. A very
interesting _catalogue raisonné_ of Mr. Gibbs's choice library has been
printed, to which the reader is referred for further particulars.
[Illustration: _Mr. R. Copley Christie, Book-collector._]
Just as the minds of no two men run in precisely similar grooves, so no
two libraries are found to be identical. Many bear a very striking
resemblance to one another, but in more than one respect they will be
found to differ. The splendid library formed by Mr. R. Copley Christie,
the president or past-president of quite a number of learned societies,
is altogether unique, so far as this country is concerned, and his
library in a garden--truly the _summum bonum_ of human desires!--at
Ribsden, near Bagshot, is certainly one of the most remarkable which it
has been our privilege to examine. Mr. Christie has not endeavoured to
collect everything, but he has no rival in the specialities to which he
has devoted his particular attention. He is the author of the only
complete monograph on Etienne Dolet, which has been translated into
French, and of which M. Goblet, when Minister of Public Instruction,
caused 250 copies to be purchased for distribution among the public
libraries of France. Of the eighty-four books (many of which are now
lost) printed by Dolet, there are three collections worthy of the name,
and the relative value of these will be seen when we state that Mr.
Christie possesses copies of forty-four, the Bibliothèque Nationale
thirty, and the British Museum twenty-five. Mr. Christie's collection of
the editions of Horace is probably the finest in existence outside one
or two public libraries; he has about 800 volumes, and among these are
translations into nearly every European language. He has upwards of 300
Aldines, nearly forty of which are _editiones principes_. The works of
the early French printers generally are objects of special interest; he
has, for example, about 400 volumes printed by Sebastian Gryphius, at
Lyons, from 1528 to 1556. Mr. Christie's library is also very rich in
works of or relating to Pomponatius, Hortensio Landi, Postel, Ramus, J.
Sturm, Scioppius, Giulio Camillo, and particularly Giordano Bruno.
A considerable number of the members of the Roxburghe Club come in the
category of book-lovers rather than book-collectors. The Earl of
Rosebery is understood to possess many valuable books and manuscripts
relating to Scottish literature, particularly in reference to Robert
Burns; but beyond this he has no fixed rule regarding additions to his
library, 'except his course of reading for the moment.' The father of
the present Lord Zouche formed a small but valuable library, which is
now at Parham Park, Steyning, Sussex; it consists of some rare Syriac,
Greek, Coptic, Bulgarian, and other manuscripts, of a Biblical nature,
some of which are now on loan to the British Museum. In addition to
these, there are a good many early printed books, first editions, and so
forth, and also an extensive reference library, to which the present
Lord Zouche has made some important additions. The extensive library of
the Marquis of Bath, at Longleat, Warminster, has been formed at
different times and by different persons; and what the present holder of
the title has added has been bought without any method on various
subjects in which his Grace happened to take an interest at the time.
Sir John Evans's library is for the most part comprised of
archæological, numismatical, and geological publications, with a certain
number of old volumes 'which, though of intrinsic interest, cannot be
regarded as bibliographical treasures.' Both Sir William Reynell Anson
and the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P., possess good working libraries,
but disclaim the possession of what are known as 'collector's' books.
The present Marquis of Bute possesses several extensive libraries of
books at his various seats, and chiefly composed of works relating to
Scottish history, to liturgical, philological, and archæological
subjects. The first Marquis of Bute formed an excellent collection of
Spanish, Italian, and French classics, of books of memoirs, and of works
relating to the English Reformation. The third Marquis formed another
library, chiefly of a historical character, an exceedingly important
portion of it being an extensive series of books and pamphlets relating
to the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune. The Duke of Buccleuch has
also several fine libraries at his various seats, the chief collections
being at Dalkeith and Bowhill, Selkirk; his Grace keeps very few books
in London. The books at Dalkeith have been catalogued by Mr. A. H.
Bullen, who proposes to print some notes on the subject.
The Duke of Devonshire's library at Chatsworth is one of the most varied
and extensive in the kingdom. An admirable catalogue of it was printed
in four volumes in 1879, and its value as a bibliographical compilation
may be estimated by the fact that the only copy which occurred in the
market during the past eight years fetched £10. The library has been
formed by the taste and learning of several generations of the Cavendish
family, from the middle of the sixteenth century to the present day. The
rarest book which it contains is the 'Liber Veritatis,' or collection
of original designs of Claude Lorraine. The greatest additions were
made to the library by William Spencer, sixth Duke, who, indeed, may be
called its founder in its present form. This nobleman, on the advice of
Tom Payne, offered £20,000 for the purchase of Count McCarthy's
celebrated collection. The offer was declined, but the Duke was a
purchaser to the extent of £10,000 of the choicer portions of the
library of Thomas Dampier, Bishop of Ely, composed, for the most part,
of Greek and Latin classics. The Duke bought largely at the Stanley,
Horn Tooke, Towneley, Edwards, and Roxburghe sales. The library
possesses the unique collection of plays formed by John Philip Kemble,
and for which £2,000 were paid in 1821. The chief features of the
library comprise a fine series of the editions of the Bible and of
Boccaccio; there are also twenty-three works of Caxton, the most
extensive in private hands, now that the Althorp collection has, or is
about to, become public property. There are two dozen books from the
press of Wynkyn de Worde, and no less than 200 editions of Cicero,
including a magnificent copy of the _editio princeps_.
The libraries of two members of the Roxburghe Club have been dispersed
by auction during the last few years--the Earl of Crawford's, in 1887
and 1889, to which reference has already been made; and Mr. Thomas
Gaisford's, in 1890. The former has still a considerable number of
important books, to which he is constantly adding; whilst his eldest son
is worthily sustaining the reputation of the family for its love of rare
and beautiful books. Mr. Gaisford has also a very large library, but he
himself describes the books as of no special interest.
The Marquis of Salisbury possesses, at Hatfield, a fine library, which,
like that of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, is rather the
accumulation of centuries than the formation of any particular head of
the house. Many of the oldest and rarest books were at one time the
properties of either Lord Burghley, Sir Robert Cecil, or of some other
distinguished member of the family. We may mention a few of the
_incunabula_: Æneas Silvius, 'Epistolæ,' 1496; St. Augustine, 'De
Civitate Dei,' 1477; a copy of the magnificently-printed edition of
Aulus Gellius, 'Noctes Atticæ,' Jenson, 1477, a very rare work; Cicero,
'Ad Atticum,' 1470, also printed by Jenson; an example of the _editio
princeps_ Homer, Florence, 1488; Juvenal, 'Satyræ,' 1474; the very rare
second edition of Lactantius, 'Opera,' printed at Rome by Sweynheym and
Parmartz, 1468; Livy, 'Historiarum Romanorum,' printed by Zarothus,
1480; Pomponius Mela, 'Cosmographia,' 1482; Ruffus, 'Opera,' 1472. Lord
Salisbury's library includes several books which once belonged to Roger
Ascham, notably a copy of Aristophanes, 'Comodiæ,' 1532; Aristotle,
'Opera,' 1531; Peter Martyr, 'Tractatio et Disputatio de Sacramento
Eucharistiæ,' etc., 1549, one of the only two copies of which we have
any record, the other example being in the Lambeth Library; and a large
number of tracts of the time of Henry VIII. Of about 200 books which
belonged to Sir Robert Cecil, we may mention two editions of Aristotle,
'Ethica,' 1572 and 1575; Baret, 'An Alvearie, or triple Dictionarie,' in
English, Latin, and French, 1573; French Bible, 1546; Bodin, 'La
Demonomanie des Sorciers,' 1580; Brache, 'Epistolarium Astronomicorum,'
1596; 'Astronomiæ Instauratæ,' 1602, and 'De Mundi Ætherei,' 1603; two
editions of Cicero, 'Rhetorica,' 1552, 1562; Henning's 'Theatrum
Genealogicum,' 1598; Galen, 'De Alimentis,' 1570; three editions of
'Natura Brevium,' one of 1566, and two of 1580; Ubaldino, 'Lo Stata
Della Tre Corti,' 1594. The books of Lord Burghley include Aristotle,
'Ethica,' 1535; 'Opera,' 1539; 'Politica,' 1543; Ashley, 'Mariner's
Mirror,' 1586; Basilius, 'Homiliæ,' 1528, and 'Opera,' 1551; Beda,
'Historia Ecclesiastica'; St. Chrysostom, 'Opera,' 1536; Cyrillus,
'Opera,' 1528; Demosthenes, 'Orationes,' 1528. The edition of
Dioscorides, 'Opera,' 1529, belonged, respectively, to Lord Burghley and
Sir John Cheke.
The library of Mr. John Murray, the eminent publisher, of Albemarle
Street, is a small one, but every item is either excessively rare or
unique. Its formation was begun by Mr. Murray's grandfather, whilst his
father made considerable additions. Naturally, it is very strong in
manuscripts and first editions of Byron. It contains, for example, not
only the original manuscript of 'The Waltz,' but the several
proof-sheets up to a very fine copy of the perfect book. There are also
the manuscript of the four cantos of 'Childe Harold' and the various
proof corrections. There are also first editions of Goldsmith's
'Traveller,' 'The Deserted Village,' 'The Haunch of Venison,' and 'The
Captivity,' with the receipt for the ten guineas which Goldsmith
received for it from Dodsley. Mr. Murray possesses the entire manuscript
of Sir Walter Scott's 'Abbot.' This was originally minus three leaves.
One of these leaves occurred in the market a few years ago, and passed
into the possession of an American collector for £17 10s.; a second was
secured, also at an auction, for £6 by Mr. Murray, so that the
manuscript is only now wanting two leaves. The very interesting
commonplace book of Robert Burns was given by Mr. Murray's grandfather
to J. G. Lockhart, who left it to his son-in-law, Mr. Hope-Scott, from
whom it again passed into the possession of the late Mr. John Murray.
The manuscript 'Journal' of Thomas Gray's travels in England, for the
most part unpublished, is also in Albemarle Street, as is also the
manuscript of Washington Irving's 'Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey.' The
first edition of Pope's 'Dunciad,' successively in the possession of
Malone, Elwin and Peter Cunningham; Pope's own copy of Sir Richard
Blackmore's 'Paraphrase of Job,' 1700, with numerous suggested improved
readings in Pope's own handwriting; the _Quarterly Review_ article of
Southey on Nelson, with the extensive elaborations from which the
printed edition of the book was set up; a fine copy of the First Folio
Shakespeare, 1623; a very fine copy of the _editio princeps_ St.
Augustine, 'De Civitate Dei,' Rome, 1468; the _editio princeps_ Homer,
Florence, 1488; a good copy of the first edition of Shakespeare's
'Midsummer-Night's Dreame,' James Roberts, 1600; a copy of the Prince
Consort's 'Speeches,' presented to Mr. John Murray, with an autograph
letter from the Queen--these are a few of the many notable books of
which Mr. Murray is the fortunate owner. But among the more interesting
of the manuscripts are the volumes of notes made at various times and on
divers occasions by the late John Murray in his travels in North
Germany, France, Switzerland, and South Germany, and from which the
celebrated guide-books were printed--practically every word in the first
and early editions of these widely-known books was written by the
compiler.
New Lodge, Windsor Forest, the residence of Colonel Victor Bates Van de
Weyer, contains a collection of books of a unique character, collected
at vast trouble and expense by his father, the late M. Sylvain Van de
Weyer, one of the founders of the Belgian monarchy, and for many years
Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. M. S. Van de Weyer, who was born
in 1802, and died in 1874, stood in the front rank of modern
bibliophiles, and the magnitude of his collections may be estimated from
the fact that, with town and country house full to overflowing, he had
30,000 volumes in the Pantechnicon when it was burnt down. He was an
indefatigable and discriminating reader as well as a munificent
purchaser. The library is rich in rare editions beautifully bound by men
whose names rank first in the art of bibliopegy. There is a wonderful
collection of fables, and a most complete library of _ana_. The
presentation copies of books are numerous and interesting, bearing as
they do the autographs of individuals famous in politics, literature,
and art. The present owner, who succeeded his father as a member of the
Roxburghe Club, has had the books in the library catalogued, and the
welfare of this noble collection is well thought of.
Both Lord Houghton and Lord Amherst of Hackney possess fine libraries of
rare and interesting books. That of the latter includes a Caxton, 'The
Laste Siege and Conquest of Jherusalem,' 1481; Henry VIII.'s copy of
Erasmus, 'Dialogi,' 1528; the same King's copy of Whytforde's 'The Boke
called the Pype or Toune of the Lyfe of Perfection,' 1532; Grolier's
copies of Stoplerinus, 'Elucidatio fabricæ usuque Astrolabii,' 1524, and
of 'Prognosticatio Johannis Liechtenbergers,' 1526; Maioli's copy of
'Clitophonis Narratio Amatoria,' Lyons, 1544; books bound by Nicholas
Eve; early English bindings; and many others. Mr. C. I. Elton, Q.C.,
M.P., has a fine library, of which a _catalogue raisonné_ has been drawn
up and printed. Mr. Charles Butler and Mr. Ingram Bywater possess a
number of interesting and rare books. Many of the more notable specimens
of the bindings in the libraries of the three last-mentioned gentlemen
were exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1891, and are
described in the catalogue.