In that varied and interesting of antiquarian and literary curiosities, "N.
& Q.," perhaps a collection of the prices paid by booksellers and
publishers for works of interest and to authors of celebrity might find a
corner. As a first contribution towards such a collection, if approved of,
I send some Notes made some years ago, with the authorities from which I
copied them. With regard to those cited on the authority of "R. Chambers,"
I cannot now say from which of Messrs. Chambers's publications I extracted
them, but fancy it might have been the _Cyclopaedia of English Literature_.
To any one disposed to swell the list of the remunerations of authors, I
would suggest that Disraeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, Boswell's _Life
of Johnson_, Johnson's _Lives of the Poets_ and other works of every-day
handling, would no doubt furnish many facts; but all my books being in the
country, I have no means of searching, and therefore send my Notes in the
fragmentary state in which I find them:--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title of Work. | Author. | Publisher. | Price. | Authority.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Gulliver's Travels | Dean Swift | Molte | 300l. |Sir W. Scott.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Tom Jones | H. Fielding | Miller | 600l. | Ditto.
| | | and 100l. |
| | | after |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Amelia | Ditto | Ditto | 1000l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
History of England | Dr. Smollett| | 2000l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Memoirs of Richard | | | |
Cumberland | Himself | Lackington | 500l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Vicar of Wakefield |Dr. Goldsmith| Newberry | 50l. | Dr. Johnson.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Selections of | | | |
English Poetry | Ditto | | 200l. | Lee Lewis.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Deserted Village | Ditto | | 100l. | Sir W. Scott.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Rasselas | Dr. Johnson | | 100l. |
| | | and 24l. | Ditto
| | | after |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Traveller |Dr. Goldsmith|Newberry | 21l. | Wm. Irving
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Old English Baron | Clara Reeve | Dilly | |
| | (Poultry) | 10l. |Sir W. Scott.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Mysteries of | | Geo. | |
Udolpho |Ann Radcliffe| Robinson |500l. | Ditto
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Italian | Ditto | |800l. | Ditto
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Mount Henneth | Robert Bage | Lowndes |30l. | Ditto
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Translation of | | Jacob | |
Ovid | John Dryden | Tonson |52l. 10s. |R. Chambers.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto of | | |1200l. |
Virgil | Ditto | Ditto |and | Ditto
| | |subscriptions|
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Fables and Ode | | | |
for St. Cecilia's | Ditto | Ditto | 250 guineas | Ditto
Day | | | |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Paradise Lost | John Milton |Sam. Symmons|5l., 5l. 2nd |
| | |edit., and |Sir W. Scott.
| | |8l. |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Translation of | Alexander | | |
the Iliad | Pope | | 1200l. | R. Chambers.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto of the | | | |
Odyssey (half) | Ditto | | 600l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto ditto | | | |
(remainder) | Ditto | Browne | 500l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto ditto | | | |
(ditto) | Ditto | Featon | 300l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Beggar's Opera | | | |
(1st part) | John Gay | | 400l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto (2nd part) | Ditto | |1100l. or |
| | |1200l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Three abridged | | | |
Histories of |Dr. Goldsmith| Newberry | About 800l. | Ditto.
England | | | |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
History of | | | |
Animated Nature | Ditto | Ditto | 850l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Lives of the Poets | Dr. Johnson | | 210l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Evelina | Miss Burney | | 5l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
History of England | | | |
during the Reign | David Hume | | 200l. |
of the Stuarts | | | |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto ditto | | | |
(remainder) | Ditto | | 5000l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
History of Scotland| Robertson | | 600l | Creech.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
History of Charles | | | |
V. | Ditto | | 4500l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Decline and Fall | | | |
of the Roman | Gibbon | | 6000l. |R. Chambers.
Empire | | | |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Sermons (1st part) | Blair | | 200l. | Creech
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto | Tillotson | | 2500 guineas| R. Chambers
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Childe Harold | | | |
(4th canto) | Lord Byron | | 2100l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Poetical Works | | | |
(whole) | Ditto | | 15,000l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Lay of the | | | |
Last Minstrel |Sir W. Scott | Constable | 600l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Marmion | Ditto | Ditto | 1050l. | Miss Seward.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Pleasures of | Thos. | | |
Hope | Campbell | Mundell | 1050l. | R. Chambers.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Gertrude of | | | |
Wyoming | Ditto | Ditto |1500 guineas | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Poems | Crabbe | Murray | 3000l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Irish Melodies | Thomas Moore| |500l. a year | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Spelling Book | Vyse | | 2200l. and |
| | | 50l. a year | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Philosophy of | | |1050l., 1st |
Natural History | Smellie | |edition and |
| | |50l. each |
| | |after | Ditto
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Various | | | |
(aggregate) | Goethe | |30,000 crowns| Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto (ditto) |Chateaubriand| |500,000 francs| Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+--------------+-------------
I perfectly agree with the suggestion of one of your correspondents, that,
in a publication like yours, dealing with historic facts, the
communications should not be anonymous, or made under _noms de guerre_. I
therefore drop the initials with which I have signed previous
communications, and append my name as suggested.