SALE OF RARE BOOKS.--Some curious books of an interesting character,
collected by the son of SIMON LORD LOVAT, who, it will be remembered,
was executed for treasonable practices, have recently been sold
by Auction by Messrs. SOTHEBY & WILKINSON, of Wellington Street. The
Collection contained specimens from the presses of Pynson, Wynkyn de
Worde and Caxton; also some rare and early works relating to America,
and on the subject of English Theology during the time of the
Elizabethan Age, and some curious works on Machinery and the Occult
Sciences. Among them may be specially named, "THE BOOK OF THE ORDRE OF
CHYVALRY OR KNYGHTHODE," (lot 244), said to be one of the rarest
productions of the press of CAXTON; one of three copies, (two of which
being in the British Museum), and considered to be one of the most
interesting volumes which we owe to the perseverance of Caxton as a
translator, and of great beauty as an example of his typographic
skill. It unfortunately wanted two leaves, but produced £55. 10s. The
next in importance (lot 585) was a copy of the works of BEN JONSON,
the edition of 1640, having belonged to the Somerset family, and of
much interest from the circumstance of its containing on the inside of
the cover an unpublished Poem of twenty-six lines, of a complimentary
character, on the Nuptials of Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, entirely
in the autograph of Ben Jonson, and concluding with the following
beautiful stanza:--
"And when your yeares rise more than would be told,
Yet neyther of you seeme to th' other old.
That all y^t view you then, and late may say,
Sure this glad payre were maried but this day."