Birmingham.
_Gibbon's Library_ (Vol. vii., pp. 407. 455. 535.).--The following
quotation from Cyrus Redding's "Recollections of the Author of Vathek"
(_New Monthly Magazine_, vol. lxxi. p. 308.) may interest J. H. M. and your
other correspondents under this head:
"'I bought it (says Beckford) to have something to read when I passed
through Lausanne. I have not been there since. I shut myself up for six
weeks, from early in the morning until night, only now and then taking
a ride. The people thought me mad. I read myself nearly blind.'
"I inquired if the books were rare or curious. He replied in the
negative. There were excellent editions of the principal historical
writers, and an extensive collection of travels. The most valuable work
was an edition of _Eustathius_; there was also a MS. or two. All the
books were in excellent condition; in number, considerably above six
thousand, near seven perhaps. He should have read himself mad if there
had been novelty enough, and he had stayed much longer.
"'I broke away, and dashed among the mountains. There is excellent
reading there, too, equally to my taste. Did you ever travel alone
among mountains?'
"I replied that I had, and been fully sensible of their mighty
impressions. 'Do you retain Gibbon's library?'
"'It is now dispersed, I believe. I made it a present to my excellent
physician, Dr. Schall or Scholl (I am not certain of the name). I never
saw it after turning hermit there.'"