[Our correspondent will find a notice of Verstegan's work in page 85.
of this volume. The first edition was printed at Antwerp in 1605, and
was reprinted at London in 4to. in 1634, and in 8vo. in 1655 and 1673.
The first edition is deservedly reckoned the best, as well on account
of containing one or more engravings, afterwards omitted, as also for
the superiority of the plates, those in the subsequent editions being
very indifferent copies. No portrait of the author is noticed either
by Granger or Bromley.]
* * * * *
_Royal Library._--In the new edition of Boswell's _Life of Johnson_
(published by the proprietors of the _Illustrated London News_), in the
_National Illustrated Library_, the editor, in reference to the library
of King George III. (which is generally understood to have been
presented to the nation by George IV., and which is recorded to have
been given, in an inscription placed in that magnificent hall), has
appended the following note:--
"It has recently transpired that the government of the day bought the
library of George IV., just as he was on the eve of concluding a sale
of it to the Emperor of Russia."
Can any of your readers inform me if this is correct, and whether the
nation have really paid for what has always been considered a most
worthy and munificent present from a monarch to his subjects? I trust to
hear that the editor has been misinformed.