As I have said elsewhere, it has been no part of my object in writing my book to advocate indiscriminate collecting. But for those who are already collectors I have one word of advice on the subject of the arrangement of their treasures. Some enthusiasts advocate a chronological arrangement, others a genealogical, others a topographical: and the advocates of each theory paste down their specimens in scrap-books or other volumes in adherence to their own views. Now there is a great deal to be said in favour of each of these classifications: so much, indeed, that no system is perfect which does not admit of a collection being arranged according to one plan to-day and another tomorrow--_i.e._ no arrangement is satisfactory which is necessarily permanent. Let each specimen be lightly, yet firmly, fixed on a separate sheet of cardboard or stout paper, of sufficient size to take the largest book-plates commonly met with. These cards or sheets may be kept, a hundred or a hundred and fifty together, in portfolios or boxes, which should be distinctly numbered. Each card or sheet should also be paged and bear the number of the portfolio to which it belongs. The collector can by this means ascertain, when he pleases, if all his portfolios contain their proper number of cards or sheets, and he can arrange his specimens according to the particular point of interest in his collection which from time to time he may desire to illustrate. In addition to this, the system of single cards has obvious advantages for the purpose of minute study and comparison. In conclusion, it only remains for me to express my warm thanks to Lord De Tabley and to Mr. A. W. Franks, C.B.; to the former for allowing me to make use, without oft-repeated acknowledgment, of the matter contained in his _Guide to the Study of Book-Plates_, a second, and much amplified edition of which we may hope will, before long, make its appearance; to the latter, not only for constant advice and assistance, but also for the loan from his collection of nearly all the book-plates with reproductions of which this volume is illustrated. W. J. H. 1893. [Illustration] Preface to the Second Edition A FEW words are, perhaps, needed by way of introduction to the present revised and enlarged edition of this work. Some slips of my own have been rectified, and there has been added a considerable amount of additional information, brought to light since 1893; for much of this I am indebted to the researches of Mr. Egerton Castle, Mr. Charles Dexter Allen, Miss Norna Labouchere, and Mr. Walter Hamilton, as well as to Mr. Fincham and various other contributors to the pages of the _Ex Libris Journal_.