But though these works, illustrated with military prints, are costly, the collector of moderate means may gather together quite an extensive collection of the pictures, torn from the complete works, at no great outlay. It may seem surprising to all of us who are curio-lovers but it is a fact that there are still people who are so ignorant of the value of books and pictures that they will snatch out the illustrations from priceless volumes and sell the former for a few coppers, throwing away the letterpress. Only the other day we were talking with a friendly collector who showed us a batch of Ackermann's coloured plates which he had obtained for a few pence each, although the actual value was, at the least, half a guinea per copy. The collector, therefore, must be on the look-out for bargains of this nature; he will find them in the portfolios which usually encumber the doorways of the second-hand booksellers in Charing Cross Road, Praed Street, Museum Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, and the stalls along Farringdon Road. In these interesting quarries he will assuredly make discoveries from time to time; so he will if he keeps an eye on establishments of a similar nature in the outskirts of London. [Illustration: NAPOLEON'S CARRIAGE ARRIVING AT THE LONDON MUSEUM. By Cruikshank.] A few general words on the value of military prints may be of interest. Those which depict types of soldiers are generally more sought after than those representing battle scenes; those of noted commanders are, of course, valuable, but representations of little-known commanders, wearing perhaps court rather than military dress, are not in much demand. Pictures in which soldiers play a minor part are also of little interest to the collector of military curios, as there is always a possibility that the uniforms have been drawn more with the idea of being picturesque than accurate. Machine-coloured pictures are, of course, highly treasured, as they give a much better idea of the uniforms than do monochromes. When hand-coloured there is no guarantee of correct impression; in fact such pictures are often glaringly misleading. * * * * * Having made these preliminary remarks, it may be well to point out some of the best-known works containing military prints. "The British Military Library," published not later than 1801, in two volumes, contains some score or more of accurately drawn plates representing types of the British Army. They are well executed, though the figures appear a trifle stiff and wooden. Spooner's "Military and Naval Uniforms," by Mansion and Eschauzier, seventy plates in colour, dating from 1833. These are probably some of the finest representations of early nineteenth-century uniforms that the collector can possess. The dresses are accurately depicted, but the artists do not excel when drawing galloping horses.