The modern collection is specialised, that is to say, it deals with the postal history of a country or group of countries, instead of being a mere accumulation of specimens of the postage-stamps of the world. The advanced collector's albums of to-day are like the "association books" of the autograph collector, and indeed there have been many successes in "grangerising" the more important specialist monographs on stamps. One of the most interesting of these latter was the late Mr. Thomas Peacock's copy of "The Postage and Telegraph Stamps of Great Britain," written by the late Mr. (afterwards Judge) Philbrick and the late Mr. W. A. S. Westoby, and published by the Philatelic Society, London, in 1881. This book was sold by auction after Mr. Peacock's death, and realised only £19, its treasures not having been generally noticed before the sale; and it had been denuded of some of its wealth before I saw it, an act for which it is not easy to forgive the man of commerce. Peacock, as Inspector of Stamping at Somerset House (1853-93), had had intimate associations with the Hill family (of whom several members got comfortable positions in the Government service), and his connection with the mechanical side of the production of stamps enabled him to enrich his "Philbrick and Westoby" with copious notes, photographs, proofs, and stamps. Major Evans published most of the notes in _Gibbons Stamp Weekly_, and I had the privilege of adding the notes and some photographs from the original to my own copy of this book. The collector "grangerising" a book on the British stamps to-day would, of course, work on the later authority, "The Adhesive Stamps of the British Isles," by the late Mr. Hastings E. Wright, and Mr. A. B. Creeke, jun., or on the sectional works of mine, of which Mr. W. H. Peckitt has issued large paper sets with special bindings for that purpose. [Illustration: THE SMALL "EXPERIMENTAL" PLATE FROM WHICH IMPRESSIONS OF THE TWO PENCE, GREAT BRITAIN, WERE MADE ON "DICKINSON" PAPER. Only two rows of four stamps were impressed on each piece of the paper. (_Cf._ next plate.)]