The Book-Hunter in London: Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and CollectingRoberts, W. (William)
History
The Book-Hunter in London: Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and Collecting
Roberts, W. (William)
Bibliomania; Book collecting; Booksellers and bookselling -- England -- London
The House of Commons contains several men who have very excellent
libraries and excellent judgments of books. Mr. Leonard Courtney has
been guilty of bookstalling a good many times in his successful career,
and is, perhaps, an exception to the general rule that good political
economists usually make poor book-hunters. Mr. Courtney possesses a good
many uncommon books, which he has picked up from time to time. Mr.
Augustine Birrell, Q.C., the author of 'Obiter Dicta,' and son-in-law of
the late Frederick Locker-Lampson, has a good library of from 5,000 to
6,000 books. Among these may be noticed the first edition of Gray's
'Elegy,' picked up at Hodgson's for 3s. 6d.; first edition of Keats'
'Endymion,' purchased off a stall in the Euston Road for 2s. 6d.; first
edition of 'Wuthering Heights'; and an extensive series of books
relating to or by Dryden, Pope, Swift, and others of that period, as
well as a number of presentation copies of books by Matthew Arnold,
Browning, and Tennyson, etc. Mr. T. R. Buchanan, M.P., who was for many
years librarian of All Souls' College, Oxford, has a small but select
library of books which are, for the most part, remarkable on account of
the beauty or rarity of their bindings. It is especially strong in fine
specimens of early English and Scotch bindings; there are a few examples
from De Thou's library, and a few characteristic specimens of Italian
and Flemish bindings of the best periods. The books themselves are
principally editions of the classics; but the section of Bibles printed
in England and Scotland is a full one. There are also many volumes with
a personal interest; for example, the copy of Locke's 'Essay concerning
the Human Understanding' was once Coleridge's, and contains a note by
him to this effect: 'This is, perhaps, the most admirable of Locke's
works; read it, Southey,' etc.; and the copy of the 'Libri Carolini,'
1549, was Scaliger's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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