The Confessions of a Collector

a Scholar and a Reader-He eclipses all Other Collectors at Home and Abroad-A Sample or so of His Flyleaf Memoranda-A Few very Interesting Books noticed-A Historiette-Anecdotes of Some Bargains and Dis

of Them-The Daniel Ballads and Their True History-Result of a Study of Heber's Catalogue and other So

esently by Corser's Collectanea Anglo-poetica. These two classes were widely different and immensely unequal. I began by drawing a line of distinction, and by depending for my statements on the second group and type rather than the first. But as I discerned by degrees the difference in too many instances between the books themselves and the account of them in works of reference, and

ollection and its accomplished owner. Of his private history I have heard certain anecdotes, which indicate that his life was not a very happy one, nor the end of it very comfortable; but

ch make his personality agreeably conspicuous, and have always struck me as elevating him above the ordinary standard as a collector, if not as entitling him to the highest rank among those of this or any other country. For when we compare his stupendous accumulations of literary memorials of all ages and regions, in print and in manuscript, with those of Harley, Grenville, Miller, Beckford, Spencer, Huth and others, and then set sid

uable in the eyes of the bibliophile than those with which the work under consideration is so unstintingly enriched, and I may not be blamed for exemplifying and justifying by some typical specimens my estimate of Heber's scholarship and energy. If there is a less agreeable side to the question, it is the feeling of regret, in examining the catalogue, that he should not have restricted himself to some range, instead of embracing the entire world of letters

on was so marvellously rich. Since this is merely a sort of introductory feature in my little undertaking, and I was desirous of affording some samples of one of my bibliographical primers, I do

the exempt Monastery of Tavistock in 1525, he appends a long memorandum, stating that he had bought it at Forster's sale in 1806 for ￡7, 17s. 6d., imperfect and ill-bound, and had afterward completed it from a second, which had belonged to R

ut with the present, except in the dedication.... The Address to the Reader differs also, but merely in the Typography.' Of Dekker's Bellman of London, 1608, he says, 'I have compared this edition with that of 1612, which corresponds exactly, except that six pages of introductory matter are prefixed

d to arrange, beautify and enlarge the family collection, for which purpose he called in Ford the bookseller to his assistance, who gave the greater part of the volumes new Manchester liveries instead of their old, time-worn coats, in which they had weathered centuries under the domicile of their protectors. Subsequent events induced Mr P. to dispose of the whole; a few of the Caxtons were distributed in London to Lord Spencer and others at c

appending a remark by a former owner, George Steevens, 'This volume of Gascoigne's Works was bought for ￡1, 1s. at Mr Mallet's, alias Mall

Glass, by Lydgate, evoked the following: 'I believe there are three editions of this tract-I. The present in Caxton's types; II. An edition by Wynkyn de Worde; III. An edition by Berthelet, of which there was a copy in Pearson's collection, bought by Malone, and left by him to Bindley, at whose sale it was bought by James Boswell.' Just below occurs the entry of Berthelet's impression, with a memorandum by Boswe

iginally to Narcissus Luttrell, and passed with the rest of his valuable Library to Mr Edward Wynne of Chelsea, on whose decease it was sold by auction at Leigh & Sotheby's, Mar

d runs into loosely-accentuated rhyming stanzas and couplets. To say the truth, I am more than half-disposed to ascribe the authorship to the famous W. Roy, of whose poem, Rede me and be not wroth, the present composition reminds me both in sentiment and measure. It is worthy of remark that G. Steevens's copy of the first edition of that poem (now in my possession) is bound exactly uni

red with calf, and with many rough leaves, is the finest. It had been Watson Taylor's. Another very beautiful one occurred at the Selsey sale in 1871, and fetched ￡670, Mr Walford desirin

iest Parisian Printer, and is very scarce. There is said to be a copy in the Public Library at Lyons. See Delandine's catalogue. Gering exercised his art from 1470 to 1520, in which year he died. The present is neither

er's on Saffron Hill about 1830, and being put into the scales it was found to be worth fourpence threefarthings. Rodd sold it to Heber for ￡50. It was a glorious haul, yet not so good as that of Warton the historian, who picked off a broker's board at Salisbury for sixpence the 1596 edition of

f the several poems, and where some of them appear in other books. The copy was uncut, and sold at his sale for ￡31, 10s. I accidentally discovered another very fine one at Sion College, bound up at the end of a

have been originally written in verse about 1220, and not till many years afterwards translated into prose, an assertion which cannot be confirmed; no MS. of any Metrical Romance under that title appearing to be anywher

possession: 'This is the first edition of Spenser's Shepheard's Calendar, and of extraordinary rarity, not to be found in the most distinguished libraries. Mr Todd

Pliny, printed by Jenson in 1469, in rich old blue morocco, from the library of Camus de Limari, at whose sale in 1783 it

on of 8 pieces, bound together soon after the publication of the latest, somewhere about 1580. This may be ascertained by the antiquity of the handwriting, which exactly records them all, on the reverse of the title-page of Playes Confuted. So late as 1781 they all

vens's collection of Gascoigne's Works, now in my possession-in fact, no other is known.

, mentioned by Warton. The copy of Dido given by Isaac Reed to George Steevens, and bought at Steevens's sale in 1800 by Sir Egerton Brydges, was transferr

ys, bound together in six volumes, and comprising the Taming of a Shrew (not Shakespear's), 1594, Ralph Roister Doister, Hamlet (1603), and other precious remains. What became of them, there is no record; but it has sometimes occurred to me that they might have gone to Lee Priory. At Lord Mostyn's, at Gloddaeth in Carnarvonshi

h, 1608, as a first-rate rarity. His copy sold for ￡12, 12s. In the note about it he takes occasion to mention that Steevens bought many of

's Ode to Lovelace on his journey into Holland, and adds, 'It must have been written before his marriage. The Prologue on the removal of the Cockpit ha

may suffice to establish Heber's intelligent and painstaking treatment of his books and to explain the stress which I laid on his Cata

of the early dramatists and poets, of whose works the original copies were often nowhere else to be found. Heber was the warm friend and helper of the men of letters of his time, and deserves to be classed among them. Many of his rarest volumes unfortunately passed into hands where they

wn willingness to pay promptly and well for everything brought to him. The note to Thorpe the bookseller, enclosing an order on his bankers for ￡200 for the Ballads, of which the Daniel volume was merely a selection, is still extant; the money seems to have reached Thorpe's hands before the purchase left them,

unconsciously gave to the movement a bibliographical and commercial direction. I conceived in my mind, apart from any collateral matters, a grand literary scheme. I saw before me all that former men, Heber included,

st attend personally at Lambeth; but the present Bishop of Oxford, who was then librarian, copied such titles as I indicated to him, and his Lordship, I h

learn was an experience to be gained by degrees, and at more or less casual opportunities; and it will become necessary to enter into some particulars of the circumstances which led a

away. The Handbook has be

e press. But I procured the insertion in two journals of protests against the assumption of Mr Frederic Harrison that a bibliography of English history was a novel project, and the apparent claim of Sir Walter Besant, as I infer from a paragraph in the Globe, to the rectification of the