Books and Bookmen | Page 8

the
son of the editor of the 'Virgil,' when he came to correct his father's
edition, found that it contained so many coquilles, or misprints, as to be
nearly the most incorrect copy in the world. Heyne says, "Let the

'Virgil' be one of the rare Elzevirs, if you please, but within it has
scarcely a trace of any good quality." Yet the first edition of this
beautiful little book, with its two passages of red letters, is so desirable
that, till he could possess it, Charles Nodier would not profane his
shelves by any 'Virgil' at all.
Equally fine is the 'Caesar' of 1635, which, with the 'Virgil' of 1636 and
the 'Imitation' without date, M. Willems thinks the most successful
works of the Elzevirs, "one of the most enviable jewels in the casket of
the bibliophile." It may be recognised by the page 238, which is
erroneously printed 248. A good average height is from 125 to 128
millimetres. The highest known is 130 millimetres. This book, like the
'Imitation,' has one of the pretty and ingenious frontispieces which the
Elzevirs prefixed to their books. So farewell, and good speed in your
sport, ye hunters of Elzevirs, and may you find perhaps the rarest
Elzevir of all, 'L'Aimable Mere de Jesus.'

BALLADE OF THE REAL AND IDEAL (DOUBLE REFRAIN)

O visions of salmon tremendous, Of trout of unusual weight, Of waters
that wander as Ken does, Ye come through the Ivory Gate! But the
skies that bring never a "spate," But the flies that catch up in a thorn,
But the creel that is barren of freight, Through the portals of horn!
O dreams of the Fates that attend us With prints in the earliest state, O
bargains in books that they send us, Ye come through the Ivory Gate!
But the tome that has never a mate, But the quarto that's tattered and
torn, And bereft of a title and date, Through the portals of horn!
O dreams of the tongues that commend us, Of crowns for the laureate
pate, Of a public to buy and befriend us, Ye come through the Ivory
Gate! But the critics that slash us and slate, {2} But the people that
hold us in scorn, But the sorrow, the scathe, and the hate, Through the
portals of horn!
ENVOY.
Fair dreams of things golden and great, Ye come through the Ivory
Gate; But the facts that are bleak and forlorn, Through the portals of
horn!

CURIOSITIES OF PARISH REGISTERS

There are three classes of persons who are deeply concerned with
parish registers--namely, villains, antiquaries, and the sedulous readers,
"parish clerks and others," of the second or "agony" column of the
Times. Villains are probably the most numerous of these three classes.
The villain of fiction dearly loves a parish register: he cuts out pages,
inserts others, intercalates remarks in a different coloured ink, and
generally manipulates the register as a Greek manages his hand at
ecarte, or as a Hebrew dealer in Moabite bric-a-brac treats a synagogue
roll. We well remember one villain who had locked himself into the
vestry (he was disguised as an archaeologist), and who was enjoying
his wicked pleasure with the register, when the vestry somehow caught
fire, the rusty key would not turn in the door, and the villain was
roasted alive, in spite of the disinterested efforts to save him made by
all the virtuous characters in the story. Let the fate of this bold, bad
man be a warning to wicked earls, baronets, and all others who attempt
to destroy the record of the marriage of a hero's parents. Fate will be
too strong for them in the long run, though they bribe the parish clerk,
or carry off in white wax an impression of the keys of the vestry and of
the iron chest in which a register should repose.
There is another and more prosaic danger in the way of villains, if the
new bill, entitled "The Parish Registers Preservation Act," ever
becomes law. The bill provides that every register earlier than 1837
shall be committed to the care of the Master of the Rolls, and removed
to the Record Office. Now the common villain of fiction would feel
sadly out of place in the Register Office, where a more watchful eye
than that of a comic parish clerk would be kept on his proceedings.
Villains and local antiquaries will, therefore, use all their parliamentary
influence to oppose and delay this bill, which is certainly hard on the
parish archaeologist. The men who grub in their local registers, and
slowly compile parish or county history, deserve to be encouraged
rather than depressed. Mr. Chester Waters, therefore, has suggested that
copies of registers should be made, and the comparatively legible copy
left