The Book-Hunter in London | Page 9

similar
fortunate finds of rare books, which served to whet my appetite only
the more. But I was soon stopped in my book-hunting career by the

appearance all at once on the scene of a number of buyers with much
longer purses than my own, and thus I was driven from a market I had
derived so much pleasure from with great regret. Some time afterwards
circumstances rendered it desirable that I should part with a large
number of my book-treasures by auction and to the British Museum;
but even then I retained enough to be instrumental in founding the first
Shakespearian library in Scotland, by presenting to the University of
Edinburgh, amongst other rarities, nearly fifty copies of original
quartos of Shakespeare's plays, printed before the Restoration, and to
keep sufficient myself of the rarest and most valuable examples.'
Sometimes the notes of a former possessor have a considerable literary
interest, as, for example, the copy of Stowe's 'Survey of London,' 1618,
presented to the Penzance Library by the late J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps,
who has written, under date December 24, 1867, the following note:
'This is a favourite book of mine. I like to read of London as it was,
with the bright Thames crowded with fish, and its picturesque
architecture. . . . I should not have discarded this volume for any library,
had I not this day picked up a beautiful large paper copy of it, the only
one in that condition I ever saw or heard of.'
As an illustration of the enhanced value possessed by books having
notes written in them by their owners, it may be mentioned that when
the great Mr. Fox's furniture was sold by auction after his death in 1806,
amongst the books there happened to be the first volume of Gibbon's
'Decline and Fall,' which apparently had been given by the author to
Fox, who wrote on the fly-leaf this note: 'The author at Brooks' said
there was no salvation for this country, until six heads of the principal
persons in the administration were laid on the table. Eleven days after,
this same gentleman accepted a place of "lord of trade" under those
very ministers, and has acted with them ever since.' This peculiarly
nasty little note sent the value of the odd volume up to £3 3s. Gibbon,
writing in his 'Autobiography' of Fox, says, 'I admired the powers of a
superior man, as they are blended in his attractive character with the
softness and simplicity of a child,' an opinion which he might have
modified if he had lived to read the foregoing note. When Canning's
books, for the most part of an exceedingly commonplace and

uninteresting character, came under the hammer at Christie's in 1828,
the competition was extremely keen for all volumes which bore the
great statesman's autograph, and as most of the books contained more
or less elaborate indications of Canning's proprietorship, his executors
received nearly double the sum which they could reasonably expect.
Similar illustrations occur every year at book-auctions.
The idiosyncrasies of collectors might make quite as long a chapter as
that of books which have belonged to famous persons, and it is for the
same reason that we have to deal briefly with each. It is curious that
almost as soon as book-collecting became at all general, the 'faddy' man
came into existence. Dr. John Webster, of Clitheroe, who died June 18,
1682, aged seventy-two, for example, had a library which was rich in
books of romance, and what was then termed 'the black art'; but
Webster was the author of a rare volume on witchcraft, so that his
books were his literary tools--just as, a century later, John Rennie, the
distinguished civil engineer, made a speciality of mathematical books,
of which he had a collection nearly complete in all languages. Dr.
Benjamin Moseley's library, which was sold by Stewart in March, 1814,
was composed for the most part of books on astrology, magic, and
facetiæ. The Rev. F. J. Stainforth, whose library was sold at Sotheby's
in 1867, collected practically nothing but books written by or relating
to women; he aimed to secure not only every book, but every edition of
such books. He was a most determined book-hunter, and when
Holywell Street was at its lowest moral ebb, this eccentric gentleman
used to visit all the bookshops almost daily, his inquiry being, 'Have
you any women for me to-day?' Mr. Stainforth, who died in September,
1866, was for many years curate of Camden Church, Camberwell, and
was from 1851 incumbent of All Hallow's, Staining, the stipend of
which was about £560, and the population about 400. 'Bless my
books--all my Bible books, all my hocus pocus, and all my
leger-de-main books, and all my other books, whether particularly
mentioned at this time