How to Form a Library, 2nd ed. Wheatley Henry Benjamin

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      But hark! I hear the distant drum:

      The day of Flodden Field is come—

      Adieu, dear Heber! life and health,

      And store of literary wealth."

      The Duke of Sussex was a worthy successor of his father, George III., in the ranks of book-collectors, and his library is kept in memory by Pettigrew's fine catalogue.

      Douce and Malone the critics, and Gough the antiquary, left their libraries to the Bodleian, and thus many valuable books are available to students in that much-loved resort of his at Oxford. Anthony Morris Storer, who is said to have excelled in everything he set his heart on and hand to, collected a beautiful library, which he bequeathed to Eton College, where it still remains, a joy to look at from the elegance of the bindings. His friend Lord Carlisle wrote of him—

      Jacob Bryant the antiquary left his library to King's College, Cambridge. At one time he intended to have followed Storer's example, and have left it to Eton College, but the Provost offended him, and he changed the object of his bequest. It is said that when he was discussing the matter, the Provost asked whether he would not arrange for the payment of the carriage of the books from his house to Eton. He thought this grasping, and King's gained the benefit of his change of mind.

      Among great authors two of the chief collectors were Scott and Southey. Scott's library still remains at Abbotsford, and no one who has ever entered that embodiment of the great man's soul can ever forget it. The library, with the entire contents of the house, were restored to Scott in 1830 by his trustees and creditors, "As the best means the creditors have of expressing their very high sense of his most honourable conduct, and in grateful acknowledgment of the unparalleled and most successful exertions he has made, and continues to make for them." The library is rich in the subjects which the great author loved, such as Demonology and Witchcraft. In a volume of a collection of Ballads and Chapbooks is this note written by Scott in 1810: "This little collection of stall tracts and ballads was formed by me, when a boy, from the baskets of the travelling pedlars. Until put into its present decent binding, it had such charms for the servants, that it was repeatedly, and with difficulty, recovered from their clutches. It contains most of the pieces that were popular about thirty years since, and I dare say many that could not now be procured for any price."

      It is odd to contrast the book-loving tastes of celebrated authors. Southey cared for his books, but Coleridge would cut the leaves of a book with a butter knife, and De Quincey's extraordinary treatment of books is well described by Mr. Burton in the Book Hunter. Charles Lamb's loving appreciation of his books is known to all readers of the delightful Elia.

      Southey collected more than 14,000 volumes, which sold in 1844 for nearly £3000. He began collecting as a boy, for his father had but few books. Mr. Edwards enumerates these as follows: The Spectator, three or four volumes of the Oxford Magazine, one volume of the Freeholder's Magazine, and one of the Town and Country Magazine, Pomfret's Poems, the Death of Abel, nine plays (including Julius Cæsar, The Indian Queen, and a translation of Merope), and a pamphlet.12

      Southey was probably one of the most representative of literary men. His feelings in his library are those of all book-lovers, although he could express these feelings in language which few of them have at command:—

      Mr. Henry Stevens read a paper or rather delivered an address at the meeting of the Library Association held at Liverpool in 1883, containing his recollections of Mr. James Lenox, the great American book collector. I had the pleasure of listening to that address, but I have read it in its finished form with even greater delight. It is not often that he who pleases you as a speaker also pleases you as writer, but Mr. Stevens succeeds in both. If more bibliographers could write their reminiscences with the same spirit that he does, we should hear less of the dullness of bibliography. I strongly recommend my readers to take an early opportunity of perusing this paper in the Liverpool volume of the Transactions of the Library Association.

      Mr. Stevens, among his anecdotes of Mr. Lenox, records that he "often bought duplicates for immediate use, or to lend, rather than grope for the copies he knew to be in the stocks in some of his store rooms or chambers, notably Stirling's Artists of Spain, a high-priced book."

      This is a common trouble to large book collectors, who cannot find the books they know they possess. The late Mr. Crossley had his books stacked away in heaps, and he was often unable to lay his hands upon books of which he had several copies.

      CHAPTER II.

      How to Buy

      A discussion has arisen lately in bibliographical journals as to how best to supply libraries with their books, the main principle agreed upon being that it is the duty of the librarian to buy his books as cheaply as possible. Some of these views are stated by Mr. H.R. Tedder in a letter printed in the Library Chronicle for July, 1884 (vol. i. p. 120). It appears that Professor Dziatzko contends that the books should always be bought as cheaply as possible, but that Dr. Julius Petzholdt holds the opinion that the chief object of the librarian should be to get his books as early as possible and not to wait until they can be had at second-hand. Mr. Tedder thinks that the two plans of rapidity of supply and cheapness of cost can in some respect be united. Of course there can be no difference of opinion in respect to the duty of the librarian to get as much for his money as he can, but there are other points which require to be considered besides those brought forward before a satisfactory answer to the question—How to Buy? can be obtained. There are three points which seem to have been very much overlooked in the discussion, which may be stated here. 1. Is the librarian's valuable time well occupied by looking after cheap copies of books? 2. Will not the proposed action on the part of librarians go far to abolish the intelligent second-hand bookseller in the same way as the new bookseller has been well-nigh abolished in consequence СКАЧАТЬ