The Private Library Part 4

They should then be mounted and bound up in volumes, with abstract of contents in front of the volume. It will be well to consider the advisability of having typed copies made of the whole wherever unpublished records exist.

Much, very much, more might be written about practical details in bookbinding, but nothing is so valuable as experience, and a few mistakes will be the best teacher. Remember that morocco is the best material, whether it be half or whole morocco, pigskin is second, calf is third, vellum is fourth, roan is fifth, buckram is sixth, though it may frequently take the place of calf.

_Book Hobbies._

It has been remarked that only an auctioneer admires all schools of literature. I think it is certain that the way to get most enjoyment from books is to specialise a little. Mr. Pepys, it will be remembered, collected Black Letter Ballads, Penny Merriments, Penny Witticisms, Penny Compliments, and Penny G.o.dlinesses, and what Pepys paid a penny for are now worth much gold. Lord Crawford is, I believe, one of the most enthusiastic among present day collectors, and I am told that he spends many hours in arranging and cataloguing his extensive and curious collection. As far as I can gather from the printed catalogues which have been issued of Lord Crawford's library, he is rivalling Pepys in his collection of ballads. Other subjects which he has taken up are proclamations and Papal bulls. I cannot omit saying that if Lord Crawford's example were followed by a few more rich men, they would find therein very amusing hobbies. The catalogues of the Ballads and the Proclamations in the Library at Haigh Hall have been compiled by Lord Crawford's own hand, and there are no better catalogues of a private collection in existence. The late Lord Braybrooke collected County histories, and got together a most valuable and interesting collection.

But, judging from his own account of his collection,[26] it was too general to be very interesting. There is hardly a more useful or profitable book hobby than the collecting of Topographical books, but each one should confine himself to one County, or at most two, and even with discrimination in buying, a single County collection soon becomes extensive. What should be aimed at in such a collection is the putting together whatever will ill.u.s.trate the archaeology, general history, folk lore, dialect, and natural history, of a district or County, and wherever there is a Church and a Manor, there is a history. Each parish history is the unit of the history of the nation, and any one investigating the parochial history of a single parish will find much national history written in between the lines. With regard to topographical and genealogical books, I may say that the prices of these are rapidly rising, and will continue to rise, owing largely to the increasing compet.i.tion in America for these books.

Sir Walter Gilbey has, it is well known, a fine collection of sporting books. There is no sport but what has its literature, and if there is one subject more than another, upon which the English mind is unchanging, it is sport, and this being so, sporting books will always offer a fine field for collectors. As the coaching age recedes farther back, so it will be found that an increasing number of men will want to read about what they no longer can hear _viva voce_. All out-door subjects are good hobbies. Flower culture and the laying out of grounds, birds and natural history generally are good subjects, but it must be understood that no one can find another a subject, one can only _suggest_, and that is all I propose to do here. Books offer a very endless variety of hobbies. So I have merely named one or two highways, and there is an endless maze of bypaths which offer delightful hunting grounds. Dr. Johnson, it may be remembered, expressed a very sound commonsense view of this matter to Boswell:

'When I mentioned that I had seen in the King's Library fifty-three editions of my favourite _Thomas a Kempis_ . . . . in eight languages . . . . Johnson said he thought it unnecessary to collect many editions of a book which were all the same except as to paper and print. He would have the original, and all the translations, and all editions having variations in the text. He approved of the famous collection of the editions of Horace by Douglas, and, he added, "Every man should try to collect one book in that manner. . . . ."'

FOOTNOTE:

[26] _Murray's Magazine_, September, 1889.

_Old Country Libraries._

The library of Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford, which represented about the maximum that an ordinary student would possess, consisted of

'A twenty bokes, clothed in black and red, Of Aristotle and his philosophie,'

and these he kept 'at his beddes hed.'

Dr. Jessopp, in one of his learned papers,[27] has pointed out that in the thirteenth century the number of books in the world was, to say the least, small. A library of five hundred volumes would, in those days, have been considered an important collection, and after making all due allowances for ridiculous exaggerations, which have been made by ill-informed writers on the subject, it may safely be said that n.o.body in the thirteenth century--at any rate in England--would have erected a large and lofty building as a receptacle for books, simply because n.o.body could have contemplated the possibility of filling it. Here and there amongst the larger and more important monasteries there were undoubtedly collections of books, the custody of which was entrusted to an accredited officer, but the time had not yet come for making libraries well stored with such priceless treasures as Leland, the antiquary, saw at Glas...o...b..ry, just before that magnificent foundation was given as a prey to the spoilers. A library, in any such sense as we now understand the term, was not only no essential part of a monastery in those days, but it may almost be said to have been a rarity.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries we rarely meet with any indications of a literary taste among the laity; the books they purchased were more for ornament than use. But in the fifteenth century we find books mentioned in a manner which would seem to indicate that the laity were enabled to use them with pleasure. In 1395, Alice, Lady West, left to Joan, her son's wife, 'all her books of Latin, English, and French;' and from the memoranda of Sir John Howard, we learn that that worthy knight could read at his leisure 'an Englyshe boke, callyd _Dives et Pauper_,' for which, and 'a Frenshe boke,' in 1464, he paid thirteen shillings and fourpence. The library of this member of the Howard family was sufficiently extensive to enable him to select therefrom, on the occasion of his going to Scotland, thirteen volumes for his solace and amus.e.m.e.nt on the voyage.[28] In the Paston _Letters_ will be found a catalogue of the library of one of the members of this fifteenth century family. In the monasteries books were, of course, used and treasured long before they became part of the household goods of rich laymen. The catalogue of the House of the White Canons, at t.i.tchfield, in Hampshire, dated 1400, shows that the books were kept in a small room on shelves, and set against the walls. A closet of this kind was evidently not a working place, but simply a place of storage.

By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the larger monasteries had acc.u.mulated many hundred volumes, and it began to be customary to provide for the collections separate quarters, rooms constructed for the purpose. The presses in the cloisters were still utilised for books in daily reference.[29] Duke Humphrey was a great book collector and patron of letters, and presented to the University of Oxford many of the illuminated treasures which he had collected. The magnificent collection of Charles V. of France, also a great bibliomaniac, was brought by the Duke of Bedford into England. This library contained 853 volumes of great splendour, and the introduction of these books into England stimulated a spirit of inquiry among the more wealthy laymen. Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, collected a very fine library of early romances, which about 1359, he left to the monks of Bordesley Abbey, in Worcestershire. A list of this library will be found in Todd's _Ill.u.s.trations of Gower and Chaucer_.

Mr. J. W. Clark has, with quite wonderful learning, drawn a picture of student-life of the past with such graphic vigour that we can almost reinstate Colet, Casaubon, and Erasmus, and picture them exactly as they worked among their books. In Macaulay's chapter upon _The State of England in 1685_, are given numerous facts about the difficulty the clergy had in getting books, and the little desire there was among the squires to possess libraries. Few knights of the shire had libraries so good as may now perpetually be found in a servants' hall, or in the back parlour of a small shopkeeper. An esquire pa.s.sed among his neighbours for a great scholar if _Hudibras_ and _Baker's Chronicle_, _Tarleton's Jests_, and the _Seven Champions of Christendom_, lay in his hall window among the fishing rods and fowling pieces. No circulating library, no book society, then existed, even in the capital; but in the capital those students who could not afford to purchase largely had a resource.

The shops of the great booksellers, near St. Paul's Churchyard, were crowded every day and all day long with readers. In the country there was no such accommodation, and every man was under the necessity of buying whatever he wished to read. Macaulay further points out that Cotton seems, from his _Angler_, to have found room for his whole library in his hall window; and Cotton was a man of letters. In the _Life of Dr. John North_ there is an account of that delightful person's dealings with Mr. Robert Scott, of Little Britain, a very famous bookseller in the seventeenth century.

Dr. John North is really a fascinating personality.[30] His soul was 'never so staked down as in an old bookseller's shop, for, having taken orders, he was restless till he had compa.s.sed some of that sort of furniture as he thought necessary for his profession.

'I have borne him company,' says his biographer, 'at shops for hours together, and, minding him of the time, he hath made a dozen proffers before he would quit. By this care and industry he made himself master of a very considerable library, wherein the choicest collection was Greek.'

Pepys wished that his name should go down to posterity as a man fond of books. The arrangements for the settlement of his library after death prove this. The numerous references throughout the _Diary_ show that he had a pa.s.sion for collecting, and showed good judgment in what he got together. Pepys, like Dr. John North, dealt of Robert Scott, who, when sending his distinguished customer four scarce books, the total cost of which was only 1_l._ 14_s._, writes, 'Without flattery I love to find a rare book for you.'[31]

R. SCOTT, the bookseller, to Mr. PEPYS.

'_June 30th, 1688._

'SIR,--Having at length procured Campion, Hanmer, & Spencer's Hist. of Ireland, fol. (which I think, you formerly desired) I here send itt you, with 2 very scarce bookes besides, viz. Pricaei Defensio Hist.

Britt. 4to, and old Harding's Chronicle, as alsoe the Old Ship of Fooles, in old verse, by Alex. Berkley, priest; which last, though nott scarce, yett soe very fayre and perfect, that seldome comes such another; the Priceus you will find deare, yett I never sold it under 10_s._, and att this tyme you can have it of a person of quality; b.u.t.t I love to find a rare book for you, and hope shortly to procure for you a perfect Hall's Chronicle.

'I am, Sir, 'Your Servant to command, 'ROBERT SCOTT.'

Campion, Hanmer, & Spencer fol. 0:12:0 Hardings Chronicle, 4to. 0: 6:0 Pricaei Defens. Hist. Britt. 0: 8:0 Shipp of Fooles, fol. 0: 8:0 ------ 1:14:0 ======

The contents of Pepys' famous collections of Ma.n.u.scripts, Books and rare single-sheet literature are known more or less to students, and are found by them to be of the utmost value. It is amusing to notice how careful Pepys was not to admit into his library any 'risky' books.

Little did he think that the key to the diary would be one day discovered. When he bought in the Strand 'an idle, rogueish, French book, _L'Escholle des Filles_,' he resolved, as already stated, as soon as he had read it, to burn it, 'that it might not stand in the list of books, nor among them, to disgrace them, if it should be found.' He was equally solicitous about Rochester's _Poems_.

Pepys' books were numbered consecutively throughout the library, and therefore, when rearranged, they needed to be all renumbered. This was done by Pepys himself, his wife, and Deb Willett, who were busy until near midnight 't.i.tleing' the books.

With so many references to Pepys and his book-collecting as we find in the _Diary_, it is puzzling to read, under date, October 5, 1665, after references to 'Sister Poll,' 'I abroad to the office, and thence to the Duke of Albemarle, all my way reading a book of Mr. Evelyn's translating and sending me as a present, about directions for gathering a library, _but the book is above my reach_.' Pepys, one would think, had by this time gone far enough in himself gathering a library to understand the little pamphlet by Naudeus, librarian to Cardinal Mazarin, which Evelyn translated, and which was issued in 1661, and which is now very rare.

There is a charming letter from Evelyn to Pepys, dated 12th August, 1689, giving very many interesting details of the private libraries of the seventeenth century, and which goes a very long way to modify Macaulay's rather overdrawn picture of the scarcity of books and private libraries in 1685. This letter of Evelyn's might be compared with Addison's picture of 'Tom Folio' in the _Tatler_.[36] Tom Folio stood for a great book collector, Thomas Rawlinson.

The eighteenth century produced a host of great book collectors. William Oldys, Humphrey Wanley, and Thomas Rawlinson just mentioned. These men were great experts, who infected with enthusiasm many great patrons of letters, such as Charles, Earl of Sunderland, the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Somers, Lord Oxford, Topham Beauclerk, Colonel Stanley, and George Earl Spencer, whose famous Library now at Manchester has been called the finest private library in Europe. In his _Life of Sir Walter Scott_, Lockhart has inserted a visitor's impression of the library at Abbotsford. 'The visitor might ransack a library, unique, I suppose, in some of its collections, and in all departments interesting and characteristic of the founder. So many of the volumes were enriched with anecdotes or comments in his own hand, that to look over his books was, in some degree, conversing with him.' The catalogue of the Abbotsford library was printed by the Maitland Club in 1838, and is one of the best catalogues of a private collection ever printed.

FOOTNOTE:

[27] _Nineteenth Century_, January, 1884.

[28] Parker, _Domestic Architecture_.

[29] Putnam, _Books and their Makers_, vol. i.

[30] See _ante_, p. 8.

[31] Many interesting references to Pepys' Collections are found in Mr.

H. B. Wheatley's _Pepys, and the World he Lived in_. The following extracts are taken from the same writer's new and final edition of the _Diary_:--

_May 15, 1660._--'After that to a bookseller's and bought for the love of the binding three books: the French _Psalms_ in four parts, Bacon's _Organon_, and Farnab. _Rhetor_.'[32]

_Dec. 26, 1662._--'Hither come Mr. Battersby; and we falling into a discourse of a new book of drollery in verse called _Hudebras_,[33] I would needs go find it out, and met with it at the Temple: cost me 2_s._ 6_d._'

_July 8, 1664._--'So to Paul's Churchyarde about my books, and to the binder's, and directed the doing of my _Chaucer_,[34] though they were not full neate enough for me, but pretty well it is; and thence to the clasp-maker's to have it clasped and bossed.'

_Jan. 18, 1664-65._--'Up and by and by to my bookseller's, and there did give thorough direction for the new binding of a great many of my old books, to make my whole study of the same binding, within very few.'

_Aug. 24, 1666._--'Up, and despatched several businesses at home in the morning, and then comes Sympson to set up my other new presses[35] for my books, and so he and I fell into the furnishing of my new closett, and taking out the things out of my old, and I kept him with me all day, and he dined with me, and so all the afternoon till it was quite dark hanging things, that is my maps and pictures and draughts, and setting up my books, and as much as we could do, to my most extraordinary satisfaction.'

_Dec. 17, 1666._--'Spent the evening in fitting my books, to have the number set upon each, in order to my having an alphabet of my whole, which will be of great ease to me. This day Captain Batters come from sea in his fireship and come to see me, poor man, as his patron, and a poor painful wretch he is as can be. After supper to bed.'

_Dec. 19, 1666._--'Home full of trouble on these considerations, and, among other things, I to my chamber, and there to ticket a good part of my books, in order to the numbering of them for my easy finding them to read as I have occasion.'

_Jan. 8, 1666-67._--'So home and to supper, and then saw the catalogue of my books, which my brother had wrote out, now perfectly alphabeticall, and so to bed.'