The Book-Collector. William Carew Hazlitt

for purposes of reference and comparative study. These storehouses of bibliographical and literary wealth may be classified into—

      

      (i) National or quasi-National Collections:—

       The British Museum

       Guildhall Library

       South Kensington Museum (Dyce and Forster and General Fine Art Collections)

       Society of Antiquaries

       Dr. William's Library, Gordon Square

       Chetham Library, Manchester

       Spencer-Rylands Library, Manchester

       Bodleian

       University Library, Cambridge

       University Library, Edinburgh

       Advocates' Library, Edinburgh

       Signet Library, Edinburgh

       Hunterian Library, Glasgow

       Trinity College, Dublin

      The British Museum readily divides itself, of course very unequally, into the Printed Book and Manuscript Departments, and each of these has been periodically enriched by large donations or purchases en bloc, the former more especially by the gift of the Grenville books, and the latter by the Cottonian, Harleian, Lansdowne, Stowe, and Hardwicke MSS. The Bodleian would fall far short of what it is, had it not been for the bequests of Tanner, Selden, Burton, Crynes, Gough, Malone, and Douce, and so with the University Library at Cambridge, which owes so much to Bishop Moore's books, and Trinity, Dublin, to Archbishop Marsh's.

      (ii) College Libraries:—

       Sion College

       Dulwich College

       Eton College

       Winchester College

       Stonyhurst College

       St. Cuthbert's College, Ushaw

       Cambridge Colleges

       Oxford Colleges

      

      Sion College preserves a few items of the rarest and most precious class—Shakespeare's Lucrece, 1594, Barnfield's Affectionate Shepherd, 1594, the Phœnix Nest, 1593, Drayton's Matilda, 1594, and others; but a few specified in the old catalogue have disappeared. Many of the most valuable volumes bequeathed by Edward Alleyn to Dulwich are now among Garrick's books in the British Museum, or among Malone's at Oxford, by conveyance; but a few yet remain. Eton College Library contains a small number of early printed books (including Caxton's Book of Good Manners) and the unique copy of Udall's Ralph Roister Doister. At Winchester they have a volume or two of very rare poetical tracts of Elizabeth's and James I.'s time. Stonyhurst is solely remarkable for MSS. and printed works of Robert Southwell and other Romish writers.

      Of the subordinate libraries at Oxford and Cambridge the treasures are innumerable. Those which belong to the printed department are very fully registered in special catalogues and by Hazlitt, except, perhaps, the very recent legacy to Trinity College, Cambridge, of the library of the late Mr. Samuel Sandars, rich in early English typography, and the result of life-long researches.

      Outside these fall the Royal Library at Windsor, which includes the unique perfect Æsop, and one of the two books on vellum (the Doctrinal of Sapience) printed by Caxton; the Archiepiscopal one at Lambeth, rich in rare early printed books and MSS., and the Chetham and Rylands foundations at Manchester, the latter comprehending the Althorp treasures en bloc. Humphrey Chetham also established the Church Libraries at Turton and Gorton, bibliographical notices of which have been printed by Mr. Gilbert French, 4to, 1856; and a few strays from the Chetham collection will be incidentally mentioned hereafter.

      A reference to the writer's Collections, where such facts are not matters of familiar knowledge, will show that the majority of this section is more remarkable for the possession of a few rarities, or even unique items, than for a systematic representation of classes and periods. Yet some are very strong in specialities: Christ Church, Oxford, in music; Magdalen, Cambridge, in early English books (Pepys's); Corpus, Cambridge, in MSS. (Archbishop Parker's); the Bodleian, in Shakespeariana, early popular books, Elizabethan poetry, &c. (Malone's, Douce's, Selden's, Burton's), and so forth.

      (iii) Cathedral Libraries:—

       St. Paul's, London

       Canterbury (Christ Church)

       York Minster and Chapter

       Peterborough

       Lichfield

       Lincoln

       Hereford

      At Lincoln there was formerly the precious Honeywood bequest, improperly sold to Dibdin for 500 guineas; but the library still contains about 5000 volumes, to which the Dean and Chapter make additions from time to time; and there is a paid custodian, who is one of the minor canons. York Minster and Chapter are rich in early typography and Yorkshire books. The Cathedral library is under the charge of a canon as librarian and a vicar-choral as sub-librarian, who receive no salary. It is open to the public on three days in summer and on two days in winter in each week. There is no fund for the support or improvement of the library, except the interest of £400 and a few voluntary subscriptions. Hereford possesses a remarkable assemblage of chained volumes. To the present group most properly appertains the library at Westminster Abbey, founded by Lord-Keeper Williams, while he was Dean of Westminster.

      (iv) Public Libraries on the Continent or in America:—

       Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

       French Institute (the gift of the late Duc d'Aumale), Chantilly

       Vatican Library, Rome

       Royal Library, Naples

       Medicean Library, Florence

       St. Mark's Library, Venice

       Royal Library, Turin

       Imperial Library, Vienna

       Imperial Library, St. Petersburg

       Royal Library, Berlin

       Library of Electors and Kings of Bavaria, Münich

       Library of the Dukes and Kings of Saxony, Wölfenbüttel

       Landerbibliothek, Cassel

       Public Library, Hamburg

       Public Library, Göttingen

       Public Library, Zürich

       Archiepiscopal Library, Eichstadt

       Archiepiscopal Library, Salzburg

       Archiepiscopal Library, Worms, &c.

       Plantin Museum, Antwerp

       University Library, Upsala

       Royal Library, Copenhagen

       Lenox and Carter Brown Libraries, New York

      The two last named, as it may be at once concluded, are principally English and Anglo-American in their character. Our collectors do not, as we are aware, by any means restrict themselves to the literature of the mother country so exclusively as their Transatlantic contemporaries; and for them therefore it becomes of importance and interest to acquire through catalogues a familiarity with the contents of the leading assemblages of foreign and classical literature in Continental hands. But there are very few of the great public libraries abroad which have not casually or otherwise acquired English books, and those of the rarest description. At