might have worn since they lay on the shelves of
Don Quixote or the Licentiate, brought for sale, as it were haphazard,
to some market-place in Seville or Valladolid in wine-skins. But the
contents of the above-mentioned _Bibliotheca_ were purely English. It
was a small but choice assemblage of old poetry formed by Mr. Thomas
Hill, otherwise Tommy Hill, otherwise Paul Pry, which he offered to
Longmans on the plea of failing health, and for which the purchasers
elected, looking prophetically at his moribund aspect, to grant him an
annuity in preference to a round sum. Mr. Hill's apprehensions,
however, were premature, as the transaction had the effect of
restoring his spirits; and the booksellers scored rather
indifferently. How pleased they must have been to see him coming for
his pension year after year!

Even the outrageous prices asked for the articles, of which the
condition was ordinarily poor, could not have brought Longmans
anywhere near home; and the catalogue was expensively printed. Yet one
would like, very much indeed like, to put down thirty golden
sovereigns for _Shakespeare's Sonnets never before imprinted_, 1609,
and fifty for Anthony Munday's _Banquet of Dainty Conceits_, 1588. The
Rev. J. M. Rice obtained the latter in 1815; it was sold at his
auction in 1834 for eighteen guineas, and when it next occurred among
George Daniel's books in 1864, was bought by Mr. Huth against Sir
William Tite for L225. The _Sonnets_ of 1609 would at present be
worth L250. As regards the bulk of the lots, however, one might almost
read shillings for pounds. Sir Francis Freeling had an interleaved
copy, in which he entered acquisitions. Through his official
connection with the Post-Office he procured many prizes from the
country districts. Dick of Bury St. Edmunds stood him in good stead.
What Dibdin euphemistically christened the _Lincoln Nosegay_ was a
second pair of bellows applied about the same date to the reddening
flame of bibliographical ardour. It was a descriptive list of certain
books which the Doctor had prevailed on the Dean and Chapter of the
Cathedral to sell to him for five hundred guineas, and which he
divided between Mr. Heber and Lord Spencer. The collection was part of
the benefaction of Dean Honeywood, and it was a shameful betrayal of
trust. Our cathedral libraries still retain a host of treasures,
notwithstanding all this sort of pillage; and the dim religious light
which is shed around lends an air