unique, which his grandfather had bought,
and a copy of the romance of _Richard Coeur de Lion_, 1509, which
came out of a poor cottage in Lincolnshire. That former Lord Spencer
once did a _gentlemanly_ act in handing Payne the bookseller a _bonus_
of L50, on finding that a volume he had had from him was a Caxton.
Alas! the spell is broken. Althorp was its library, and that has left
it for ever! _Sic transit gloria._

In the wake of the Spencer books have followed those of the late Earl
of Ashburnham, whose representative had previously disposed of his
father's coins and of some of the MSS. The remainder of the latter
still await dispersion or a purchaser _en bloc_.

The Ashburnham printed books included a considerable number of Caxtons
and Wynkyn de Wordes, the _St. Albans Chronicle_ and _Book of
Hunting_, &c., printed at the same place, and many distinguished
rarities in the foreign series of ancient typography; but first and
foremost the Perkins copy of the Gutenberg or Mazarin Bible on vellum,
which realised L4000, being L600 in excess of the figure given by the
buyer. There was also the Bible of 1462 on vellum, which fetched
L1500.

But the prevalent characteristic of the collection was an ostensible
indifference on the part of the nobleman who formed it to condition.
There were several fine books and interesting examples of binding; but
the absence of any definite plan and of judgment was conspicuous
throughout. Circumstances aided the immediate proprietor in his
project for converting the property into cash, and the prices reached
were, in the cases of the early printed volumes by Caxton and others,
simply unprecedented, looking at the sorry state of the copies
offered. The catalogue (sooth to speak) was not very carefully or
scientifically prepared, and when the important lots were put on the
table, the company had, as a rule, some serious deduction to make from
the account printed by the auctioneers. The noble vendor did not see
anything unbecoming in attendance to note the prices of lots during
the earlier stages, and did not disguise his gratification when a book
brought a heavy profit. Yet twenty years ago it was almost accounted a
disgrace for an ancient family even to part with its heirlooms. In
those cases, when want of the money cannot and is not pleaded, the
proceeding seems all the stranger and the more discreditable. The late
Lord bought at the right time, and his son sold at the right time. The
p