uld
frequently part from one, with whom he had lived on terms of close
intimacy, without any assignable cause; and his enmities, once fixed,
were immovable.' Dr. Parr said of him that 'he was one of the wisest,
most learned, but most spiteful of men.' Dr. Johnson, however, thought
'he was mischievous, but not malignant.'

JAMES BINDLEY, 1737-1818

Mr. James Bindley was the second son of Mr. John Bindley, distiller, of
St. John's Street, Smithfield. He was born in London on the 16th of
January 1737, and was educated at the Charterhouse, from whence he
proceeded to Peterhouse, Cambridge, taking the degree of B.A. in 1759,
and that of M.A. in 1762. Later he became a Fellow of his College. In
1765, through the interest of his elder brother John, he was appointed
one of the Commissioners of the Stamp Duties, and in 1781 rose to be the
Senior Commissioner, a post he held until his death, which occurred at
his apartments in Somerset House on the 11th of September 1818. He was a
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries for upwards of fifty-three years. A
handsome monument to his memory was erected in the church of St.
Mary-le-Strand. Bindley formed a very large and valuable collection of
rare books, engravings, and medals, which he commenced at a very early
age, and to which he devoted all his spare time and money. When only
fifteen years of age he constantly frequented the book-shops, where he
bought everything which he considered rare or curious. He was a man of
very regular and retired habits, and it is said of him, that during the
long period he held the appointment of Commissioner of the Stamp Duties,
'he never once failed in his daily attendance at the Board, or once
slept out of his own apartments since he left his house at Finchley to
reside in Somerset House.'[83] Bindley published in 1775 _A Collection
of the Statutes now in force relating to the Stamp Duties_; and he read
all the proof-sheets of Nichols's _Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_,
which are dedicated to him, and also of the early volumes of _The
Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century_, by the
same author. He performed the same work for the _Memoirs of John
Evelyn_, edited by William Bray in 1818.

[Illustration]

Bindley's library was a remarkably fine one, and few collections have
contained a larger number of works of early English literature,
especially of those of the time of Elizabeth and James I. Many of these
books