gives an
account of it in his _Bibliographical Decameron_, tells us 'the room was
so crowded that nothing but standing upon a contiguous bench saved the
writer of _The Bibliographical Decameron_ from suffocation.' The prices
obtained for the books were very high. That 'most notorious volume in
existence,' the Valdarfer Boccaccio, which cost the Duke of Roxburghe
but one hundred guineas, was acquired by the Marquis of Blandford, after
a severe struggle with Lord Spencer, for two thousand two hundred and
sixty pounds, and Dibdin says that the Marquis declared that it was his
intention to have gone as far as five thousand guineas for it. A copy of
the _Recuyell of the Histories of Troye_, which once belonged to
Elizabeth Grey, wife of Edward IV., was purchased by the Duke of
Devonshire for one thousand and sixty pounds, ten shillings; while three
other books from the press of Caxton, _The Mirrour of the World_, the
_Fayts of Arms_, and Gower's _Confessio Amantis_, sold respectively for
three hundred and fifty-one pounds, ten shillings, three hundred and
thirty-six pounds, and three hundred and thirty-six pounds. The
collection of ballads fell to Mr. J. Harding for four hundred and
seventy-seven pounds, fifteen shillings. At the sale of Mr. B.H.
Bright's books in 1845 it was secured for the British Museum for the sum
of five hundred and thirty-five pounds. The first folio of Shakespeare's
Plays fetched one hundred pounds, and his Sonnets twenty-one pounds. The
two manuscripts mentioned realised three hundred and fifty-seven pounds
and four hundred and ninety-three pounds, ten shillings.

A dinner was given, at the suggestion of Dr. Dibdin, to commemorate the
sale of the Boccaccio; and Earl Spencer, Dr. Dibdin, and other
bibliophiles met on the day of the sale at St. Alban's Tavern, St.
Alban's Street--now Waterloo Place--and then and there formed the
Roxburghe Club; Earl Spencer being the first President.

MICHAEL WODHULL, 1740-1816

Michael Wodhull, the translator of the tragedies of Euripides, was born
at Thenford, Northamptonshire, on the 15th of August 1740. His father
was John Wodhull, a descendant of Walter Flandrensis, who held the
estates of Pateshull and Thenford in the time of William I. He received
his early education under the Rev. William Cleaver of Twyford, Bucks. He
was afterwards sent to Winchester, and at the age of seventeen proceeded
to the University of Oxford, matriculating from Brazenose Coll