ost in 1812 in consequence of some
trifling disagreement with one of the trustees. While holding this
office he took part in the preparation of the catalogues of the Harleian
and Lansdowne manuscripts. Douce published in 1807 _Illustrations of
Shakspeare and Ancient Manners_, and in 1833 _The Dance of Death_,
'exhibited in elegant Engravings on wood, with a Dissertation on the
several Representations on that Subject.' The substance of this
Dissertation had appeared about forty years before in illustration of
Hollar's etchings, published by Edwards of Pall Mall, London. In
addition to these works he edited Arnold's _Chronicle_ in 1811, two
books for the Roxburghe Club in 1822 and 1824, and assisted in the
production of Scott's _Sir Tristram_, Smith's _Vagabondiniana_, and the
1824 edition of Warton's _History of English Poetry_. Many papers also
by him are to be found in the _Archaeologia_, the _Vetusta Monumenta_,
and the _Gentleman's Magazine_. Douce was a prominent Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries, and numbered among his friends Isaac D'Israeli,
the Rev. C.M. Cracherode, Sir George Staunton, Mr. John Towneley, and
Dr. Dibdin, to the last of whom he left five hundred pounds. He is
introduced under the name of _Prospero_ in Dibdin's _Bibliomania_. Douce
died at his residence in Gower Street, London, on the 30th of March
1834, and he left in his will two hundred pounds to Sir Anthony Carlisle
'requesting him either to sever my head or extract the heart from my
body, so as to prevent the possibility of the return of vitality.' His
valuable collection of printed books, which consisted of sixteen
thousand four hundred and eighty volumes, with a quantity of fragments
of early English works, including two printed by Caxton, which are
unique; three hundred and ninety-three manuscripts, many of them
beautifully illuminated; ninety-eight charters; a large number of
valuable drawings and prints; together with a collection of coins and
medals, were left by him to the Bodleian Library. It is said that this
bequest was the result of the courteous reception he received from Dr.
Bandinel, the librarian, when Douce visited Oxford with Isaac D'Israeli
in 1830. The carvings in ivory or other materials, and the miscellaneous
curiosities, were bequeathed to Dr., afterwards Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick,
of Goodrich Castle, Wales, who published an account of them, entitled
_The Doucean Museum_. To the British Museum Douce left a volume of the