works of Albert Duerer which had formerly belonged to Nollekens, his
impressions from monumental brasses, and his 'commented copies of the
blockhead Whitaker's History of Manchester, and his Cornwall Cathedral.'
His will also directs his executor 'to collect together all my letters
and correspondence, all my private manuscripts, and unfinished or even
finished essays or intended work or works, memorandum books, especially
such as are marked in the inside of their covers with a red cross, with
the exception only of such articles as he may think proper to destroy,
as my diaries, or other articles of a merely private nature, and to put
them into a strong box, to be sealed up without lock or key, and with a
brass plate inscribed "Mr. Douce's papers, to be opened on the 1st of
January 1900," and then to deposit this box in the British Museum, or,
if the Trustees should decline receiving it, I then wish it to remain
with the other things bequeathed to the Bodleian Library.' The Trustees
accepted the charge of the box, and it was opened at the time appointed,
but nothing of literary value was found in it.

A catalogue of the printed books, manuscripts, charters and fragments
presented by Douce to the Bodleian was published in 1840, and there is
also a manuscript catalogue of the prints and drawings.

JAMES EDWARDS, 1757-1816

James Edwards, who was so ardent a collector that he directed that his
coffin should be made out of the shelves of his library, was born in
1757. He was the eldest son of William Edwards, an eminent bookseller of
Halifax, Yorkshire, who was noted both for his success in collecting
rare books, and his skill and taste in binding them. In 1784 James
Edwards and, along with him, his younger brother John, were set up by
their father as booksellers in Pall Mall, London, under the title of
Edwards and Sons. John died soon afterwards, but the business was
conducted with great ability and success by the elder brother, who,
Dibdin says, 'travelled diligently and fearlessly abroad; now exploring
the book-gloom of dusty monasteries, and at other times marching in the
rear or front of Bonaparte's armies in Italy.'

Edwards was a bookbinder as well as a bookseller, and in 1785 he took
out a patent for 'embellishing books bound in vellum by making drawings
on the vellum which are not liable to be defaced but by destroying the
vellum itself.' This was accomplished by rendering the vellum
transparent, and then