undred and sixty-eight pounds. Among the printed
books may be mentioned a large paper copy of the first edition of the
Sixtine Bible, printed at Rome in 1590, and suppressed by order of
Gregory XIV., on account of the numerous inaccuracies in it, which
realised sixty-three pounds; and the Duke of Northumberland's _Concio ad
Populum Londinensem_, printed at Rome in 1570, of which the only other
known copy is in the library of the Vatican, for which forty-two pounds
was obtained.

GEORGE SPENCER CHURCHILL, FIFTH DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, 1766-1840

George Spencer Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough, the collector of
the famous library at White Knights, near Reading, Berkshire, was the
elder son of George, fourth Duke of Marlborough, by Caroline, only
daughter of John, fourth Duke of Bedford. He was born on the 6th of
March 1766, and was educated at Eton, and subsequently at Christ Church,
Oxford, graduating M.A. in 1786 and D.C.L. in 1792. At the general
election in 1790 he was returned to Parliament as one of the members for
Oxfordshire, and in August 1804 he was appointed a Lord of the Treasury,
which office he held until February 1806. On the 12th of March in the
same year he was called to the House of Lords as Baron Spencer of
Wormleighton, and on the death of his father on the 29th of January 1817
he succeeded to the dukedom. In the May following he was authorised to
take and use the name of Churchill after that of Spencer, and to bear
the arms of Churchill quarterly with those of Spencer, in order to
perpetuate in his family the surname of his celebrated ancestor, John,
first Duke of Marlborough. He married, on the 15th of September 1791,
Susan, second daughter of John, seventh Earl of Galloway, by whom he had
issue four sons and two daughters. He died on the 5th of March 1840, and
was succeeded by his eldest son, George.

The splendid library which the Duke of Marlborough, while Marquis of
Blandford, collected at White Knights was one of the finest in the
kingdom. Its two great treasures were the Bedford Book of Hours, now in
the British Museum, purchased by the Duke in 1815 at the sale of the
library of James Edwards, for the sum of six hundred and ninety-eight
pounds, five shillings; and the edition of Boccaccio's _Decameron_,
printed by Valdarfer at Venice in 1471, which he acquired at the Duke of
Roxburghe's sale in 1812, after a spirited contest with his relative,
Earl Spencer, at the enormous price of t