d no doubt existed in Hamilton Palace for a
considerable period of time, but Alexander, tenth Duke of Hamilton, who
was born on the 5th of October 1767, and died on the 18th of August
1852, was the first of his line who was a book-collector on an extensive
scale. He formed a large and very choice collection of printed books,
but that of his manuscripts was of still greater interest and value. It
was wonderfully rich in Bibles and portions of the Scriptures, Missals,
Breviaries and Books of Hours, many of them having been written and
illuminated for Francis I., King of France, the Emperor Maximilian, Pope
Leo X., the Duke of Guise, and other distinguished personages. The
finest of these was a copy of the Gospels in Latin, known as 'The Golden
Gospels,' written about the end of the eighth century in gold letters
upon purple vellum, which was at one time the property of King Henry
VIII. Another famous manuscript in the library, valued at five thousand
pounds, was the _Divina Commedia_ of Dante, illustrated with upwards of
eighty original designs attributed to Sandro Botticelli, now in the
Royal Library at Berlin.

In addition to his own books, the Duke acquired the whole of William
Beckford's splendid collection by his marriage with Beckford's daughter
Susan Euphemia. William, the eleventh Duke, who was born on February the
19th, 1811, and died on July the 15th, 1863, added considerably to the
library, but his successor was reluctantly obliged to part with it, and
it was advertised to be sold by auction on June 30th, 1882. Before,
however, the time appointed for the sale, the Royal Museum at Berlin, by
a private arrangement, acquired the whole of the manuscripts for a sum
which is believed to have amounted to about seventy-five thousand
pounds, and they were divided between that Institution and the Royal
Library at Berlin. A portion of them, which related to Scottish history,
was purchased of the Prussian authorities by the British Museum; and
ninety-one other manuscripts which were not required by the Berlin
Museum, including the 'Golden Gospels,' were sent to Sotheby, Wilkinson
and Hodge, by whom they were sold on the 23rd of May 1889 for fifteen
thousand one hundred and eighty-nine pounds, ten shillings and sixpence.
The 'Golden Gospels' was bought by Mr. Quaritch for one thousand five
hundred pounds. The printed books were sold by the same auctioneers on
May 1st, 1884, and seven following days. The sale consisted of two