il of David Laing, the
architect of the Custom House. Sir William Tite designed many buildings
in London and the provinces, and a considerable number of the more
important railway stations; but the work with which his name is
especially associated was the rebuilding of the Royal Exchange, which
cost L150,000, and was opened by the Queen on the 28th of October 1844.
In 1838 he was elected President of the Architectural Society, and of
the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1861-63, and from
1867-70. He entered Parliament in 1855 as Member for Bath, and continued
to represent that constituency until his death. In 1869 he was knighted,
and in the following year he received the Companionship of the Bath. Sir
William was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and also of the Society of
Antiquaries. He died at Torquay on April 20th, 1873, and was buried in
Norwood Cemetery.

Sir William Tite was an ardent collector of manuscripts, books, and
works of art, and he formed a very large and choice library, which
contained many valuable manuscripts, and a great number of rare early
English books. It was sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, in May and
June 1874. The sale occupied sixteen days, and realised nineteen
thousand nine hundred and forty-three pounds, six shillings. There were
three thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven lots.

Among the more notable manuscripts in the library were a richly
illuminated _Lectionarium_, written on vellum about A.D. 1150 at the
monastery of Ottenbeuren in Suabia, which sold for five hundred and
fifty pounds; a Wycliffe New Testament on vellum of the first half of
the fifteenth century, which brought two hundred and forty-one pounds; a
copy of the Four Gospels of about the same period, which fetched one
hundred and eight pounds; a number of Horae and other service books, and
three devotional works written by Jarry, the famous French
calligraphist. There were also the original manuscripts of three of the
novels of Sir Walter Scott--_Peveril of the Peak_, the first volume of
the _Tales of my Landlord (The Black Dwarf)_, and _Woodstock_, which
together realised three hundred and ninety-eight pounds. The collection
also contained a block-book, _The Apocalypse_, which brought two hundred
and eighty-five pounds; four Caxtons, the most important of which--a
perfect copy of the second edition of the _Mirrour of the World_--sold
for four hundred and fifty-five pounds; and many books from the presses