inside to the
outside of the book. M. Uzanne, indeed, has contended that no female
bibliophile ever felt the passion that inspired a Grolier or a De Thou:
that Marie Antoinette herself may have caged thousands of books at the
Trianon like birds in an aviary, without any real regard to their nature
or the right way of using them; that these devotees of the book-chase
were like an invalid master of hounds, keeping the pack in a gilded
kennel without any exercise or any chance of practical work. We think
that something perhaps might be said on the other side. The Duchesse de
Berry in our own time possessed a serious collection, made under her own
direction, in which might be found the _Livre d'Heures_ of Henri Deux,
the prayer-book of Joanna of Naples, the best books of Marguerite de
Valois and Marie Leczinska. The Princess Pauline Buonaparte was the
owner of a well-selected library. But our best example is Madame
Elisabeth, the ill-fated daughter of France, who was dragged from her
books at Montreuil in the tumults of 1789. Only a short time before she
had been absorbed in her simple collection. In the spring of 1786 she
gave up her mornings to its arrangement. 'My library,' she wrote, 'is
nearly finished: the desks are being put up, and you cannot imagine the
fine effect of the books.' On September the 15th she writes to her friend
again: 'Montreuil and its mistress get on as well as two sweethearts. I
am writing in the small room at the end; the books are settled in their
shelves, and my library is really a little gem.' On the 5th of October
she was standing on the terrace by the library-window, when she saw a
crowd coming along the Sevres road, and heard the noise of pipes and
drums; and on the same day she was forced to leave Montreuil, and never
saw her books again.

CHAPTER X.

THE OLD ROYAL LIBRARY--FAIRFAX--COTTON--HARLEY--THE UNIVERSITY OF
CAMBRIDGE.

Henry VII. was the founder of a royal collection which in time became a
constituent portion of the library at the British Museum. Careful as he
was of his money, the King endeavoured to buy every book published in
French, and he acquired the whole of Verard's series of classics, printed
on vellum with initials in gold and gorgeous illuminations, in some of
which the printer is shown presenting his books to the royal collector.
Henry VIII. established the separate library which was long maintained at
St. James's; he intended it mainly for the education of