also be found a long series of extracts from the sale
catalogue of his library. There were nearly fifty copies of the first or
early quartos of the Shakespearian plays, which were knocked down at
prices varying from 5s. to, in a few instances, over L20. The first,
second, third and fourth folios realized L22, L18 18s., L8 8s., and L2
12s. 6d., respectively! Isaac Reed was in many ways a remarkable man. He
was the son of a baker in the parish of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West. Born
in 1742, he commenced professional life as a solicitor, which he soon
abandoned for the more congenial pursuit of literature. His knowledge of
English literature was unbounded, and the dispersal of his remarkable
library was one of the wonders of the year 1807. He was for over forty
years a diligent collector, and few days passed in that period which did
not witness an addition to his library. He died at his chambers in
Staple Inn. 'I have been almost daily at a book-auction,' writes
Malone--'the library of the late Mr. Reed, the last Shakespearian,
except myself, where my purse has been drained as usual. But what I have
purchased are chiefly books of my own trade. There is hardly a library
of this kind now left, except my own and Mr. Bindley's, neither of us
having the least desire to succeed the other in his peculiar species of
literary wealth.'

[Illustration: _St. Bernard's Seal._]

FOOTNOTES:

[27:A] In Hearne's 'Diary,' published by the Oxford Historical Society,
there is a very quaint note about the Duke of Lauderdale, who is
described as 'a Curious Collector of Books, and when in London would
very often go to y{e} Booksellers shops and pick up w{t} curious Books
he could meet with; but y{t} in his Elder years he lost much of his
Learning by minding too much Politicks.'

[27:B] At the Cambridge University Library there are some very
interesting diaries of this famous book-lover, styled 'Father of Black
Letter Collectors,' chiefly relating to the purchases of books. All the
more important facts have been published in the pages of the
_Bibliographer_.

[Illustration]

FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW.

I.

IN few phases of human action are the foibles and preferences of
individuals more completely imbricated than in that of book-collecting.
Widely different as were the book-hunters' fancies at the beginning and
at the end of the eighteenth century, yet it would not be possible to
draw a hard and fast line. For the greater part of t