ht, to toss up who should win it, when I
lost it. I bought it at the Roxburghe sale on the 17 of June, 1812, for
L215 5s.'

[Illustration: _A corner in the Althorp Library._]

Yet another distinguished book-collector of the same period calls for
notice. George III. formed a splendid library out of his own private
purse and at a cost of L130,000. This library is now a part of the
British Museum. A library such as that of George III. gives very little
idea of a man's real tastes for books. The King availed himself of the
accumulated wisdom, not only of Barnard (who was his librarian for
nearly half a century), but of three or four other experts, among whom
was Dr. Johnson. The King's everyday tastes, however, may be gathered
from the subjoined list of books, which he wished to have on his visit
to Weymouth in 1795. He desired what he called 'a closet library' for a
watering-place; he wrote to his bookseller for the following works: the
Bible; the 'Whole Duty of Man'; the 'Annual Register,' 25 volumes;
Rapin's 'History of England,' 21 volumes, 1757; Millot's 'Elemens de
l'Histoire de France,' 1770; Voltaire's 'Siecles' of Louis XIV. and
Louis XV.; Blackstone's 'Commentaries,' 4 volumes; R. Burn's 'Justice of
Peace and Parish Officer,' 4 volumes; an abridgment of Dr. Johnson's
Dictionary; Boyer's 'Dictionnaire Francois et Anglais'; Johnson's
'Poets,' 68 volumes; Dodsley's 'Poems,' 11 volumes; Nichols' 'Poems,' 8
volumes; Steevens' 'Shakespeare'; 'Oeuvres' of Destouches, 5 volumes;
and the 'Works' of Sir William Temple, 4 volumes; of Addison, 4 volumes,
and Swift, 24 volumes. These books can scarcely be regarded as light
literature, and, if anything, calculated to add to the deadly dulness of
a seaside retreat at the end of the last century. However, the selection
is George III.'s, and must be respected as such.

The number of men who were prowling about London during the middle and
latter part of the last century after books is only less great than the
variety of tastes which they evinced. We have, for example, two such
turbulent spirits as John Horne Tooke and John Wilkes, M.P. Parson
Horne's (he subsequently assumed the name of his patron, William Tooke)
collection did not, as Dibdin has observed, contain a single edition of
the Bible; but it included seven examples of Wynkyn de Worde's press and
many other rare books. Eight hundred and thirteen lots realized the then
high amount of L1,250 when sold at King and Lochee's