se) upon
which he could lay hands of Fox's 'History of the Reign of James II.,'
which belonged to distinguished people, and amongst these former owners
were Sir James Mackintosh, Sir Philip Francis, C. E. Jerningham, Rogers,
and General Fitzpatrick; and as many of the copies contained MS. notes,
the interest of the collection will be readily understood.

A brief review of the principal book-collectors whose libraries--formed
for the most part by men who lived in London--have been dispersed during
the past dozen years will not be without interest; those which have been
already referred to are, of course, omitted here. James Comerford,
F.S.A., by profession a notary public, who inherited from his father a
love of books, and also a considerable collection, had an exceedingly
fine library, which consisted for the most part of topographical works,
many of them on large paper with proof-plates. He was in his
seventy-sixth year when he died, and his books, which were sold at
Sotheby's in November, 1882 (thirteen days), realized a total of L8,327
13s. Frederic Ouvry, who died in June, 1881, was partner in the firm of
Farrer, Ouvry, and Co., of Lincoln's Inn; he was elected a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries in 1848, and for twenty years was the society's
treasurer, and succeeded Earl Stanhope as president. He was a man of
considerable means, and formed one of the most interesting and most
choice of modern libraries. Many of his books fetched far higher sums
than he had paid for them; for example, Drummond of Hawthornden's 'Forth
Fasting,' 1617, cost him in 1858 L8 15s.--at his sale it fetched L60;
and Lodge's 'Rosalynd,' 1598, advanced from L5 10s. to L63. Mr. Ouvry
was an intimate friend of both Mr. Gladstone and Charles Dickens; a copy
of the former's 'Gleanings of Past Years' was a presentation one from
the author, and had the following inscription, 'Frederic Ouvry, Esq.,
from W. E. G., in memory of the work we have done together for fourteen
years in full harmony of thought and act.' There were 177 autograph
letters from Dickens, which sold for L150. The four folio Shakespeares
sold for L420, L46, L116, L28; a copy of the first edition of Spenser's
'Faerie Queene,' 1590-96, L33; a copy of Daniel's 'Delia,' 1592, with
corrections, supposed to be by the author, L88. The total of the six
days' sale was L6,169 2s.

A very remarkable library came under the hammer at Sotheby's on March
21-25, 1884, when the unique collection