glee when it was brought up to his bedroom in
the morning with his breakfast was very comic. He kept an oblong volume
like a washing-book, with all the editions he knew of, some thousands in
all, and his delight in ticking one more off the lengthy _desiderata_
was like that of a schoolboy marking off the "days to the holidays."
Edmund Waterton had a number of rare books besides those in his
"Imitation" collection; notably a very tall First Folio Shakespeare,
with contemporary comments made by some ancestor, who had also made good
some of the missing pages in MS. He was a lineal descendant of Sir
Thomas More, on his mother's side, and possessed Sir T. More's clock,
which still went when I stayed with him. It was apparently the same
clock that hangs on the wall at the back of Holbein's celebrated
picture of Sir Thomas More and his family. Waterton had one of the
longest and clearest pedigrees in the country, tracing back to Saxon
times without break; his family were Catholics, and seem to have lost
most of their property in the troublous times of the Reformation. Anyone
who was interested in the "Imitation," whether as a collector or not,
always met with kindness, and almost affection, from him. The first time
I met him--which arose from my making the facsimile of the Brussels
MS.--he showed his confidence and goodwill by lending me, for several
days, his oblong record of editions to look over.'

Mr. Waterton's collection of the 'Imitation' came under the hammer at
Sotheby's in January, 1895, in two lots. The first comprised six
manuscripts and 762 printed editions, ancient and modern, in various
languages, of this celebrated devotional work, arranged in languages in
chronological order. It realized L101. The second lot comprised a
collection of 437 printed editions, a few of which were not included in
the former, and sold for the equally absurd amount of L43. The British
Museum had the first pick of this collection, and the authorities were
enabled to fill up a large number of gaps in their already extensive
series of editions. The six MSS. and over 250 printed editions passed
into the possession of Dr. Copinger, of Manchester, through Messrs.
Sotheran, of the Strand, who, indeed, purchased the two 'lots' when
offered at Sotheby's.

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[47:A] 'In a small gloomy house within the gates of Elliot's
Brewery, between Brewer Street, Pimlico, and York Street,
Westminster.'--Wheatley's edition of