Cunningham's 'London.'

[55:A] The library of Beauclerk (who is better remembered as an intimate
friend of Dr. Johnson than as a book-collector) comprised 30,000
volumes, was sold by Paterson in 1781, and occupied fifty days. It was a
good collection of classics, poetry, the drama, books of prints,
voyages, travels, and history.

[61:A] Among the absentees were his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, who
was prevented attending the anniversary by indisposition, the Marquis of
Blandford, and Sir M. M. Sykes, Bart.

[62:A] The name really employed was Bannatyne.

[64:A] Thorpe suspected this, and secured the volume, thinking to do his
friends of the Roxburghe Club a good turn. Writing to Dibdin, Thorpe
said: 'I bought it for L40 against the editor of the _Athenaeum_, who, if
he got it, would have shown the club up finely larded.' But Dibdin did
not jump at paying so heavy a price for silence, and Thorpe wisely
consoled himself with Mr. Dilke's L50.

[68:A] Heathcote dispersed two portions of his books at Sotheby's, first
in April, 1802, and secondly in May, 1808. Some of the books which Dent
obtained for him, with additions, were sold at the same place in April,
1808.

[72:A] This famous old place possesses a literary history which would
fill a fairly long chapter. Among those who have lived here we may
mention Ephraim Chambers, whose 'Cyclopaedia' is the parent of a numerous
offspring; John Newbery lived here for some time, and it was during his
tenancy that Goldsmith found a refuge here from his creditors, and wrote
'The Deserted Village' and 'The Vicar of Wakefield'; William Woodfall
had lodgings in this historic tower; and Washington Irving, early in the
present century, threw around it a halo of romance and interest which it
had not previously possessed.

[77:A] Hazlitt was a good deal of a book-borrower. In his 'Conversations
with Northcote' he speaks of having been obliged to pay five shillings
for the loan of 'Woodstock' at a regular bookseller's shop, as he could
not procure it at the circulating libraries.

[Illustration]

BOOK-AUCTIONS AND SALES.

I.

IT is perhaps to be regretted that the late Adam Smith did not make an
inquiry into the subject of Books and their Prices. The result, if not
as exhaustive as the 'Wealth of Nations,' would have been quite as
important a contribution to the science of social economy. In a general
way, books are subject, like other merchandise, to the laws of supply