ng the result
of an accident. He was not only a bookseller, but an author and a
traveller, and it was during a tour in Holland and Flanders that he
brought home a large collection of books, which he sold at auction. In
1757, Sam prevented the valuable collection of MSS. once belonging to
Sir Julius Caesar from being destroyed; they had actually been sold to a
cheesemonger as waste-paper for L10. He rescued the whole collection,
and drew up a masterly catalogue of it, and when sold by auction the
result was L356. For some years he was librarian to the Earl of
Shelburne, afterwards first Marquis of Lansdowne. Sam's great talents at
'cataloguizing' were unrivalled: he compiled those of James West, P.R.S.
(whose library he sold at Langford's), 1773, the sale lasting
twenty-four days, and including a fine series of books printed by
Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and on Old English literature and history,
voyages and travels (see p. 179); the Rev. Thomas Crofts, forty-three
days, in 1783; Topham Beauclerk, April 8, 1781, and following forty-nine
days (the collection was dispersed by Sam himself 'opposite Beaufort
Buildings, Strand'); of the Fagel Collection, now in Trinity College,
Dublin, 1802, and others. Nichols states that the catalogues of the
libraries of Maffei Pinelli, sold in London in fifty-four days, 1789-90;
of Samuel Tyssen, 1801, thirteen days; and of John Strange, fifty-six
days, 1801, were compiled by the versatile Sam. The Pinelli catalogue
most certainly was not his work, for although he commenced it, he threw
it up at a very early stage. The Tyssen and Strange libraries were sold
at Sotheby's, for whom Sam 'catalogued' for some time. The book-hunter
in London will occasionally meet with a copy of the 'Bibliotheca
Universalis Selecta' on the stalls for a few pence, and he is strongly
recommended to buy this very admirable volume. It is a model catalogue
in its way; the contents of this sale (which took place at Sam's Great
Room in King Street, Covent Garden, on Monday, May 8, 1786, and the
thirty-five following days) are carefully classified, whilst the index
extends to nearly seventy pages. The volume is well interspersed with
Sam's annotations, and the published price of it is 5s. 6d. The second
condition of sale is extremely interesting; it says, 'No bidder shall
advance less than THREEPENCE under ten shillings; above ten shillings,
SIXPENCE; above one pound, ONE SHILLING.'

The chief rival of Leigh and Paterso