one of the rarest of Scott's works; and as the originals of
this prolific author are rapidly rising in the market, there is no
knowing what it may be worth in the immediate future.

Here is a curious illustration of the manner in which a 'find' is
literally picked up. A man who sells books from a barrow in the streets
was wheeling it on the way to open for the day, and passed close to a
bookseller's assistant who was on his way to work. As the man passed, a
small volume fell off into the road, which the assistant kindly picked
up, with the intention of replacing it on the barrow. Before doing so,
however, he looked at the volume. One glance was enough. 'Here, what do
you want for this?' he asked. The dealer, taking a casual glance at the
volume, said: 'Oh, thruppence, I suppose, will do.' The money was paid,
and the assistant departed with the prize, which was a rare volume by
Increase Mather, printed in 1698 at Boston, U.S.A., and worth from L8 to
L12. A copy of Fuller's first work, and the only volume of poetry
published by that quaint writer, the excessively rare 'David's Hainous
Sinne,' 1631, was bought a few years ago for eighteenpence, probably
worth half as many pounds.

The coincidences of the bookstall are sometimes very remarkable. Mr. G.
L. Gomme relates one which is well worth recording, and we give it in
his own words: 'My friend, Mr. James Britten, the well-known plant-lore
scholar, has been collecting for some years the set of twenty-four
volumes of that curious annual, _Time's Telescope_. He had two
duplicates for 1825 and 1826, and these he gave to me. One day last
January I was engaged to dine with him, and in the middle of the _same_
day I passed a second-hand bookshop, and picked out from the sixpenny
box a volume of _Time's Telescope_ for 1816. In the evening I showed my
treasure with great contentment to my friend, expecting congratulations.
But, to my surprise and discomfiture, a mysterious look passed over his
face, then followed a quick migration to his bookshelves, then a loud
hurrah, and an explanation that this very "find" of mine was the _one_
volume he wanted to complete his set, the one volume he had been in
search of for some time.' Another book-collector picked out of a
rubbish-heap on a country bookseller's floor a little old book of poetry
with the signature of 'A. Pope.' Subsequently he found a manuscript note
in a book on the shelves of a public library referring to this very
copy,