l Experience';
Beckford's 'Vathek' in French; Jeremy Bentham's works; and Harris's
'Hermes.' Possibly the disappearance of these and many other books may
be attributed to certain definite causes. For example, in the early
years of this century one of the commonest books at 1s. or 1s. 6d. was
Theobald's 'Shakespeare Restored'; but fifty years later it was a very
rare book. The interest in Shakespeare and his editors had become quite
wide-spread in literary circles, and literature in any way bearing on
the subject found ready purchasers.

Just as the disappearance of certain books sends their prices up
considerably in the market, so the unexpected appearance of others has
just the reverse effect. Until quite recently one of the scarcest of the
first editions of the writings of Charles Dickens was a thin octavo
pamphlet of seventy-one pages, entitled 'The Village Coquettes: a Comic
Opera. In two Acts. London: Richard Bentley, 1836.' So rare was this
book that very few collectors could boast the possession of it, and an
uncut example might always be sold for L30 or L40. About a year before
his death, Dickens was asked by Mr. Locker-Lampson whether he had a
copy; his reply was: 'No, and if I knew it was in my house, and if I
could not get rid of it in any other way, I would burn the wing of the
house where it was'--the words, no doubt, being spoken in jest. Not long
since, a mass of waste-paper from a printer's warehouse was returned to
the mills to be pulped, and would certainly have been destroyed had not
one of the workmen employed upon the premises caught sight of the name
of 'Charles Dickens' upon some of the sheets. The whole parcel was
carefully examined, and the searchers were rewarded by the discovery of
nearly a hundred copies of 'The Village Coquettes,' in quires, clean and
unfolded. These were passed into the market, and the price at once fell
to about L5. The most curious things turn up sometimes in a similar
manner. A little sixpenny bazaar book ('Two Poems,' by Elizabeth Barrett
and Robert Browning, 1854) was for a long time extremely rare, as much
as L3 or L4 being paid for it when it occurred for sale. Suddenly it
appeared in a bookseller's catalogue at 2s., and as every applicant
could have as many as he wanted, it then leaked out that the bookseller,
Mr. Herbert, had purchased about 100 copies with books which he purposed
sending to the mill. Even 'remainders' sometimes turn out to be little
gold-mines. Th