f the last century. In 1712
he published Quincy's 'Medicina Statica,' at the end of which is this
curious 'Advertisement' (minus the superfluity of capitals): 'Those
persons who have any Librarys (_sic_) or small parcels of old books to
dispose of, either in town or countrey, may have ready money for them of
Will. Newton, Bookseller in Little Britain, London. Also all gentlemen,
and schoolmasters, may be furnished with all sorts of classics, in usum
Delphi, Variorum, etc. Likewise, he will exchange with any person, for
any books they have read and done with.'

It was from the Dolphin, in Little Britain, that Samuel Buckley first
issued the _Spectator_, March 1, 1711, _et seq._ Tom Rawlinson resided
here for some years, as did another and different kind of celebrity,
Benjamin Franklin, who worked at Palmer's famous printing-house in
Bartholomew Close. 'While I lodged in Little Britain,' says Franklin, in
his 'Autobiography,' 'I made an acquaintance with one Wilcox, a
bookseller, whose shop was at the next door. He had an immense
collection of second-hand books. Circulating libraries were not then in
use; but we agreed that, on certain reasonable terms, which I have now
forgotten, I might take, read, and return any of the books. This I
esteemed a great advantage, and made as much use of as I could.'

[Illustration: _Duke Street, Little Britain, formerly called Duck
Lane._]

But by Franklin's time the book trade of Little Britain had declined
beyond any hope of recovery. In 1756 Maitland describes the place as
'very ruinous'; the part from 'the Pump to Duck Lane is well built, and
though much inhabited formerly by booksellers, who dealt chiefly in old
books, it is now much deserted and decayed.' A few years before Nichols
published his 'Literary Anecdotes,' two booksellers used to sport their
rubric posts close to each other here in Little Britain, and these
rubric posts[176:A] were once as much the type of a bookseller's shop as
the pole is of a barber's.

Nearly all the numerous lanes and alleys immediately contiguous to
Little Britain were more or less inhabited by second-hand booksellers.
The most important in every respect of these was Duck Lane, subsequently
rechristened Duke Street, and in 1885 as a part and parcel of Little
Britain. It is the street which leads from West Smithfield to one end of
Little Britain, and the change was a very foolish one. It was to this
street that Swift conjectured that booksellers