tful. How contemptibly a cutler looks at a poor
grinder of knives; a physician in his coach at a farrier a-foot; and a
well-grown Paul's Churchyard bookseller upon one of the trade that sells
second-hand books under the trees in Moorfields!' In Thoresby's 'Diary'
we have an entry under the year 1709 of a very rare edition of the New
Testament in English, 1536, having been purchased in Moorfields.

[Illustration: _Old Houses in Moorfields._]

By the middle of the last century Moorfields became an assemblage of
small shops, particularly booksellers', and remained such until, in
1790, the handsome square of Finsbury arose on its site. That some of
these booksellers of Moorfields had considerable stocks is seen by the
fact that that of John King, of this place, occupied ten days in the
dispersal at Samuel Baker's in 1760. Perhaps one of the most famous of
the Moorfields booksellers was Thomas King, who published priced
catalogues of books from 1780 to 1796, and who deserted Moorfields at
about the latter date, to take premises in King Street, Covent Garden,
as a book-auctioneer. Horace Walpole, referring to James West's sale in
1773, says: 'Mr. West's books are selling outrageously. His family will
make a fortune by what he collected from stalls and Moorfields.' This
sale, which occupied twenty-four days, included, as we have said on a
previous page, books by Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and others, and also
works on Old English literature, voyages and travels, not a few of which
were undoubtedly picked up in Moorfields. The Rev. John Brand, secretary
of the Society of Antiquaries, who died in 1806, visited almost daily
the bookstalls between Piccadilly and Mile End, and may be regarded as
another Moorfields book-hunter; he generally returned from these
excursions with his deep and wide pockets well laden. His books were
chiefly collected in this way, and for comparatively small sums. Brand
cared little for the condition of his books, many of which were
imperfect, the defects being supplied in neatly-written MS. (See p.
190.) John Keats, the poet, was born in Moorfields, and Tom Dibdin was
apprenticed to an upholsterer in this district.

FINSBURY.

[Illustration: _Interior of Lackington's Shop._]

When Moorfields became improved into Finsbury Circus, the bookselling
element was by no means extinguished. James Lackington (1746 to 1816),
who had established himself as a bookseller in Chiswell Street, was
issuing catalogues