's 'Lyfe of our Lady,' by John Lydgate, is
offered at 10s. 6d.; a _fair_ copy of Caxton's 'Lyfe of St. Katherine
of Senis' is figured at L10 10s., the price asked also for a 'fair, not
quite perfect' example of the 'Golden Legende.' A Second Folio
Shakespeare is priced at L4; a Fourth Folio at L1 7s. The same catalogue
includes a copy of the famous 'Book of Hawking and Hunting,' printed at
St. Albans in 1486, but unfortunately the price is omitted, as is the
case with several other important rarities. The Whites published some
fine natural history books, including those of Pennant, Latham, and
White of Selborne; the last was a relative of the booksellers. Whiston
was succeeded by Nathaniel Conant, who sold, _inter alia_, the library
of Samuel Speed, 1776, and John White was succeeded by his partner, J.
G. Cochrane. Sixty years ago Charles Tilt, afterwards Tilt and Bogue,
occupied 85, Fleet Street, and a charming view of this shop appears in
Cruikshank's 'Almanack' for March, 1835.

[Illustration: _Charles Tilt's Shop._

From Cruikshank's 'Comic Almanac.']

Although the bookselling history of Fleet Street did not cease with the
general migration of booksellers, from the end of the last to the
beginning of the present century much of its glory as such had
departed. During the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century
its bibliopolic annals are indeed few. One of its most interesting
houses was situated at No. 39, upon part of the site of the present
banking-house of Messrs. Hoare. Here formerly stood the famous Mitre
Tavern; this place was much damaged during the Great Fire, and was
partly rebuilt. In the last century it was a favourite resort of Wanley,
Vertue, Dr. Stukeley, Hawkesworth, Percy, Johnson, Boswell, and many
other celebrities. Johnson and Boswell first dined here in 1763. It was
here that the 'Tour to the Hebrides' was planned; it was here also, at a
supper given by Boswell to the Doctor, Goldsmith, Davies, the
bookseller, Eccles, and the Rev. John Ogilvie, that Johnson delivered
himself of the theory that 'the noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever
sees is in the highroad that leads to England.' From 1728 to 1753 the
Society of Antiquaries met here, and for some time also the Royal
Society held its meetings in this place. In 1788 the tavern ceased to
exist, and the house became the 'Poets' Gallery' of Macklin, whose
edition of the Bible is described as an unrivalled monument of his taste
and e