dition. The unique character
of the Rowfant library, its great literary and commercial value, and its
wide interest, may be studied at length in its admirable catalogue,
which of itself is a valuable work of reference. Mr. Locker, for it is
by this name, and as the author of 'London Lyrics,' that he will be best
remembered, devoted his attention almost exclusively to English
literature, although of late years he had devoted as much attention as
his frail health would allow to the formation of a section of rare books
in French literature. It would be impossible to describe in this place
all the many book rarities at Rowfant; we must be content, therefore,
with indicating a few of the more interesting ones: Alexander Pope's own
copy of Chapman's translation of Homer, 1611; one of the largest known
copies of the First Folio Shakespeare, 1623; an extensive series of the
first or early quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays, about fifty in
number--including the spurious plays--many of which were at one
time in the collections of Steevens, George Daniel, Tite, or
Halliwell-Phillipps. The library is rich in other writers of the
Elizabethan period--of Nash, Dekker, Greene, Gabriel Harvey. There are
also a long series of the first editions of Dryden; the earliest issues
of the first complete edition of 'Pilgrim's Progress'; of 'Robinson
Crusoe' (the three parts); of 'Gulliver's Travels,' besides about a
score of other _editiones principes_ of Swift, Pope, Goldsmith,
Fielding, Richardson, Johnson, Gay, Gray, Lamb, Byron, Shelley,
Wordsworth, Thackeray, Dickens and many others. The two early printed
books of especial interest are the 'De Senectute,' printed by Caxton,
1481, and Barbour's 'Actis and Lyfe of the maist Victorious Conquerour,
Robert Bruce, King of Scotland,' printed at Edinburgh by Robert Lepruik
in 1571. The room in which the books are kept is virtually a huge safe;
it was at one time a small ordinary room, and it has been converted into
a fireproof library, with brick walls within brick walls; the floor of
concrete, nearly two feet thick, and a huge iron door, complete an
ingenious and effective protection against the most destructive of all
enemies of books--fire.

[Illustration: _Portrait Bookplate of Mr. Joseph Knight._]

The library of Mr. Joseph Knight, the editor of _Notes and Queries_,
more nearly resembles a select and orderly bookseller's premises than a
private individual's. It seems almost impossible to