s of
literature. I think it is certain that the way to get most enjoyment
from books is to specialise a little. Mr. Pepys, it will be remembered,
collected Black Letter Ballads, Penny Merriments, Penny Witticisms,
Penny Compliments, and Penny Godlinesses, and what Pepys paid a penny
for are now worth much gold. Lord Crawford is, I believe, one of the
most enthusiastic among present day collectors, and I am told that he
spends many hours in arranging and cataloguing his extensive and curious
collection. As far as I can gather from the printed catalogues which
have been issued of Lord Crawford's library, he is rivalling Pepys in
his collection of ballads. Other subjects which he has taken up are
proclamations and Papal bulls. I cannot omit saying that if Lord
Crawford's example were followed by a few more rich men, they would find
therein very amusing hobbies. The catalogues of the Ballads and the
Proclamations in the Library at Haigh Hall have been compiled by Lord
Crawford's own hand, and there are no better catalogues of a private
collection in existence. The late Lord Braybrooke collected County
histories, and got together a most valuable and interesting collection.
But, judging from his own account of his collection,[26] it was too
general to be very interesting. There is hardly a more useful or
profitable book hobby than the collecting of Topographical books, but
each one should confine himself to one County, or at most two, and even
with discrimination in buying, a single County collection soon becomes
extensive. What should be aimed at in such a collection is the putting
together whatever will illustrate the archaeology, general history, folk
lore, dialect, and natural history, of a district or County, and
wherever there is a Church and a Manor, there is a history. Each parish
history is the unit of the history of the nation, and any one
investigating the parochial history of a single parish will find much
national history written in between the lines. With regard to
topographical and genealogical books, I may say that the prices of these
are rapidly rising, and will continue to rise, owing largely to the
increasing competition in America for these books.

Sir Walter Gilbey has, it is well known, a fine collection of sporting
books. There is no sport but what has its literature, and if there is
one subject more than another, upon which the English mind is
unchanging, it is sport, and this being so, sporting books