A GREAT BOOK-LOVER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 395, 2 January 1909, Page 9

A GREAT BOOK-LOVER.

"Lord; Amherst and His Library" is tho subject of a very interesting* paper 111 the December "Pall Mall Gazette," by his daughter, the Hon.; Sybil Amherst.; His lordship's love of books dated from his earliest years. His first Incunablo was a Sallust, bought at Aries when, little more than.a schoolboy, he was; doing "the Grand Tour." Later on at Oxford his rooms wero filled, with handsome edi-. tions of the Classics, a good set of Bolm's translations, the Aldine Poets, ' and many other interesting - books; Afterwards his taste developed, and his .acquaintance, with Bernard Quaritch - began. "It was not merely," says his daughter, "tho intercourse of a bookseller and his patron: but it-.was the fellowship of two minds both eagerly;engrossed in one absorbing pursuit;". ■~>•' Tho idea which Lord Amherst always' had in view when buying a book was to make each purchase a link on the various series Of subjects lie wished to illustrate. The. most striking of the collection, is that connected with the dawn of printing: "We can (writes his daughter) touch tho very JISS. which the first printers imitated for their metal types; w.e can see the rude drawings, that were reproduced in the > blockTbooks. and the : very same blocks inserted among the movable type of other works. ■ We find the initial letters carefully. illuminated,: and "often a human I touch is given' by the rubricator's note in' his <swri weary': handwriting, as in Mcntehn's ~St. Augustine, c. 1403." . ... , Lord Amherst was very proud of .the Blocks Book, and/would turn'oyer, the volunr', first showiugitlie : rare incunabula and'MS.',' i»ll encased' in a fifteenth-century;'.'.binding; and thecrfevealing. as. a "great. surprisplthe forty? eight vprecious-leaves of "the Apocalypse fully bo'urid-iiv the-ceritre;'" v ' x ., ■ ' But there is no end to the: : treasures of the Didlington library, t One is. .not. surprised: to meet with, among other books, the' - First Folio Shakespeare, the quarto edition of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the rare "Paradise Lost": of-, 1667, the first .edition, of Chaucer's , collected' works,' Bunyan's • "Grace Abounding,"; .1666, even-scarcer than:,the. 1 "Pilgrim's .Progress" ;;tke genuine first'issue,• of. the first/edition, 'of Defoe's . "Robinson Crusoe," 1719;-the-first edition /of Florio's . translation of ■Montaigne's Essays,.l6o3; the exquisite and rare "Monte Sancto di Dio',"' With the very earliest copperplate engravings ; and last,, but, by. no, means/least, some of the rarest editions in' Spanish' .and English ofCervantes'"!masterpiece '.'Don- Quixote." Arid these; arid all the rest of the marvellous • collection" are - now ■to come-.: under -.the ■ aucj.tiorieer's hammer.;. The -rich book- collector: will have ,a' rare opportunity."—r".West'minster Gazette;";' I.' V", . ' ■": : NOTES., .A : document hayingon one side eighteen lines in tho autograph of Robert Burns, beginning, ' //,. "I burn, I bum, as when thro' ripened corn I By driving winds the. crackling flames are I ; ; borne;" . /;'.■ , '•-,.■ ■ and on the reverse sixteen line's in. the poet's autograph, was sold for£2o : los. at';Sotneby!s recently. Frcm the latter, which appear to' form tho concluding stanzas of a poem, we quoto .the following:— ■ v 'j./ "On the_lofiy ether, borne, . . j, ■'"/.. ; all"; his powers' you; scorn j' • ■ ' - Swiftly seek-on changing wings,'. .-/ ,/« '.Other lakes and other: springs, . . And that Foe you cannot.bravp, 1.. .' Scorn at last to bo his slave." . ' !Of great'literary -interest : als6 wbre :a .chariri-' i'ihgly."TOitte& -letteivof: -.ChiSflfei whic|i; ;fetehed.;£2lj- and, the- original' .as'signhieht/by t l Agnes, and other Poeriis,".[for. '£100 .to .his publishers,, signed by the poet, which brought £50...; .- . ■ ■ -. ■ ' .Theripw " Life of Huysmans " gives an in-'.-teresting'picture of ;Zpla's literary.At Homes ;which fluysmans contributed to : a- Belgian? paper , in : the-days wKeri'sboth authors iwerej youiig'men and-only beginning to'bs'-fa'mous.T' kettle-.sings'; the tea; steams ; we ail: |, pass .into; the -dining-room.; J There, ; with ifreolom f 'of:gppd conversation,'undfr theironi-' cal'.eyo of : Manot's,Tolichirielle,ithe ; tallc,i3 of: art','arid .letters;Zola','wrip/sinccT nine b'clock 'iri 'tbe-raoi-niug,'',his worked .without 'a rest; ~-sits/astride ,a chair'and:,'disoourses':,,with'': deI Hberate eriiphasis! ' One everuiij*.\in each, week/this ; 'Tjrainy belly r (the.expression.isthat'of 'Barbey d'Aurevilly) receives a few of:' I-his- friends,and., disciples.:. _ novelists - such as. i Marius Roux, P.aul - Alexis, ~ Efetiry Cea'rd,t Hoririique, Guy de- Valmont, who profess sin-', cere sympathy for the man-, and fervent eri■tliusiasm for .the author.'" :/■ Guy/: de Valmont',-: it .'.may'.be-noted, :Was- .the;.pseudonyrii-';of~Guy ! - de° Maupassant. "'.'•" ' ~ '. f'T was.' a; great -mistake /t<> .-piiijlibh' novels 7, at, six: shillingsj". said ia London , publisher-to.-, ■the: New York " Times.".-.,'. '• Six,: shillings is: not a really popular, price; People do . not buy..novels that-cost; six. they continue; to borrow them. So tho publishei; ;dbes; riot get- a'prPpbrtioriately, increased] sale'- to" repay ; him lot the'.reduction : in price. .. .The rV sult;is .thfit to keep ;thirigs going he is forced to publish a far larger number of/books; AH ,so"rts:of twaddling novels-get themselves :pub-l lished, arid hundreds,; .of. good;- people have/; sirice- the sis-shilling novel, cariiejinto vogue,: .deserted their former professions—or trades —in order, to write totally uninspired and tin-' necessary fiction. You have only to glance at - thp' announcement lists of tho more prosperous : publishers, who issue'novels' by the; so 'many 'every month inorder to compensate themselves for the small sales'of ; each individual book to assure, yourself . that",,fiction--,publisliing;is; absurdly ;.',';Novv it ,seerii's' , 'tb.-me l ,that.';tne - publicjis gating-.;tired,,of' being choked;'..with .•irifenpr. novels. There. is sure ■-to .„b,e of-- sohie sort, soon.;' Along what, lines will this .development come,?' you; aslc me., -i-ity idea is that •it ;w'ill take the form of a reduction in tlio number of - novels ' p,ii,blish'ed and iii ail'increase of • the - number- of: novels bought. I. believe that: within/.-a' few' years some publisher or publishers -will decline to. issue any- more inferior' mean by this,, books .by newcomers, of no .particular merit or-by old hinds whose lack, of real inspiration has abundantly'been, proved." - ~