books were suffered to perish, while unimportant books and odd volumes of bound newspapers were rescued. It was, no doubt, a moment of panic, and the rapidity with which the flames took hold upon the books of the Reference Library precluded that calm, orderly choice of books to be rescued which one naturally wishes could have been undertaken.

But what was lacking in this direction was undoubtedly atoned for in the splendid enthusiasm with which the work of reconstruction was undertaken. While the ruins were yet smoking, the men of Birmingham met together and resolved to rebuild the Library, and to form a collection richer, if possible, than that which had so tragically perished. Upwards of £14,000 was subscribed in a few weeks, almost without solicitation; while offers of help came from all quarters. From our late Queen Victoria, from the universities and printing clubs, from the British Museum, from public libraries and publishers, came the most generous offers of donations, and when the reconstructed Library was opened it was found indeed to be richer in literary treasures than that which had been destroyed. Many unique manuscripts were gone for ever, it is true, but a very valuable Warwickshire collection, and an even more extensive Shakespeare Memorial Library had been formed. The former is now rich in MSS., drawings, prints, &c., and the priceless gem of the collection is still, as it was in the lost Staunton Collection, the Register of the Guild of St. Anne of Knowle, extending from 1407 to 1535. This has now been transcribed and printed by the Birmingham Archæological Section, and is henceforth secured from actual loss, as we trust the original will be in future. A new Cervantes collection has been formed-not, it is true, so complete as the one destroyedand several other special collections have been added, notably the prints of the Photographic Survey of Warwickshire, a work of the highest importance to future archæologists of the county.

The Shakespeare Memorial Library is now housed in a room adjoining the annexe of the Reference Library, appropriately fitted, and comprises about 12,000 volumes, including all the obtainable editions of the works of our great dramatist, including all the four folios and several early quartos, a large body of Shakespeariana in various languages, and works relating to the history of the drama and the stage, together with prints, portraits and a remarkable collection of Shakespeare illustrations formed by the late Mr. H. R. Forrest during the course of a long lifetime.

The total number of volumes in the Reference Library (including the Shakespeare Library) was at the end of last year 186,951; while in the Central Lending Library there are over 31,000, and in the nine Branch Libraries there are nearly 90,000 volumes, thus offering to the inhabitants a store of over 120,000 volumes for home reading, conveniently distributed over the entire area of the city, and housed in well-appointed buildings, with good news-rooms at each branch, and at the central library.

Among other Birmingham libraries, may be mentioned that at the Medical Institute comprising over 13,000 volumes, among which are many rare early treatises on Medicine; the Law Society's Library (over 12,000 volumes), which has a good collection of Reports of Celebrated Trials; the University Library, which includes the late Mr. Hensleigh Wedgewood's collection of works on Philology, and a representative collection of European Scientific works; and the Library in connection with the meeting-house of the Society of Friends, which is somewhat extensive, and in earlier years made up to some extent for the lack of a free public library, to those who were fortunate enough to obtain access to its well-stocked shelves.

In several of the districts and boroughs immediately surrounding the city are good free libraries, as for instance, Aston Manor, Handsworth, King's Norton and Selly Oak, and Smethwick, and a new one is in course of formation at Erdington. The Aston Manor Library has a fine Reference Library of over 10.000 volumes, including many valuable fine art books, a Manuscript Book of Hours illuminated by Spierinck (circa 1480), which is fully described in Bradley's Dictionary of Miniaturists, and a good collection of local books.

It was a favourite saying thirty years ago that Birmingham was "a paradise of Booksellers," and certainly in those days it numbered among those who followed the calling of a second-hand bookseller some widely-known names. If the story of the late WILLIAM BROUGH, for instance, could be told in detail, it would present many a "romance of bookselling." It was to his enterprise that the discovery of an unpublished report of Carlyle's Lectures on the History of Literature was due. He was a man of great enterprise, and he it was who, on the publication of Latham's Johnson's Dictionary in four large quarto volumes, surprised the publisher's traveller by enquiring if the usual rule of "thirteen as twelve" would be adhered to, and thereupon ordered the baker's

dozen of copies of that great work. If a "remainder" which promised well was offered to him, he was seldom satisfied with aught less than the entire stock, and many a book of this class he "cleared." The present writer well remembers his taking a stock of eight hundred copies of Bertall's "Communists of Paris," a quarto, the stock of which presented a most formidable appearance in his store-room.

It may be well understood that, trained in such a school as this, Mr. WILLIAM DOWNING (who learned his business with Mr. Brough) became a worthy upholder of the old tradition; and having succeeded Mr. Cadby in the old-established business at the top of New Street, soon made the "sign of the Chaucer's Head" famous among book-lovers everywhere. It would be difficult to recount the book-rarities which have distinguished Mr. Downing's series of Catalogues (an unbroken series of monthly "bookcirculars " extending over thirty-six years), for Mr. Downing has been unusually fortunate as a mighty book-hunter. He has numbered among his customers many of the most famous men and women of his time. The late Mr. Gladstone was a frequent customer, and when he came to Birmingham in 1888, in the height of the Home Rule movement, he wrote a charming postcard expressing his regret that he could not pay a visit to the Chaucer's Head, "as he feared it would be impossible for him to walk the streets at that time." Sir Henry Irving rarely came to Birmingham without calling upon Mr. Downing, and the same may be said of Ellen Terry. The late George MacDonald, Thomas Carlyle, Ruskin, Tennyson, and many others of note were among Mr. Downing's customers, and the old bookseller reckons among his choicest treasures a certain album of autograph letters from those who have bought books from the "Chaucer's Head" during his long and honourable career. In the distribution of the productions of the Kelmscott and other famous presses Mr. Downing has borne a notable part. He was called into the councils of the late William Morris when the question of price of the first volume printed at the Kelmscott press was under consideration; and from that time forward he was intimately associated with the sale of these works, as well as those of the "Vale" and Doves" presses.

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Mr. JOHN HITCHMAN, of Cherry Street, commenced bookselling in the same street (on the site of the eighteenth century Cherry Orchard" of Birmingham) in 1872, and has, like Mr. Downing, steadily continued the issue of a monthly catalogue during the whole period, now nearly thirty-five years.

Mr. JAMES WILSON, of Bull Street, was for some time an assistant of the first Charles Lowe (one of the old race of second-hand booksellers who is kindly remembered by many old collectors) and first set up in business at 22, Cannon Street in 1874. He has been worthily known for enterprise and as an indefatigable book-hunter during the last thirty years or more. The tale of his treasures would occupy a long space, and the frequent notice accorded to him in the London and provincial Press is evidence of his fame among book-lovers. The late Mr. Ruskin was among the regular readers of the "Hutton House Book Catalogue," and his satisfàction with the bargains he secured through Mr. Wilson's aid is expressed in letters of his which the bookseller numbers among his treasures. "I'm delighted more than I can tell you with the book,' wrote the famous art-critic on one occasion, "I never got such a bargain in my life." Again he wrote: "I wish you a Happy New Year and many nice friends of old Books," and he adds words which must have won the heart of Mr. Wilson's young man, "Please give the extra 2s. 6d. to your packer." Mr. Wilson had in one of his earlier catalogues perhaps one of the most complete collections of Ruskin literature ever offered for sale. He has had many unique books in his time, a very interesting 17th century MS. diary kept by a famous portrait painter found its way to the National Portrait Gallery (it had been all but consigned to the bookseller's fourpenny box !), the Mander collection of materials for the history of Coventry, the editio princeps of Piers Plowman, and the famous theological library of the late Dr. R. W. Dale, have been among the noteworthy items in a long and interesting series of catalogues issued by Mr. James Wilson.

(NOTE BY EDITOR.)

When, at five years of age, I used to sit dangling my legs from a high chair in the shop of my cousin, William Cornish, in New Street, Birmingham, looking at the children's books which, among others, he used to sell, I little thought that half-a-century later I should be concerned in the publication of an account of the libraries and booksellers of my native place. We may well talk about "the whirligig of time "! I must have been a dreadful nuisance to Mr. Cornish, for I haunted his place in every spare hour, and he must have been a most amiable man, for I remember how he listened patiently while I told him that I meant to read all the books when I too became

a bookseller. In those days Birmingham was not the big centre of bookselling it is now-a-days. I cannot, indeed, remember one second-hand shop, and should doubtless have scorned the shabby-looking old volumes if I had noticed them. A spick-and-span bright red-and-gold cover was more to my taste in those days. At 11 years of age I left the clanking town, and at 55 I am able to present my colleagues with a view of their superb Reference Library. Birmingham has the unique honour of be ng the business metropolis of the most distinguished county of all England; the county which claims Shakespeare and George Eliot for its foremost son and daughter. Can there be a better reason than that for my old town being one of the most prominent centres of bookselling in the whole country? I think not. And less than twenty miles away is the grandest mediæval castle extant in this island, and all round about it, in Leamington and its surrounding picturesque villages, in Kenilworth, reminiscent of England's lion-hearted queen and of ill-fated Amy Robsart, and in Hampton-in-Arden (Shakespeare's forest), by Guy's Cliff's Saxon mill and plashing weir, my childhood's days were spent, and, all unknowingly, the sylvan scenes sank deep into my affections. Do you wonder that I love to return again to leafy Warwickshire when my hair is white, to say something of the county I love? Let me, then, supplement Mr. Dent's informing article by a list of Birmingham boksellers of more recent establi-hment than those with whom his reminiscences are concerned. Catalogues can be obtained from the whole of these firms. Addison Book Co., 89 Broad St. Speciality, books and pamphlets relating to Joseph Addison.

Baker (Edward) 14-16 John Bright St. Book Queries, vol. 6, pp. 110-111, describes this establishment as "the largest bookshop in the city." Mr. Baker's success is the more remarkable from the fact that he was not apprenticed to bookselling, but took to it, con amore, at the age of 22.

Davis and Moughton, 2 Ludgate Hill.

Their main business is Educational Publishing, with a General Supply Department for teachers, and in connection with this they have a second-hand department. Their business in this department is mainly, though not entirely, with teachers.

Hector (H. E.) 103 John Bright St. General literature, but specially in French works, Mr. Hector being himself a Frenchman.

Heynes (H. E.) 42 John Bright St. General literature, and also old and Curious Books.

Holland Bros., 21 John Bright St.
Juckes (G. T.) and Co., 85 Aston St.

Specialities, rare books and autobiographies. Dealers in old books, sporting works, &c. Lowe Bros., 45 Newhall St. General second-hand books in fine condition.

Midland Educational Co., Corporation St. A large general book business, with a second

hand department.

Saint Jude's Depôt, 89 Station St. Speciality, Arundel Society's Publications in fine condition There are upwards of five hundred pounds' worth on sale. Woodhouse (A. D.) 35 John Bright St. Deals only in Theology.

There is also the firm of Middleton and Co., Literary Agents, 319 Broad St., who have been established since 1901 to supply the needs of the book trade with a reference bureau. They undertake special description of valuable rare books, remainders, scrap books, books in foreign languages, and engravings and pictures. They claim to do for a valuable book what no busy bookseller can find time to do for himself, and some examples of their work that have come under my notice have presented the volumes in most attractive form.

COLLOQUIALISMS

One of the most gratifying evenings of my life was spent at the Criterion on December 11th, when the cream of the London trade responded with alacrity to an invitation to come and establish the Second-hand Booksellers' Association. I have twice before been Honorary Secretary to societies working for public benefit, but here I was among not strangers but those I had known for years, and the occasion naturally took more of what may best be described as a "family character. Space can only be made to say that if every bookseller in the kingdom will join, the benefits to be derived from this Association will be incalculable, and any who cannot yet realise this should accept the list of the influential committee as a pledge that at last a united "trade" is in existence.

Since the last Part was issued our black friend, Seale, made a descent upon Cambridge, and called on Galloway & Porter on the day of his arrival. Mr. Porter was not, however, "taken " with him, and wrote to me for information. The immediate result was that a detective was put on the gentleman's track, and every bookseller in the town was warned. Seale had lost no time, for he had already looked out books value £40 at one place, and was hard at work all round. He spent nearly three weeks at Cambridge, changing his abode continually, and visiting pawnshops meanwhile, and eventually left no richer than he arrived, and local dealers are under a debt of obligation to Mr. Porter for his action in the matter. Mr. Porter also obtained a snapshot of him, which is among my curiosities, ready for future use. While there, and staying at the Bull Inn, Seale sent 2s. 6d. to " Lloyd's Weekly News," and obtained a set of books on the instalment plan, and no doubt promptly pawned them. He is sure to turn up again, for he has no other means of livelihood but swindling.

A very singular error crept into volume 2 of B.A.R., reproduced verbatim from a sale-catalogue. On page 71, under the heading of "Herodotus," is a copy of "The World of Wonders," by Henry Stephen, and the auction note states that it is the first complete edition of "Herodotus" in English. It is, of course, nothing of the kind, and the wonder is that such a flagrant error could ever have got into type. Bibliography is, however, full of such pitfalls, and when, during the rush of work, one tumbles into them the only thing to do is to get out again as quickly as possible.

The following instructions from the will of the late Edmond de Goncourt seem dictated by common-sense. How often has one not seen, and pitied, the aimless stare of the passer-by at, say, the Dickens MSS. at South Kensington Museum, or at MSS. at the Bri ish Museum, of which, of all the rich treasures within, only a single page can be seen by even the appreciative ones :

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My wish is that my Drawings, my Prints, my Curiosities, my Books-in a word these things of art which have been the joy of my life-shall not be consigned to the cold tomb of a museum, and subjected to the stupid glance of the careless passer-by; but I require that they shall all be dispersed under the hammer of the Auctioneer, so that the pleasure which the acquiring of each one of them has given me shall be given again, in each case, to some inheritor of my own

On April 11th, 1906, I sent a copy of B.A.R. on inspection to M. Camille Vyt, of Ghent. On October 18th M. Vyt wrote that 1 Is od. was too high a price, but that if I would accept five francs (4s. 2d.), he would keep it. Really, M. Vyt is overwhelming in his appreciation! It is about the sort of amount one might put in one's pipe and smoke without missing it.

One of the arguments of the parties to the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy is that as Shakespeare was the son of a country bumpkin while Bacon was a classical scholarergo, Bacon wrote "Shakespeare." I don't say he didn't, because I don't know, but doesn't genius count for something? What about John Bunyan, Charles Dickens, Robert Burns, and a few others? Who wrote their works?

The mention of the god-like quality Genius reminds one of Oscar Wilde's famous mot. Mr. Healy once recalled to him that Max Nordau asserted that all men of genius are mad. Wilde replied, "I quite agree that all men of genius are insane; but Nordau forgets that all sane people are idiots." Could it be more neatly put?

And while speaking of Bacon I may as well refer once more, and for the last time, to the fatuous "Lord" Bacon heresy. See "T.P.'s Weekly," November 16th, 1906, p. 639, in which it is pointed out that Milton never styled him other than Sir Francis Bacon, and that even Kano Fischer, the German, gives him his correct title. Yet there are cataloguers still who expose their want of education or of observation by giving him his wrong prefix. It surely does not redound to the credit of any house from which such misnomers are permitted to be issued.

The catalogue of the Art Library of the late Mr. H. F. Hornby, of Liverpool (which he bequeathed to the Free Public Library of that city), has just been printed, and can be obtained for 14s. 6d. Mr. Hornby was one of the finest characters among book

collectors I ever met. When I returned from America he not only made heavy purchases from me but, knowing, that I had experienced heavy losses on that side, he offered me the sum of £200 as a gift, which, of course, I could not accept. He left many tender memories of himself in the town in which he lived.

Mr. J. C. Thomson, 10 Craven Gardens, Wimbledon, has edited and published a Bibliography of the Writings of Tennyson which supersedes all others. Mr. Thomson had the invaluable aid of Mr. T. J. Wise, who placed at his disposal the bibliographical descriptions of seventeen of the "trial issues, including several unknown

to him.

A work of reference that every bookseller in the world should have is Mr. Bertram Dobell's "Catalogue of Books printed for Private Circulation, 1906." It is invaluable because to each book recorded is an interesting note, just such as would sell the work when catalogued; and the price is only 4s. 6d. It is obvious that, as is the case with all the best work of the world, the volume has been a labour of love, void of calculation as to whether it would "pay" or not.

From "Lloyd's Weekly News." Oct. 7th, 1906 :—

"Nearly a quarter of a century ago Mr. John Loveday, a well-known bibliophile. announced to the literary world that, in examining a dark corner of his library, he found a little brown volume hidden behind two rows of books. He opened it, and saw that the title of the first work in it was a poem by James Gresham, printed in 1626, on a Cenci theme. At first he thought that the book had better be put on the fire, but on turning over a few leaves he espied the title of the second poem, The Passionate Pilgrime; or Certain Amorous Sonnets between Venus and Adonis,' being the third edition, published by William Jaggard in 1612. There were also The Mirror of Martyrs,' 1601; The King's Prophecie; or, Weeping Joy '; Spenser's Britain's Ida,' 1628; and John Marston's The Scourge of Villanie,' 1598.

The value of the little volume, however, lies in the Shaksperean poem, and although this is of the third edition, it is believed that only one other copy of that edition is extant-the specimen in the Bodieian. The second edition is apparently lost. Of the first, two copies are known, one having been found in a garret at Sir Charles Isham's house. For some time many collectors have been angling for this little volume, and now the book has been sold through the agency of Mr. Tom Hodge, of Sotheby's, for £2,000 It is almost unnecessary to add that the find has gone to America, where the £1,750. 'Richard III,' quarto, discovered at Great Missenden, went, and where Stratford-on-Avon itself would go-if allowed."

The ways of the post-office are strange and mysterious, not to say weird. For instance, you may type anything you like on a postcard, and send it for a halfpenny. If you type the same matter on a piece of paper, and send it in an open envelope, the postoffice first takes your halfpenny, and then charges the fellow at the other end a penny for the pleasure of rece ving it. But-and here is where the fun comes in-if you put twenty such typed notices into twenty envelopes and make a solemn affidavit to the office girl that they are all typed circulars, then the twenty fellows at the other end are let off. I once asked a clerk what they did it for, and he said he didn't know, and he believed the post-office authorities “didn't know themselves." He said there were lots of things in the Postal Guide he didn't understand, and had never found anyone that did. One thing I have discovered, viz., that you often save 50 per cent. by sending parcels by rail instead of by parcel post. You'd hardly believe it, but it's true. The fact is that the official world is always more or less thick-headed. They walk down to the office at II a.m., open their letters, then write an essay, or a play, or something of the kind, go to lunch. write another essay, go home tired out, and leave the hall-porter to settle the regulations. At least that's the only explanation I can think of to account for the extraordinary rules laid down.

B.A.R. is sorry to lose the green cover of its youthful days, but, like everything else in this mutable world, it has to give place to change. The reason for the alteration is that you cannot print illustrations on green paper, nor can you make printed matter so clear as it should be, and as advertisements appear on the covers the matter is really of importance.