MUDIE'S SELECT LIBRARY (LIMITED), 30 to 34, NEW OXFORD-STREET, W.C. BRANCH OFFICES: 281, Regent-street, W., and 2, King-street, Cheapside. A CONSTANT SUCCESSION OF ALL THE NEWEST AND BEST BOOKS ON THE FOLLOWING TERMS : Town Subscriptions ONE GUINEA PER ANNUM AND UPWARDS, TWO GUINEAS PER ANNUM AND UPWARDS, For the FREE DELIVERY and EXCHANGE of BOOKS in ANY PART of LONDON. Country Subscriptions TWO GUINEAS PER ANNUM AND UPWARDS. Prospectuses postage free on application, TOWN AND VILLAGE BOOK CLUBS SUPPLIED ON LIBERAL TERMS. The following Catalogues, published Monthly, will be sent gratis and post free to any address :— I. RECENT POPULAR BOOKS, at greatly reduced prices. III. II. WORKS BY POPULAR AUTHORS, in Sets or separately. BOOKS IN ORNAMENTAL BINDINGS, for Presents, Prizes, &c. BOOKS SHIPPED TO ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD AT LOWEST RATES. BOOKBINDING DEPARTMENT. Binding after any Pattern or Design carried out by the Best Workmen. Books bound in the shortest possible time. SPECIALLY STRONG LEATHER FOR LIBRARIES AND BOOK CLUBS. All Books in Circulation and on Sale may be obtained at MUDIE'S LIBRARY, BARTON ARCADE, MANCHESTER. And (by order) from all Booksellers in connexion with the Library. MUDIE'S SELECT LIBRARY, NEW OXFORD-STREET, LONDON. LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1888. CONTENTS.-N° 106. The Devil's Passing-Bell, 6. QUERIES:-Punishment of "Carting"-W. Grant, Lord Preston-Grange-Googe's 'Husbandry'-Palace of Henry de Blois-Introduction of Ginger-English Flag in ParisCastle Martyr Pictures-Grasshopper on Royal Exchange, 7 -"Loose-girt boy"—" The Golden Horde "-Sir T. Thornhill-J. Donaldson - "Pricking the belt for a wager of 'Pickwick' or Titmarsh's 'Comic Tales and Sketches.' It is true their authors were not distinguished writers of the day, but any person with a grain of insight might have prophesied great vice Book, 2— Dictionary of National Biography-Trees as things of "Boz" and "Michael Angelo," and have Boundaries, 3-The Silver Captain-Wag-Coco-nut, 4-preserved their works with bibliophilic care from Sparable-Rapier-Effects of English Accent, 5-J. Droes- the ravages of the kitchen and the nursery. Alhout-Leaden Font-Star of Bethlehem-The Gurgoyles- though acquainted with all the published bibliographies of Dickens, I have never yet met with a completely accurate description of Pickwick' as it originally appeared in parts. No writer of the time thought it worth while to record anything_of that rare Part 3, with "Illustrations by R. W. Buss on the cover, which is now the crux of a collector, but which we may hope to learn all Ballads on the Armada-Armada Literature-J. Hussey-about when the long-advertised "Victoria Edition" Articulo — Chronological Difficulty, 8-Gem Pyropus- makes its appearance. It is with a view, there'Voyage to the Moon '-Customs-Authors Wanted, 9. fore, to obviate any controversy with regard to the REPLIES:-Records of Celtic Occupation, 9-St. Enoch, 12- last work of the greatest humourist of the century Morue-Why Betrothal and Marriage Rings are worn on the that I purpose to crystallize in the columns of Fourth Finger-Kingsley's Last Poem-Tooley Street Tailors, N. & Q.,' while the book is still wet from the 13-Slipshod English-"On the cards"-E. Underhill-Ela press, a short discursus on the Letters' of WilFamily- Greater London,' 14-"Q in the Corner"-Bio- liam Makepeace Thackeray. The first instalment graphical Dictionaries-"When cockle shells "-Goss, 15- of these letters appeared in Scribner's Magazine The Sling-Public Penance, 16-Mitre in Heraldry, 17. for April, 1887; the last in the number of that NOTES ON BOOKS:-Waite's 'Real History of the Rosi-periodical for October, 1887. The published book crucians'-Smiles's' Life and Labour,” Notices to Correspondents, &c. Notes. issued from the press in September, 1887. Which, then, is the first edition; and is priority reckoned from the date on which the first letter was published, or from that on which the collection was completed? But a careful observer will perceive that there are variations between the two issues. The collected volume does BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THACKERAY'S LETTERS.' not contain two of the cuts that appeared in The mania for collecting first editions of contem- Scribner, viz., the "Portrait of No. 913," in porary authors appears to be of recent date, and the August number, p. 144, and the interesting it can only be said to have reached its full develop-"Portrait of Thackeray," in the October number, ment within the last fifteen years. I have examined most of the library catalogues of the historic bibliophiles, and have discovered no evidence to show that they had any desire to enhance the fame of their coevals by raising the value of their early works to a fancy elevation. Editiones principes of the classical and Elizabethan authors have always been in favour, but not one of the bibliophiles of the last century, for instance, cared to preserve in "original boards uncut," in a "pull-off case," or in a richly decked morocco coat, the early productions of Goldsmith or Fielding, Gray or Johnson. Had they done so, early copies in good condition would not be so rare as they are now, and we should not be called on to pay fifty or sixty guineas for an uncut copy of the Vicar of Wakefield.' I have been an assiduous collector of Fielding for several years, but have hitherto failed to procure good uncut copies, say, of his 'History of the Rebellion in Scotland, 1745,' or his 'Dialogue between the Devil, Pope, and Pretender.' In later years, how few people seem to have preserved original copies p. 418. Nor does the book republish the little initial signature in the June number of Scribner, p. 690. On the other hand, Scribner does not show us the facsimile of Clough's MS., "The Flags of Piccadilly," opposite p. 82 of the book. It is evident that the moot point of priority of publication, and the variations between the two issues which I have noted, render it absolutely necessary for the conscientious collector to possess himself of both these editions, to the mutual advantage of New York and London. Having purchased these for the sake of bibliophily, let us hope that he will unite with most people in praying the publishers to produce, at no great interval of time, a volume which one may read in an easy chair without the intervention of a book-rest, and in which the mind will not be offended by such chronological vagaries as a letter attributed to July, 1850, being sandwiched in between one written at Christmas, 1849, and another with the date of February 26, 1850. I do not wish to be ill-natured; but better meat worse cooked has seldom been issued from the literary cuisine. This is a hard thing to sa |