FOOTNOTES:
[92] A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the Stowe library by the Rev. Charles O'Conor, D.D., the Duke's librarian, was printed in 1818-19.
HENRY PERKINS, 1778-1855
Henry Perkins, who was born in 1778, was a partner in the well-known firm of Barclay, Perkins and Co., brewers, but he does not appear to have taken an active part in the business, and he spent the later part of his life in retirement among his books at Hanworth Park, Middlesex. He died at Dover on the 15th of April 1855.
Mr. Perkins, who was a Fellow of the Linnean, Geological and Horticultural Societies, possessed a small but exceedingly valuable library, which, among many other extremely rare books, contained two copies of the Gutenberg Bible, one on vellum and the other on paper; a copy on vellum of Fust and Schoeffer's Latin Bible of 1462; a copy of the Coverdale Bible; several works from the press of Caxton, and the first four editions of Shakespeare's Plays. It also comprised many fine manuscripts, some of them superbly illuminated. Mr. Henry Perkins bequeathed his books to his son, Mr. Algernon Perkins, and after his death in 1870 they were sold by auction at Hanworth by Gadsden, Ellis and Co. on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th of June 1873. There were but eight hundred and sixty-five lots in the sale, but they realised an average of thirty pounds, or a total of twenty-five thousand nine hundred and fifty-four pounds, four shillings, the largest sum ever obtained for a library of the same extent. The vellum copy of the Gutenberg Bible was purchased for the Earl of Ashburnham for three thousand four hundred pounds; and the paper copy, now in the Huth library, fetched two thousand six hundred and ninety. Fust and Schoeffer's Latin Bible of 1462, which Mr. Perkins acquired at the sale of Mr. Dent's books for one hundred and seventy-three pounds, five shillings, sold for seven hundred and eighty pounds; while the copy of Coverdale's Bible, which wanted the title and two following leaves and the map, realised four hundred pounds; and the 1623 edition of Shakespeare's Plays brought five hundred and eighty-five pounds. The manuscripts also went for large sums. John Lydgate's Sege of Troye, a magnificently illuminated manuscript on vellum of the fifteenth century; Les Œuvres Diverses of Jehan de Meun; and Les Cent Histoires de Troye of Christine de Pisan, of about the same period, sold respectively for thirteen hundred and twenty, six hundred and ninety, and six hundred and fifty pounds. The prices obtained for the books were generally greatly in excess of those given by Mr. Perkins for them.
FREDERICK PERKINS, 1780-1860
Frederick Perkins of Chepstead, Kent, born in 1780, was a brother of Henry Perkins, and a partner in the same firm. He also formed a good library, which contained the first four Shakespeare folios, and a considerable number of the separate plays in quarto. Among them were the first editions of Love's Labour Lost, Much Ado about Nothing, the Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Troilus and Cressida, Pericles, Othello, and the second or first complete edition of Romeo and Juliet, as well as the first edition of Lucrece. Three Caxtons were to be found in the collection: the Mirrour of the World, the Chastising of Goddes Children, and Higden's Polycronicon, but they were not good copies. The library also comprised some fine illuminated Horæ and other manuscripts, including a copy on vellum of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales of the fifteenth century. Mr. Perkins died on the 10th of October 1860, and his library was sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge on July 10th, 1889, and six following days. There were two thousand and eighty-six lots in the sale, which realised eight thousand two hundred and twenty-two pounds, seven shillings. The first Shakespeare folio fetched four hundred and fifteen pounds, the second forty-seven pounds, the third one hundred pounds, and the fourth fourteen pounds. Of the quarto plays, the Second Part of Henry the Fourth sold for two hundred and twenty-five pounds, Othello for one hundred and thirty pounds, and Romeo and Juliet for one hundred and sixty-four pounds. The copies of Love's Labour Lost, Much Ado about Nothing, Troilus and Cressida, and Pericles were poor ones, and realised but comparatively small sums. The Lucrece fetched two hundred pounds.
JOHN BELLINGHAM INGLIS, 1780-1870
John Bellingham Inglis was born in London on the 14th of February 1780. His father, a partner in the firm of Inglis, Ellice and Co., merchants, Mark Lane, London, was a Director of the East India Company, and was at one time its Chairman. In consequence of the failure of his father young Inglis set up in business on his own account in the wine trade, but this not proving successful, he retired after a short time on the money rescued from the wreck of the fortune of his father, who died soon after his failure. He resided for many years in St. John's Wood, but afterwards removed to Hampstead Heath. He died at 13 Albion Road, N.W., on the 9th of December 1870.
Mr. Inglis, who was a good classical scholar, an excellent linguist, and a man of considerable literary ability, commenced collecting books at a very early age, and soon formed a very valuable and important library, which was especially rich in works from the presses of the early English printers. Unlike some possessors of libraries, he read the books which he had collected; and the Duke of Sussex, at one of his literary dinners at Kensington Palace, is reported to have said: 'Gentlemen, you are all very learned about titles, editions, and printers, but none of you seem to have read anything of the books except Mr. Inglis here.' In 1832 he translated into English, for the first time, the Philobiblon of Richard de Bury, and presented it to Thomas Rodd, the bookseller, who published it. He also made translations of several other mediæval printed books and manuscripts, which have never been published. A biographical notice of him appears in The Bookworm of December 1870, by J.P. Berjeau, the editor of that periodical. A portion of Inglis's books was sold anonymously by Sotheby on June 9th, 1826, and seven following days. The title-page of the catalogue reads: 'Catalogue of a singularly curious and valuable selection from the Library of a Gentleman, including three extraordinary specimens of Block Printing; Books printed in the Fifteenth Century; Books printed on vellum; Fine copies of Works from the Presses of Caxton, Machlinia, Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Julyan Notary, Verard, etc.; an extensive Collection of Old English Poetry; Romances; Historical and Theological Tracts; early Voyages and Travels; curious Treatises on Witches and Witchcraft; some of the earliest Dictionaries and Vocabularies in the English Language, etc. Likewise several Manuscripts on vellum, most beautifully illuminated, etc.' The number of lots in this sale was sixteen hundred and sixty-five, and the sum realised three thousand three hundred and thirty-three pounds, nine shillings and sixpence. The prices obtained for the books were extremely low. The three block-books:—the first edition of the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, Historia Sancti Johannis Evangelistæ ejusque Visiones Apocalypticæ, and the Biblia Pauperum fetched but ninety-five pounds, eleven shillings; forty-seven pounds, five shillings, and thirty-six pounds, fifteen shillings respectively; while no more than four hundred and thirty-one pounds, fifteen shillings and sixpence could be obtained for the thirteen Caxtons in the sale—about thirty-three pounds each. The following are a few of the other notable books in this fine collection, and the prices they fetched: Les Faits de Maistre Alain Chartier, imprimez a Paris par Pierre le Caron pour Anthoine Verard, printed on vellum, with capital letters painted in gold and colours, fifty-six pounds, fourteen shillings; Le Recueil des Histoires Troiennes, imprime a Paris par Anthoine Verard, presentation copy to Charles VIII., printed on vellum, ornamented with eighty-three miniatures, twenty-seven pounds; Vincent, Les cinq volumes du Miroir Hystorial, imprime a Paris par Anthoine Verard, 1495-96, forty-six pounds, four shillings; Speculum Christiani, printed by Machlinia, sixteen pounds, sixteen shillings; Promptorius Puerorum, printed by Pynson in 1499, thirty-eight pounds, seventeen shillings; The Floure of the Commandments of God, Wynkyn de Worde, 1521, thirteen pounds, thirteen shillings; The Catechisme, set furth by ... Johne, Archbischop of Sanct Androus, etc. Prentit at Sanct Androus, 1552, sixteen pounds, five shillings and sixpence; Mary of Nemmegen, printed at Antwerp by Jan Van Doesborgh in 1518 or 1519, the only copy known, twenty-four pounds; Painter, The Palace of Pleasure, London, Thomas Marshe, 1575, a very fine copy, twenty-three pounds; and Shakespeare's Sonnets, London, 1609, forty pounds, nineteen shillings. Perhaps the finest of the manuscripts were a beautifully illuminated copy on vellum of the Liber de Proprietatibus Rerum, Anglice, by Bartholomæus de Glanvilla, written towards the end of the fourteenth century, which fetched fifty-one pounds, nine shillings; and Boccaccio's Tragedies of the Falle of Unfortunate Princes, translated into English verse, written on vellum in England in the early part of the fifteenth century, and richly illuminated. Thirty pounds, nine shillings was all that was obtained for this fine manuscript. After Inglis's death, his son, Dr. C. Inglis, sold such books as he could not find room for. They were disposed of by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge on the 31st of July 1871, and five following days, and realised two thousand seven hundred and sixty-six pounds, thirteen shillings and sixpence. Among the fifteen hundred and eighty-eight lots in the sale were a few rare books and some fine papyri. A third sale of the books in this splendid library, by order of Dr. C. Inglis, took place on June 11th, 1900, and three following days, by the same auctioneers. In this sale there were eight hundred and forty-nine lots, for which the sum of seven thousand five hundred and nineteen pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence was obtained. Although no Caxtons were to be found among the books, there were many rare and interesting examples from the presses of Machlinia, Pynson, Wynkyn de Worde, Julian Notary and other early English printers. The foreign printers were also well represented, and the collection contained several beautiful Books of Hours, both printed and in manuscript. Some very high prices were obtained for the more important books, as the following list of a few of the most notable will show:—Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, printed by G. Zainer at Augsburg in 1471, eighty-four pounds; Turrecremata, Meditationes, Romæ, 1473, one hundred pounds; the first edition of the Philobiblon of Richard de Bury, Coloniæ, 1473, eighty pounds; Rolle de Hampole super Job, attributed to the Oxford press of Rood and Hunt, about 1481-86, three hundred pounds; Chronicle of England, printed by Machlinia about 1484, one hundred and seventy-five pounds; Heures de lusaige de Romme, with cuts printed in various colours, Paris, Jehan du Pré, 1490, two hundred and seventy-two pounds; First Letter of Columbus (Latin) 1493, Vespuccius, Mundus Novus, 1502, and other rare tracts in one volume, two hundred and thirty pounds; Verardus in Laudem Fernandi Hispaniarum Regis, etc., containing the letter of Columbus to King Ferdinand on his discovery of America, 1494, ninety pounds; Vitas Patrum, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1495, fifty pounds; Hoefken van Devotien, Antwerpen, 1496, one hundred and one pounds; Postilla Epistolarum et Evangeliorum Dominicalium, printed by Julian Notary in 1509, fifty pounds; Mirrour of Oure Ladye, R. Fawkes, 1530, forty-nine pounds; Heures de Rome, with illustrations by Geoffroy Tory, Paris, 1525, one hundred and forty-four pounds; and Spenser's Faerie Queene, Foure Hymnes, Prothalamion, etc., all first editions, 1590-96, one hundred and seventy pounds.
WILLIAM HENRY MILLER, 1789-1848
Mr. William Henry Miller, who was born in 1789, was the only child of Mr. William Miller of Craigentinny, Midlothian. In 1830 he entered Parliament as one of the Members for Newcastle-under-Lyme, which seat he held until the year 1841. He died unmarried at his residence, Craigentinny House, near Edinburgh, on the 31st of October 1848, and was buried, according to his desire, in a mausoleum on his estate. Mr. Miller formed a fine collection of very choice books at Britwell Court, Buckinghamshire, many of which he acquired at the Heber and other important sales of the first half of the nineteenth century. He was very particular about the condition and size of the volumes he purchased, and from his habit of carrying a foot-rule about him for the purpose of ascertaining their dimensions he became known as 'Measure Miller.' The library was bequeathed to his cousin Miss Marsh, from whom it passed to Mr. Samuel Christie-Miller, who was Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme from 1847 to 1859, and on his death on the 5th of April 1889 to Mr. Wakefield Christie-Miller, who died at Dublin on the 22nd of February 1898. Many rare books have been added to the Britwell Library by its later possessors. The additions made by the last owner were especially important, notably that of the larger portion of the Elizabethan rarities discovered in 1867 at Lamport Hall, the seat of Sir Charles Isham; and the collection may now be considered unrivalled among private libraries for the number of choice examples of English and Scottish literature which it contains, particularly in the division of English poetry. The finest copy known of the Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers, one of the three extant copies of the Morale Prouerbes of Cristyne, and nine other works printed by Caxton, are to be found on the shelves of the library, as well as a large number of books from the presses of Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Julyan Notary, and other early English printers. Among them are many editions of the grammatical treatises of Robert Whitinton and John Stanbridge, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and unique copies of Fitzherbert's Boke of Husbandrie, the romance of Oliver of Castile, and Fysshynge with an Angle, all by the same printer. The library contains also a fine series of the early editions of the English Chronicles, and of the works of Chaucer. Among the treasures of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods are the first Shakespeare folio (the second, third, and fourth folios are also in the library); an unique copy of an edition of Venus and Adonis, printed for William Leake at London in 1599, from the Isham collection; all the early editions of Sidney's Arcadia; fine examples of the early editions of the works of Edmund Spenser; the only perfect copy known of the first edition of the Paradyse of Daintie Devises; and remarkably complete sets of the works of Churchyard, Breton, Greene, Dekker, Wither and Brathwaite. Other notable books in this splendid library are a copy on vellum, with coloured maps, of Ptolemy's Cosmographia, printed at Ulm in 1482, and bound by Derome; the Aldine edition of Poliphili Hypnerotomachia, in the original binding, and an unique copy of the English translation printed in London by Samuel Waterson in 1592; a fine and perfect set in nine parts of the Mirrour of Princely Deedes and Knighthood (a translation of the Spanish Espejo de Principes y Cavalleros); editions of Hakluyt's Voyages; a beautiful and tall copy of Purchas his Pilgrimes; the finest and most complete set which has been formed of De Bry's Voyages; the first issue of Milton's Paradise Lost; the first edition of Walton's Compleat Angler in the original sheepskin binding; the Kilmarnock edition of Burns's Poems; and several of the original editions of Shelley's works, including the excessively rare [OE]dipus Tyrannus. There is a fine collection of early English music in the Britwell Library, and it possesses the greater portion of the Heber ballads and broadsides, and a large number of books which once belonged to De Thou. Many of the volumes are masterpieces of the work of Bedford, Riviere, Lortic, and other English and foreign binders.
GEORGE DANIEL, 1789-1864
George Daniel was born in London on the 16th of September 1789. After receiving an education at Mr. Thomas Hogg's boarding-school at Paddington Green, he became a clerk to a stockbroker in Tokenhouse Yard,[93] and afterwards followed the profession of an accountant; but he employed all his leisure time in literary pursuits, and in the collection of books, works of art and curiosities. He commenced writing at a very early age, and was the author of a novel The Adventures of Dick Distich, and a considerable number of poetical and dramatic pieces. He also contributed many articles to Ackerman's Poetical Magazine, Bentley's Miscellany, and other magazines, and was the editor of Cumberland's British Theatre, and Cumberland's Minor Theatre. His first printed production, Stanzas on Lord Nelsons Victory and Death, written in conjunction with a young friend, appeared in 1805, but he tells us that he wrote some verses when he was but eight years of age on the death of his father. In 1811 he published a poem called The Times, or the Prophecy, and in 1812 a poetical squib founded on the reputed horse-whipping of the Prince of Wales by Lord Yarmouth, entitled R-y-l Stripes; or, a Kick from Yar—th to Wa—s, for the suppression of which a large sum was paid by the Prince Regent. In the same year appeared The Adventures of Dick Distich in three volumes, which was written by the author before he was eighteen, and a volume of Miscellaneous Poems; and in 1814 The Modern Dunciad, in which he sings the praises of 'old books, old wines, old customs, and old friends.' He continued to write during the whole of his life, and his last work, Love's Last Labour not Lost, was published in 1863. Daniel was fond of convivial society, and numbered Charles Lamb and Robert Bloomfield among his acquaintances, and he was also intimate with many of the principal actors of the day. He died at his son's house, The Grove, Stoke Newington, on the 30th of March 1864. The cause of his death was apoplexy.
Daniel formed a very choice and valuable library in his residence, 18 Canonbury Square, Islington, which was chiefly remarkable for rare editions of old English writers, and very fine collections of Elizabethan black-letter ballads and Shakespeariana. The Elizabethan ballads would alone be sufficient to render any library famous. They were one hundred and forty-nine in number, and he is said to have purchased them for fifty pounds from Mr. William Stevenson Fitch, Postmaster at Ipswich, who is believed to have obtained them from the housekeeper at Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, the residence of the Tollemache family. Of these ballads seventy-nine were sold to Mr. Heber by Mr. Daniel for seventy pounds, and the remaining seventy were bought at the sale of his library for seven hundred and fifty pounds by Mr. Huth, who had them printed for presentation to the members of the Philobiblon Society. The Shakespearian collection comprised splendid copies of the first four folios and eighteen of the quarto plays, together with the 1594 and 1655 editions of Lucrece, the 1594 and 1596 editions of Venus and Adonis, and the first editions of the Sonnets and Poems. The library also contained a large number of early Jest-Books, Drolleries, Garlands and Penny-Histories; and among the rare editions of English writers were works by John Skelton, Edmund Spenser, Anthony Chute, Robert Chester, Anthony Munday, Ben Jonson, Patrick Hannay, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, John Milton, and many others. Several very beautiful manuscripts were also to be found in it.
Daniel's library was sold by auction by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge on the 20th of July 1864, and the nine following days. There were eighteen hundred and seventeen lots, which realised thirteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-four pounds, eleven shillings; the water-colour drawings, engravings, portraits, coins, etc., of which there were four hundred and sixty-one lots, were sold at the same time, and produced one thousand eight hundred and eighty pounds, eleven shillings more.
The sale excited great interest, and many of the books went for large sums; but the prices obtained for others were small compared with those the volumes would fetch at the present time: a fine copy of the first edition of Walton's Compleat Angler realised no more than twenty-seven pounds, ten shillings. All the Shakespeares sold well. The first folio, probably the finest example extant, was bought by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts for six hundred and eighty-two guineas, till recently the highest price ever obtained for a copy;[94] and the second, third and fourth folios fetched respectively one hundred and forty-eight pounds, forty-six pounds, and twenty-one pounds, ten shillings. The third folio was a good copy, but had the title in facsimile, which accounts for the small sum it realised. Of the quarto plays, the first edition of King Richard the Third—a very fine copy—sold for three hundred and fifty-one pounds, fifteen shillings; the first editions of the Merry Wives of Windsor and Love's Labour Lost for three hundred and forty-six pounds, ten shillings each, and the first edition of King Richard the Second for three hundred and forty-one pounds, five shillings. The 1594 and 1596 editions of Venus and Adonis realised two hundred and forty pounds and three hundred and fifteen pounds; a copy of the Sonnets two hundred and twenty-five pounds, fifteen shillings; and the first edition of Lucrece one hundred and fifty-seven pounds, ten shillings. The copy of Love's Labour Lost, and the 1596 edition of Venus and Adonis, of which the Bodleian Library possesses the only other copy, were secured for the British Museum.
The following are a few of the other more notable books in the library, together with the prices they fetched at the sale:—Unique copy of The Boke of Hawkynge and Huntynge and Fysshynge, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, without date, one hundred and eight pounds; Rychard Cuer de Lyon, also printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1528, ninety-two pounds; Complaynt of a Dolorous Lover, printed by Robert Wyer about 1550, unique, sixty-seven pounds, four shillings; The Tragicall Historie of Romeus and Juliet (London, 1562), seventy-seven pounds, fourteen shillings; Merry Jeste of a shrewde and curste Wyfe (London, about 1575), unique, sixty-four pounds; Munday's Banquet of Daintie Conceits (London, 1588), unique, two hundred and twenty-five pounds; Chute's Beawtie Dishonoured, written under the title of Shores Wife (London, 1593), unique, ninety-six pounds; Maroccus Extaticus, or Bankes Bay Horse (London, 1595), eighty-one pounds; Chester's Loves Martyr, or Rosalins Complaynt (London, 1601)—this work contains a poem (Threnos) by Shakespeare at p. 172—one hundred and thirty-eight pounds; Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie, or the Walkes in Powles (London, 1604), unique, eighty-one pounds; Sejanus, his Fall, by Ben Jonson, first edition (London, 1605), printed on large paper, a presentation copy from the author with the following autograph inscription—
'To my perfect friend Mr. Francis Crane
I erect this Altar of Friendship,
and leave it as an eternall witnesse of my Love.
Ben Jonson'—
unique, one hundred and six pounds; Hannay's Philomela, the Nightingale, etc. (London, 1622), ninety-six pounds.
A carved casket made out of the mulberry tree in Shakespeare's Garden, and presented to Garrick with the freedom of the borough of Stratford-on-Avon, was purchased at Charles Mathews's sale in 1835 by Daniel for forty-seven guineas, and presented by him to the British Museum.